Tools – TRAC Software Project Management

Keeping track of a software development project, even one that is relatively small can quickly become a challenging task.  Identifying development tasks, progress, bugs and prioritization can be a bit overwhelming.  One tool that is available to developers that is easy to setup and requires minimal effort but still packs an amazing punch is TRAC.

TRAC is wiki and issue tracking system designed specifically for software development projects.  It seamlessly integrates into the software development process allowing developers to focus on writing code rather than worrying about keeping tabs on the project.  TRAC has an intuitive and easy to use web interface that integrates with SVN, allowing the latest code to be reviewed without any special tools.

One of the features that I am particularly fond of is the built in reporting.  It allows a developer to easily generate a report with their current open tasks and bugs.  Tracking of the project is also done easily through a simple ticketing system.  The default download while very powerful is a minimalist approach.  There are a number of plugins that can be added to the system to create advanced features such as continuous integration, code documentation, file management, time tracking and estimating and many more.

It comes at an affordable cost of $0 and can be downloaded from http://trac.edgewall.org/.  Downloading directly from the site will require some configuration which is why I like to use the bitnami packaged solutions.  They have downloaded installation packages and prebuilt virtual machines at no cost.  There is even an option to host the application directly on a cloud server although this does incur some monthly fees (I am currently spending about $10 / month for a Ubuntu server with 10 GB space and running 3 different cloud applications).