Ask HN: Best task management software for small teams?

7 points by alastair 16y ago ↗ HN

I'm interested to hear what web-based task management software HN uses when collaborating in small groups <10.

We have a small group of 5 and need the ability to quickly create and assign tasks to each other, and add comments or updates to those tasks.

We'd also like the tasks to be groupable by project (not a deal breaker).

I've tried a few apps already but didn't find anything that quite matched what I'm after.

- Basecamp was OK, the interface was a bit clunky and I couldn't do a newline in the task description.

- HiTask was OK, but I couldn't add comments to tasks.

Really appreicate your input!

5 comments

[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 17.6 ms ] thread

alfredp 16y ago ↗

trac is more issues tracking but you can certainly use it for task management: http://trac.edgewall.org/

c00p3r 16y ago ↗

http://trac.edgewall.org/ + http://trac-hacks.org/

Fullblog plugin, discussion plugin, tags plugin and peer review plugin are very useful. They turns your trac installation into something like a micro social network.

ordinaryman 16y ago ↗

How would you like to create a simple tool online, over Google App Engine, to match your needs ?

Just add a couple of records for Entities and Attributes in http://creator.ifreetools.com and you will have your app up and running in a few minutes. I guess you will need..

  Project(name, description, projectOwner:Ref::User)
  Task(name, description, project:Ref::Project, assignedTo:Ref::User, 
       importance:[Medium, High, Low],
       status:[Not Completed, In Progress, Completed])

With regard to notes, you can either add / update notes in the task (everything is automatically audited) or create another entity..

  TaskNotes (task:Ref::Task)

All entities automatically have the attributes : createdOn, updatedOn and notes. I also plan to add comments and attachments as a system level feature soon.

The app is free (ad-supported), and requires nothing more than a Google Account. You can also map it to your subdomain http://tasks.yourdomain.com (using Google Apps). Check out the sample walk-through posts :

http://ifreetools.blogspot.com/2010/03/building-simple-bug-t...

http://ifreetools.blogspot.com/2010/01/build-apps-online-ove...

huwshimi 16y ago ↗

http://verbapp.com/ is my app. It's a task management application for freelancers and small distributed teams.

I'm about to launch a new version with a greater focus on communication within projects (as well as a bunch of other things). I think the new version will be much more what you're looking for, but the current for should be quite usable. If you do use it I would love any feedback you have.

jacquesm 16y ago ↗

One more vote for trac, we've used taskfreak for about a year but recently made the switch and trac works great. The built in wiki is another big benefit, as well as fairly easy email integration (that did need a plug-in though).