Show HN: Tara – A smart and free alternative to Jira

- Initially our hypothesis was we could build data models that automatically suggested a specification or tasks based on certain criteria the user identified (for e.g. iOS app for video based calling). - The system would suggest programming languages, frameworks and a set of tasks based on the criteria - User would immediately reject the suggestions/predictions outright (even if they were based collectively on data from stack overflow and other platforms). This would be due to a number of reasons: 1) Didn't trust the ML models to make the right predictions 2) The predictions were their first interaction with the platform.

As a result- we went back to the drawing board- and realized that to build a true "smart" project management system, we would need to start with intuitive workflows, and pepper in predictions over time based on usage and a team's actual stats. The AI tld stuck, plus we're planning on bringing the ML models to our public version soon. TBD.

We also plan on using NLP for automatic task connect to Git repos/PRs/commits and ML for predictions around effort estimates. But - we're still some time away from the open beta on making that a reality.

P.S. We recently acquired the tara.com domain which took 2 years of negotiations. A story for another time.

The main benefit of using Tara is that it provides the team a much better way of plan upcoming sprints, and the system also pulls in GitHub PRs to eliminate any blindspots on PRs getting stale.

I'd encourage you to give it a go and try it out to see if it works with your teams workflows.

What's your current Theory of Change[0] for how to affect decisions at a large company? Are you simply "paying your dues" and moving up in the ranks until you've accumulated enough political capital to make unilateral changes in the working lives of your underlings? How much does your individual organizational agility[1] figure into it? Are you, rather, content to let all decisions be made by higher-ups for the rest of your career? How do you suppose your peers model change? Is there any semblance of democracy?

I am curious because project tracking tools seem representative of a whole class of stable, albeit local-optima that don't seem to change as often as they should, and as a company ages what changes are made seem to come increasingly from decision-makers far removed from the tools' impact on the Individual Contributor.

As it's been said, "ambiguity is resolved by actions of practitioners at the sharp end of the system."[2]

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_change

1. https://www.scaledagileframework.com/organizational-agility/

2. https://how.complexsystems.fail/

A few quick thoughts on this:

- Jira started out as an issue tracker to monitor issues and tasks - it really wasn't built to handle software projects or the SDLC from the get go.

-Setting up insights and reporting can be a pain. And you need to be familiar with all the jargon (epics, stories, burn-down charts). Overall, it's a ton of cognitive overload.

-I used to just manage my issues on Github vs spending time configuring Jira. I only used Jira when the corporate overloads demanded it.

Here's the take on Tara vs Jira.

- We're zero to low config. There are entire 60 minute videos on youtube on how to setup sprints on Jira. On Tara, it's one click. We're really focusing on minimal functionality maximum impact in terms of matrix, and seeing how we can continue to be low config as we make the platform more powerful.

- Insights are ready and built- in with no setup. Once your github is connected, you can view commits and PRs by sprints

- We shipped our first smart indicator- it basically looks at your past few sprints (x>1 when x is no. of sprints) and tells you if your sprint has been overloaded. We're planning on shipping more smart indicators that make suggestions around effort, etc.