The pandemic might have disrupted several industries but it has accelerated the growth of the software industry. Fast migration to the cloud, rapid adoption of digital transformation, and demand for communication tools to reach homebound customers have caused a surge in demand for software engineering services.
However, as over 77% of the workforce wants to continue working from home at least once a week, the rise of completely remote or distributed software engineering teams has begun. Remote software development is more economical for businesses and entrepreneurs as there is no cost of office maintenance or any commuting costs. That said, managing tech teams can be a challenge, whether you have a distributed team, offshore contracts, or hybrid teams. The two most common challenges to overcome here are communication and resource accessibility.
In this article, we list project management tools that can help team leaders facilitate collaboration among developers, improve productivity and minimize miscommunication.
1. Trello
While there are dozens of task management tools in the market, Trello stands out because of its visual list creation feature. You can delegate the assignments by creating cards with tasks. You can re-sequence the tasks, track progress, plan and organize processes, and store information. Trello is an ideal example of how simplistic software must be. It helps manage large software projects by allowing collaboration on several complex tasks.
2. Monday
Monday.com is regarded as one of the best project management tools for software engineering teams. It is a tool that helps boost accountability, efficiency, and visibility between teams. It comes with built-in automation for project management that even beginners can use. We recommend Monday for software teams with intermediate to advanced users. The mirroring capability allows you to copy items between different boards, a feature not available with many project management tools.
3. Slack
It will be hard for any software team to imagine communication between remote workers without Slack at this point. This project management tool allows collaboration through chats, calls, and document sharing. Both mobile and web versions of the tool are available, making it easier to stay connected with the team even on the go.
4. Asana
Asana is a practical project management software that is used by over 100,000 organizations to enable teams to collaborate daily. Founded by two former Facebook employees, Asana is a task-oriented tool that makes remote work management easier by breaking bigger tasks into smaller bits and delegating them to team members. Its design is clear and straightforward, enabling team managers to instantly see the project’s progress. As you can always track who is responsible for what part of the project, there is minimal scope for miscommunication.
5. Basecamp
Basecamp markets itself as “The All-In-One Toolkit for Working Remotely.” In existence for over two decades, Basecamp has consistently evolved as a go-to project management tool for big projects. There are all features you will want from a PM tool-Due Dates, Calendaring, Task Lists, Delegation, and more. You can prioritize the tasks based on urgency. Its real-time messenger facility enables teams to remain connected both from the computer and mobile devices.
6. ClickUp
If your distributed team is working on a medium-scale software project, ClickUp might be the right project management tool. It comes with a wide range of features including both the commonly available ones and unique ones. You will get To-do Lists, Deadlines, Leads, Progress, Calendaring, and more – versatility is where this app shines. The workload is a unique feature of the tool that lets you know how work is distributed among teams and whether a resource in the team is underutilized or overworked. The same is the built-in ticketing system for customer support. You can also enable documentation using the ‘Company Wiki’ functionality.
7. Redbooth
This one is a web-based collaboration tool aimed at simplifying communication at the same time making advanced project management possible. It is an affordable option for team task management and is suitable for software development teams of all sizes. Organizations like Indiana University use Redbooth for project management needs.
8. Dropbox
Dropbox hardly needs an introduction, but you might be wondering why we are listing it as a project management tool. The reason is how effective it makes sharing and accessing data and information among remote teams. Its cloud-based architecture makes it possible for teams to store and update information in a centralized location. It is an excellent tool to create an online library to organize and manage documents that can be accessed from the web or mobile applications. Dropbox offers a free version for trial, allowing storage and sharing of up to 2GB of data from cloud storage.
With the right project management tools at your disposal, you can facilitate work and collaboration among remote teams.
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