TrustRadius Insights
Pivotal Tracker is a versatile project management tool that has found a wide range of use cases across various departments and …
Overview
What is Pivotal Tracker?
Pivotal Tracker is a project management program primarily for software developers. It is built from the ground up to facilitate the agile development cycle, and is optimized for structuring projects in sprints, or “stories.” The solution is now owned and supported…
Recent Reviews
Pricing
N/A
Unavailable
What is Pivotal Tracker?
Pivotal Tracker is a project management program primarily for software developers. It is built from the ground up to facilitate the agile development cycle, and is optimized for structuring projects in sprints, or “stories.” The solution is now owned and supported by VMware, and is part of the…
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttp://www.pivotaltracker.com/why…
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?
2 people also want pricing
Alternatives Pricing
What is Asana?
Asana is a web and mobile project management app. With tasks, projects, conversations, and dashboards, Asana lets an entire team know who's doing what by when, enabling workload balancing. Users can also add integrations for GANTT charts, time tracking and more.
What is Trello?
Trello from Atlassian is a project management tool based on a Kanban framework. Trello is ideal for task-management in a to-do list format. It supports sharing boards and cards across users or teams. The product offers a free version, and paid versions add greater automation, collaboration, and…
Product Demos
Pivotal Tracker +++
YouTube
Pivotal Tracker +++
YouTube
Product Details
- About
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is Pivotal Tracker?
Pivotal Tracker is an agile project management program primarily for software developers. The software organizes projects into “stories,” the goal being to maintain momentum within and between “sprints” of a project within an agile development style. Pivotal Tracker is built to support the Agile development cycle from the ground up, enabling mid-project analysis and feedback based on current progress and development speeds. It also provides a shared priority system so everyone on a given project has visibility on progress and team members’ statuses. It also includes file sharing, project obstacle visibility, and a REST API for customizable integrations.
Pivotal Tracker Competitors
- Jira Software
- Asana
- Rally Software (formerly CA Agile Central)
Pivotal Tracker Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Pivotal Tracker is a project management program primarily for software developers. It is built from the ground up to facilitate the agile development cycle, and is optimized for structuring projects in sprints, or “stories.”
The solution is now owned and supported by VMware, and is part of the Pivotal / Tanzu product line up.
Jira Software and Asana are common alternatives for Pivotal Tracker.
Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 8.
The most common users of Pivotal Tracker are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(80)
Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
Pivotal Tracker is a versatile project management tool that has found a wide range of use cases across various departments and organizations. Moffitt's Collaborative Data Services Core, for example, uses Pivotal Tracker to form realistic expectations about work completion based on the team's ongoing performance. Other departments at Moffitt employ this tool for bug tracking and as a shared team-level 'to-do' list. The graphics and technology department utilizes Pivotal Tracker to track their work tasks and ensure that no items are dropped or missed. Moreover, the support service team is exploring the expansion of Pivotal Tracker's usage to track additional client work.
In addition to its adoption within Moffitt, Pivotal Tracker is also utilized by agencies and software development teams to manage various projects. It facilitates the implementation of agile methodologies, such as scrum, and effectively manages backlogs and feature roadmaps. Integration with other applications like Slack, Git, Bugzilla, and Usersnap further enhance its functionality. By utilizing Pivotal Tracker, engineers, product managers, testers, and marketing teams collaborate seamlessly. The tool allows for task prioritization, backlog maintenance, progress tracking, and facilitates file sharing among marketing teams. Overall, Pivotal Tracker serves as an invaluable asset in project management for organizations of diverse sizes and industries.
Intuitive and Easy to Use User Interface: Reviewers have consistently praised Pivotal Tracker's user interface, with many stating that it is intuitive and easy to use. Some users have mentioned that they were able to quickly understand how to navigate the platform and create/manage projects efficiently.
Multi-User Assignment for Collaboration: Users highly value the multi-user assignment feature in Pivotal Tracker, as it allows them to assign tasks to multiple team members simultaneously. This functionality has been commended by reviewers for facilitating collaboration among team members and keeping everyone informed of progress.
Exporting Notes into Readable Excel Format: The history tracking and exporting feature in Pivotal Tracker has received praise from users who appreciate being able to easily export notes into a readable Excel format. This functionality helps streamline documentation submission and makes auditing time more efficient.
In-Story Task Management: Some users have expressed dissatisfaction with the in-story task management capabilities of Pivotal Tracker, stating that it is a weak point. They believe that the functionality could be greatly improved by adding features such as the ability to mention other users in tasks and mark tasks as 'in-progress'.
