Free Project Management Software

This week Free Project Management Software is dedicating its space to a discussion of what organizations should look for when evaluating agile tooling solutions. Today’s post examines the RFP’s sections on Team Communication and Collaboration, Reporting, Installation and Administration, and Training.

Team Communication and Collaboration

• Does your tool provide for Sprint Burndown charts?
• Does your tool provide teams a way to load balance work amongst team members?
• Do you provide a software equivalent to a physical task board?
• Does the tool contain a personalized/customizable view of each individual’s tasks across multiple products?
• Does the tool enable customizable notifications?

Reporting

• Are reports based on User Stories and Velocity, or by summing task-level detail?
• How are release dates forecasted?
• Does the tool provide an exhaustive audit/change log?
• Does the tool contain an easily accessible executive/stakeholder “traffic light”-style progress indicator?
• How can reports be delivered to managers and stakeholders (external of the tool)?
• Does the tool have the capacity to report specific changes within a sprint?
• Does the tool include an overview of a team’s tasks, divided by individual?
• Does the tool include non-agile metrics, such as individual burndown charts or gantt charts?

Installation/Administration

• Describe the installation/deployment process.
• Are there any hardware specification recommendations?
• Does the tool offer support for multiple user types?
• Can I define multiple administrators to spread the administrative load?
• Can projects/products have local administrators?
• Does the tool offer role-based permissions? How granular are the role permissions?
• Does the tool offer role templates that apply to multiple products/projects?

Training

• Do you recommend product training for new users?
• Is training available for updates?
• Can we look to your organization for training on agile and Scrum in general?

This week, Free Project Management Software is dedicating its space to a discussion of what organizations should look for when evaluating agile tooling solutions. Today’s post examines the RFP’s sections on Agile Compatibility, Release Planning and Tracking, and Usability.

Agile Compatibility

• Is your tool designed exclusively for the Scrum method or is it an all-in-one tool?
• Is the tool capable of capturing requirements as User Stories/Backlog Items?
• Can Product Backlog Items be easily prioritized (e.g., with drag-and-drop)?
• Does the tool enforce a strict priority ordering for Product Backlog Items?
• Is there a way to capture and expose impediments blocking the team/organization?
• Are your metrics based on the User Story/Backlog Item level as opposed to the task level?
• Can effort units for User Stories/Backlog Items be customized?
• Is there a clearly separated Product Backlog and Sprint Backlog? Are both of these aspects visible from the same screen?
• Can Product Backlog Items be moved into the Sprint Backlog using drag-and-drop?
• Does the tool offer a way to print requirements and tasks to cards for use on physical task boards?
• How does the tool function as an information radiator to users and non-users alike? Can you publish data out to URLs for consumption by anyone on the network?
• How does your tool handle scaled agile scenarios with multiple teams working against a single release or backlog?
• Does your firm demonstrate a clear understanding of Scrum principles? Do you have in-house expertise (not including partners) to provide service offerings around Scrum and agile such as Certified ScrumMaster training?

Release Planning and Tracking

• Is the tool capable of creating custom releases and release dates? Can reports be filtered and customized by release?
• Can releases be prioritized amongst other releases?
• Does the tool contain a release forecasting capability based on empirical metrics like Mike Cohn’s “Alternative Burndown Chart”?
• How does your tool handle the categorization of work? Do you use tags/themes or a nested hierarchy and why?
• Does the tool track progress for high-level requirements (Epics)?
• Does the tool permit release reporting across multiple teams?
• Does the tool permit release reporting across multiple products?
• Is it possible to filter your release backlog to isolate a specific feature or set of features for a more focused prioritization or feature decomposition?
• Does the tool allow users to assign business valuations to User Stories/Backlog Items to better inform release planning?

Usability

• Please describe how the interface utilizes drag-and-drop.
• Please describe the tool’s time-saving interface features such as keyboard shortcuts.
• How are “bulk” operations performed?
• How do I copy and paste commonly recurring tasks?
• How does the interface allow for customized screen layouts?
• Does the tool include a “search” feature?
• Does the tool offer in-line editing?
• How does the tool support printing?
• Can users attach files to User Stories/Backlog Items? Is it restricted to specific file types?

Although this blog is concerned with free project management solutions, there are, of course, times when a suitable freeware solution simply does not exist. Since another focus for this blog is agile tooling, I wanted to share an RFP I recently encountered. Designed for organizations assessing commercial agile tools, the RFP was put together by Danube Technologies, which publishes the Scrum-oriented management tool ScrumWorks Pro. If you find yourself in the position of comparing potential tools for your organization, then it’ll be a tremendous asset for you. If you’re just looking for a free tool, this RFP is still helpful in that it’s a great resource for issues to consider, from how well the tool jives with your chosen management method to how secure your data will be.

For the next week, I’ll post a chunk of criteria for you to take a look at. But be sure to check back later this week, when I’ll post a downloadable Excel document of the entire RFP for you to use at your organization.

