min read

Foo Bar Nah

Published on

April 9, 2021

Contributors

John Folder

Developer

Contents

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Or why you should give meaningful names to example variables

I bent over my desk in frustration, suppressing the urge to scream so as not to upset the rhythmic clack-clack of my coworkers. I’d been frustrated all morning by a particularly nasty React infinite re-rendering issue that I just couldn’t get working. The urge to scream came when, my own toolbox exhausted, I turned to Google.

You see, it looked like someone else had come across the same issue and had decided to record a solution for prosperity (and internet points). I eagerly scanned the page for the sample code that would save my morning. Finding it, my eyes were drawn to the dreaded fooBarBaz and I knew my morning was about to get a whole lot worse before it got better.

I actually love the history of programming and the little easter eggs fellow developers have passed down (my personal favourite - I am a teapot). These help to make this job interfacing with computers much more fun and human. I can appreciate that the practice of using fooBarBaz in naming example functions and variables has a long and storied tradition dating back at least to the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT circa 1960. I acknowledge that the use of fooBarBaz is primarily not to introduce any distractions from the point which is being demonstrated. I also think that we should pretty much stop using them.

I am always awed by the amount of information my fellow developers have left out there for me on the internet. So many people in this field seem to have an innate need to help others, leading them to put in countless hours to fill Stack Overflow and blogs with useful information. I can only imagine that the people putting in their time and effort to this end are hoping that their efforts will help as many people as possible. fooBarBaz gets in the way of that.

Let me take off my developer hat for a second and put on my recently discarded, slightly misshapen and battered psychologist one. Interweaving complex facts into stories is a time tested technique which facilitates learning. Here in Australia, the technique has been used for tens of thousands of years by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to help them to remember important and complex information such as the locations of waterholes across vast tracts of inhospitable desert. Our brains are networks of interconnected neurons so we are more likely to hold on to what we have learned when we are able to integrate new information into our current knowledge base. The modern term for this is associative learning.

Additionally, as I’m sure you’ll remember from school, keeping learning interesting has been demonstrated to be a powerful motivator which energises learning.

When we take all this time and effort to communicate with our fellow developers we can and should harness the advantage of associative learning and intrinsic motivation to make sure that the information we are putting out there is as useful as possible to as many people as possible. To this end I believe that we should give as much thought to meaningful naming when creating example code as we do in our own codebases.

Marijn Haverbeke’s Eloquent Javascript regularly comes at the top of lists of books you should read when learning Javascript (JS). It is no coincidence that he is also a master at using meaningful names to help people to better understand coding principles. When teaching new programmers about string comparison in JS he uses the following example:

console.log("Itchy" != "Scratchy"); // → true

Marijn piggybacks off our existing knowledge about Springfield’s favourite cartoon characters to give extra meaning and interest to this example. We know that Itchy and Scratchy are a mouse and cat respectively and so most definitely not the same.

Consider the same example but rendered with the dreaded Foo/Bar instead:

To seasoned developers, this might be easy enough to parse: you’ve read hundreds of examples like this and so have learned the association between Foo and Bar and internalised it. But this creates a barrier for learning for new developers who have not yet internalised this rule and instead increases the mental load for them to understand the concept. It also misses out on creating that little spark of interest or joy to help pique the reader's interest and so increase their motivation to understand the underlying concept.

I am not saying there is absolutely no place for fooBarBaz (although I think their utility is limited). The best way to use these terms is to emphasise that anything could be put in a certain place. An example of this is when we’re talking about arguments and parameters in JS functions. You see, there is no type checking in vanilla JS and so if we have a function like the following that takes a parameter and simply logs its value to the console, it doesn’t matter what type of argument we pass in:

const consoleLogParameter = (foo) => { console.log(foo); }; const bar = “bar”; const baz = 42; consoleLogParameter(bar); // → “bar”; consoleLogParameter(baz); // → 42;

I believe that these terms have the most utility in this case as their purpose is to emphasise that their type doesn’t matter. I would also add the caveat to this that using these terms in this way is only suitable when you are producing content for experienced developers who are going to have built a working understanding of these terms.

