Project Management Software can be expensive and difficult to maintain. However, the Open Source Project, Redmine, provides a fully functional project management environment for small and medium sized businesses. Read on to find out more about the Free Web Application. 

Video Overview

Redmine Installation

Redmine allows for multiple project management. For small or medium businesses, Redmine can be installed on a local server or old computer. There is a simple to follow tutorial from Redmine’s official webpage that outlines how to install Redmine on an Ubuntu 14.04 computer.  If you also need instructions for installing Ubuntu 14.04 on a computer, check this post for instructions.

Redmine Features

For a full feature list, check out Redmine’s homepage.  Some features to highlight are as follows:

• Manage multiple projects and sub-projects
• Track issues and  time spent on issues
• Create issues from received emails
• Create Workflows from issue status
• Send email notifications
• View issues as a list, within a calendar or a Gantt chart.
• Create multiple Versions within the project.
• Additional features such as documentation, wikis, forums within each project.
• Several plugins and themes found within the Redmine site.
• Third party mobile apps for iOS and Android
• Run Reports in PDF and CSV

Manage Multiple Projects and Sub-projects

Projects are visible on the projects page. A star beside the project name signifies that the user is part of the project.

When a project is clicked, an overview and tabs for all the modules appear.

Track Issues and Time Spent on Issues

 Create an Issue

By Clicking on the “New Issue” tab, users can create new issues within the project.
Apart from the standard subject, description, start and due dates, new issues have additional fields:

1. Tracker is the type of issue. For example, whether the tracker is a task,  bug, draft, etc. These trackers can be customized to your business’ needs.
2. Status determines what stage of completion the issue is in. Default examples include ‘New,’ ‘In Progress,’ ‘Accepted,’, and ‘Rejected.’
3. Priority classifies the issue from ‘Low’ to ‘Very High’ priority. In addition, ‘Urgent’ and ‘Immediate’ are also options.
4. Assignee is the user whom the task is assigned to.
5. Category is project specific categories for the issue.
6. Target Version is project specific categories for the issue.

View Issues

The ‘Issues’ tab will have a list of all issues within the project. You can export those issues as an RSS Feed, CSV or PDF file.

Track Time

When viewing a single issue, clicking on the ‘Log Time’ link will allow time tracking for the issue.

Viewing Issues in a Calendar and Gantt Chart

The right sidebar has links to view the issues in a calendar or gantt view.

Calendar View

Gantt View

There are addition functions within Redmine. Check out the video overview or create an account on the Redmine demo environment to explore these additional features.

Plugins and Themes

There are several plugins and themes that are available to further customize Redmine. Themes can be customized and changed based on the users’ needs. Some plugins are free and others are paid from third party companies. Because of the open source nature of Redmine, if no plugin exists, third party companies can design specific plugins for the environment. Some favorite plugins and themes are,

• Checklists
• Hide Sidebar
• CRM
• Circle Theme

Conclusion

With many open source software with easy setup, small and medium business environments can benefit from systems like Redmine with little upkeep costs. In addition, Redmine’s homepage has a demo environment to experiment with the system risk free. With such ease of access, how will Redmine affect your office?