Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Gemini Update

I have downloaded Gemini, and I am playing with it. While it is free, there is a fee if you deploy to a web server, which I would definately do. The fee is so small that I think I could round up support internally. I have not had much of a chance to play with Gemini, as I have had to deploy a couple of different project this week, but there is one thing about Gemini that I absolutely love. When you install Gemini, you are walked through the virtual directory and SQL Server install. I love that the data driving my issue tracking system is available in SQL Server, in an open way, for me to browse and play around with. I love that I could easily create my own SQL Server Reporting Services customs reports for my issues without worrying about installing some crazy driver to get at my data.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can you post the URL for the Gemini download?

RG said...

I will...
http://www.countersoft.com/

Valerie Vogt said...

Thanks :)

I have links to other issue tracking tools in my previous blog, too.

Helena said...

Hi, I just stumbled across your post while researching Gemini. My company is considering using it and I was looking for some information on this software. Are you still using it? How do/did you find it? Is there anything else out there that you have since used and would recommend over Gemini? Thanks, Helena

Valerie Vogt said...

Helena,

I do still use Gemini, although I think we are a few releases behind right now. I really like the tool. It is inexpensive, easy to learn, and does a good job allowing me to juggle many projects with a team.

I have also used Mingle, and Mingle has a nicer UI. However, Mingle is expensive to license and I am not convinced it is worth the extra money.

We have also used SharePoint for issue management. If you already have SharePoint at your company, and you don't need cross-project views, the issue list in SharePoint integrates nicely with team sites.

I have also tried to use TeamSystems for issue management. I found TeamSystems to be cumbersome and feature-poor from a project management perspective. However, TeamSystems has the benefit of integration with the development environment. Again, cost could be an issue if you do not already use TeamSystems in your company.

Overall, if you are looking for issue management and integration with Visual Studio or integration with MS Project is not a must, I feel that Gemini is the most cost-effective and easy to use tool I have come across. I highly recommend it.

Thanks,
Valerie

Helena said...

Valerie,
Thanks for you quick reply! We have been using Sharepoint for issue tracking for the last couple of years, but we have recently seen the need for cross-project views, hence the research.
We were considering writing our own issue tracker, but Gemini seems to do pretty much what we want. Plus with the option to buy the source code we can build onto it ourselves if we need. Win, win situation!
Anyway, thanks again for your reply, it's always good to get some first hand feed back.
Helena

PS. I was just reading your post on Agile development. This is also something that we've recently been looking into so I might pick your brain on your experiences (if that's ok with you)

Valerie Vogt said...

I am happy to help and feel free to ask away on Agile.