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There are two issues
1) Project Management
2) Work Management
A dedicated project manager or project management keeps the project on track but is distinctly different from the minutia of what is required to make an individual software project successful.
Weird, right? Break the two tasks apart and you may find the solution a little bit easier. And as a bonus it will scale much better to having 10 consecutive projects and 50 employees.
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Ennis Ray Lynch, Jr. wrote: A dedicated project manager or project management keeps the project on track but is distinctly different from the minutia of what is required to make an individual software project successful.
Yep. I refer to them as "Project Management" and "Task Management"
The latter would be the management of individual development processes necessary to complete specified features (and associated) for a product. This is the 'internal' management of the project which a project manager and development team uses.
The former represents determining what products are delivered to customers, allowing for budgeting, resource management, etc. This is what sales, and higher management uses. It is the 'external' view.
The Task Management is an input into the Project Management. And the Project Management drives creation of Task Management projects and decisions made based on Project Management would impact how Task Management might proceed.
Project Management is where one starts for high level estimates for a product delivery date. Task Management is where one tracks how tasks are proceeding (and at some point this feeds back into the Project Management to fine tune estimates.)
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I once used something called PSP(Personal Software Process). Essentially you got a week or two of training, then a certification, and then you were supposed to feed every bit of code you wrote into a statistical analysis, so that you could estimate everything when the managers asked.
Invidious performance monitor. Navel gazing waste of time. The management loved it. The 'church of PSP' expected us to go out into the world with our personal databases and spread the good news while giving uncannily accurate performance forecasts.
When an old girlfriend I met for lunch couldn't understand what the hell it had to do with being a software engineer, I saw the light. 
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You want the wrong answer? I basically use Outlook's calendar for any and all reminders to work on certain things and keep the rest of it in my head. ...I really need to get better about that.
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We use mantis. Partially because it was free, and we have been using it for MANY years.
It is not perfect, but it is light and effective.
We track features and bugs separately, and we can assign items to releases.
The internal "bugnotes" are used in lieu of email, with email notifications.
Anything will usually work, if you stick with it. So, we found choosing something that is not too heavy was important to sticking with it...
Congrats on the business doing well...
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Toothpicks and Ice Cream Sticks.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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Depending on how much you have on your plate you might want to think about hiring a project manager before selecting a tool. Compare the time it will take you to master a tool and customize it's uses to fit your needs vs. hiring someone who has knowledge of project management and the tools needed to implement trusted practices.
Once you find this person they will know which tools benefit them the most and you will most likely get more productivity by allowing them to utilize those tools.
If you are set on doing it yourself, find out what aspects you need to manage before starting to learn how to use a tool. You might find that a tool one company uses does not fit the need of your own.
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Hi Andy,
At work we use something we've made ourselves. It started out as a school project for some employees, but grew out to be our main system for keeping track of projects and stuff. Downside is that it doesn't have a lot of capabilities. Plus side is that the things it can do are exactly those things we want it to do. If we need something else we just create it in a couple of spare hours.
Of course that's no help to you unless you're willing to spend a few hours programming your own system.
Lately we've been using TFS (web client) and I think it sucks. I really can't get the stuff I want to see in a way that I want to see it. Perhaps if we used the full version with Visual Studio integration things would be better, but I really can't say.
We've had a vendor who used JIRA, but I can't say I was very impressed by it. Of course I couldn't really do anything in it except create issues for our vendor and see the issues they created for us.
One of our biggest customers uses a system in which I get to do some more stuff. It's called ACE Project[^] and I must say it's pretty well organized (it's still not as good as our custom made system, but the best I've used besides that).
Good luck finding whatever works for you
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I use Trello for managing our very large web application. We track everything from in-coming feature requests, backlogs, bugs, research, etc. It's free as well, so can't complain there.
http://goo.gl/U8YnoO[^]
It's got a great API too, which we've used to build a whole test-plan system that then generates 'Issue' tasks automatically when QA finds bugs, and deals with severities, state, etc.
A note of warning though, I'd only use it if you're in an Agile environment. Or if your waterfall project is small.
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We use RedMine.
It does the job but is not a tool that is exciting to use.
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Clicky[^]
---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur .
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It seems like some Vista users found the Windows Update button.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Do not feed the troll ! - Common proverb
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Oh, i am sure those are the people who use IE 6 (Statistics) and believe they are using the most perfect, and trustworthy browser.
If you ask them what is mozilla firefox they will answer you that this is the name of a fox in some zoo
If you ask them what is safari they will tell you that this is exotic walk with guns
If you ask them what is opera they will tell you with confidence that this is an art with music for colors.
Its sad actually. 
Microsoft ... the only place where VARIANT_TRUE != true
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And 8 is going down, only just compensated for by 8.1 going up. 8 is looking like another Vista style flop.
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Absolutely incredible test cricket series between South Africa and Australia. Loved every bit of it. I guess it was test cricket at its best. Incredible!
I still don't think we can decide the better team. It was just so close.
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err the team that won was the better team (and it pains me to say it)
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Well, yeah, I wanted SA to draw the game. They did put in insane amounts of concentration.
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d@nish wrote: I wanted SA to draw the game.
Out of interest. Why? They were unbeaten for something like 6 years it was good to see them lose for once, gives the rest a chance.
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That's the team I support. I always want them to win. Now that Sachin doesn't play any more, I don't care if they beat India as well.
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Assumed being Indian you would support India.
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Well, I would have if we still had someone like Ganguly leading us. He was a real fighter and changed the moral altogether. Now, I feel, these youngsters think they are awesome just because they have performed in sub continent. They were thrashed in England, SA and NZ. Hell, they cannot even handle sub-continent any more. See what happened in Asia cup. They surely do not deserve the praise they get.
Similarly, players from SA, NZ and Aus must be able to perform on square turning tracks in order to prove their mettle worldwide.
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d@nish wrote: Well, I would have if we still had someone like Ganguly leading us. He was a
real fighter and changed the moral altogether.
I am an Indian and would support India any day..but then Ganguly was my all time favorite captain...He didnt win the world cup for us..but for the team to be in current position he was the only one responsible!!with out him we would still be not in this position at all....[No offence to Dhoni however]...
But yes the next team I like is South Africa and it pained to see them lose the test after a great fight...
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