Lack of Epic Spanning and Parent-Child Story Relationship: Many reviewers have raised concerns about the fact that epics do not span projects in Pivotal Tracker, particularly when scaling agile methodology to multiple teams. This limitation also leads to confusion due to the lack of a concept of a 'parent' story with child stories that have split off from it.
Limited Customization Options for Categorization: Users desire more flexibility in categorizing stories beyond the default sections like backlog, ice box, and my work. They wish for the ability to create custom categories for better organization and classification of their stories.
Users commonly recommend the following for Pivotal Tracker:
-
Users should take advantage of the free trial to ensure that it meets the organization's needs before making a purchasing decision. This allows them to fully explore the features and capabilities of the software and determine if it aligns with their project management requirements.
-
It is recommended to utilize tools and tutorials provided by Pivotal Tracker to learn the software effectively. The platform offers resources such as user guides and documentation, which help users understand how to navigate the interface, set up projects, assign tasks, and track progress.
-
Many users find Pivotal Tracker useful for managing complicated tasks with multiple people involved. The platform offers features that facilitate collaboration and coordination among team members, such as task assignment, progress tracking, and communication channels. This ensures that everyone stays on the same page and contributes effectively to project success.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 32)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
February 18, 2022
Perfect project management tool.
- It allows us to keep track of every tasks.
- Pivotal tracker is very easy to use .
- In pivotal tracker you can add the points to a task anytime.
- Pivotal tracker is not a flexible tool.
- In pivotal tracker doing Customisation is bit difficult.
- In Pivotal tracker there is lack of Configurability.
March 11, 2020
Pivotal Tracker is a steep learning curve but one of the best Software Development tracking tools out there
- Constant updates - you can always see who touches the project as a whole.
- Clean, concise ticket structure.
- It's not user friendly at first. But very powerful once you understand the tools.
- It's nice that you can customize your lanes (columns).
February 13, 2020
Pivotal Tracker Delivers on Tracking Development Projects
- Project task tracking
- Visibility of work
- More project management features like Gantt Charts
- More reporting
February 13, 2020
A Wonderful Tool for Team Project Management!
- Helps keep track of tasks in your queue.
- Prioritization.
- Visuals (platform looks a bit cluttered).
- Automated task flow (doesn't exist).
November 19, 2019
Great for software devs teams
- In my opinion, it's geared more towards developers and was useful for them to be using a tool they like.
- It allows for gauging the estimated time required for each task so that a project manager can correctly weight how much time each task will take.
- It's more specialized in its application than a number of other project management software that are for more general project management.
- The UI isn't very appealing. For many, this isn't important but I appreciate using software that is appealing to the eye.
- This isn't necessarily a negative, but it isn't a good general project management software, which in my opinion is a strength that they've chose to hone in the focus of their product.
November 13, 2019
Pivotal Tracker gets the job done
- Adding points to a task.
- Ease of use, friendly UI.
- Identifying/categorizing the type of item created.
- Assigning multiple people to a task would be helpful.
- Allowing more of a list feature from a UI standpoint (see: monday.com).
- Connection to GitHub.
November 07, 2019
Software project management made easy with Pivotal Tracker
- Managing multiple software projects using an agile methodology.
- Usability of creating and managing 'stories' within the projects.
- Lots of integrations into other applications.
- Rich reports and analytics to track project progress.
- Mobile app makes it very easy to check project status and update it on the go.
- Managing active vs. temporarily inactive tasks/stories.
October 08, 2019
Keep Your (User) Stories Straight with Pivotal Tracker
- Pivotal Tracker makes it relatively easy to manage project team members, including inviting new members, as well as managing existing member roles.
- I appreciate how Pivotal Tracker supports the planning and estimation aspects of agile project management, including support for linear and Fibonacci sequence point systems for effort estimation on tasks.
- Analytics are just a click away with Pivotal Tracker, making burndown chart spreadsheets and manual tallying a thing of the past.
- While Pivotal Tracker takes a lot of the drudgery out of managing agile-type projects, it can be an "opinionated" product, which can make end-users feel like they have to conform their workflows to the product, rather than the other way around. Automated velocity reporting is one example of this.
- Pivotal Tracker has a lot of features, and while this is generally a good thing, it makes the product a challenge to master, for many, regardless of end-user technical abilities.
- The visual interface is extremely information-rich, requiring lots of drill-downs and accordion expansions. It would be nice to see a simplified interface for general use, akin to the old-school Scrum board and Post-It notes.
August 12, 2019
A highly capable tool to implement a process
- If you're implementing a new process on your team and you like what Pivotal Tracker provides, it works well.
- The kanban view is good and compact.
- It was not expensive for our use case.
- If you find out that you prefer to work in a different way, the tool starts to fall apart. You have to follow its way of working.
