Agile has achieved a great deal of traction over the last couple of years, and companies right, left, and center are aiming to implement an agile methodology in their workforces.
And in light of this, how can you run a successful agile project?
One way to achieve this is by taking the help of agile tools. These tools are aimed to aid your project management lifecycle with the agile manifesto in mind.
However, with the popularity of the agile methodology, there is a vast number of such tools in the marketplace to choose from.
That is why we curated this list of the best to make this choice just a little easier for you.
But before we get into our top picks for the best agile tools, it is important to understand what we mean both by agile methodology and agile tools. Furthermore, you need to know what to look for to classify as a contender for a good agile tool for project management.
What is Agile?
‘Agile’ can be classified as a project management methodology that is portrayed by using short work cycles to build products that customers want. These short cycles allow for rapid production while conducting constant revision and feedback on the product.
What are Agile Tools?
Project management tools that support agile methodology can be defined as agile tools.
With agile project management tools, project managers are aided in their project management lifecycles with the resources, budgets, and timelines of a project.
These tools help project managers manage each aspect of a project with mechanisms that allow for collaborating, file sharing, and progress reports that allow managers to keep track of how their project is progressing.
What are the Essential Features for Agile Project Management?
There are certain features in project management tools that make them great for agile teams. These features might include:
- Progress visualization allows for an easy view of where each team member stands with the tasks assigned to them
- Strong collaboration opportunities are a hallmark of a good agile team, and features allowing this will help focus on achieving the agile manifesto, which includes “individuals and interactions over processes and tools.”
- Backlog management allows you to prioritize user stories and bugs
- Custom workflows allow you to update issues automatically based on events
- Kanban or Scrum boards give you an overview of the tasks, assignees, and status of each project
- You can track the total work remaining in a particular time period by burndown charts
Best Agile Tools for Project management
Now that we have outlined what exactly Agile is, let us get on with our list of the top agile tools for project management in 2023.
1. nTask
We are kicking off our list with one of the most versatile agile tools available in the market, nTask is the perfect topper for our list of agile project management tools.
nTask is a project management tool that aids the way to agile methodologies and allows for painless agile implementation.
This tool tops our list because it incorporates all things project management into a single platform allowing you and your team to work effectively and reach your goals efficiently.
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Software features:
- nTask lets you easily plan your projects, tasks, timesheets, etc.
- Systematically create and manage to-do lists.
- Identify dependencies with nTask and highlight them accordingly
- Set start and end dates for any particular task
- Assign tasks to your team and collaborate in real-time
- nTask allows you to assign multiple assignees allowing quicker task allocation
- Collaboration features allow you to collaborate with your team in real-time easily
- Options available to attach files to your tasks
- Keep track of all your task activities and updates
- Track task progress with nTask’s robust progress reports
- Customize the status of tasks to keep everyone in the loop
- Segregate your tasks into respective categories and add labels and filters for clarity
- nTask provides visualization features allowing you to visualize your progress
- Gantt charts allow you to schedule and track project performance
- nTask’s calendar allows you to plan your events
- nTask allows you to track, assign, prioritize and fix bugs and issues faster with nTask’s issue management system
- Assign issue severity levels
- Highlight issue priority levels
- Bug tracker facilitates comments and file attachments to ensure everyone gets notified of issue updates
- nTask’s risk management tool allows you to define risks, their likelihood, and current status of your project team
- Use nTask’s risk matrix to identify relationships between the probability of a risk and its resulting impact
- With nTask, you can manage your risks efficiently and lower their impact
Pricing:
- Basic plan for free
- Issues tracking
- Timesheets
- Meetings
- Unlimited tasks
- Unlimited workspaces
- Limit of 5 members per team
- 100 MB storage
- Premium $3 per month
- Everything provided in the basic plan, plus
- 5 GB storage
- Projects
- Gantt
- Bulk Actions
- Custom filters
- Business plan for $8 per month
- Everything provided in the premium plan, plus
- 10 GB storage
- Save custom filters
- Risk management
- Custom roles and permissions
- Enterprise plan customizable plan
- Everything in business, plus
- Custom onboarding
- Dedicated account manager
- Dedicated cloud
2. Monday.com
Next on our list is Monday.com, this agile management tool is great for teams following agile or even hybrid methodologies.
