With the WSJF technique, prioritization and PI Plannings become damn easy, highly effective and even fun! Step-by-step guide and free WSJF Excel template
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Do you feel the need to improve your work processes? You may feel like you’re getting lost in a maze of tasks, goals, and plans, but you somehow never come around to organizing it in a clear way.
And this undoubtedly affects everyone on the team. You just know you can be more productive.
This is where the right scaled agile project management tools come into play. And we’d like to emphasize on the word ‘right’, every team and every project has different needs. It’s crucial to find the one that fits your needs.
Did you know that most project management tools out there are not really designed to support the agile methodology? Having a sea of features to choose from can only contribute to being disorganized, leading to unnecessary delays.
We’ve put together a list of the 9 most suitable software for agile teams so that you can narrow down your search.
Bring your agile workflows and productivity to a whole new level. scagile was created out of a need for a tool that not only organizes your processes, but it supports you in the best way possible, so you don’t fall out of Agile.
Scagile is a scaled agile (well, the name says it) project management tool for organizations of all sizes and in any industry. It has all the necessary features (without any extra fluff) and everything you need so you can make your processes work for you.
So, what makes scagile the best tool for agile organizations?
Well, scagile is designed to keep Agile front and center. If you want to do Waterfall, it won’t work for you. However, if being agile is your goal, then this is the tool for you.
All features were created with this in mind – what does a team need to stick to the agile methodology as much as possible.
The tool doesn’t require any further integration and it’s very easy to grasp – the design is held as simple and understandable as possible, so you won’t get lost and waste time wrapping your head around it.
These are just the beginning features. In fact, our own Backlog is full for years to come and we’ll keep putting out new features as quickly as possible.
Targetprocess is an agile enterprise project management tool that is said to simplify the adoption of agile methodologies across enterprises. It offers pre-built templates for SAFe®, LeSS, Nexus, and other frameworks, but it’s also very customizable, depending on your preferences.
While all this can work great for some teams, having the freedom to customize absolutely everything hides a risk of losing your focus on being agile.
Like many other tools, Targetprocess allows managers to quickly access real-time data on tasks, team capacity, throughput, and cycle times. This helps identify bottlenecks, adjust workloads, and enhance team productivity. Users can also create custom reports and metrics for added flexibility.
Targetprocess can be integrated with other systems like Git, JIRA, Trello, Slack, Microsoft Office, and Outlook.
SpiraPlan is a comprehensive project management solution designed for developers, testers, and planners. Supporting agile methodologies like Scrum, Kanban, XP, DSDM, and AUP, it integrates project requisites, tasks, bugs/issues, releases, and more.
The Agile Planning Board facilitates efficient team meetings with color-coding and drag-and-drop editing. SpiraPlan ensures a consolidated user interface for major project status and health data, offering a single, integrated view of reporting user interfaces, including risk indicators, task burnup/burndown, project velocity, and more.
It serves as an Enterprise Program & Portfolio Management System, synchronizing project elements in one environment, with enterprise risk management integrated.
Some users share in their reviews that they found SpiraPlan to not be very intuitive in some parts, as well as slow response time at times. However, the biggest downside seems to be the steeper price in comparison to other scaled agile project management tools.
Kendis is an Agile Scaling Platform that supports various scaling models like SAFe®, Scrum of Scrums, LeSS, or custom structures. It allows management of cross-team dependencies, releases, programs, portfolios, and Agile Release Trains.
Kendis can be integrated with many other tools like Atlassian JIRA, TFS (Microsoft VSTS), and Yodiz, enabling agile teams to use their existing tools while efficiently managing larger-scale projects and portfolios within Kendis.
Monday.com, a popular agile tool, stands out for its simple collaboration with synced timelines and an easy-to-use Kanban-style layout. It has a clean interface and customizable workflows.
While appreciated for simplicity and robust automation, it’s criticized for a somewhat cluttered, spreadsheet-like display. Key features include custom dashboards, powerful automations, and a template library for quick project starts.
Monday.com is a very feature-rich tool, making it a bit difficult to grasp at first, as well as to find the right path towards agile workflows.
It can be easily integrated with Microsoft Teams, Dropbox, Slack, Google Drive, and other tools.
ClickUp is another very popular agile tool, designed for productivity enhancement and workflow simplification. It’s adaptable to various workflows, including Kanban, Scrum, and Agile, meaning it’s not Agile-specific, but it could work for it.
From the reviews we’ve seen, the ClickUp support doesn’t seem all that helpful, since they heavily rely on their chatbot. There also seems to be a steep learning curve when you initially start using the tool, as it’s so rich in features.
However, it’s been rated among the best Project Management Software in 2023 by Forbes.
Asana functions as a tool for project management, offering a range of integrations to enhance team efficiency. Notably user-friendly, this project management software simplifies task management through a drag-and-drop feature, distinguishing itself from many other solutions.
Agile teams appreciate Asana’s approach, leveraging projects and sections to visually organize work and provide clarity on project planning responsibilities.
Despite its popularity, Asana has grappled with challenges in keeping pace with its rapid growth. This has resulted in occasional downtime, causing disruptions to workflows and leaving Agile users feeling discontent.
Wrike proves effective as a project management tool, especially suitable for small Agile teams. You can maintain visibility into your Agile team’s activities with Wrike’s activity stream dashboard, allowing you to track ongoing tasks and contributors. The platform’s issue–tracking feature is particularly valuable for Agile development teams dealing with bug management.
It’s worth mentioning, though, that Wrike’s free version has notable limitations. Moreover, the setup process for the tools can be time-consuming and comes with a steep learning curve.
JIRA is by far the most popular scaled agile project management tool out there. But we’re not big fans of it.
We’ll tell you why shortly, but first let’s focus on its positive aspects.
JIRA is as old as the world, so respectfully it has so-o-o many features that you could drown in them. Honestly, JIRA has almost anything you could think of. It’s the most recognized PM software and it can be integrated with many other tools. If you’re working with clients, chances are they also use JIRA.
But as much as people love having all the features in the world at their feet, this is not always a good thing. Jira’s complexity is often overwhelming, requiring developer involvement just for setup. Moreover, if you want to achieve teamwork across multiple cross-functional teams, this demands the configuration of numerous Jira integrations.
It’s also among the pricier agile tools, and even for small teams, costs can escalate into the thousands-of-dollars range.
There are many scaled agile tools out there that can help you manage your projects. But keep in mind that most tools are exactly this – project management tools. Very few of them actually support you in adapting and keeping an agile mindset.
You also need to remember that every team and every project has different requirements.
If you’re looking for a tool that makes project management easy and doesn’t let you slip from your Agile journey – there’s only one answer: scagile.
Plan your PI, track sprints, create subtasks of the right type, prioritize using the WSJF calculator, and estimate stories with Story Points. This and many more agile features are here to support you on your journey, all in one place.
And don’t forget – it’s currently free!
With the WSJF technique, prioritization and PI Plannings become damn easy, highly effective and even fun! Step-by-step guide and free WSJF Excel template
With the WSJF calculator Excel Template you can easily prioritize your backlog. It’s fast, encourages the team spirit and is actually fun! Here we describe how it works step by step.
In this article, we take a look at the Sprint Retrospective, reveal common mistakes and show how it should be done correctly. Because, despite its importance, many teams seem to struggle with its implementation.