What is your experience with TaskJuggler?

Question

We are a Unix store (Solaris, Linux). I returned this last product cycle to its design capacity, and I had to make a schedule. I asked what tools my managers could accept and was surprised to hear “text files”. My teammate and I diligently tried this, and probably worse, HTML tables to keep track of the tasks we wanted to define. It was pretty painful.

Then we tried a few tools. MrProject is a bug that is limited and crashes too often. My manager swears that Microsoft Project is inflexible. Whenever they needed to change a task, reassign a resource or rebalance, he usually closed his plan. So I started browsing the Internet for project planning tools for Linux. Interesting was that TaskJuggler . It is neat that the inputs are declarative files. I feel like I'm creating a makefile for the project.

But. I have a limited amount of time to devote to evaluating this tool, and it seems rather complicated. Before diving into the next product cycle, I would like to know if TaskJuggler is flexible enough and able to handle multi-month projects with several resources with frequent changes. Therefore, I encourage all engineers who have had experience with this tool to share their knowledge. Thanks!

Answer 1

The syntax for TaskJuggler is pretty simple, but don't rush to read the documentation. My experience with TJ:

• very powerful and expressive syntax
• useful for detailed calculation of large projects

However, in practice, manual planning takes into account many of the implicit constraints that TJ requires to be made explicit in order to get a realistic scenario. This, of course, is true for every planning tool, but I found it rather cumbersome to add and edit constraints manually in large projects in TJ ... Therefore, I found it less suitable for project tracking and subsequent restructuring.

Now I use OmniPlanner, which is a much simpler tool than TJ and MSProject, but depending on my needs (especially in tracking, analysis and reporting).

Answer 2

There is nothing free in project management, and managing a complex project with software is inevitably difficult. The real question is: does the selected tool help?

Task Juggler has a learning curve and in the end is suitable for those who are not averse to reading the manual (an absolute necessity for this tool) and not tied to graphic input. The Juggler task requires you to think about your project and structure it in a meaningful way. This is useful if you make a chart in advance (many TJ users create mind maps, and somewhere there is a tool somewhere to create TJ input statements from the FreeMind mind map). It is also very useful if you organize your input file in some meaningful way, which makes searching easier.

However, once you get started, creating a project with TJ will be very quick. You don’t need to worry about millions of dialog boxes, you just tell TJ what you want in TJ.

But all this aside, what I like about TJ (and at first it hates, based on the legacy of other more traditional tools) is that it ensures that your schedule makes sense. OpenProj happily plans resources for 300% or more. TJ will give you an error message and make you fix it. Yes, this is annoying. But the end result is that you have a project schedule that makes sense and can actually be completed. Imagine that!

As I started, saying nothing is free. TJ requires study and some effort. The award is a rich and extensive reporting, all the information necessary to manage your project, cost and schedule, as well as providing a logical and reliable approach to planning and allocation of resources. And it doesn't cost $ 499 or something that MSP is on - it's free.

Answer 3

I have been using taskjuggler for the last 4/5 years (4 projects with an average duration of a year or more). It’s very useful for me to create my initial grades

• how long will the project take
• When will each resource group be released.
• What if we add more resources with different levels of experience and effectiveness to different areas of the project.

As a rule, the material that top management asks you about your schedule can be generated much faster and with more detailed detail than doing something similar using MS Project or other GUI-based tools.

Until recently, I used taskjuggler to get my initial schedule and use ms excel to track the project.

This is the first time I use a task juggler to actually track a project on a weekly basis. and so far the results look good.

Answer 4

I use Taskjuggler to develop a very detailed task manager for large films. This is a prime reason for csv syntax and outputs.

Answer 5

I use it for 1w and love it.

The acceptance test, so to speak, is if you find the text / coding more expressive than the input based on the interface. If you feel comfortable expressing your thinking in a structured language, but prefer / expect UI, then do not waste time on TaskJuggler.

See http://www.pegasoft.ca/coder/coder_july_2008.html for comments like

"Don't expect a nice user interface with the" Add task "button here." "Even reports should be designed in it with an uncomfortable, C-like language."

If you think so, then do not waste time on TaskJuggler.

TaskJuggler is a (almost) DSL for planning. If you do not know what DSL is, do not waste time on TaskJuggler. Or learn about DSL. :-)

Try the rest, because it can just put the planning in your own hands and take it off the hands of people who require you only to request status.