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Ask HN: Best project management app geared towards developers

9 points by dlf ↗ HN
My startup is looking to integrate what we're building with a project management app geared towards developers. In particular we'd like to know which ones are popular among startups.

What project management app does your team use?

As always, your feedback is very much appreciated!

17 comments

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aymeric
Trello.com is good to track "todo -> in progress -> to test -> to deploy" kind of workflows.
bigohms
"Works on all devices

Trello works on everything! It’s web based and made to go mobile if you need to. Nothing to install. Nothing to update."

Not true, iPad safari looks like sh*t.

X4
I agree, it's not an optimal experience on all devices and having a standalone solution instead of an SaaS hosted one is a lot better, but FogCreek Software builds awesome products admittedly. That's why I also recommend trying it.
bigohms
SaaS can be awesome. Unfortunately this isn't a matter of optimal, it's just unusable. I hope they take notice.
mcarrano
While I am not part of a company/startup, I have started to use Asana.com for personal projects. So far I really enjoy using it.
aymeric
I see Asana's name popping up more and more often. What do you specifically like about Asana?
mcarrano
The first time I logged in, I felt like I have been using it for a while since I had no problems using it.

It also helps that the team at Asana keeps improving it. They recently launched a calendar feature which I now have connected to my Google calendar.

malandrew
We use Asana. I prefer it over other things I've used such as Pivotal Tracker and Jira.

From my experience, Jira is geared at large silo-ed companies, where you need to spend time defining processes. It's very inorganic.

I liked Pivotal Tracker, but the whole agile thing proved to be a bit too inflexible at the startup I founded with some friends. It did work well at a larger startup of about 30-40 people, where a bit of process rigidity was kind of useful. It would be interesting if I had Asana available to have tried at that company.

Jira was used at the first tech company I worked at. Waaaaay too process focused. Detracted from those who actually do work. That being said, I can see how it would be an asset at a large company with A people to C people and high turnover.

These days I'm mulling a "pull request" based approach for certain types of programming tasks and everything else in Asana.

dlf
How do you find Asana fits in with the other tools you use in your development process?
malandrew
The only thing I miss is integration into something like Campfire. I would like to see integration with Github pull requests. I think that Github is far better environment to discuss development issues, because comments/discussions are inlined with the code and Github Flavored Markdown makes communicating easier.
petervandijck
We used Jira in an agile environment and it worked fine? You're not obliged to use every dropdown they give you :)
X4
We used ASANA for several months and it turned out that it god better by the time, it's still not efficient collaboration and the emails send out, kill a lot of useful time.

-1 for ASANA from an early adopter.

malandrew
You can turn off the emails if they don't work for you. I find that the emails make sure stuff gets checked and handled in a timely manner. Most other tools require self-discipline from the rest of the team. They need to check whatever tool to keep on top of things. Most tools that don't have a "pull" approach have a higher chance of failing to be adopted.
chris_dcosta
I found Podio to be pretty good. You can manage several projects. you can download templates or roll your own.