11 Best Agile Project Management Tools For Work

When it comes to selecting the best agile project management tools, there are plenty of factors to consider. From the type of tool to your project’s end goals, you will need to make multiple informed decisions along the way. Don’t fret. We’re here to help you.

In this blog, we have curated a list of the top 11 free agile project management tools that you can consider to ensure you are delivering high-quality projects with increased speed and efficiency. Let’s get to it.

First, what is agile methodology?

“Organizations that can fail fast and pivot to what’s next are best positioned for the future.” – PMI Report

The agile methodology for project management is essentially an iterative approach to driving software development projects. This methodology is laser-focused on driving continuous releases and integrating customer feedback with every iteration. The end result?

You will be able to roll out projects with increased speed and better collaboration. This is probably why there’s significant growth in Agile adoption within software development teams, increasing from 37% in 2020 to almost doubling to 86% in 2021! The research also indicates for 52% of the respondents, a majority or all of their company’s teams have adopted Agile. As per the survey, here’s how implementing Agile positively impacted the company:

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The takeaway: If you are still on the fence about adopting the Agile project methodology, you will lose out to the competition. Whether you want to enhance your company’s ability to manage changing priorities or you wish to accelerate software delivery, leveraging the power of a custom agile program management software is key.

11 Best Tools for Agile Project Management

In this section, we have curated a list of agile project management tools that you can choose from. Let’s jump right into it.

1. Nifty: Best agile project management tool

Nifty is an agile project management tool that’s best-positioned for modern engineering. If you wish to get your hands on a flexible tool that empowers your engineering team to achieve better results, faster; Nifty is the tool for you. With this tool, you can:

• Plan better products: This tool allows project managers to centralize everything–from pre-planning with the product team to incorporating user feedback from support tickets.
• Balance resources: You can assign a weight to tasks using story points to balance resources while predicting the efforts of upcoming releases:

• Engage in real-time reporting: The biggest benefit of this tool is that it allows you to keep track of your entire team’s automated sprint progress as you approach your release dates:

Top features:

• Real-time collaboration: You can create a project specifications document directly from project discussions. By doing so, all the project members will automatically be invited with the View and Comment permission.
• Actionable, trackable context to deliveries: With this tool, project managers can define goal-oriented sprints as milestones. This will help you organize project objectives with accurate start and end dates.
• Automated development workflows: Development teams can break product features into individual tasks with subtasks to lay out detailed user stories. Additionally, these tasks can be tied to milestones to automate sprint progress tracking.

Why Nifty is the best agile project management tool:

• Nifty is trusted by leading global brands such as Loreal, NYU, Verizon, IBM, and more
• It empowers project managers to organize, prioritize, and manage everyday work with a high level of automation using Kanban or List views.
• It allows for seamless real-time collaboration between team members as they can collaborate on docs and in-built team chat feature, time tracking option, one-click Zoom & Google Meet options, different views (including priority view), and an interactive Gantt chart for greater transparency.

Ready to try Nifty? Get started for free!

2. ProofHub 

If you’ve been searching for the top software for agile project management, you may definitely consider ProofHub. The tool is next to perfect to solve all of your project management problems.

The Agile project management tool promises greater project management and smooth communication and collaboration for teams of all sizes to ensure your team members do not miss deadlines. With its centralized location, you can take control over the entire business operations and navigate your business towards the heights of success. 

Top Features:

• Task management to organize tasks and keep track of work status using multiple task views. You can also delegate work by creating tasks and task lists all in one place. 
• Real-time chat to get immediate attention and response from team members (both in-office or remote) and clients.  
• The files section of ProofHub acts as a single storage space where you can organize and save all your files, designs, and documents.  

What makes ProofHub a leading agile project management tool?

• The all-in-one platform assembles all the great features to help you nail project management in a go. You need not hop from one application to another. 
• ProofHub offers no per-user fee but flat pricing, which makes it the top choice for large-scale enterprises. Also, it has a 14-day trial period that costs nothing at all. 
• The in-built chat feature of proofHub facilitates quick communication. You can chat both one-on-one or in groups and get responses in real time.
• As can be interpreted from the name, ProofHub offers ‘Proofing’ – an exclusive feature. It allows users to comment down or share their opinion on files, documents, and designs.

3. Asana

Whether you want to stay on top of your daily tasks or strategic initiatives, Asana is the best Project Management and Work Management tool for you.

You can handle multiple projects and manage the workflow easily. You can also keep track of the changes in real-time. The platform’s User Interface is the best in the business as you can track work using multiple views such as Kanban Style, task list, calendar view, etc.

You can also engage in resource management and use goal trees to lead your team to success.

