Using mantis for project management!?

General discussion of Mantis.

Moderators: Developer, Contributor

How do you do project management?

Using Mantis
17
57%
Different Tool
8
27%
Not at all
5
17%
 
Total votes: 30

ptandler
Posts: 20
Joined: 31 May 2006, 15:31
Location: Darmstadt, Germany
Contact:

Using mantis for project management!?

Post by ptandler »

Hi,

we do use mantis quite a lot in our projects, it's simply a great tool! Now, we startet to do more and more project management also with mantis (since the relationships have been introduced). Using a different tool for e.g. release & ressource planning appeared to be quite an overhead.
However, this is still not optimal, as loading web pages on every click (adding a relationship, browsing to the next issue) is quite slow and thus the overall usability of the web interface when trying to get an overview over the, well, about 500 open issues could be better somehow. This way, it's just very time consuming. On the other hand, it's very handy to have bugs/tasks/issues and workpackages, releases etc. in the same tool. I've experienced that it very helpful if developers and project management uses the same tool.

How do all the others here do e.g. grouping of issues to new releases, work packages etc. and other PM task (such as ressource allocation and planning - can this be supported by mantis)
  • I read somewhere that some company announced to integrate mantis with some open source PM tool. Do you know about this? What is the status?
  • I thought it might be very useful to have a standalone mantis client that offers some graphical and intuitive way of arranging issue (e.g. a Java client, started with Java Web Start that caches issues locally and automatically updates mantis when done).
  • Or, do you think it might be an option to add some fancy AJAX UI to mantis for browsing and arranging issues?
What do you think?

Cheers,
Peter
Last edited by ptandler on 04 Jul 2006, 14:50, edited 1 time in total.
ptandler
Posts: 20
Joined: 31 May 2006, 15:31
Location: Darmstadt, Germany
Contact:

Freemind mind-map export for mantis

Post by ptandler »

With the Freemind export I've hacked (and the freemind flash browser), one has a simple solution that can be used to get an overview of many issues very quickly, i.e. without a page load delay while browsing.

See http://bugs.mantisbt.org/view.php?id=7214

Cheers,
Peter
Last edited by ptandler on 04 Jul 2006, 14:51, edited 1 time in total.
kmet
Posts: 13
Joined: 13 Apr 2005, 10:37

Post by kmet »

I think that you have dotproject on mind.

the integration discussion is here:
http://www.dotproject.net/vbulletin/sho ... php?t=4614

regards
ptandler
Posts: 20
Joined: 31 May 2006, 15:31
Location: Darmstadt, Germany
Contact:

Post by ptandler »

Thanks, kmet, for pointing me at this. But I think I read a another announcement somewhere, however. Is sounded more like a company that is going to invest in the integration.

Anyway, many thanks,
Peter
Cheers,
Peter
ptandler
Posts: 20
Joined: 31 May 2006, 15:31
Location: Darmstadt, Germany
Contact:

Mantis - dotProject Integration from CaseySoftware

Post by ptandler »

Hi,

I found the URL again: http://caseysoftware.com/mantis-dotProject-integration

The integration seems to be release by now (May 10), but not yet available to non-sponsors.

Cheers,
Peter
Cheers,
Peter
dingfelder
Posts: 100
Joined: 14 Aug 2005, 22:47
Location: new zealand
Contact:

rpc version

Post by dingfelder »

code4fun
Posts: 15
Joined: 08 May 2007, 10:59
Location: Denmark

Post by code4fun »

Ive tried to get some more PM features into Mantis :

http://www.mantisbt.org/bugs/view.php?id=7945

like Initial time, Remaining time, Used time and some reports to support it. But there doesn't seam to be any interrest in the subject :(

I don't thing that Mantis issues with link into dotProject can handle time tracking, but please correct me if I'm wrong because that could solve my problem :)
ptandler
Posts: 20
Joined: 31 May 2006, 15:31
Location: Darmstadt, Germany
Contact:

Re: Using mantis for project management!?

Post by ptandler »

I just started tagging project management related issues in mantis' mantis with tag "project_management", there are some already! see http://www.mantisbt.org/bugs/search.php ... management

In general, I believe that there are several users (see also this poll) that use mantis and ask for more project-management related things. Also, several new features in this direction have been already added (e.g. roadmap).

On the other hand, I don't think that mantis should evolve into yet-another full-fledged PM tool. And there are many quite mature open-source PM tools out - which come with a very simple own issue tracker :-(. Instead it would be good to have a few PM tools that integrate smoothly with mantis (similar to the approach chosen with wikis that I enjoy very much!).

So, which PM tools would make sense here?

The list of related tools in the wiki (http://www.mantisbt.org/wiki/doku.php/m ... ated_tools) lists dotProject and Basecamp, but no hint if there is any integration already available.

So, what do you think out there?

BTW: should we start a wiki page to collect requirements about this?
Cheers,
Peter
br8kwall
Posts: 35
Joined: 03 Mar 2005, 17:36

Re: Using mantis for project management!?

Post by br8kwall »

We are struggling to find simple-yet-effective tools for project management as well and we also heavily rely on Mantis.

