Organization, efficiency, transparency, and productivity. Software development teams strive for all these things within the primary goal of creating and delivering a top-quality product as quickly and correctly as possible to solve the customer's problem. Leaving these things to chance or the whim of a project manager or product owner makes no sense. Choosing the right tools and methodologies at the start can support a successful product. Agile dev methods are some of the most popular, and a variety of tools exist to empower the project management process.
Before delving into the specific tools, it is crucial to take a moment to grasp the differences between the various methodologies and frameworks that software development teams use to bring an idea to successful product. It is important to remember that many of the software options listed below can be used across methods.
Agile is a mindset, a set of principles and practices used primarily in software development to enhance flexibility, collaboration, and customer satisfaction. These associated methodologies define how products are developed. Some popular ones are Scrum and XP. Often Kanban is counted in as it helps a lot with transparency, visualization, and flow management.
Some organizations develop their own in-house frameworks, but Scrum is one of the most common frameworks in the Agile world. Some frameworks are combinations, although this can introduce unnecessary complexity if not handled well. In this complex and fast-paced world, development teams often rely on tools to maintain transparency, manage iterations, facilitate communication, documentation, and gather feedback.
Agile Tools for Software Teams
What does your team need from the “project” management tool? While the answer to this question varies, these are some universal requirements:
Task[1] management and responsibilities
Collaboration for in-house and remote work teams
Real-time and asynchronous communication features
Knowledge and documentation management
Time management and forecasting
Data security, integrations, and scalability
Today's tools are often packed with features, including automation and AI capabilities, which can either enhance productivity or add unnecessary complexity, potentially hindering efficiency and streamlining efforts. Look at these software development “project” management tools and pick the one that works best for your needs. Today, it is about achieving business agility rather than focusing on project management. Keep in mind, less is often more, keep it simple.
Whiteboard Style
Whiteboard and Post-its: Classic physical tools, immediate communication especially useful for in person collaboration.
Mural: Online version of physical whiteboard. Good for remote teams who want the feel of the classic whiteboard.
Miro: A whiteboard tool designed for creative and flexible teams, adaptable to a wide range of workflows.
Microsoft Whiteboard: Ideal for initial project planning, it also offers graphic support and is integrated with almost all Microsoft products.
Padlet: A simple and user-friendly tool, perfect for smaller teams.
Task- Based
Trello: Well-suited for Kanban-based teams, it is easy to use and comes with a variety of templates.
Jira: The most popular tool for all agile practices, offering extensive reports and additional features for bug tracking and setting up scrum meetings
Microsoft Planner: An excellent choice for teams using Microsoft products, it easily scales to meet most management needs.
ClickUp: Great for small to medium teams to organize their projects, highly customizable, and includes a built-in AI tool.
Monday: Highly flexible and scalable for projects of diverse sizes, it integrates with a range of other tools such as Trello and Jira.
Zoho Projects: It offers a comprehensive solution with its own environment suite, CRM, and consulting management tools.
Teamwork: An agency-oriented option that lets you customize workflows and client permissions.
Basecamp: A minimalist and straightforward tool that provides a range of project pages, ideal for smaller teams and less complex projects.
MantisBT: A tool focused on bug tracking; this open-source program is compatible with most operating systems if you choose the on-prem version.
[1] In a Product Backlog this can be also Backlog items or User stories
Whiteboard Style Tools
Collaborative brainstorming does not require the complexity of most tools. Whiteboards provide exactly what a team needs during the ideation, planning, and execution stages for every sprint/project and product. They provide ample visual space and real-time updates, creating the sense that everyone is collaborating around the same table.
Whiteboard tools involve drag-and-drop elements, sticky or Post-its style notes, and a lot of visual elements that keep things easily understandable. They are easy to set up, inexpensive, and foster transparency. The following options focus on this style of work and problem solving.
Whiteboard and Post-its
The simplest tool is often just a whiteboard and some Post-its. While it may seem unfashionable and outdated, its effectiveness is often underestimated. It is a classic, tried-and-true method that consistently delivers results.