Top features

• Easily view tasks in Kanban board, list, or timeline view
• Access to Gantt charts with timelines
• Helps automate common tasks

Read also: Asana Vs Trello: Which one to choose

Why Asana is a top-rated agile project management tool:

• It is extensively used by 114,000 paying organizations across 190 countries.
• It offers multi-lingual support and is the best tool for managing large-scale, complex projects with multiple stakeholders.
• You can use custom templates and streamline your workflow. More importantly, you can collaborate easily and customize the tool as needed.

Take the next step. Use Nifty for your PM needs.
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4. Jira

Jira is the number one software development tool used by agile teams. The biggest advantage of using this tool for managing projects is the roadmaps feature, which allows you to sketch out the big picture, communicate plans with stakeholders, and ensure your team always stays on the same page.

Top features

• It offers the JIRA Query Language feature, which allows you to create quick filters–all with a single click.
• Its in-depth and extensive reporting functionality arms the team with critical and actionable insights into the agile processes.
• You can also create custom workflows of any size to build, test, and release the software.

Key USPs of Jira as the best agile project management tool:

• It offers a free plan, which supports up to 10 users.
• You can easily set up, clean up, and easily manage the most hectic and complex project workflows without breaking a sweat.

Side note: Nifty is a cost-efficient and smart Jira alternative according to independent reviewers

5. Smartsheet: Agile program management software

Smartsheet is a leading cloud-based work management platform that allows you to automate actions using simple rules. You can also use it to simplify budget and planning.

Whether you want to use Gantt charts to visualize processes or scale up to enterprise-level programs and portfolios, this tool is perfect for you.

Top features

• This agile pm software offers robust security, user management, and single sign-on capabilities for your team.
• You can leverage a rich set of views, workflows, reports, and dashboards to capture and track your plans, resources, and schedules.
• You can use both MS Excel and MS project functionalities in a single package, making it an easy-to-use and powerful tool.

Why Smartsheet is a sound agile project management tool:

• You can easily access diverse plans as well as packages to suit your customized business requirements.
• It allows for seamless integration with a host of tools such as Slack, Google Docs, Microsoft Teams, DocuSign, Outlook, Dropbox, and more.
• It provides the capabilities for supporting hybrid spreadsheets with cross-department data.
• It is trusted by over 90% of Fortune 100 companies, and over 75% of Fortune 500 companies use this platform.

6. Wrike

Wrike is an ideal agile pm software tool for small agile teams who are looking for a cloud-based task management tool.

This tool’s multi-purpose feature, Activity Stream Dashboard, helps project managers to understand who is working and on what. Its issue-tracking feature enables the agile team to stay on top of the bugs.

Top features

• Offers Board view and Spreadsheet view
• Compatible with iOS and Android apps
• Provides task and subtask management
• Does not offer a time restriction

Key USPs of Wrike as the best agile project management tool:

• Teams can use its easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor.
• The brand’s 24/7 support via phone, email, and live chat is unparalleled.
• If you want the team to work on priority tasks and boost their productivity, this tool is for you.
• It is trusted by established brands such as Estée Lauder, Hootsuite, Nielsen, Tiffany & Co, Ogilvy, Siemens, etc.

Try Nifty, the best Agile project management tool.
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7. Zoho Sprints: Agile project management software

Think of Zoho Sprints as an agile project management tool that empowers teams to adopt an iterative and collaborative approach to work–a must-have in today’s ever-changing world.

Top features:

• Chat, Feed, and Forum for communication
• Gantt charts
• Project planning
• Task reports
• Integrations for bug tracking

Why Zoho sprints is a top agile project management tool:

• The social feed feature allows remote teams to work with speed. Basically, you can brainstorm, collaborate, and work together from any place, on any device.
• The status timeline features help teams to identify bottlenecks and discover ways to generate the most value.
• Teams can drive effective team management by syncing the code repositories, integrating with CI/CD tools, and getting contextual reports for the releases.
• Zoho Sprints is a free online tool that helps you to build user stories, schedule agile meetings, add estimation points, and use timesheets to track work hours.
• It supports numerous languages such as Czech, Danish, Korean, Dutch, Polish, German, English, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and more.

Read also: Best project management software for Individuals

8. Assembla

Want the world’s most secure and collaborative software development platform that allows you to connect all your SVN, Git, and Performance needs? You’ve got to consider the Assembla enterprise solution, which is an enterprise project management software.

This tool allows you to stay agile, drive innovation, and get ahead of your project management needs–all from a centralized place.

Top features

• Offers Git and Repo integrations
• Provides product backlog management
• Supports cloud hosting for Git, SVN, and Perforce repositories

Why Assembla works as a great agile project management tool:

• Think of Assembla as the centralized tool for offering access to different project management methodologies such as Scrum, Waterfall, Gantt, Kanban boards, etc.
• It empowers companies to exceed HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI, and GDPR compliance standards, all thanks to its best practice VCS.

