[atonse]

Every single project I've been on in the past 15 years (public/private sector, many verticals, different companies), when push comes to shove, people resort to tracking everything on simple spreadsheets or punch lists. And it works just fine (although this results in more communication which is anyway true when things go wrong or overdue, regardless of tools).

So I'm really wondering how much utility a lot of these tools bring (I LOVED Jira in 2006 when it was a glorified table with powerful filters, but I was using it roughly like a smart spreadsheet). I feel a lot of what they add is just busy work that you have the luxury to play with in normal times, but when you don't have the luxury to do busy work, it just slows you down without much benefit.

What have other people's experiences been? An emergency can be a great filter to show you what matters and what doesn't.