Introducing Manuscript

You know, there was that team at Volkswagen that created software to cheat on emissions testing. And they probably checked off all the items on their to-do list. They probably even fixed most of the bugs that they were tracking. But if technology is actually negatively affecting the air that we breathe, then maybe we need to think bigger about the way we craft software these days.

At Fog Creek, we’re a company that was pretty much born to help squash bugs, whether it’s “this doesn’t look right in my browser!” or “we shouldn’t be secretly polluting the earth!” We launched FogBugz back in 2000 as one of the first and most influential bug-tracking systems around, and it evolved to be great at project management, issue tracking, and lots more. Since it launched, the platform has been used to fix over 50 million bugs, by tens of thousands of teams around the world. But recently, we’ve been thinking about “Big Bugs”, trying to imagine how we can address both the necessary parts of shipping software and the larger risks that too often get overlooked.

So today, we’re using that same engine to create something new: . Manuscript helps any team craft great software. You should try it now!

The first thing to know is that** Manuscript is for making software**. Manuscript is not a generic project management tool; if you want an approval desk for your legal team, you should use JIRA. Instead, Manuscript is deeply opinionated about how to help a team make great software, and we’ve built on the insights of the thousands of teams that we’ve watched use our platforms over the last 17 years.

We knew Manuscript had to do all the essentials: task management, prioritization, scheduling, sprints, story points, and all that good stuff. And honestly, Manuscript is great at those fundamentals. But then we saw a chance to do something really new, based on a few simple ideas:

We’ve got a lot more to say about Manuscript coming soon, including a sneak peek into how Manuscript doesn’t just track tasks, it helps your team learn to craft better software — whether that’s making things more accessible, more secure, or just more thoughtful.

But you don’t have to wait for us to tell you the story: and find out for yourself. (And if you’re already a FogBugz user? We’ll be upgrading you to Manuscript for free — we’ll be in touch with all the details.)