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Ask HN: What are some good tools for keeping a software project on track?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some good tools for keeping a software project on track?

#11

Post by laktek »

Let me answer those with what we are currently doing in our remote startup:

1) Team members have to reply to a thread on "What are you working on?" at the end of the day. This keeps everyone informed of progress and blockers.

2) We use the CI dashboard to answer this (any changes to the master branch are auto-deployed to staging, and then staging is manually promoted to production.)

3) We use a Gantt chart to track high-level milestones (usually we go through it once a week to see where we are at).

Re: Ask HN: What are some good tools for keeping a software project on track?

#15

Post by dyim »

gaius wrote: post #6

The only project management tool I've ever seen work effectively - I'm not even kidding - is a whiteboard with Post-it notes stuck to it. Everything else is snake oil.

We use Trello and it works great. Its closest skeuomorphic equivalent is... a whiteboard with Post-it notes stuck to it.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good tools for keeping a software project on track?

#16

Post by whorleater »

zwetan wrote: post #12
gaius wrote: post #6

The only project management tool I've ever seen work effectively - I'm not even kidding - is a whiteboard with Post-it notes stuck to it. Everything else is snake oil.

how do you make that work for a "remote team" ?

trello/github projects/whatever hip new trello clone came out this month

Re: Ask HN: What are some good tools for keeping a software project on track?

#17

Post by dasmoth »

1. Know what each other are working on? (progress/blockers)

The closest thing I've seen to a nice solution to this is to e-mail a brief report of what you've been up to to the manager at the end of the week, who collates into a summary at the start of the following week. Lightweight, avoids superfluous detail (because the coordinator can edit it out), and not so fine-grained that individuals can't sit on a problem for a day or two while thinking it over if that's their preferred style.

Obviously, this doesn't preclude talking about individual issues during the week! But daily check-ins force this too quickly in my view.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good tools for keeping a software project on track?

#18

Post by dasmoth »

zwetan wrote: post #12
gaius wrote: post #6

The only project management tool I've ever seen work effectively - I'm not even kidding - is a whiteboard with Post-it notes stuck to it. Everything else is snake oil.

how do you make that work for a "remote team" ?

Something Trelloesque is the obvious answer, but I'm curious if anyone's tried whiteboard+webcam.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good tools for keeping a software project on track?

#19

Post by speedracr »

Post-its are hard to beat because they function as a backdrop and everyone walks by a couple of times per day, whether they want to or not.

For remote teams that run on Slack, give http://www.slash-done.com/ a try - a good friend of mine had this built after missing a simple way of having everyone check in once their tasks were completed.

Re: Ask HN: What are some good tools for keeping a software project on track?

#20

Post by LrnByTeach »

boffinism wrote: post #2

In my experience, what matters most is good communication. Whatever tool you use, what matter most is making sure your team are diligent about updating it, and about responding to updates by others. If you can get them doing that, then using a spreadsheet or a wall of post-it notes will give you 80% of the benefits of using the most advanced dashboard/kanban/IM tool. If you can't get them doing that, then even the mo…

Bingo.. these 4 things are the crux of the Project Management ..

> In my experience, what matters most is good communication.

> Whatever tool you use, what matter most is making sure your team are diligent about updating it, and about responding to updates by others

> If you can get them doing that, then using a spreadsheet or a wall of post-it notes will give you 80% of the benefits of using the most advanced dashboard/kanban/IM tool.

> If you can't get them doing that, then even the most advanced tools won't save you.

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