Advantages
No fees, highly adaptable, transparent, and easy to use—this method fosters collaboration and enhances communication. The limited space on Post-its focuses on the important messages.
Disadvantages
Challenges include difficulties for remote teams, limitations in scaling, and lack of comprehensive documentation.
Mural
This is almost like a real whiteboard, but with the added benefit of remote access. It offers limitless templates and configuration options.
Advantages
Mural is extremely easy to use if a whiteboard approach is preferred, or if people cannot gather locally and need remote access.
Disadvantages
A screen, even a large touch screen, can never fully substitute for a physical whiteboard. While remote access allows for parallel work, real Post-its can still be written on faster than anything on a computer screen. Additionally, screens do not offer the same level of simplicity and direct interaction as a whiteboard. Larger teams and projects often require licenses, and managing large-scale products can be challenging with digital tools.
Miro
Like Mural, teams can create or select templates for various tasks such as tracking, scheduling, and collaboration, and other items when designing or developing software products. Miro uses all the expected workflows like Kanban, OKR templates, Milestone schedules, Gantt charts, and more. It does have a colorful and bright appearance, which some people may not appreciate.
Advantages
The whiteboard space for real-time planning and collaboration is infinite, which makes this an attractive tool for initial stages of brainstorming. Miro also offers hundreds of templates to choose from for specific tasks and management styles.
Disadvantages
This tool works a bit differently than some teams might be used to. It might have a higher learning curve, especially if you take the time to search and use their vast selection of templates. Navigation suffers with complex, multi-user whiteboards.
Microsoft Whiteboard
Choose from templates or create your own simple boards for use with Teams groups during virtual meetings. If you only need initial project planning and update conversations with graphic backup, this tool can work quite well.
Advantages
Groups that already use Microsoft teams and other tools in the Microsoft 365 suite can integrate Whiteboard quite seamlessly. It is easy to manage user access control and collaborate.
Disadvantages
The same simplicity that may offer advantages for some teams may detract from the ability to get the job done for others. It does not stand alone.
Padlet
The display board and sandbox [1] options in Padlet give users the opportunity to organize images, text, and other elements in user-friendly ways. The simple app makes it possible to design your own interactive documents and activities related to the product.
Advantages
The simplicity of this whiteboard-style, collaborative tool makes it a viable choice for smaller teams or work. It offers many graphic design options and real-time collaboration.
Disadvantages
Padlet leans heavily into the educational and personal project realm, and some businesses may find the style unprofessional. It is more of a brainstorming and collaboration tool than a project management tool.
“Task”-Based Tools
When brainstorming reaches a point where action takes over, task or backlog item-based tools provide extra benefits. These tools help your team organize and prioritize work, while providing transparency about who is responsible for working on each item .Explore the following tools that focus on “task”-based organization and control.
Trello
If Kanban is your team’s favorite method , Trello provides with style. You can easily create one or multiple boards with a wide selection of pre-made or user-defined templates and layouts. It is super user-friendly and does offer integrations with a variety of other popular tools like Google Calendar, Miro, Toggl time tracker, and Slack with the premium version.
Advantages
For some, the simplicity of Trello is a great advantage. It does exactly what it is supposed to in the style that you create. You can organize tasks, items, schedules, and team member responsibilities with ease using clear labels and tags. It also offers automated rule creation and an AI assistant to manage workflows for you. For small products, projects and teams, a free version is often good enough to use. Support easy copy past for the cards.
Disadvantages
Trello works best for smaller teams. It does not offer much beyond Kanban unless you pay more, and it particularly suffers from a lack of reporting ability.
Jira
The maybe most used tool for IT professionals who work on software development and after-deployment management is Jira. It is the most well-known too, but this does not mean that this is aways the best choice for every team. Before product completion, it also offers a wealth of usability for handling sprints and iterations to develop your product. Like most other tools on the market today, it also offers automation capabilities for a variety of workflows.
Advantages
It is quite easy to set up a project with either a variety of templates or drag-and-drop feature inclusion. Users get plenty of highly usable and essential reports to keep track of progress and problems. Scrum boards for simpler tasks keep team members working efficiently. With the Atlassian suite, you can also create in-house wikis with ease.
