Project management is crucial to the R&D team. It can help the team improve work efficiency, promote team collaboration, improve project management quality, reduce communication costs, and more effectively carry out project planning, task allocation, progress tracking, and cost control. and other work to ensure the smooth progress of the project.
As an open source project management software, Redmine is free, capable of secondary development, and has relatively mature functions, but it also has its shortcomings .
For example: the cost is higher. Although open source software can save a certain amount of development costs, it will bring very high development and maintenance costs. We have calculated an account: the cost of purchasing an online project management system is about 150,000 per year (100-person team); the second open source project management system requires at least one dedicated programmer for development + long-term maintenance, and a The programmer's salary is at least 20W/year, but the staff investment in the early stage of the second opening must be more than one person. Limited functionality, the system is always "used"; Potentially less secure: When the source code of a software application is publicly available, its security becomes more vulnerable.
Therefore, this article will recommend 7 project management software that are more suitable for R&D management collaboration, and help you find a tool that is more suitable for your team.
1. In addition to Redmine, 7 tools that are more suitable for R&D project management collaboration
1. R&D management collaboration software - PingCode
Reason for recommendation : The project management software with the highest score in the domestic software R&D project list. For example, it will be rated as TOP1 in the field of R&D management in 2021, and will be selected as the top 36 domestic word-of-mouth products in 2022. Well-known clients include: Ningde Times, China Merchants Bank, CRRC, Tsinghua University, Dianyin Information, etc.
Recommended use : software and hardware R&D project management for 10-1000 people
Core functions : PingCode is a project management system that covers the entire life cycle of software development, and is widely used in requirements collection, requirements management, requirements prioritization, product roadmaps, project management (agile/kanban/waterfall), man-hours management, resources Management, test management, defect tracking, project document management, performance measurement and other fields. Integrate mainstream development tools such as github, gitlab, jinkens, Qiwei, and Feishu.
Software advantages:
- The product is ready to use out of the box, easy to use, and can be used without months of training and configuration by professional personnel like Jira;
- The basic version is provided free of charge for teams of less than 25 people, and the price of the paid version is only 30%-40% of some foreign products;
- Localization to meet the needs of Xinchuang, Kirin, etc.;
- Support private deployment, customization and saas purchase methods;
Software Cons:
- Does not support multiple languages
- Unable to meet project management needs other than software R&D projects
2. IT project management tool - Jira
Reason for recommendation : Jira is an R&D project management tool of Atlassian, an Australian listed company, and one of the most well-known R&D project management software overseas.
Recommended use : Overseas teams, whether it is price or policy, domestic teams are not recommended
Core functions : such as issue management, agile development, bug tracking (Jira was originally developed to track bugs in the software development process. You can use Jira to record, assign and fix bugs to improve software quality and reliability), Roadmaps, reports, software integrations such as Confluence, Bitbucket, Slack, etc. to achieve data synchronization and collaboration efficiency.
Software advantages:
- For the problem, it defines rich fields by default to record various information of the problem
- Powerful custom field function
- Some workflow states are defined by default: new, open, defer, pending, resolved, reopened, closed. A simple workflow is defined by default
- Powerful custom workflow function, which can define different permissions, fields, and subsequent optional processing methods for different process nodes.
- Rich permission management configuration, can define various combination definitions for projects, users, user groups, project roles, and operations.
Software Cons:
- The private deployment version is not supported in China, only the saas version is provided, but there is no server in the country;
- The purchase cost is high, and a team of about 100 people can easily cost millions;
- It is expensive for newcomers to use it, and it takes several months of training and professional system configuration personnel to use it;
- Domestic access is slow
Official website: https://www.atlassian.com/zh/software/jira
3. Project collaboration platform - Worktile
Reason for recommendation : Although it is a general-purpose project management software, nearly 50% of its customers use it for R&D management collaboration. Worktile is one of the project management software with the highest market share in China. It is widely used in almost all types of projects including e-commerce, marketing activities, law firm projects, manufacturing, administration, finance, design, engineering, education, scientific research, etc.
