10 Tools To Keep Your Agile Dev Projects On Track
Agile development is standard development in many companies. The right tools for managing the agile process can make the difference between success and struggle for your team. Here are our 10 picks to keep you on track.
![](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt69509c9116440be8/blt8d0766df3a29278c/64cb46448b0242c38823de75/Image_1.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Agile development is standard operating procedure in many companies today, and not only in IT departments. Agile discipline is being used in marketing, accounting, HR, and more. In each of those cases everything is much more agile with the right tools.
It's important to note that agile development doesn't require any particular tool or set of tools. Yet the right tools can make a huge difference when it comes to making agile effective for your organization. So what does a tool have to do in order to be an Agile tool?
First, the tool must be able to track the sorts of metrics and goals that apply to Agile projects. That means tracking time, progress, and time to completion, generating reports meaningful to different stakeholders, and supporting quality assurance goals for the project.
[What's ahead for your career? Read 10 Best Tech Jobs for 2016.]
Next, a valuable Agile tool must support communications -- within and between teams -- that contain task lists, ongoing feedback, and task assignments for team members. It's important that the communications work for geographically distributed teams. They should also provide appropriate information for stakeholders and managers who aren't explicitly part of the team, but who need to be kept up-to-date on project progress.
Finally, the tool should be able to assist in evaluating performance, identifying and providing feedback on performance, and locating mitigating errors. Now, not every tool will address all of these issues, but if a tool doesn't address any of them, then it's probably not a great Agile tool.
Many of these tools will be valuable for development efforts that aren't Agile, and some can be used for tasks that aren't related to development at all. When you're looking for tools that will aid and assist your Agile dev team, though, these are candidates that you should consider.
Are there other tools that should make the list? Are there tools that your team is using that others should know about? Let me know in the comments section below -- and let the InformationWeek community benefit from your experience.
Rising stars wanted. Are you an IT professional under age 30 who's making a major contribution to the field? Do you know someone who fits that description? Submit your entry now for InformationWeek's Pearl Award. Full details and a submission form can be found here.
Jira is one of the big names in software development management. There's a reason for that: Atlassian has made Jira the center of a sprawling ecosystem of applications that help create, manage, and report on nearly every aspect of Agile development.
Jira is not a snap to set up, but once it's in place it can be amazingly flexible and powerful for all the stakeholders in the software development project. Jira is one of the management platforms that I've used, and I find it to be a powerful tool. It's not perfect for every team, but a well-funded organization that can put in the effort to configure Jira to match its needs will find that Atlassian has created a very powerful tool for Agile dev management.
Targetprocess describes its software as "visual project management," and the visual possibilities of the packages are key selling points. While Targetprocess is frequently used by Agile teams to manage scrums, it can also be used to manage kanban, waterfall, or pretty much any other process. Targetprocess has modules and configurations for those in different roles within the team and its management, and can be explored for free. If you or your team work best when information is presented in a well-considered graphical format, then Targetprocess should be on your list for exploration.
If you'd prefer one product that does everything you need when it comes to Agile management, rather than having to put together your own suite of tools, then Yodiz should be on your list of potentials. Yodiz is an integrated package that has features for managing a single team or multiple teams. Like most of the packages here, it is a cloud-based offering that has a free version for very small teams (three members). Yodiz extends that cloud reach by offering a wide variety of plug-ins, apps, and means of integration with other software. Added bonus: The company makes its software available at no cost to non-profit organizations.
Most of the software in this article is here because it helps manage the Agile development process. VersionOne says that its software is for "end-to-end enterprise Agile lifecycle management." This cloud-based software goes beyond software development into devops and supports scrum, kanban, and other development methodologies.
VersionOne has an extensive partner network that will install and configure the software while providing Agile consulting. This is software aimed at organizations that want to get up to speed quickly on Agile, and do so with an all-in infrastructure to support the effort. If that describes your company, then VersionOne is a logical option.
If VersionOne is an Agile management heavyweight, AgileZen is a lightweight speedster in the market. Rather than trying to support every aspect of devops with a number of possible methodologies, AgileZen focuses on key elements of development by embracing kanban.
One example of this is the interface for moving an activity from one stage of the process to another: Simply click on the activity and drag it from one part of the management screen to another. AgileZen is a relatively low-cost option in the market, with flat pricing for the enterprise. There's also a "name your own price" program that supports charitable causes. If you name a price that's higher than the flat rate, the program donates half the overage to charity. Managers who have embraced the konmari approach for their office contents will want to take a close look at AgileZen.