Disadvantages
It lacks some of the flexibility of other tools while introducing a high, and mostly unnecessary, level of complexity. Many teams will not need all the features, which also come with a higher price than alternatives.
Microsoft Planner
For organizations that already use the Microsoft 365 suite, Microsoft Planner is a wise choice. It is not as flashy as some other choices on this list, which might make it perfect for your needs. Share information, tasks, and conversations seamlessly. Planner offers a variety of ready-made templates and the ability to create your own setup from scratch. If you prefer automation, it also works well with Copilot, the AI assistant.
Advantages
Integration! This task management tool works with Microsoft Teams and other Microsoft tools. For the basic features, it is quite easy to scale up or adjust for specific group needs and benefits.
Disadvantages
Obviously, this tool is not the best choice if you do not use Microsoft[SS4] 365 already. Currently, features such as copy-pasting and dragging and dropping images and files are not supported. For further features, it may need to be combined with Microsoft Project or Microsoft Lists.
ClickUp
This option offers so much more than software development project management with the usual Agile methodologies. Choose from 1000+ templates or create your own system. Get any different views the team members need or want for simple collaboration. Track time, manage tasks, set, and achieve goals, and facilitate clear communication at every stage of any project.
Advantages
The powerful AI ClickUp Brain assistant points to the future of project management efficiency and ease. You can integrate the organization’s complete knowledge base, automate even complex tasks, generate content and summaries, and more. The whole thing is highly customizable and colorful for ease of use.
Disadvantages
The super powerful AI Brain does cost extra per user. Other than the potential price issue, Click Up's extensive list of features and capabilities may make it too complex for simpler projects and products.
Monday
Versatility tops the list of benefits of Monday.com project management tool. It is highly intuitive, flexible, and scalable for many different sized projects and products. You can set up a variety of workflows to match Agile, Scrum, or Kanban frameworks with ease. The interface is super clear with bright color-coded tags, sprint sections, and user-focused customization options.
Advantages
Monday integrates seamlessly with a variety of other tools, even some of the other project management options on this list like Trello and Jira. One of the major draws of this platform is flexibility. Users can check “Kanban” cards, manage sprint scheduling, peruse the Gantt roadmap and more from anywhere. It also includes an AI assistant to automate tasks and even generate content for you.
Disadvantages
While it does offer a short-term free trial, there are no free use options for smaller teams or projects. It can be one of the pricier options for large teams.
Zoho Projects
This option has its own environment suite, which makes it an excellent choice for folks who like comprehensive solutions. It also integrates with other popular tools such as Slack, Dropbox, Microsoft Office, and more. Zoho offers a lot of products including a CRM, consulting management tools, and specific options for other industries. If you use them all, things get more affordable.
Advantages
Once you take the time to set things up, Zoho does have many excellent features. You can customize basically everything to match your organization’s rules or client expectations.
Disadvantages
Their free version is rather limited and does not allow users access to project templates. The basic UI suffers from lack of intuition, and it can take a while to set things up perfectly for your software development team. Lack of reporting options and file types also might get in the way of your workflow.
Teamwork
This project handling tool works well for Agile management since it offers a variety of features you expect. Track time, manage resources, plan the project, collaborate, and communicate with ease, and generate essential reports. Teamwork even helps you onboard the clients and work with them to make sure the software fulfills their needs and interests.
Advantages
Teamwork offers a wide range of views that users can select for themselves: Kanban, Gantt charts, simple tables, task lists, and more. Particular benefits include onboard time tracking, invoicing, budget management, and field and tag customization without limits.
Disadvantages
Advanced versions are a bit more expensive per user than other options on this list. The free version is extremely limited and probably will not be easy for bigger products.
Basecamp
For lovers of minimalism and simplicity, Basecamp offers the style you want when it comes to managing software dev projects. It does not have a colorful, flashy interface like some of the other tools. These qualities do not make user-friendliness suffer, however. It offers a variety of well-organized project pages with upfront message boards, to-do lists, document storage, scheduling, and more.