This agile-based tool will help your project management with features that include calendar, time tracking, and planning.
Monday.com allows you to track your agile projects through dashboards that will collect your data from multiple boards you work on to see work in progress. This, therefore, makes it a great project reporting tool.
Software features:
- Reporting features
- Your project’s development can be tracked through multiple views such as Kanban, timelines or charts
- Task, resource, and document management
- Workflow automation is possible
- Team collaboration ability
- Timesheet tracking
Pricing:
- Basic plan for $8 per month per user
- Standard plan for $10 per month per user
- Pro plan for $16 per month per user
- Customizable enterprise plan
Related:
Asana Vs Monday Vs nTask: Which Project Management Tool Is the Best?
3. Jira
Atlassian’s Jira is a popular tool used in agile software development and a prevalent project management program.
The agile software development tool, Jira, allows you to plan, track, and manage your agile as well as your software development projects.
With Jira’s software, you can customize your workflow while collaborating, allowing you to release great software.
Although it should be noted, if you need certain features not offered in the free plan, you may start raking up a hefty bill for fairly large teams.
Software Features:
- Custom fields
- Bug tracking
- Customizable Scrum Boards
- Flexible Kanban boards
- Epics
- Issue tracking
- Reporting with real-time image of your progress with burnout charts, sprint reports, cumulative flow diagrams, velocity charts
- Developer tool integrations
Pricing:
- Free plan
- Standard plan for $7 per month per user starting price
- Premium plan for $14 per month per user starting price
4. ActiveCollab
ActiveCollab is the next tool on our list and is on the list of great agile project management tools.
With intuitive document management and budgeting and reporting features that are unlike any other, this is a great software to consider for your agile project management needs.
Although it should be noted that ActiveCollab lacks Gantt Charts and prefers to display progress in a timeline or column view that may not agree with everyone.
Software Features:
- Project progress
- Ability to set recurring tasks
- Option to create labels
- Workload reports
- Task management, with updates and task tracking all in one location
- Provides you with the option to integrate your email
- Team collaboration features such as @mentions, collaborative writing as well as an all-in-one calendar
- Time tracking features such as time-tracking reports and a timer app
Pricing:
- ActiveCollab project management for $7 per month per user
- Additional paid bundles for $4 per month per user
5. Pivotal Tracker
Yet another popular tool used in agile methodologies is Pivotal Tracker. The software claims to be an agile project management tool.
The software is a popular tool for developers and provides a place for real-time collaboration around a combined, prioritized backlog. Thus, Pivotal Tracker can also be seen as a great agile team collaboration tool.
Software features:
- Multi-project workspaces
- Reporting features and analytical representations of project trends, cumulative flow, cycle time report and more
- File sharing
- Option to create labels
- Task management
- Story linking
- Automatic planning based on velocity
Pricing:
- Free for 1-5 collaborators
- Startup plan for 6-10 collaborators for $10 per month
- Standard plan for more than 11 collaborators for $6.50 per collaborator per month
- Contact provider for enterprise plan pricing
6. Clarizen
Clarizen is a flexible project management tool that can easily be configured to be able to support agile as well as hybrid methodologies.
This agile planning tool is aimed at helping your project happen quicker with streamlined workflows.
Project portfolio management is completely covered with Clarizen’s features, allowing project and portfolio optimization which in turn allows you to align projects with your business objectives easily.
Software features:
- Flexible workflow automation
- Task management and planning tools
- Dashboards allow for teams to become aligned and aid in collaboration easily
- Project timelines for easy planning
- Option to run scenarios to stay on top of your project’s progress
- Real-time insights available to see available resources, schedules, and tasks
- Integration options with other enterprise tools
Pricing:
- Contact for pricing plans
7. Axosoft
Axosoft is the next agile project management tool on our list. Axosoft is specifically a scrum management software.
With this agile planning tool, you can visualize each step of your development process for your project and view your progress with the Axosoft graph features.
This software allows for a completely streamlined process from planning to releasing a project, allowing you and your team to work more effectively.
