web tools for project specs, brainstorm and research

Question

Hi,

I've collected several ideas about a project and I'd like a web-based tool that can manage them. The ideas are plain vanilla(they were jotted down as they came) so many of them might become deprecated, some of them would be included in version 1 of the product, others will be someday maybes. I just want a tool that could help me visualize, arrange, restructure and plan them.

In the research I do for each feature, I'm thinking to use GTD. For example, if I'd have:

• ID1: Feature "implement spell checker"
• ID1/ID2: GTD project "find which spell checking framework to use"
• ID1/ID2/ID3: GTD action "find existing spell checking frameworks"
• ID1/ID2/ID4: GTD action "test 2-3 frameworks by creating small test cases"
• ID1/ID2/ID5: GTD action "get my colleague's opinion on my findings and select a framework"
• ID1/ID6: GTD action "integrate spell checking framework in project"

The ID1/ID2 means that ID2 is a child of ID1. This is how I plan to do the research/brainstorming for each of the features but if you have ideas for a better way to do it, I'm very open to hearing them. So at this point, I'm looking for a tool that could also include the above functionality.

An important aspect is security as I'd like my ideas to remain private and not to be read by anyone: e.g. site admins from hosted tools like FogBugz, Basecamp, etc.

The fact is I'd enjoy to use a hosted tool because they seem to have way more features than open-source ones but having my data on their servers doesn't give me a good feeling. Btw, I've seen many users use hosted tools and entrust them with their data and I just don't understand why anyone would want to do that with their vital informations like ideas for new projects, etc.

I mean, if you really tried hard and you got a really cool idea about doing something, would you place it on someone's server even if they say it's really secure, etc.?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I'm using streberPM for all my projects for few years now. It's a pretty solid tool, is open-source and delivers for web/software development.

My considerations in addition to what you already mentioned were:

1. Have means for bugtracking
2. User management that would allow remote teamwork and client access with limited rights
3. Client feedback, incl. file uploads
4. Wiki syntax
5. Effort management
6. Simplistic version management (from milestones to versions)

Quite frankly it has helped a lot to estimate upcoming effort (given previous logs) and to collaborate in general.

Answer 2

It doesn't sound like you have a project to manage yet.

If you're just in the "idea" stage, check out a mind mapping tool like Freemind. I regularly use it to jot down and group ideas into areas of interest and/or related points. I continue using one even after the project is rolling to sketch out roadmaps and the like. It's not a management tool, more of a way to visualize groupings of ideas, etc.