After the pandemic, remote work became mainstream. In IT, hiring global developers has become necessary for those who want access to a better talent pool.
However, most of the benefits that remote work brings to the table are impossible without understanding how to enhance collaboration and dynamics between remote employees.
Having the right working tools helps teams organize better and more efficiently, allowing them to coordinate time zones, manage workload, keep track of projects, and more.
By 2028, it’s expected that 73% of all departments will have remote workers. Therefore, having the right tools is becoming more important as remote work continues to increase.
Having the right tools and resources will help you manage your team more effectively and build the necessary communication channels that help everyone stay on the same page. Additionally, tools are also key for building remote culture and bonding spaces.
These are the best tools for collaboration, project management, and communication for a remote technical project manager!
Categories of working tools for remote tech teams:
Chanty is an easy-to-use online collaboration tool perfect for synchronous communication of distributed teams. It lets teams communicate and connect by using unlimited group messaging and a built-in video conferencing technology.
Chanty is one of the best working tools for tech teams because it combines communication with project management, having an all-in-one solution.
Key features:
Price: Free Plan (up to 5 users) and Business ($3/month per user)
If you’re looking for a reliable communication tool for as a technical project manager, Brosix is the way to go. It consists of a secure instant messaging app targeted mainly for corporate uses.
Brosix will easily help you optimize your processes as you’ll be able to run your internal team networking, enhancing productivity and security. Teams can transfer files, use group or private chats, share screens, and more!
Key features:
Pricing: Startup ($0), Business ($4/month per user), Premium ($6/month per user)
Jira is a must-have tool for a technical project manager who works under Agile’s methodology. The project management platform is powered by Atlassian, and its purpose is to help teams plan and track projects in a seamless way.
Tasks such as bug tracking and reporting are made clear by the platform’s transparent workflow. Every team member has visibility, therefore, it encourages teams to remain accountable. Additionally, Jira integrates with other powerful technical tools such as Bitbucket and Confluence.
Key features:
Pricing: Freemium, Standard ($7.75/month/user), Premium ($15.25/month/user), and Enterprise (contact sales).
A great alternative to Jira is Asana. The project management system is simple and easy to use. For remote tech teams, Asana helps streamline technical communication and organize tasks and projects, dividing them into tasks and setting clear goals and deadlines for each team member.
Additionally, Asana integrates with other applications commonly used in remote teams, such as Slack and Google Drive, among others.
Key features:
Pricing: Basic (Free), Premium ($10.99/month/user), Business ($24.99/month/user)
GitHub is a code hosting platform used by tech teams to share, edit, and build in each other´s code. As it´s cloud-based, it allows teams to collaborate and work on projects regardless of each member´s location.
It´s a must-have working tool for tech teams needing a real-time platform to store, test, share, and collaborate.
With over 83 million developers using it, GitHub has become the number one tool for productivity and collaboration.
Key features:
Pricing: Freemium, Team ($44/user/year), Enterprise ($231/user/year)
Formerly known as Stash, Bitbucket is a tool suited for a technical project manager who works with Git. It is powered by Atlassian, and it consists of a code hosting and collaboration tool designed to help a technical project manager execute projects successfully.
Additionally, Bitbucket helps to structure Git repositories with an easy interface. And it offers a platform for code testing and deployment.
Key features:
Pricing: Freemium, Standard ($3/month/user), Premium ($6/month/user)
One of the key challenges of working with remote teams is when team members are located in different time zones. Managing meetings can become a nightmare. Fortunately, working tools such as Every Time Zone exists to tackle these challenges.
Every Time Zone shows the time of the locations of every technical project manager. You can easily schedule meetings and keep track of due dates and tasks as you’ll know the availability of each team member, and you can schedule meetings at a time that works for everyone.
Key features:
Pricing: Freemium, Pro ($39/year/3 users) or ($119/year/15 users)
World Time Buddy is a world clock that allows you to check different time zones and schedule online meetings. It’s a great tool for tech remote teams who want to sync on team members to figure out the best meeting schedules or availability.
Key features:
Pricing: Free!
A wiki is useful for remote teams as they can have relevant information and documents all in one place where users can easily add, edit, or remove content. And Confluence is one of the most powerful wiki solutions backed by Atlassian.
With Confluence, you can have your team’s information and key documents all in one place. This becomes important when working on specific projects that require a lot of documentation. You can create project plans, add your own notes in documents, edit, delete, and more.
Key features:
Pricing: Freemium, Standard ($5.75/user/month), Premium ($11/user/month), Enterprise (Contact sales)
Gitbook is a tech-focused wiki project software specialized for technical project management teams. As its webpage shows, Gitbook is “where technical teams document.” The wiki focuses on making it easy for teams to research plants and document products.
With Gitbook, you can keep code guidelines, product overviews, and technical communication all in one place.
Key features:
Pricing: Personal (Free), Plus ($6.70/month/user), Pro ($12.50/month/user), Enterprise (Contact sales)
Managing a remote team isn’t the same as managing an onsite team. You need the right technology, resources, and tools to keep collaboration consistent and easy. With communication tools like Chanty or code management tools like GitHub, your in house or outsourced technical team can organize in a way that location will never be a challenge.
The first step to choosing the right working tools is understanding your team’s dynamics and needs. Then it is all about getting started!