Project Management Tools- Agile

Project management software development methodology is adopted by companies world-wide. According to the surveys conducted recently, around 70% of the organizations have adopted agile practices. During the last decade, the agile methods have developed rapidly from nowhere to pinnacle. Such rapid revolution in technology demand new tools and innovation. Majority of the organizations are still using old-fashioned project management tools and generic tools like MS Project and spreadsheets for project planning and tracking.

The pie chart given below gives the percentage of types of tools used by organizations across the globe and companies still prefer using traditional tools for project management.

The question is, are these tools really the best of the choices when it comes to project management. In this article we shall discuss the different approaches for project management and give comparative analysis of the simplest tools, traditional project development tools, agile project management software and spreadsheets.

Need for a Tool

One cannot rely on ones memory for requirement gathering. To overcome the limits of retaining things in mind, it is essential that one has a tool at his disposal. This enables one to gather requirements, plan iterations, track the progress and report the entire process. A tool which works effectively and efficiently is required for this purpose which will give rise to no or minimum errors.

As said by Ron Jeffries “I think that people and how they interact on a project is the most important thing, and I think that they need to create a way of working -- a process -- that works best for them. Because their interactions are critical to project success, I suggest that teams begin the work with an approach that will bring them together as people, not one that will let them remain apart, communicating electronically”.

Project Management Tools- Pros & Cons

Index Cards

Index cards are cheaper, distinct and pliant to use. It is easier to understand the brief and overview of state of project and very effective for communicating information. At the same time they have the drawbacks of having remote access to data, reusability of data and backing up of data, doesn’t work for large teams.

General Software Tools

Wiki is a very versatile tool which can be used for any content management. There are project teams which use wiki for scrum development management. Wiki is cheap and easier in its usability. However, like cards, wiki doesn’t work for larger and distributed teams and time consuming.

Old School Project Management Tools

MS Project is the most commonly used traditional project management tool. The benefit here is, it might already be existing in companies and allows people allocation support. However, it doesn’t support agile development concepts and faces constraints when it comes to reporting.

Agile Project Management Tools

It is important to integrate the process of planning and development for having a versatile project management tool. Almost every development process involves activities like requirements gathering, planning, tracking, quality assurance and feedback gathering. To carry out these activities, several tools like Bugzilla, Test Run, MS Project, Requisite Pro, Support Forum, etc are used. Each tool does its job, but it’s a time taking process to export/import data between applications and often format it to get a complete picture. Hence, the need for a modern agile project management tool which combines the common activities and provides open API for advanced integration. It powers backlogs prioritization, low level iteration planning and high level release planning, progress tracking, tests and bugs management and customer requests management. In short, it gives an integrated process which follows Lean Principle. The other goal of agile software is to bring together several teams working on a single project which is possible only with the aid of web based software.

There are many agile software development tools like Mingle, Jira, AgileZen, VersioneOne, Rally, etc. Some of them are described below.

Mingle is designed for small, medium and large enterprises. Its key features are program management, project collaboration, project management, accurate defect and visual tracking, release and iteration planning and real time tracking and reporting. It is user-friendly and flexible.

JIRA is a project management, bug tracking and issue tracking tool used by thousands of companies across the globe. Also what makes JIRA more flexible is that more a general issue tracker than just a bug tracker.

Agile Zen is a visual tool. It has a tab based and colour coded interface. It is based on the Lean management principle. Instead of having a task-list, it has a story based work unit, wherein the details can be added and edited. The efforts spent are manageable and can be tracked.

The agile tools have their own better and the flip side. It works for bigger teams, it allows real-time reporting, gives integrated solutions, allows bug tracking, etc. However, agile tools are very expensive, significant learning time is involved, sometimes hard to apply for processes which are already in development phase.

Any project requires a good set of tools for its management. The agile software development tools will evolve with time. A trend that will continue to influence software tools is ever-tightening release cycles. Where releases once took years, an increasing number of software products will release new functionality to production monthly, week, daily, or even more frequently. The trend towards support more frequent transitions between activities will continue. More activities will be supported without larger changes of context. The use of effective project management tools will help in integrating several processes which are carried out by multiple set of tools. Hence, there is a need for the tools and technologies which will aid in faster deliveries and releases.

Devika Vaghela is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, She actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at:devika.vaghela@spluspl.com