Pivotal Tracker Reviews

“This is how we keep our team organized. With many projects and 2 continents - this makes it work.”

Pros

The organization factor is immense with this tool! It allows us to stay organized as a whole company while facilitating collaboration among teams, regardless of their location.

Cons

I have found that email alerts do not always arrive promptly, which can hinder project progress. Fortunately, our team utilizes a Slack channel for effective communication and collaboration.

“Great tool to manage projects and time”

Pros

With multiple projects across different areas of the company (sales, marketing, development, etc.), tracking and managing them is a breeze.

Cons

While there is some organization with tagging and epics, I wish there was a more structured way to order filtered stories.

“Effective but not shiny. Makes following agile easy.”

Pros

I appreciate how clear Pivotal Tracker is with its integration of workflow and methodology. Following an Agile Development methodology is remarkably easy with it.

Cons

Unlike other more consumer-friendly management tech, it lacks a certain "friendliness."

“Great Project Management tool for engineering teams”

Pros

Organization-wise, it excels in keeping us on track on multiple levels from week-to-week sprints to organizing based on tags. It's straightforward to project tasks for the next few weeks and search through the backlog.

Cons

Navigating it was initially challenging, but after about a month, I became accustomed to how my team used it.

“The best story-based project planning tool”

Pros

I am really impressed by the well-established processes built upon agile methodology in software development.

Cons

My main concern lies with the algorithm used for calculating team strength. When non-developers, such as project owners, are involved, it can skew the assessment inaccurately.

“Pivotal Tracker is our daily agile management tool at a tech startup.”

Pros

Pivotal Tracker is excellent for agile product teams, facilitating easy organization of cadence and two-week sprints.

Cons

Pivotal Tracker proves challenging for product teams managing multiple project boards. It is difficult to keep track of assignments across various projects and to monitor outstanding questions without combing through email notifications.

“Keeps track of your software development”

Pros

I appreciate its overall functionality, including email notifications for activities, good team collaboration, and helpful goal-setting features.

Cons

Improvement in the UI for a better user experience would be welcome. Additionally, the pricing could be more accommodating for most users.

“Easy to collaborate with no fuss.”

Pros

The ease of use allows seamless communication among multiple parties. The ability to reference and call out is a significant advantage.

Cons

It lacks mobile-friendliness unless used on a tablet or larger mobile screen. Further optimization is needed for a smoother experience.

“Been an extremely helpful tool for project management with our development team”

Pros

It provides insights into the pace and trajectory based on completed tasks, making large projects manageable.

Cons

I have not encountered any issues. As someone focused on project management, I have found it efficient for creating and assigning tasks to developers.

“Great for managing Development life cycles”

Pros

It is ideal for companies with agile structures, enabling developers to connect with end-users from anywhere via the mobile app.

Cons

The inability to export data and analytics from the application is a drawback. Having the option to export to flat files or other formats like XML would facilitate integration with other applications.

“Improve your software development and tracking with PT!”

Pros

Having used this tool for over a year, I have witnessed significant improvements in management efficiency. Teams collaborate better, bugs get fixed faster, and there's visible improvement with each sprint.

Cons

It is difficult to find any significant drawbacks. The software is well-maintained, and user input seems to shape its development effectively.

“Feature rich, but a bit clunky”

Pros

The API makes it effortless to automate story creation and maintenance for development lifecycle tasks.

Cons

Interacting directly with the platform feels clunky and unintuitive at times. The search feature, in particular, seems overly complicated.

“I use this as a Software Engineer on a scrum team daily, and enjoy the process it enforces.”

Pros

I am fond of the interface's drag-and-drop/re-order functionality and its high level of customization. The ability to tag, rename, and add new categories is remarkable.

Cons

The challenge lies in keeping track of who's working on what, especially within a large team.

“Very simple and easy to understand project management tool”

Pros

Pivotal Tracker is a lightweight project management tool with an easy-to-understand interface, encompassing most features of advanced project management tools.

Cons

It lacks support for task estimation in hours, as seen in JIRA.

“Helps keep different departments on the same page when it comes to shared projects.”

Pros

It offers an easy way to categorize and prioritize projects while providing detailed scope information. It ensures everyone is up-to-date on progress, blockers, and project status.

Cons

The tracking aspect tends to cater to the preferences of the most frequent user. While customization options abound, they don't always align with everyone's goals. Project reminders could help prevent oversights, though notifications generally work well.

“Concise product for agile development”

Pros

The story filtering options are nice, and the analytics views are helpful for tracking project trends and sprint velocity.

Cons

The UX feels cumbersome, and there is a noticeable lack of integration with version control or team collaboration platforms.

“Helpful for keeping our team organized”

Pros

Just to put this in context, I haven't used any alternative to Pivotal so this is the only tool of its kind I know. Even so, it has been really helpful for keeping our product and development team organized and on track. Being able to click and drag stories from one place to another makes managing the workflow very convenient.

Cons

One issue comes up when multiple projects are open in the same view, some of them don't reliably let you drag stories from one project to another. It's still possible to move them with a few extra clicks but the drag-and-drop feature doesn't always behave consistently.

“limited to only three columns”

Pros

The search feature is very strong which makes it much easier to find what I need quickly. Another plus is the conveniently accessible done queue since it helps when I need to look back at stories the team has already finished.

Cons

It's frustrating that a project is limited to only three columns. Because of that restriction, we've had to rely on a lot of hacky customization just to make it fit the way our team works.

“Love the built-in story states, owner and requester fields”

Pros

Having different states, plus the owner and requester built right into each story has probably been one of the features we appreciate most.

Cons

Workspaces are a really powerful tool and one we honestly did not take full advantage of until recently but they cannot be shared across the team so every teammate has to set up their own.

“Perfect for larger teams”

Pros

It really does keep everything moving in the right direction once you understand how the platform is meant to be used. It's especially strong for larger teams that already have solid, well-defined processes in place.

Cons

It performs best when you follow a particular style of agile project management, especially with developers working in pairs. If your team uses a more custom, DIY approach, though, Pivotal Tracker can start to feel a bit frustrating and too rigid to handle those workarounds.