Tech companies are leading the remote work trend. Here are some work-from-home productivity tools for software teams to keep teams on the same page.
The remote working arrangement has become a norm for many organizations these days. This is especially true with tech companies. With most development teams working from home, keeping them aligned is a struggle for some leaders.
Matching workplace productivity can be challenging. A developer’s daily workflow is full of potential interruptions. A significant reason software teams fail to be productive is because they don’t have the right tools.
Productivity tools can help software development teams communicate, collaborate, and organize their work. These tools can ensure that everyone is on the same page. This article will discuss the top productivity tools that work for software teams.
Work From Home Productivity Tools for Software Teams
Software teams can stay productive when working from home using the appropriate technologies. Here’s a list of some of the best work-from-home productivity tools for software teams that we recommend:
1. Slack for Communication
Slack is a communication tool that’s been around for a while now. Known for its simplicity and ease of use, it is also one of the best work-from-home productivity tools for software teams because it allows developers to stay connected with their teams.
Developers can use Slack to share files, links, images, and more. Sharing is through direct messages between team members or by simply archiving conversations from one channel into another (called “storing” them). This saves time when looking back at something important discussed earlier in the day—or even months ago!
At Full Scale, we highly recommend using this messaging tool as it streamlines communications across the company and on each team. We also optimized Slack to simplify cross-functional team requests, notifications, and reminders. It worked for us, and it can work for you, too!
2. Trello for Task Organization
Trello is a collaborative project management tool that helps software teams organize tasks, projects, and ideas. With Trello, developers can easily see what needs to be done and when it needs to be done.
It is easy to create individual boards for each task or project. Developers can add context-specific cards with comments explaining why they’re important or who’s involved in the task. By doing this, everyone on the team will understand what’s happening at any given time.
Trello is free and easy to use; anyone from any background can jump into using the platform immediately. In addition, there are plenty of tutorials available if you need some guidance.
3. Clockify for Time Tracking and Management
Time tracking is vital in any team because it helps teams to organize their work and identify gaps and issues. Doing so helps improve productivity. This is where Clockify comes in.
Developers don’t want to spend hours daily entering data into a spreadsheet or creating long lists of tasks. The last thing that team members need is more headaches!
A time-tracking app should be flexible; it works on all devices, and teams can access it anywhere. It should also sync data to track time logs and productivity.
4. Visual Studio Code for Improving Code Writing
A streamlined code editor, Visual Studio Code, allows developers to have a faster code-build-debug cycle. This cycle means that the tool lets developers debug their code, run tasks, and implement version control.
Developers can launch their running apps and debug them with call stacks and breakpoints with an interactive console. Plus, Visual Studio lets developers review stage files and diffs. It also allows developers to make commits.
In addition, Visual Studio Code allows for adding new themes, languages, and debuggers. It can also connect to additional services. These extensions will not slow down your editor as they run separate processes.
5. Confluence for Collaboration and Requirements Management
Managing project requirements is critical in software development. There are many tools to help software developers with this task. One of the most popular is Confluence, a tool that allows developer teams to write project requirements with an automated hierarchy in a documentation editor.
Confluence improves project organization by letting users put related pages together. It features structured categorized page trees. Aside from that, Confluence also boasts an efficient search function to ensure that users can quickly find the contents they need. Adding feedback is also not a problem. It lets users post page and inline comments.
In addition, this project documentation tool can seamlessly connect and integrate with other tools such as Google Drive and Salesforce.
6. Google Drive and Dropbox Paper for Collaboration and Sharing
Google Drive is a great place to store all the documents related to each position for software teams with multiple members. Everyone in the team can edit versions of the same document simultaneously using Google Drive.
Similarly, developers can also use Dropbox Paper for document collaboration. Dropbox Paper provides an online editor that allows team members to collaborate with other people remotely. When sharing documents with Dropbox Paper users, there’s no need for them to download and open files at once. Members simply click “Share” in their browser window and select which file they want others to work on.
Finding Useful WFH Tools
There are a lot of great tools out there for teams, but it can be hard to choose the right one. If you’re looking for productivity tools, here’s what to consider:
- Does this tool have good reviews?
- Is it worth spending money on?
- Do people like using it?
- Are there any downsides or problems with the software itself?
- Does this tool help make the job easier or faster?
- If so, how much faster will the job be compared with other similar options?
Providing your WFH teams with the right tools will help boost productivity. Still, managing remote software development teams is a different challenge. That’s why considering offshore software development can be the best for your company.
Your Remote Software Team from Full Scale!
Remote and WFH software teams can be hard to manage. This is why having the right tools and know-how is important. The work-from-home productivity tools for software teams listed above are just a few of the useful tools to help your software teams.
If you are planning on building a remote software team, Full Scale is here to help you. We are an offshoring business that offers customized software development services. One of our specialties is providing top-notch tech talent to our clients. We match our best developers and other specialists according to your project specifications.
Full Scale has helped many growing companies design, build, launch, and manage their software projects. And we offer client-friendly and capped billing.