9. Monday.com

Monday.com is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the most popular agile tools available today. Its unified workspace paves the way for seamless collaboration.

You can sync the timelines with the calendar and access its highly-intuitive Kanban-style visual layout.

Top features

• Offers a clean interface with color-coded features
• Provides highly-customizable workflows and allows easy integration with Microsoft Teams, Dropbox, Slack, Google Drive, etc.

Why Monday.com is the best agile project management tool:

• Monday.com is an extremely easy-to-use software that can be used by both big teams and all.
• Its biggest USP is the robust, mobile-friendly app that empowers project managers to work on the go.

✨ Best Monday alternative

10. Teamwork

Here’s an easy-to-use agile pm tool that offers a stellar task management system. This tool empowers project managers to maximize their project management processes and eliminate the need for unnecessary meetings, which can take up to 23 hours a week, according to the Harvard Business Review.

Top features:

• Easy to use with enterprise-level features: It offers ready-to-use templates and an intuitive UI to help you get started with speed.
• Feature-rich: It offers the ability to track time, run burndown reports, allocate resources, and more.
• Scale-ready: You can easily add CRM, Desk, Chat, or Spaces to the tool when it’s time to grow. Basically, you can unlock more value by using these features and allowing Teamwork to work as an integrated suite.

Why Teamwork is a good agile project management tool:

• This tool is trusted by over 20,000 brands globally, which includes the likes of Netflix, Spotify, PayPal, Disney, etc.
• You can integrate this tool with Gmail, Dropbox, and the cloud drive of Hotmail.

Not happy with Teamwork? Give Nifty a try.

This agile pm tool is particularly useful if you want to:

• Break down the work into action items and create tasks as well as subtasks
• Get a tool that offers a 30-day trial (instead of a 14-day one) so that you can get more familiar with it
• Automate your workflow and access excellent customization options

11. Kissflow

If you are looking for an all-in-one unified digital workforce platform, Kissflow is the tool for you. It is ideal for organizations that want simplified features and no coding.

You can customize the workflow and set additional rules/authorizations as needed.

Top features:

• Visual process design: Every piece of critical data is presented in a summarized, user-friendly format. The user screen design is easy to use and quick to deploy.
• Social collaboration: This tool offers the ultra-useful community feedback voting option for roadmap features.
• Advanced reporting features: You can access and generate KPI dashboards as well as ad-hoc reports easily.

Why Kissflow is a top agile project management tool:

• It is an extremely easy-to-use and highly-intuitive agile project management tool. You can:
  • Prioritize work
  • Delegate work to team members
  • Get instant notifications when an item is complete/requires action–
  • Handle complex decision branches
  • Drive instant changes in real-time
• This tool also seamlessly integrates with G-suite. Furthermore, its open, extensive, and robust API helps you to integrate with any other tool of choice and work with little to no friction.
• This tool is trusted by established giants such as Pepsi, HubSpot, Flipkart, TechMahindra, etc.

How to choose the right agile project management tools: 5 expert-approved tips

With over hundreds of agile project management tools to choose from, selecting the right software can get tricky. To help you get started, follow these five tried-and-tested tips:

• Think long and hard about your agile framework requirements: Start by understanding the type of agile framework you are using or want to use (think: Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming (XP), and more). The tool must have the required features and should be aligned with your chosen framework. For instance, if you follow the Scrum methodology, you’ll need a tool that provides burndown charts.
• Make a list of other important features you need: Aside from the agile features, you will also need other important features such as team collaboration, resource planning, time tracking, etc. Collect feedback and suggestions from your team members to understand which are the ‘must-have’ features for your team.
• Consider your brand’s short and long-term goals: Consider your company’s short and long-term goals, and analyze whether the tool can deliver on said goals. Scalable software can help in this regard.
• Analyze your monthly budget allowance: Take into account your budgetary needs for obvious reasons. Enquire about the pricing plans, particularly if there’s any kind of subscription-based pricing. Additionally, see if you can get a free trial version or a demo to get a hands-on feel of the tool before you decide to pay the money.
• Take stock of your existing tech stack: Perhaps the most important tip is that you should take stock of your current tech stack (think: CRM software, engineering software, etc.) to understand whether the agile project management tool will seamlessly integrate with them or not. If the tool is not compatible with your existing tools, it is a gigantic waste of opportunity (and, of course, a waste of money).

Conclusion

There’s no one standard agile project management tool that works for every organization. Each tool has its own pros and cons and will work differently for the company depending on the end customer’s needs, company goals, project goals, and the people who are using the software.

This is why it is pivotal to do a test drive (for lack of a better term) and get your hands on a free trial version. Encourage your team members to use the tool and see if it’s able to address their requirements and pain points. Finally, keep the pointers mentioned above in mind, and you are golden.

If you have already decided that Nifty is your best choice, sign-up here for free!

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