Top 12 Tools to Rule Your Software Development Life Cycle

Software development lifecycle management is a comprehensive process aimed at simplifying all processes as much as possible. For this purpose, specialized tools are used to make all stages of development cost-effective, fast, and of high quality.

Software Development Life Cycle Management

Depending on the communication strategy, you should choose a methodology for the most productive development process.

Some popular methodologies that your software development company should use are Agile, Lean, Iterative, Spiral, and V SDLC.

The software development life cycle (SDLC) in outsourcing or in-house consists of the following stages:

• Requirements gathering. This stage defines the goals and objectives that you need to achieve;
• Planning and design. At this stage, you should identify the priorities of functions and conduct research to validate the approaches and technologies;
• Software creation and assembly. The most time-consuming and labor-intensive stage;
• Testing. At this stage, you perform final debugging and documentation of the finished software;
• Deployment. The final stage, where you carry out the deployment and transfer of software to the client.
• Testing and Tracking live. At this stage, you must use a website visitor tracker to observe every move users make while using it.

To cultivate a more robust and secure environment, incorporating a secure SDLC in software development is increasingly crucial. It involves integrating security measures in each stage of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Notably, it’s not only pivotal during the initial design phase but extends throughout deployment and maintenance.

Also Read: The gaming companies listed in Indian Stock Market are few compared to the up-and-coming startups and companies which are working on the next generation of gaming that goes beyond conventional screens and systems. 

Top 12 Tools and Templates

The list of lifecycle management software includes tools for tracking work tasks and bugs, open-source version control, and more efficient management. 

1. Trello

Trello is a visual tool for the comprehensive management of projects and different types of workflows. It is a modified kanban board that allows you to assign tasks to employees and control their implementation. There are 3 types of features for this:

• Boards. This is a classic kanban with 2 types of functions: lists and maps. This visualization of tasks allows you to keep track of all the work processes on the project, from the planning stage to the execution;
• Task cards. They contain all the information an employee needs for work. After the task is completed, it is easy to drag it to the “Completed” list;
• Columns. These are stages of work on the task, e.g. “To Do”, “In Process”, and “Done”.

You can add participants, due dates, and attachments to the cards. You can also create lists of tasks and divide large tasks into smaller ones. Among the advantages of Trello are completely free access to most features, a simple interface, and many support languages.

2. Jira

Jira is an effective integrated decision-making tool for Agile teams that is suitable for different processes. These are requirements and test scenarios management, software development, and others. The program has many ready-made templates to get you started. 

Jira features for Agile teams:

• Quick trouble-shooting;
• Keeping a work log;
• Customizable processes;
• Scrum and kanban boards;
• Progress reports;
• Access rights at the project level;
• Email notifications available;
• Road mapping;
• Project backlogs.

For additional convenience, it’s helpful to set up differentiated access rights, especially when your team is managing tasks with Jira story points.

3. WatchThemLive

WatchThemLive is website behavioral analytics tool that helps its users to take a close look at what their website visitors are doing and how they can improve their business based on UX.

To do so, this platform employs some tools and provides users with visual and quantitative data. Here are WatchThemLive features:

• Session replays and active filters: Using session replays, users can record visitors’ sessions and find possible bugs and errors. WatchThemLive’s dashboard also include active filters to help users categorize sessions into multiple groups based on session duration, screen resolution, location, etc.
• Heatmaps: With the help of heatmaps, users can see which parts of their website get the most attention and clicks from visitors. Therefore, as a result, they would be able to improve or replace buttons and features.
• Visitors and real-time: On WatchThemLive, users can also gain data about their website audience and even about those real-time or online visitors simultaneously. These data include their browsers, devices, languages, etc., and help them to satisfy their target audience much easier.
• Goals and teams: Another useful feature on this CRO tool is the ‘Goals’ option. Using this feature, users can set up goals and keep track of them solely and see the improvements over time. Plus, they can create teams for all company members and share whatever goes on on their website with the whole team.

Moreover, WatchThemLive users can take advantage of adding unlimited number of websites and having unlimited limits in most packages. WatchThemLive is CRO platform in a nutshell that helps us check our influencer marketing strategies and convert users to paid users better and faster. 

4. Asana

Asana is a single platform for managing various processes and tracking teamwork in real time. Its capabilities include employee communication, project work, task tracking, and document sharing.

Asana features:

• Workspace branding feature;
• General work chat;
• Comments can be added to tasks;
• Smart search feature;
• Notification system;
• Email verification can be set up.

The platform can integrate with other popular project management services, such as Microsoft Teams, Jira, Gmail, Evernote GitHub,online connectors like ApiX-Drive, or Zapier and others. The service provides free access for teams of up to 15 people. After that, there is a subscription starting at $10 per month.

5. Git

Git is an advanced open-source version control system with active support. This software provides high team performance as well as the flexibility of a distributed system.

