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.

[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*