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