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Project Management Tools For Agile Teams
Project Management Tools For Agile Teams
4/2017
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Alexandra MIHALACHE
Faculty of Cybernetics, Statistics and Economic Informatics
Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania
[email protected]
The 21st century started as the era of agile methods and technologies which combine adaptable
and highly flexible methods designed to help teams to develop applications faster and safer.
The challenge is to adapt just enough technology to enhance the performance of teams which
are using agile methods and to avoid going back to weak workflow ideas of the industrial era.
In this paper, I will present some relevant agile tools that could improve every software
development project and I will also mention the features and criteria used for evaluating
currently existing tools. Finally, I will propose a classification model to the appropriate agile
tool selection, but keep in mind that in order to be successful, organizations and teams do need
to deal first with the issues that accompany product complexity and growing teams.
Keywords: project assessment, agile tools classification, unpredictable situations control
1 Introduction
Agile methods are undeniably one of the
most important and recent developments in
project team in a different manner.
Agile is about innovation and nowadays most
companies operate in highly dynamic
software engineering. Over the past 30 years environments, which mean they need tools
they have highly boost success rates in that can adapt quickly to changes. They do not
software development, motivation and need just new products and services but also
productivity of IT teams and also improve innovation in their business processes.
agility to market and quality. Spontaneous Companies which create an environment in
market changes have changed the business which agile dominate, find that teams can
plans for most companies, so they had to make innovations ideas really happen in a
shorten the delivery of a product and to be faster way, so in this paper I will compare the
more responsive to the expectations and most used agile tools which lead businesses to
demands of customers. Agile development success, providing comparisons between them
methodologies are very useful tools, and I will also analyze the changes of business
representing a real support to the development processes in a Romanian bank, due to the
of software processes, being able to adapt adoption of the PM agile tools.
according to the new market trends.
Implementing agile methodologies have a 2 Literature Review
huge impact on the discipline of business The aim of this section is to provide the
analysis in general, since they put in a background information of the paper topic.
forefront a new method of approach and The main purpose is to establish a solid base
prioritization of requirements within a team of the existing literature, and to investigate
which is implementing an IT project. questions like: “Why do you need an agile tool
Successful management of an agile project or how can it change your business?” or “How
depends heavily on the process of defining can agile development tools improve IT
requirements and developing smaller steps project success?”
which means a closer collaboration with the Relevant data regarding my research about the
whole team along SDLC (Software use of agile methods is represented by one of
Development Life Cycle) of the project. the most important tools in social science:
Migrating from a perspective of a traditional surveys. They are often used to collect data
project approach to an "agile" will lead to a about management trends, such as agile
redefinition of functional roles within a methods, or about attitudinal data,
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their proper context, the authors proved that known as an information radiator. Agile
the agile methods are just enough, in time and collaboration tools build solid relationships
right sized approaches for maximizing the between customers and teams. They also help
business value by managing the development teams to communicate efficiently, collaborate
of innovative software products. [2] and share needed information to implement
In 2012 – The results of the 6th Annual State the user stories. Like management tools, there
of Agile Development survey, sponsored by are also numerous commercial and open
VersionOne, show several interesting trends source collaboration tools, some important
among the agile community. Based on a ones supporting video conference feature to
sample of more than 6,000 persons, the survey make distance unimportant. The telephone is
findings show that software tools for agile one of the most basic tools used for this
management are in high-demand among purpose and social networking sites play also
respondents with multiple agile projects, and an important role regarding communication,
their use contribute to many successful agile giving the businesses opportunities to share
projects because they help users to execute personal data and promote their projects and
complex projects in an intuitive and time- brand. The development tools are designed for
effective manner. Their management creates coding and testing, helping teams with the
suitable deadlines according to the project technical aspects of the software. Commercial
details that users submit in the software and tools provide compilers and interpreters for
they do not have to depend on inaccurate different programming languages, databases
guesses. According to survey results, there is or graphical user interfaces. One of them is
a huge correlation between the number of Visual Studio, developed by Microsoft, which
agile projects, the use and benefits from a is a proprietary system running only on
project management tool, built especially for Windows. On the other hand, Eclipse, an open
agile. Organizations with 25 % or fewer agile source tool, support multiple platforms,
projects tend to rely on traditional project provide simple modeling tools, graphical
management tools to manage their projects, editors and reusable frameworks. The focus is
but the most of them are more likely to use a to create working software and for this are
purpose-built agile management tool like needed robust environments, whether
VersionOne. [3] commercial or open source. Going to agile
There are many agile tools designed support tools, they help teams to build and
especially for management, collaboration, deliver working software every 14 to 30 days,
development or support, including agile depending on how long iterations are. Many
technologies which are flexible and adaptable of them provide direct support for the creation
to constant changes. They focus on interaction of the working software. Automated testing
and communications which are considered to frameworks and open source utilities are the
be much more important than tools and most commonly used tools, commercial
technologies. Agile management tools are solutions being also very important because
