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Ask YC: What do you use for time and todo tracking?

27 points by gizmo ↗ HN
I'm working on a startup with two other guys. We need a way to efficiently keep track of who's doing what. At the moment we're using Trac and we're not really happy with it. Adding new tasks (tickets) is klunky, and tracking time (to predict whether we'll hit our deadlines) doesn't really work either.

I've looked at a lot of different software packages, but none of them are very good. Okay, Basecamp is good, but it's really targeted at the service market. E.g. web-designers or contractors. People with clients and billing and that sort of thing. What I'm looking for is project management for startups. Emphasis on TODOs, milestones, time tracking, and a wiki. Adding tasks to the system should be more convienient than writing on a piece of paper (or in a vim window) - otherwise the system won't stick.

What are you guys using, and are you really happy with it?

51 comments

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krschultz
Zimbra, it is pretty decent for calendering and mail. It has todo but I don't really use it. Some guys use AtTask, but honestly I just use a flat file for my todo. But I am just a programmer, so I don't have to juggle as much as a founder.
gizmo
Zimbra looks nice. Thanks.

Founder and programmer here. And flat files are really convenient when you know your way around a text editor. But if all TODO systems are so bad we programmers have failed, haven't we? Why can't we have our cake and eat it too?

Edit TODOs quickly as if it's a flat file, and at the same time get time reporting, tags and all the advantages of a structured approach. That's what I want, now I think about it.

scorpioxy
Programmer and Freelancer and fledgling founder here. I share your views about how a todo app is supposed to function. I am actually trying to implement one, now if someone would like to collaborate with me, then that would be great.

I have a simple app called taskit(GPL) that i wrote hoping that it would transition to what you describe, but i didn't really have time for that alone. And it's beginning to show its design deficiencies.

krschultz
Tell me about it, I started to roll my own and then I thought, wait, the amount of time saved by doing this is outweighed by the amount of time I will spend coding. There is a surprising lack of open source tools to modify as well. I feel like it might be a good candidate for a ruby on rails app but then you need internet access which you don't always have when you want to edit a task.
quellhorst
Basecamphq.com is good for a small team.

I use punch for time tracking since it fits my workflow better than basecame time tracking. `gem install punch`

gizmo
Haven't heard about punch yet. Can you use that in teams?

Basecamp is awesome but it's not really for startups. No nested Tasks, no multiple people for tasks. Time tracking is too basic. Not the end of the world, really, but DHH and Jason hate feature-creep so I'm not holding my breath.

quellhorst
Punch makes a .yml file in your home directory. You could make some app to pull in the .yml from everyone in your team. My time tracking needs are simple as I only need to track what I do, when and for how long so that I can bill my clients.

I didn't like basecamp either until recently. I have met some very productive people who used only a .txt file for project management.

bazookaaa
Have you heard of goplan.info? I found it to be a very nice alternative to Basecamp. Nested tasks, tickets, milestones, it's all there.
gizmo
Goplan.info looks really nice. Thanks for the recommendation.
xenoterracide
ah... sorry dude.. accidental mod down trying to highlight goplan.info... I'm kinda in the same boat as you (perhaps) all todo list software I find really doesn't fit what I'm looking for.
keefe
I'm currently using bugzilla at work, and it has the same problem you mention with trac - adding new tickets is a pain in the ass. However, I love the integration with Mylyn http://www.eclipse.org/mylyn/ because I spend my whole day in eclipse. If you use eclipse, mylyn integration is a huge plus - just because you can set a context and it will track how long you spent working on a task, as well as your estimate. Outside of eclipse and the office, I use an instance of tiki-wiki running on the same VPS I use for SVN. Tiki has a lot of features, but the default interface blows.
lampy
https://www.drproject.org/

Quote: DrProject is a web-based project management portal that integrates revision control, issue tracking, mailing lists, a wiki, and other tools that software development teams need to succeed.

DrProject was originally a fork of a popular lightweight open source portal called Trac.

colonhyphenp
I am using (and loving) Unfuddle for a 2-person project. It's like trac, but with some nice extras. Creating new tickets is easy. They also have a Mac widget you can install for creating/viewing tickets (I don't use it personally).

