Our Top Nine Tools for Managing Software Projects – WPCAST013

In this episode, we discuss the top software and services we recommend for project management.

The Changelog

• Doug attended the Podcast Movement conference
• David flying to Bangkok, Easy Pricing Tables passed 50k free downloads

The Core

Version Control

#1: Git (BitBucket)

• Most popular repositories: Bitbucket (David’s recommendation) and Github
• Git Tower (Mac app)

Project Management

#2: Trello

• Digital white board
• Intuitive
• David uses a “Development” board for each product
• Columns: Next Up (assign to developer), In Development, QA, Launchpad, Live

#3: Asana

• Similar to Trello but has a higher learning curve
• Gives you an inbox, where you can keep things marked as unread
• Fewer clicks than Trello

Support

We use SupportBee and HelpScout to handle customer emails without tickets.

#4: SupportBee (David)

#5: HelpScout (Doug)

Communications

#6: Email: Gmail / Google Apps

• Keyboard shortcuts
• Daily report emails from developers

#7: Slack

• More intuitive, easier to set up than HipChat, more API integrations
• Status feed for notifications
• David: Trello, Bitbucket, support tickets (WordPress.org + SupportBee)

#8: Skype

• David: uses it for chat with developers, rarely uses voice chat

Google Apps Suite

#9: Google Apps for Work (formerly called Google Apps for Business)

• Email hosting
• Documents and spreadsheets – collaboration and revision history
• File sharing (Google Drive)

Tips & Tricks

• LastPass for secure password management and password sharing
• Plugin icons – plugin developers can add icons to plugins, coming with WordPress 4.0