Tools and Techniques

Several resources are available for leaders who wish to start or improve a team. This page catalogs resources - either methods or tools - for helping you develop your team.

Management Techniques
There are several ways to organize the work breakdown structure of a team, and to communicate objectives. Consider the following approaches, and apply the elements of each that work best for your team.

Critical Path Method (CPM)
The Critical Path Method is a way to determine deadlines and the amount of time available for different tasks in a complex project. It is a fairly involved method but it gives a useful prediction of project timelines when practiced effectively. A useful output of CPM is the Critical Path, the set of activities for which even a small delay will cause significant delays later on. Many proponents of Scrum refer to CPM as "Waterfall".

Kanban
Japanese for "Signboard", Kanban is an approach to scheduling which represents tasks as cards arranged in to several columns. The columns represent progress, and are named "Backlog", "In Progress", "Testing", and "Done". Cards in the columns are arranged by priority. This arrangement enables the team's leader to communicate the importance of individual cards to the team, and the team to communicate project status and notes to each other. A basic video introduction to Kanban can be found here.

Scrum
Scrum [PDF] is a way of organizing work based on rapid iterations (rather than long-term planning) and self-selection for work (rather than delegation or orders). In this case, a Product Owner (PO) sets the priority for the tasks (called User Stories) to be carried out, the Development Team Members (DTM) transforms that vision into reality, and the Scrum Master (SM) makes sure the rules of Scrum are being followed, that team's priorities are in order, and that disputes are arbitrated fairly. A basic introduction on how to implement Scrum in a team can be found here.

Management Tools
There are several free and paid resources for helping a team stay efficient, effective, and happy. Take a look at the following tools, and apply them in your team.

Gantter
Gantter is a project scheduling tool that helps teams create Gantt Charts, and is useful for long-term planning with clear deadlines.

Slack
Slack is a communication tool for teams. Teams can create public channels, private groups, and have access to direct messaging. Slack is modeled on IRC.

Trello
Trello is a way to quickly create Kanbans for your teams. Teams can customize lists with cards, and each card can contain plain text, attachments, checklists, and due dates. It is very easy to set up, and recommended as a way for teams to quickly start collaborating on tasks.