Unlike the plethora of project management systems available today Devshop stands out because it is focused on one thing – managing software development projects and assisting project managers with delivering quality software on time. Devshop was largely developed and founded by Ottawa, Canada based former developer and project manager Craig Fitzpatrick (who writes a great blog about project management theory and devshop at www.uncommonsenseforsoftware.com). Devshop is in a private beta at the moment but I have been using it for the past few weeks (evaluating it for our own use).
Like many of us who are responsible for delivering software, Craig was frustrated with existing project management tools such as Microsoft Project as they were over-complicated and didn’t help in eliminating scheduling and other problems responsible for the fact that over 70% of software projects fail. Generic project management applications (such as Basecamp) are very good for smaller-scale projects, or for other projects such as organizing a wedding, but are a let-down when it comes to managing teams of developers.
The idea behind Devshop is to really focus in on the unique risks that cause software projects to be late. The solution focuses on project management, quality management and requirements management. It takes care of the managerial aspects of a project rather than trying to be a source code control tool and everything else – project management on it’s own is very broad so having this focus from a product is very good.
When managing a project with DevShop you don’t set start dates for tasks, but rather you assign tasks to somebody and set a priority. Devshop will take care of scheduling from there based on when tasks are complete, their priority, dependencies and any constraints it may have. Managing time properly is crucial in software management and Devshop does a lot of this work for the project manager.
Devshop has taken an innovative approach to solving some of the pains of project management by using risk analysis which can gauge the impact changes to schedules have. With other solutions project schedules are often locked in after initial planning, which causes problems when there are delays or when tasks change (which always happens). Devshop allows your schedule to be more fluid and dynamic – and it will forecast the impact certain changes and delays will have allowing the project manager to plan accordingly or to undo changes. It will allow the project manager to plan properly by looking at different scenarios before locking them in, ie. changing the priority of a schedule or the order in which a particular developer approaches tasks.
Besides the intelligent logic, Devshop has a very nice interface that allows you to drag and drop tasks, use context menus and edit all variables in-line (it will dynamically redraw charts etc. – a very rich user experience). Users of other project management solutions should have no problem diving into Devshop and getting full use of it immediately. There are many help pages as well that cover both the basics as well as explaining some of the more advanced aspects. Craig’s previous project management experience comes across in the help pages as he offers tips and tricks to managing your projects more effectively and offering advice. It took me no longer than a few minutes (and just a single page refresh) to setup a project with a number of tasks and a schedule.
At the moment the private beta is of a basic version of the product, but by the time it launches there will be both basic and professional editions (with the professional edition you get more metrics, trends and predictions). The professional edition will also offer multiple views that are customized for different team members and roles (ie. A CEO’s view will be a general overview with scheduling etc.). Pricing is very reasonable and will start at $20 per month. Devshop is an easy to use and innovative solution that will make project management easier for the 15 million software developers out there. For more information and to be notified of when the beta is released visit www.devshop.com.
Sounds interesting. We’re currently developing without any real project management system (well, we have estimated timelines, but that’s about it). Might have to check this out when it’s available. We had tried some other systems but they weren’t geared towards developers and they always seemed awkward.
On a side note, the screenshots on http://www.devs...creenShots.aspx over 77KB in size. They’re 300×257px. Talk about wasteful.
This would be great if it had MS Outlook sync and the ability to hog resources. One of the feeatures that I’d love to see (and I couldn’t find on their site), is the ability to manage time through devshop, but still maintain the resources work scheduling environment, which is usually MS Outlook.
This reads like a press release from the company, what gives?
Any thoughts on how the application’s scheduling logic accommodate various development styles, such as Waterfall, Iterative, Agile, etc. ? Has DevShop a plan for working with the different project management techniques? Also, just out of curiosity, has anyone noticed whether or not DevShop encourages or works well with PMA’s PMBOK concepts?
[quote Tim Johnson]
This reads like a press release from the company, what gives?
[/quote]
I have to agree. Where is the constructive criticism? Are there no shortcomings of this software? I find this hard to believe. I hope TechCrunch doesn’t loose it’s credibility kowtowing to their mates and advertisers.
I think as a part of SDLC, simulation part of the software will be difficult to accomodate. Will Teams or PM’s feel comfortable depeding upon a software telling them how their projects future looks like, when they themselves don’t know. I think it requires a considerable amount of AI backend to make this kind of decision making possible through a software. Approach of Socialtext.com is better in this regards.
[quote Mike C]
I have to agree. Where is the constructive criticism? Are there no shortcomings of this software? I find this hard to believe. I hope TechCrunch doesn’t loose it’s credibility kowtowing to their mates and advertisers.
[/quote]
Mike, i think you are right. Especially yesterday’s post about Teamslide, which had nothing to do with gotomeeting and webex and still was related to them.
You can’t even see normal-res shots of the web app on their screenshots page.
“no digg”.
Interesting system. I wonder how it compares to Rally Software’s software development management tool? From the look of these screenshots, it appears Devshop may be more high-level than XP planning systems like Rally. Anyone used both systems and care to comment?
Whoa. Take it easy. This company asked us to write about them. Nik took a look at it, and as a developer liked it. Every time we give a company a thumbs up, someone says we have a motive. And every time we rip a company, someone says we have a motive. Well, I think the people leaving the comments are the ones with motives.
And yesterday’s post on teamslide: its a cool product that is very inexpensive and strips out a lot of the hassles of webex. I do think that it can hurt webex and its competitors. There are a lot of companies that won’t pay webex fees but still want to give presentations over the internet. Teamslide is a great application for that, and is definitely in the webex space.
