

Ask HN: As a freelancer what do you use for project management? - alghamdi

Most project management apps&#x2F;tools assumes you work with a team which is not the case for some people. So as a freelancer&#x2F;solo developer what do you use to manage your projects?
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bikamonki
A file named TODO where I list modules/components/ideas, bugs and nice-to-
haves (future version features that 99% of the time are not implemented). I
tried PM tools but this trade is not linear nor predictable: I sometimes get
stuck for a couple of days designing something or refactoring code, sometimes
I just burnout and it takes a few days of limbo to get back on track. This
trade is more like an art and constantly missing deadlines stresses me so I
now try to just sit down, enjoy and finish as soon as possible. And judging
for the number of SW projects that go over-budget and/or over-schedule I guess
I am not alone here. I give my clients guesstimates and since I do periodic
deliveries they feel we are moving forward so they are not so picky with PM
deadlines anyway.

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sarciszewski
I'm not a freelancer yet (will be soon). Maybe my answer will turn out to be
wrong when I cross that bridge.

I'm working on a project management web application called Quartz (PHP +
PostgreSQL) designed for independent freelancers and/or small agencies. My
goal is to use internally and refine it until I believe it's viable, write up
some documentation, and release it as a SaaS for everyone else.

So at the moment, that is the tool I plan on using. :)

A brief overview of its features and design decisions:

* Time is tracked based on days, not hours (h/t tptacek for his advice here) -- this reduces overhead and lets you get on with your day.

* Manages projects, tasks, tickets; has a Wiki-esque CMS for managing internal documentation (ReStructuredText)

* Clients can have multiple projects.

* Projects are broken down into tasks, which may have any number of tickets. Projects can be "owned" by an employee (the project manager, DevOps leader, or what have you).

* Assignments are related between calendar days, users, and tasks (not tickets or full projects).

* There is a particularly clever access control system in place, but I'll save you the wall of text and write a blog post on it later.

The idea behind the design is that you _can_ use it for teams, but it should
work just as smoothly for solo work.

If there's any interest, I'll prioritize its development in my spare time ;)

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neosavvy
I use pivotal tracker to communicate with my team on what I do as we work.
Also OmniFocus is quite good to just manage your personal todo list.

I think lots of folks use Trello as well with swim lanes that mimic the
Backlog/Todo -> In Progress -> Ready for Review -> Done workflow for tasks.

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hackertoolbox
+1 for Trello, good for personal use.

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MalcolmDiggs
It depends on how comfortable the client is with technical tools.

If they're a geek, then we stay almost entirely in Github (opening issues,
chatting about features, etc).

If they're moderately comfortable with tech then I use Asana (I force them to
watch the instructional videos first). I basically just paste my spec in line-
by-line and check off each feature as I build it. When it comes to bug
tracking, I usually integrate Bugherd and tell the client to report bugs using
their interface.

If they're not comfortable at all (rare but it happens sometimes), I just
email back and forth with them and track my time using Harvest or something
like that.

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joannerr
Trello for team overall tracking. Github for development, and slack for chat.
But since slack announced its monetization, im looking for a new communication
tool.

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haidrali
I use Trello but its not the complete project management. its rather task
management tool. BaseCamp is 2nd option of mine

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hoggle
Github/Gitlab issues - even with non-programming team members, like customers
and designers.

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rouseguy
Trello for project management Kato for chat Bitbucket for code base and issue
tracking

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elwell
Emacs

