Recommended tools for CTO Software House

Over the course of several years of experience in creating dedicated software solutions in many service companies, we have understood how important the cooperation between sales, marketing, CTO and development teams is.

The role of the CTO

From the perspective of a person managing development teams - the key is to build a collective that is able to develop dynamically and deliver solutions. The role of a CTO is to build teams, define processes that allow them to work effectively. By measuring certain parameters, improvements can be implemented to increase the value delivered and the comfort of working. It is important to know what the teams' plans are, how their work is progressing and what challenges the developers are currently facing.

CTO and the environment

On top of that, it is useful to periodically scope out other CTOs about what problems they face and how they solve them. We can share our experiences, but also get inspired and get advice on the challenges we are currently facing. In addition, we can make a reconnaissance on the market in terms of tools aimed at people managing technology teams so that we can benefit from their potential and not "reinvent the wheel".

Cooperation of CTOs and developers with the rest of the organisation

It is not uncommon for communication and good relations between development teams and marketing and sales to be limited to a minimum. To make matters worse, there are sometimes verbal clashes and underestimation of the value of the work done between them. This often results from a lack of knowledge and behaviour based on stereotypes. Hence, an important aspect for managers is to make these teams work together on common tasks, so that there is synergy in what is communicated and delivered to the customer, knowledge is exchanged, soft and hard skills are developed, and customer satisfaction is worked on together.

On the marketing and sales side, in turn - information can come in about what projects are on the horizon in which they can be involved. That is why cooperation between specialists dealing with close cooperation with clients and developers is a very important element of effective implementation of projects meeting clients' expectations.

Over the years we have met many outstanding CTOs. Both in terms of work discipline and broadly understood passion in what they do, who have used tools to improve their work. Of course, we believe that there is no universal tool that will solve all the problems as each CTO has individual needs and different solutions should be used for each of them. Sometimes even the simplest solutions such as a sheet of paper, a flipchart and markers allow you to start working on solving a specific problem and this is a good start. Sometimes, however, we can reach for a tool on the market (if properly adjusted) that can also give us value in subsequent stages of work on a given aspect.

Therefore, it is worth asking yourself the following questions at the very beginning in order to then be able to select the tools that will bring real value:

1. What needs should the tool meet and what functional scope should it have?

2. Is there a need to integrate the tool with other tools or can it operate independently?

3. What budget do we have for implementing a particular tool?

Only after answering the above questions can you start looking for solutions that fit your team's current needs.

In this article, we share tools that deserve special attention and consideration when looking for proven solutions that are internationally recognised by members of teams developing dedicated software.

Looking for proven tools to improve the work of Software House marketing teams? Explore the recommended tools in this <<article>>

Resource management and team organisation

Primetric

This tool gives you access to all your key business data in one place. It saves you the time of combining spreadsheets to see available specialists and their planned involvement in your company's projects from a bird's eye view, which will also give you a glimpse of the future and the planning that goes into forecasting. Primetric helps you quickly gain insight into key data so you can take immediate action and optimise your processes. With Primetric you can: plan human resources, manage resources and skills, manage projects, track time worked and take care of company finances.

Databox

Databox's mission is to make it as easy as possible for corporate executives to monitor, analyse and improve performance in one place, on any device. Databox is a cloud-based business analytics platform for marketers, CEOs, analysts and decision makers that provides a single interface to view various key performance indicators (KPIs) and generate reports. It is adapted for both small and large businesses and offers mobile apps for iOS and Android devices.

Goals setting

Weekdone

Weekdone is a tool that helps you effectively use the OKR methodology to set and achieve goals in your organisation in weekly iterations. Particularly noteworthy here is the intuitive and attractive interface, desktop and mobile application, extensive and accessible knowledge base and dedicated support of the application authors, as well as integration with such tools as Slack, Google Tasks, Basecamp, Asana, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Asana, Zapier.

Writing down thoughts and quick notes

reMarkable

For those who are used to taking notes in the traditional way, this is the perfect tool to effectively replace pen and paper notebooks. Use reMarkable to take handwritten notes, edit PDFs, sketch ideas and read ebooks and articles on the E Ink display. Its benefits include easy setup with Google Drive, Dropbox, and even the ability to share the screen on external devices to share ideas live with team members.

Monitoring the correct operation of existing software

New Relic

It is a modern tool enabling real-time monitoring and checking both the progress of the software under construction and early detection of irregularities in its functioning. It enables rapid response to software malfunctions and proactive action - making us a partner who solves customer problems one step ahead of them and the costly consequences. It protects the company developing the solution from situations related to customer dissatisfaction resulting from errors in the operation of the commissioned system. It features integration with leading cloud providers including AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.

Summary

The tools we have prepared are only a selection of solutions in their category that we have used in the past. We know that a tool is supposed to be an improvement to your work, not an adaptation to a tool, so it is worth taking the time to properly evaluate the available solutions in order to make the best choice. That is why we encourage you to keep testing the tools and also to share with us the ones that you find valuable and are not included in our list.