What Is Agile Project Management Software?
Agile project management software is a digital solution designed to help organizations employ Agile practices in software development. Agile tools support companies by improving visibility into work processes, facilitating collaboration, and encouraging fast feedback turnaround.
With operational agility becoming integral to today’s business world and the rise of digital transformation, Agile project management tools have become a key instrument for project managers.
What Makes an Agile Project Management Software Worthy?
One of the most critical aspects of a useful Agile PM tool is to be flexible so you can adapt it to your organizational needs. Not vice versa! It’s also important for your tool of choice to be scalable so you can apply it across multiple teams and management levels in your company. Furthermore, as Agile is all about continuous improvement, look for a solution that enables you to collect data and measure whether you are achieving your efficiency goals.
Other than that, true Agile project management software will allow your teams to:
- Customize workflows
- Manage multiple projects with ease
- Track project progress effortlessly
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Identify bottlenecks and analyze your team performance
- Create reports, export and visualize data
- Collaborate effectively and smoothly
- Gather feedback easily.
Top 9 Agile Project Management Tools
1. Businessmap (formerly Kanbanize)
Businessmap is an Agile project and portfolio management software based on the Kanban method. It allows users to visualize projects, track their progress, and optimize workflow efficiency to deliver value faster to the market. In addition, the software comes with scaling capabilities that help you apply it across multiple teams or the entire organization to achieve full organizational transparency.One of the platforms' superpowers is its ability to deliver a clear work structure – from visualizing projects or strategic initiatives to breaking them down into multiple levels of work items and tracking their progress from “Requested” to “Done”. Furthermore, the built-in OKR functionality allows you to map the exact flow of your strategic objectives.
In Businessmap, users can use historical delivery data to plan their projects, get automatic status updates, and quickly adapt to changes.
Key features
- Kanban boards
- Project Timeline
- Management & Team Workspaces
- Customizable workflows
- Automation capabilities
- Analytics & Lean/Agile metrics
- Project forecasting
- Automated project status reporting
- Dependency management
- Integrations with multiple digital tools such as Power BI, Microsoft Teams, Tableau, Google Data Studio, Google Drive, Github, Zapier, etc.
These only scratch the surface of the software capabilities. If you want to learn more, you can try it free for 14 days.
Check our detailed Businessmap vs. Jira comparison.
2. JIRA
JIRA is a widespread Agile project management tool that is most suitable for software development teams. It offers a set of features and supports custom Scrum and Kanban workflows. The software allows you to create visual roadmaps of your projects, track work progress, and automate certain project management activities.
With JIRA, software teams can track bugs, easily collaborate, create estimations on sprints, assign tasks to different users, etc. Although mostly Scrum-oriented, the software comes with multiple charts for measuring workflow performance, such as Burndown and Burnup charts.
Key features
- Scrum & Kanban Boards
- Roadmaps
- Project Estimations
- Agile reporting
- Custom filters
- Pre-built workflows
- Process automation
- Bugs and defect management
- Integrations with many developers' tools
3. Smartsheet
Smartsheet is a collaborative software for Agile project management that is flexible enough to easily handle both single project and end-to-end work management.
Smartsheet comes with a groundbreaking way to collaborate on projects and processes. It effectively combines the usability of a spreadsheet with visual timeline management and collaborative file sharing.
The platform is designed to help you customize and automate your workflows and align multiple teams on projects. This allows businesses to boost team collaboration and unlock operational agility.
Key features
- Gantt Charts
- Resource Management
- Reports
- Alerts and Automated Actions
- Calendar View
- Portals
- Activity logs
These and many more capabilities make Smartsheet а preferred choice for many Agile project managers.
4. Wrike
Wrike is an online Agile project management tool that you can use to manage various projects and teams. It comes with an interactive interface and valuable features such as Gantt Charts, project templates, extensive reporting features, Kanban boards, and more. It is a scalable Agile project management tool that allows you to create a connection between the silos in your organization and achieve cross-team collaboration.
Wrike comes with customizable workflows that can be configured to respond to different organizational needs. The software is particularly suitable for marketing and professional service teams.
Key features
- Interactive timeline (Gantt chart)
- Real-time newsfeed
- Shared team calendars
- Document collaboration
- Task management
- Automated workflows
- Discussions in tasks
- Time tracking
- Customized reports
5. Asana
If you are looking for simplicity and an interactive user interface, Asana might be the solution for you. This Agile project management software includes many features that your team can use to manage tasks, visualize roadmaps, plan projects, and build nice-looking reports.
