11 tools that facilitate developer productivity

11 best developer tools to improve productivity

For any tool, the most critical factor is the level of developer support. Developers want productive tools that integrate with each other and with the organization's existing infrastructure. Integration reduces duplicate work that wastes time. Organizations should also manage the adoption process to minimize time lost when learning new tool functionality.

This list was put together from researching information on top tools, reading through development forums and drawing from personal development team experience. It includes a functional description of each tool and the productivity benefits that make it useful for developers.

Project management and team communication tools

When teams can effectively visualize and evaluate workflows, they can optimize those workflows to increase productivity.

Teams can use project management tools to manage tasks, locate impediments, revise workflows to remove those impediments and communicate their findings with each other. The best project management tools should be user-friendly, enable flexible task management and provide reporting features. Task management involves assigning tasks to developers, tracking task progress and evaluating productivity metrics. Project management tools with features for reporting metrics help teams identify areas that need improvement.

With project management tools, teams ultimately spend less time on administrative tasks or unnecessary rework and more on direct development tasks.

1. ClickUp

ClickUp offers developers tools for process mapping, task assignment, task tracking and collaboration. ClickUp also provides several built-in process optimization tools to identify unproductive workflows or processes.

Using ClickUp, development teams can customize developer workflows to meet their needs. Users can display the developer's assigned tasks in a single view for improved task management. ClickUp provides a time tracker and comprehensive reporting tools for setting and evaluating team metrics. Teams can customize reports to fit the team's process needs. ClickUp offers messaging features to communicate changes in process or progress.

2. Jira

Jira by Atlassian is one of the most popular project management tools in software development. Jira's popularity comes in part from its flexibility and customization options. Developers can use the tool to create a system customized to fit a team's unique SDLC and process needs. For example, teams often use Jira not only for development, but also for test and defect management.

Jira provides Kanban boards to plan, track, test and release coding projects. The tool also offers real-time reporting. Teams can customize metrics and generate reports for evaluation at any time. Jira integrates well with a spectrum of other tools, which can help teams save time and reduce process waste by avoiding duplicate work across multiple tools. These integrations with other tools are available through Atlassian Marketplace.

3. Slack

Slack provides an integrated messaging interface for team communication. Team members can quickly collaborate without spending unnecessary time in meetings or tracking down answers directly. Slack can be customized for a team's use and shared as needed.

For any tool, the most critical factor is the level of developer support.

IDE tools

IDE tools combine a spectrum of coding features in a single application. IDEs include features for editing code, debugging, compiling builds, creating code libraries, version control and testing frameworks. The one-tool approach of using an IDE helps streamline the development process and eliminate integration problems.

Solving platform integration problems, managing a sprawl of different tools and experiencing context switching can impede developers' ability to build and improve upon software. Automated code completion, error detection and customizable plugins reduce the cognitive load on developers and let them focus on creating higher-quality code. IDEs are essential productivity tools with features and frameworks to support efficient coding.

4. Eclipse

Eclipse is one of the largest, most popular IDEs. Eclipse is open source, is free to use and can be customized to support any programming language or framework. Eclipse includes version control, and it also integrates with Git, GitLab and other Git-related tools.

The Eclipse Foundation, the nonprofit organization that supports the IDE, provides an active developer community supporting millions of lines of code. Users can access the community to connect with other developers and coding projects, expand their developer skills and boost efficiency.

5. IntelliJ IDEA

IntelliJ IDEA is a popular IDE tool written primarily in Java with a user-friendly workflow. It includes JetBrains AI for coding assistance and debugging. One of the popular features of IntelliJ IDEA is that it does not require external plugins, while still supporting multiple code languages, such as Python, Kotlin and JavaScript. The AI-powered smart code completion features help developers avoid getting stuck during coding or bug fixing. IntelliJ IDEA is a relative newcomer to the IDE tool market, so it's less well known outside of the Java developer community.

6. Visual Studio

Microsoft Visual Studio (VS) remains one of the most popular IDEs available. VS supports multiple coding languages, including PHP and Node.js. Developers can efficiently debug in VS using breakpoints, syntax highlighting, code completion and refactoring assistance options.

