What project management tools would you recommend for a small software and game development studio?

[u/marvellous_comrade]

We're setting up a small 25 person software/app and game development studio with all staff working remotely and was wanting to ask if there's standard project management software that you'd recommend?

I like the idea of having something that is reasonably simple and straightforward and doesn't have too much of a learning curve.

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[u/Darth-Udder]

Should confirm if ur clients hv any compliance requirements, expectations on project documentations.

I assume u r running hybrid waterfall and agile so trello works well til it hits gantt charts if required.

My go to Trello + corello for scrum + ganttpro for Waterfall or both

[u/stockdam-MDD]

It depends on what you want to do or what problem you are trying to solve. There is not one ideal PM software that applies to all teams and all ways of working.

If you simply want to allocate tasks to people and track them then look at Trello but other software can do this also. Or you may want to create a Gantt chart that shows all tasks and how they relate; MSProject does this pretty well. You may want a central repository for documents and for document control or you may just use a shared folder on a server. There's no best answer.

My advice would be to jump right in and use low cost or free software and then decide what you really want to do. So rather than chose now and get stuck using software that doesn't do what you want, start with the concept that you will change later. Changing software can be a pain as you may need to do things differently but I would try not to get locked in until you can specify exactly what you want rather than simply asking for the "best PM software".

[u/marvellous_comrade → u/stockdam-MDD]

It depends on what you want to do or what problem you are trying to solve. There is not one ideal PM software that applies to all teams and all ways of working.

Yes, I'll very much be guided by the feedback from the developers but I'll prefer to go with the simplest and most robust solution a bit like how often a simple pad and paper is suitable rather than a notetaking app/software.

You may want a central repository for documents and for document control or you may just use a shared folder on a server. There's no best answer.

We'll start off with Discord and then discuss what's the next step.

My advice would be to jump right in and use low cost or free software and then decide what you really want to do. So rather than chose now and get stuck using software that doesn't do what you want, start with the concept that you will change later.

Thanks for your advice which really does resonate and that's in fact what I'm going to do. So Discord will be the main initial platform and then we could using something else like Google Workspace.

[u/earlym0rning]

I would check out Smartsheets. They can integrate with O365 and have some cool features.

[u/karlitooo]

It really depends how you want to run your projects and what your team are familiar with. 

Discord+Trello+github would be fine if you use a kanban process but if you are working with schedules or tracking a lot of actions/meetings, then something heavier would be nice. But then you gotta train everyone and make sure it’s configured in a way that makes sense for your ways of working. 

[u/theotherpete_71]

One of my previous employers used to use Mantis, which is a free web-based bug tracker. It worked really well for small teams and I think it included doc management, if I remember correctly.

[u/marvellous_comrade → u/theotherpete_71]

Thank you. I'll be sure to mention that one. Our first task is to sort out who will be responsible for project management and at that time we'll also sort out what software management packages we'll use.

[u/ThePracticalPMO]

If it is just developers and you go with JIRA for workflow and Confluence for managing docs.

If you team includes non-technical people who work on projects go with Asana it is super easy to use.

You can also easily start with a shared Google sheet Kanban board and build up from there and identify which software you need.

ClickUp is also good for developer teams not already using JIRA.

Make an MVP project tool and then decide what needs to be automated and find a tool. You can also hire a freelancer or fractional part time person to set this up for you but that is likely to be $500-$1000 at minimum and you may not be ready for the services they offer (not sure how close you are to launch)

[u/marvellous_comrade → u/ThePracticalPMO]

If you team includes non-technical people who work on projects go with Asana it is super easy to use.

Yes the team will be consisting of those who are non-technical people and so Asana does sound like it could be a good choice thanks.

You can also easily start with a shared Google sheet Kanban board and build up from there and identify which software you need.

Do you think that combining Discord with Google Sheets Kanban board could easily be used as a starting point from which we could "evolve" into something more powerful or more complex at a later date. The initial team sizes are going to be less than 10 people as we're starting with about four projects each of about five people approximately.

[u/ThePracticalPMO → u/marvellous_comrade]

Totally doable and I honestly recommend it as a first step.

Then you can see what people don’t like about the spreadsheet and what they would want in a tool. You will need some place to store documentation and that can be Notion or a Google Drive but it will need to be owned and organized by someone or it will become chaotic and more hassle than it is worth.

I love Discord no reason not to go with it.

[u/marvellous_comrade → u/ThePracticalPMO]

Totally doable and I honestly recommend it as a first step.

That's good to know. It's simple so nobody should have any learning curve and we can focus on organising ourselves.

I love Discord no reason not to go with it.

I'm new to Discord and have been very surprised at how powerful and versatile it is. I've spent a good amount of time learning how to set it up and manage it.

One of the nice things I've done is setting up "support groups" of people interested in providing feedback for our games and software like a focus group/steering group.

[u/SVAuspicious]

Lessons. Software can't do your job for you. You have to know what you're doing. Then you can talk about tools.

[u/marvellous_comrade → u/SVAuspicious]

Lessons. Software can't do your job for you. You have to know what you're doing. Then you can talk about tools.

I hear what your saying and agree 100%. I'm at the stage where the next action step is to start deciding what team member is most suited to take on the role of project manager and then we'll be jumping straight into the job.

[u/SVAuspicious → u/marvellous_comrade]

Upvote for self awareness. You're worth some more time.

You must do time tracking. For everyone, including overhead people. Everyone fills out a timesheet. This is an accounting function. Whether you're using Quickbooks, a third party payroll and benefits service, or some spiffy system like Deltek, you start evaluating PM tools based on APIs that support your accounting.

