5 Best Agile Project Management Software: Time to Go Agile?

The best agile project management system is provided by monday.com where setting up Kanban boards is easy. You can give regular feedback, re-allocate resources, and view budgets and timeframes in real time – all with a few clicks.

It also offers intuitive drag-and-drop functionality, and color-coded alerts to help you spot roadblocks more easily.

While monday.com is the best, we also have four impressive alternatives. So, to find the perfect agile project management system for your specific business, you’ll need to keep reading.

How did we pick today’s list? First off, our researchers tested 14 software in specific areas related to the agile method, focussing on their collaborative features and project creation & workflow tools. Using that focus, they then picked the five best platforms for the agile method.

1. monday.com – Best Agile Project Management Software for Kanban Boards

To nail the agile method, you need intuitive Kanban boards. And monday.com is the Kanban master, offering a sleek Kanban interface with color-coded buttons. These colorful alerts help you quickly identify what has or hasn’t been done, which is vital for the agile’s focus on making responsive decisions.

monday.com has some of the best Kanban templates on the market. On monday.com’s Kanban interface, you can see who’s in charge of tasks, when the milestones are, and the status of each objective. If you want to change the priority of tasks, you can simply drag and drop each column further up or down the board, or update the urgency. Check out the image below to see monday.com’s Kanban board in action.

You can use monday.com’s Kanban board on its 14-day free trial. After that period, if you like monday.com you’ll need to upgrade to one of its paid plans that start from $9 per user, per month when billed annually.

2. ClickUp – Best Agile Project Management Software for Gantt Charts

ClickUp has the best Gantt charts on the market, which are crucial features for the agile method. They provide an overview of a project’s progress, showing you how much work is done – or left to do. Even on ClickUp’s free plan, you can use up to 100 charts.

When using Gantt charts on ClickUp, you can choose between a fully-featured chart or a more simple version. Naturally, the more watered-down version is ideal for newbies. But don’t worry, ClickUp is one of the most user-friendly platforms we tested, scoring 4/5 for Usability in our research, so you‘ll likely find its Gantt charts simple to navigate. That’s what makes ClickUp one of the top project management software available.

3. Zoho Projects – Best Agile Project Management Software for Tracking Resources

Reallocating resources based on who’s available is one of the most important parts of the agile method. Zoho Projects enables you to make quick decisions like these.

When testing Zoho Projects, our researchers loved its ‘Resource Utilization’ chart, which enables you to view your entire team’s schedule, and see who’s available. This chart also calculates how many hours have been allocated or overallocated for specific tasks, and how many hours of free time someone has.

In order to make agile, incremental decisions during your project, you need to know that you’ll have enough resources to make these changes. With its Resource Utilization chart, Zoho Projects makes this particularly easy.

This chart is available on its paid plans, starting from just $4 per user, per month, when billed annually.

4. Teamwork – Best Agile Project Management Software for Measuring Progress

To make agile decisions, you need to know where you are in the grand scheme of things. In other words, you need to see your progress in realtime, at all times. Teamwork is the best agile project management software for this specific approach.

During testing, our researchers highlighted Teamwork’s impressive ability to create burndown charts that show your progress vs time depicted on a graph. This tool is really simple to use – you simply select which tasks you want plotted and then it automatically generates the chart.

This tool is useful for the agile method because it allows you to see whether your team can deliver tasks on time. You can also quickly re-evaluate what needs doing, and see which tasks can be sacrificed in order to deliver the overall project on time.

5. Wrike – Best Agile Project Management Software for Tracking Budget

Just like the deadline date, you can’t change your budget using the agile method. You can only track it. Thankfully, Wrike is the best platform for tracking expenditure.

With Wrike, you can create a spreadsheet view of your project and add two numerical rows for budget and expenses. Then, you can set up a formula column to automatically subtract expenses from the budget, which will automatically track the remaining budget. You can use this feature on Wrike’s free plan, which is what makes Wrike one of the best free project management software out there.

Scared of spreadsheets? Don’t be. In our testing, Wrike scored an impressive Usability score (4/5), which means it has user-friendly tools. So, creating the budget-tracking spreadsheet shouldn’t prove too difficult, especially if you’re familiar with Excel or Google Sheets.

How Did We Find the Top Agile Project Management Software?

Our impartial software researchers compared 14 different project management software platforms against each other to ensure that we share only accurate, current and research-backed information. After a process of thorough examination and analysis, they tested each software in real-life to determine their success rate in a number of categories.

• Usability: how easy and intuitive the software is to use.
• Pricing: how cost-effective the software is.
• Customer support: the availability and quality of customer support provided.
• Customer satisfaction: how users really feel about the software.
• Features: the range and quality of functions included in the software.

Armed with this research, we are well-equipped to share the suitability of each software for agile-style project management.

The Benefits of the Agile Philosophy

Agile was developed to streamline the sometimes turbulent process of project management and product development. Its original manifesto includes guiding principles to keep teams on track to success. A well-known framework under the agile umbrella is “scrum”, which refers to a set of responsibilities, meetings and roles.

Want to hear more? Read about perfecting the agile methodology. For now, let’s dive into it’s key benefits.

Optimized time

Thanks to its fixed-length cycles, often called sprints, agile frameworks allow for greater visibility over progress, increasing efficiency and minimising redundant tasks. Another visual feature of agile is the ‘burndown’ chart, which clearly measures progress alongside a time frame, allowing you to stay on track and take action when things go awry.

More flexibility and adaptability

The biggest benefit of agile methods is the flexibility to change priorities. Have you run out of budget? Has John spent too long on his task? With agile methods, you can make quick decisions based on current data. This is because agile’s iterative approach shows you the project’s resources, progress, and task ownerships in real time.

Reduced risk

Without agile methods, you risk making decisions when it’s too late. For example, you may decide to change priorities without realizing you’ve spent your budget. Or, you try to delegate task ownership, but you can’t see who in your team has available hours. Late or miscalculated decisions can prove costly to your end goal. With agile methods, you remove these risks.

Satisfied customers

Agile projects involve incremental testing and customer feedback, meaning you can tweak your project based on those regular responses. With each iteration of your product or service, you can gain customer insight and therefore create something that you know your customers want.

Improved team spirit

Agile teams are made up of autonomous members. Each person has freedom to suggest ideas or solve problems, resulting in happier team members and stronger team spirit. This level of autonomy can’t be found in most traditional project management methods. Meanwhile, agile’s focus on collaboration should help boost team spirit – and, ultimately, your bottom line.

Why use a Project Management Software with the Agile Method?

With the turbulence of recent years, business agility has never been more necessary. In the midst and fallout of a global pandemic, supply chain disruptions, economic recession, governmental and environmental crises, perfecting an agile methodology gives your team the best chance to thrive.

For following agile methods, using a project management software is essential. Here’s why…

Track Your Fixed Budget in Real Time

Agile means fixed budgets. However, agile project management software helps you track budget in real-time, giving you full scope of your spending in one place. If requirements change, you can reallocate resources quickly and easily.

Increased Visibility

With one glance, you can see who’s responsible, who needs help, and who has spare working hours to help on other tasks. You can get all this information from your project management system’s data visualization features, such as Kanban boards or Gantt charts.

Track Time to hit Fixed Deadline Date

Like budget, time is fixed in agile methodology. But to make your life easier, you can use your project management system to track timelines in realtime to ensure you deliver the whole project on time.