Some management packages assume that you want a whole new way of managing your development effort -- their way. Mingle leans in the direction of providing support for the processes your team has created for itself within the Agile discipline. The Mingle interface is based on the idea of cards and card walls -- a throwback to the days when teams were managed with index cards pinned to a cubicle wall. Mingle's visual simplicity is a big part of the company's claim that the software is very, very scalable. Like most of the packages featured here, ThoughtWorks has a version of Mingle that allows you to try the software for free. If your team has five members and a single project, the free version might well be all you ever need.
"Eating your own dog food" is the computer industry's way of saying that you use the products that you sell to your customers. Pivotal started with building its own dog food -- then decided to sell PivotalTracker, the software it had created to build websites and software for its clients, to customers. All Agile development is based, to a certain extent, on the story of the project and its components, but PivotalTracker embraces storytelling as a metaphor to a greater extent than most other software in this category. It does that as part of a UI that is simple, and designed to be easy to learn. It extends to a wide variety of use-cases. Pivotal has a sliding scale of prices for the software, starting at free, and makes PivotalTracker available at no cost to nonprofit organizations.
And now, for something completely different… We've been looking at project management software so far, most of it tailored to Agile development, and designed for enterprise customers. ActiveCollab is a general project management software package that has a number of features useful to small businesses, or even sole practitioners. Those small business features, though, don't make the software any less useful for larger teams. ActiveCollab's interface makes it particularly suited for a kanban-style project flow, though it's useful for pure scrums as well. If you are a small business or consultancy, ActiveCollab's time tracker and invoicing modules will make it easier to keep track of how well time estimates match up with reality, and make it much easier to get paid for your work.
So far, all the software we've looked at has come to market courtesy of a normal software publisher. For the last two programs, though, we'll dip into the world of free and open source software. IceScrum began life as an open source project, but has since forked into three versions: a paid cloud-hosted version, a paid self-hosted version, and a free ("community") self-hosted version.
IceScrum is built around the scrums of Agile development, and extends its functions through integration with a wide variety of external software packages. If your needs are simple or you are ready to embrace the DIY experience that sometimes accompanies open-source software, then the community version of IceScrum might well be all you need. If you want a tool that helps you get up and running with Agile development in the shortest period of time, then one of the paid versions is going to be your IceScrum target.
There's nothing like leading with a powerful claim. On the top of its home page, Agilefant claims that you can be up and running with the software in 30 seconds. Since many people took more time than that to play their first game of MineSweeper, that's a bold statement. It's especially bold because Agilefant isn't a simple, feature-limited product. It's a big, sweeping piece of software that allows users to embrace any of several methodologies for multiple groups and projects, while presenting different views and capabilities to different users, managers, and stakeholders. As with IceScrum, there's still an open source version that you can host yourself, but if you want all the features, you're going to need to pay for either the cloud-based or self-hosted version. Once you make a decision, you'll find that Agilefant is a powerful tool for managing your development process.
There they are, 10 tools for Agile development. Are you already using one of these? Is one now on your "must explore" list? I'm especially curious about the last two. How important is open source software to you when it comes to project management?
Let me know what you think in the comments section below. I know that project management software is almost as individual a choice as text editors or favorite languages, so I'm eager to learn which project management software is carrying the weight of your programming projects.
There's nothing like leading with a powerful claim. On the top of its home page, Agilefant claims that you can be up and running with the software in 30 seconds. Since many people took more time than that to play their first game of MineSweeper, that's a bold statement. It's especially bold because Agilefant isn't a simple, feature-limited product. It's a big, sweeping piece of software that allows users to embrace any of several methodologies for multiple groups and projects, while presenting different views and capabilities to different users, managers, and stakeholders. As with IceScrum, there's still an open source version that you can host yourself, but if you want all the features, you're going to need to pay for either the cloud-based or self-hosted version. Once you make a decision, you'll find that Agilefant is a powerful tool for managing your development process.
There they are, 10 tools for Agile development. Are you already using one of these? Is one now on your "must explore" list? I'm especially curious about the last two. How important is open source software to you when it comes to project management?
Let me know what you think in the comments section below. I know that project management software is almost as individual a choice as text editors or favorite languages, so I'm eager to learn which project management software is carrying the weight of your programming projects.
-
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like