A team manager in a software firm leads a team of software developers, involving himself/herself in the functions of hiring, training and managing staff in addition to overseeing project budgets.
He/she is also responsible to prepare progress reports informing the top management about the software project that is assigned to him/her. Since a team manager has to effectively handle and lead a team of software developers, he/she would be in the need of implements to ease the job.
This blog enlists 10 tools that assist a team manager to perform his duties with maximum efficiency. For your convenience, this blog has been divided into three sections, which are the prime responsibilities of a Team Manager.
Tools That Support Team Managers with Their Day-To-Day Tasks and Projects
1. WiFi Attendance
This tool helps managers have a comprehensive knowledge about the details of every team member. The platform integrates crucial data points like attendance, leaves, task management, and live chat at one place.
It is must have not just for the manager but even the HR Executive to keep themselves updated about the performance quotient of all the employees.
2. Asana
Asana is an awesome tool which can be take on the tag of a ‘to-do list’. This tool assists team managers with organizing, managing and planning activities linked to the project that the team is working on.
Team managers can rely on this tool to ensure that every member is on track to achieve the objectives of the team. Asana allows managers to assign tasks to other team mates, in addition to closely monitoring the project deadlines.
3. ProofHub
This is a platform that permits a perfect coordination between teams and their communications. This tool assists team managers to cut down the delivery time of the project while allowing them to organize files and closely monitor projects.
All those team managers looking to build accountable teams can rely on this tool so as to eventually enjoy a higher degree of work satisfaction. A striking feature of this tool is that it comes with an in-built online proofing tool that reviews and approves the files of team members.
4. Wimi
Wimi helps team managers better organize teams and tasks. In addition to paving the way for efficient communication between team members, this tool provides all the pertinent information under a single roof.
This tool helps managers to share calendars and files between teammates. This is achieved by creating what are called as ‘Unified Workspaces’. Team managers like you can also avail the features of the Wimi Drive, a file syncing software based on Cloud technology.
Tools That Help Team Managers Communicate With Their Teams
You will agree with the fact that communication is the key to an effective and collaborative team. Team members need to constantly communicate with each other either through text messages or video conferencing tools apart from partaking in one-to-one team meetings.
To ensure a free flow of communication within a team, a team manager can rely on some of these below-described tools.
5. GoToMeeting
True to its tagline which reads ‘Online Meetings Made Easy’ the GoToMeeting tool is a boon to team managers to conduct video conferencing meetings. This tool allows team managers to schedule meetings and to share screens with team members.
6. Slack
Another user-friendly tool that comes handy to team managers is Slack. Through this tool, managers can create Slack communities of members working on a particular project.
Once these user communities are created, Slack permits managers to communicate with the teammates through group or direct messages. It makes room for swift and private conversations between the manager and team members.
7. Flowdock
Flowdock is another chatting platform that allows managers to engage in private or group chats with team members. This tool comes with an add-on called the Team Inbox which collates all the notifications from other communication channels like Asana and Twitter.
Collaborating Tools for a Team Manager
8. Quip
It is all about making things happen in an organization with fewer exchanges of emails and meetings. It is in this context that Quip which comes with a checklist comes across as a new collaborating tool.
This tool which is extremely handy for team managers helps teams to import different file types while making real-time changes to them.
9. CodingTeam
Tagged as an innovative and free tool, CodingTeam is another promising option for a team manager to bring about a synergy of efforts between different team mates. Through this tool, team managers can oversee collective coding activities of various team members.
10. Google Docs
Google Docs is not new to you. This is another collaborative tool that has Docs and Google Sheets that can be edited by various team members simultaneously.
You can also save all the changes that are made by your team members on a particular Google Sheet that is shared with your entire team.
11. Igloo
Last on the list of tools that aid a team manager deliver his/her responsibilities with due diligence is Igloo. Tagged as a company intranet, Igloo enables team members to communicate with each other to attain the common team objective.
It can also serve the purpose of a platform that permits team mates to share and implement the ideas of other team mates.
Conclusion
Given the multiple options that team managers have at their disposal in delivering their responsibilities, it pays to pick and choose a comprehensive tool. A tool that not only offers multiple features but also comes across as an easy-to-use alternative can be a perfect bet.
A word of caution is to look closely into the privacy options of these tools as IT firms usually work on projects that revolve around sensitive and confidential information. A tip here would be pick cloud-based tools that allow team managers to see the activity regarding recent edits and updates to a file or code.