I think you're mistaking a "closed, really private beta" with Duke Nukem Forever vaporware. There are hundreds of people using Asana with great success according to the videocast on their site. Organizations ranging from software companies, recruiting firms to biotech institutions.

<shameless solicitation >Speaking of which if anyone from Asana wants to give an invite to a 5 man Django shop, we'd love to test it out for you guys. My contact information is in my profile :)</ss>