Simple Excel and Word docs fall apart after about 5 items and if you have more than one person. They are fine if it is just you and you have a very small subset of work to get done. It will work until you need something else - but once it starts falling apart get something better suited for the job.

I use Fogbugz (free for startups) but I have also used Trac and liked it.

Pivotal Tracker is also free:

You should use the best tools you can buy, so atlassian projects family for only 10$ or FogBugz free for small startups.

You should consider Treeline, an open-source information management program which has versions available for Windows and Linux. I find it incredibly useful for keeping track of all my "creative stuff" - it's particularly good if you're used to thinking of things hierarchically, or if what you're working with demands it. (Examples of the latter - tasks that need to be completed on a project, heavily OO application designs, requirements. About the only thing I don't use Treeline for is calendar scheduling. Even in that domain I still use it for hashing out dependencies before I create a final schedule in Excel.)

+1 to Trac once you get to the point that your task list has to cover multiple people.

I recommend 37 signals for everything that you have mentioned here. Use Basecamp for team collaboration, milestoning, to-dos and tasks. Use Campfire for chat (although I just use Google Chat) and To-Do for your personal to-do lists. As for documents, just use Google Docs.

The current setup that we have for the startup I'm running is an installation of MediaWiki for all the more permanent notes and Mantis bug tracker for tracking issues. Both of these are open source and relatively simple to set up in most Linux distributions, or even from the source themselves.

We also have long distance meethings through Skype, and have found that Google Wave is great for taking notes during the meetings. It's much nicer than attempting to edit a Wiki page simultaneously.

Personally for keeping track of some small tasks I've used ToDoList, as it's small, free, and is easy to use.

FogBugz!

It really works well for our team.

Shameless plug, but it is very true: I use testplanmanagement to monitor the progress of itself. I wrote up the test cases that I want to support for the first release, then as those start to turn green, I know that I'm getting closet to shipping. I can't wait until I get around to defect tracker integration though. ;)

I've tried them all. The base I kept returning to for years was a rolling text file, whose format would vary on my current need. Master a great text editor like Vim and you can do amazing things with a simple text editor.

But after many years of doing it this way, I finally found an application that does it better, and has stuck. It's a Mac app called Things (sorry if you're a Windows or Linux user). It very gracefully manages the many types of To Dos you'll have: Immediate (today), Scheduled (next several days or weeks), Someday, Vague Ideas... tasks can be grouped into Projects and also tagged. Great search, archiving and Spotlight integration. Beautiful UI.

When I think of a task I need to do in the future, or something I want to repeat, I pop it into Task.FM. It emails/SMS me back when it's time to do the task. Simple, and works well.

I use my cell phone reminders since I think a key factor in managing tasks is being able to "forget" about them.

For software project management, I wrote my own in Microsoft Access. I'm in a unique situation: A) I know how to program in Access, so this didn't take long. B) We use a unique variation of agile developement, so some customization is in order. C) It integrates with my Outlook Tasks.

We have Word document templates for Change Requests. I develop SQL scripts in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, so I have templates for UDf's and Stored Procedures.

Have an email system that can send/receive tasks and appointments/calendar items. I hate generic email messages requesting a meeting. GMail and Outlook handle this nicely when users know what they are doing.

For notes I use Evernote.com. I can't say enough about this application. I've been looking for ways to integrate by dabbling with their API and command line tool.

They're not perfect, but fit my situation since I don't really share it, but just track things myself and submit reports to others (No, they have no desire to use the app.).

Adrian, I use a set of tools for each task. Some of them allow integration with other tools, so it is possible to create a custom system.

To manage requirements I would love to use Caliber RM (the best requirement tool I've used so far), but since I cannot afford a license from Borland. So, I use something that allows me to create a tree structure and link the nodes (can't recall the name, but there's "lots" of those around there).

To manage issues/bugs I use Eventum, an open source tool from MySQL. There's also lots of tools out there like Bugzilla.

For version control I use Subversion (svn) but again, lots of open source and free tools out there.

To monitor the progress I use a simple spread sheet (I know it's not state of the art, but it's simple and effective enough for me).

For document management I use Nuxeo.

For knowledge stuff, like how is the router configured, etc. I use mediawiki.

One cannot live without an Office Suite, for that, up to now OpenOffice has suit me just fine.

There's a lot of open source and free software out there, so my advice is to select the best tool that suits you on each task. But don't just select it now, do it on a need basis, this allows you to get better knowledge about the real functionalities you require the software to have when the time comes.

You can Unfuddle free or Fogbugz Free (up to 2 people) or something like that as well. Unfuddle is pretty decent, fogbugz is more for programming oriented and a bit expensive if you want to go more than 2 people. (up to 2, it's free).

If it's only you use, todo list - http://www.abstractspoon.com/

We use Trac at my office and it works pretty well. We created a "task" type and use that to keep track of tasks.

The simple spreadsheet method also works. The column headings that have worked for me are:

• #: So you can refer to the task by number and you can also prioritize them.
• Task: Short description of the action
• Update: Any status changes
• Who: The person in charge
• OS: Original Schedule of when it will get done.
• CS: Current Schedule of when it should get done.

Once a task is done, I strike through it for like a week. Then, I move them over to a tab called "Completed Tasks"

If you need to track bugs, then get Trac or Bugzillia or whatever. Tracking bugs via a spreadsheet get complex fast.

I would suggest just start with an excel-like list with useful columns, example: "Thing to do", "Who's on it", "When". You may use Google Docs which is free and easy to share.

Have you considered a Wiki? After a few years of trying to get into the habit of using one, I'm finally starting to see the light.

Arguably the best on the market is Confluence - not quite free but will only set you back $10 for a charitable donation.

There are also open source Wiki tools such as Twiki and the Mediawiki software which drives Wikipedia.

Since you're working on a software application, you might want to consider Trac which is a free web based project management and bug tracking tool.

You can find some alternatives to Trac here.