Even if this is aimed at experienced developers, I still believe that more meaningful names would be better in this example:

const consoleLogParameter = (anyTypeOfData) => { console.log(anyTypeOfData); }; const name = “Homer Simpson”; const age = 39; consoleLogParameter(name); // → “Homer Simpson”; consoleLogParameter(age); // → 39;

Another example where more meaningful variable names would be useful is in relation to metasyntactic variables. These variables are commonly found in source code and are intended to be modified or substituted before real-world usage. Whilst these variables are only placeholders, I believe that it is also better to use a variable name which offers more context to your developer comrade to assist them when they are reading and implementing the code in future.

We work in a wonderful profession with a rich history, where many people are willing to donate their time to helping to educate and mentor their fellow programmers. Using meaningful variable names in place of fooBarBaz is one way that we can ensure that this effort is worthwhile and helps as many people as possible. It lowers the barriers to entry for the profession, helping to create a more diverse and welcoming programming community.

So ditch the fooBarBaz (but not the Teapot) and go forth and spark joy!

Easy Agile Team

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Workflow
8 Software Development Methodologies Explained
Software development teams are known for using a wide variety of agile methodologies, approaches, and tools to bring value to customers. Depending on the needs of the team and the product's stakeholders, it’s common for teams to deploy and utilize a combination of software development methodologies.
Most dev teams combine methodologies and frameworks to build their own unique approach to product development. You’ll find there are plenty of overlapping principles from one methodology to the next. The key is choosing a system and working as a team to fine-tune and improve that approach so you can continue to reduce waste, maximize efficiency, and master collaboration.
In this post, we’ll outline and compare the following eight software development processes:
1. Agile software development methodology
2. Waterfall methodology
3. Feature driven development (FDD)
4. Lean software development methodology
5. Scrum software development methodology
6. Extreme programming (XP)
7. Rapid application development (RAD)
8. DevOps deployment methodology
1. Agile software development methodology
Agile is the most common term used to describe development methods. It’s often used as an umbrella term to label any methodology that’s agile in nature, meaning an iterative process that reduces waste and maximizes efficiency.
Most software development methodologies are agile with a strong emphasis on iteration, collaboration, and efficiency, as opposed to traditional project management. It’s like comparing jazz to classical music. 🎷
Traditional, linear management methods, such as the waterfall method we’ll cover below, are like classical music, led by one conductor who has a set plan for how the music should be played. The agile process, on the other hand, is more like jazz, which comes together through collaboration, experimentation, and iteration between band members. It’s adaptive and evolves with new ideas, situations, and directions.
2. The waterfall methodology
The waterfall approach is a traditional methodology that’s not very common in software development anymore. For many years, the waterfall model was the leading methodology, but its rigid approach couldn’t meet the dynamic needs of software development.
It’s more common to see the waterfall method used for project management rather than product development. At the beginning of a project, project managers gather all of the necessary information and use it to make an informed plan of action up front. Usually, this plan is a linear, step-by-step process with one task feeding into the next, giving it the “waterfall” name.
The approach is plan-driven and rigid, leaving little room for adjustments. It’s more or less the opposite of agile, prioritizing sticking to the plan rather than adapting to new circumstances.
3. Feature driven development (FDD)
Feature driven development is also considered an older methodology. Although it uses some agile principles, it’s viewed as the predecessor of today’s agile and lean methodologies.
As the name says, this process focuses on frequently implementing client-valued features. It’s an iterative process with all eyes on delivering tangible results to end users. The process is adaptive, improving based on new data and results that are collected regularly to help software developers identify and react to errors.
This kind of focused agile methodology can work for some teams that want a highly structured approach and clear deliverables while still leaving some freedom for iteration.
4. Lean software development methodology
Lean software development comes from the principles of lean manufacturing. At its core, lean development strives to improve efficiency by eliminating waste. By reducing tasks and activities that don’t add real value, team members can work at optimal efficiency.
The five lean principles provide a workflow that teams use to identify waste and refine processes. Lean is also a guiding mindset that can help people work more efficiently, productively, and effectively.