It is essentially a set of programs that are specifically designed to participate in scripts. The Git system offers the following:

• Streamlined commit procedure;
• The ability to easily port to any platform;
• Many proprietary GUIs such as GitKraken, TortoiseGit, SmartGit, and others.

The standard Git comes with Subversion or CVS import and export tools.

6. Atlassian Stash

Stash is a local version of GitHub that is used to stash changes that have been made to the working version. It stores both committed and uncommitted changes as needed.

Stash features:

• Individual users and groups can be added;
• Repository creation and management;
• It is possible to place it on your own server;
• Synchronization with Jira.

Slash also supports a variety of extension options. It supports HTTP/HTTPS and SSH protocols with authentication possible by key or password. 

7. SourceTree

SourceTree is a visual client for working efficiently with Git. Used for Mac or Windows, it simplifies the work with repositories. The program has the following features:

• Visualization of the development process without access to the command line;
• Easy code visualization;
• Smooth management of repositories and the ability to interact between them.

SourceTree supports integration with Bitbucket to universalize your code version control system.

8. Confluence

Confluence is a corporate wiki that is great for distributed teams. It makes it easy to create collaboration workspaces for knowledge exchange. 

Its features:

• Confluence for easy alignment of the page hierarchy;
• Many tools for teamwork, including publishing updates with version history and notes;
• Active Directory synchronization and two-factor authentication (2FA) are used to protect confidentiality.

Integration with Jira Software, Jira Service Management, Trello, and other tools is possible to enhance the program’s capabilities.

9. upBOARD

It is a flexible platform for managing the software development lifecycle. In essence, it is a “live whiteboard” to extract real-time metrics from logs of completed work and bugs.

The upBOARD program has the following tools:

• An error log for tracking development problems;
• Software technology assessment;
• Jira dashboard, which displays information about the current state of development as well as different types of information about the product.

The program supports integration with Google Drive for data transfer.

10. LaunchDarkly

LaunchDarkly is a platform for managing various features and deploying code at any time. The program allows it even when the feature is not yet ready to be released to all users.

LaunchDarkly features:

• Feature flags for open source code;
• Changes are made in a maximum of 200 ms;
• Quick “shutdown” of dangerous functions.

All functions are securely “bound” to the control panel. This allows the administrator to turn them on and off.

11. CircleCI

It’s a platform for working with repositories with a simple authorization done through GitHub. Circle CI is a system for building and deploying a project, which is available as a self-hosted application or in the cloud.

The program features:

• You can work on multiple tests simultaneously;
• It can connect to a large number of frameworks for fast application deployment;

This platform offers users 6,000 free seconds for building per month and up to 30 jobs at a time.

12. Ainfluencer

Now that you are familiar with all these tools to rule your software development life cycle, you need to promote them; and what better way than influencer marketing, as more than 93% of marketers use this strategy? Ainfluencer is a marketplace that helps brands and influencers connect and collaborate.

Ainfluencer features:

• Influencer discovery
• Running campaigns
• Getting influencers’ insights

You can easily run and manage influencer marketing campaigns and track the results- all for free. You can also use one of Ainfluencer’s pricing plans and let the experts do all the processes for you.

13. Refrens

Refrens is the best invoice generator since it allows you to make an infinite number of invoices for clients without having to pay a single dime.

With only one click, you may produce a delivery challan, payment receipt, debit note, and credit note.

The invoice can be changed at any time, and you can send it by email, WhatsApp, or by immediately saving it as a PDF and sending that instead.

Refrens Features That Stand Out:

• Free Unlimited Invoice
• Permission control
• Quick Easy Invoice
• Customization of Columns
• Email & Track Invoices
• Recurring Invoices
• Custom Formula
• Invoice Templates
• Insightful Reports
• Client Management
• Ready Data

14. ScreenRec

With ScreenRec you can do almost anything related to screen recording. You can record your screen, microphone, audio, and webcam with this one simple tool. You can also take screenshots and annotate them. 

You can use ScreenRec to record instant video messages and send them instantly via the private sharing link you get. The auto-save function lets you share your recording as soon as you press the “Stop” button. Offline recordings are uploaded to the cloud as soon as you’re online again. And since it’s all stored in the cloud, you’ll always have access to your recording history. 

Pros	Cons
Free download for Windows and Linux	No video editing features
No watermark or time limits	If you don’t create a free account, there’s a 5-minute recording limit.
Lightweight recorder, no lag on your recording
Records your screen, audio, mic and webcam
Cloud Recording technology for instant sharing

Conclusions

Software development lifecycle management tools are specialized programs that make a team’s job easier. Their list includes project management platforms, visualization tools, and others. However, if you are looking for some ready-made business tools so that you can skip the development process, then go forward with Shopify, YoRent, Growcer and ShareTribe.