There are many Agile management tools available for organizations to choose from. They all offer the most important features for Agile project management, but selecting the one that meets the company’s needs best will help in the proper implementation and usage of the tool.
Organizations need to compare the features and functionality of each tool and then see which one matches their organizational needs and capabilities. Some of the factors that need to be considered while selecting an Agile management tool are listed below.
Features of Agile Management Tools
Task Management
There are different subsets to Agile and two of the most popular ones are Scrum and Kanban. A good Agile management tool should have features for task management so that the teams can use them for their projects to make task lists, add files, and discussions, add any expenses, and more.
Backlog Management
The Agile management tools should also have tools and resources to help teams manage their backlogs. This will help Agile teams prioritize, rearrange their priorities, add features to be voted on, and keep track of user stories and any bugs observed.
User Story
A good Agile management tool will also have tools to manage user stories such as cards on various boards as a basic feature. The more comprehensive Agile management tools have separate tools for user stories which are dedicated to mapping out the stories and estimating them.
Team Collaboration
There should also be a feature for communication to improve collaboration within the team and other teams. Team members should be able to share task lists and assignments and it should have a platform to keep track of feedback as well.
Agile Reporting & Analytics
Agile project management tools should offer a dashboard on their platform where all Agile charts such as burndown and velocity are displayed. They should also have a feature for maintaining progress reports, performance evaluation for team members, and more.
Integrations
The implemented Agile project management tool should work well with the other tools used in the organization, especially for the ones related to software development, based on the type of work the company does.
Top Agile Management Tools
1. monday.com
monday.com is an award-winning and intuitive tool that helps organizations with the planning and tracking of their projects and helps with collaboration as well. It provides a flexible structure that can be configured based on organizational needs.
monday.com can be used by purely Agile teams who work with other hybrid methods as well. It becomes easy to track all ongoing Agile projects with the help of their dashboard and analyze the work on each one. It is an easy-to-learn tool and some of its integrations include the following:
- Slack
- Google Drive
- Gmail
- Google Calendar
- Jira
- GitHub
- Trello
- Dropbox
- Typeform
The pricing starts at $17/month for a minimum of two users.
2. Clarizen
Clarizen is another project management tool that works very well with Agile methodologies and can support hybrid ones as well. It is designed to speed up business processes. Clarizen helps with integrating work and other processes using workflows that save time.
This tool is perfect for companies that have a lot of repetitive projects with repetitive processes because it automates in a flexible way. It has scheduling, task planning, and portfolio optimization features among others to help with aligning ongoing projects with business objectives.
Clarizen helps in improving collaboration within teams by tracking project timelines and discussions and enabling document sharing. Project managers or Product Owners can make data-driven decisions about the project using real-time insights available into all resources and tasks. Some of its integrations are:
- Jira
- SharePoint
- Tableau
- Salesforce
- Intaact
Other functions can be added to Clarizen using its marketplace if necessary, and a lot of them are free. There is a free trial available for companies and the cost starts from $60 per user per month.
3. Project Manager
This tool comes with many real-time reporting features and is used by organizations such as NASA. ProjectManager.com is not necessarily made as an Agile tool but it has many features that Agile teams can use for their projects. There are Kanban boards, real-time reports, and many features for collaboration.
With Project Manager, users can switch between their views, which works best for companies who work with hybrid methodologies because it enables switching between various Agile, traditional as well as hybrid functionalities, depending on the task at hand. Some of the integrations for Project Manager are:
- Google Drive
- Gmail
- Google Calendar
- Microsoft Office
- Microsoft Project
There is a 30-day free trial available and the pricing for Project Managers starts at $15 per user every month, for their most basic plan. It requires a minimum number of five users. requiring a minimum of 5 users.
4. SAM9000
SAM9000 is one of the easiest project management applications powered by artificial intelligence. It provides features for managing emails and documents as well as tasks for Agile teams, along with features for making notes and memos, and also time tracking. The application has a 100 GB sharing space for uploading and sharing files.
It provides Agile teams with a multi-level Kanban board that is connected to all ongoing projects as well as separate and individual boards for each specific task, making it easy to navigate for users. This helps with the prioritization of tasks and there are features with SAM9000 where the application will automatically reschedule the task if the priority is changed.
Users can use SAM9000 for multiple projects at the same time. The pricing for this application starts from $2.90 for every user per month, with a minimum of ten users and it also comes with a 30-day free trial.
5. Nutcache
Nutcache is a flexible tool for project management that was created for adapting to different Agile methodologies. It helps Agile teams plan, track, and manage all the parts of a project. Users have the option to organize their application with either Agile or Scrum project management, depending on the Agile team’s preferences, helping teams with their daily workflow.
Nutcache also helps with prioritization and building customized workflows to help break down every aspect of any ongoing project for the team. Some of the integrations that come with Nutcache are:
- Dynacom Accounting
- PayPal
- 2Checkout
- Stripe
- Authorized.Net
- QuickBooks Online
- Google Sign In
- Google Drive
- GitHub
- Slack
The pricing for Nutcache starts from a minimum of $6 per user every month for the Pro plan, which requires at least five users.
Final Thoughts
To use the applications to their best potential, teams need to understand and accept the Agile methodologies first. Creating an Agile mindset is very important for the success of the implementation of Agile methods. For this, teams need to go through proper training in popular Agile Certification Courses that will help them understand workflows and the benefits of Agile, and how to implement its best practices.
Some of the popular Agile certification courses that professionals and enterprise teams can take up are:
- CSM Online Course
- CSPO Certification Training
- SAFe Scrum Master Certification Training
- Agile Scrum Foundation Certification Training
- Agile Scrum Master Certification Training
- PRINCE2 Agile Foundation Certification Training