The philosophies and principles of lean can be applied to agile and other software development methodologies. Lean development provides a clear application for scaling agile practices across large or growing organizations.
5. Scrum software development methodology
Scrum is a system regularly used by software development teams. Like many software development methodologies, Scrum is agile, focusing on a value-driven approach. The Scrum process is based on empiricism, which is the theory that knowledge comes from hands-on experience and observable facts.
One Scrum takes place over a preset amount of time called a sprint. Usually, the time frame is between two to four weeks and the Scrum is at the beginning of the sprint. The goal of each sprint is to yield an imperfect but progressing version of a product to bring to stakeholders so that feedback can be integrated right away into the next sprint.
The specific goals of each sprint are determined by a product owner who orders and prioritizes backlog items (the artifacts that need completion). The sprint process repeats over and over again with the development team adjusting and iterating based on successes, failures, and stakeholder feedback.
Learn more about Scrum — the complete program planning solution for Jira.
6. Extreme programming (XP)
Extreme programming, also called XP, is a methodology based on improving software quality and responsiveness. It’s an agile approach that evolves based on customer requirements; the ultimate goal is producing high-quality results. Quality isn’t just limited to the final product — it applies to every aspect of the work, ensuring a great work experience for developers, programmers, and managers.
Decision-making in extreme programming is based on five values: communication, simplicity, feedback, courage, and respect. The specifics of XP can’t apply to all situations, but the general framework can provide value no matter the context.
7. Rapid application development (RAD)
Rapid application development (RAD), sometimes called rapid application building (RAB), is an agile methodology that aims to produce quality results at a low-cost investment. The process prioritizes rapid prototyping and frequent iteration.
Rapid application development begins with defining the project requirements. From there, teams design and build imperfect prototypes to bring to stakeholders as soon as possible. Prototyping and building repeat over and over through iterations until a product is complete and meets customer requirements.
This is ideal for smaller projects with a well-defined objective. The process helps developers make quick adjustments based on frequent feedback from stakeholders. It’s all about creating quick prototypes that can get in front of users for constructive feedback as soon as possible. This feedback is pulled into the user design so that development decisions are based on the direct thoughts and concerns of those who will use the product.
8. DevOps deployment methodology
The DevOps deployment methodology is a combination of Dev (software development) and Ops (information technology operations). Together, they create a set of practices designed to improve communication and collaboration between the departments responsible for developing a product.
It's an ongoing loop of communication between product developers and Ops teams (IT operations.) Like so many agile processes, it relies on continuous feedback to help teams save time, increase customer satisfaction, improve launch speed, and reduce risks.
The steps of DevOps deployment repeat, aiming to increase customer satisfaction with new features, functionality, and improvements. However, this methodology has some drawbacks. Some customers don’t want continuous updates to their systems once they are satisfied with an end product.
Software development made easy
Most software development teams use a combination of methodologies and frameworks to fit their team size, team dynamics, and the type of work being completed. The key is to use an agile methodology and work together to continually improve your systems as you learn and grow.
Easy Agile is dedicated to helping teams work better together with agile. We design agile apps for Jira with simple, collaborative, and flexible functionality. From team agility with Easy Agile TeamRhythm, to scaled agility with Easy Agile Programs, our apps can help your agile teams deliver better for your customers.
Book a 1:1 demo to learn more about our suite of Jira tools, or contact our team if you have additional questions. We offer a free, 30-day trial, so you can try out our products before making a commitment.
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Workflow
Your Guide To Agile Software Development Life Cycles
A common misunderstanding with agile software development methodologies is that they don't follow a formal process. Each team just does their own thing with little or no planning, and somehow it all works out. Well, we hate to burst your bubble, but software development doesn't work like that, agile or not. 🤯
Just like with traditional waterfall projects, agile projects follow an agile software development life cycle (SDLC). From a process perspective, the primary difference is a linear approach with waterfall and an iterative approach with agile. We'll get into this a little more later.
