I've used a WordPress blog and a Screwturn Wiki (at two separate jobs) to store private, company-specific KB info, but I'm looking for something that was created to be a knowledge base. Specifically, I'd like to see: Free/low cost Simple method for users to subscribe to KB (or just sections) to get updates Ability to do page versionin...
I have tried (in vain) to convince my team that we should use Project Planning Software. I see it as a great way to plan out our projects and determine deadlines for deliverables. They see it as a hindrance to productivity. Is there some grand arguement that I'm missing here? I would absolutely love to see how long we planned for Milest...
What process do you use to estimate how long a (significant) programming task will take. Do you use one or more of the following: intuition/guessing reference to similar tasks whose estimated/actual lengths you recorded reference to the lengths of similar task others recorded saying it will take the length of time allocated for it (by ...
What's the best way to organise my personal TODO list? and what tools are available for organising team TODO lists? Should I still be thinking in terms of TODO or are there better ways to manage my time and projects? See also this question on Organization which is similar ...
What tips to people have for getting hobby/home projects done? What tools do you use for designing & planning code? (Pen and paper, software, both?) Do you use software to plan and track your project? How do you choose libraries to use (e.g. to make yourself productive)? Are there any good books/sites on planning small projects? How do...
When you are working on hobby projects at home, how do you make yourself productive? Is it planning and self discipline? Do you make notes etc? Creating the right environment? Music? Silence? Good desk? PC set up? Taking the phone off the hook?! If you have a couple of hours and you want to get stuff done, what do you do to make the ...
Lately I find myself wasting so much time on finding the best way to get things done but got nowhere.. What tools/webapps and technique do you use daily to get things done? ...
Background: Some time ago, I build a system for recording and categorizing application crashes for one of our internal programs. At the time, I used a combination of frequency and aggregated lost time (the time between the program launch and the crash) for prioritizing types of crashes. It worked reasonably well. Now, The Powers That B...
I'm not talking about bug tracking software (like Bugzilla or Jira). I'm looking for something that: Stores test specifications in text format Combines test specs into test coverage scenarios Keeps track of the progress through testing scenarios Links test specs with bug reports stored in Bugzilla Generates progress reports Is central...
Working with software day-to-day usually means you have to juggle project work, meetings, calls and other interrupts. What single technique, trick, or tool do you find most useful in managing your time? How do you stay focused? What is your single biggest distraction from your work? ...
What tools do you use to plan a project or a large feature set? I currently use a mix of Word for writing specs and Photoshop for mockups, but is there something more suited for developers? ...
So, I'm at a point in my freelance career where I've developed several web applications for small to medium sized businesses that support things such as project management, booking/reservations, and email management. I like the work but find that eventually my applications get to a point where the overhear for maintenance is very high. ...
Obvious steps that are easily overlooked or great tricks that you have learned to implement that make things come together smoother. Or even ways of doing brainstorming or mapping that have really help ...
I'm not talking about the kind you get in college, but rather implementing progress reports on the Job for developers. My thoughts in organizing a development team is encouraging and, to some extend, requiring regular progress updates were developers would report on what they did in the last hour or few hours and how long tasks took. Be...
As a contractor, out-sourcer and shareware author,I have about 5-10 projects going on at any one time. Each project has a todo list, requirements need to be communicated to other outsources and employees, status needs to be given to clients, and developer's questions need to be answered. Sometimes it is too much... but then I realize th...
I'm looking for a tool to help better plan developer resources. We have a large team of developers, and many streams of work. I'm looking to be able to plan and allocate resource easier. Currently, we have a spreadsheet with week blocks against engineers, and we fill in what we need them to work on and when. But it's very limited as a ...
What practically useful tips, tools, techniques, and general advise could you give to those development managers and contractors that are willing to make sure that the quality component of classic "budget, time, scope, quality equation" gets addressed appropriately as part of the initial project plan? For instance, setting aside some bu...
I have now worked on two different teams that use the Agile/Scrum approach in the last two years and both teams were eager to improve the way they approach software development. In the first team, we could easily convince our product owner to get time for internal things like improving the build system, setting up better integration test...
What I want to know is when you decide that you need to create a site, maybe for a customer, maybe not, what do you do? What is your process? What do you do in the planning stage to make it easier to create the site. I'm looking at this as in more of a web app... I've only technically created on business site, and it was mostly just ...
As a software freelancer (contractor) does it pay out to budget for things such as marketing and advertisement, training, tools (i.e. business related expenditure) or just buy them ad hoc? Obviously you need to set some money aside for holidays, sickness, etc; anything that goes under “social security” expenses category, but advertisemen...