Developing code is usually done in a team environment. To make sure that the team works as cohesively as possible, it is essential that team members communicate effectively with one another about which aspect of a project they are currently working on. That way, everyone in the team will be up-to-date regarding the status of all outstanding tasks associated with a project.

Despite its rather strange name, "Remember The Milk" is a convenient way of managing developer related "to do" lists online, or in fact, any other sorts of lists for either personal or business use.

Of course, given what this software has been written to do, that is, to help you to compile lists so that you can remember (or be reminded) to get tasks done on time, the name is actually a good match. After all, how many times has your partner said to you, or alternatively, you've said to them, "did you remember to get the milk on the way home?" In this review, we'll take "Remember The Milk" for a test drive and show you how your development team can benefit from using this handy tool.

"Remember The Milk" is based around four major objectives of task management.

The first objective is helping you to get your task and contact information organised.

The second objective is concerned with getting reminders of which tasks are still outstanding and most importantly, which of those tasks needs attending to first. Also, who should be responsible for looking after those tasks.

Next is the objective of successfully sharing information with others and that is certainly the case with tasks in which more than just a single person is involved.

The fourth objective concerns other effective ways of interacting with the "to do" lists that you or other members of your development team compile. In order to meet these objectives, a diverse range of functionality has been built into this application.


Figure 1: When you want to share task related information with another person (who is not already a member of the "Remember The Milk" community), the first step is to invite them (as shown in this screen shot) and then to set them up to be a contact. Once you have established your contacts, for example, your contacts could be the other members of your development team, you can then share and publish entire lists with them.

For example, there will be times when you will only want to communicate with some members of your development team and not the others, for instance, the administrators responsible for setting up and maintaining the databases associated with a project.

If this sort of communication is likely to occur on a regular basis, you might consider setting up a "group" and calling it "DBAs" for example.

So what was the incentive for creating a web- based application like this? Here's what the creators themselves have to say on their web site: 'Managing to-do lists is generally not a fun way to spend your time. We created "Remember The Milk" so that you no longer have to write your to-do lists on sticky notes, whiteboards, random scraps of paper, or the back of your hand.'

Personally, I think they have achieved their objective. I also believe that you and also your team of programmers will find that "Remember The Milk" is a useful tool to add to any developer toolkit.

One final point: at the time of writing this review, this product was still in a beta version. The reason for that will be clearly understood by all developers, namely, that the creators of the software were still busy adding new features, so they regard it as a "work in progress." ::


Figure 2: To assist people who are new to the "Remember The Milk" community, to make maximum use out of the host of features and functions that have been incorporated into this web-based application, a comprehensive online help system is provided. For instance, the help system explains how to deal with all the different aspects of tasks such as; adding tasks; completing tasks; postponing tasks; changing the priority of tasks; entering a time estimate for tasks; and so on.