Open source tool support for managing agile software development
Most agile methods emphasise building releasable software in short, fixed time periods (commonly ranging, 2-4 weeks). In these timeboxes, the sets of new, planned - as well as those under development - are commonly managed using "backlogs" (see e.g. Scrum). There is a great need for tool support for these kinds of development processes. As embodied by an anonymous discussion forum quote:
"Most projects I have seen die a slow and painful MS Office Document Flood Death. I only wished a good XP-Planning Game or SCRUM backlog tool would be available soon!"
Software engineers love tools and tool support. However, the conceptual difficulties in linking business management, product management, with project management and daily work are far from trivial, and successful attempts to tackle this area have been few and far between. Instead, many companies and teams typically rely on different kinds of spreadsheet solutions, some of which are more successful than others.
Agilefant (www.agilefant.org) is to answer the call for backlog management when spreadsheets - and most of the current issue tracking/project management systems meet their limits.
Agilefant is open source, and its development is co-ordinated by the Software Process Research Group of the Helsinki University of Technology.