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Pivotal Tracker

Pivotal Tracker

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…

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Pivotal Tracker is a versatile project management tool that has found a wide range of use cases across various departments and …
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Pricing

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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

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Product Demos

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Pivotal Tracker +++

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Product Details

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

Pivotal Tracker Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

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).
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Comparisons

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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!

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:

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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)
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Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The UI of the Pivotal tracker is really beautiful and amazing, which looks trivial, but we have it open all the time, so it's nice for us. In Pivotal tracker for me its very Easy to create tasks or stories anytime without facing any problems. Pivotal tracker provides us a ton of features to track the tasks and manage a team and the projects. Pivotal tracker allows for a entire team to be on the same page of the tool in regards to where is the project right now, right status of every task, what is being worked on and by whom.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Medium to small teams - this is a great tool. I'm not sure about large teams because the Project History column would be so filled with information it might be hard to figure out what's going on/what updates have been made. But for Medium-Small teams this is ideal because of the detail laid out in the project history column.
Angela Goldsmith, PMP | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Pivotal Tracker is extremely easy to use. New users are able to learn the system and start using it on the same day. I could not manage the number of projects here without this system that gives me a great view of what is happening in each project. Features, chores (maintenance type tasks), and bugs are clearly identified so I can work with Product Owners to prioritize the work according to internal and external customer needs.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is appropriate for those that work in teams with an end goal that involves a multi-step process. It may be less suitable for more independent projects, unless it is used for personal notes/tracking purposes.
Brad Henderson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Pivotal Tracker is great for software development teams. Approvals are pretty sleek which allows for back and forth between developers and the QA process if there are bugs or the product isn't being built up to specs. It's less useful as a general project management software but they're pretty clear on their website that it is geared towards software development teams.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Pivotal Tracker is best suited for a smaller team (JIRA becomes more necessary as your company scales). It is best for engineering bugs, tasks, and backlogged items for the engineering team. Also good to connect to your Slack channel for team visibility. I also found it helpful that you have flexibility with the sub-sections you can create within Pivotal Tracker.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Pivotal Tracker is well suited for companies that manage multiple software projects with onshore and even offshore teams. More specifically, it's appropriate for teams that use an agile or pseudo-agile project methodology. Pivotal Tracker is not so well suited for software projects that follow a waterfall or other form of project methodology.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Pivotal tracker is a great fit for organizations managing multiple projects as it's straightforward to manage various team members and roles across multiple projects. Setting aside the application's opinionated nature, it's got comprehensive support for agile methodologies baked in, making it a compelling choice for Scrums and other agile approaches.

Pivotal Tracker is probably overkill for colocated single project team environments, as an actual Scrum room with a dedicated physical tasks board may be more cost-effective, and is certainly easier to explain to newcomers.
Willian Molinari | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
If you have a team that has almost no process and wants to start doing something, Pivotal Tracker may help you with that. You first need to check the process the tool proposes (mostly scrum) and decides if it's what you want or not. If you think it's exactly what you need, start with Pivotal Tracker because it will enforce a lot of things to your sprints.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Pivotal Tracker is a great value for the money. If you're strapped for cash and have to work with smaller budgets, this is the right app for you. The support team is great and responsive and the product is easy to pick up and use for your team. It's great to have visibility on your product backlog.
Chris Barretto | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I believe Pivotal Tracker is well-suited for any project, large or small. It scales up for large companies with many users, or can cater to a single user with a personal project. On a fundamental scale, it is a great platform to just get all you ideas out on paper. Large stories can be broken down into smaller ones, and it gives good insight on what is nice-to-have vs imperative.
Craig Comperatore | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Pivotal Tracker is based on the XP (eXtreme Programming) philosophy & best practices. If your team is following this methodology, or working towards those best practices, Pivotal Tracker is a dream to work with. However, if your team is following a "less-than-ideal" workflow, you may find Pivotal Tracker challenging. It does not easily allow you to modify the workflow, and the reports assume you are following those best practices.
Sergio Iacobucci | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I think PT would be great if your team religiously stuck to sprints however we are more fluid than that and so I think some of the features do not make a difference to us.

Out of all the tools I have seen I do think it is the best for managing sprints however it is not a good external facing roadmap. However, I do not think it is trying to be that.
Brian Dunk | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
When working with a new team member, some of the first questions we are always asked is "What can I do next?" with the use of this tool, we have our new tech hires review pivotal for all outstanding work; assign to them what they believe they can handle and make an attempt. This has let us known what is being worked on and where difficulties and training is needed within our organization.
January 17, 2018

Fun Scrum Software

Jeffrey Schneider | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have used JIRA in the past and switched to PT. We felt it was an easier setup and quicker learning curve for our engineers to start using immediately. We have a team of 12 devs and it is very simple to keep track of multiple teams and projects.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Pivotal Tracker is best suited for software development projects. If your process roughly fits in with how Pivotal Tracker works, I highly recommend giving it a try! If you need a very custom workflow or prefer a card-based view, another tool might be better suited for you.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It makes sense for our business as a SAAS company with a multitude of features, bugs, clients, and stakeholders. Plus it's priced reasonably and fairly simple to use so adoption is high. I would think the product is perfect for most tech startups, most software dev firms, and probably a broad array of other dev-focused companies. Companies with a generally agile or other modern approach to project management may also find it useful even if they don't use software, although a more classic Kanban or to-do-list style program may be more useful in those cases.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In general, pivotal tracker is a good solution for agile development, if you buy into all the features that it's trying to promote (like velocity). The different labels you are able to add is good as well, allowing things to progress through states from start to delivery. However, if you are looking for a more simple, lightweight solution, there are better solutions out there.
Wesley Wong | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Pivotal is great for small to medium businesses tracking for a specific functional business area. It starts to become harder to use with groups larger than 75 people and across various disciplines. We've tried syncing Pivotal Trackers for different areas of the business but it does seem better suited for an engineering and development workflow.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Pivotal Tracker is a perfect tool for an organization of about 50-100 people. It's simple and easy to understand. However, when working for larger organizations, I found other tools to be more useful, especially in terms of reporting, which is something that our stakeholders are more interested in seeing - numbers.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Pivotal tracker is well suited for any agile organization that has multiple projects, and a need to view progress on them. However, it is only suited for a company that estimates stories, since otherwise it is just a basic requirement tracking tool.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Good for tracking product builds and releases. Good at tracking bugs and fixes. Less useful for tracking design or the product lifecycle of tasks from ideation to spec to design to build. Only good at the build portion. Not helpful with timelining.
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