very important to project teams, allowing they provide well-integrated code analysis,
them to execute projects using Scrum and testing and build automation. [2]
Extreme Programming in an efficient way, Returning to Ambler, in a recently survey
following predetermined rules. There are a lot which ran from January 31 this year to
of commercial and open source workflow February 19 under the title “February 2017
tools, ranging from sophisticated web-based Agile Mini-Survey”, 78% of the 180
applications to simple and specialized respondents reported that their agile teams are
utilities. The most popular tools are being governed in some manner, but they are
VersionOne, Rally and Jira which provide not totally governed in a lightweight or agile
support for both release and iteration manner. To produce positive results, agile
planning. One of the most basic tools used by manner must be adopted because traditional
agile teams is the whiteboard, which is being approaches to governing agile teams backfire,
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versatile, it means that the team is not limited II.8. Customer Portal
by the software’s visualization structure, such Designed for customers, it is used for detailed
as a Gantt chart. feedback based on which tasks can be
II.4. Issue and time tracking planned. A customer development portal
Issue tracking works perfectly together with helps project managers carry out software
project visualization and allows the team to walk-throughs and development teams also
easily identify the problems of a project, as benefit as they can ask for feedback soon after
well as the completed parts of it. Time a release. [5]
tracking is also important, helping the team to
deliver working software in time. This 4 Results
features are used commonly by software In this section I will present a detailed
development teams and help them to manage comparison between some relevant agile tools
revision-related work. that could aide in every software development
II.5. Collaboration project. In the first table are presented four
Depending on the nature of the project and commercial agile tools, while in the second
team it is very important to select suitable one are presented spreadsheets and simple
collaborative tools. This feature eliminates tools, all of them trying to give you answers to
email chains and makes it easy to find the questions like: “Do development teams need
information needed faster. A good agile to use expensive tools to produce good
software has robust collaboration tools for software?”
centralizing documents attached to projects on or “What is the key for selecting the
the board. In particular, employee appropriate tool for your business?”
collaboration is vital in agile. considering some of the following features:
II.6. Estimation Iteration planning and project tracking
Deadlines must be respected! Estimation is Basic/ advanced reporting & dashboards
very used by project managers to set accurate Release and sprint planning
requirements, to calculate how long an Acceptance and regression test
iteration takes and to update estimates after management
every release. Using a tool with this feature Epic management and agile portfolio
implemented, project managers can gather management
accurate estimations to generate a base of Centralized story & defect management
historical data which they can use to forecast Team collaboration and customer idea
future projects. management
II.7. Project Portfolio Integrations and multi-project support
Whereas agile can be difficult to scale because Sprint review and retrospectives
of its focus on individual contribution, team Customizable workflow and views
collaboration and constant changes, this issues Burndown, velocity and test trends
can be solved if project managers can quickly
access the entire portfolio of projects.
Multiple price points/ Free Multiple price points/ Multiple price points/ Multiple price points/
Price
trial Free trial Free trial Free trial/ Free
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Freelancers, Large
Freelancers, Large
Enterprises, Small- Freelancers, Large Large Enterprises,
Enterprises, Small-Medium
Intended Users Medium Businesses, Enterprises, Small- Small-Medium
Businesses, Non Profits,
Non Profits, Public Medium Businesses Businesses
Public Administrations
Administrations
Backlog
Full support Full support Full support Full support
Management
Test Management
(Acceptance and Partial support Full support Full support Full support
Regression)
Automated
Notifications of
Email Email Email Email
Changes to System
Assets
Tracking resources,
Yes Yes Yes Yes
time, tasks
Price Multiple price points/ Free Multiple price points/ Free trial Almost free
Platform Web-Based Web-Based/ Installed None
Large Enterprises, Small-
Intended Users Freelancers, Small Business Small-Medium Businesses
Medium Businesses
Backlog Management No Full support Manual
Task board view Yes Yes Yes
Iteration burn down chart None Yes Manual
Epics (hierarchy of backlog
None None Re-stick some notes
items)
Release and Iteration Planning
Partial support Partial support Manual
and Tracking
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Automated Notifications of
No Email No
Changes to System Assets
Manual, asking each
Tracking resources, time, tasks Yes Yes
person
Integration, API(s), SDK SDK:.Java, .NET SDK:.Java, .NET No
Email/Phone Community
Support Forums Direct communication
Website
Service None Training and Certification None
There are also some key questions you will purpose I talked with a Product Owner within
need to ask before to make the right choice. the company I work. After he explained me
Considering the following questions: “How that in the past they used to develop projects
large is your team?” “Is the tool scalable?” in a traditional way, using Waterfall
“How much does it cost?” “Are there remote methodology, a linear-sequential life cycle
resources?” “Is the solution hosted or will you model, I asked him “Why agile and what was
maintain the infrastructure behind it?” important in the process of choosing the
The answers to these simple questions will appropriate tool for business?”
not only drive your organization to the ideal Regarding the first half of my long question,
tool but will also help determine the cost. he explained me that in agile methodologies,
leadership encourages teamwork, face-to-face
5 Summary of Findings communication and accountability in a
In order to be successful, organizations and stronger way. Business stakeholders and
teams must deal with different issues that developers must work together to align the
accompany growing teams and product product with customer needs and company
complexity. An important key is represented goals. We talk about constant change which is
by the agile tools, because they help track embraced perfectly by agile methods, and
productivity, (both individual and team), have high-quality delivery, because the goal of
the ability to respond quickly to change, use each iteration is to produce a working product.
