Offshore Software Development, Page 4 Category

Project Management is a herculean task regardless of whether one is working with a small or a huge team and project managers are likely to encounter pitfalls and roadblocks regarding aspects like communication, decision making, task delegation, etc. The scenario becomes more complex if managers need to oversee remote teams working from offshore locations with different time zones. And, today, it has become a trend to hire offshore teams for executing software development projects as this model cuts down the overall project cost.

However, the aforesaid project management woes can be effectively addressed by following an agile project development methodology. This approach improves visibility, automates workflow, and eases out task distribution. For implementing the agile approach one needs to employ robust project management software tools/solutions that support agile functions. And, amongst the host of agile team management solutions available, Trello and Jira are the most popular names. Both these tools have their unique strengths as well as their share of drawbacks and are suitable for specific purposes.

This post provides handy insights on Trello and Jira and also compares their pros and cons. A quick read will help you decide on which of these agile project management tools is most suitable based on your team management requirements.

This agile project management tool was incepted by the Australian firm Atlassian, in the year 2002. It supports a wide range of project management tasks like tracking issues and bugs, general task creation, agile developmental tasks, etc., and is used as a base by several applications. Jira comes in three different flavors – Jira Core, Jira Service Desk, and Jira Software – and caters to the needs of customers from diverse domains.

This agile project management tool was launched in the year 2011, by a subsidiary of Atlassian. This is a powerful, lightweight, and Kanban web-based tool that is used for visualizing data and task flows. It is known for simplifying collaboration within projects. It comes with a board and card system that enables one to separate projects from boards and differentiate each task with cards. Moreover, it offers a user-friendly interface that facilitates tracking down individual assignments and identifying progress.

The following functionalities are offered by both Trello and Jira:

Now, let’s take a look at the differences between these two team management tools based on the following parameters.

Trello employs Kanban-style dashboards. This eases out the process of visualizing the relationship between the various tasks included within a project.

Jira is meant for professional project managers who have to deal with several complexities concerning an app development project. Such complexities usually arise in projects that have incorporated an agile project management approach and hence, encounter many interdependencies between the components of the applications which requires extensive tracking.

Trello employs a hierarchy of Boards, Cards, and Lists to manage tasks. These elements can be designed and organized as per your need – add due dates, assign cards to users, attach files, etc. A Trello board resembles a Kanban board. It is divided into columns reflecting various stages in your workflow and contains cards in which crucial information about tasks is stored. As such, this information is readily available to the whole team, thereby making the workflow more transparent and thereby accelerating the team’s productivity. However, Trello lacks pre-built workflows.

Jira’s task management approach is a bit different. It is capable of creating new-fangled workflows that facilitate software development, and also enables building customized workflows. With the workflows created by Jira, one can build a team, analyse, develop and release software, and understand how to customize workflows as well as implement these in other agile scenarios. The management functionalities of Jira provide abundant flexibility while establishing a process and allow building a board for your team. It also enables creating tasks in the form of issues wherein all necessary information can be added and thereafter assigned to specific users by switching the data between columns which mark the stages of the workflow.

An ideal project management tool should facilitate smooth data exchange between the platform and various other systems used by your team like helpdesk software, code repository, time tracker, etc.

Trello supports a host of native apps as well as integration libraries. Some of them are FogBugz, Drive, Slack, GitHub, Salesforce, Google Drive, and Zendesk.

Jira outshines Trello by providing a huge library containing innumerable native integrations for various types of actions like time tracking, test management, reporting, cloud storage, CRM, and code analysis. Some of the integrations include Salesforce, Slack, Gantt, Marker.io, Evernote, Bitbucket, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. Additionally, customers are offered a free developer API for setting up manual integrations.

The pricing policy of Trello:

The pricing policy of Jira:

As far as data storage is concerned, businesses these days either go for cloud hosting or prefer storing data within the private network of their organization.

Trello is available as a cloud-hosted service. Therefore, it works best for enterprises that do not wish to bear the hassles and invest a great deal of time in maintaining an on-premises system.

Contrarily, Jira users can choose between two options – a cloud-hosted version or an on-premises solution. The monthly cost for both versions is the same. However, the enterprises that opt for on-premises hosting have to incur additional expenses: one-time establishment cost that can go up to 4,500$.

