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Leading agile teams is challenging because there are countless moving parts and evolving process to manage.
However, it’s especially difficult if you don’t have the right software behind you.
Agile project management tools help you jump from daily scrums to your next sprint while giving your team collaboration features to accomplish the common goal.
And let’s be honest. Your team probably isn’t running at maximum efficiency without an agile project management software doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes.
So, how do you choose the right tool for the job? With so many options out there, it’s not always an easy decision.
To help you out, we looked at countless software on the market and narrowed it down to the eight best agile project management tools available.
Monday.com
Best Overall Agile Project Management Tool
Monday.com has everything you need for sprint planning, product launches, bug tracking, and more. The software has a wide range of use cases to accommodate teams of all sizes.
The Best Agile Project Management Tools to Consider:
- Monday.com – Most popular agile project management tool
- Pivotal Tracker – Best for developers and engineers
- Clarizen Go – Best simple agile project management software
- Jira – Best for software development teams
- SAM9000 – Best for marketers and designers
- Kanbanize – Best Kanban agile project management tool
- Project Manager – Best for flexibility and customization
- Hive – Best agile project management software for ease-of-use
When it Makes Sense to Invest Into Agile Project Management Software
Traditional project management follows a linear path. However, this rigid methodology makes it challenging to handle changes that occur throughout the duration of the project.
Which… is fine for simple tasks that take less than a day or two. But at scale, agile management is the best option.
So, if you’re running a project using the agile management method, you need to invest in agile project management software—it’s as simple as that.
The agile method is commonly used for software development teams. But in today’s business landscape, this approach is useful for large-scale and complex projects of all shapes and sizes.
Agile PM tools let you break projects into multiple stages. And within those stages, you can easily spot areas for continuous collaboration or process improvement.
So if you’re a project manager handling fast-changing deliverables, it’s time to find agile management software.
#1 – Monday.com — Most Popular Agile Project Management Tool
Monday.com
Best Overall Agile Project Management Tool
Monday.com has everything you need for sprint planning, product launches, bug tracking, and more. The software has a wide range of use cases to accommodate teams of all sizes.
Monday.com is one of the most popular agile management tools on the market today. It’s trusted by 100,000+ companies across the globe, including Apple, Adobe, Hulu, Uber, and more.
The software is flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of use cases. And it’s a great option for remote work, marketing teams, software teams, sales, and even low code development.
With Monday.com, agile management teams benefit from features like:
- Sprint planning
- Product launches
- Bug tracking
- Real-time reporting
- Team collaboration
The platform makes it easy to automate redundant and mundane tasks, giving your team more time to focus on what’s important.
Monday.com has a wide range of project management templates you can start with. Plus, it integrates with tools you’re already using, like Slack, G Suite, Microsoft Teams, Asana, and more.
Pricing is based on the number of users you need. Here’s a look at the starting rates for a team of five:
- Basic — $39 per month
- Standard — $49 per month
- Pro — $79 per month
But Monday.com is flexible enough to accommodate large organizations with 200+ users as well. Try it free with a 14-day trial.
#2 – Pivotal Tracker Review — Best For Developers
Pivotal Tracker
Best For Developers
Pivotal Tracker makes it easy for developers to manage multiple projects simultaneously. The software integrates with 140+ apps and has a free plan for up to five users.
Pivotal Tracker is an agile management tool specifically for developers. The features are designed to accommodate development projects following the agile method.
With Pivotal Tracker, everyone on your team stays organized. The guided iteration helps you break down projects into chunks that are more manageable for developers.
You can also prioritize the most important tasks.
Top features and benefits of Pivotal Tracker include:
- Project stories
- Emergent iterations
- Multi-project workspaces
- Visual analytics
- File sharing
- Powerful search syntax
- Labels
- REST API
Plus, Pivotal Tracker integrates with 140+ third-party apps like Slack, Zapier, Zendesk, GitHub, and more.
Pricing starts at $10 flat per month for 6-10 users. For 11+ collaborators, the billing structure shifts to $6.50 per month per user.
And there’s also a free plan for up to five users, but it limits you to just five projects.
Try any paid Pivotal Tracker plan free for 30 days.
#3 – Clarizen Go Review — Best Simple Agile Project Management Tool
Clarizen Go
Best For Simple Agile Management
Clarizen Go is a centralized location for your agile projects. Manage multiple boards and add guests like stakeholders and clients for free.
