I have moved FanConcert's TODO list from plain paper to cue cards. There are 106 items right now, consisting of known defects and new feature ideas. I've gone through lots of items on paper already over the last few months, crossing them off as I went.

Why is this change significant? I'm trying to match my development process -- however informal it may be -- to the tools I'm using. This is the kind of thing Software Engineers should be doing.

I could easily use a system like Bugzilla or trac but there are a few reasons why that's not needed yet:

1. I'm working by myself.
2. There are still relatively few items.
3. It takes time to setup and manage an online tracking system.
4. Cue cards are easy to transport and discuss offline.

With limited resources (my time) I need to minimize process overhead and maintainance of tools. Sometimes too much process is overkill. Sometimes tools aren't needed when pen and paper will do.

I like the approach a lot of other people have taken: start simple and don't change until something really starts to hurt. Such as: don't make a new hire until you really need to fill the position.

I moved to cue cards after the number of items got unmanagable. I ended up with many sheets of paper, most with half of the items crossed off and it was difficult to see what was high priority. Now I can just sort the cards into "buckets".

I'll probably move to a digital tracking system when I start working with someone else in a team.