"Project Management" is the team approach to programming. There are many programs out there that purport to help a development team manage a project – but most of them aren’t very good. World-renowned software guru Joel Spolsky’s company, FogCreek Software, has created a tool called FogBUGZ that incorporates all of Joel’s insight into what works and what doesn’t work in project management.

FogBUGZ is based on a keeping track of database of cases. At any given time, every case is assigned to one person who must resolve it or forward it to someone else. Cases can be prioritized, documented, sorted, discussed, edited, assigned, estimated, searched, and tracked. Because FogBUGZ is web-based, everyone on the team always sees the whole picture. Everything from customer feature requests, to high level design discussions, to tiny bug fix details are all instantly searchable and trackable. This book, written with the guidance of the whole FogBUGZ team, completely describes the ins and outs of the latest version of FogBUGZ which is scheduled for release simultaneously with this book.

Like any other developer who wants to actually ship software, I use software management tools. One of the most important tools in my own toolbox is FogBugz. Now on its fourth major release, FogBugz is a complete project management system optimized for software teams. It’s Web-based, so you access most of the functionality through your Web browser. I’ve found this an immense help when working with developers and testers scattered about the Internet, but you can also use FogBugz for projects that are maintained entirely at a single location. In this book, you’ll see why I’m so excited about FogBugz, and learn what it can do for your own software management tasks.