Why would BloombergBusiness (BB) devote a whole issue—38,000 words—to the subject of writing computer code and managing computer coders? Because that’s the future.

“Software,” we learned from Marc Andreessen in 2011, “is eating the world.” In the process, software is eating up organizations and executives who don’t understand it or know how to manage it. As the BB article says, “Now that software lives in our pockets, runs our cars and homes, and dominates our waking lives, ignorance is no longer acceptable. The world belongs to people who code. Those who don’t understand will be left behind.” So BB is offering a tour of the strange, magical, mysterious world of software for frightened executives—and everyone else.

This cleverly-written, and often-funny, article by Paul Ford begins with the quandary of an apparently successful executive whose experience and skills are useless in coping with languages he doesn’t understand, management practices with strange names he cannot grasp, people he doesn’t feel comfortable with and threats to his survival as a manager that are all too real. Software development is consuming an ever-larger part of his budget while it is becoming ever central to his, and his organization’s, future.

The article follows the executive through an extended lesson in what software is all about. It describes the different languages—Java, Python, C, C++, C#, Perl and so on—along with their strengths, weaknesses and personalities, and even more important the management practices that are used to direct it.

It is safe to say that in the 21st century, it will be as common in high school to learn a couple of languages like Java and Python as it was to study French and Spanish in the 20th century.

Managing Coders

With a light touch, it gives a simplified and amusing account of the executive’s encounter with the terminology and management practices of Scrum, with its daily standups, its Scrum Masters and its sprints.

This is real. A Scrum Master in ninja socks has come into your office and said, ‘We’ve got to budget for apps.’ Should it all go pear-shaped, his career will be just fine. You keep your work in perspective by thinking about barrels of cash.

It gives a fair account of the main management practices of managing software: Agile and Scrum.

There are as many variations of Agile. I’ve had terrible meetings in my life when I sat between two teams and one of them explained, at length, why Agile with Kanban was better than Agile with Scrum. You could smell the money burning

Here is Agile, as I’ve seen it done: You break down your product into a set of simple-to-understand user stories about who needs what. You file those stories into an issue-tracking system, often a commercial product such as JIRA.

You divide work into sprints of a week, two weeks, or whatever suits your management style, and you supply each sprint a name and a goal (implement search, user registration), then the programmers take stories to go off and make them happen.

Every day your team checks in and tries to unblock one another—if you are working on the tool that sends e-mail and the e-mail server isn’t working, you tell everyone. Then someone else steps up to help, or you stick with that story and do the best you can, but everyone needs to be working toward the sprint goal, trying to release some software. And once the sprint is done, you deliver something that actually, really works and move on to the next thing, slowly bringing a large, complex system into operation.

That’s an ideal case. Done well, it avoids magical thinking ('It will all work when we get everything done and wired together'). It has its critics and can seem to have as many branches (c.f. Scrum, Kanban, and 'Agile with Discipline') as Protestantism.

It gives an account of what happens when the troubled executive picks up his courage and attends a daily standup.

One day you go to the pen where they keep the programmers. Their standup starts at 10 a.m., and some hold cups of coffee. They actually stand. Mostly men, a few women. They go around the room, and each person says what he did yesterday, what he plans to do today, and if he has any blockers. Most of the people are in the office, so they’re doing the standup in person; when people are traveling, they do it over chat. Two people are dialed in, the new hires from Boston and Hungary, both with strong accents. They tell the same story as the rest.

The executive gradually becomes comfortable with the world of software.

They will do their standups. And after the standups, they will go off and work in the integrated development environments and write their server-side JavaScript and their client-side JavaScript. Then they will run some tests and check their code into the source code repository, and the continuous integration server will perform tests and checks, and if all goes well, it will deploy the code—perhaps even in August, in some cloud or another. They insist that they’ll do this every day, continuous releases.

Then will come reports. Revenue reports, analytics, lists of new markets to conquer, all manner of new customer data that will be yours to parcel out and distribute. That will be your role, as the owner of the global database of customer intent. Thousands, then millions, of new facts that can help the company plan its sales and product development cycles. A good thing. And, you hope, the new site will generate more revenue, being faster, better, API-driven, and deployed across platforms to Web, mobile Web, and multiple apps…

When the site is introduced, you’ll buy the coders a cake and send them to the JavaScript conference of their choice. You’ve learned that the only appropriate reward for people who write JavaScript is more JavaScript. TMitTB will get his bonus. The CTO is already considering him for new things. You like the CTO. She has become a friend of sorts.

