[HN Gopher] TaskJuggler - A Free and Open Source Project Managem...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       TaskJuggler - A Free and Open Source Project Management Software
        
       Author : Tomte
       Score  : 105 points
       Date   : 2021-09-30 14:09 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (taskjuggler.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (taskjuggler.org)
        
       | nanna wrote:
       | Emacs org-mode is great at producing Taskjuggler charts. The
       | documentation is a bit rough though.
       | 
       | This is the most thorough walkthrough I've found though it uses
       | the QT-based Taskjuggler 2:
       | 
       | https://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org-taskjuggler.html
       | 
       | This guide goes through the ruby-based TJ3, though it ends kinda
       | abruptly:
       | 
       | https://orgmode.org/worg/exporters/taskjuggler/ox-taskjuggle...
        
       | splix wrote:
       | Oh, I was using it _many_ years ago, glad it's still alive.
       | 
       | What I liked is that the projects are text-based and can be
       | stored in Git. I.e., easily shared between apps, accessible for
       | collaborative works, with changes history, etc. Essentially like
       | a code.
        
       | Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
       | Question in good faith here. We are heavily hooked on redmine,
       | having closed over 70k issues there over the last 14 years. I see
       | that this thing has redmine integration.
       | 
       | Will it do us any good? What kind of good?
       | 
       | I'm struggling to understand this, and gantt charts never found
       | much use with us, we always fall back to simple milestone based
       | versions to manage when we do what.
        
         | mlaretallack wrote:
         | I have used TaskJuggler alot in the past, however that was more
         | in a waterfall developement where we needed to plan the whole
         | project over 6 months to 3 years, For agile I have not really
         | used it, a SCRUM/Other board tends to fit better. But I still
         | really like TaskJuggler
        
           | diegoveralli wrote:
           | Same here, it's very useful for waterfall scenarios but I've
           | never used it for agile planning and I'm not sure it would
           | have a place in that kind of workflow.
           | 
           | Also, for medium-sized projects and up I've found its
           | planning heuristics some times produce pretty bad plans (in
           | terms of deadlines and resource utilization), and you have to
           | guide it towards a better solution, by adding artificial
           | constraints.
           | 
           | But having a project plan that I can express in the form of
           | tasks and constraints, and that I can fully track using git,
           | makes up for any of TaskJuggler's shortcomings.
        
       | thepenis wrote:
       | Cool story bro. This is off-topic though as you didn't mention
       | covid _at all_.
       | 
       | That's a crime my friend. You _must_ mention covid or masks or
       | Fauci in the title _and_ in the story _and_ in the comments.
       | 
       | Covid covid covid!
        
       | jimmar wrote:
       | Seems similar to Project Libre -
       | https://www.projectlibre.com/product/1-alternative-microsoft...
        
         | Aeolun wrote:
         | Why do all these projects look like discount bin software.
        
           | natpalmer1776 wrote:
           | I keep wondering the same thing myself. I mean there are
           | NUMEROUS web-component frameworks & UI libraries that should
           | make this a non-issue.
           | 
           | Is there a licensing problem? Is it an artifact of the
           | preferences of those who typically contribute to open source
           | projects like this?
           | 
           | Bleh. It's hard to sell management on a product that doesn't
           | look sexy, whether it works or not.
        
             | sigg3 wrote:
             | It's open source. _You're_ supposed to provide the UI.
        
             | atatatat wrote:
             | A large percentage of people can't conceptualize what
             | appealing, usable UI looks like!
             | 
             | Empathy thing, experience thing.
        
             | haswell wrote:
             | Many open source projects started as passion projects.
             | Someone had a problem they wanted to solve, so they solved
             | it for themselves or for their team. The products weren't
             | designed based on a need to sell to a wide audience, or to
             | attract a particular kind of buyer, they just need to work
             | and work well.
             | 
             | Function is often more important than form when these
             | projects are born.
             | 
             | I think it's also worth mentioning that a pretty UI should
             | not be confused for good UX. We can make snap judgments by
             | looking at screenshots that look a little old school, but
             | if the UX is good, the rest is just eye candy.
        
               | solarkraft wrote:
               | I agree that UI and UX are different things. A beautiful
               | to look at UI can have horrendous UX.
               | 
               | But I'm less sure about the reverse. I'd argue that a bad
               | looking UI can scare or otherwise put off the user, which
               | means bad UX.
               | 
               | I'm fully on board with the rest of your analysis.
               | 
               | Motivation to keep improving the project usually
               | significantly drops off once it does what the initiator
               | wants well enough - pair that with lots of programmers
               | not having a great feeling for UX/it not being a primary
               | concern.
               | 
               | Like so often in FOSS, if you want it, you'll probably
               | have to do it yourself. It's rewarding (I'm currently
               | polishing up a software project for friendlier UX), but
               | also a _ton_ of work (guess why nobody did it before).
        
           | eitland wrote:
           | Because open source developers can afford to prioritize
           | features and ux over ui.
        
           | happyweasel wrote:
           | They have to usable.
        
           | noja wrote:
           | Because programmers make them without designers.
        
           | Sanguinaire wrote:
           | Anything which visualizes a Gantt chart will automatically
           | look like steaming garbage.
        
       | agumonkey wrote:
       | I believe fluid organizational packages will be very important.
       | It's a major source of stress, friction and inefficiency in many
       | peoples lives.
        
       | ASalazarMX wrote:
       | Project aside, disabling social widgets by default in the webpage
       | is a really cool feature.
        
         | Tomte wrote:
         | One implementation, pioneered by a German tech magazine:
         | https://github.com/heiseonline/shariff
        
       | 2Gkashmiri wrote:
       | is there a kanban-esque board or some task management where the
       | tasks can be recurring? like on a monthly schedule or say
       | quarterly? a simple example would be your annual tax filing. you
       | have to do it every year and its due every year. you dont want to
       | create a new task every year, that gets boring and difficult
       | qucikly. having recurring tasks.
       | 
       | foss would be nice
        
         | nanna wrote:
         | Hate to say it but Emacs org timestamps handle this easily.
         | 
         | This would create a recurring entry on the first of October
         | every year.                 * TODO Tax return
         | <2021-10-01 +1y>
        
         | xurizaemon wrote:
         | Wekan appears to have https://github.com/wekan/wekan-scheduler
         | now.
        
       | teddyh wrote:
       | Am I crazy, or is this web server not giving a Content-Type
       | header?
        
       | awinter-py wrote:
       | rly want a group task tool that supports uncertainty, multiple
       | branches, estimation, and updates -- essentially a file format
       | for strategy, rather than for tracking day-to-day work
       | 
       | for big uncertain R&D projects where you have to shuffle
       | priorities of parallel tracks based on progress + new information
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-09-30 23:01 UTC)