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Software development is a long process requiring the team's best efforts and high effectiveness. Top-ranking tools for software development management are definitely a proper way to boost effective collaboration between your own and external development teams and avoid mistakes or waste time.
This blog post discusses the best solutions for remote project management and communication, screen sharing, security, and others. Stay tuned!
What is Software Development Collaboration?
Software Development Collaboration is a cross-team joint work on the software project. This implies the full involvement of developers in the workflow to create the perfect product. Online collaboration tools scale up productivity by 30%. Software development collaboration tool is the best way to streamline workflows, manage cloud-based schedules, and provide more flexibility for team members.
Given that software engineers usually work remotely, such solutions improve collaboration, allowing users to perform the project tasks simultaneously when they log in and providing them with all the updates they need for a task. This improves global productivity for employees working from all over the world.
Software Development Collaboration Tools
We've compiled a list of the most effective collaboration tools that are particularly well-suited for remote teams who need to collaborate on everyday tasks.
1. GitHub
Category: Development process
GitHub is a collaborative development and project hosting service. With the help of GitHub, an unlimited number of programmers can work on the project code remotely. In addition, GitHub has a Git version control (management) system: the service allows you to view and control any code changes by any developer and return to the state before the changes.
In general, GitHub is a social network for developers where they can find open source projects from other developers, practice coding, and store their portfolios.
2. Dropbox
Category: Data storage
Dropbox is a cloud for storing user files and syncing them across devices. The cloud allows you to store files of different formats and share them with colleagues and friends. Cloud storage is available on mobile devices, in the browser, and as a desktop application.
Dropbox is a good alternative to G Suite if the only function you need is data storage. In the Dropbox interface, users can view and download uploaded files, view photos and videos, create folders, and share files with other users. With the built-in word processor Paper in Dropbox, you can create and collaborate on documents.
Dropbox helps teams organize remote work with files. Teams can create shared folders with files related to company projects. Managers can give access to employees, view the version history of documents, and if necessary, restore deleted documents. With the help of statistics, employees can create reports about the files in the workgroup.
3. Jira
Category: Project management
Jira is a platform for project management, task, and issue tracking. The platform is intended primarily for developers and agile project management. Jira is available on the web and as a desktop app.
Main features of Jira:
- Kanban board - helps the team to ensure transparency of work on the project, optimize the workflow, and distribute tasks from the backlog (list of outstanding tasks);
- Scrum board - allows to manage a complex project and bring together teams from different areas of product development to achieve the same goal;
- Collaboration - sharing information on the project, jointly resolving issues, and seeking help from colleagues.
The platform is one of the most flexible tools for software development management in which companies can adapt and modify the functional appearance of the service to suit their needs. For each project, the Jira administrator can define an issue type with unique constituent elements, link a set of statuses, and more. In addition, a project owner can define access rights for each project for participants.
4. ProofHub
Category: Project management
ProofHub is a project management tool that combines data on all current processes, staff management, and client communication on one platform. The software allows you to organize the entire development process - from the idea to the final reporting to the client.
ProofHub organizes all project materials on one dashboard, which includes tasks, discussions, checkpoints, notes, files, and timesheets. Tool provides Gantt charting software to help teams easily plan projects, modify schedules, and visualize tasks in a timeline view. Discussions help streamline communication while discussing ideas and work steps. You can add dependencies to each task and assign them to specific specialists. Notes tool allows you to create public and private notes. The time control function makes it possible to predict the workload of employees and the date of completion of work, as well as calculate the hours spent for billing the client.
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5. Confluence
Category: Data management
Confluence is a team collaboration space that's great for distributed teams. In this software development collaboration tool, the team's accumulated knowledge is combined with opportunities for interaction. Here project owner can create a single database, support and information portals for the company, manage knowledge, maintain a corporate blog and create web publications, document business processes, and all this with the use of Atlassian Confluence.
Atlassian Confluence is tightly integrated with Microsoft Office and other Atlassian products, making it an effective tool to centralize your workflow into a single service.
