currently, we have a closed source project on hand. However, we would like to have a communication channel together with our end users.
- We would like to have our end users to know, what features we are currently working on, and what features they are going to get in next release.
- We would like to know users’ thought, on our planned features. They may always provide input/suggestion on our planned features.
- We do not planned to host on our own server. Hence, a ready-available service is welcomed.
- But we would like to remain our source code in closed model
Is there any web based service available for this purpose? Free or commercial doesn’t matter.
4
You can even try trello . Very easy and intuitive.
You can even get help on http://webapps.stackexchange.com about using trello.
If you look into the demo the Trello team has implemented exactly your use-case to demonstrate the usage of the features.
I am not affiliated in any way to the mentioned service, apart being a user of the system
1
We use Jira for this with different projects for developpers and users. Other trackers should be able to do this as well though. Users can make feature requests, report bugs, view release status etc in the user projects only. The issues reported by users are reviewed and corresponding developper issues are created, then linked to the user issues. At first sight this looks like total duplication, but in fact it is not.
Example: user requests ‘feature A’ and describes it. The corresponding developper then creates an issue (or issues, for example one in the core API prooject and one in the UI project) where he/she documents what piece of code needs to change, updates the user issue’s estimated time to finish it and links it to the developper issues. This way the customer doesn’t have to bother with code details (which they do not care about anyway), but the developpers have a nice seperated overview of what it takes to complete an issue. This gets combined with the ability to view git commits etc, handy workflows and so on.
Jira takes some time to set up, but it’s extremely customizable and after a year of use (together with confluence) we are very happy with it.
I can think of a couple off the top of my head.
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FogBugz can manage an email address and “sort emails into the correct project area.” It also has evidence-based scheduling.
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JIRA is used by Linden Lab. End users file reports themselves.
2
FaultTrack will have this, but it won’t be available until September 2013 and only if it gets funded. The bug tracker itself is a desktop application for developers, and the current customer submission feature will be through a web portal however. When its available though, there will also be hosted solutions so you don’t have to set anything up.
I currently use this with my clients who I develop software for, they are provided an entire project management portal through my site, which includes a web portal hooked up to FaultTrack. Here’s a screenshot.
And to ensure I’m following StackExchange guidelines, I must let you know that I’m the creator of the FaultTrack project.