Outsourcing project management tools, good or bad?

Question

I am not asking about which tool is the best (google, lighthouse, github...), but I'm asking about using those tools.

Traditionally, we used bugzilla and other self hosted tools to manage our closed and open source project, but we now start considering outsourcing tools like bug tracking, SCM...

I know this question might be quite vast or argumentative, but I ask for your experiences over the whole outsourcing process.

I am also wondering how closed source software could fits in this kind of environment, as it is clear that we'd prefer not have 2 systems.

Another part of the question (in fact, the main reason why I ask here), concerning open source softwares, is how it is considered to have a self hosted solution versus an extern solution. How, you, as a developer, consider one or the other solution. Do you feel more conformable with a software manager on something like github or do you prefer the traditional way? I have seen all those new solution being widely used, but we don't want to move because of a hype.

Again, I don't want to start a fight or any argumentation, I'd rather much know your experiences.

Finaly, I'm speaking of medium to large projects, both open source and commercial, fully funded an owned.

Answer 1

Recently used Jira to co-manage a number of complex projects with co-located teams, including a number of Indian off-shore teams. Was absolutely essential. Used a public sub-domain for both SCM (Subversion) and issue tracking. I think for large teams this is preferable to VPN-ing into a LAN, as long as there's adequate authentication.

Besides helping synchronize methodology and process on both shores, it also helped to have a single, context-specific communication channel like Jira to help negotiate the time difference. On a distributed team like that communication is one of the biggest challenges, and anything that can help facilitate that is a good investment.

Oh, and we also used a public sub-domain (again with authentication enabled) for our CI server and additional source control visiblity -- TeamCity and Fisheye, respectively. I highly recommend both. Fisheye was very effective at providing visibility as to what was being committed, how often etc., very helpful with QA. Again, anything that helps elevate visibility across the shore is a Good Thing.