Key features of Confluence:
- Centralization - collecting, organizing, and managing the information you need to work in one place;
- Work with files and documents - creating, storing, sharing, and editing all in one place;
- Discussions - communication with colleagues on work issues with the ability to leave likes and comments;
- Sharing information - sending links to useful materials, discussions, and storage in a single database of materials;
- Integration with other collaboration tools for software development, such as JIRA.
6. Slack Messenger
Category: Communication
Slack is a software development collaboration tool providing features such as instant messaging by phone and chats, searching for all your files and conversations in an accessible database, and integration with many practical bots and applications.
Thanks to the integration of Slack with many programs and services, it allows the company to create a full-fledged working environment and significantly increase functionality. For example, Jira development teams can share, edit, and review issues in a dedicated channel. Also, a manager can sign contracts with partners without leaving Slack, using integration with DocuSign.
7. G Suite Developer Collaboration Tool
Category: Project and team administration
G Suite (sometimes called Google Workspace) is a collection of cloud-based collaboration tools for software development provided by Google in a single package and supported across devices. This service allows a team to create emails under its domain and guarantees data protection. It offers ready-made solutions for startups, small and medium businesses, as well as large enterprises.
G Suite is a cloud platform, and its primary benefit is public accessibility. This means that staff can access their documents and email anytime and from any device. In addition, a significant advantage of such developer collaboration tools is no need to have and maintain your own server and a system administrator on staff.
8. TeamViewer
Category: Screen sharing
TeamViewer is complete remote access, monitoring, and support solution compatible with almost all desktop and mobile platforms, including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.
This is a fast and secure all-in-one development collaboration tool for remote access to computers and networks. With a host of powerful remote access features that make remote management, online meetings, and a cloud-based help desk easy, many resources are available to demonstrate the full power of TeamViewer.
9. Toggl
Category: Workflow monitoring
Toggl is a workflow management tool for small teams. Toggl helps project owners plan work, create and track tasks, manage multiple projects, and view employee workloads. The tool can be used in the browser or the application for Android and iOS.
Toggl helps to solve three main problems in collaboration models - project planning, resource planning, and task management. Projects can be viewed as timelines and as a Kanban board. Tasks have a status, performer, and description. Users can add files, tags, and checklists, leave comments on the tasks, and log the time.
10. LastPass
Category: Security control
LastPass is a password management and storage service. This tool can also help you store team logins, generate strong passwords, keep track of personal information, and more.
LastPass is one of the best developer collaboration tools for password protection today. If you are a premium member of this software, it is technically impossible to leak your password or break into your vault to verify your personal information. In addition, it allows a person to share their confidential information in case of an emergency, and a person can also work with this software with minimal delays.
What tips can improve collaboration in the team?
Development collaboration tools are handy assistants for a team, but success also depends on proper project management and employee engagement. Here are some tips that will help you in software development collaboration.
1. Apply Sprint methods to collaboration
Don't try to predefine the perfect way to work together. Instead, apply the continuous improvement cycles across teams, gradually creating an ever-changing and improving process. Consider the Scrum approach for your work since it is a good framework for scaling agile procedures and avoiding chaotic issues in your project.
2. Ensure end-to-end work of agile project teams
Each team must be able to develop a full feature of your product end-to-end on its own without being dependent on another team. This allows managers and product owners to prioritize according to business value without considering the teams' skills. In addition, the teams can support each other or take over features from each other if necessary.
The coordination effort between the teams is negligible since they can work independently across all architecture layers or components. That saves time and money!
3. Set quality standards consistently
If you bring in external teams, define general requirements to the tools for software development management and a common quality standard for both internal and external teams. It is also essential to continuously measure the quality. For example, track the time the team members require to perform various tasks. Also, measurable metrics can include the cyclomatic complexity of the code, the number of duplications, or poorly written codes.
Conclusion
Tools for software development management help teams maintain productivity and achieve efficient and seamless collaboration. Thus, choosing and using the right digital solutions becomes the determining factor for success.
We've put together the best collaboration tools to work on your project easily and successfully!
