Prioritized list of tasks

Question

I might have to write an application for this, but I thought I'd ask here first, maybe someone else already wrote it.

I am looking for a small, preferably web application with the following features:

• everyone logs on, so the app can know who does what
• everyone can add tasks and assign them to someone (including themselves)
• you can mark a task as completed and it gets deleted or moved to a "completed" tab
• everyone can look at a page showing the tasks for any person
• the most important thing: anyone can drag and reorder the tasks of anyone else, BUT that gets logged and written in some kind of "history log" on the page (in reverse order)

For example, if I look at my page I want to see something like this:

-- list of tasks --

• Finish the X project
• Redeploy Z
• Document the changes to Y for the release notes

-- history --

• Nick moved "Finish the X project" to position 1 from 3
• Joe moved "Redeploy Z" to position 1 from 3
• Sam added "Redeploy Z" (position 3)

I need this application because right now I get tasks from about 6 directions (new development, support, fixes and so on) and everyone believes their task should have highest priority. I want to let them fight it "in the clear" so that they have to decide "is my task really more important than these other tasks"?

Has anyone seen anything like this? If not, do you have any pointers - I don't want to make it overly complicated, but if you have any ideas I missed, I'd appreciate them.

Answer 1

I've not seen a shared todo list before (other than sharing without write changes) but if you have the money to buy a book, then pick up Practical Rails Projects. The first example in that is an online TODO list application with drag-drop reordering of tasks. It wouldn't take much to modify this so that you have a history mechanism (I think there's a rails plugin for that :)) and then a shared login for all your managers and directors to modify the same list of tasks.

Answer 2

We're using JTrac at work for bug-tracking. It is very customizable and items can have user-defined fields (like priority). Also states for items can be created (besides the default open and closed) and transitions between states can be defined on a per role basis. Where a role acts like a group (developer, tester, administrator, etc.). It's very customizable and it can be very simple to use and install.

* everyone logs on, so the app can know who does what
* everyone can add tasks and assign them to someone (including themselves)
* you can mark a task as completed and it gets deleted or moved to a "completed" tab
* everyone can look at a page showing the tasks for any person

That's all possible with Jtrac.

* the most important thing: anyone can drag and reorder the tasks of anyone else, BUT that gets logged and written in some kind of "history log" on the page (in reverse order)

Dragging, and reordering, well not as described. But you can have other people being allowed to change the priority field of a task. Then order by priority and you're set. All changes remain visible in the history of a task. Changes won't be in reverse order, though.

Answer 3

Remember The Milk lets you share tasks with your contacts. It keeps track of completed tasks too. I don't think it tracks any changes in the tasks priority though.

You can share both individual tasks and entire lists in Remember The Milk.

When you share a task with a contact, you allow that person to both see and change your >task. The same applies if you share a list.

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

Answer 4

Marcel,

The situation you are describing is typical for many developement shops. Developers and managers need a shared repository of tasks that everyone can view and edit. Many products exist that meet this need, including Bugzilla, Mingle, VersionOne, and JIRA. Some issue trackers, such as FogBugz, offer free hosted versions for startups and students.

In addition to obtaining an issue tracker I'd recommend using Mylyn (free) or Tasktop Pro (commercial) to bring your tasks onto your development environment. These tools provide a task list that is integrated into your workspace. As you work on tasks Mylyn or Tasktop can automatically track your time and even reopen relevant files when you resume a task.

David Shepherd
Tasktop Technologies

Answer 5

i think that trac would do a great job. http://trac.edgewall.org/ another alternative would be redmine.