Software features:
- Time estimates feature
- Stack ranking
- Burndown charts
- Daily scrum mode
- Backlog management
- Kanban boards
- Negative feedback management
- Status tracking
- Team and workflow management
Pricing:
- For a plan hosted by Axosoft, $126 per month, when paid monthly
- For a plan installed by you, a total of $1,250
Related:
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8. MeisterTask
Up next is MeisterTask. This agile project management tool was created with the needs of agile teams in mind.
The software accommodates different workflows, making it a popular choice for many agile teams.
With flexible project boards, the tool can easily adapt to your team’s workflow, and options available to integrate with your favorite tools allow the software to create a seamless workflow with smart automation, allowing you to work efficiently and consistently.
Software Features:
- Backlog management
- Options to view the progress of your project and reports with Gantt charts or a timeline view
- Request and resource management
- Status tracking abilities
- Team management
- Workflow management
- Kanban boards
- Milestone tracking
Pricing:
- Basic plan as a free agile tool
- Pro plan for $4.19 per month
- Business plan for $10.39 per month
- Contact for custom enterprise plan
9. GitLab
GitLab is a cloud-based DevOps platform that helps businesses improve operations and therefore is a popular tool used in agile software development.
This agile software tool helps fast-track software delivery, thus reducing costs and risks associated with application vulnerabilities while simultaneously increasing developer productivity.
Software features:
- Workflow management
- Kanban boards
- Multiple collaboration tools
- Reporting and analytics features
- Approvals workflows
- Portfolio management
Pricing:
- Free plan
- Bronze or starter plan for $4 per user per month
- Silver or premium plan for $19 per user per month
- Gold or ultimate plan for $99 per user per month
10. Productboard
Next up is Productboard, an agile product management system that allows your entire team to be aligned in the development cycle.
Customizable boards allow teams to have the right balance of flexibility and guidance.
Software features:
- Kanban boards
- Progress reports in Gantt or timeline views are available
- Backlog management
- Request management
- Workflow management
- Negative feedback management
Pricing:
- Individual plan for $59 per month per user for five contributors
- Team plan for $119 per user per month for 20 contributors
- Business plan for $199 per user per month billed annually for 50 contributors
- Contact for custom enterprise plan
11. Zoho Sprints
Zoho Sprints markets itself as a planning and tracking tool for agile teams and therefore is the next software on our list.
Zoho Sprints allows teams to plan and track projects the agile way and thus is suitable for anyone who wishes to work in iterative cycles.
Software features:
- Backlog and negative feedback management
- Gantt or timeline view available
- Request and resource management
- Status tracking
- Workflow management
- Kanban boards available
- Team management
- Supports Scrum
Pricing:
- Free plan available
- Plans start from $12 per month
12. Taskworld
Taskworld also makes our list an easy way for teams to manage projects on agile while also keeping track of work.
The app allows for a single platform for all things project management with visual task management, project planning, remote work tracking, and team collaboration.
Software features:
- Gantt and timeline views
- Workflow management
- Status tracking options
- Kanban boards
- Supports Scrum
- Team management
- Template management
Pricing:
- Free plan available
- Pricing starts at $10 per month per user.
13. CoSchedule
CoSchedule provides a platform to organize all your marketing needs in one place.
The platform houses a family of agile marketing products and thus is popular for helping teams to stay focused, thus enabling them to deliver projects on time.
Software Features:
- Gantt charts or timeline views for your progress reports
- Workflow management
- Team management
- The app supports Scrum
- Kanban board
- Status tracking options are available
Pricing:
- Contact for a pricing plan for the Marketing Suite that offers a family of 5 agile marketing products to coordinate your team, processes, and projects
- Blog Calendar for $19 per month per user
- Marketing calendar $39 per month per user
14. Nostromo
Nostromo is a project management tool that provides everything from project conception to implementation; all at one platform.
As a new industry contender, Nostromo holds its own with extensive features that include task management, reporting and analytics, and more. Some of the main highlights are appended below for your ready reference.