First, let's walk through how an agile SDLC aligns with agile principles. Then we’ll talk about the agile SDLC in both Scrum and Kanban environments.
How the agile software development life cycle supports agile principles
The Agile Manifesto states four basic values that drive improvement in software development processes. They are:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan.
Those are great values! Now raise your hand if you remember the next sentence. Anyone?? Let us refresh your memory: "That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more."
Too often, new agile software development teams are so excited to start "doing agile" they forget to fully comprehend the entire contents of the Agile Manifesto. We get it — it's hard to remember all 68 words when you're excited. 🤓
So let's take a look at that again: The items on the right have value. That doesn't sound like you should eliminate all documentation, processes, and tools. You actually need some of those things to function efficiently as a team. At the very least, you’ll need to negotiate some type of contract if you're building software for an external stakeholder and you want to get paid.
We'd love to be able to tell you exactly how many processes and how much documentation and planning you'll need, but we can't. Part of being agile is figuring things out as you go along based on your team environment and customer needs. As your agile team matures, you'll begin to inspect and adapt the processes, tools, and project documentation your team needs to work efficiently and effectively.
Now let’s look at a couple of agile software development life cycle models.
The Scrum SDLC model
Remember earlier we talked about waterfall being linear and agile being iterative? Scrum is the perfect agile framework to highlight the difference.
The traditional waterfall model of product development requires several steps before you arrive at a final product. Waterfall projects meet the Definition of Done only after the entire project is complete and in the hands of the user or stakeholder. It's linear — a straight path from start to finish.
The agile method of Scrum, on the other hand, is iterative and adaptive. Scrum teams break the deliverables into smaller pieces with shorter time frames called sprints. The intent is to deliver slices of working software with each iteration throughout the entire product development process.
Rather than a single sprint, as shown above, a full Scrum life cycle looks more like this:
For each iteration, the team plans, develops, reviews, and deploys updates to the product functionality. As stakeholders perform acceptance testing and see the working product, they may ask for new priorities or requirements. That feedback is added to the product backlog to be prioritized with other features and work by the product owner. Then, the process starts again.
Since software is always evolving, this process repeats until the product has either matured to a maintenance level or has reached the end of its useful life and is retired.
Particularly for Scrum, planning is a huge part of the SDLC. Sprint planning brings the team together to prioritize work based on the sprint goal defined by the Product Owner. The daily standup gives the team a chance to coordinate their activities for the day. The sprint review allows the Product Owner and other stakeholders to inspect and discuss deliverables produced during the sprint. And, finally, the sprint retrospective creates the opportunity for the team to reflect on the process, team dynamics, and potential improvements for future.
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Backlog refinement is also a type of planning recommended to be completed prior to a sprint planning session or at the end of a sprint. During refinement, teams can discuss the feasibility of specific functionalities or ideas for development methods to meet the acceptance criteria. They can also plan around resource availability. For example, they might consider creating extra unit tests to reduce the efforts of a tester who will be on vacation part of the next sprint.
The difference between planning in Scrum and waterfall is how much work you plan and when. Waterfall plans the entire project at the beginning. Scrum planning happens all through the development of the product, from the beginning to the end.
The Kanban agile methodology
A Kanban framework has a little different agile process. Work items aren't necessarily related to or dependent on each other. Individual team members can work asynchronously to push new code to production as soon as it's ready. Yet, Kanban is still iterative in that work items are prioritized in a backlog, and then they are developed, reviewed, and pushed to production.
New backlog items are added to the board based on the end-user feedback. The prioritization of work items is regularly reviewed and adjusted, aligning perfectly with the agile value of responding to change.
A big difference with Kanban is that instead of committing to work based on story points and team velocity, each column in the Kanban board can only hold a limited number of work items (WIP limits). This helps teams stay focused, identify bottlenecks in their process, learn where automation might be helpful, and generally understand where their process is working and where it needs a little help.
