Project management, issue tracking, etc

[Axoliien]

I work for a local government and we have never had any sort of formal documentation on project requests, design, modifications, issue tracking, bug tracking, etc. I would like to get something into place but this is one environment where change is always frowned upon, so I need to ease the ideas in by giving simpler applications and working to more thorough applications. Here is what I would like to see, open source of free to start out with, and moving to licensed software if I can get buy in.

1. I would like to have the ability to take a project folder and version control it, so take my folder today and say it is version 1, tomorrow's is version 2, etc. Maybe even just single files, to track as we change them. What is this called (CVS maybe) and do you have any suggestions as to some software you find useful for this?

2. We currently keep track of our own projects in an Excel sheet with a project name, start date, and any notes that go along with the project. It's ugly and not very dynamic, and we can't transfer our information easily because everyone has customized their excel sheet with their own stuff. This goes for issues as well. Is there a project management software or issue log software out there that you use in your programming projects?

3. Your examples of project request documentation, functional design docs, technical design docs, signoff docs, etc that you find useful or well designed.

I'm doing research right now online to find these items but your help is appreciated in assisting me to do this. I would love to see project design docs, signoffs, metrics on scope creep, etc.

Thanks!

 

[DaveSimmons]

If you don't want to mess with setting up software and maintaining a server, take a look at Trac hosting at www.wush.net for $15/month. Bug tracking, version control and wiki pages for projects.

 

[Crusty]

We use SVN + Trac internally. Both are very easy to install and use on Ubuntu Server 8.04 LTS. I would strongly advise not using CVS and instead use SVN or git.

git is great for a distributed project, where you might have developers working from home, other offices, or wherever. Every person manages their own local repository on their computer instead of having a centralized server holding the repositories. There are some other core differences between git and SVN, if you have the time watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8&fmt=18 That's a video of Linus Torvalds talking to Google about git vs. svn. It's obviously biased towards git, but he makes some great points about source control in general.

 

[mundane]

We use SVN + Trac as well. Debian here, but not much difference.

After reading up more on git, I'm curious to try it, although it's only recently we've gotten most of our people comfortable with SVN (transitioned from CVS).

 

[sourceninja]

I would recommend trac http://trac.edgewall.org/
It's major advantage is project management and bug tracking in a single system. It also requires a 'ticket' to be posted to update code in the repository. This allows for thoughtful code audits so you can see why someone changed the code.

It works well with SVN (a repository and versioning file system). I like svn because it integrates seamlessly with windows ( http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/ ). This seems to meet your needs.

You know the funny part is wrote this post like 4 hours ago and just forgot to hit submit until now. LOL

 

[troytime]

we use svn and fogbugz

http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBUGZ/

 

[Spivonious]

Why not write your own? You'd just need a server to store revisions of the files on and an interface to browse and check-in/check-out files.


Our company uses MKS Integrity. It's a bit slow since it's written in Java, but it gets the job done. I have no idea on the costs. Microsoft has Team Foundation Server.

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: Spivonious
Why not write your own? You'd just need a server to store revisions of the files on and an interface to browse and check-in/check-out files.


Our company uses MKS Integrity. It's a bit slow since it's written in Java, but it gets the job done. I have no idea on the costs. Microsoft has Team Foundation Server.

Why on earth reinvent the wheel here? There's no way you'd be able to code an SCM that has all the features of CVS, SVN, and/or git in any sort of reasonable time. All 3 pieces of software are already free, and have a very low cost of maintaining them.

 

[drebo]

Some people like to waste their time just so they can have their name stamped in the "About" box. It's like people that discourage router appliances and just say "use an old computer with pfsense!" Hugely impractical and a waste of time/money/etc. But, I think they get a jolly about doing it themselves.

My recommendation would be to use SVN and Trac.

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: drebo
Some people like to waste their time just so they can have their name stamped in the "About" box. It's like people that discourage router appliances and just say "use an old computer with pfsense!" Hugely impractical and a waste of time/money/etc. But, I think they get a jolly about doing it themselves.

My recommendation would be to use SVN and Trac.

Heh... I was recently asked to setup a monowall box in a virtual machine of all places, after getting it setup and showing them the limitations of it I finally convinced the powers at be we needed a "real" firewall

 

[clamum]

Write your own CVS program? wat

I've heard about SVN, we may use that for some projects at work. Currently we use Microsoft SourceSafe (blows) and SouceGear Fortress (I like it).

 

[Axoliien]

Thanks all, I'm checking these out and hopefully we'll find something in these suggestions to suit our needs!

 

[hans007]

SVN is better than CVS because it has atomic commits. I believe that is one of the best features of it so you can label things.

WE use it at work to store scripts and content. Perforce is also good if you can afford it. Its basically about as good as it gets in my opinion.


As for project tracking, I have looked at trac before and I think its ok. I think "mantis" the last time I looked at it was better because it was more customizeable if you know php. I suppose jira is ok also. I wouldn't say jira was particularly good at anything, but it generally does some of everything.