I've been developing professionally ~20yrs, about last ~10yrs been more focused on process, development practices, etc. Not saying I'm an expert, just that I've "been around".<p>The thing that struck me immediately was focus on tools. Process is not about tools. Tools do not solve problems (believe me as you grow they'll cause many problems).<p>Figure out* process, only then look for or make the tools that you need. Best to start out with the simplest thing that could possibly work. Which for many is whiteboards or some similar low tech solution.<p>* you (should) never stop evaluating and improving process. One of the best processes to adopt is "iteration" with bits of evaluation and planning in between.
Process process process, Jesus fucking.christ. it's around every.corner now. You know what process works? The ones your developers will do. It's no the same for every developer. I.can't function in Scrum, but my own process works great for me. Some people can't work in my process but function great in Scrum. Whatever the system is just work with your.developers to figure out.how they become happy. So sick of these posts detailing.complicated solutions when sitting down and having a few fucking.conversations with your developers would solve it.</rant>
We use Pivotal Tracker, Skype group chat, TeamViewer, Dropbox, and email. I'm pretty happy with this setup for daily/weekly product development and planning. I do want to give Trello a try though, to keep track of hi-level tasks (e.g. doing research) and on-going brainstorms (e.g. strategic product decisions) that are not immediately tactical/dev tasks. Would love to hear thoughts from people who use Trello or other tools for these purposes.
Well, for us "Asana + Facebook chat + Email + Dropbox + Google Docs" works right now. Although, I know that we don't have "a process of a dream", in fact.
I liked this talk about distributed team in Treehouse - <a href="http://vimeo.com/47271938" rel="nofollow">http://vimeo.com/47271938</a> - of course, it's about rather a big company but has interesting points for anyone, I guess (I also liked 4-day workweek idea).