With Kanban, there is more focus on the continuous flow of work through each stage. The WIP limits help teams identify specific stages that are impeding the workflow so they can figure out the cause, fix it, and ultimately become more efficient. .
Each Kanban team can choose the columns on their board to suit their needs. The goal of Kanban is to improve the speed of work progressing through the board. Close monitoring and measuring work item movement is critical to Kanban teams.
Working with the agile software development life cycle
Whether you're working in a mature company or a startup team, there's value in an appropriate amount of documentation, tools, and process in agile software development methods. In fact, establishing an agile software development life cycle will help your team operate efficiently.
TIP! Looking for more team alignment? Try Easy Agile Programs
Remember to refer back to the Agile Manifesto and The 12 Principles Behind the Agile Manifesto if you get stuck. These values and principles don't apply only to what you're building but also to how your team works. The key concept behind agile frameworks is to inspect and adapt — including both the software and how you’re functioning as a team.
Use as much process and documentation as you need, but no more. Look at what you have today and identify key items you don’t think the team can function without. Then add or eliminate steps as you discover the best way for your team to work in an agile framework.
At Easy Agile, we're here to help you get the most out of your agile practices and to help you grow into a high-performance, agile team. 💪 If you want to learn more, check out our other blog articles on agile topics.
If you need help with Atlassian's Jira tool, we've got some great apps for you to try. Our Easy Agile Programs for Jira app can help your planning activities through alignment at scale and visualising dependencies.
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Agile Best Practice
7 Product Management Software Tools to Streamline Development
You can find dozens of product management tools that fit SaaS goals.
These tools vary in features, functionality, and pricing. However, one thing is certain: Product management tools are more supportive than ever before.
Find out what product management can best support your software development.
What are product management software tools?
Product management software tools help to guide software development teams through their workflow.
Product management tools can help team members conduct research, create assessments, do iterations, and plan their product launches. Some tools even support roadmapping product development, so they can support agile teams.
Development teams can use roadmapping tools to:
Streamline product strategy
Draw up their product plan
Create their product roadmaps
Develop user journey maps
Manage backlogs
Conduct research on customer needs
Improve prioritization of product features
Determine the length of their Scrum sprints
Analyze data for their product research
Do process mapping
Manage product releases
Improve how agile teams collaborate
Create new products
Deliver better products
Message team members
Using product management tools are ideal when working with remote teams. It is also the solution to increasing collaboration across cross-functional teams.
Many or most of these product management tools also integrate well with existing software, so it’s no big deal to customize existing systems. You can also customize many of these product management tools to meet your product team’s needs.
Here are eight of the most recognizable product software tools available to start your new roadmapping journey.
1. Jira
Jira is typically seen as the best product management software tool for software development. However, many other industries use Jira for roadmapping and managing their projects. This popularity is due to the fact that Jira offers a free plan, but it goes deeper than that.
Jira is the ideal software management tool to use in managing Scrum, Kanban, Waterfall, and other agile methodologies. The user interface is intuitive, making it easy and convenient to use whether you’re a product manager for software or other products. Because it is also a convenient tool, you can use it to assign tasks and manage projects and product development.
Product managers can easily keep track of workflows, agile team responsibilities, and tasks. You get to see where backlogs are building in Scrum or Kanban. You can also manage velocity charts, burndown charts, release burndown and sprint reports with Jira software.
You can also include software like Slack, GitHub, and others to round off your Jira product management tool.
Some of the key features you can anticipate in this software include:
Visually capturing the product vision to develop better products
Collaboration tools to keep teams on board in real-time
Gantt charts to view project and product progress
A Scrum or Kanban board
User-friendly roadmaps
Milestone tracking
Portfolio management
Comprehensive Agle reporting
Extensive automation of the product management process
The ability to connect codes with issues
In terms of pricing, small businesses often go for the free plan. Jira’s free plan allows 10 users to access roadmapping and other features simultaneously. The paid plan is about $7 monthly for each user.
Agile teams using Jira can benefit from Easy Agile Programs for Jira. It helps teams align on their goals, focus on features and epics, and view dependencies. However, all Easy Agile plugins work with Jira. They simplify everything from PI planning to creating personas and roadmaps.
