As of Aug 2011, I searched for web-based open source issue tracking system or project management system. There were several great softwares which have their own pros and cons.
– Trello
When it comes to UI, it’s simple and easy. For small project, this rocks.
This is a service hosted in web, so don’t need to install or manage at all.
Register and just use it. Strongly recommend.
– Redmine
One of the best software in this kind.
Developed on Ruby on Rails, which is a bit new so looks like a few hosting sites sports it. If installed in shared hosting site, there might be a performance issue. If you can handle Ruby on Rails, this is the best shot. I really wanted to use this, if shared hosting at bluehost supported it properly.
Pros : Succinct and clear user interface, user manual is not needed, Support SCM, Wiki, Gantt Chart.
Cons : Ruby on Rails can be difficult to set-up, Can’t work properly in some web hosting site (ex: bluehost.com)
– Jira
Written in java, When it comes to UI & functionality, this might be the best.
Pros: Great UI and function, almost perfect and used by many fortune 500 companies. Free to NPO.
Cons: Not an open source.
Written in PHP and apply MVC, Good for general project management purpose as well.
Pros : UI and function is generally good, Used template, Developers are actively upgrading, Easy to install.
Cons : No interface to SCM, Menu structure is somewhat confusing, Usage of Milestone, Task and Ticket are confusing, because all similar but not merged well. No stats for manager to control a project using big picture.
– Mantis
Written in PHP, a bit old and simple program. Suitable for small team. Maybe good for starting point for customised issue tracking system.
Pros : simple menu and stable function which is just enough for issue tracking. Easy to install
Cons : Terrible UI so you must customise it, otherwise every team member will hate to use it.
– Trac
Written in Python, used in some lecture at UTS, Told as good but suitable for IT guys not users.
Written in PHP, easy to install, open source with die hard professional quality,
However more focused on project management rather than issue tracking, actually no issue tracking function is included. If you are not a developer, this is the one of the best.
Written in PHP, powerful functions but a bit confused installation, so I didn’t installed it yet. There are commercial version and community version with limited functions.
Other open source software, which are worth to look at, are as follows,
ProjectHQ, Chili, PHProjekt, Project Open, todoyu.
Personally install and tested Redmine, ProjectPier, FengOffice and Mantis. and I really wanted to use Redmine but I didn’t work properly on BlueHost shared hosting service as I mentioned. So turn to the Mantis, which has terrible UI, Finally my choice for personal issue tracking and project management tool is ProjectPier at the moment, because it’s written in PHP so that I can customise it where I what to change. In particular, menu structure need to be changed. There are too many repetition of menu, which make user being confused. ProjectPier is suitable for general use of project management with clients, so it’s good for me to use in many projects.
PS. After using ProjectPier several days, I turned to FengOffice and feel happy now. The reason I choose ProjectPier was that it included ticket system, but general quality was not satisfied to me. So I decided to use FengOffice for project management, and use other software of issue tracking, which will not be a ProjectPier.
Same as you, I’ve arrived at considering adoption of fengoffice… and I agree with your observation that, “although what it does, it does well… it fails to suitably accommodate issue tracking”. For what it’s worth, I was surprised that these open source “issue tracking” choices were absent from your reviewed apps: thebuggenie.com , flyspray.org , taskfreak.com
The latter two are arguably dead projects but (ignoring any vulnerabilities due to lack of input sanitization) are quite appealing, in my estimation. As for Bug Genie, frankly, across versions it has become too bloated to suit my preference… but the dev participates in issue tracking environment “professionally, for a living” in his day job, so he has a clear sense of usability + workflow consideratons.
Back to fengoffice:
Compared to flyspray and (especially) to TaskFreak, fengoffice requires “too damn many clicks” in order to create / edit / assign / comment task items. Input fields for Item “options” are hidden / collapsed by default, requiring additional clicks. Yeah, easy to mod/hack the page presentation, but makes me wonder… “in designing this, what were they thinking?!?”
I was quite disappointed to discover The zend Lucene library is bundled into the fengoffice 1.7.5 distro… but is unused (forum posts indicate they no longer plan to “try” incorporating Lucene into their app). So, as is, the app’s search functionality lacks support for boolean operators with search queries. I expect this will represent a huge usability pain point. Arguably, the fengoffice “reporting” tab fills the gap — if you think in terms of “a report == a saved search, or filterset”. No, I don’t think in such terms, and sorely miss the custom filtering feature which is present in flyspray.
thebuggenie.com looks quite great given that it’s open source. It looks almost commercial one. Good to know that.