- [Instructor] Choosing a technical and managerial tool set
is an important part of the design phase
and one that Agile developers should be in on.
This can be anything from project management
and version control software
to third-party development libraries,
and really anything in between.
Although flexible, iterative, and focused
on working software over documentation and processes,
Agile projects still need management tools.
I've included this brief discussion
because it's easy to misconstrue Agile development
as a somewhat loose
and fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants methodology.
It's important to understand that this is not the case.
That being said, here are some things to consider.
What is the best management tool and why?
The why here is very important, especially in Agile.
Don't choose a tool without a clear need,
especially don't choose one based on its price tag.
Will there be lead time necessary
for the developers on your team to learn them?
For Agile project tracking,
I'd recommend starting with something simple
and possibly free like Pivotal Tracker, Trello, or Airtable.
These are basic Kanban boards
that you can create user stories, backlogs, and sprints on
without having to train your team on complex software.
They also happen to have a lot of secondary features
custom tailored to Agile management.
If you end up needing something more powerful,
go ahead and make the jump to Jira or Hansoft.
Just remember that if you can make it work
with a simple solution, do so.
This leads us into a common problem
that we've all probably dealt with at one time or another.
Do we use a third-party library
for some needed functionality
or do we implement it ourselves?
For these decisions, you'll have to figure out
how big your application is allowed to be
for whatever platform you're submitting to.
And more importantly,
how much you want to bloat it with external tools.
In terms of Agile development,
you'll want to compare how much of a learning curve
comes with any given third-party tool or library,
and how that will affect your development sprints.
You'll also want to consider the cost and maintenance
of keeping up with these third-party libraries
once they're integrated into your project.
Having said that, third-party libraries are a great way
to keep those sprints moving at a good clip.
It's all a game of cost versus gain.