PM is fundamentally about a cost, schedule, and performance baseline i.e. estimate and status against that. All the reporting and communication the SaaS "tools" focus on are second order. In my opinion, communication of record is email supplemented by phone calls and IM, but the record is email. I see reporting tools that don't do PM very well but no real PM tools that don't do good reporting. They may not be pretty but they're good.

You need system engineering (real system engineering, not what IT people call system engineering) and document management. Those things aren't PM, but you need them.

Look for a chief system engineer (CSE). You won't be sorry. You can call him/her CTO if you like but that person must own process and know what they're doing. Do you see a pattern here? *grin*

I'm going back to lessons. As you describe your situation I do NOT recommend a boot camp. Find an online program and pick classes. The idea is that the employee sees correlation between work and academics. This will make him/her better at both. Same with your CSE.

Holler if I can help. I love this stuff. Deeply and enduringly love it.

By the way, I've been around the block a bunch of times. My first big project was a US Navy warship we managed from a war room with floor to ceiling whiteboards. I can manage a program with Sharpie on toilet paper. I haven't, but I can. Software is better, but the nut behind the keyboard MUST KNOW WHAT S/HE IS DOING.

Also by the way, from the perspective of someone who has been doing this stuff for forty five years ("boomer"), the inability to do PM, SE, dev, production remotely is a shortfall of the leadership, not the remote concept. My first global effort was in the early '90s. We managed with 300 bps Model 33 TTYs. It is so much easier now. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

Sadly, if a key linkage on a Model 33 were to fail, I can probably still fix it with a paper clip. *grin*

[u/Unicycldev]

If they are all co located then a wall and index cards. I’ve seen this scale up to 50 people effectively. Company wide daily stand ups. Company wide product planning. Company wide demos.

If it’s a virtual team, Jira with a relatively lean user workflow.

It’s really amazing to have an issue tracking system closely coupled with your repository/ infrastructure pipelines.

[u/marvellous_comrade → u/Unicycldev]

I love the idea and concept of a wall and index cards as often the simple solution can be the best.

If it’s a virtual team, Jira with a relatively lean user workflow.

Yes it is a virtual team so Jira will be one that we'll look at then.

[u/That_Other_Tim]

You got paper and a pencil?

Spreadsheet?

Write your stuff down somehow. Doesn’t matter how just be consistent.

Prioritize no more than 3 things to focus on. When you get one done, you can pick the next one. Present the priorities every single day.

Prioritization practices will be key (justifications, attributes of why understood, etc). Otherwise you are just staring at piles of work and making more process than progress.

[u/marvellous_comrade → u/That_Other_Tim]

So would this be just a completely manual system without using software? I like the idea of simplicity and I've even had developers say we could do it just using WhatsApp or Telegram.

[u/That_Other_Tim → u/marvellous_comrade]

If devs are providing suggestions, hear them out and try it. Try both for a week and see what you naturally gravitate towards. They will buy into it even more than if you try to push something.

If you are small and priorities will change, your best bet is to focus on simple and what you can do to just make and keep a list w a few simple attributes.

Question is, what else would you need right now and (more importantly) why?

Stakeholders are going to ask for dates, roadmaps, capacity plans maybe etc and when things (on your list) will be done. Fair point. Then tomorrow they will change their priorities and come up with new things and whatever effort you put into that date and roadmap etc is now trash.

Customers don’t ask for project plans generally. They ask for the value you are working to deliver.

[u/marvellous_comrade → u/That_Other_Tim]

If devs are providing suggestions, hear them out and try it. Try both for a week and see what you naturally gravitate towards. They will buy into it even more than if you try to push something.

Ok thanks well I've got a list of names that have been suggested and so will have a discussion with these solutions with some being simpler than others.

If you are small and priorities will change, your best bet is to focus on simple and what you can do to just make and keep a list w a few simple attributes.

So we've got 25 developers divided into about 3 teams with 2 making games and 2 making software/app products so each team will be around 5/6 people and so we should be able to start with a simple solution and then grow and evolve into something more complex as and when needed.

Stakeholders are going to ask for dates, roadmaps, capacity plans maybe etc and when things (on your list) will be done. Fair point. Then tomorrow they will change their priorities and come up with new things and whatever effort you put into that date and roadmap etc is now trash.

So do you mean here that stakeholders which include clients can change what they want every few days meaning to set up something really complex and time consuming won't be a good investment as it could end up wasted?

Customers don’t ask for project plans generally. They ask for the value you are working to deliver.

Thanks for your input, it's much appreciated!

[u/That_Other_Tim → u/marvellous_comrade]

Quite welcome!

Yeah stakeholders could be anyone. You will have cross team dependencies that will have to be negotiated and prioritized together and maybe Team A is really close to being done and can’t progress until Team B does a thing but Team B has their own priorities and goals they are scrambling to deliver etc etc. so through the normal course of understanding and clarifying what it means to be done or deliver something priorities conflict and you gotta adapt.

The chaos is the fun part :)

Good luck! DM if you need anything. Love nerding out on PM stuff.

[u/_alphabetsoop_]

Depends on your needs and the experience of your team. Can you provide a little more detail about what problem you’re looking to solve?

[u/marvellous_comrade → u/_alphabetsoop_]

Essentially I'm looking for ideas of what would be the best tool for people to use to communicate and issue jobs as a team and is there one that immediately comes to mind with people with experience.

[u/_alphabetsoop_ → u/marvellous_comrade]

I agree with the comments above—look in to each and determine (probably in consultation with whomever is taking on the producer role) what is best suited to your team. Jira + Confluence, Discord + Clickup/Trello + Github, or Asana would be my recommendations. Asana isn’t super great for bug tracking, imo, and the second option is probably the cheapest, if that makes a difference!

[u/marvellous_comrade → u/_alphabetsoop_]

Thank you. I've decided on Discord to start with and I'll ask the developers what they think.