- It's not flexible at all. You have some configurations to do, but it is what it is.
- The web app feels heavy, it's not simple at all
February 13, 2019
Pivotal Tracker: Does what it says on the tin and so much more
- It's great for tracking milestones and reporting team velocity per sprint.
- Maintaining a prioritized backlog that is sharable with different members of your team is relatively simple.
- There's a free version of the product for up to 3 collaborators working on 2 projects and the starting price for larger packages is relatively low.
- Trackability of related stories is a little difficult and unclear unless they're in an epic. Establishing a hierarchical relationship between stories isn't an easy process.
- Customization is difficult. Changing up/personalizing the milestones for projects isn't easy to achieve.
- Reporting is still a little minimalistic and it would help to be able to take a deeper dive into our team's performance.
August 03, 2018
The Best in Agile Project Management
- Measuring the velocity of the team. Every week there is an estimated velocity of how many points can be accomplished per week, or per sprint.
- Managing priority of stories. Whatever is at the top of the backlog takes precedence over what's below.
- Integration points. We use the webhooks for git and for Slack that makes the monitoring really easy.
- Bulk adding of stories in reverse order. When you create a bunch of stories, you often do it in the order you want them done, and they inputs them in backwards. So you need to drag each one over individually in order to get the sequence that you want. This is particularly annoying for epics.
- Pivotal Tracker helps our team visualize our projects in the form of stories (virtual cards) moving through our workflow. This encourages us to break down projects into manageable chunks and have important conversations about deliverables and scope.
- The forced-prioritization allows our team to have a shared understanding about what is most important and make collective decisions about what our team will work on next.
- By dividing future iterations by our team's velocity, Pivotal Tracker accurately predicts when we will complete future work.
- In-story task management is still a weak point. The ability to @mention users in tasks and mark tasks as 'in-progress' would go a long way.
- Epics do not span projects. This becomes troublesome when scaling Pivotal Tracker's agile methodology to multiple teams.
- Splitting stories is often confusing for team members as there is no concept of a 'parent' story with child stories that have split off of it. There are only two levels: Epic & Story.
May 17, 2018
Great for tracking sprints and being organised
- The stages a task can go through i.e. Deliver and Accept are great at helping you keep track of what is going on
- The integration with Slack is useful so that our team is notified when specific aspects of a task changes
- The burn down charts are not something we use, I think this feature isn't 'culturally' useful for our team since we do not work in this way
- I would like to be able to bundle the tasks under specific releases within a sprint and not have them move around based on their status
March 15, 2018
Pivotal Tracker; Simple to use fantastic to see
- Track Projects; this system allows you to create multiple projects for different large tasks. This is easily labeled and displayed for ease of use and identifying.
- Multi-user assignment; I can assign a task to multiple team members at a time. This works well when they are working together to make a deadline and letting everyone in the team know where they are at.
- History tracking; When it came down to auditing time, the history tracking and exporting has been a fantastic tool. We were able to export our notes into a readable Excel format for documentation submission.
- Categorization of Stories. It would be nice to have the ability to create our own custom categories on top of the backlog, ice box and my work sections.
- Time lines; although we can put in stars for level of difficulty; it would be more beneficial if we can add in due dates, benchmarks and time lines into the system. This would allow us to easily calculate projects and the resource allocation.
- Reports; although we can export and review our history, it would be nice to have the ability to pull reports on progress, % of story completion, and success rate.
January 17, 2018
Fun Scrum Software
- Tasks are very easy to view and update. Adding descriptions, attachments and notes are very good for difficult tasks.
- Subtasks are especially useful for our engineers as each task can be broken down into smaller steps.
- Assigning and sharing tasks and the approval process is very good as each area QA's their specific task.
- Prioritizing larger initiatives is very simple as they are constantly changing based on customers needs
- I think it could use a bit more customization. It seems to want you to work in a very specific way and that does not work for all teams.
- Approvals are great, but can use more of a QA process that can be implemented if needed.
- Bugs are not counted as points, and sometimes we feel we are not getting a true velocity of our teams performance.
December 14, 2017
A streamlined approach to task management with Pivotal Tracker
- User story creation and management (discussions around stories)
- User story estimations
- Grouping stories under epics to show progress
- Add blocking tasks or tickets to stories
- No native desktop app - would love to see one implemented well for Mac
- Custom estimation point system (let teams define their own units)
December 14, 2017
An intuitive and powerful task planner for software development
- Summarize and track larger feature and project status with Epics.
- Help easily break down projects into testable, manageable user stories.
- Bring tasks and bugs into one structure.
- Collaboration between multiple developers is simple.
- Structure is very rigid, and we often found we had to force our projects to fit that structure rather than customize the tool to fit how our process was structured.
