When we started building DoneDone, there were quite a few existing issue trackers on the market. Four years later, there are even more choices out there, and it's tough to decide which one is right for your company.
So what makes DoneDone stand out from the rest?
Many issue trackers are targeted at highly technical users (like programmers), and their interfaces tend to be cluttered with dozens of text inputs and dropdowns. Complicated interfaces are likely to be ignored by the majority of your users - and they can cause some users to avoid using the system at all. Before you know it, your company's bugs will go right back to being tracked with email, spreadsheets, and hand-written notes.
At DoneDone, we've streamlined our issue tracking UI as much as possible - users only need to enter a title, priority, and assignment, so they can log new issues in just a few seconds.
Creating an issue in DoneDone (left) vs a traditional issue tracker (right).
With most issue trackers, you assign a single user to an issue. However, any of your users can change the issue's status at any time. This can quickly lead to confusion if someone isn't sure what their role is, or if they're not familiar with what each status means (such as Open, In Progress, Resolved, Closed, etc).
With DoneDone, issues are treated as a dialog between two users (the Fixer and the Tester). We use a simple workflow that guides each user from one status to the next, only displaying the options that make sense at the time. For example, only the user assigned as the Fixer can mark an issue as Ready for Retest, and only the user assigned as the Tester can confirm that the issue is Fixed.
This step-by-step process makes it clear to each user what they need to do next, and gives them a greater sense of responsibility since they know they're collaborating with another person. We've found this greatly reduces the amount of "stale" issues in DoneDone.
Before building DoneDone, we looked everywhere for a system that would allow us to group multiple issues together, and then test them all at once. Since we were building lots of websites for our clients, we wanted to present them with a simple list of fixes, and then push them out all at once after they'd been resolved.
We couldn't find this feature, so we built it into DoneDone. Other issue trackers require you to resolve and test bugs individually, and come up with some internal method to group them together for release. With DoneDone, you can do it with just a few clicks.
We've worked with a lot of project managers over the years, and they always love to see a bird's-eye view of their projects. But they also need to drill into specific areas to see what's happening with specific projects and users.
DoneDone includes an interactive reporting system, allowing you to quickly see how your company's issues are split by project, status, priority, and user. With just a few clicks, you can combine multiple criteria, and instantly view the issues that match your query.
DoneDone interfaces with services like Basecamp, GitHub, HipChat, Harvest, Bitbucket, and Beanstalk (and more integrations are on the way!). Plus, it's easy to extend DoneDone yourself with our Developer's API.
We believe the best products offer the best support. With DoneDone, you'll receive a response to your support requests usually in just a few minutes (during regular Chicago business hours). Plus, DoneDone's support is actually handled by the development team - you'll be talking directly to someone who can fix your problem.
DoneDone works great on any device - desktop PCs, tablets, smartphones, etc. Keep tabs on your issues at the office, in line at the bank, or at home on the couch.
Most issue trackers restrict your searches to the issue title and description fields. With DoneDone, you can search everything, including user comments and attachment filenames. Plus, our natural language search helps you locate items even if you can't remember the exact phrase used.
Take a look at how DoneDone stacks up with other issue trackers:
DoneDone
Lighthouse
SifterUpdates via emailYesYesYesDue dates/milestonesYesYesYesFull-Text searchYesYesYesDeveloper's APIYesYesYesThird-party integrationsBasecamp, GitHub,HipChat, Harvest,Beanstalk, BitbucketJSON callbacks onlyBeanstalkMobile interfaceYesYesNoMultiple companiesYesNoYesCollaborative workflowYesNoNoRelease buildsYesNoNoReporting/chartsYesNoNoDesktop notificationsYesNoNoNote: feature comparison as of Jun 3, 2013
If you're looking for an issue tracking tool for your company, you probably have lots of questions. We'd love to tell you more about DoneDone - just drop us an email or give us a shout on Twitter (@getdonedone)!
