

Ask HN: Favorite project management tool - almost

I'm looking for a tool to help manage projects with small teams. It's usually me and and a few people I'm sub-contracting to and a client.<p>What I'm really keen to track are original time estimates, current estimates and time spent so far for each feature. I also want each feature to be assignable easily and to have a comments thread attached to it. At any given time I'd like to be able to get reports on what the progress is like on the whole product and on the next milestone.<p>Right now I'm using GitHub Issues but the lack of estimates and reports is making my life a lot more complicated then I feel it should be :)<p>It would be great to have it calculate rates as well but that would need to have options on the visibility as it's not always appropriate that everyone can see everything.<p>Stuff I've looked at:<p><pre><code>    - GitHub Issues 
    - Planscope (planescope.io)
    - Sprintly (sprint.ly)
    - Trello
    - Pivotal Tracker
</code></pre>
But none seem just right (maybe one would be if I used it in the right way)<p>Any suggestions?
======
georgebashi
I hear Asana is good — haven't yet tried it myself, but from reading the docs
it looks like it does most of what you're after.

<http://asana.com/>

------
shanelja
I was sick of using the PM systems out there and decided to make one which
would really help my team to be fast and efficient and make it easy to see how
long we've spent on a project and the importance of the tasks within it.

<http://i45.tinypic.com/vrx3f5.png>

It's been in use for about 2 weeks now and the guys love it - having the
development in house means that if it needs any changes, I pop them in
overnight and when we come in the morning after it's good to go.

Unfortunately, as it's in house only, I can't release it to the public
(despite having coded it entirely in my own time) - all I can do is link this
image.

My point is: maybe try making your own? All the functionality you need and
nothing else, cut out the middle man. It's so much more satisfying to use your
own program.

~~~
almost
Your tool looks interesting, pity you can't release it!

I'm so tempted to do that. But it seems like a rabbit hole that I could spend
a lot of time exploring all the while not actually working on paying projects
:)

------
xn
LiquidPlanner does it right. It tracks date drift and the estimated number of
hours over time. You can comment on tasks through the web interface or through
email. You can have it track both your bill and pay rates. It has a simplified
portal interface to give clients access.

Affiliate link:
[https://app.liquidplanner.com/signup_a/161/516fb8abc586ae567...](https://app.liquidplanner.com/signup_a/161/516fb8abc586ae5671b67ec34a1c5d45a4f0bea4)

I've started developing a kanban-style project management tool
(<http://www.octoberswimmer.com/about/>) based on huboard, but I still
recommend LiquidPlanner to everyone.

------
stevedomin
Asana is great but it doesn't have reports, estimates, etc. My guess is you'll
have a hard time finding the "perfect" tool you describe with all these
features. I didn't find it myself but Asana was definitely the best out there.

------
brandoncordell
We needed some scrum-like, easy to use, and a little hands-off most of the
time.

We started using OnTime (ontimenow.com). It's not bad, there are a ton of
things that could be better, but their customer service has been absolutely
excellent any time we've had an issue.

We had assembla for the longest time and it was absolutely horrid, and their
customer service was even worse.

We ultimately would have stuck with Github issues if it weren't for the fact
we wanted a more scrum-centric tool and that our non-technical (and even one
of technical co-workers) didn't really GET it.

------
kevinconroy
Sounds like you want JIRA (<http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/>)

Each issue has an assignee, original estimate, remaining time, etc.

JIRA requires a bit more setup at the start than other systems (e.g.
Basecamp), but you can really custom tailor it to your business needs. I've
been using it to run Scrum in our organization for 3+ years now and I can't
say enough good things about it. It's totally changed the way we work and we
haven't outgrown it in any way.

~~~
cottsak
+1 for Basecamp <http://basecamp.com/>

------
livestyle
I love the flexibilty and ease of use of trello. There is a scrum chrome
extension as well.

------
piyushco
I use <http://TeamBox.com> and I'm very happy with it! Simply great tool. It
has Gmail integration, makes it easier to add new tasks from new mails.

------
pauschi
i use producteev (<http://www.producteev.com/>) its pretty good for gtd in a
small team, but as far as i know, there is no way to enter rates or get
reports of spent time per task.

i also used activecollab (<http://www.activecollab.com/>) which can do a lot
and therefor probably needs more than just a look.

------
egomaksab
Try Breeze (<http://letsbreeze.com>). It's like Trello but with time tracking
and reports.

------
aymeric
There is <http://weekplan.net> which have some similarities with Trello (lists
of tasks).

------
monkeymeister
I use Productiv.io - though it's in development so a little buggy.

