TaskJuggler – A Free and Open Source Project Management Software
taskjuggler.org
taskjuggler.org
This is the most thorough walkthrough I've found though it uses the QT-based Taskjuggler 2:
https://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org-taskjuggler.html
This guide goes through the ruby-based TJ3, though it ends kinda abruptly:
https://orgmode.org/worg/exporters/taskjuggler/ox-taskjuggle...
What I liked is that the projects are text-based and can be stored in Git. I.e., easily shared between apps, accessible for collaborative works, with changes history, etc. Essentially like a code.
Will it do us any good? What kind of good?
I'm struggling to understand this, and gantt charts never found much use with us, we always fall back to simple milestone based versions to manage when we do what.
Also, for medium-sized projects and up I've found its planning heuristics some times produce pretty bad plans (in terms of deadlines and resource utilization), and you have to guide it towards a better solution, by adding artificial constraints.
But having a project plan that I can express in the form of tasks and constraints, and that I can fully track using git, makes up for any of TaskJuggler's shortcomings.
foss would be nice
This would create a recurring entry on the first of October every year.
* TODO Tax return
<2021-10-01 +1y>for big uncertain R&D projects where you have to shuffle priorities of parallel tracks based on progress + new information
[1] https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_memorand...
I did a big literature review on this a while back.
hard yes, also what you wrote about 'plans going stale'
Is there a licensing problem? Is it an artifact of the preferences of those who typically contribute to open source projects like this?
Bleh. It's hard to sell management on a product that doesn't look sexy, whether it works or not.
Function is often more important than form when these projects are born.
I think it’s also worth mentioning that a pretty UI should not be confused for good UX. We can make snap judgments by looking at screenshots that look a little old school, but if the UX is good, the rest is just eye candy.
But I’m less sure about the reverse. I’d argue that a bad looking UI can scare or otherwise put off the user, which means bad UX.
I’m fully on board with the rest of your analysis.
Motivation to keep improving the project usually significantly drops off once it does what the initiator wants well enough - pair that with lots of programmers not having a great feeling for UX/it not being a primary concern.
Like so often in FOSS, if you want it, you’ll probably have to do it yourself. It’s rewarding (I’m currently polishing up a software project for friendlier UX), but also a ton of work (guess why nobody did it before).
Empathy thing, experience thing.