Top 5 Jira Alternatives for Agile Project Management
For every career, a person has to go through numerous steps to attain success. Every step is complicated and different. Project management is one such career where the steps are not only complex but also arduous.
A product manager is one of the many people who is involved in the project management process. We can say, a PM plays a crucial role in this process. We all know the basics of product management: initiation, planning, execution, evaluation, and closure. A product manager participates actively in every step and accounts for responsibility for all the steps.
Software development tools
There are many tools that product managers use so that the process of project management gets easier. One such software development tool is Jira. It is one of the best project management tool in the market.
What is Jira?
Jira is a software application developed by Atlassian whose primary use is seen in project management. Atlassian is an Australian software company that created this tool for agile development teams for a wide variety of purposes. It also helps in managing the scrum teams and organizing the tasks in a project.
Features of Jira
- Agile Development: The agile development in Jira allows the users to have better utilization of all the features in the scrum boards and Kanban boards.
- Scrum Boards: Scrum boards make Jira one of the best project management tool as it helps product managers and other users to organize their tasks in a sprint and complete it effectively.
- Project Tracking: As the name suggests, the project tracking feature of Jira helps the product managers to be kept updated and know the ongoings of a project.
- Roadmaps: The feature helps product managers with the process of creating roadmaps to have a clear vision of the product they are developing.
Pros & Cons of Jira
Pros:
- Effective Agile development and Scrum management
- Can be customized to meet the project requirement.
- These tools help the users to track records and eliminate any bugs present in the software.
Cons:
- Expensive tool
- No collaboration features help the product managers to communicate with the development team or the stakeholders.
- Complicated user interface
Despite the benefits of using Jira in product development, the limitations cannot be ignored. Many times, users find it difficult to work with the tool due to its drawbacks.
Hence, the question arises,
What’s Better?
There are many top Jira alternatives that can be used instead of Jira. Some of them can be considered the best tool for productivity as well.
Jira alternatives
Trello is one of the top Jira alternatives that is used by millions of people. Trello is owned by Atlassian as well. One of the best things about Trello is that there are uncomplicated and easy boards for backlogs. It has a much simpler tile/task view, no statuses, no filtering, and no sharing stories between boards. Some of the key features of this software tool are multiple integrations, Kanban board view, progress charts, etc.
The pricing of the tool varies from free to $10/user per month depending upon the plan one is taking.
Notion is one of the best project management tool that is very popular in the market. Notion allows users to create notes and documents, manage tasks, use the Kanban method, etc. The key features of the software tool include various templates, many database views, and public views. The benefits of using Notion as your development tool are
- Feature of reviewing and restoring history
- Kanban can be used as a sub-tool
- Built-in calendars
All of these and other features of Notion make it the best tool for productivity.
Bitrix 24 can be aptly described as a top Jira alternative as this software is a triad of project management, CRM, and communication. The software tool offers a chat system, video conferencing, intranet, and other internal communication features. There is an option in Bitrix24 where a user can track performance with detailed track management metrics.
The pricing of Bitrix24 varies from free to $24/per user per month. The price is a bit on the expensive side but many additional features compensate for the amount.
Linear is considered the best tool for productivity for its effective issue tracking and automated workflows. This automated workflow feature helps a user to attain a high-performance routine. Linear has integrations with Git. Some of the key features of Linear are custom views, robust search capabilities, and advanced filters. Linear has integrations with 99% of the services that are used by the developers. Additionally, the UI of Linear is also impeccable.
Pivotal Tracker is another top Jira alternative and an agile project management tool. This software tool is suitable for those who are looking for story point features. The key features of Pivotal Tracker are an automated consistency tracker, workspaces for different projects, and a dashboard that reports time and trends. There is testing/QA management, web-based deployment, Kanban board, task scheduling, and task tagging.
The pricing of this software tool varies from free to $10/month.
Conclusion
Lastly, it all depends on what you want to achieve. Some people love JIRA, and some people hate it, but it depends on what the outcome is. Another way to think about it is that engineering team productivity is your highest leverage tool for competing in the marketplace and so within bounds, you should advocate for their preferred tools.
There are many tools in the market which are defined as the best tool for productivity, but it is up to you to redefine the definition!
Summary
The article discusses the software tool Jira and some other alternative tools that can be used instead of Jira. Jira is a software application developed by Atlassian whose primary use is seen in project management. The features of Jira are Agile development, Scrum boards, project tracking, and roadmaps. There are many advantages and disadvantages to using Jira. The drawbacks can be overcome with the use of different alternatives to Jira. Some of the best project management tools are Trello, Notion, Bitrix24, Linear, and Pivotal Tracker.