You can feel it, the S, off in the distance, coming toward you. It will arrive in due time, and you will stick it to the front of the VP in your title and all will be well. The coders all smile at you in the hall now that you’ve sat in on code reviews and feature discussions and stood quietly in the middle of standups. You know some of their names, even if you could do a better job of pronouncing them.

Perhaps you have a future in software after all.

Hello World.

Change Or Die

Not all encounters between executives and software will end so happily. Many executives will not make the effort to understand the new world of software that is emerging or the management practices related to it. And the new world will gobble them up and spit them out.

Many will find that mastering software involves shedding some of their basic assumptions about how the world works and how it should be managed. Top-down directives don't work in this world: code responds to intelligence, not authority. Nor does maximizing shareholder value work in a world in which customers are in charge. So the learning involves more than mastering the technical aspects of coding. It involves a different way of understanding and interacting with the world. It is a Copernican revolution in management.

A bonus for executives: once they understand how Agile and Scrum can manage the extraordinary complexities of software development, they will realize they can use the same management expertise to manage the mounting complexity of the rest of their business. In effect, Scrum is a major management discovery.

BB has done executives a great service by providing us with a simplified Baedeker for this strange new world. Death is not inevitable. There is no longer any need to go on faking your way through meetings about software. It can be understood. It is the future.

So read the article. Then re-read it. And then re-read it again.

As the editor says, “It may take a few hours to read, but that’s a small price to pay for adding decades to your career.”

And read also:

Why software is eating the world

Scrum is a major management discovery

Why do managers hate Agile?

Inspect and adapt the Agile Manifesto

Agile: Best kept management secret

Follow Steve Denning on Twitter @stevedenning

Also on Forbes:

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.

A biology professor filed a religious discrimination charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Monday against a Texas community college after administrators allegedly fired him for teaching students sex was determined by X and Y chromosomes. 

St. Philip's College in San Antonio, Texas allegedly fired biology professor Dr. Johnson Varkey in January for teaching his students that sex was determined by X and Y chromosomes and that reproduction must occur between a male and a female to continue the human species. Despite the fact that Varkey taught from school-approved and science-based curriculum, St. Philip's College claims his teaching was religious.

"I also explained that when a sperm (which has 23 chromosomes) joins with an egg (which also has 23 chromosomes), a zygote (which has 46 chromosomes) is formed, and it begins to divide, and after 38 weeks a baby is born," Varkey wrote in the charge to the EEOC. "Because no information is added or deleted in those 38 weeks, life starts when the zygote begins to divide, not when the baby is born."

The college  failed to respond to a demand letter sent by the professor's lawyers asking he be reinstated for what they believe to be wrongful termination, according to a copy of the charge obtained by Fox News Digital.

 UCF PROFESSOR FIRED FOR REJECTING NOTION OF SYSTEMIC RACISM SPEAKS OUT: ‘DIVERSITY IS PRETTY MUCH ANTI-WHITE’

In his notice of termination letter, St. Philip’s College said the complaint against him contained several reports of "religious preaching, discriminatory comments about homosexuals and transgender individuals, anti-abortion rhetoric, and misogynistic banter." The college claim he violated "the highest standards of academic honesty and integrity," but provided no explanation or reasoning for its accusation.

First Liberty Institute (FLI), a law firm that defends the religious liberty of Americans, sent a letter to the community college on behalf Dr. Varkey in June, asking that he be reinstated in his role and that St. Philip's College admit his termination "was not for cause but in fact violated federal and state law." 

FLI said the college is participating in unlawful religious discrimination in employment under the First Amendment and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguing Varkey "believes that he is obligated as a Christian and as a professor to teach accurate, true concepts that comport with his many years of research and study in the field of human biology."