Clarizen offers two different project management solutions—Clarizen One and Clarizen Go. But Clarizen One is for enterprise portfolio management. And Clarizen Go is for agile teams.
The software makes it easy for agile teams to pivot and make changes to their projects at any time.
Clarizen Go allows users to manage multiple boards for different teams, customers, or products. And every board is fully customized to match the workflow for that particular project.
With Clarizen, you can define target dates, milestones, and make sure the entire team is held accountable for their tasks and workload.
Plus, all the information for each project is managed from a central location. So it’s easy for team members and managers to communicate with comments on tasks and boards.
Furthermore, Clarizen Go makes it easy to scale your team as well. You can onboard new members and even provide access to external stakeholders, colleagues, partners, vendors, and more. And guest access is always free.
The tool supports scrum, spring management, retrospectives, and everything else you need to simplify agile management.
Pricing is not available online. But you can try Clarizen Go free for 30 days. You can get more pricing information towards the end of your trial.
#4 – Jira Review — The Best For Software Teams
Jira
Best For Software Teams
Jira integrates with 3,000+ apps and provides enhanced visibility into your software development pipeline. Leverage scrum boards, Kanban boards, roadmaps, and agile reporting. Free for up to 10 users.
Jira by Atlassian is the perfect agile project management solution for software teams. It’s trusted by 65,000+ organizations worldwide.
You can start using Jira’s predefined workflows or create one that matches the unique way your team operates. And it’s easy to create stories and issues, plan your sprints, and distribute tasks to each member of your team.
Other highlights of Jira Software include:
- 3,000+ integrations
- Scrum boards
- Kanban boards
- Roadmaps
- Agile reporting
- Enterprise-grade security
- Drag-and-drop automation rules
Developers can also enjoy the ability to connect information from version controls, builds, deployments, or feature flagging tools. This helps give you instant visibility into the software development pipeline.
Jira is free for up to ten users. And their paid plans start at $7 and $14 per month per user, respectively. But you can try it free for seven days.
#5 – SAM9000 Review — Best For Marketers and Designers
SAM9000
Best For Marketers
Use AI technology to help manage your agile projects. Benefit from 3D Kanban boards, file sharing, and 100 GB of cloud storage. Starts at $29.
SAM9000 is an agile project management tool that leverages the power of artificial intelligence. This smart assistant helps you move projects along while keeping everything fast and secure.
With SAM9000, you can benefit from APM (agile productivity management), which is a variation of the Scrumban method.
Here’s a closer look at the features and benefits of SAM9000:
- 3D Kanban boards
- 100 GB of cloud storage
- File sharing
- Task management
- Email management
- Cross-platform support
- Timesheet and tracking
SAM9000 is a great option for small businesses, marketing teams, and designers. However, it doesn’t quite have the features required to accommodate the needs of software developers.
Pricing starts at $29 per month and includes ten users. Each additional block of ten users costs $19 per month. And all subscriptions are billed annually.
You can try SAM9000 free for 30 days.
#6 – Kanbanize Review — The Best Kanban Tool
Kanbanize
Best Kanban Tool
Kanbanize gives managers a big picture view of projects across each department. The software comes with extensive learning resources about the Kanban methodology, lean management, agile principles, and more.
As the name implies, Kanbanize is an agile project management solution that specializes in Kanban boards. These visual project management tools help create a hierarchy of tasks across entire organizations.
As a project manager, you get a complete picture of your team’s progress and potential risks. And these are automatically updated across your management boards.
The built-in automation features help optimize your workflow and boost team productivity.
Another top feature of Kanbanize is the platform’s extensive knowledge base. In addition to explaining how the software works, Kanbanize offers resources about:
- The Kanban method
- Portfolio Kanban
- Kanban metrics
- Agile principles
- Lean management resources
- And implementing agile management
Plans start at $99 per license, with up to 15 user seats.
Unfortunately, you don’t get all of the features out of the box. And add-ons for things like business rules, analytics, SSO, and 2FA, cost extra.
However, you can try Kanbanize free for 30 days; no credit card required.
#7 – Project Manager Review — Best For Flexibility
Project Manager
Best For Flexibility
Project Manager supports dozens of industries and use cases. Switch project views between Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and task lists.
