Written by Agile is the most popular project management philosophy in use these days. Due to its many advantages, many companies are shifting towards the Agile approach, particularly with SCRUM methodology. Agile recommends keeping the processes slim while focusing more on the actual work at hand. It might seem tempting to hear, but tracking the actual work can become very difficult if we do not have the appropriate tools to handle them.
Below we will discuss the top 7 commonly used tools for managing an Agile-based project. These tools make it extremely easy for us to manage our day-to-day activities in an Agile environment.
1. JIRA: Developed by the Atlassian Corporation group, Jira is perhaps the most used Agile management tool.
It is a cloud and subscription-based tool which can be easily configured to fit your agile needs. Jira can be used with Agile methodologies like SCRUM and Kanban and provides custom filters for backlog optimization, backlog grooming, current sprint management boards etc.
Key Features
· Bug tracking
· Product and project management
· Kanban boards to give users full visibility into what the team has completed, what they are currently working on, and what else they need to do
· Customizable scrum boards enable them to deliver incremental value in an organized way.
· Centralizes the solution and provides a highly customizable interface. Its workflows allow users to control the status of the project and how it transitions to other statuses, providing excellent tracking information.
Advantages
· Seamlessly integrates with many other software tools like Git, Bitbucket, Confluence etc.
· Good support with a wide range of mobile devices so that you can track your activities on the go.
· Jira has tools that enable users to sketch out the big picture, communicate plans, and connect the bigger project roadmap goals to the team’s everyday tasks.
· The software provides a single view for all user stories and can generate the needed visual reports for various sprints, such a burndown charts, sprint velocity etc.
· Users can organize tickets into sprints and releases while they monitor the workload and task assignments of the team.
· Highly Customizable
Disadvantages
· Not the best mobile app
· Users are not able to download Jira graphical reports as images.
· Limited file size upload
Jira comes free of cost for a small team size of fewer than 10 members. The prices for a larger team size can be chosen from a wide range of options detailed out here (https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/pricing). You can get more information about Jira at: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira
2. Monday.com: Founded in 2012 by Roy Mann, Eran Kampf and Eran Zinman, and commercially launched in 2014; Monday.com is another popular tool used in Agile project management. It has robust time tracking capabilities as well as the capabilities to customize notifications. You can draft, visualize, and share your project plans to keep your team members up to date.
Key features
· Team Management: monday.com makes it easy for teams to onboard and adopt
· Customization: After setting up the project, users can customize and manage their workflow or process, whether simple or complex
· Visual Planning: The smart features allow for visible planning, progress tracking, and the advanced weekly view across multiple teams.
· Collaboration: The monday.com platform includes built-in collaboration features, so users can have all their conversations, files, briefs, checklists, and spreadsheets in one place for easy discussion and review
· CRM: customer relationship management functions include lead capture from web forms, sales order tracking, pipeline management, and monthly target tracking.
· Integrations: monday.com integrates with popular apps and services such as Dropbox, Excel, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Integromat, Slack, Trello, and Zapier.
Advantages
· The user interface looks good and has the flexibility to extend the data you want to display in your dashboard.
· Creating reports like burndown charts, sprint boards and dashboards is extremely easy
· Implements email notifications to notify you when a task is assigned to you, or when a task is completed.
· Monday enables teams to communicate via comments and forms.
· An ample number of templates for a variety of different job functions and industries.
· Integration with many apps like Slack, Git, Zapier, Trello, Dropbox, and many other third-party tools.
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Disadvantages
· Comparatively higher pricing.
· Difficult to track time spent on tasks.
· Limited option for customization.
· Lack of the project start date, end date, and deliverables.
For individuals who want to keep track of their work, Monday.com provides a free license for a maximum of 2-users. For a larger size, Monday.com provides various pricing offers to start from as low as $8. More on the pricing offers of Monday.com can be checked here at their official website (https://monday.com/pricing/). For more information on Monday.com, you can refer to the official website: https://monday.com/
3. Miro: Miro is an online collaboration and whiteboard platform tool that enables distributed teams to work efficiently together. It provides various options to enrich your online meeting by providing a range of features from brainstorming with digital sticky notes to planning and managing agile workflows.
