Track & manage projects or tasks (for a solo developer)

Question

I am the only developer at my place of work so I function as a full stack developer, and need to support several departments. A typical day has me working on:

• minor content updates
• major content updates
• large-scale DB projects
• new site launches
• various other concurrent projects/tasks

I need a good way to track tasks, something I can dump everything into and stay organized while I work. Most of my tasks have many sub tasks so a program that allows sub-tasks would be beneficial.

Most project management software (Jira, Trello, etc) are more team-orientated and too heavy for my needs, however most of the personal todo apps (Todoist, Wunderlist, Remember the Milk) aren't really flexible enough for workplace and seem to function best for day to day tasks like groceries or appointments.

What is a good middle ground for a solo developer? Something that has enough features/organization for professional use, but not bogged down with additional team/cooperative components?

Answer 1

Gitlab. If you use git, this will be perfect for you. Not only will it allow you to browse your git repos, but you can add documentation to each one in the form of a wiki and add details of bugs / todo's which can be organised in milestones using its basic bug tracker.

There's also Redmine an issue tracker which a lot of people rave about. It's much more heavier than the bugtracking in gitlab, but if you need more features, then may be better suited for you.

Or, Zim](http://zim-wiki.org/) is a wiki-like application, where you could create a wiki page for each section of your life, and each page can of course link to sub pages.

Also, I really enjoy using stick-it notes. These are cheap and plentiful. You could buy different colours for different purposes. One task on each stick-it and allow you to visually see tasks and move them about, something which may be more difficult on a computer you can do in seconds in real-life.

Also, I've just come across getontracks.org which looks very interesting. It seems to have long-term tracking as well as short to-do's.

Answer 2

As told from others, Kanban would be an good option for you. A simple and easy tool would be Kanbanflow. It provides a good overview about your tasks and also supports subtasks.

Edit: An alternative to an online-tool would be Kanboard which you could run in the intranet.

But imo the best way to go for it is a big empty wall/whiteboard and post-its.

Answer 3

I would recommend taking a look at Eylean Board. It is a project management tool developed for team use, however, it is rather clean and simple, allowing you to only use the features you want. Therefore it creates a good solo experience as well.

You will find tasks, subtasks, multiple boards (you can separate projects), time tracking and other features available. The tool is free for personal use and if you ever need to expand, you can upgrade.