3 ms·

Ask HN: Upgrade path from Trello?

My team and I have happily and successfully used Trello to manage software development project backlogs/sprints at my custom software house for about 5 years. The business has now grown in size and we have outgrown Trello. Specifically, Trello's strength in its flexibility has now become a weakness. We need a tool that helps us to better enforce process throughout the software development life cycle. We're currently considering ZenHub, Jira and Azure Dev Ops. I wondered if any of you who had used Trello and migrated for similar reasons found the perfect replacement? Thanks!

bigiain 8y ago
Jira is awful, but if you're after a tool that enforces process, it can be set up to do that very well. (The "flexibility" then gets moved from the tool, into the administration/configuration options for the tool. It's very very easy to configure Jira badly, and rigidly enforce crap processes...)
- jjgreen 8y ago
  This can be an advantage: a hands-on PITA manager gets so obsessed with Jira configuration that he leaves the devs alone, so we can get on with some work.
- cimmanom 8y ago
  These days, Jira can be set up for a process exactly like Trello except with more structured fields on the ticket itself. And then you can add bits and pieces of structure to the process as you need. You can create both extremely rigid and extremely flexible processes in Jira. But yeah, configuration can be time consuming and has a steep learning curve. Jira’s biggest strengths IMO are the ability to query it like a proper database and to create multiple views based on any query you like and the ability to support pretty much any process you can dream of, and enforce it either loosely or strictly. Its biggest weaknesses are that configuration complexity and its truly awful navigation.
- simonswords82 8y ago
  The business already looked at Jira and concluded that like you say, it's awful. There must be something out there that is Jira-esq but not awful, no?
  - bigiain 8y ago
    To be fair, I've twice worked on projects where Jira had been set up in a way that made it a delight to work with and a 100% positive productivity boost. Both times the business had an Atlassian trained staff person to drive it (in one case that was her full time job - in a ~120 person agency running maybe 40 or so concurrent projects at any one time). In spite of those great experiences, I've never been able to tweak any of the Jira instances I've had admin access too in just the right way to get that outcome. (Maybe I should look Rachel up and see if she's be open to coming in as a short contract for me...)

bigiain 8y ago

Jira is awful, but if you're after a tool that enforces process, it can be set up to do that very well. (The "flexibility" then gets moved from the tool, into the administration/configuration options for the tool. It's very very easy to configure Jira badly, and rigidly enforce crap processes...)

jjgreen 8y ago
This can be an advantage: a hands-on PITA manager gets so obsessed with Jira configuration that he leaves the devs alone, so we can get on with some work.
cimmanom 8y ago
These days, Jira can be set up for a process exactly like Trello except with more structured fields on the ticket itself. And then you can add bits and pieces of structure to the process as you need. You can create both extremely rigid and extremely flexible processes in Jira. But yeah, configuration can be time consuming and has a steep learning curve. Jira’s biggest strengths IMO are the ability to query it like a proper database and to create multiple views based on any query you like and the ability to support pretty much any process you can dream of, and enforce it either loosely or strictly. Its biggest weaknesses are that configuration complexity and its truly awful navigation.
simonswords82 8y ago
The business already looked at Jira and concluded that like you say, it's awful. There must be something out there that is Jira-esq but not awful, no?
- bigiain 8y ago
  To be fair, I've twice worked on projects where Jira had been set up in a way that made it a delight to work with and a 100% positive productivity boost. Both times the business had an Atlassian trained staff person to drive it (in one case that was her full time job - in a ~120 person agency running maybe 40 or so concurrent projects at any one time). In spite of those great experiences, I've never been able to tweak any of the Jira instances I've had admin access too in just the right way to get that outcome. (Maybe I should look Rachel up and see if she's be open to coming in as a short contract for me...)