While working in a remote environment, having the right set of tools has become all the more important. But, with so many tools to choose from, it’s challenging to find ones that are essential.
In this blog post, I will mention the best tools available in the market across different categories used by most engineers in remote software development jobs.
Table of Contents
1. Slack
Slack is the undisputed king when you think about effective collaboration tools for distributed teams, especially software development. If you’re a remote software engineer, chances are you’re already well versed with this tool.
It is effortless to set up and offers a massive number of third-party integrations, including various other project management tools and essential platforms like Google Drive and Dropbox. Other features include real-time messaging, voice calls, screen sharing, file sharing, and a searchable archive.
All these features make Slack a very reliable option for software development teams and almost any distributed team in the corporate world.
2. Jira
Managing a remote software team is tricky, and Jira makes managing your projects a whole lot easier. Jira is a powerful development team management software, and while there are several others in the market like Asana and Trello, Jira’s interface is designed specifically for software development teams.
Jira’s best feature is its bug tracking functionality which makes it extremely popular amongst technical project teams. While Jira has recently attempted to market itself to all types of teams, project management and bug tracking for software engineers remains Jira’s core offering.
Teams use Jira to organize each project cycle stage: from the ideation phase to the deployment of new features and all the steps in between. Instead of juggling multiple tools for updates, you can strategically integrate several third-party apps to ensure team members can find all the information right on the platform.
3. InVision
If you work closely with the design team or are a designer yourself, Invision helps you build interactive and realistic prototypes and share them with the team.
It is an intuitive software application that allows you to create, design, and test various business models and prototypes for different devices. You can create interactive designs by importing designs from other sources like Photoshop.
The highlighting feature of Invision is its commenting and feedback capabilities. It collects feedback from your teams after you share any design mock-ups.
4. Github
Git-centric platforms like GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket are excellent developer collaboration tools for developing, collaborating, reviewing, and managing coding projects.
It allows developers to build software while collaborating with other developers and create a process to improve the quality of the code. It is extremely practical and will enable members of your team to work on different aspects of a project at the same time.
Github comes with all the tools you need to coordinate, track, and update your projects. Instead of hoarding all your code on your drive, you can use Github to keep your code private, secure, and backed up.
5. Confluence
Confluence is a browser-based collaboration tool that heavily favors software developers. It allows software development teams to work together in an agile environment by providing a one-point destination for documentation and multiple workspaces.
It has a simple and intuitive user interface and comes with a large number of integration options. If there is a commonly used tool in software engineering for productivity, collaboration, or communication; then it is Confluence.
While some may see this as a drawback, it’s a huge asset for developers since Jira was the main driving force behind Confluence’s functionality — which is why the majority of its user base is engineering-oriented teams.
Final Say
These are 5 best tools for working remotely. While these tools can help you boost your productivity, they’d be futile if you’re not happy with your work. Did we miss any of your favorite tools? Let us know in the comment section.
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