NYU PROFESSOR FIRED AFTER STUDENTS SAID CLASS WAS TOO HARD URGES ‘TOUGH LOVE’ FROM COLLEGE, END TO ‘CODDLING’

Varkey's lawyers argue his teachings are supported by his education and experience in the field of biology, as well as his religious beliefs, but added that "throughout his employment, he never discussed with any student his personal views—religious or otherwise—on human gender or sexuality," but argued that his faith and his as integrity as an academic, forbid him from teaching or affirming statements that he believes to be false. 

"The actions of St. Philip’s College also have a disparate impact on religious employees," Varkey wrote in his charge with the EEOC. "The pattern and practice of terminating professors because of in-class statements that reflect their beliefs has a discriminatory effect on religious professors like myself."

"It saddens me that we have come to the place where, in an institution of higher learning, the feelings and opinions of the students are allowed to usurp the facts of science," Dr. Varkey told Fox News Digital. "The law protects Americans like me from being punished by their employers for holding or expressing their religious beliefs. St. Philip’s College is sending a message that the facts of science don’t matter and that religious people are not welcome and need not apply."

PENN STATE PROFESSOR SAYS SCHOOL FORCED HIM TO TEACH ENGLISH LANGUAGE IS ‘WHITE SUPREMACY’: ‘RELIGIOUS CULT’

As an adjunct professor, Varkey taught the same principles he was fired for this year in his Human Anatomy and Physiology to more than 1,500 students during the two decades he taught at St. Philip’s College, according to First Liberty. On November 28, 2022, four of Varkey's students walked out of his class when he stated that sex was determined by X and Y chromosomes, just as he always had during his 19 years teaching at the college. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"No college professor should be fired for teaching factual concepts that a handful of students don’t want to hear," Keisha Russel, Counsel for FLI and the lead attorney on Dr. Varkey’s case told Fox News Digital in a statement. "When public universities silence their own professors from teaching true concepts to students, education has been turned on its head."

Alamo Colleges District, which includes St. Philip’s College, told Fox News Digital it does not comment on personnel issues. 

For more Culture, Media, Education, Opinion, and channel coverage, visit foxnews.com/media

In 1726, the English poet Nicholas Amhurst quipped, there is nothing “more uncommon in the world than common sense.” True then, true now.

One example: A accurate Inside Higher Ed / College Pulse survey found that over half (55 percent) of all the students reported that bad teaching was a barrier to their academic success.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, most college professors have no formal training in teaching, aren’t generally hired or evaluated on the basis of their teaching skills, and aren’t incentivized to teach in innovative ways. Nor is there much frank and rigorous evaluation of teaching by skilled observers or objective efforts to assess student learning.

We do what we value. When my university delegates many of its “service” courses to graduate students, we know what the campus truly prizes. It ain’t undergraduate teaching.

As Jonathan Zimmerman, a leading authority on the history of education, has noted, most colleges and universities make few efforts to determine how well faculty are teaching or how much students are learning. And yet, better teaching could bring many students to success, especially in the most challenging, high demand fields of study.

The simplest, most straightforward way to address campuses’ financial problems and advance social justice and equity is to Excellerate retention and graduation rates at the broad-access institutions that educate the most students.

We know what that would take: Better advising. Providing every entering student with a degree plan, a designated adviser, and ready access to required courses. Placing students in a learning community. Requiring fewer courses that students consider irrelevant or boring. Reaching out proactively when students go off-track. Encouraging students to take advantage of supplemental instruction, learning centers and tutoring.

Above all, better teaching. Teaching that’s engaging, inspiring, thought-provoking and genuinely helpful.

In a hot-off-the-press opinion piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer entitled “The best DEI program: better college teaching,” Professor Zimmerman writes:

“With the end of affirmative action, which never made a difference to most Black and brown students anyway, let’s renew our focus on what does: classroom instruction.”

In his pointed words:

“Weak instruction remains endemic in American higher education. Poorly designed classes, with no clear objectives. Dull assignments and tests, which measure memorization rather than understanding. And yes, disengaged professors, who have received little or no formal preparation for teaching.”

I couldn’t agree more strongly.

