The 10 Best Software Development Project Management Tools for 2024

In-time and quality delivery in software development entails the use of good software development project management tools. Here are the 10 best project management tools for software development that development teams must know to streamline their project management efforts.

Project management in software development is a critical focus area for project stakeholders, especially project managers and project owners. No software development teams want to lose out on time and are always keen on optimizing resources to the best possible extent. Each team thus wants to have a top-notch software development project management tool.

Notably, 77% of performance-driven teams use project management software to manage their projects. So, if you are struggling to address how to manage a software development project, the best answer is by using a good project management tool.

However, several software development project management tools are there, and new ones are emerging rapidly. No tool is superior as each tool has its strengths and weaknesses. So, you need to understand the capabilities of each to choose the best project management tool for you. We help you with that here in this blog.

What is a software development project management tool?

Software development project management tools are tools that are specifically designed for managing software development projects. They come with features that combine project management capabilities in the context of software development and streamline the work of project managers and other software development team members. It can either be desktop-based or Cloud-based and can be leveraged by project managers to suit the needs of the project.

Which project management tool is best for software development?

Based on our experience of project management in software development, exposure to various software development project management tools, and research of recent developments in the space, here we have brought to you the 10 best project management tools for software development. Let’s delve into their features and capabilities to make a fair selection of the tool.

JIRA

An issue-tracking software, JIRA is one of the most coveted agile software development project management tools used nowadays. When you use the tool for the first time, numerous questions pop up that suggest the best template for your scenario. You thus have the option to customize and set up a theme that you find comfortable for project progress tracking.

The interactive interface helps project team members to set up a separate workspace for an individual team member as well as a common workspace for the entire team. So, you can choose to keep discussions private and public as deemed necessary by project requirements.

Jira easily integrates with Jenkins and GitHub which is a basic requirement of developers. It allows developers to actively keep a track of backlogs, thereby streamlining the development process.

Notable features of JIRA:

• Task Release and Management
• Dynamic Scrum boards that help in sprint planning
• Kanban boards
• Automation
• Custom Workflows

Trello

If you want to view your projects through Kanban boards, then Trello is the tool that you might be looking for. It is one of the easiest-to-use software development project management tools and gives real-time insight into teammates’ actions. When you have freelancers working in your time, Trello allows them to manage and organize their workflows, which simplifies the reporting process.

A lightweight tool, Trello can be mastered in a very short span of time and soon your teams can have their project work getting tracked using Trello. All they need to do is to open a card and put in all the information related to a task in it. A sequence of cards defines an operation and the flow can be automated. Features

Notable features of Trello:

• Cloud-based boards and lists
• Drag and Drop features
• Cross-platform support
• Timeline view that helps to meet deadlines
• Team Grouping and Organizing

Asana

Well-suited for small teams, Asana helps in assigning tasks to team members and simplifies the tracking process. Dependencies on each other are high in small teams, and so keeping a track of what the other team member is working on makes a difference. Asana bridges this gap and allows team members to remain on the same page.

Asana is known for its flexibility and responsiveness, as it easily integrates with external tools and platforms like Google Drive, DropBox, Chrome, and GitHub. Through its capabilities, Asana helps to build tasks, subtasks, and projects. You can create cards that would be visible only to particular members of the team – making certain interactions private. When a task is assigned to a team member, it becomes instantly visible in the member’s My Task view.

Notable features of Asana:

• Ability to communicate with custom likes and voting
• Great reminders that help stick to deadlines
• Excellent workflow templates
• Task assignment to specific individuals
• Bug report tracking

Nifty

Newer in the space when compared to other software development project management tools, Nifty helps in remarkably optimizing project development cycles. The tool comes with all essential capabilities that qualify a project management tool for software development. This helps teams to stick to schedules and finish activities on time.

With Nifty, you have the option to manage tasks using either list view or Kanban. The tool streamlines coordination and communication amongst team members and through individual and group communication threads. Nifty is one of the best software development project management tools for striking a perfect balance between the entire project planning and individual task management.

Notable features of Nifty include:

• Built-in calendar integrable with Google
• Excellent file and document sharing
• Integration with Github
• Interactive Interface
• Excellent support

Zoho Projects

Offering remarkable flexibility, Zoho Projects is a great option for managing software development projects. It functions as a tool specially designed for software project management and comes with a whole lot of essential features which a typical project management tool is expected to have.

Zoho allows you to make adjustments to perfectly match the needs of your projects. It allows you to translate projects into templates that you can reuse for your future activities. The automation capabilities supported by Zoho streamlines many important tasks like issue tracking, and so it has become a favorite amongst software development teams. Along with Zoho CRM, the tool integrates with external software applications like Google Apps.