Using Trello, you can invite unlimited users for sharing a board, and more importantly, all users gain similar visibility concerning the tasks and status of the project. Users are offered various means for communicating – commenting directly on cards, sharing attachments, using emojis, mentioning the names of teammates, etc. Furthermore, the users can be assigned to specific cards, and a notification will be sent to them via SMS, email, or push notifications, depending on their preference.

Jira users enjoy a wide range of collaboration features within boards and issues like instant messaging, file sharing, task assignments for team members, custom notifications, etc. Jira provides more agile features as compared to Trello and so, turn out to be immensely useful for the project managers who prefer organizing their work in sprints. Jira supports Kanban, Scrum as well as mixed methodologies and was specifically designed for serving the agile software development approach.

It’s important to consider the size of your team and the possibility of future expansion.

If your organization is huge consisting of various departments, Jira would be your ideal selection. There’s no point in choosing Jira if your team is small and is going to use only a fraction of the features offered.

Trello, on the contrary, works better for organizing tasks for smaller-sized teams. However, if your team is small but is likely to expand in the near future, it may outgrow the capabilities of Trello quite soon.

Opt for Trello if you require an easy-going solution that can be effortlessly and speedily adopted by your team. Besides, Trello offers more flexibility; but it may be unnecessary if your project involves software development only. However, despite an easy learning curve, it offers limited functionalities.

If your project involves an agile methodology, Jira would be your ideal pick. Despite a difficult learning curve, Jira provides more functionalities. However, since Jira is a typically designed agile project management tool, managing other types of projects using it, will be difficult.

Opt for Trello to execute simple projects involving small teams that do not need reporting and automation as Trello offers a simple interface and service flexibility that enables one to quickly build a transparent workflow.

Jira is an ideal choice for technically complex projects – multiple-role projects that require reporting and automation. However, configuring Jira and comprehending the workflow is not that easy and time-consuming as well.

Now, you must be well versed with the distinct capabilities of both Trello and Jira and would be able to comprehend which project management software tool suits your team management model. Remember to identify your objective, define your short-term and long-term goals, and then go ahead to select a team management software tool.

In case of any technical assistance regarding project development/management, reach out to Biz4Solutions, a prominent offshore software development company in India. Our exemplary services are worth a try!

Take a look at these amazing stats concerning mobile app usage and the revenue generated by mobile app development.

The aforesaid stats clearly indicate two crucial consumer behavioral aspects of the modern era – the extensive usage of mobile devices and the humongous popularity of mobile apps. Needless to say, mobile apps are essential tools that contribute to the growth of a business.

Let’s explore how mobile apps can be game-changers for businesses across diverse domains.

These days, every business encounters tough competition to make their presence felt amongst the masses. A mobile application combines the strategies of traditional and digital marketing – hoardings, newspaper ads, social media promotion, etc. – and employs novel methods to propagate their ad campaigns digitally. And, new-age users are more inclined towards mobile apps over websites. So, enterprise mobile apps turn out to be great tools that attract customer attention, enhance a brand’s online visibility, expedites brand recognition, and hence provide a competitive edge over peers.

The presence of a mobile app promotes direct marketing as business brands can consolidate all information and make products/services available at the consumers’ fingertips with the help of various mobile app features like news feed, general info, user account, search functionality, etc. More importantly, products and services can be directly sold to customers via apps.

Entrepreneurs use mobile apps to effortlessly and effectively communicate important announcements such as promotional offers, product launches, etc. through real-time user notifications. This keeps the users updated about the launch of new products/services/ lucrative offers and reminds/encourages the customers to make a purchase.

Applications provide handy insights about the purchasing patterns of users, their geographical locations, and demographics. A thorough knowledge of user behavior helps businesses to devise better marketing strategies. And, knowing the user’s current location enables brands to leverage the geo-targeting feature – sending ads to the customers when they are within close vicinity of your store – for attracting consumers.

These days, it’s not enough to possess a mobile-friendly website for a business selling goods/services. A mobile app with an amazing interface is essential for accelerating sales and driving conversions. This is because several mobile apps features help in simplifying things for users – easy access to shipping information, effortlessly executing payment process, a hassle-free checkout process with the help of just a few clicks, etc. Moreover, it has been observed that the purchasing frequency via mobile app is 1.8 times more than the shopping experienced via desktop devices, and the users purchase more when using a mobile app rather than a mobile-friendly website.

