Project tracking with Fast Track
Fast Track is a TurboGears web application for project status tracking. It was developed by Optio Software and is being actively used in-house. Here’s how they describe it:
Fast Track was designed to eliminate massive status reports that had to be completed weekly by developers, then condensed by project managers, and eventually delivered to senior management. As an alternative, Fast Track provides a “dashboard” view showing the current status of all projects, and allows you to drill-down into greater detail about project status, using progress notes, questions & answers, risks, issues, and uploaded files.
The screenshots make it look really nice (dashboard, project view).
Could this be a Basecamp killer?
Via: Kevin Dangoor at Blue Sky on Mars
Update: Apparently Fast Track requires TurboGears 0.9 (currently in alpha). Upgrading TurboGears only gets me to 0.8.9, unless I go to the special Preview Site. Nothing like basing your app on alpha software. Pffft. Also, the install docs are all but non-existant. I know there isn’t “really an official release at this point,” but I was really looking forward to checking this one out. And they aren’t making it easy for me.
In Jonathan’s defense, Mark Ramm and I pressured Optio to update Fast Track to TG 0.9 because we wanted to use it for some of the examples in our book.
I haven’t tried it on my machine yet, but easy_install “Fast Track” might work for installation, but you do need TG 0.9 first.
Hi Kevin,
Heh, I think my post came off a little grumpier than I intended. I should have put a smiley at the end of it. :)
I fully realize that the project is still very new and not even officially released yet. So it’s totally fine that it’s not ready for production yet. I’ll be the first person to agree that it’s better to get the code out there and have people trying it, rather than waiting until it’s “perfect” to release.
I think there’s a real need for an application like Fast Track. It’s something people can load locally rather than using a pay service like Basecamp. I’m really excited to try it out.
Thanks for the comment.
PS. Good luck with the book! I know a lot of people are looking forward to it.
John,
I totally feel your pain! The installation documentation will definitely get better over time, and I understand the pain of getting it working with TurboGears 0.9a1. It will probably continue to be a little difficult until TurboGears 1.0 is out, at which point I will probably create a “real” release, with a real easy_installable egg, some real documentation, and more. I really just wanted to get this out and available for other people to play with as soon as possible, especially for Mark Ramm and Kevin Dangoor as they work on the TurboGears book.
Thanks for the feedback as well! I really don’t think of Fast Track as a Basecamp “killer” per se, because they have slightly different purposes. I actually find them to be quite complementary! Basecamp is a bit more focused on the management of projects and mostly horizontal communication within a team or with clients. Its great for this, and I have used it a lot in this capacity. At some level, Fast Track is more about communication *vertically* within a company so that everyone is on the same page when it comes to sales, marketing, development, testing, and documentation.
I hope that you do get Fast Track working, and I would love to get some contribution and feedback! We are always looking to improve :) Feel free to send me an email if you are having trouble getting Fast Track up and running, and I will do whatever I can to help you get started!
Hi Jonathan!
Thanks for the info on the project. It sounds like you are working toward a nice solid “official” release at some point in the future, and getting your code out early (as you said) will only make it better.
I’m still very new to the whole Python web framework thing, so it won’t hurt for me to get more familiar with TG in general before I try to tackle Fast Track. But I’d be more than happy to check out Fast Track when I can and I’ll be sure to provide some feedback.
If you need your token newb-testing, I’m your man! :)
PS. Props to everyone involved with the TG project. Everyone seems so nice and helpful! That’s really starting to win me over.