Of course, we mustn’t minimize the structural and systemic barriers to student success. Funding inequities mean that the institutions that serve the undergraduates with the greatest needs have the fewest resources. Those students, in turn, are the most likely to experience financial or other life disruptions and to suffer from bias and the soft bigotry of low expectations. They’re also the students most likely to juggle work and caregiving responsibilities with academics and to worry about higher ed’s opportunity costs.

Campus climate, too, can impede learning. Commuter campuses find it hard to provide the sense of belonging and connection that contributes to student persistence and engagement.

At broad-access campuses, student learning needs, on average, are greater. Many arrive on campus with less background knowledge in subjects such as history and literature and are less well prepared in math, science and writing.

The challenges don’t stop there. Too many are diverted into remedial classes that don’t count toward a degree. The classes they take are too large to provide much individual attention.

Still, well-taught classes can make a big difference.

These are classes with:

Clear, explicit learning objectives. In every class session, students need to understand the essential knowledge and skills they are expected to acquire.

Effective organization. A logical sequence of subjects and content to be covered, a roadmap or signposts to help students understand the class’s organization, and the use of visual aids to reinforce understanding of complex concepts.

The division of content, activities and pedagogies into chunks. Breaking class sessions into manageable subsections, each with different pedagogical approaches, prevents cognitive overload and helps sustain student engagement.

Frequent formative assessments. Frequent quizzing or other assessments modes helps the instructor monitor student engagement and learning and the students to measure their mastery of the course material.

Lots of active learning activities that requires students to process and apply information actively rather than absorb information passively. Examples include:;

• Active inquiry and problem solving: Researching and finding a solution to a question or authentic problem.
• Concept mapping: Creating diagrams, charts and other visual representations of concepts and causal relationships.
• Discussion and debate.
• Peer instruction: Giving students opportunities to introduce a class session, lead discussions or help others solve a problem.
• Problem solving: Finding a solution to a question or authentic problem.
• Role playing: Acting out a role or an event in order to see different perspectives.
• Simulations: Application of knowledge to a case study or a real-world scenario.

Metacognitive activities that promote self-awareness among learners. Metacognitive activities—like asking students to describe their problem-solving process or summarize points made in class or explain concepts to classmates or reflect on their learning—can help students transfer knowledge and skills into long-term memory, strengthen their problem-solving abilities, adjust their learning strategies, and enhance their ability to learn independently and apply knowledge and skills in new contexts.

You might ask: isn’t teaching “too ineffable, too idiosyncratic, too ‘personal’” to evaluate systematically? And doesn’t my laundry list of pedagogical skills omit precisely those things that set the most memorable classroom teachers apart: their charisma, for example? We can’t all be gifted lecturers, engrossing story tellers, or entertaining, witty, or urbane discussion leaders with incredible improvisational skills. But all of us can be more effective in the classroom and bring more students to success.

I was struck by the title of a accurate article: “Teaching Evaluations Are Racist, Sexist, and Often Useless.” Of course, I agree: “It’s time to put these flawed measures in their place.” But it doesn’t follow that we shouldn’t strive to evaluate teaching more seriously and to take steps to Excellerate its quality.

A big problem with student teaching evaluations is that we ask the wrong questions. There is certainly information that students can provide that is otherwise unobtainable. Whether, for instance, the instructor arrives in class on time. Or responds to questions in a helpful and encouraging manner. Or tests what is taught. Or grades assignments promptly. Or provides detailed, actionable feedback. Or makes effective use of new technologies.

The fact is that students can tell us a great deal about a class’s structure and organization, classroom climate, style of delivery, use of instructional tools, emphasis on active learning, and the level of student engagement and participation.

Then, there is quantitative information that we possess but fail to analyze. Does an instructor have an unusually large number of students who drop the class? Or who receive a grade of D or F? Or who do or do not take another course in the discipline? Such information must, of course, be used with great care, but it can be revealing.

It won’t be easy to recenter the university around high-quality, impactful teaching. It will require a multipronged approach:

• Incentivize faculty to work with instructional designers, educational technologists and assessment specialists.
• Redesign high DFW courses.
• Create more small supplemental instruction sections in high DFW courses.
• Make graduate or undergraduate assistants available to help faculty make courses more interactive and immersive.
• Take concrete steps to encourage faculty to create more integrated, coherent, synergistic course sequences.

