Despite all the discussion whether the PM tools are needed or not, most of us use some tools (no matter if it is a software or a whiteboard).
What is the minimum set of features that you think would still help your teams somehow without drawing you away from being agile in the way you run your project?
What is that single most wanted feature that you miss in your PM tool?
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jbosse
I agree with Steve. We have this ongoing battle between the software tools that facilitate work history and easy data retrieval and physical tools that keep the team engaged and spark conversations. I have spoke with other teams about cost effective ways to hybridize the two with projectors and image recognition but have not yet come up with a workable solution.
Stephen Conley
[ Editor ]
We've tried using a card wall and due to distributed teams, we changed back to using a tool.
I think the most basic features we would want is the ability to create our user stories, defects etc and record the stage transitions and estimates/actuals. I think our tool helps us to stay Agile rather than drawing us away from it.
The single most feature I miss using the tool is visibility. You don't get to see someone changing a story from 'In Dev' to 'Ready for QA', so unless they tell you that has happened, it can sit until you discover it. With a card wall, you see it happen in front of you and it's a prompter for a conversation.
mkleene
One advantage of tools is that the cost of creating documentation about what you are doing is much easier, persistent, and accessible.
This can result in finer-grained tracking of the work that has been done, so that commits line up more or less exactly with items in the tracking tool. This can lead to a better accounting of what has been done and where the work came from (originally estimated and planned, discovered, added, etc.). With a physical board, the tendency is to tack on many commits onto one task, since there often just isn't enough room on the board.
If historical data is important to your organization (for estimation purposes, especially) the fact that the data may be accessible in a tool can be pretty helpful. If you notice that most of your work is stuff you hadn't even thought of then you know one area where you need to improve your estimation.
On the other hand, the usual things that people say about physical taskboards are true; they do promote discussions and visibility. But, I think that there are other ways to foster communication. I personally prefer tools because of the amount of historical data they provide.
freddo
