In today’s post-Covid pandemic times, Agile teams prefer remote collaboration more than ever before. With the right tools, they can keep themselves and their teams collaborative and efficient at whatever physical distance. In this article, we will look at some of the important tools that Agile teams need in order to do well while working in a remote working environment.
Communication is key to working together within a remote team. Some great means of communicative and collaborative platforms for agile teams include:
Slack helps you make decisions through timely messaging, sharing, and integration of productivity tools.
Communication Tools
- Microsoft Teams: An integrated chat, video conferencing, and document collaboration center that connects Agile teams on a common interface.
- Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile devices, desktops, and room systems.
Project Management Tools
Agile methodologies are based on iterative planning, execution, and adaptation. Team members of Agile, working remotely, would need suitable project management tools that help in practicing Agile methodologies and accommodate the flow of Agile practices. Here are some widely-used options:
- Jira: One of the leading tools for use in agile project management. It supports sprint planning, easy tracking of tasks, and management of the backlog.
- Azure DevOps Boards: All-in-one, powerful agile planning and tracking tool with features from backlog management, sprint planning to configurable boards fully seamlessly integrated with Azure DevOps pipelines for continuous integration and deployment.
- Trello: Organize, prioritize, and stay up-to-date on tasks between your team of Agile members with simple Kanban-style boards.
- Asana: Organize agile teams in pursuing their goals with features that enable flexible work management, including task management, timelines, and team organization.
Collaboration Platform
The remote Agile teams work on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations many times with some of the best collaboration tools. Here are more platforms for you to foster your team.
- MURAL: A visual workspace for visual collaboration work by Agile teams. They brainstorm, plan, and design on drawing on virtual whiteboards, sticking up virtual sticky notes, laying out diagrams, and more.
- Notion: A full-stack workplace application with the combination and organization of note-taking, project management, and knowledge sharing in a single platform for Agile teams in the organization, covering all content kinds.
- Microsoft Office 365 or Google Docs/Workspace: These tools allow for making edits, commenting, and working on the same document at the same time with others, enabling team members to work together interactively.
Version Control Systems
Version Control Systems are the backbone of changes to code and the cooperation of Agile software development teams on the codebases. Here is more on options:
- Git: Distributed version control system, Git allows agile teams to easily keep track of change histories, merge branches back to the mainline, and help in enforcing codebase integrity.
- Subversion (SVN): Another widely used version control system, SVN allows centralized management of code and provision for collaboration, which is very appropriate for teams either having specific requirements or working on legacy systems.
Agile Planning Tools
The core mechanism with which Agile teams deliver value continuously is through iterative cycles of planning, execution, and reviews. Other tools that help in planning and execution for Agile are as follows:
- Pivotal Tracker: An Agile software that ensures your team remains focused and pulls together to deliver. VersionOne: VersionOne supports Agile project management that allows for easy releasing, effective backlog management, and progress tracking. This basically means that teams on Targetprocess from
- Apptio: A tool to visualize their workflows on personal Agile boards, manage their backlogs, and make analytical decisions based on data that pinpoints the bottlenecks.
Remote agile team members have a number of tools for ensuring effective communication, collaboration, project management, and successful practice of agile. Through effective use of such tools, agile teams working remotely will thus be able to surmount the many challenges prevalent in such environments and continue offering service to their organizations and customers.