It’s high time to recognize that undergraduate teaching needs to be our top priority. We need to position teaching and skills building at the very center of our focus.

Teaching laboratories differ from research labs in a number of ways. They require space for teaching equipment, such as a lectern and marker boards; they require storage space for student microscopes, book bags, and coats; and they have less instrumentation than in research labs. Also, teaching labs must support a wide range of dynamic activity from standard lectures to active team-based inquiry with all the tools and technology necessary to enable any teaching and learning task easily.

Teaching labs provide students first-hand experience with course concepts and the opportunity to explore methods used by scientists in their discipline.

Teaching labs at Michigan Tech are designed to support students in their education by providing hands-on science so students learn by doing through practical exercises and research.

• Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology - Exercise Physiology
• Biology Anatomy and Physiology
• Biomedical Engineering - Biomechanics computer modeling

Scrum is one of the most popular agile methodologies, so many teams naturally want a project management software that has features to support a Scrum approach. In this software guide, we’ve rounded up eight of the best product management platforms that can be used by Scrum teams. We compare their pricing, features and more to help you decide which Scrum project management software is the best for your team.

Jump to:

Top Scrum project management software comparison

Besides affordable pricing, you want to make sure that your project management software has certain key features. Here are some of the features to look out for when comparing Scrum project management software:

Jira: Best for software development teams

Owned by Atlassian, Jira remains one of the best project management solutions for IT teams on the market today. Its issue tracking features makes it easy to log bugs and assign them to members of your team. It offers multiple project views and templates to support agile methodologies, including Scrum. Jira also integrates with over 500 other tools and offers more than 3,000 extensions, so you can take the platform’s functionality to the next level.

Pricing

• Free: $0 for up to 10 users.
• Standard: $7.75 per user billed monthly.
• Premium: $15.25 per user billed monthly.
• Enterprise: Contact the sales team for a custom quote.

Features

• Robust scrums board with agile-specific features.
• Unique roadmap feature displays a bird’s-eye view of projects.
• Enterprise-grade security solutions.
• Seamless syncing with other Atlassian products.

Pros

• Great reporting and analytics capabilities.
• More than 3,000 extensions.
• Very customizable.
• IT-specific features such as issue tracking.

Cons

• Can be complex for new users to learn.
• Customization can be time consuming to set up.
• Free trial is only seven days long.
• Could use more collaboration features and project views.

For more information, read the full Jira review.

SEE: The 9 best agile project management software for 2023

ClickUp: Best for teams on a budget

While a relative newcomer to the project management space — it only launched in 2017 — ClickUp has quickly made a name for itself thanks to its combination of affordable prices and excellent project management features. With paid plans starting at only $5 per person (billed annually) this is a great choice for Scrum teams of all sizes who want the most popular project management tools without breaking the bank.

Pricing

• Free Forever: $0; best for personal use.
• Unlimited: $5 per user per month billed annually, or $9 per user per month billed monthly.
• Business: $12 per user per month billed annually, or $19 per user per month billed monthly.
• Business Plus: $19 per user per month billed annually, or $29 per user per month billed monthly.
• Enterprise: Contact the sales team for a custom quote.

Features

• More than 15 project views.
• More than 1,000 integrations.
• Built-in team chat messaging tool.
• 24/7 customer support for all plans.

Pros

• Free plan offers a high level of functionality.
• Can manage complex projects.
• Excellent values for the money.
• User-friendly interface.

Cons

• Free plan has 100MB of limited storage.
• Some users report occasional performance issues and lags.
• Can present a learning curve due to the number of features.

For more information, read the full ClickUp review.

Wrike: Best for power users

Wrike is one of the most full-featured project management solutions on the market. While it can be overwhelming for small teams, Wrike is an excellent choice for power users who are looking to manage a portfolio of complicated Scrum projects and want more niche functions such as risk predictions. Those willing to master the advanced learning curve will find it a powerful solution with a high degree of customizability.

Pricing

A free trial is available for each of the following plans:

• Free: $0 per user per month.
• Team: $9.80 per user per month.
• Business: $24.80 per user per month.
• Enterprise: Contact the sales team for a custom quote.
• Pinnacle: Contact the sales team for a custom quote.

