FOSS Project Management software

[Greg Rundlett]

On 4/29/07, Joseph <mangg at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
>
>   I am looking at the many FOSS project management
> software packages (both standalone and web based) and
> I am curious to peoples opinions on them.  What do you
> use and why?  What features do you like best and what
> is lacking?  Any pointers are appreciated.

I've been working on establishing and using a combination of the following:
FreeMind [1] - mind mapping to get down the big topics and associations
TaskJuggler [2] - project management to turn the work breakdown
structure into a GANTT chart
MediaWiki [3] - documentation and collaboration tool to develop the
written project collateral (and publish FreeMind files via extension)
Subversion [4], WebDAV [5] - to version 'office collateral', code and
other non-wiki assets in a network transparent share
WebSVN [6] - to make code views, diffs and commit logs easily
addressable via hyperlink or RSS feeds
Quanta [7] - network-transparent (using the KIO slave fish://) XML and
code editor with TaskJuggler toolbar [8]

TaskJuggler even integrates with FreeMind [9] as they both use XML in
their file formats.

[1] http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
[2] http://www.taskjuggler.org/
[3] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki
[4] http://subversion.tigris.org/
[5] http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.webdav.html
[6] http://websvn.tigris.org/
[7] http://quanta.kdewebdev.org/
[8] http://quanta.kdewebdev.org/resources.php
[9] http://www.taskjuggler.org/FUDforum2/index.php?t=msg&goto=7306

I'd be surprised if any of the web-based project management or
collaboration platforms like dotProject or openGroupware were anywhere
near as complete as the mashup of those applications listed above.
But I don't know for certain.

What I'm interested in evaluating next are GForge and by extension
SourceForge/OpenCollab

Anyway, the software is only part of the challenge.  The configuration
and agreed use of the software is where real project mangement comes
into play.  Put more simply, I think you could manage large complex
projects using just a Mediawiki installation if you had very carefully
laid out and agreed upon methods for using that software to its
fullest.  And likewise, you could put gold-plated project management
tools in front of a "team" but if they don't have an agreed upon
methodology plus shared understanding and practices then they will not
get anything accomplished.

I'd love to hear if anyone else has thoughts on this thread and/or
experience using the combination I've outlined.

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