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OpenProject – open-source project management software

openproject.org

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Re: OpenProject – open-source project management software

#11

Post by joshvm »

TkTech wrote: post #9
candiddevmike wrote: post #5

Interesting lineage, RedMine -> ChiliProject -> OpenProject. Here is a (biased) overview on how the product compares to RedMine: https://www.openproject.org/blog/openproject-an-alternative-...

Reading this, I had a little laugh after reading the entire spiel about increasing intuitivness and the first point is renaming issues (universally understood) to "work packages" (what?). Maybe it's just me :) overall it looks like quite the overhaul from its redmine roots. A lot of what I had to hunt for in paid redmine plug-ins years ago is just a core feature in OpenProject.

"Work package" is a pretty universal term in non-software project management, though a single WP could contain multiple todo items. I'm not sure whether it was coined by one of the frameworks like PRINCE2, but a lot of large/governmental systems use it (certainly the UK/Innovate, NASA and ESA, etc).

I would interpret "issue" as more of a general "thing that needs doing" whereas work package has a fairly specific meaning. I wouldn't want to use the phrase work packages as items in a bug tracker, for example.

See:

- https://prince2.wiki/management-products/work-package/ - https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/nasa-work-br... (pdf)

Re: OpenProject – open-source project management software

#12

Post by j45 »

nodesocket wrote: post #10

I typically prefer the simplicity of GitHub issues, mixed with Markdown documentation in the source tree. What are some advantages of using a product like OpenProject?

It's much better suited at project management than Github.

Think of it as a higher level, more encompassing approach to project management that can include both the technical and non-technical work.

You can create hierarchies of tasks, connect them, assign them, and they are not only for software development like GitHub.

It can also tie in with Gitlab/Github

It's worth watching a Youtube video or two to see if anything resonates than asking strangers blindly on the internet to give us the perfect explanation :)

Re: OpenProject – open-source project management software

#13

Post by TkTech »

joshvm wrote: post #11
TkTech wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading this, I had a little laugh after reading the entire spiel about increasing intuitivness and the first point is renaming issues (universally understood) to "work packages" (what?). Maybe it's just me :) overall it looks like quite the overhaul from its redmine roots. A lot of what I had to hunt for in paid redmine plug-ins years ago is just a core feature in OpenProject.

"Work package" is a pretty universal term in non-software project management, though a single WP could contain multiple todo items. I'm not sure whether it was coined by one of the frameworks like PRINCE2, but a lot of large/governmental systems use it (certainly the UK/Innovate, NASA and ESA, etc). I would interpret "issue" as more of a general "thing that needs doing" whereas work package has a fairly specific mean…

TIL, thanks for the informative reply.

Re: OpenProject – open-source project management software

#14

Post by input_sh »

j45 wrote: post #7
dan-allen wrote: post #6

Project management actually seems like a good candidate for open-source. It seems like companies often need customizations. I could imagine forks for different industries.

OpenProject is generally open source. Some key features exist outside of the open source license. Their hosted options though, seem reasonably priced.

I think every open source projects that has ever aimed to have >10 employees has taken that same route at some point: GitLab, Matomo, WordPress, Redis, MySQL, nginx, HAProxy... all incredibly useful for in most use cases completely free, but if you try to really rely on them (on a large enough scale), you will hit that paywall at some point and feel forced to pay up.

If the goal is to have In summary, I personally believe everyone should be pragmatic enough to be fine with the "open core" model. Otherwise, there's no chance in hell we'd have so many cool, open sourced (to an extent), self-hosted tools at our disposal.

Re: OpenProject – open-source project management software

#16

Post by dotancohen »

TkTech wrote: post #9
candiddevmike wrote: post #5

Interesting lineage, RedMine -> ChiliProject -> OpenProject. Here is a (biased) overview on how the product compares to RedMine: https://www.openproject.org/blog/openproject-an-alternative-...

Reading this, I had a little laugh after reading the entire spiel about increasing intuitivness and the first point is renaming issues (universally understood) to "work packages" (what?). Maybe it's just me :) overall it looks like quite the overhaul from its redmine roots. A lot of what I had to hunt for in paid redmine plug-ins years ago is just a core feature in OpenProject.

  > A lot of what I had to hunt for in paid redmine plug-ins years ago is just a core feature in OpenProject.
As a Redmine admin, I would love to know which plugins that you use, which are core OpenProject features. Thanks.

Re: OpenProject – open-source project management software

#17

Post by j45 »

input_sh wrote: post #14
j45 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OpenProject is generally open source. Some key features exist outside of the open source license. Their hosted options though, seem reasonably priced.

I think every open source projects that has ever aimed to have >10 employees has taken that same route at some point: GitLab, Matomo, WordPress, Redis, MySQL, nginx, HAProxy... all incredibly useful for in most use cases completely free, but if you try to really rely on them (on a large enough scale), you will hit that paywall at some point and feel forced to pay up. If the goal is to have In summary, I personally be…

Every is pretty broad.

The pragmatism of self-hosting is key parts of the software will be missing and you may not get a comparable experience.

The issue is not charging. The issue is where key, and actually core, functionality is sitting on the paid side. The idea that "at some point" you hit a paywall is generally not true. It can border on crippleware, and might as well be shareware (still great to support small development teams).

Evolving licensing and revenue generation is key.

The reality is we wouldn't have the world we have today without open-source software, as in the totally free kind, and at some point it does need to be maintained, unless some of the few packages reach some sort of maturity.

Your point about sysadmins not being cheap is fair. I would offer a counter-balance and ask how many more things than need to be are made to be far more complex than they need to be. After all, open-source is also a place of learning, experimentation, and breakthrough, and technical debt.

Still, other projects get so much done with so little support. Restricted core features pretty much tunes out a lot of users to get over the value inertia. It's hard to call it open-source, when it's not quite open source anymore.

One license I've seen is requiring companies over a certain revenue or headcount to have to license. Even JIRA had some of it figured out with their lowest license offering, but for a ton of functionality)

AGPL is helping with some of this - the more projects evolve to partner (for example if someone wants to license the tech to be part of an unrelated project)

Maybe the product managers should be the development team.

It's far easier to financially support fully open source software even though it might not happen as much as it should. I've recently come across an excellent loom alternative in Screenity and the developer only has a few sponsors.

Packaging open source for supporting the development of the software can come in many forms.

Re: OpenProject – open-source project management software

#18

Post by thayne »

nodesocket wrote: post #10

I typically prefer the simplicity of GitHub issues, mixed with Markdown documentation in the source tree. What are some advantages of using a product like OpenProject?

Ability to organize issues in various ways, more powerful search and filtering capabilities, easier to track work done and plan work that needs to be done, etc.

For a small project it's probably overkill, but when you need to manage a large number of tasks and/or a large number of workers (including product managers, QA, etc.) you need more than a simple text box with some labels.

Re: OpenProject – open-source project management software

#20

Post by PeterZaitsev »

j45 wrote: post #7
dan-allen wrote: post #6

Project management actually seems like a good candidate for open-source. It seems like companies often need customizations. I could imagine forks for different industries.

OpenProject is generally open source. Some key features exist outside of the open source license. Their hosted options though, seem reasonably priced.

The devil in such case is in details. Is Open Source version actually useful or is it really there just for marketing purpose ? I think this is where how large portion of users are running free vs paid version is a good indication.
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