Features

• Custom request forms.
• Risk predictions.
• Invoicing software.
• File and video proofing.

Pros

• Great for project portfolio management.
• Organized interface is well laid out.
• Premium security and data privacy features.
• Two-way sync with 12 other apps available as paid add-ons.

Cons

• Team plan supports only 25 users.
• Must upgrade to Business plan for time tracking and template creation.
• Advanced plans are more expensive than competitors.
• Learning curve is very high compared to alternatives.

For more information, read the full Wrike review.

Lucidspark: Best for brainstorming

Whiteboards are a key element of Scrum project management and agile methodologies, but they’ve been difficult to replicate in a digital space — until Lucidspark. This virtual whiteboard replicates the experience of posting sticky notes and freehanding drawings on a board in a physical meeting. Because it’s designed specifically for brainstorming and ideating, Lucidspark will work best when used in conjunction with a dedicated project management solution such as the other products listed in this article.

Pricing

• Free: $0 for up to 3 boards; best for personal use.
• Individual: $7.95 per person per month.
• Team: $9 per person per month.
• Enterprise: Contact the sales team for a custom quote.

A free trial is available.

Features

• Add virtual sticky notes to the board.
• Free hand drawings and connections as if you were using a marker.
• Collaborate with teammates in the chat.
• Sort sticky notes by category to create a clear plan of action.

Pros

• Captures the experience of using a whiteboard.
• Unique visual collaboration tool that isn’t replicated by competitors.
• Agile-specific templates available.

Cons

• Not a standalone project management solution.
• Free plan not suitable for business teams.
• Must upgrade to Team plan to get revision history and chat features.

SEE: 6 best mind mapping software for project management in 2023

Basecamp: Best for small teams

Basecamp is a project management solution that was designed with freelancers, startups and other small teams in mind. It offers a unique flat rate pricing option that will appeal to many businesses looking to standardize their project management budget. Basecamp has a friendly, simple interface that will appeal to teams looking to get started with Scrum project management.

Pricing

• Free: Only available for teachers and students, not businesses.
• Basecamp: $15 per user per month.
• Basecamp Pro Unlimited: $299 per month, billed annually.

Features

• Hill Charts offers a unique project visualization.
• Card Table offers a new take on Kanban boards.
• Many communication tools such as message boards that are great for remote teams.
• Documents and file storage.

Pros

• Has both per-user and flat-rate plan options.
• Free for invited guests.
• User-friendly interface.
• Free for students and teachers.

Cons

• No forever-free business plan.
• May be more expensive than competitors, depending on how many users you need.
• No native time-tracking abilities.
• Need third-party integration for Gantt charts.

For more information, read the full Basecamp review.

Trello: Best for beginners

Purchased by Atlassian in 2017, Trello originally gained traction for its intuitive Kanban boards but has since developed into a full-fledged project management tool. Its simple, visual approach makes it a good choice for people who are new to Scrum and/or project management. Its free plan supports unlimited users, so the whole team can try it out before you decide if you want to upgrade to a paid plan.

Pricing

• Free: Up to 10 boards per workspace.
• Standard: $5 per user per month if billed annually, or $6 per user per month if billed monthly.
• Premium: $10 per user per month if billed annually, or $12.50 per user per month if billed monthly.
• Enterprise: $17.50 per user per month when billed annually.

Features

• Built-in automation tool called Butler.
• Highly visual user interface.
• Easy-to-use mobile app.
• Intuitive Kanban boards.

Pros

• Unlimited users on the forever-free plan.
• Intuitive Kanban boards.
• Seamless syncing with other Atlassian products.
• Good selection of native integrations.
• Completely transparent pricing plans.

Cons

• Free plan is limited to only 10 boards or projects.
• Project management features aren’t as robust as some competitors.
• Limited customization options.
• Reporting tools could be improved.

For more information, read the full Trello review.

Asana: Best for simple Scrum projects

Asana is another project and task management tool that is a good choice for Scrum beginners. Asana is best suited for simple and straightforward Scrum projects that don’t require very complex project management. This is because the platform lacks certain features, such as native time tracking and complex dependencies, that more robust alternatives have.