For the first installment, here are the sections on Platform and Deployment, Licensing and Cost, and Product Evaluation.

Platform and Deployment

• For security purposes, is your tool provided as an on-premise install?
• What operating systems do you support on the server-side?
• What operating systems do you support on the client-side?
• Please list any prerequisite software packages your tool relies on.
• For an on-premise deployment, what server-side software prerequisites are needed to run your tool?
• What database platforms do you support?

Licensing and Cost

• Please describe the licensing models you offer (subscription, perpetual, concurrent/floating).
• Are the license fees different for an on-premise vs. hosted deployment?
• What are the licensing fees?
• What volume licensing discounts are available?
• If you offer a perpetual license model, describe your support/maintenance contracts.
• Do you charge extra for certain components, modules or add-ons? Please detail any fees for add-ons.
• Please break down the total cost of ownership (including support contracts, if applicable) at year one, three, and five.

Product Evaluation

• Is a time-limited free trial of your product available? Are there limits on the number of users I can trial with?
• Can I try your tool with my data or do I need to use sample data you provide?
• For security reasons, is your trial available as an on-premise install?
• In addition to your commercial tool, is there a freeware edition of your tool? Is the freeware edition limited in some way (e.g., number of users, projects, teams, etc.)?
• Can data from a freeware or trial edition be preserved and transferred to a commercial upgrade of the tool if we decide to buy it?

Late last month, the Software Education SDC was held in Melbourne, Australia and Wellington, New Zealand. During the conference, Ivar Jacobson—who pioneered Use Cases, UML, and RUP—stated that agile needs to get “smarter.” Key to his criticism was the software industry’s tendency to jump on fashionable trends. To illustrate his point, he broke down the industry’s techniques du jour for the past 15 years like this:

• Fifteen years ago it was all about OO
• Ten years ago it was about components, UML, Unified Process
• Five years ago it was about RUP and CMMi
• Two years ago it was about XP
• Today it is about Scrum

Longtime readers know I’m an advocate of Scrum, which is the agile method that my team uses. I really see how it improves processes and gets our team to do things we didn’t think we could, so I hate to think of it as a fad. Certainly, its popularity has skyrocketed in the last year or two, but isn’t that due to its real potential to transform the way organizations approach software development? And aren’t all of these “flavors of the month,” as Jacobson suggests, part of a more macro-evolution in software development that extends well beyond agile? That is, as we discover new ways to work more effectively—or “smarter,” as Jacobson says—those new ways naturally displace the less effective methods that preceded them.

So is the history of software development over the last 15 years really a matter of faddish techniques and processes going in and out of fashion? Or is it simply a necessary evolution toward optimal working methods? You can read all of Jacobson’s concerns and suggested solutions at InfoQ.

In my last post, I mentioned that my team uses ScrumWorks Basic to manage our projects. I just noticed that, according to the tool’s publishers Danube Technologies, it’s become an increasingly popular download. From a recent press release:

The company has seen more than 10,000 software professionals and development teams register for ScrumWorks Basic during January and February alone, marking a 60 percent increase in unique registrations for Basic compared to the same time period last year.

I’m always happy to see the tool that my team uses grow its user base, but this dramatic spike in usage got me thinking. Is this uptick in registrations simply a reflection of the current economy? That is, with organizations scrambling to make cost-cutting changes, are more teams turning to freeware solutions? Or is this news indicative of the arrival of Scrum within the agile landscape? Or maybe it’s a combination of both. Certainly, it’s a testament to the value of ScrumWorks Basic, but what do you think? Have you or your teams been switching to freeware solutions of late? What do you make of this trend?

If you’ve ever managed a complex project, you know that the key to success is communication. When a team is connected through frequent communication—and the powerful collaboration it enables—all of its members are in sync with progress, updates, and impediments. However, in today’s fast-paced business world, it is increasingly common for team members, especially in software development, to be geographically distributed. Building software is an inherently chaotic undertaking. Without a collocated team, keeping that chaos in check can be nearly impossible.

One way to help distributed teams remain connected and navigate the chaos of development is through agile project management software. An agile tooling solution can help team members compensate for distance by creating a virtual team room, where status and impediments updates are broadcast to the entire team in real time. An agile tooling solution can offer the additional benefit of reinforcing agile values and existing practices.

My team practices Scrum and uses a free agile tool called ScrumWorks Basic, which is published by Danube Technologies. Apart from the obvious value of it being offered as freeware, my team appreciates how well it supports the Scrum values and processes we live each day at the office. Although the tool does not contain the same functionality found in the commercial version, ScrumWorks Pro, it has all the basic functionality to begin managing projects with Scrum.

If you’d like to learn more about its features or download your own free, 20-year license, head here: http://www.danube.com/scrumworks/basic

Okay, readers, here’s where you come in. Do you use free software to manage your projects? If you do, let me know tool you use and what you think.