This document compares the project management tool Redmine to other alternatives like Jira, Trello, and MS Project. It outlines Redmine's key features such as issue tracking, wikis for collaboration, and Gantt charts for project scheduling. Both pros and cons are provided. Redmine is open source and free, but has a complex interface. The document emphasizes best practices for using Redmine's features to increase visibility into projects, detect bottlenecks, and foster employee involvement. Overall it promotes Redmine as a full-featured project management solution.

1. Redmine
vs
everything else
"Redmine or not redmine: that is the
question",
William Shakespeare, F1 1623

2. List of "Everything else" foes
● Youtrack
● *Asana
● Trello
● Trac
● MantisBT
● Bugzilla
● *Basecamp
● Atlassian Jira (and GreenHopper)
● *MS Project
● Teamlab
● *Continuus
● EasyRedmine
● ChiliProject
● *EasyDays
● name-yourself

3. Redmine features
● Team collaboration (wiki, forums, docs repo,
etc)
● Issues tracker (dependencies, subtasks, dues,
All in one!
%done, svn integration, hooks, etc)
● Bug tracker (follow-ups, templates, etc)
● Revisions tracker (versions, milestones, goals,
etc)
● Change management
● Time tracker (svn hooks, export, MS Project
integration through plugins, etc)
● Project management (subproject,
dependencies, gantt, etc)

4. Redmine pros
● It's free!
● Access levels, roles, workflows, etc
● Multilanguage support from the box
● Gantt chart and calendar
● Flexible issues tracking
● Issues creating from email
● Team collaboration
● Being able to move tickets (issues) between
projects easily (in batch too)
● Decent search (e.g. for bugs)
● Plugins (Jenkins, code review, Agile, etc)
● Simple

5. Redmine cons
● It's free!
● Ruby
● UI sucks (JIRA even worse)
● Issue tracker often used for communication, not for
issue tracking
● Misuse of default settings (e.g. priorities or
milestones)
● Disuse of most of functions (e.g. time tracking)
● No issue templates (needs plugin)
● No resource management or budgeting
● Plugins
● Complex

6. Access levels
● Groups
● Roles (doesn't do anything with employee's
titles)
● Issue statuses (use with caution!)
● Workflow ("Postpone (next phase)" and
"Future todo" are good examples of improper
use)
● Trackers (use Occam's Razor!)
● LDAP, OpenID, self-registration
● Apache authentication integration (if needs)

7. Gantt
● To be able to use it, you must use
Redmine (surprise!)

8. Issue categories VS subprojects
● What to choice?
● Small (short) projects vs big (and looong and
complex)
● Easy to transform (batch)
● Default assignee (in Administation->Issue
statuses)
● Version sharing (none, subprojects,
hierarchy, tree, all)

9. Team collaboration
● Project overview (good description)
● Wiki (and textile)
● Versions (and milestones)
● "Assigned to" disuse (1135 issues right now
not assigned)
● Default assignee
● /issues/ & "my page"
● Options in "Issues" -- use them!
● "My custom queries" (public too)
● Involvement!

13. Time tracking
● Estimated time
● Due date
● % done
● Spent time
● Redmine+repo integration (hooks, "fixes",
"refs", "@1h15m")
● Reports

14. Wiki
● Wiki alike engine (textile; no templates
though (needs plugin); simplest editor; far
from Wikipedia, but still useful enough)
● Table of content – {{toc}}
● Hyperlinks (issues, revisions, commits,
source files, wiki pages)
● "Divide and Conquer" (don't create a huge
pile of everything)
● Announce rules and guidelines (and support
them in actual state)
● Use it!

15. Estimated time & due date
● Estimated time: 3890 vs 1980
● Due date: 5682 vs 116
● Better visibility
● Team and personal responsibility

16. % done
● 5798 vs none
● Subtasks
● Estimated time
● Visibility

17. Estimated time & forecast
● % done
● Spent time
● Experience, background, different tasks VS
forecast accuracy

18. Issues dependencies
● Related
● Duplicates (& by)
● Blocks (& by)
● Precedes
● Follows
● Feature issues (& due date)
● Decomposition
● % done
● Hierarchy (needs upgrade and might need
plugin)

19. Few "lifehacks"
● Use it!
● Be responsible
● One for all and all for one (or die together)
● Play with URL

20. Benefits of proper use
● Crystal clear where every and each project
is
● Issues snapshots
● Human resource load clear overview
● Bottlenecks detection
● Easier to provide SLA
● Employees involvement, therefore part of
team's responsibility
● No need to use MS Project (along with
Redmine)

21. Хехей! Вопросы?!
Sergei Plaxienko
+7 905 935 29 18
plaxienko@azoft.com