Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#11

Post by buro9 » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 5:18 PM UTC

dabeeeenster wrote: post #10

fixie wrote: post #3

We actually ran into the exact same problem while juggling multiple projects and ended up creating Taco - https://tacoapp.com . Taco aggregates your Basecamp, Trello, Asana and 35+ other services into a single screen so you can prioritize your day across multiple services. Works especially well with a new tab Chrome extension. Haven't found the best way to consolidate applications for real time services. Although, I'…

Just some feedback - it drives me nuts when services aren't clear what their pricing is. If it's free, fine. If it's paid, fine. If it's free now but you plan on charging later for premium features, fine. But IMO you have to be upfront about it. There's nothing on the homepage, no pricing page, nothing. It makes me nervous to sign up without this information.

This, a million times over.

I went looking... it's not on the site, not in the knowledge base, not on the blog.

There is absolutely no pricing information.

Does Taco not charge anyone? If you do charge, give me a ballpark, a range even... it doesn't matter so long as you give it.

Am I signing up for something without that info? Er... no.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#12

Post by greenspot » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 5:19 PM UTC

That's not easy to answer. You need them but you need to limit them as well. Also you have to be cautious of ADD coworkers who introduce new tools every week, 'hey look I found a new Trello integration, ...'

Main rule: avoid anything synchronous as much as possible such a chat, Slack, group chat, Skype, just turn that shit off; if someone wants to catch you he will call you on the phone

You need some project management tool for progress tracking and for enabling good specs, but only one; so get either Trello or Asana but not both; though can have have both for different dept.s and task types

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#13

Post by BorisMelnik » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 5:22 PM UTC

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #2

Don't treat your customers' project management systems as your own organization tools. Instead, treat them as deliverables and manage your own organization elsewhere.

yep, this exactly. if my client has another PM system, that doesn't mean I have to use it. Sure, I might interface with it but that is the cost of being a consultant having to work with many different PM systems, apps, etc.

One of the main reasons why consultants who get paid so much $$ is because they are so flexible. Yes, they can program in many languages, but they also know multiple operating systems, PM systems, and have the ability to communicate across multiple channels. The real $$ comes when you can do it all in English, Chinese and Spanish :)

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#14

Post by fixie » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 5:31 PM UTC

dabeeeenster wrote: post #10

fixie wrote: post #3

We actually ran into the exact same problem while juggling multiple projects and ended up creating Taco - https://tacoapp.com . Taco aggregates your Basecamp, Trello, Asana and 35+ other services into a single screen so you can prioritize your day across multiple services. Works especially well with a new tab Chrome extension. Haven't found the best way to consolidate applications for real time services. Although, I'…

Just some feedback - it drives me nuts when services aren't clear what their pricing is. If it's free, fine. If it's paid, fine. If it's free now but you plan on charging later for premium features, fine. But IMO you have to be upfront about it. There's nothing on the homepage, no pricing page, nothing. It makes me nervous to sign up without this information.

You're absolutely right. Right now, there is none, which sucks. As Aral Balkan says well and as I'm sure you know, free is a lie [1]. People should pay for services that they use, and services which get used should be paid. We'll get there. But to answer questions about pricing, it's free until we are comfortable enough to charge.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldhHkVjLe7A

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#15

Post by fixie » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 5:31 PM UTC

turaw wrote: post #5

fixie wrote: post #3

We actually ran into the exact same problem while juggling multiple projects and ended up creating Taco - https://tacoapp.com . Taco aggregates your Basecamp, Trello, Asana and 35+ other services into a single screen so you can prioritize your day across multiple services. Works especially well with a new tab Chrome extension. Haven't found the best way to consolidate applications for real time services. Although, I'…

I don't use it, but have you tried out Sameroom [1] for real-time chat? They seem pleasant enough. No idea what to do for video chat, though. [1]: https://sameroom.io

This is great, thanks for the link!

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#16

Post by vladnyc » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 5:42 PM UTC

fixie wrote: post #3

We actually ran into the exact same problem while juggling multiple projects and ended up creating Taco - https://tacoapp.com . Taco aggregates your Basecamp, Trello, Asana and 35+ other services into a single screen so you can prioritize your day across multiple services. Works especially well with a new tab Chrome extension. Haven't found the best way to consolidate applications for real time services. Although, I'…

Any plans to add redbooth.com?

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#17

Post by fixie » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 5:44 PM UTC

buro9 wrote: post #11

dabeeeenster wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just some feedback - it drives me nuts when services aren't clear what their pricing is. If it's free, fine. If it's paid, fine. If it's free now but you plan on charging later for premium features, fine. But IMO you have to be upfront about it. There's nothing on the homepage, no pricing page, nothing. It makes me nervous to sign up without this information.

This, a million times over. I went looking... it's not on the site, not in the knowledge base, not on the blog. There is absolutely no pricing information. Does Taco not charge anyone? If you do charge, give me a ballpark, a range even... it doesn't matter so long as you give it. Am I signing up for something without that info? Er... no.

Taco is free for now, but we expect and hope to charge $5-$10/month at some point - cheap enough be a fantastic value for anyone who uses it even occasionally, but also not a free service that you rightly don't want. We're still figuring out when we should flip the switch but in the meantime, you are right, we need to do a better job of explaining possible future pricing.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#18

Post by tootie » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 5:46 PM UTC

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #2

Don't treat your customers' project management systems as your own organization tools. Instead, treat them as deliverables and manage your own organization elsewhere.

We've done this before, but it becomes in and of itself.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#19

Post by fixie » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 5:48 PM UTC

ncallaway wrote: post #8

fixie wrote: post #3

We actually ran into the exact same problem while juggling multiple projects and ended up creating Taco - https://tacoapp.com . Taco aggregates your Basecamp, Trello, Asana and 35+ other services into a single screen so you can prioritize your day across multiple services. Works especially well with a new tab Chrome extension. Haven't found the best way to consolidate applications for real time services. Although, I'…

Yea, this looks interesting. We've managed an internal sprint board with JIRA and treated the customer-facing task tracking systems as inputs and outputs of our sprints. It'd definitely be nice to replace our internal system with something that was lighter-weight than JIRA and had integrations (bidirectionally) with the customer-facing task tracking systems. I'll run this by the team and we may give it a try. One que…

Great to hear, I actually use Taco as a lightweight JIRA UI myself (along with GitHub Issues, a few Wunderlist lists, and starred GMail emails).

Response on pricing above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11565896

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with so many project management systems?

#20

Post by wwkeyboard » Mon, Apr 25, 2016, 5:52 PM UTC

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #2

Don't treat your customers' project management systems as your own organization tools. Instead, treat them as deliverables and manage your own organization elsewhere.

I've found the same applies to corporate organization tools. I manage my tasks separately with "update JIRA" being one of those tasks.