Why another todo list?

In my current project, we are missing our project manager. Well... not exactly missing, we know where she is. She's just not on our project any more. Since I'm the team lead, the role of project manager fell to me.

I'm not a project manager. I'm a programmer.

However, with no organization, this project was doomed. I looked around at various products trying to find one that would do the job. What I found were tons of products that were:

• too bloated with REAL project management tools like:
  • Time tracking
  • Gantt Charts
  • Projects with subprojects with tasks with subtasks
• simple to-do lists which simply weren't enough because:
  • They couldn't handle assigning tasks to people easily enough
  • They couldn't separate a single project into various phases
  • They didn't provide enough granularity while still being able to see "the big picture"

On a side note, you'll notice that this is a Ruby On Rails application. I read the excellent work from the guys at 37Signals.com called "Getting Real". It advocates simplicity... doing just enough to get the job done.

For me and for the project, getting the job done meant creating a custom tool. It's simple, but still has just enough power to do the job.

Perhaps you'll find it'll work for you too.