The only downside is it's $9/month if you have more than one developer.. You can always sign up for a free account first to see if you like it though.

shabda
Their markup language is pretty screwed up. They say they give a choice between textile and markdown, but textile does not seem to work correctly and markdown is not really for non tech people, as it does not donvert linebreaks to html br tags.
luis_ca
You may want to take a look at http://gulpd.com It has just been released in private beta but you can sign up and it is free for now. Fairly easy to use albeit still in active development.
blacksquare
We're using unfuddle. It's pretty much like basecamp and trac combined. A good product, and the company listens to your suggestions.
auston
Time Tracking - GetMoreHoney.Com! Way awesome, very pleased with it...
nonrecursive
omnifocus is excellent for todo's, but it's only for a single user.

billings is great for time tracking (has an excellent, easy to use (best in my opinion) widget for starting and stopping your timer), but is also single user

lighthouse (lighthouseapp.com) is great for team project manangement

elai
I like 'things' for single person task tracking. It follows GTD and it's the best GTD app I've used. I use it regularly and daily. Unfortunately, the team functions are not implemented in it, but for personal tasks (not tickets), it's quite good. FogBugz look's like a nice ticket tracker, but it costs money.
bootload
pen & 3x5" cards ~ http://flickr.com/photos/bootload/488026860/
gizmo
Interesting to see that pen, cards and paper are still used a lot. It's obviously really important that adding tasks and ideas into some kind of software system isn't more time consuming or harder to do than simply keeping a system of paper cards (or vim and notepad). Lots of software out there requires too many clicks for a simple operation like adding a task. It's the price I have to pay for staying organized, as I would loose all the paper cards.
aaronblohowiak
as much as i hate joel spolsky's attitude, fogbugz is the best that i've seen for this.
johns
I also love FogBugz. As far as FogBugz and time tracking goes, it works great. It goes beyond just tracking who did what and for how long, it translates that into pretty accurate estimates of how long your project will take to complete.

They also have a free Student and Startup Edition of FogBugz on Demand for up to 2 users.

johns
FogBugz also has nice SVN integration
Erwin
It's not as extensible as Roundup, and is poorly integrated with email compared to Roundup and others. It has a far nicer user interface though and various features like release note, projects estimation.
jasonlbaptiste
hmm, we do some of this. more focused on the biz side than development side. if youre looking for dev/design time tracking try tick. Publictivity.com. if you want an early invite and free account, email me jason [at] publictivity.com
dangoldin
www.projjex.com is pretty simple and effective.
gibsonf1
StreamFocus.com :)
davidhperry
I signed up for a beta a few days ago but I haven't heard back - is that still open? I'd be happy to go ahead and buy the software if the beta is closed.
dmharrison
Here's a recommendation on what not to use, Ace Project. Too much clickety clickety click.
freemanindia
I've been using hiveminder.com for sometime. Its super easy to add tasks, delegate, tag, set due dates, etc. It also handles groups nicely, and its free.
gizmo
It doesn't have most of the features we need, but I like the Braindump. Thanks.
mhidalgo
rememberthemilk.com for general to dos.

I second lighthouse and goplan.

btw0
i am surprised nobody mention todoist.com
ctingom
I have used Todoist for 6+ months and it's really great.
Conceptual
We developed our own internal app overnight tailored to the way we work. We figured the time devoted to organizing our priorities would help us out in the long run.

Our to-do tracking is separated into three lists: monthly, weekly, and daily. At the start of each month we list the items we want to accomplish. Next, at the beginning of each week, we transfer items from our monthly to-do list to our weekly to-do list. Then at the start of each day, we take on tasks from our weekly to-do list and aim to accomplish it by the end of the day. Random tasks will obviously come up so we add it to the appropriate list.

Another advantage to our system is that we're able to see eachothers' lists so everyone is held accountable -- if someone is slacking, we'll tell them. A SMS alert is also sent to the person's phone if their last login is greater than 24 hours.

wheels
That's almost universally a bad idea. That forces you to pour resources in an area that isn't the core of your business on a system that eventually won't scale if you start growing ... at which point you'll annoy your employees by forcing them to switch to a system they're not used to for reasons they don't understand.
Conceptual
When I say the system was developed overnight, I literally mean it was developed overnight by a single developer. We didn't spend weeks of unnecessary time on it. It's a simple solution that works for us at this present time.

The only resources we're "pouring" into it is a dedicated server, which we already had available to us. Since we're a smaller company we'd rather focus on scaling our app instead of our to-do list. When the time comes to expand our team, we'll adapt and overcome. I don't see any reason to abandon what works for us just because of the "what if's."

Sure, some may feel our solution is a bit too much but that's okay. We spent a lot of time looking for something comparable and decided to create our own instead. It may not work for you, but it has created measurable results for us.

wheels
That wasn't so much meant as a suggestion to you as a warning to others. When companies grow, which is one of those "what if's" that should be considered, home grown systems tend to lack features that the organization needs.

When you're setting up processes in a company it's important to realize the resentment that you'll be up against if you change them later.

davidmathers
I just started using Mingle from Thoughtworks and so far I'm liking it very much. Took me a few hours to get the hang of it and then I was able to create a simple tracking application for my simple needs. There are sample templates included but they were overly complex and not what I needed.

What really impresses me about it is how easy it is to make your setup as simple or as complex as your needs are. It's free for <= 5 users and very pricey after that.

It's a jruby on rails app and I'm running it on glassfish on ubuntu.

http://studios.thoughtworks.com/mingle-project-intelligence

morbidkk
Using free google apps account. pretty much serves our need