2. Trello
Trello uses a card system to manage Kanban and other product development workflows. When the administrator sets up the Trello board, product teams get a visual representation of workflows. They can see user stories, who is responsible for tasks, and an overall view of workflow and product life cycles. All these features and others make for an excellent roadmap tool.
The disadvantage of this system is that it doesn’t have a calendar. Another drawback is it offers basic folders for task categorization. It will be difficult to use Trello for Scrum, for example, as you have limited access to folders and there are no subfolders. You can however access multiple user stories to streamline workflows for simple projects.
Despite these drawbacks, Trello does include workflow automation, courtesy of the Butler robot. This little robot feature enables you to set certain rules and calendar triggers so that you can automate repeating assignments. Trello is probably better suited to startups or tracking progress when you have a small salesforce.
Because the Trello platform is simple (but intuitive), team collaboration is convenient. Communicating via Trello is also user-friendly, helping product teams to immediately see who is doing what and task deadlines.
While Trello defaults to the Kanban methodology, you can use it for other project types.
Several features you can look forward to on Trello, include:
Prioritization of tasks
Tracking deadlines
Gantt charts
Kanban board
Tools for Agile team collaboration
Resource and task management
Automation of workflows
Tracking team member progress
Various templates
Trello has a free plan where product managers can use up to 10 boards for each of their teams. You can also purchase the pain plan on a yearly basis, which costs around $10 per user.
3. Wrike
Wrike is as much a tool for streamlining workflows as it is for managing product development. Wrike is flexible, adaptable, and dynamic and is a tool designed for better product decisions.
You can use it for small product management, single client management, or as an enterprise-wide tool for product management. Wrike is also versatile enough to use in software product development or marketing. This platform also has a special tool for marketing, making it easier to manage salesforce operations.
Wrike is customizable, so you can include Gantt charts and Kanban boards to improve team member collaboration. Another function of this platform is its Work Intelligence AI tool which product managers can use for automation and predict product risk.
Wrike works well with Jira, Slack, GitHub, Dropbox, and several other tools. You can also customize other integrations to tailor Wrike for product management teams. If you want to add software which this platform doesn’t support, you can. You simply create the solution you need.
The most prominent features of Wrike are:
The ability to integrate third-party applications
Its comprehensive, versatile API
Managing multiple template options
Permission and access control
Importing and exporting data
Integration of spreadsheets and tables
Convenient task management
A user interface for dragging and dropping
Categorizing and structuring product tasks
Calendar and timeline control
Files and documents management
Tracking activities and progress
Filtering of data
Stats and reporting
Shared or public workspace
Wrike offers a free plan for the use of simple features, but you need to pay about $9.80 a month for each user to access more complex functionality.
4. Productboard
Productboard is right up there with the likes of Zendesk. It provides one of the best features for gathering user feedback. As every software development team knows, user feedback can make or break product success. With this product, you can categorize customer feedback, turn this into valuable information and prioritize this feedback.
Productboard lets you track their feedback during the lifecycle of each product via a portal. This portal supports idea exchange and management, which team members use as inputs to increase product value. This software tool is also great for collecting use cases and understanding user behavior to create the right products for customers.
You can use Slack and email with the Productboard, but if you want additional software integration, you must arrange this yourself. Fortunately, the API in this product is user-friendly to make this happen.
The main features of Productboard include:
Storehouses for product feedback
Customer segments that are particularly dynamic
The ability to prioritize and categorize customer feedback
Transforming feedback into valuable insights
A powerful system for value assessment
Roadmapping tools that you can customize
Prioritization of tasks
You can get an annual Productboard basic plan at around $20 a month for every user.
5. ProdPad
ProdPad takes the user experience into consideration. It has a lean roadmapping function that you can use to highlight goals and objectives. You can experiment with this product software tool to include user feedback in product development. ProdPad is also known as being among the best product management software tools on the market.
The product roadmap tools are simple to use and include color coding for roadmapping. ProdPad has an easy drag-and-drop feature, privacy settings, and you can use the priority checkpoints as you need.