Example:

The Touch of Modern app came into being as an eCommerce website in 2012, but soon planned to target mobile users as well. Surprisingly, after launching a mobile app, the number of customer orders skyrocketed from 30,600 to 131,000. Now, 70% of their sales are generated from their mobile app and 57% of purchases are from repetitive consumers.

The British marketplace Asda decided to launch a mobile app with the intention of simplifying and enhancing their customers’ shopping experience and accelerating sales. The enterprise conducted an extensive survey for identifying the customer requirement and gathered that the customers desire a mobile app with functionalities such as barcode scanner, store locater, recipe finder, etc. Asda’s mobile app provided all these features resulting in a huge leap in online customer orders. Almost 90% of their grocery orders poured in through the app and mobile sales contributed to 18% of their total annual revenue. This firm is currently the second-largest retailer in the U.K. based across 500+ locations.

Mobile app development facilitates internal operations, communication between various departments, etc. thereby improving the effectiveness as well as efficiency of business operations. Today, several firms struggle to manage employees working remotely –either from home or from remote field locations – resulting in inadequate communications between teams. The presence of a mobile app opens up myriad effective communication channels and hence, eliminates interaction hassles while helping teams to stay connected without much ado. This results in improved work efficiency, enhanced motivation, and lower operational costs.

Crafting a customized mobile app for businesses can reduce operational costs to a great extent. A mobile app turns out to be a useful tool that maintains online records of important data like timesheets, daily work orders, guest forms, online reports, inspection records, inventory information, etc.

Example: Cumberland Farms, a large-scale firm with 500+ gas stations/retail stores and over 6,000 employees, encountered problems to smoothly run its business. This is because all their record-keeping activities were executed on paper and the task of record maintenance seemed quite challenging. This resulted in slow processing times, which worsened as the company grew. So, they launched a mobile app that enabled them to create mobile forms for executing paperless operations. Consequently, they witnessed improved internal operations, enhanced workforce productivity, reduced operational costs, and experienced a higher ROI. Furthermore, the expenses incurred on paper – over 11,000$ per year – were saved.

The whopping success of on-demand applications such as Uber, Postmates, Grubhub, Lyft, etc. testifies to the fact that on-demand marketplaces are the order of the day and a great hit amongst the users as well. And, for reaping the benefits of on-demand solutions, one need not set up a new line of business altogether. Established brands operating online can also architect an on-demand app solution for broadening their customer reach.

Example: Mobile app development has enabled the brand Rover to improvise their existing business model and this strategy provided them a golden opportunity to gain a competitive edge. Rover began as a website offering services like daycare, dog visits, dog walking, boarding, etc. They launched a mobile app with an intention of enhancing their existing infrastructure – introducing new and unique features that were not possible to offer using a website. The most notable feature was GPS integration that allowed the dog owners to track down the walkers and keep a tab on their activities while dog walking. Needless to say, Rover witnessed a massive surge in the number of registrations, with 10,000 new users per week. Thus, their mobile app solution enabled them to provide unparalleled customer services and also doubled their revenue generation.

If you possess a subscription-based business model and need to employ cost-effective and effective methods of accelerating conversions, there can be no better solution other than a mobile app. But, the question that baffles most app creators is: “How does a mobile app enable owners to make money in the app store?” Well, this is tricky and you need to follow the right procedure. If users have to pay for downloading your app, it’s less likely to fetch customers. So, you need a smart business strategy in place. Check it out!

Offer the basic features for free and employ a multi-tier subscription model for providing premium content. The subscription charges for each level should be decided as per the content/add-ons provided. Now, to convince customers into adopting your premium version, provide a free trial of your exclusive services to users. This policy is sure to convert a significant chunk of the free-trial users, resulting in a continuous revenue stream for your business.

Example: Spotify allows users to download the app for free. Thereafter, the users can upgrade to premium versions based on their choice, preferences, and the level of personalization required.

Another crucial app store revenue generation strategy is in-app ads. For this, you need to rope in third-party businesses for posting ads within your app. This way, the business brands get an opportunity to advertise their offerings, while you gain an additional revenue stream. But, remember not to bother users with too many ads running on your app.

Example: The free version of several apps including YouTube contains ads.

So, isn’t it a great idea to hire professional mobile app development services for architecting an impeccable and profitable mobile app for your business? If you are on the lookout for an experienced and proficient technology partner, the offshore mobile app development company will be a safe bet.