Software Features:
- Supports agile methodologies
- Includes tools for effective collaboration
- Allows for idea management
- Kanban boards
- Portfolio management
- Time tracking features
- Provides the ability to expense track
- Resource management
Pricing:
- Free option available
- Pricing starts from $5 per month per user
15. Todo.vu
A little different than the other software on this list, Todo.vu is a blend of project management, task management, CRM, billing functionality, and time tracking.
The tool claims to provide you with a single place for you to manage all your work.
Software Features:
- Negative feedback management
- Team management
- Request management
- Discussion boards
- Task management
- Real-time editing
- Time and expense tracking
- Supports both agile and traditional methodologies
Pricing:
- Solo plan for free
- A business time plan for $9 per user per month, capped at $99 per month
16. VersionOne
This is an incredible agile tool that you can use to juggle multiple teams working on many different projects simultaneously. Why is that so? Because the project development teams in question have to work on many different projects simultaneously, VersionOne will help you manage them easily.
Software Features
- Agile portfolio management
- Product road mapping
- Idea Management
- Test Management
- Sprint tracking
- Mobile optimized app
- Epic Bubble Chart
- Reporting
- Product planning
- Release planning
- Sprint planning
- Timeline project tracking
- Sprint reviews
- Visualize release dependencies
- Open integration platform
- Analytics
Pricing
- There is a free version of the application available, which you can use to test the product before spending any money on the subscription
- The paid subscription to the software starts at $29.0/ month
17. ProofHub
Next up, we have ProofHub. ProofHub is a feature-rich Agile project management solution. The tool offers a platform for teams to collaborate and share ideas, manage documents, communicate effectively, and streamline project management processes.
The software comes equipped with all the features and capabilities you and your team will require to use Agile techniques to complete your projects successfully. The tool is not limited to the Agile methodology and supports other methods such as the critical path method, the GTD method, etc.
Software Features:
- Assignment management
- Client portals
- File sharing capabilities
- Gantt charts and timeline views
- Due date tracking
- Collaboration tools
- Content management
- Customizable templates
- Commenting ability, discussions, and forums
Pricing:
- ProofHub offers flat pricing without other SaaS applications’ per-user fee structure.
- The ultimate control plan costs $89 per month
- The Essential plan costs $45 per month
18. Nuclino
Nuclino is a lightweight agile project management tool distinguished by its streamlined design.
Despite its simplicity, Nuclino offers a range of powerful features. You can create flexible Kanban boards where can manage user stories, epics, and tasks for iterative planning and backlog control.
Each card on the Kanban board acts as a collaborative document, allowing you to keep work in context by documenting sprint goals, requirements, retrospectives, to-do lists, due dates, reminders, files, and more.
Software Features:
- Real-time collaboration
- Kanban boards
- Task assignments
- Custom fields for tracking assignees, due dates, tags, and more
- Markdown commands
- Version history
- Quick search with advanced filters
- API
Pricing
- Free plan
- Standard plan – $5/user/month
- Premium plan – $10/user/month
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are the 4 Values of the Agile Manifesto?
The following are the 4 values on which Agile is based.
- Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools
- Customer Collaboration Over Contract Negotiation
- Working Software Over Comprehensive Documentation
- Responding to Change Over Following a Plan
2. What are the 12 Principles of Agile?
The following are the 12 principles of Agile development.
- Customer satisfaction has to be achieved through rapid and speedy software delivery.
- Working software is the primary measure of progress for any project in the Agile paradigm.
- Accommodate changing requirements throughout the development process
- Agile processes are the ones that are responsible for a consistent pace of the development process
- Frequent delivery of working software
- Attention to detail and design enhances the agility of the agile development process.
- Collaboration between the business stakeholders and developers throughout the project has the utmost importance when it comes to reducing all of the blank spaces regarding information.
- Simplicity
- Support, trust, and motivate the people involved
- Self-organization among the team members is the key factor that encourages great architecture, requirements, and designs.
- Enable face-to-face interactions
- Regular reflections on different concepts to become more effective is also necessary to keep your team on their toes.
Conclusion
And there you have it, our top picks for the best agile tools for project management in 2023.
We hope this list gave you an insight into all things agile and project management and will help you make an informed decision to pick the best tool for your team.