Miro is particularly useful for:
· Meetings & Workshops
· Ideation & Brainstorming
· Research & Design
· Agile Workflows
· Strategy & Planning
· Mapping & Diagramming
This tool has gained immense popularity and has proven useful during the pandemic when work from home has become a norm.
Advantages
· It is extremely easy to create very intuitive workflow diagrams which can be easily shared across the team members.
· Designing and presenting is especially very easy on this tool as it enables multiple users to share the same board at the same time and update it in real-time.
· The nice interactions of Miro also make the online collaboration very convenient.
Miro provides a free license for the teams with limited access to boards and a limited set of features. This free version is very helpful to start getting your hands on the platform. If you need access to a detailed version, Miro has various pricing options for you listed here (https://miro.com/pricing/). If you wish to know more details about the tool, you can always visit their official website at https://miro.com/.
4. Trello: Originally developed by Fog Creek Software in 2011 and later sold to Atlassian in 2017, Trello is another collaboration tool that organizes your project into boards. It gives you various options of organizing out of which the board view and the card view are the major ones.
Trello cards are your portal to more organized work—where every single part of your task can be managed, tracked, and shared with teammates. Open any card to uncover an ecosystem of checklists, due dates, attachments, conversations, and more.
Trello, in one view, can tell you what is being worked upon, who is working on what, and where something is in a process. Imagine a whiteboard, filled with lists of sticky notes, with each note as a task for you and your team.
Key Features
· Detailed & quick overviews of front/back cards
· Easy, drag-and-drop editing, in-line editing
· An easy organization with labelling, tags, and comments
· Progress meter checklist
· File attachment and easy upload (local devices, dropbox, google drive, and box)
· Deadline alerts and notifications and automated email notifications
· Individual/group task assignment and activity logs
Advantages
· Trello is simple to use, and the whole process of making cards and boards is exceptionally intuitive and user-friendly.
· Mobile friendly
· Simple pricing structure.
· Real-time updates and notifications.
· Follows Kanban system
Disadvantages
· It doesn’t come with Gantt charts, timeline views, or Scrum boards for agile sprints
· Storage is limited
· Not the best option for large projects
Trello also provides a free version for individuals and teams with limited features. You will find more details about their prices at (https://trello.com/pricing). The official website here (https://trello.com/home) provides all the details about the tool and its application.
5. Zoho Sprints: Zoho Sprints is a powerful and simple agile project management tool that helps you plan and track your projects better and offers features such as user dashboards, reporting, scrum boards, timers, and timesheets. It is designed for businesses of all sizes. Zoho Sprints can also be accessed via native mobile apps available for Android and iOS devices. It offers project scheduling and budgeting, which allows project managers to define project tasks, assign them to their teams, estimate project costs and follow up on in-progress tasks.
Key Features:
· A drag-and-drop feature that enables planning through tasks prioritization
· Setting reminders for every sprint.
· Dashboards give users overviews of key project metrics and weekly project status updates
· Reports can be generated like burn-up and burn-down reports as well as velocity charts to track the progress and identify bottlenecks.
· Timesheets enable users to track billable and non-billable hours and calculate the actual time spent on each work item.
· The scrum board enables visualization of work status for each sprint based on their completion stage.
· The solution is available on a monthly subscription basis and offers support via email, a knowledge base, a user community and through an online help form.
· The Feeds section shows the most recent updates, and you can even customize project statuses based on the context you are working with
Advantages
· Easy drag-and-drop controls
· Automated billing
· Customizable project status
· Allow you to track your progress in real-time
· Epics management
· Consistent Interaction with Team
Zoho sprints also offer a trial version for a 15-day trial to help you experience all the features in their professional plan. You will find more details about their prices at (https://www.zoho.com/sprints/pricing.html). The official website here (https://www.zoho.com/sprints/) provides all the details about the tool and its application.
