Assembla Redmine JIRA Zoho Yodiz review and/or alternatives [closed]

Question

I'm looking for a AaaS to handle the agile/scrum project management for a commercial software development project. We are probably going to use git as SCM and ideally we would like to have a good integration between the code changes in SCM and the tasks/bugs in the project management. I've narrowed down the search to a few options:

Redmine: Mainstream open source, free software development management tool. Tasks, bugs, wiki, blogs, time tracking, git integration, pretty much everything we need. Not hosted. Could be deployed in-house or in a PaaS like CloudFoundry.

JIRA: Lots of features. Integration with Git, Eclipse, plenty of plugins, plenty of functionality. 1 to 4 $/month/person/application. Limited integration with google apps.

Zoho Projects: New generation of management apps, fully integrated with google apps (calendar, docs, tasks). Task Management, Document Sharing, Time Tracking & Billing, Bug Tracking Software, Gantt Charts, Project Wiki, Project Chat, Project Calendar, Project Forums. With bug tracker, ticketing, git integration. Quite expensive (Projects $299 / year, Bug Tracker Add-on $299 / year)

Yodiz: Looks perfect for scrum (scrum board, release board, backlog, planning board, epics, sprints, releases). It has time sheets and integration with SCM, with automatic posting in the tasks/defects when the code is committed (http://app.yodiz.com/thirdparty/pages/git.vz?pid=6). Pricing 5$/user/month + 22$ month for GitHub. There is another similar software fogcreek (http://www.fogcreek.com) but it's VERY expensive.

Assembla: Everything under one roof. SCM repository + all the agile functionality (wiki, tickets, files, etc). 9$ to 99$ per month, 10$/user/month for assembla portfolio. Quite popular.

Assembla looks like a very good option, but I don't seem to find a loot of feedback about it. Could you give me your advice on Assembla, the other tools and maybe other different options.

An interesting project managament/CRM/bug trackers comparison spreadsheet:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en&key=0Ahw066SJeeSadFJGWXRTUVVfaE1WWmpkU09WUkt6Z0E&hl=en&gid=6

Tybie

One more alternative to be considered Krosswall ( krosswall.com ). It’s design to bridging the GAP between Agile in THEORY and Agile in IMPLEMENTATION. – Tankoos

Answer 1

Assembla is good at integrating your SCM with your ticket/bug tracking. This is it's specialty. You can use Merge Requests for Code Review and Release Management. It has several ticket views for Management planning and Development planning. Every commit is able to be linked directly to tickets and you are able to track not only your bugs as they flow through the system, but the code that surrounds these bugs.

You should try it, there is a 30 day free trial that will allow you to use all of the various tools associated.

Phytobiology

Answer 2

Looks like you are trying to look at different software alternatives for project management. Here is one good comprehensive list (and comparison) of the different tools you can use: http://blog.timedoctor.com/2011/02/02/43-project-management-software-alternatives

That should give you some really good alternatives and you can add that to your research.

Reavis

Yes, I did read that analysis (is where I found the spreadsheet mentioned in my initial post) but it missed a some alternatives, like Assembla or Yodiz. I would like to get some "hands on" feedback, specially regarding Assembla, which seems to have all the functionality we need to bridge the gap from the development and the management team using agile. – Tybie

Answer 3

Also take a look at SonicAgile.com -- designed specifically for Scrum and it includes support for backlogs, scrumboards, and burndown charts. I wrote a blog entry on its features here:

http://stephenwalther.com/archive/2012/08/08/announcing-sonicagile-an-agile-project-management-solution.aspx

Catboat

Interesting tool. It has a friendly user interface an a close adherence to the agile methodology and terminology, similar to Yodiz. – Tybie

We are interested in Assembla because it seems to be specially suited for code development, with SCM, pull requests, code reviews, integration with eclipse, etc. In the other hand Assembla has its own terminology(tickets -some marked as stories-, milestones) which can be adapted to agile but is a little bit confusing. – Tybie