Pricing

• Basic: $0 per user per month for up to 15 people.
• Premium: $10.99 per user per month billed annually, or $13.49 per user per month billed monthly.
• Business: $24.99 per user per month billed annually, or $30.49 per user per month billed monthly.
• Enterprise: Contact the sales team for a custom quote.

Features

• Multiple project views available.
• Workflow builder helps standardize task execution.
• Advanced reporting and analytics.
• Many data import options.

Pros

• Great task-management features.
• Free plan allows unlimited projects and tasks.
• Integrates well with third-party tools.
• Offers support for agile and Scrum projects.

Cons

• No native time tracking.
• User interface could be more intuitive.
• Advanced security features only available with the Enterprise plan.
• Not suitable for projects with complex dependencies.

For more information, read the full Asana review.

Key features of Scrum project management software

Scrum-specific templates

Most project management platforms offer prebuilt templates to make it easier and faster to create a new project. However, not all of them offer a wide range of templates that are specific to agile and Scrum methodologies. Check each platform to see if it offers templates that will be useful for your specific project management methodology.

Customizable workflows

Scrum methodology involves very specific workflows, and these should be reflected in whatever project management software you choose. The workflows should also be customizable to fit the individual needs and timelines of your team, especially if you’re managing complex projects over a long period of time.

Team collaboration tools

Switching to email, Slack or Team every time your team needs to discuss a task wastes time and splits the conversation across multiple platforms. The best project management software keeps everything in one platform with collaboration tools such as comments, notifications and messaging.

Automation

Automation helps teams reduce repetitive, manual tasks so they can focus on getting more valuable work done. Automation rules can do things such as assigning all tasks in a certain section to one person or setting up a workflow when a new task is added to a project. Each platform approaches automation in a slightly different way, so make sure your top choices use automation in a way that works for your team.

Integrations

Most project management platforms offer some integration, but this can vary widely from a couple dozen apps to hundreds of other software solutions. It’s always a good idea to check each app in your software stack to make sure that your chosen project management system will integrate with all of them. Otherwise, you’ll have to use an outside solution such as Zapier or build a custom integration using an open API.

How do I choose the best Scrum project management software for my business?

Before you select a new Scrum project management software, consider your current project management solutions and how they succeed or fall short of your requirements. Once you identify the shortcomings, you can look for a new project management solution that solves them.

Take advantage of free trials and forever-free accounts so that you can test drive the software for yourself. Most of the platforms listed in this guide offer both of these options, so make the most of them before committing to a paid plan. If you have questions about a platform’s capabilities, scheduling a live demo with the sales team may be more efficient than trying to poke around on your own. Also, seek out reviews from other users who are currently using the software to see what they have to say.

If you still aren’t 100% committed after the trial period and demo, consider paying for a month-to-month subscription rather than signing up for an annual plan. Although this may be a little more expensive up front, it might save you from signing up for an entire year of a service that ultimately doesn’t work for you.

The entire team should be involved in choosing a project management software. Ask the people who are using the software on a daily basis what their need-to-have and nice-to-have features are. Involving them in the process will also make them more motivated to use whatever new Scrum project management software you ultimately choose.

Methodology

We reviewed this project management software based on a number of criteria, including pricing, ease of use, user interface design, and the difficulty of the learning curve. We also weighed additional features such as automation, project views, templates, and time tracking. We evaluated these platforms by consulting users reviews and product documentation.

Companies today cannot afford to ideate, research, and develop a new product over a long period. The risk is that by the time the product is ready for launch, someone nimbler, faster, more agile, who is able to identify an opportunity and quickly bring a solution to life, has already taken the top spot in the market.

Who should attend?

Teachers, adminstrators, literacy specialists and coaches, and paraprofessionals.

What is the format?

Courses are online with live synchronous sessions and weekly self-paced activities.

When are the courses offered next?

Courses are offered in the Summer, Fall, and Spring.  For information about upcoming offerings, please see the "Courses" section below. 

Can schools or districts pay by purchase order?

To pay for multiple registrants via purchase order, please email lynchschoolpce@bc.edu.

Will participants receive Professional Development Points?

Participants who complete all required coursework will receive 15 PDP's.