Project Manager has helped more than two million projects for companies across the globe. And ell-known brands like Ralph Lauren, AVIS, the US Postal Service, Bank of America, Volvo, and NASA rely on its solutions.
Project Manager gives your team the ability to customize the way they view and manage tasks. Furthermore, the tool supports various project views, including Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and task lists.
Compared to other agile management solutions on the market, Project Manager is extremely versatile. It has use cases for a wide range of industries and teams, including:
- IT and development
- Professional services
- Manufacturing
- Marketing
- Construction
- Engineering
- Nonprofit
- Event planning
- Creative teams
- Product management
- Aerospace
- Public Utilities
- Telecommunications
- Universities and education
- Pharmaceuticals
- Local government
The list goes on and on. With dozens of supported industries, there’s a good chance that your unique situation falls within the scope of Project Manager’s capabilities.
Plus, pricing is simple and straightforward:
- Personal — $15 per user per month (starts with 5 users)
- Team — $20 per user per month (starts with 10 users)
- Business — $25 per user per month (starts with 15 users)
Sign up now and try Project Manager free for 30 days.
#8 – Hive Review — Best User-Friendly Project Management Tool
Hive
User-Friendly Project Management Tool
Hive supports multiple project views and integrates with thousands of other tools. Starting at $12, it’s an ideal solution for beginners.
Hive is an all-in-one productivity platform. So if you’re just getting your feet wet with the agile management method Hive is a simple, yet powerful, solution to consider.
Some project management tools are a bit confusing, especially for users who are new to the concept. But Hive is easy for everyone in your project team to use, including managers.
With Hive, your team has the freedom to change the way they manage projects. Plus, you can leverage:
- Gantt charts
- Kanban charts
- Tables
- Calendar view
- Status view
- Team view
And Hive integrates with 1,000+ third-party tools and apps like HubSpot, Slack, G Suite, Zendesk, GitHub, and more.
Plans start at $12 per user per month. They also have a wide range of add-ons for things like proofing and approvals, resourcing, timesheets, external users, security, and analytics. These add-ons cost $4-$6 per user per month.
Sign up now and try Hive free for 14 days.
Methodology For Choosing The Best Agile Project Management Tools
Not every project management tool has features to accommodate agile teams. So you need to narrow your focus to the software designed for agile management.
And there are certain features you should consider as you’re evaluating prospective solutions.
These are the characteristics we considered when picking the winners in this guide. You can weigh these considerations according to your personal needs as you’re shopping around.
Framework Preference
What agile methodology are you currently using to manage your team? What methodology are you planning to use moving forward?
Make sure the software you’re considering supports your framework preferences. I’m referring to things like Kanban vs. scrum or even variations like Scrumban and APM.
Each tool won’t be ideal for every single agile methodology. Some specialize in just one or two frameworks.
Team Collaboration
How big is your team?
Most tools start by supporting five or ten users. But other tools can handle hundreds of users. You need to make sure that the software makes it easy to distinguish different projects and teams, especially for those of you managing larger groups.
The best agile project management tools have built-in collaboration features. All of them should have basic tools for things like file sharing, comments, and tagging.
Project Complexity
Generally speaking, software development projects are typically more complex than marketing campaigns or product development.
Software developers and IT teams have unique needs and must have features to support their ever-changing workflows. So if you’re managing a complex project, make sure you’re not using beginner agile project management software.
With that said, some of those beginner and user-friendly tools can be great for teams who are new to the agile methodology.
Reporting and Analytics
How productive is your team? Will you complete the project on time?
Sure, some project views can give you a general idea of this information at a glance. But the only way to really dive in is with advanced reports and analytics. This data is crucial for large-scale and complex projects.
The information in these reports can help you determine if your projects are on track and even on budget. Project managers can use analytics to gain a better understanding of the big picture.
Monday.com
Best Overall Agile Project Management Tool
Monday.com has everything you need for sprint planning, product launches, bug tracking, and more. The software has a wide range of use cases to accommodate teams of all sizes.
Summary
What’s the best agile project management tool?
Monday.com is our top overall recommendation. Its features, benefits, flexibility, potential use cases, and pricing will fit the needs for most agile projects. With that said, there are plenty of other great choices on the market to consider for specific situations, such as software development.
Use the recommendations and methodology highlighted in this guide to find the best agile project management software for your team.
This article was written by today’s Daily Eggspert.
Source: https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/best-agile-project-management-tools/