Recommended use : It can be used by large, medium and small teams, but it is most valuable in small and medium teams; it can meet the needs of multi-project and program management;
Core functions : In terms of functions, Worktile is a collection of tools, which has the capabilities of OKR goal management, project management, program management, project planning, project risk, project cost management, enterprise network disk, approval, and presentation. And it has powerful customization capabilities, can configure processes, forms, fields, and data reports that meet various project teams, and has a rich template market.
Software advantages:
- It can meet the needs of most types of project management, and has a strong ability to customize, and can build project templates and management processes suitable for the team;
- Out of the box, easy to use and relatively cheap;
- It can greatly help the team save costs, because it is a collection of tools that can meet the needs of projects, OKRs, network disks, OA, etc. at the same time;
- Support purchase schemes such as saas, private deployment, and customization;
- Basic free version for teams of 10 or less
Software Cons:
- It is not as professional as PingCode and other vertical products in software project management;
4. Comprehensive team office collaboration system - Feishu
Recommended reason : All-in-one comprehensive office collaboration, supporting various needs such as project management and document collaboration.
Recommended use : small and medium teams, projects with low personalized requirements
Core functions : Feishu is an intelligent work platform that integrates collaboration, communication, and office work. There are Feishu documents, which support multi-person real-time collaboration, editing and sharing documents, forms, slides, etc. Feishu Calendar: Helps manage schedules, reminds important events, and supports creating and joining meetings. Feishu chat: supports text, voice, video, file and other forms of communication, and supports the creation of groups and channels. Feishu Cloud Disk: Provides safe and reliable cloud storage space, and supports online preview and editing of files. Feishu App: Provides a rich application market, which can access third-party services and custom applications.
Software advantages:
- It integrates instant messaging, calendar, video conferencing, online documents, cloud disk and other functions to realize one-stop seamless office collaboration.
- Support multiple people to edit documents in real time, provide rich templates and plug-ins, and facilitate the creation and sharing of various types of content.
- Provides online office functions, which can simulate the scene of colleagues working together through real-time voice channels and video conferences, and enhance team communication and collaboration efficiency.
- With a high-quality enterprise service ecosystem, it can access various third-party applications and services to meet the needs of different industries and scenarios.
- Pay attention to data security and privacy protection, and adopt multiple encryption and backup mechanisms to ensure the security and unity of enterprise information.
Software Cons:
- The free version has limited functions, and the paid version is more expensive
- The functions of Feishu are relatively complicated. For new users, it may take a certain amount of time and learning costs to use them proficiently.
Official website: https://www.feishu.cn/
5. Agile development management software-TAPD
Recommended reason : Tencent's research and development management collaboration tools
Recommended use : Agile development team, Tencent's similar R&D management model
Core functions : TAPD is the abbreviation of Tencent Agile Product Development, that is: Tencent Agile Product Development, which is a professional practice of efficient Internet collaboration, condensing Tencent's many years of teamwork concepts and the essence of agile R&D. TAPD provides three solutions: lightweight collaboration, agile R&D, and DevOps continuous delivery. Kanban, documentation, iteration planning/tracking, product requirements planning, defect tracking management and other rich functions help teams visualize work progress, accumulate and share project knowledge, and improve team collaboration efficiency.
Software advantages:
- TAPD agile R&D life cycle includes requirements, release plan, iteration, task, test plan, test case, defect, Wiki, story wall, Gantt chart, report, document, feedback 13 core applications and man-hours that support man-hour filling and tracking schedule.
- easy to use
Software Cons :
- Cancel the free policy and start charging users
- Unable to get through non-Tencent office systems such as Feishu and DingTalk
- Functions are better suited for agile teams
【Official address: https://www.tapd.cn/】
6. Free open source project management system - OpenProj
OpenProj is an open source project management software that aims to replace everything provided by Microsoft Project, and it's free. Its main functions include: Gantt chart, function management, cost management, issue tracking, agile and Scrum, etc.
What OpenProj does better is that it is cross-platform, and can be used under Windows, Linux, Unix, and Mac (this Unix version is rather special and has always been specially listed). Small engineering projects can consider using OpenProj, which can save a lot of money.