Development teams can access an ideas management feature to create priority charts. Here, they can see how backlogs influence impact and effort charts in workflows. You can also simply import data from other sources to boost new product development if necessary.
One more feature that characterizes ProdPad is the ability of team members to see associations between user ideas and product development. They can also develop customer lists to question further about their product experiences.
You can collect use cases and understand user behavior better. You can then use all this information as inputs for new product development.
Features that you can expect from this product management tool are:
Idea generation and capture
Capture and storage of customer feedback
Integration with apps that support customer feedback
Integration with other third-party apps
Priority charting of ideas
Lean product roadmaps
Product roadmapping based on objectives
Creation of customer portfolios
You can purchase ProdPad’s Essential Plan at about $149 per month for annual billing. This plan allows you to use three administrators or editors for product planning.
6. Asana
Asana is also a useful management platform. You can use it as a solution to roadmap workflows. Asana is popular among small business startups and larger enterprises.
This management solution is cloud-based. It enables team members to share their workspace and assign and track tasks and work progress. Asana is also an excellent platform for team members to collaborate.
You don’t get much customer support with Asana. And, although not ideal for complex team management, Asana has many redeeming features, some of which include:
Excellent team messaging and collaboration
Ideal for outlining detailed goals
Efficient for managing multiple tasks and team members
A user-friendly dashboard
Tracking of milestones
Automation
Several templates option
Project planning functionality
Multiple analytics and reporting options
Managing resources
Tracking of time and expenses
Asana has a free plan if you can cope with limited features. Paid plans begin at approximately $10.99 per month for each user. The company bills annually.
7. GLIDR
There are multiple management solutions for streamlining product workflows. GLIDR offers one more platform from which to achieve product software development goals. You can develop detailed product plans that meet customer expectations. GLIDR highlights the customer experience, so places their feedback at the forefront of the best product deliverables.
You can manage product research, use cases, and user behavior on this platform. You can then create product specs, link ideas, create viable user stories, prioritize features, and much more.
GLIDR provides several board view options that help software developers to create themes from ideas. You can also categorize ideas by their status, fill in timelines, or show these ideas on Kanban boards.
Other helpful functions include the ability to integrate apps such as Intercom and Zendesk with GLIDR. You can also link Jira and Trello with this product management software.
Product managers and teams can use GLIDR to streamline their workflows, track product progress, create reports and transform roadmaps into the best products possible.
The primary features of GLIDR include:
Product canvasses
Public roadmapping
Options for research and experimentation
Trend scores to rank ideas
Prioritization of features
Activity feeds
Progress tracking and monitoring
User-friendly dashboards
Reporting that you can export via PDF format
You can test GLIDR for free for 14 days. Then, the cheapest option is about $8 per person, per month for a team of five people. GLIDR bills annually and has three other plan options that give you access to more features.
Up your game with Easy Agile
One way to up your product management software game is to take advantage of Easy Agile resources. You can either use our Jira apps to integrate with existing product management platforms or give your existing system a boost.
Select from apps for Kanban Workflow for Jira or boost product development performance with User Story Maps for Jira.
Up your game with Easy Agile Roadmaps for Jira to guide your team to product success or use our Programs for Jira for Program Increment Planning.
Whichever apps you choose (all of them?), you can improve product team management with the best product management software available.
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Foo Bar Nah

Related Articles

8 Software Development Methodologies Explained

1. Agile software development methodology

2. The waterfall methodology

3. Feature driven development (FDD)

4. Lean software development methodology

5. Scrum software development methodology

6. Extreme programming (XP)

7. Rapid application development (RAD)

8. DevOps deployment methodology

Software development made easy

Your Guide To Agile Software Development Life Cycles

How the agile software development life cycle supports agile principles

The Scrum SDLC model

The Kanban agile methodology

Working with the agile software development life cycle

7 Product Management Software Tools to Streamline Development

What are product management software tools?

1. Jira

2. Trello

3. Wrike

4. Productboard

5. ProdPad

6. Asana

7. GLIDR

Up your game with Easy Agile