The platform’s suite of capabilities includes seamless work visualization and team collaboration, project timelines, and many integrations with useful digital tools. Asana is an Agile PM tool that is specifically popular among creative teams.
Key features
- Activity feed
- Visualization of workload
- Automatic updates to email/inbox
- Create custom calendars and views
- Project sections and search views
- Monitor initiative progress
- Set company goals
- My tasks list and focus mode
6. Teamwork
Teamwork is an easy-to-use Agile project management tool that provides a minimalist UI, and it’s beneficial for teams just starting with Agile. The software comes with Kanban boards to manage backlogs and populate comprehensive task lists.
Regardless of whether you use Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban, etc., Teamwork allows you to tailor your boards to your team's specific needs. It enables you to keep your tasks on track, estimate time, and spot bottlenecks within your process.
Key features
- Workload and capacity management
- Kanban board views
- Time tracking
- Custom templates
- Task Calendars
- Budget management capabilities and profitability reports
7. ProjectManager
Another software that supports Agile project management is ProjectManager.com. It represents a complete platform where teams can plan and manage their work. The software is famous among traditional project managers. Still, with its addition of Kanban boards, Scrum workflows, and product roadmap visualization features, it’s a suitable solution for those looking to tap into Agile ways of working.
ProjectManager.com is a unique tool that enables flexibility within Agile teams while also providing capabilities that support the waterfall methodology. As a result, many teams using hybrid approaches turn to ProjectManager.
Key features
- Kanban boards
- Product backlogs and sprint planning
- Product roadmaps
- Time tracking
- Gantt Charts
- Project reporting
- Real-time dashboards
- Team workload management
8. Digital.ai (VersionOne)
VersionOne CollabNet is a platform for Agile project management at an enterprise level. It’s a scalable solution that organizations use to bring Agile portfolio management across business locations or multiple teams.
This Agile project management software brings end-to-end visibility into projects and equips you with the tools to make data-driven decisions. VersionOne is mainly targeted at optimizing the software engineering lifecycle at big organizations to improve their delivery capabilities and reduce the release time of working solutions to the market.
Key features
- Supports various frameworks and methods such as Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, etc.
- Product roadmaps
- Release and iteration tracking
- Agile portfolio planning
- Kanban boards
- Agile analytics and metrics
9. Targetprocess (Now Apptio Targetprocess)
Apptio Targetprocess is another Agile project management software solution for scaling Agile and bringing enterprise agility. It enables companies to connect teams, projects, or products to business objectives and track their status.
The platform enables companies to use Agile scaling frameworks such as SAFe or LeSS and align work on various projects for greater transparency.
Key features
- Dependency management
- High-level process visualization
- Portfolio management
- Risk management
- Custom processes (Scrum, Kanban, etc.)
- Product roadmaps
- Work prioritization
- Custom reports
Some Honorable Mentions
The Agile project management software market is diverse, and many other solutions deserve a spot. Here are some of them:
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ProofHub is a comprehensive project management and team collaboration tool that supports Kanban boards and Gantt charts, covering all aspects of Agile project management. Its flexibility, flat-rate pricing structure, and user-friendly interface make it ideal for any team to work efficiently and stay organized, no matter how big or small.
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Basecamp is known for its simplicity and ease of use in streamlining team collaboration with tools for task management, file sharing, and communication in one place.
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Azure DevOps is an all-in-one project management solution designed to assist development teams in planning, tracking, and delivering top-tier software products.
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ClickUp is a highly customizable project management platform with advanced features that allow teams to adapt it to their specific workflows.
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Zoho Projects provides a full suite of tools for planning, tracking, and collaborating on projects, ideal for teams of any size.
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Workzone is a robust project management tool focused on helping teams manage tasks, timelines, and document sharing across departments, balancing ease of use with advanced project tracking features.
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Miro is a collaborative whiteboard platform that enhances brainstorming, project planning, and remote teamwork with intuitive visual tools and templates.
Businessmap is the most flexible software platform
for outcome-driven enterprise agility.
In Summary
Whatever Agile project management tool you choose, remember that all organizations are unique and have unique processes. If a given software solution works for other companies, it doesn't mean it will also work for you. We advise you to try as many different options as possible and find the one that fits your needs.