Some advantages of OpenProj are:
- Free and open source, no subscription or purchase required to use all features
- Supports multiple platforms such as Windows, Mac OS X and Linux
- Support import and export of various formats, such as Microsoft Project, Excel, CSV, etc.
Some disadvantages of OpenProj are:
- The interface is relatively outdated, and the operation is not intuitive and easy to use
- Multi-person collaboration and synchronization are not supported, and project data cannot be shared and updated online or offline
- Other languages such as Chinese are not supported,
Official website: https://www.openproject.org/
7. Open source agile management tool - Taiga
Taiga, an open source project management software, is not very well-known in China, probably because it has no Chinese interface and documentation, but it is a relatively popular software abroad, and has a certain influence in the open source community.
It supports multidisciplinary teams to conduct agile development under the framework of Scrum and Kanban, and has the following functions:
- Provides modules such as projects, user stories, tasks, issues, milestones, and Kanban to facilitate project planning and tracking by the team.
- Support multiple views, such as list, kanban, Gantt chart, etc., to meet the needs and preferences of different users.
- Support for custom attributes, roles, permissions, and workflows adds flexibility and security.
- Supports data import and export, and integration with other platforms (such as GitHub, Slack, etc.), improving collaboration efficiency.
- Provides rich statistical reports and charts to help the team analyze project progress and quality.
Advantages and disadvantages:
- Advantages: beautiful and simple interface, intuitive and easy to use; rich and complete functions, suitable for projects of various sizes and types; open source and free, you can deploy by yourself or use cloud services; active community, with constantly updated documents and support.
- Disadvantages: The Chinese support is not perfect, and some interfaces and documents are still in English; although the functions are rich, they are somewhat complicated and difficult to master; the integration with other platforms needs to be improved; the server resource requirements are high.
Official website: https://www.taiga.io
2. How to decide whether to choose open source or commercial R&D project management software?
When enterprises choose project management software, they need to consider comprehensively according to their own needs and budget. The advantages of open source project management software are open source free, community support, highly customizable, rich plug-ins and extensions, and cross-platform compatibility. The disadvantages are mainly reflected in technical support, security, interface and user experience, as well as updates and maintenance.
If the enterprise has high customization requirements for project management software, has a limited budget, and has certain technical strength, it can consider using open source project management software. If the enterprise has higher requirements on the interface and user experience of project management software, and hopes to obtain more stable technical support, it can consider choosing commercial project management software.
3. What functions should R&D project management software have?
R&D project collaboration management software is a tool to help teams effectively collaborate, manage and track projects during the software development process. The following are the main functions of R&D project collaborative management software:
1. Project management: Collaboration management software can be used to create projects, assign project leaders, set project start and end dates, and track project progress. It helps teams ensure projects are on track and adjust project plans in a timely manner.
2. Task management: This type of software supports task assignment, priority setting, progress tracking and status updates. Team members can clearly understand the progress of their own tasks and the tasks of other members, so as to ensure that the project is completed on time.
3. Time tracking: R&D management collaboration software can record the actual working time of each task in the project, helping the team understand the workload distribution and the work efficiency of members. This helps to better allocate resources and optimize project plans.
4. Document management: Collaborative management software provides document storage and version control functions, and team members can easily find, share and update project documents to ensure that team members can obtain the latest information.
5. Communication and collaboration: R&D project collaboration management software provides communication tools such as real-time chat, discussion area, email notification, etc., so that team members can exchange opinions and share information conveniently, and strengthen team collaboration.
6. Risk management: Software can help teams identify, assess, and manage project risks to ensure that projects proceed as expected. Teams can track and address potential risks during the project, reducing the risk of project failure.
7. Report and data analysis: R&D project collaboration management software provides rich report and data analysis functions to help the team understand the overall status of the project, the work efficiency of members and the progress of the project. Through data analysis, the team can identify problems and take corresponding measures to optimize.
In short, R&D project collaboration management software integrates a variety of functions, which helps to improve the team's work efficiency and project success rate. By using such software, teams can use resources more efficiently and work together to ensure projects are completed on time, on budget, and meet established quality standards.