

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

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.<p>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.<p>What are you guys using, and are you really happy with it?
======
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.

------
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.

------
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.

~~~
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.

------
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.

------
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.

------
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>

------
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.

------
terpua
<http://unfuddle.com>

Supports to-dos, milestones, time tracking and a notebook (simpler ver of
wiki). It also supports Git and SVN.

------
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.

------
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.

------
rms
Streamfocus is from gibsonf on here. It is more on the level of Microsoft
Project than Basecamp. (or gibsonf1 now?
<http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=gibsonf1>)

<http://www.streamfocus.com/>

~~~
rms
Also, it's written in lisp! For the type of team that needs software like
Streamfocus, I don't think there are any equivalents.

------
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.

------
qeek
You might want to try Comindwork, which we currently use at our startup. It's
not that it's perfect, but it has all the important functionality and looks
pretty decent. You can register a free account for testing purposes (1
project, unlimited users, 100mb storage).

------
dmharrison
Here's a recommendation on what not to use, Ace Project. Too much clickety
clickety click.

------
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.

------
urlwolf
redmine. It's trac done right (multiple project, no need for plugins for most
stuff). And being a RoR app, there must be a lot of built-in testing in the
codebase. That could explain why it evolves so fast.

------
mhidalgo
rememberthemilk.com for general to dos.

I second lighthouse and goplan.

------
bwah
I recommend <http://www.vitalist.com> for GTD style task and project
management. More ideal for single-person use, though.

------
ctingom
For time tracking tools, check this list we made:
<http://timetrackingresources.com>

------
blacksquare
We're using unfuddle. It's pretty much like basecamp and trac combined. A good
product, and the company listens to your suggestions.

------
mikkom
Sugarcrm, it has modules for almost anything.

<http://www.sugarcrm.org>

------
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

------
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

------
auston
Time Tracking - GetMoreHoney.Com! Way awesome, very pleased with it...

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

------
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.

------
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.

------
dangoldin
www.projjex.com is pretty simple and effective.

------
btw0
i am surprised nobody mention todoist.com

~~~
ctingom
I have used Todoist for 6+ months and it's really great.

------
bigbang
wow, so many in the market? i use hiveminder.com .nothing great, but simple
enough and works for us.

------
fuad
i user www.projectpier.org. a BaseCamp clone that installed in your server