remote/virtual resources and create a strong They had to choose the right methodology to
collaboration with the customer. The use of fit their projects, it was not a transition just to
agile tools gives a clear line of sight to the be in trend.
customers’ priorities and what they can expect After many meetings and analysis between the
at the end of the sprint/iteration. features of about 15 tools they decided that
Just because an organization uses an agile tool JIRA fits their needs the best. I will mention
does not guarantee that it will be successful the pros and cons they took in account four
because it adopted agile methodology. Agile years ago, when they adopted agile:
is based on simplicity and the tools should PROS
reflect this especially, because there are many + Bug tracking: you can track the flow
applications which offer dozens of features through the environments the bugs have
that teams may never use. As an organization, passed (development/testing/development,
the migration to an agile environment can etc.)
seem daunting. Combining this with the + Collect statistics and make predictions
selection of an appropriate tool it only brings according on how things worked. It can
more challenges but, at the same time it provide an estimate of the sprint/project
highlights the importance of the right tool, completion (if people estimate/log the time
which may be the defining factor for a correctly and honestly)
successful transition to agile. + Cost optimization tracking. The project
In the first section of my research I mentioned evolution it is very important because it lasts
that I will define the changes of business until all user stories are developed and bugs
processes in a Romanian bank, due to the are solved. JIRA gives you the right
adoption of the PM agile tools. For this information about what was wrong and what
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you need to optimize. you do not have a very good image (as a kind
+ Versioning: keeping versions of objects so of graphic) on what is happening in the
every change can be seen by everyone who is project. For example, now all the focus is on
part of the project (developer, tester, business the development of the requirements (it's a
analyst, scrum master, product owner) peak in the graph), then the graph line drops
CONS and moves to testing, followed by a chart
- The management of the production process increase in the test area (because all the effort
is not very well illustrated. He referred that moves to the test)
Jira Big community, Multi –language support, 600+ Poor backlog, sprint management tools
plugins and add-on, mobile Lacks burndown and resource reporting
Visual Studio Team Useful features for managing agile processes It is desirable to use other Microsoft tools for
Services development
Google Suite Good tool for small teams and small processes. Manual work
No installation of hardware or software is
required
Microsoft Project It's foolproof - as long as you enter everything The software is pretty expensive which makes it
correctly and it requires no upfront difficult for smaller companies to afford and if you
infrastructure costs, offeringflexible subscription have a previous version of Office and you have
plans, helping you keep your technology costs purchased a newer version of Project, these are not
low compatible. Manual work
- The difference between a new user story to another according to the used methodology:
and an old one from another sprint. You Scrum (to do, in progress, done) or Kanban
cannot differentiate user stories appurtenance. (backlog, selected for development,
If you start a sprint and you do not finish to postponed, reopened, ready for test, done).
develop all the user stories, they will be part You became more motivated and stimulated
of the next sprint, but in JIRA you cannot (“Look X has moved 3 tickets today! I'm
make a difference which are from the previous going to do the same.”). Your relationship
sprint/s and which are new. with your team workers is improved because
Even tough JIRA is a powerful tool, the discussions/debates are started on different
product owner told me they never gave up on issues.
simple tools like whiteboard, high o High performance tree
performance tree and ceremonies which are It is another visual management tool, with
very useful. whom each person in the team express his/her
o Whiteboard mood, sticking a leaf to the tree according to
There is no longer human-computer it. Thus relationship comes in: "Are you okay
interaction, because you see physically how today? What needs to be done? "
the tickets/post-it are moved (including user- o Ceremonies
stories/bugs) on the board from one category
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Sprint meetings (e.g. daily meeting, powerful integrated tool, having a lot of
grooming, planning, sprint review, effective features easy to use. In the
retrospective) circumstances that Microsoft is the ancestor of
agile methodologies, the company improve a
6 Conclusion lot in their development process and
After all I have read and all the information I functionalities. Google Docs and Microsoft
have gained I am sure that there is a tool for Project are both effective tools for small teams
any agile project being worked on, but the key with relatively simple processes. Their main
is to figure out which one is right for your advantage is ease of use and handling.
organization. Choosing an agile tool suitable In the table below I highlighted the pros and
for managing your particular processes is no cons of the tools described, letting you taking
easy task. All of the products mentioned in the the good decision depending on how they fit
table from above (apart from Google Suite) or not your business needs.
provide a free trial period time, where a team
can try out the tool functionalities, check how References
it works in a real project and how it fits the [1] Rigby, D. K., Sutherland, J., & Takeuchi,
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functionalities help clients to keep track of the Maximizing ROI with just-in-time
team progress and monitor what obstacles processes and documentation (pp. 96-97).
appeared, giving the possibility to overcome Boca Raton, FL: J. Ross.
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teams work remotely and these tools also 2017, from
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Visual Studio Team Services is also a
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