- Tracking epic progress might not give a very accurate picture into actual remaining effort. It's possible to come close, and I don't think there's much that can be done about this because it isn't a tool for time estimation.
- Project management - helpful for tracking the overall project as well as sub-projects associated with it, thanks to Epic/Story/Mini-Epic/etc breakdown of items
- Cross communication - each posting (story, epic, etc) allows for commenting and communication regarding the topic so all communication can be logged under the task
- Analytics - PT shows you the speed at which project statuses change and are completed so you can track your team's efficiency.
- I imagine some people won't care for the post-style interface and would prefer more GANTT chart style PM software, but I'd say it's a matter of preference and project reqs.
June 07, 2017
A great solution that has been around for a while.
- Good at allowing organization of tasks
- The UI receives updates fairly frequently
- The UI is dynamic, allowing some degree of customization for each user
- Flexible system, a variety of different ways to use it
- The UI has been buggy (maybe releasing too quickly without adequate QA).
- There is some rigidity in the UI which limits what it could be
- Lots of features...some which aren't particularly useful in every scenario (velocity) which could be omitted by option to make the app simpler.
December 13, 2016
A tool that encourages good development practices
- It's simple to use, which makes it really easy for managers and users outside software development and technology teams to participate.
- It requires virtually zero configuration, aside from inviting new users. I used to spend hours managing complex workflows with other products, but not any more.
- It encourages teams to follow a sound Agile process.
- The UI is beautiful, which sounds trivial, but I have it open all the time, so it's nice.
- The biggest strength of Pivotal Tracker is also its biggest weakness -- lack of configurability. The simplicity of administration means you can't create a bunch of complicated, custom workflows. But in my experience, you're better off not doing that anyway. Unless you want to spend a bunch of time managing complicated, custom workflows.
- The burndown chart recently moved off of the main page of a project and into its own Analytics tab with a bunch of new reports. That's cool for scrum masters and project managers, but it means the team is not looking at the burndown on a regular basis. I wish they'd bring the burndown back to the main page, in addition to deeper reports for manager-types.
August 17, 2016
Medium startup using Pivotal Tracker
- Pivotal tracker is simple to use. I can easily onboard a new developer to Pivotal with a 10 minute conversation.
- Pivotal tracker is very straight forward. It makes sense to craft the backlog in a linear fashion like Pivotal has it.
- Tagging and email notifications are great.
- Support for third party integrations is also a plus.
- Deleting a story means that it is gone forever. There is no archiving.
- [Doing a] stack of work becomes quite hairy, no great way to manage or modularize that information.
- Mobile application could be improved for sure, Pivotal seems very built for the web. I always get the notifications but they never bring me to the relevant story within the application. Even a tool like Basecamp can do that for me.
August 11, 2016
The ease of using Pivotal Tracker
- Easy to create tasks/stories - not a lot of required fields, or fields that we don't generally need to fill out.
- Simple UI. Unlike other tools I've used in the past, Pivotal Tracker has a cleaner UI making it relatively simple to find something you're looking for.
- Predicting dates based on estimates - this is useful for stakeholders who generally ask "how far along are we, what is the remaining time."
- Not enough reporting capabilities
- Mobile app isn't as user friendly. Seems like they haven't solved for the mobile experience yet.
August 05, 2016
Really flexible but maybe overkill
- It gives you a ton of features to track and manage a team and the projects
- Having native apps for different devices make it much easier to track your project and keep up to date with your team
- Notifications and color coding each task is very helpful when trying to quickly the state of the project tasks
- The board does not seem to have an intuitive flow which can become strange
- The learning curve is a little bit high for some one who does not have a lot of experience with boards like these
- The flexibility can be great if you need it but confusing and cumbersome if you do not need it or have not used it
August 03, 2016
Pivotal Tracker — a great agile tool.
- Tracking requirements and monitoring them in one view makes it a nice Product Management tool.
- The fact it works out your velocity and shows the amount of stories that can be completed in a sprint makes it a nice Project Management tool.
- It gives metrics that Project Management and managers may find useful.
- They have an API that enables you to get real-time project data
- The ability to create your own charts, or anything related to business intelligence, rather than just the out-the-box ones.
- If a resource is working on multiple projects, it would be nice to see their work in one view.
July 29, 2016
Pivotal Tracker Review
- Easy interface that aligns with writing stories and assigning them to epics and team members
- Tag feature allows for easy filtering of stories
- Tracking feature allows PMs to know when stories are being worked on and delivered
- Icebox and backlog functionality allow you to move stories around when they are ready to be worked on
- Would like to be able to move stories around in a filter view and not just in backlog
- Autosync and refresh of updates would be nice