Notable features of Zoho include:

• Strong integration
• Time Sheets
• Gantt charts and Resource utilization charts
• Kanban boards
• Sprint Tracking

Scoro

Scoro is a powerful software development project management tool that brings multiple capabilities together. At times, project management in software development requires you to deploy different tools to perform different tasks. This process unnecessarily consumes extra time, which if saved can be utilized to improve coordination across the project workflows.

With a host of powerful capabilities, Scoro is a one-stop solution for overcoming this dependency. A real-time KPI dashboard allows team members to gauge the efficiency of their work. Team members can access detailed reports as and when required to track the work against project progress and against the allocated budget. There is a task matrix that helps in keeping a track of the tasks.

Notable features of Scoro include:

• Task scheduling and automation
• Resource Planning
• Budget Forecasting
• Time tracking and work billing
• Scheduled meetings

Wrike

When your team needs to engage its hands frequently with spreadsheets, then this software project management tool is best for you. It allows users to assign appropriate completion status and thus simplifies the progress tracking process. Irrespective of whether you are a large firm with many teams or a small company with only one team, Wrike is suited to meet the needs of all, even including freelancers equally effectively.

The great side of Wrike is that it offers 360-degree visibility into the work progress and so team members are ever informed of the progress that’s taking place across processes in the project. Offering great real-time monitoring and automation capabilities, Wrike can be used to meet diverse project requirements.

Notable features of Wrike include:

• Spreadsheet-based project management
• Customizable Dashboards
• Gantt Charts and Kanban Boards
• Integration with external tools like Dropbox, Microsoft Excel, Google Apps
• Resource Planning Support and Excellent Timesheets

ProofHub

If you are looking to dwell on the power of multiple views for managing your software development project, then ProofHub is the best choice. You can choose any view from different available views – Task View, Gantt Chart view, Kanban view or calendar view, and build a custom workflow that suits the needs of your project.

As a modern-day software development project management tool, ProofHub overcomes the traditional idea of emailing and rather paves a way for faster communication through a host of capabilities. The tool is well-suited to the needs of a burgeoning or a small team and comes with a simple interface which makes learning and deploying it an easy process. The tool comes with plenty of reports surrounding resource tracking and workload analysis.

Notable features of ProofHub include:

• Centralized workspace for workflows, Gantt charts, task lists, and documents
• Real-time collaboration
• Role assignment, Task allocation, and Task Management
• Customized reports
• Timesheets

Basecamp

A favorite amongst software development project teams that desire social-media interface and convenient collaboration features, Basecamp is becoming a preferred choice of many teams. With a strong impetus on discussion and collaboration features, Basecamp ensures seamless communication across the entire spectrum of the project workflow. The tool sends a recap of the executed work on a regular basis to help team members know the status of the project.

Basecamp comes with an excellent user interface which is also one reason why team members have been choosing Basecamp. Great responsiveness and user-friendly features of the tool, with a great plug-in support are setting it apart in the competition. However, the downside is that you cannot integrate it easily with external tools like Dropbox and Google Drive.

Notable features of Basecamp include:

• To-do lists that simplify task management
• Document sharing and management
• Message boards to mull ideas
• In-app team collaboration
• Project archiving and Productivity reporting

Redmine

Developed by a volunteer community, Redmine is a software development project management tool that’s worth considering as it comes with tremendous project management capabilities. It’s an open-source tool that allows you to customize themes to suit your project needs and offers language flexibility, allowing you to choose the language of your choice to operate the tool and manage the project.

You can choose a plug-in of your choice to make a certain feature available as Redmine offers numerous plug-ins for which a fee may be incurred. As a web-based tool, Redmine is a great option to manage projects and subprojects for small companies with a limited budget for project management software.

Notable features of Redmine include:

• Collaboration forums and Time tracking
• CRM integration
• Gantt Charts and Kanban boards
• Roadmap planning
• Document Management and Newsfeeds

Pick up the right project management software for your project

Project management in software development is purely controlled by the tool you use for managing projects. You will have to spend time understanding software development project management tools, till you hit the right choice. The selection factors we outlined above will shorten the selection journey.

However, you cannot remain stuck to certain features or even to a tool, as the needs of your team will continue to evolve. So, while keeping a track of your projects with a project management software, you will also have to keep a track of the efficiency of the tool itself in meeting your requirements at a particular instance. Alternatively, you can partner with us for your projects and we will take care of the project management.