10 top tools for digital delivery teams

Efficiency is key in any fast-paced industry and one of the best way to give your digital delivery team support is through tools. Less is more when it comes to tool quantity, but until that ideal delivery tool gets created that does “everything” a combination of a few top tools should meet just about all your requirements.

This is a list of our favourite 10 tools for task management, communicating within a team and with clients, prototyping, resourcing and budget tracking.

Task management and client communication

1. Trello

This is one of the easiest tools to use for managing workflow. Basically a digital version of a Kanban board, but one that you can share with clients, Trello keeps client communications out of email and attached to their appropriate tasks.

Pros:

• Accessible UI
• Very user friendly
• Secure
• Free (though a paid-for business version adds lots of extra functionality)

Cons:

• Doesn’t allow tasks to have dependencies
• Doesn’t allow tasks to display on multiple boards
• Challenging to manage agile and complex software projects

2. JIRA

Arguably the best task management tool out there, it lends itself to complex projects by allowing task types (e.g. stories or bugs) and sub-tasks. JIRA also links directly to bit-bucket if you’d like a level of automated releases. Like Trello, conversations with clients about specific tasks take place within the task itself.

Pros:

• Allows for multiple plugins to be added for a bespoke service
• Complex task break down
• Tasks can be created once, but displayed on multiple boards
• Users can see their allocated tasks collated
• Easily allow for multiple set-ups from scrum, agile, Kanban to basic tasks

Cons:

• UX can be overly complex for an average user
• UI is very intimidating
• Plugins can be expensive and not guaranteed to work

3. Smartsheet

If a Gantt chart is your safety blanket then Smartsheet allows you to easily create and update task milestones and dependencies.

Pros:

• User friendly
• Easy to create and update Gantt Charts
• Allows for dependencies

Cons:

• Gantt tasks don’t dynamically link to the card Kanban view
• Clients needs to set-up an account to access

Tools for team and client collaboration

4. Wipster

If you’re in digital video production and you’re not using Wipster, then gathering client feedback must be an arduous process. With version control and commenting in time, it reduces the confusion that comes with merely using time codes, which can be inaccurate.

Pros:

• Allows for frame by frame commenting
• User friendly
• Clients do not need an account to be allowed to comment
• Allows for version control

Cons:

• New technology, so often experiences bugs
• Doesn’t allow for internal and external version control

5. Confluence

A tool that comes with JIRA, Confluence allows you to have team communications, meeting notes and client communications all in one place, and related to specific projects. No need to troll through endless email trails if you’re pro-actively keeping your Confluence up to date.

Pros

• Communal area to share and access ideas
• Good notification system if changes are made to documents

Cons

• Convoluted UX
• Formatting functionality is limiting

6. Google Docs

Okay, we’re not blowing your mind here, but for cloud-based collaboration one can’t stray far from the god Google. Allowing for multiple users to collaborate simultaneously, you don’t have to send word docs and excel spreadsheets back and forth via email.

Pros

• User friendly
• Basic account is free
• Allows for internal and external collaboration

Cons

• Limited functionality compared to the local Office counterpart
• Version control

Prototyping tools

7. Axure

In the realm of UX design, a good wireframe tool makes your life a whole lot easier. Axure allows you to create interactive wireframes which can easily be shared with clients on a cloud.

Pros

• Excellent for bespoke wireframing
• Responsive views
• User friendly
• Allows for comments by team and client

Cons

• Need active version control to avoid confusion
• Need a native app to work on before uploading to the cloud

8. Invision

Another prototyping tool, but this time for the world of design. Invision‘s basic account grants you limited functionality, but as you upgrade you can add anything from complex transitions to hover states.

Pros

• Allows for clients to get a good idea of how user will experience a journey
• Clickable prototype
• Responsive views
• Allows developers to have insight into functionality

Cons

• Can be laborious to create and then upload
• Risk that clients struggle to understand it’s just a prototype

Budget tracking and resourcing

9. Harvest

For detailed time capturing that automatically adjusts your budget, Harvest is your tool. Harvest also links to Harvest Forecast, which allows you to allocate resources, schedule time for tasks (it links up to JIRA) and see if a project is forecast to be delivered on budget.

Pros:

• Easy to capture time
• User friendly
• Allows data to be displayed for multiple time periods

Cons:

• Doesn’t allow for cost of sales tracking

For everything else…

10. Your brain

A tool that we wish all politicians around the world were equipped with. No project can run smoothly without your own insight and ability to adapt.

Pros:

• Lends itself to lateral thinking
• Can develop and draw on previous experience
• Can see past extraneous detail to find solutions
• Can’t manage any other tool without this tool

Cons:

• Easily fatigued
• Memory is fallible

Conclusion

Tools can help you run things smoothly, but they should be labour-saving not labour-creating devices. So find the combination that allows you to achieve the best results for your needs, not just the one with the most bells and whistles. Every project and person is different, so be flexible and don’t get hung up on a particular tool just because it worked on the last project, or because it was recommended on some blog.