What Are the Software Options for Project Management?

Featured article by Emily Roberts, Independent Technology Author

The project management software used to manage a team of software developers is different from the type of software required for team members in a law firm or a dentist’s office. In many cases, the sheer number of issues that are being wrestled with and how they intersect becomes a challenge to keep up with as young developers struggle to stay effective.

The move to agile development and other similar principles to help produce software much faster and deliver updates quicker has been embraced by the majority of the computer software industry. This includes the likes of Microsoft and numerous mobile app developers too. Managing projects when moving quickly is a particular challenge in the software development world, which is ideally suited for project management software to perform some of the heavy lifting.

RedmineUP

RedmineUP is project management software that creates multiple columns with cards that can be labeled and organized. Tasks can be set to their current status and assigned to different people. Both the boards and cards placed on them are fully customizable. Changing labels, adding sub-columns for sprint projects, and boards specified per project, role, or user are all helpful features.

The Redmine plugins provides developers with a way to use drag and drop actions across a Kanban board. You can also use professional Redmine plugins like CRM features to manage clients, billing, and contact information directly. Some of the Redmine plugins are set as premium Redmine plugins from RedmineUP. They have a free plan with some basic features and three pricing plans that segment out the professional plugins such as HelpDesk and CRM, Invoice facility, and leaving the best Redmine plugins to last, bundling all the Pro features together.

Asana

Asana is a tool that helps developers keep a list of outstanding tasks and communicate within the app rather than having to use an external chat app like Slack. With Asana, you’re listing projects that are shown under different labels like In Development or Design or Project Management. The person assigned to the task is indicated on the right side of the task line.

With this app, it doesn’t help as much with established workflow, but it does help keep tasks on track by making it simpler to monitor what’s being worked on. Because it separates tasks out by their status, scanning down the list in a linear fashion is sometimes seen as an easier process than using a multi-column, card-based system. Mostly this comes down to personal choice and preferences, as with most pieces of software.

Trello

Trello uses a familiar multi-column card approach to layout cards on a Kanban board. The approach should be very familiar to programmers and project managers working in the computer field. Tasks can be created and dragged across to other sections to reorganize them or confirm that the task is being carried out or just completed.

Integration with Slack is useful in Trello because text passages and images can be dragged across onto a Trello card without difficulty. Therefore, a brainstorming session with team members in Slack can result in ideas becoming new tasks that get dragged into Trello for proper project planning. The drag and drop feature also works in Google Docs too. The cost of this SaaS applications increases as you use more of the features and bring the whole team on it though, which is a cause for concern.

Finding the right project management solution for your software development team is difficult. There are unique requirements that are different to other industries. Not every project management app handles those requirements as adroitly as others do. There’s a need to try one or more apps out to see which works best for you and your team, to ensure it works like you want it to.