6. MeisterTask: It is a cloud-based Kanban-style collaborative task management application that caters to businesses of all sizes. MeisterTask was created by MeisterLabs, a German software company, founded by Michael Hollaufa and Till Vollmer in 2006.
MeisterTask enables users to organize and manage projects and tasks. It allows team members to organize and automate workflow, discuss, and assign tasks, add due dates, and track progress on customizable project boards in real-time through the web- and app-based interfaces.
Key features:
· Unlimited sections – Create as many sections as you want
· Filters – Multiple filters such as tag, assignee, watcher, status, due date, and schedule.
· Timeline – Add timeline on the tasks
· Automation – Automate repeating steps in your workflow.
· Recurring tasks – Set a template for a recurring task
· Assignees and watchers – Stay in the loop by becoming a watcher after assigning the task to a team member
· Due dates – set due dates.
· Time tracking – To keep track of time spent on each task.
· Custom fields – Add custom fields to your tasks.
· Multiple checklists – Use checklists to ensure that tasks are performed completely.
· Attachments – Attach files and images directly to each task.
· Tags – Use tags to organise your tasks by category, client, priority, or anything else.
· Dashboard – Each MeisterTask user can enjoy their customizable dashboard with a personal checklist.
Advantages
· Easily create projects, add team members, and assign tasks at the click of a button.
· Flexible workflows and project boards i.e., each user has their dashboard that can be customized to show completed and in-progress tasks, a daily report, and a quick overview.
· MeisterTask allows you to communicate and share with the whole team in seconds.
· Integration with other apps
· Team Collaboration Features
· Streamlined task management capabilities
Disadvantages
· On the free plan, you’re not able to set priorities for tasks or use the same tagging system as the paid versions.
· Can be costly for large businesses
· If you try to access Preferences or Statistics from the desktop app, you will be transferred to the browser which can be annoying.
MeisterTask offers a freemium model, with a free basic version offering limited functionality and a paid version that provides additional features. You will find more details about their prices at (https://www.mindmeister.com/mt/signup). The official website here (https://www.meistertask.com) provides all the details about the tool and its application.
7. Asana: Asana is a cloud-based software that helps businesses to manage, collaborate, communicate, and organize their tasks and projects. Asana is suitable for both long-term and short-term projects with the option to archive completed projects for future use. It has a mobile app as well that supports both the android and IOS operating systems.
Key features:
· Capable of hosting real-time communication for multiple users instead of using emails and another application, the software handles both, allowing users to save time and cut costs.
· Bugs and issues are part of the business of product developers and service providers. The team can create a ‘bugs project’ in Asana to track them systematically.
· Break down projects into tasks and milestones and PM assign the tasks to team members with due dates and priority
· Asana can serve as a digital platform for collecting suggestions and feature requests across the organization
· Asana makes meetings easier to organize and handle. Users can create a meeting agenda where they can add notes on each item as the meeting progresses. After the meetings, managers can delegate follow-up tasks to respective participants.
Advantages:
· It has a free plan where small teams on a tight budget can still have a capable PM software
· It can integrate easily with a number and variety of third-party apps and software
· Supports transparency as well as alignment of projects to business goals
· It has permission and privacy controls and enables project managers to lock down projects with comments-only permission, avoiding any unwanted edits
· Dashboards are highly customizable to allow team leaders to track each task separately
· It allows people to invite co-workers, partners, and guests to a collaborative workspace.
Disadvantages:
· Not suitable for small teams or single projects because available options and capabilities can be a mismatch or overkill to a very basic project
· New users can face difficulty in learning because of the number of features available
· Asana assigns a task to only one person
· It cannot track the time spent by the members working on their tasks.
· Limited exporting functionality is only available in the JSON and CSV formats, and not in PDF or Excel formats.
The free version of Asana is available for teams of up to 15 people. You will find more details about their prices at (https://asana.com/pricing). The official website here (https://asana.com) provides all the details about the tool and its application.
These are a few of the commonly used tools in Agile project management. We hope the above information was helpful and now you know which tool you would like to try based on your requirements. Feel free to let us know your thoughts about these tools in the comment box below.