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When it comes to product development, effective teamwork is essential to getting a new product off the ground and eventually into the hands of the customer. Good communication, clear and defined goals and tasks, and the right tools for the job can make all the difference in an effective development process.
Here are seven indispensable tools for development teams. These could be exactly what your team needs to operate at maximum efficiency.
Screen Sharing Software
Having the best screen sharing software can ensure everyone on your team is up to date on the project and aware of the goals and every detail. Screen sharing allows you to remotely share what you’re doing on your computer screen; meaning that your team can see your process, any graphs or visuals, or a web page you’re viewing.
Conferencecalling.com offers screen sharing platforms, as well as conference calling and operator assisted calls. With global reach and excellent customer service, they’re sure to meet your calling and screen sharing needs with efficiency and quality.
Trello
Trello is a free online platform that helps your development team synchronize and share ideas and project details. You can add attachments, dates, comments, and more on the project page and any size team can have access to it. Each card contains information on the task or project and can be edited and moved by team members and management alike.
There are just a few simple steps for using Trello:
- Create your board, name it, and send invites to team members to participate
- Add lists to direct workflow and create accountability
- Create your individual cards for separate tasks in each list, which can be moved or edited by anyone
- Add details and dates to each card
- Move cards across lists to show completion or progress
Trello has a great user-friendly platform, and best of all, it’s free to use!
Active Collab
Active Collab is another project management tool, though it’s a little more in-depth than Trello and includes a time tracking tool so you can bill your clients appropriately for the work your team does.
You can set tasks, add and edit projects and team members, track work hours, and even issue invoices for your work if you so choose. Active collab can be installed on your own personal or business server or ran on the cloud. This allows certain flexibilities that other project management platforms can’t match.
Active Collab is free to try but does cost a fee if you choose to use it on a more regular basis. For five members and up to 5GB of cloud space, Active Collab charges only $25/month. For more extensive projects, their packages go up to unlimited members and 500GB of space for only $299/month.
Google Docs
There are many cloud services for sharing and editing documents, but Google Docs is completely free and allows flexibility and the security of Google servers. You can create, edit, and share presentations, word documents, and excel spreadsheets and save them in your free 15 GB of cloud storage that comes with a google account.
Google is also a worldwide platform, meaning that anyone with a google email account can access your document with your permission. Google Docs is also compatible with a number of other word processors and other programs, making it equally diverse as flexible. Google Docs is an extension of Google Drive, which provides cloud storage for you to upload and share everything from important files to pictures and videos.
New Relic
New Relic is a software and app production tracker. It tracks performance across all your platforms of apps and company software, showing on a user-friendly interface where changes and improvements in your production process can be made.
This type of insight can be invaluable when it comes to saving money and time in the development process. The tracking is done in real time, letting you know right away how your software or app is performing, and allowing for on-the-fly editing.
Sublime Text Editor
If you’re developing software or apps, you’ll want a decent text editor that will allow your team to create working code and edit it as needed without much effort. Coding is an extensive and labor-intensive process, so making it easier for your team will not only increase productivity but also leave your team feeling grateful.
Sublime supports many coding languages and is a relatively small application, and includes hotkeys to jump to certain lines of code in only seconds. This, among other unique tools, makes Sublime one of the most accessible and easy coding platforms.
Loom
Loom is a screen recording platform, for capturing videos of bugs and mistakes and sharing them with the team. When it comes to development, troubleshooting can be an extensive process, but Loom allows you to record video of your product and troubleshoot on-the-fly, saving your precious hours when the project is complete and ready for the market.
Think of it as a self-check extension, allowing you to send a demo of your project to the team for troubleshooting before it’s ever completed.
Conclusion
A good development team can mean nothing without the right tools to do the job. The tools discussed in this article are among the best rated and widely suggested in the area of development and should provide your team with an excellent set of resources to assist in their projects, and help you effectively manage them.