Comments are a really important part of this blog – the feedback is great. But before you make yet another accusation of nepotism or outright fraud, think about how those accusations tend to pile up and up and up, and the effect it has on bloggers: paralysis, fear of saying anything because of how ugly people can be when hiding behind a computer screen.
Mike,
It is true that commenters are often times quick to judge, and it seems that some people will always complain no matter what you do. But read through this post, much of it does seem as if it was taken directly from a press release by the company.
Maybe it is simply the recent string of glowing reviews that can’t seem to find any flaws in a service, in combination with reviews of trvial little “apps” (i4giveu) that make Tech Crunch seem watered down. Granted, you are the one who defines what the site will be. I used to come here for objective reviews about new products and web companies. Maybe that’s not the point. I could be wrong.
I agree with Mike A. The comments on Techcrunch are generally constructive however there seems to be a growing trend for people to trash every review and app mentioned here.
Here is a good example:
[quote Mike C]
Where is the constructive criticism? Are there no shortcomings of this software? I find this hard to believe. I hope TechCrunch doesn’t loose it’s credibility kowtowing to their mates and advertisers.[/quote]
Mike, you’re probably a smart guy. Why would you say something like this? What proof could you possibly have? Next time, instead of making an accusation, why dont you post something like this:
“Nik, what shortcomings did you see in Devshop?”.
My guess is that Nik would likely respond.
@Scott
What you say is very true. In the future we should all keep that in mind. But it does help to have more of a balanced view from the get go.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that we only write about a small fraction of apps that cross our desk. Those that make the cut are either really cool or otherwise interesting (even i4giveu is interesting in my opinion). So by definition we are bullish on stuff that gets written about. We do try to balance things overall. Sometimes we fail (hell, I’m an entrepreneur at heart, not a journalist). I’m open to constructive feedback and my writing style has changed over time. But please, think before you just fire off some random rant. It may feel like nothing to you, but these things really do pile up.
Blogging makes you mean. I’m trying to avoid that fate.
Very true Mike. Considering that you do filter out a lot of stuff before writing about the select few shines light on why things are the way they are.
Keep up the blogging effort and I’m sure you’ll avoid being mean
Excuse me Mike if that pinched, but after reading the initial few lines of Teamslide review i thought finally there is something which will make Webex/Goto bite-the-dust, but i found that it’s just another Slide-Show creator, which are coming up like anything lately. Webex/Goto are from different domain. People who use Webex will never-ever agree that Teamslide is of the same league. I personally like Webex/Goto/Sametime and use it everyday, but don’t want to pay for. Something new in this area is: http://webpresenter.ca/, which is cheaper than webex/goto, but has needs time to mature.
Also i didn’t say that you guys are writing with a motive. Only in few cases, the app being discussed and the review didnt get along.
A suggestion: separate out Pros and Cons of in each review, so that we don’t have to dig for details.
Disc: I am NOT associated with webpresenter.
What is major process in?
CMM5, PSP or TSP?
Hey all, I appreciate the comments as well as it tells us what you guys like and don’t like reading here, and while I am often critical of services I actually couldn’t find much negative to say about Devshop first because the app is so early (so this is a preview of what they are trying to do) and the second is because it just seems to fit the existing problems that project managers have so well.
What I really liked about Devshop is that they have taken a small part of project management (which is very broad), focused on that and implemented it really well. My criticism couldnt’ be something like ‘it doesn’t have source code control like Trac does’ because Devshop made it clear as to what purpose they solve.
Other startups could learn from this – don’t try and be everything because it will only open up your faults, instead do one thing well and then expand out to other areas if you wish. API’s and web services are well established and you only need to do one part of the solution, give you users the option to integrate with other services for the rest.
And Devshop didn’t have a press release, my post is the result of evaluating the app, the information on the website and talking to the founder. Thanks for the compliments but I am not considering a job in PR. One of the reasons for the langauge might be because I spent my break from blogging writing marketing and sales materials for Omnidrive, time to switch seats again
In a company of any size, just as much goes wrong before you even start building. I know there was some activity in the prototyping space with Irise. Could be an interesting future topic.
Wow. This, I have to play around with. It might prove very useful enough that my company might invest in it to save some hours from optimizing our in-house one. Where do we get invites? =)
This is interesting. Basecamp has been a huge disappointment > looked ok nice to start with but fell short as projects evolved. I’m looking forward to give this solution a spin.
I had the pleasure of attending a demo of Devshop not too long ago, and the coolest part about it for me was how helpful the software is in giving a realistic timeframe.
As you work with the software, it gathers a body of knowledge about the difference between your estimates of how long things will take and how much time they actually end up taking. You can quickly see the average percentage error you make in your estimates, and furthermore, Devshop shows you the *corrected* estimates by default when you’re looking at your timeframe, taking into account your average error.
(So if your taks take on average 30% longer than your estimates, and you schedule a task that you think will take 10 days, Devshop will count that as a 13-day task when it’s showing you how much time you have for other stuff.)
That’s the gist of it, anyway…I may be a bit fuzzy on the specifics.
Anyway: I was very impressed.
I agree with Wulff – I’ve been using Basecamp since it came on the scene and find it less and less relevant to my PM needs as time goes on. This is something that I hope Devshop will address: more complex needs than just messages and basic timeline tools from the 37s gang brings to the table.
I wrote about this a while back: Growing up Basecamp that may be of interest to other project managers here.
that may be of