Advantages
The single-page dashboard is great for small teams and less complex products. It focuses heavily on communication and staying connected with message boards and integrated chat features. You can also integrate with a wide variety of other popular apps like Automate.io, Ganttify, ReTool, Toggl, Zoho, and more.
Disadvantages
The basic plan is quite limited, and some consider it a bit expensive overall for what you get. While it works well for smaller products, the format does not handle more complex or larger software development products with ease. Scalability is an issue when using this tool.
MantisBT
BT stands for Bug Tracker, and this collaborative tool focuses on that part of the product creation and management process. While it lacks sleek styling of other tools on the list, it provides everything some groups need. Also, because it is open source, there is plenty of community support and additional plug-ins to change things as you need.
Advantages
MantisBT is an open-source program that works with all major operating systems. The option for hosting with MantisHub provides additional benefits like help desk support, kanban boards, integration with Microsoft Teams and Slack, and up to 100GB storage depending on the plan purchased. If cloud-tools are an issue, Mantis also can be used on-prem.
Disadvantages
This tool has an extremely limited scope when it comes to product development. It is focused on tracking issues and dealing with them collectively, either with the development team or in communication with clients directly.
Our Experience
At Axon Active, we rely on a select few tools to manage our customers' product workflows. These include Jira, Whiteboards and Post-its, Miro, Mural, Trello, and Microsoft Planner. Jira is the predominant tool used by our team because of its comprehensive features and flexibility in managing the work. It allows us to efficiently get an overview about the backlog items track, manage sprints, and monitor the velocity, making it ideal for Scrum and Kanban workflows. Many of our team members favor Jira cloud due to its robustness, frequent updates, and familiarity. This does not mean that that is the best choice for all teams, products, and situations. Although we also utilize other tools like Mural and Miro for visual collaboration and Trello for its simplicity, Jira stands out for its ability to integrate with other platforms and provide detailed insights into the progress of a product. Our key issues with Jira stem from its complexity and its excessive costs, making it mainly suitable for big clients' products. We still like to utilize classic tools like whiteboards and Post-its because of their simplicity and speed in idea generation, but Jira remains the go-to solution for managing tasks, backlog items, documentation and ensuring alignment across the team.
In Conclusion…
Agile methodologies have long been used to organize the entire process and introduce elevated levels of efficiency for iterative and incremental software development based in simplicity. Frameworks like Scrum and Kanban help team members for transparency and foster easier collaboration.
In Agile, the goal is not to manage the project but to create the right product. Agile software development also requires a Product Mindset. This mindset requires you to focus on product management rather than Project Management. A Sprint in Scrum could be seen as a small project with a start and a defined end.
Software development teams do not always need an up-to-date or powerful solution. Simple, integrated, and affordable tools are sometimes more important than the most powerful tools on the market. Excess features get in the way of efficiency, so tool choice must focus on specific needs rather than all the bells and whistles. Weigh your needs carefully, determine if on-prem or cloud options are suitable, and investigate security and confidential data export options.
There really is not just one perfect tool out there. Instead of wasting time seeking out the latest unique features or flashiest UIs, start with something simple that already integrates into the tools your team uses. Word can create wikis, and Excel can organize tasks or backlog items. When the time comes to explore other options, always keep your processes in mind. This also helps to understand your needs, and maybe that's good enough already.
Regardless of the software product your team is responsible for, it will not reach its full potential or satisfy customers and end users without good software development. The tools and platforms discussed in this article can only assist with sorting requirements, planning, creation, communication, reporting, and adjusting other project needs. It is crucial to remember that tools should support our work, not solve problems for us; we should avoid becoming dependent on them.
Ultimately, the decision about which tool to choose depends on organization, team, costs, and customer needs and interests. AI assistants have also emerged as a powerful option when it comes to supporting the work in software development management.
Explore available tools, select the methodologies and frameworks that best suit your needs, and tailor the solution to simplify the entire software development “project” management process, ensuring the right product is delivered.
Axon Active is a trusted leader in the industry for teams looking to optimize communication and visibility for customers' product success. With a deep understanding of the challenges and trends in software development, we are well positioned to help you achieve sustained success. Contact us to learn how you can leverage our services to streamline your workflows and develop your product.
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