What Working Group Tools?

What tools do you need for a project?

Published ยท Updated 10 Feb 2025

When forming a working group between companies, the basic tools needed in order of importance IMHO:

  1. CMS aka where the files (often the “deliverables”) are stored, e.g. Dropbox
  2. Mailing archives – Google Groups is probably the market leader, but then you need to buy into G Suite. I quite like TopicBox
  3. BTS aka Bug tracker – I love Github, but their private repo based solution isn’t really applicable for a project
  4. Chat, for me as an old skool kid, I’d want IRC. But Slack appears to be the market leader right now.

Ok, but what does all four?

SOLUTION Basecamp appears like it ticks most boxes. How do to get the data out or how to make use of its non-standard markup is another question entirely.