Anyone using project collaboration tool?

Entering "Project Collaboration Tools" into a Google search gets you about

87 million hits of which several on the first page look interesting. I quite liked the description of Hyper Office for a Web-hosted service and that may suit you. If not I am sure there are plenty of other possibilities in that little lot.

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Piggybacking here.

This is probably unhelpful, but I suspect that, regardless of tracking software, you could double the project speed by cutting that 15 people down to about 5. I am assuming all are working on the software.

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                        cbfalconer at maineline dot net

Exactly my problem. I'm hoping for replies based on experience, and trying to avoid analyzing or trying too many products.

Scott

Hi Scott,

Could you write me directly at snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com (standard e-mail) or snipped-for-privacy@e3ft.com (will require an anti-SPAM confirmation step)? I'd like to correspond with you directly about this.

I'm working on the infrastructure for exactly what you mentioned. The infrastructure is web-based and involves authentication, user groups and permissions, logging, and the first application (to contain and search our software releases).

I work in a group of 4 embedded software developers.

I would describe the product as a "general extensible database platform", but it really is the same idea. We have to capture and track peer review results, bugs, investigations, things our customer has observed and wants us to follow up on, man-hours expended on particular projects, etc. Part of our notion is fine-grained security--our customers should be able to log in to the same system but see a more restricted view and take more restricted actions than we can.

Our prototype will be ready in about 6 months ... then there would be more to discuss about your needs, what tools you've found with what shortcomings, etc. It might be possible to work collectively towards a vision that supports both our needs ...

Everything is GPL.

Thanks, Dave.

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David T. Ashley              (dta@e3ft.com)
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For something that small, GNATSweb would do the job nicely for you. I looked at rolling out Bugzilla in a PPOE but it got itself into Dependency Hell. GNATSweb was a 10 minute install.

Put all your initial requirements and tasks in as open issues, and it'll start to hang together nicely. ;)

pete

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pete@fenelon.com "how many clever men have called the sun a fool?"

It is typically 3 to 8 but occasionally larger projects pass through here.

Not all are programmers. The typical group includes programmers, test engineers, SQA, configuration management/documentation control and the occasional manager and others.

Scott

Thanks, I'll give it a look.

Scott

You might be interested in looking at

The key to one of these types of products is having a product development team that listens to its users and is able to turn around update quickly. This group does that. I know because I am one of them. I how you like what you see.

Randy Shelley

Am not currently using what I am about to suggest quite the way I suggest. Use SVN (or CVS). Create a single plain text living document at the top of your project called TASKS, and in plain language list the tasks and dates due.

Then those working on the project may check the TASK file, pick a task, add their name to the task and commit the change back to SVN. Would be handy if in addition to name the date was included. Date could be backed out of SVN if one was suspected of falsehood, but in the meantime the TASKS file is supposed to be a quick reference living document.

While the task is in process they routinely commit working files, whether spreadsheets, ad copy, graphics, schematics, source code, whatever. If others have need to see the work in progress then they know exactly where to find it. If management is concerned that some do not have need to know for all components then that too can be handled in SVN. Suggest sensitive financial data be kept elsewhere unless all have need to know.

If more than one person is working on the same task, note it in TASKS.

When the task is complete, note it in TASKS along with the date.

If any comments need to be added, TASKS is free format so do what is needed.

Hopefully this is exactly the sort of thing you are doing in regular staff meetings, updating the task list, assigning new tasks, checking off completed tasks. So extending it to SVN shouldn't be that much of a stretch.

SVN is good idea, but for managing documentation, tasks, staff meatings and so one, something more sophisticated is IMHO needed. I use SVN + dokuwiki. Dokuwiki

is wiki which doesn't use any database and is quite simple to install and manage. Has also various plugins.

-- M.M.

We have recently started using Trac

We mainly use it for issue tracking and managing project releases. It also integrates with SVN, which is particularly useful for the non-software people who don't use SVN much.

Andy

Hey this is a great thread. Really useful. Keep it flowing.

I have a very similar problem. We use CVS for the project files. A plain text file as mentioned above to manage releases. An shared excel file for the tasks and responsible scenario. And then spread sheets floating around for bugs and code reviews. Not a very effective method but doesn't cost a dime to implement.

FWIW, we are using VSS or SVN for most files. While these provide mechanisms that will accomplish what I am trying to do, they are manual and fairly cumbersome. We use Seapine TestTrack Pro for bug tracking and IBM Rational RequisitePro for requirements tracking.

My aim is to find a GUI or Web based tool that gives a dynamic score board of the status. Some commercial tools provide various dashboard tools, but I want a little more detail than these provide.

VSS and SVN both give a limited version of this that is typically limited to a single folder level. I want to see the status of many items from many folders/projects simultaneously. MS Project may also be an approach to the solution, but it gives me a headache just thinking about it.

Scott

Unless I am mistaken, this GNATS requires linix which we don't use. I haven't seen a Win32 version available.

Scott

Restricting yourself to Windows is really going to limit your choice of open-source tools and diminish the reliability of those you can install. Newsgroups are full of posts documenting problems that couldn't be resolved on a Windows platform.

Not that Windows is unreliable ... but consider a product like Bugzilla ... it uses MySQL and Perl ... in order for Bugzilla to be reliable, Apache, MySQL, Perl, and Bugzilla have to have reliable Windows ports ... that is 4 weak links in the chain.

I personally use a Linux server in a city about 200 miles away ... works great. I reboot it once every 2 months or so whether it needs it or not.

Dave.

--
David T. Ashley              (dta@e3ft.com)
http://www.e3ft.com          (Consulting Home Page)
http://www.dtashley.com      (Personal Home Page)
http://gpl.e3ft.com          (GPL Publications and Projects)

The Dependency Hell of Bugzilla was what sent me in the direction of GNATSweb - putting Bugzilla on risked various other services running on the same box. It's an enterprise-grade solution, but as such it needs treating with respect ;)

GNATSweb dropped in very easily!

pete

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pete@fenelon.com "how many clever men have called the sun a fool?"

I've recently found a way out of dependency hell for applications like this, which prefer particular versions of various servers - using openvz virtual servers (on linux). You get many of the benefits of a full virtualisation, such as control of the resources on the guest system, but less overhead since it all runs on the one kernel. I have a debian etch 64-bit host, and can make a new virtual server running a minimal

32-bit or 64-bit debian in around 5 minutes. On the virtual server, I can then install whatever versions of software are required, without conflicting with other versions that are running on other virtual servers on the same machine. Virtual servers are often promoted as security solutions, or to save on hardware, but the big benefits I see is isolating your dependency issues, and making trial-and-error installation easy.

I'm not sure exactly what kind of a dependency hell anyone is citing. Bugzilla works fine. *nix, Apache, MySQL, and a few Perl modules ... that hardly constitutes a dependency hell.

My system accommodated it with no issues.

Just don't roll the dice and try to run it on Windows.

--
David T. Ashley              (dta@e3ft.com)
http://www.e3ft.com          (Consulting Home Page)
http://www.dtashley.com      (Personal Home Page)
http://gpl.e3ft.com          (GPL Publications and Projects)

I have not actually installed Bugzilla (or even seriously considered it)

- I was just giving a general solution. It has certainly made life easier for me with the vtiger crm solution we are testing, along with a few other server software tools I've installed (and have in planning).

Agreed. Windows certainly has its uses, but I'm not fond of it on a server.