VS includes open source access to the Xamarin SDK, which adds the ability to support both Apple iOS and Google Android code development, and provides additional UI testing features.

VS includes an HTTP editor for testing ASP.NET or API apps, API endpoint explorer for testing and interacting with code for existing APIs, and a fully featured Entity Framework tool for working with relational data and domain-specific objects. Most developers and software testers understand how to use VS to help make the development process more manageable.

7. Xcode

Xcode supports only iOS development. It's a comprehensive IDE that improves developer productivity when writing code, testing and debugging. It includes built-in tools for managing project files and documenting resources. The tool is regularly updated with Apple technology, including frameworks, APIs and additional tools.

Xcode ensures all iOS development is current and works with the latest Apple features. It also improves productivity by providing a streamlined workflow for submitting work directly to the App Store. The tool can create codebase archives and validate code against App Store guidelines to reduce approval churn.

Code collaboration, automation and debugging tools

Many development teams find the collaboration and automation tools within an IDE lacking. Developers can turn to specialized code collaboration tools to support effective communication.

With these tools, developers can spend less time performing repetitive, time-consuming tasks and focus on solving complex code or infrastructure issues. These tools support CI, helping to iterate and debug quickly through automation and version control. Teams can see where changes occur and manage applications in collaborative, transparent environments.

The following tools simplify the process of building, deploying and sharing code.

8. Bitbucket

Bitbucket is a code collaboration tool that developers typically use to maintain a CI/CD workflow and Git code repositories. Bitbucket integrates with project management tools, such as Jira and Trello, to help round out team collaboration functionalities. Bitbucket also includes features to measure code quality and automate code-based testing and deployments.

Bitbucket provides pipelines for testing and deploying using an integrated CI/CD team tool. Bitbucket also provides the ability to track and preview features, as well as automate deployments for CD.

9. Chrome DevTools

The Chrome browser offers free tools to improve debugging and build collaboration between testers and developers. DevTools are accessible from the Settings > More Tools menu in the Chrome browser. DevTools supports web authoring and testing in parallel. It also offers real-time integration, performance, and API testing for web and mobile apps.

Developers and testers use DevTools to debug and troubleshoot issues in real time. The tool supports developer productivity by offering a host of tools that make coding and testing more accurate and efficient.

Developers use DevTools to do the following:

• Debug and isolate code issues using breakpoints.
• Manipulate the HTML and CSS files and test changes immediately.
• Debug apps and USB and network connectivity in the same interface.
• View API calls and the data returned.
• Verify responsive development with UI testing tools.
• Monitor performance and review error logs in the Network, Performance, Memory and Security tabs.

Similar tools are available for other browsers, but Chrome DevTools is, by far, the most widely used. Teams can use the tool to improve testing and developer collaboration immediately with real-time testing or defect verification.

10. Docker

The open source Docker platform helps developers manage application builds, create test beds and deploy code efficiently. Using the Docker container system enables code to deploy and run without having to recreate an entirely new server instance. Containers simplify the process of distributing application builds for testing, development and production.

Docker also reduces the time developers spend supporting the creation of test environments. Testers can quickly spin up environments using the Docker containers when needed.

11. GitHub

GitHub is a common tool for adding and managing code repositories. Developers can create workflow efficiency by hosting code repositories and using GitHub's version control, branching and secure access management. GitHub provides the ability to create pull requests for code changes. Pull requests provide automatic code tracking and documentation and can also be flagged for code review. These steps save developers significant time in requesting code reviews and writing docs.

GitHub integrates well with most IDEs and project management tools for accurately tracking team progress. GitHub supports remote coding efforts with complete source control using an efficient UI dashboard. GitHub also helps developers create a professional base, interact with a developer community and participate in social coding efforts to build credibility.

GitHub also offers GitHub Copilot, which provides developers with AI support. GitHub Copilot is an AI coding assistant that helps developers write clean code faster. The technology assists developers by automatically creating unit tests, converting comments into code and fixing bugs. It integrates with popular IDEs and can also be used inside of GitHub.

Amy Reichert is a 25-plus-year professional QA tester and writer. As a tester, she specializes in test development and Agile team management.