ZenTao Project Management - Culture, Values, And Mission

You’ve probably heard of ZenTao as a popular alternative to Jira, but have you tried it yourself? Get to know more about ZenTao, its mission, values, culture, and what the company stands for.

Who We Are

ZenTao is a product developed by Nature Easy Corp Consulting Co., Ltd., a professional consulting firm founded in 2008. It specializes in providing open-source, ERP, and CRM solutions for SMEs and large enterprises.

The name ZenTao came from combining two Chinese characters, Zen(禅) and Tao(道), which have rich inspirations pertaining to culture and religion. With its name referring to highly respected aspects of life, it’s only logical to convey their meaning in management by providing transparency, orderliness, and accessibility.

ZenTao has been hailed in China as one of the fastest-growing companies in 2011. This is based on the criteria of revenue growth accumulated by the company over the past three years of operation.

Since its establishment in 2009, ZenTao has helped thousands of teams and organizations improve their project management structures. Currently, ZenTao project management software is being used by some of the largest companies in the world, ranging from those in the sectors of finance and telecoms to manufacturing and software development. They trust ZenTao for streamlining their processes, simplifying communication between clients and employees, increasing transparency, and improving productivity and efficiency.

A Brief History of ZenTao

Fig. 1. ZenTao was born from the frustration of having to use different software for project management

(Source: Freepik )

ZenTao was founded by Chunsheng Wang, an open-source enthusiast, and Agile development practitioner. He’s an experienced project manager at Alibaba and a seasoned entrepreneur. He has applied Scrum in several projects using different software for story and workflow management, bug tracking, and project and task management.

Aside from using several tools, he painstakingly had to input data in different software. There’s no traceable workflow and no improvement during the whole project lifecycle. This inspired him to create an integrated management system that will improve visual management, workflow implementation, and work efficiency. It took him more than 2 years to research and develop a working project management tool that became the first version of the ZenTao platform.

In early 2015, Nature Easy decided to make ZenTao an open-source platform with the goal of attracting more developers and contributors worldwide. So it began to recruit local teams in different countries like the US, South Korea, and India to help them run the global business of ZenTao.

Qingyun Ding (丁青云), Chief Developer, is one of the main contributors who joined the project after its open-source release to help promote it worldwide. His team has created many features that are well used by users now like a timecard management system, workflow engine, personal timeline, etc. The product became more popular as well as more advanced.

ZenTao is under the Nature Easy Corp Consulting Co., Ltd. which focuses on providing professional management solutions to companies all over the world. ZenTao Project Management software is one of the tools that has been developed to provide a real, effective, and flexible solution to organizations without the high price associated with using them.

The ZenTao Mission

ZenTao Project Management Tool is the leading team collaboration tool for Research and Development teams and software development teams in China. It has more than 1.5 million users to date and is trusted by thousands of project managers and team leaders worldwide.

The ZenTao mission is to continue delivering professional management software that will help businesses across the globe, no matter what industry they’re in.

Why Choose ZenTao?

Fig. 2. ZenTao has more features and versatility compared to other project management software

(Source: Freepik )

ZenTao Project Management tool is designed for managing multiple projects. It adopts a Scrum approach instead of the traditional waterfall methodology so that it can fit Agile and Scrum-based organizations. It’s a comprehensive, all-in-one platform that covers everything, from product and project management to bug tracking and document management.

So, why should you choose ZenTao? Here are some of the best reasons:

• The leading open-source Scrum tool useful for Agile and Scrum organizations.
• Can be hosted on-premise or on-demand.
• Features easy-to-use API for more convenient expansion, integration, and customization.
• It has a user interface that’s easy to navigate.
• A versatile solution for handling different management scenarios
• Scalable platform that can be used by small companies and startups to medium-sized businesses and large enterprises.
• Seamlessly integrates and defines every stage of the software development process for easier management.
• Product document library, resource management, project document library, and custom reports are integrated into the business software.
• Over 28,000 companies worldwide trust ZenTao Project Management software.
• Numerous built-in features to minimize the need to buy separate software or integrate several systems into the platform.
• Excellent technical support and an active developer community.
• Zero risk in choosing ZenTao compared with other commercial software that costs thousands of dollars.
• Allows the management of multiple projects in one platform to avoid switching between tools.

ZenTao Project Management Software allows managers to easily monitor and track the entire process, starting from idea generation, design implementation, coding proper, and testing and quality assurance, until the deployment of solutions.

With its feature-rich modules, ZenTao supports all kinds of development lifecycles. Thanks to its built-in features, it offers very powerful functionality for project management and task management. It's also possible to link it to existing code repositories like Subversion (SVN) or Git/GitHub to create a complete solution that meets all company requirements.

Design Philosophy

ZenTao Project Management is based on Scrum, a popular Agile framework. Scrum is easy to operate and fits fast iterative development cycles often seen in software projects. However, Scrum only tackles the core management framework, leaving many details and processes that need extended development.

Based on the Scrum philosophy and the current software development situation in China, ZenTao integrates test case, release, bug, and document management features to cover the entire software development lifecycle. ZenTao clearly defines the concepts of product, project, and test to help the production, development, and QA teams coordinate with each other while maintaining separate functionalities. Using stories, tasks, and bugs, the teams interact and track issues and improvements to ensure the delivery of quality products.

The ZenTao Culture

Fig. 3. ZenTao reflects productivity, teamwork, and customer satisfaction among the other values that make them successful

(Source: Freepik )

Productivity

ZenTao values are centered on productivity that’s why we make a project management software that stays true to this ethos. We stick to developing open-source software and embark on a different path than our competitors. We’ve always believed in the continuous optimization of products and services, and that’s why we’re always finding ways to improve our solutions and provide our customers, whether they’re SMEs or large enterprises, the most efficient platform for their business.

Teamwork

We value teamwork that’s why we make sure that ZenTao becomes a platform that boosts teamwork. We strive to put the team first above anything else, and that’s what we reflect on our product. Part of the ZenTao mission is to help every team unleash their full potential and make working with others a natural part of their system.

Customer Service

Customers are our priority. We believe that unsatisfied customers mean a failed product. We consider customer feedback and perspective because we understand that they’re essential in improving our platform.

Having an intuitive product isn’t enough. We know that excellent support is what customers need to keep their business going, so we make sure we excel in this area.

Continuous Improvement

ZenTao values continuous improvement throughout the team. We give newcomers time to grow by giving them the resources needed to improve their knowledge and capability. We believe that it’s OK to make mistakes as it’s part of the growth process. To help each team member spur their growth and development, we foster one-on-one mentoring sessions to level up the skills of our junior members.

Personal Time

We believe that the key to a healthy team is giving the members personal time to enjoy away from work. To do this, we implement a no-overtime work period and a 7.5-hour workday for 5 days. This structure gives our team time to spend with their family and friends for an optimum work-life balance.

Ownership

We believe that empowering people to take ownership of their work leads to the best results. This is why when it comes to using the ZenTao Project Management platform, they can easily own tasks, bugs, stories, and projects. We want team members to have full control over aspects of their work so that they’re free to solve problems in the most productive way they can.

ZenTao and Its Future

ZenTao is one of very few open-source project management software available today with powerful features and multi-functionalities. It's a complete solution for companies who need an efficient way to manage projects without the complicated pricing structure that most commercial products carry. It helps teams use the Sprint/Kanban methodology to oversee projects within this software workflow for better control of your time, cost, and quality.

Our goal is to reach more users worldwide and get them to utilize a project management software that’s cost-effective, efficient, and multiplies productivity.