Looking to incorporate some rigor outside the development team but I've never had to shop for tools that weren't developer oriented. Does HN have any suggestions on what task/project management tools are worth assessing for a small organization?
Trello, Asana, Basecamp, etc.<p>Having spent a lot of time assessing my team's needs and trying to figure out a solution that works, I'd add that picking a tool is the easy part.<p>Since most of these tools are very flexible in how you use them, without enforcing incredibly strict workflows/process of their own, the really tough part is defining your own workflow/process. The even tougher part is getting people to actually follow that.<p>A task management tool is only as effective as it is religiously used by all involved. The moment a project conversation gets side-barred into an email thread, communication gets scattered and is no longer consolidated. Someone consistenly forgets to update their project status every time something changes? Suddenly others are out of the loop, and others stop updating project status because it that seems to be acceptable.<p>While you don't want to be a control freak about this stuff, it is critical to make sure any user is committed to using it religiously. It is also important to make sure the process is clearly defined in a simple, SHORT, and easy to find list somewhere. Expect lots of questions on edge cases for "how do we handle X," and think of good ways to give friendly reminders to those who forget to do something, and less-friendly reminders to those who are frequent offenders.