Just FYI, our needs are:
1. Create tasks (by PM)
2. Assign tasks to worker(s) with: planned start date (optional), planned end date, billable hours to accomplish the task
3. Each week, each worker enters the following for each of their tasks: hours work that week, % complete, notes about status/work, is the task complete?
4. The PM executes cumulative and weekly snapshot reports at certain time points by : project, task, staff-task

With this information and a little more metadata (with some behind the scenes logic) we should be able to calculate many things (I have a data model in MySQL that embodies this that I will make available later).

Our hope would be an external PM tool (that is WAY easier to use than M$ Project) but that can ingest mantis issues and assignments as tasks that are assigned to staff. Hopefully through a web service from Mantis.

I don't believe such a beast exists yet, but it would be nice to have... We might tackle building such a thing (though we are a Java shop).
br8kwall
Posts: 35
Joined: 03 Mar 2005, 17:36

Re: Using mantis for project management!?

Post by br8kwall »

Just in case anyone is interested, here is a link to a start on a design for task/project tracking system that aligns with our needs. Just simple.

http://northredoubt.com/time-tracking-db-feb-18-08.zip
thoglette
Posts: 3
Joined: 23 Feb 2008, 04:25

Re: Using mantis for project management!?

Post by thoglette »

Mantis is a great tool, but it doesn't do
* requirements management & tracability
* configuration management
* change management
* data management
* process/workflow support & process tailoring esp. review and decision support & metrics collection
* WBS/scheduling/critical path/three-point estimate analysis
* risk management & rollup
* EVMS and reporting
* revision control for the various engineering disciplines
Now, what have I left out? I think that's my usual monthly toolkit, but the NASA systems engineering guide would be a good place to start for more ideas. Along with the CMMi book or a decent PMBOK reference.

While there is a definite need for some lightweight PM/SE tools (as most of the decent commercial offerings are aimed at Big Companies), trying to turn Mantis into all of these is a silly idea, given the available resources.

The integration with Wikis, RevCtrlrs and tools like .project is a path that is much more likely to succeed - if each tool supports LAMP, LDAP and a scalable externa reference mechanism, most of the ugly technical problems are already solved. The fun will start when someone tries to implement a joint query engine.
pmhut
Posts: 1
Joined: 15 Oct 2008, 04:16
Contact:

Re: Using mantis for project management!?

Post by pmhut »

I remember I first used Mantis in 2002 (or 2003) and it was a purely bug management software. Fast forward 6 years, I don't think it can be labeled as a tool for Managing Projects.

thoglette below said it all, and I will also add a few things:

- Collaboration: Collaboration is critical right now in the online Project Management tools. People need to communicate with each other through means other than the email. Granted, mantis offers this but it still needs work in this area.
- UI: The UI for such tools is all AJAXy, good to look at, smooth to work with.
- Easy of use: People other than developers and Project Managers are going to use this tool, people such as Senior Executives, Middle Management, clients and other stakeholders.

(Check this article about the ideal project tool for others take on the subject).

I think if the above is enhanced in mantis then it will be a step in the right direction, and it's currently the perfect timing, as there is not a single tool that can claim a substantial/dominant market share. Mantis already enjoys an excellent reputation and venturing into such territories will certainly prove to be fruitful.
adain052
Posts: 1
Joined: 03 Mar 2010, 07:30

Re: Using mantis for project management!?

Post by adain052 »

I will read time to time that.....
dylanc
Posts: 15
Joined: 27 Jan 2010, 09:13

Re: Using mantis for project management!?

Post by dylanc »

I've modified mantis to cope with small project management. I did the following:
  • added a new block/waiting relationship set in addition to the default parent/child (which is more for hierarchical/grouping tasks)
  • added auto-unblock of a task once the tasks it is waiting on are resolved
  • added a proper hierarchical collapsing section view to the roadmap
  • added detailed sprint (version) analysis to the roadmap, per user and overall
  • added ajax-powered expanding into the regular search/view_all_bugs view, so you can click on an icon to quickly list up the children of a task below it
  • added task weights and progress (custom fields)
  • added the automatic calculation of these task weights and progresses into the parent task (so you can see the progress of a group of tasks quickly)
  • added auto-tagging of usernames to tasks which also accumulate in the parent's tasks
  • added small avatars based on these tags to make it quick and easy to see who is involved in what (you get a nice row of avatars on a parent task with lots of children that are assigned to different people for example)
  • added inheritance of parent tasks when you clone a task
  • added quick navigation icons into the task summary column in the search view so you can quickly jump to a task's parent, you can quickly jump to the hierarchy graphs using these icons too
..and a few other bits and pieces here and there (took about two weeks and now it is truly usable for managing/grouping tasks and checking progress). This is currently for 1.1.8 and if anyone wants any of this stuff I'll send you the patch file. (some of this stuff would be great to get into the main code base)
atrol
Site Admin
Posts: 8366
Joined: 26 Mar 2008, 21:37
Location: Germany

Re: Using mantis for project management!?

Post by atrol »

@dylanc
to get it in future versions of MantisBT you should enter a feature request in MantisBT's own tracker.
Describe your ideas behind it and attach your patches.
Write also, that a developer should have a look at this and as a first step decide whether this is better realized as a plugin for version 1.2 or better integrated as part of the core functionality in a future version
Please use Search before posting and read the Manual
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