Hey there, welcome to this detailed guide about GitHub project management.
We will inform you why GitHub is the preferred choice for developers globally and how you can use it as a project management tool.
In this article, we will highlight the following:
You might be wondering, is GitHub a project management tool?
Or can GitHub be used for project management?
Well, read on and find out just how resourceful GitHub can get.
What Is Github Project Management?
Github is a platform for developers and programmers to work on code collaboratively.
It is a version control system that enables seamless collaboration without hindering the integrity of the original project.
The Github project management tool is a great solution to manage coding projects.
It has been instrumental in helping organizations create smooth collaboration on development projects.
Many developers don’t need to learn how to use the GitHub project management tool because most are familiar with its environment and any new features.
The Github Project Management tool has amazing features that make it so useful.
Github Project Management Features
The resourceful features dictate how to use Github for project management tasks and how to use Github project management tools.
Github is a flexible platform with useful features ideal for Agile Project Management.
Software development projects can now run smoothly thanks to the following Github features.
So, what features does GitHub project management provide?
Here they are:
The Project Boards
The board functionality, which works like the Kanban Boards, was first used in the Github platform in 2016.
It has been instrumental in enabling project managers to see the big picture as they work on their projects.
Therefore, project management with Github has become easy and allowed users to effectively organize work projects.
Project managers can create the number of projects they require in every GitHub repository.
Projects can also be divided into convenient columns, with each column representing a type of issue or a certain phase of the project.
It is easy to update project progress on the relevant columns as working teams advance and resolve Github issues and pull requests.
With the customizable nature of the column headers, it is very easy to track project progress by assigning color-coded labels to represent project progress and task type.
It is also possible to switch to the activity view when reviewing your working team’s progress on the current project.
When the moment comes to presenting a status report to your project stakeholders, this will become quite useful and give accurate information on project achievements and track progress.
Thanks to this Github feature, organizing projects as per their current status has never been so easy.
You can easily share task cards through their unique URLs and add task cards from existing Github issues.
Create And Assign Tasks
This feature makes it possible to create task lists of markdown tasks in comments, pull requests, and issues.
This makes it easy to split huge chunks of work into smaller manageable bits and monitor each task.
When you are done creating a task, you assign it to a team member by simply listing them as an assignee.
The tasks assigned to the team member will always show in their profiles as to-do items or items to complete.
Github task management is smooth, thanks to this feature.
Reviews, Notes, And Mentions
Teams in most Agile project management environments offer useful built-in working features that enable teams to carry out activities such as posting comments, sharing files, and tagging team members on projects.
In GitHub, it is no different because similar elements exist in the form of reviews, notes, and mentions.
Reviews enable the team members to approve any changes and indicate comments on a task.
Notes on project boards are added by a simple click of the plus(+) button.
Adding notes is very convenient when it comes to indicating reminders or adding more information on a task.
As for the mentions, it is very simple to use and only requires team members to type the @ symbol and select a user ID of the team member who needs to be notified when a task needs their attention.
These task features make team collaboration easy and contribute to smooth project progress.
Track Task History, Progress, and Ownership
With updates of the task’s history occurring every time users make changes, developers can find this feature very useful when reviewing or reversing some changes.
Project managers can also view any changes team members make, and the exact time they made them.
This will allow them to make the necessary recommendations to the team to monitor project progress.
Manage Milestones
This feature allows developers to create new project milestones or update existing ones.
The Milestones menu makes it easy to see each milestone and any outstanding issues surrounding it.
All you need to do is open the issue you want and then click “Milestones” to make the changes you wish.
GitHub project management becomes easy with such a feature.
Add People And Assign Roles
Github makes it easy for project managers to add developers to tasks and assign roles to team members.
With the platform’s ability to support teams of up to ten people per issue or pull request, it is easy to put the usernames of the developers you want to work on a task using the Assignees label.
This makes it convenient to protect your projects while still allowing access to any team member who requires it. In the Github environment, you can assign roles such as Owners( full administrative access), Billing Managers(viewing and editing billing information), and Members(general functionality).
All you need to do when creating an organization is simply go to your profile and choose “settings,” then click on “Organizations” and choose “New Organization.”
You can view people’s roles by simply clicking “People” on the “Organizations” page.
You can also easily filter your list by role type by selecting the Role button, which will bring options.
Delegate Responsibilities
Flexibility and adaptation are key aspects of Agile management.
As a project manager, you might need to delegate responsibilities to certain team members.
GitHub has this option which makes this very easy by allowing the adjustment of a team member’s access rights.
The improved access rights enable the team members to effectively carry out their new responsibilities.
All you need to do is select the required icon from your profile and select settings, then choose “People” to carry out the edits to access rights.
The Code Of Conduct
Team members in every project management environment are guided by a code of conduct which entails rules and behavior.
Github also has a codes of conduct feature existing in the main repositories.
You can create a code of conduct to help guide the team during projects, especially when disagreements arise.
To create one, you will only need to click on the “Add file” drop-down, then choose “Create new file” and type the words CODE_OF_CONDUCT in the name field.
You can opt to create a code of conduct using an existing template or just from scratch.
Enhancing Github With Integrations
There is no doubt that Github can serve well as a project management tool thanks to its functions and project boards.
However, the platform might still fall short when it comes to some advanced capabilities like report generation and synchronizing repositories which is why enhancements are required.
There are online tools that can be integrated into Github to make it even more resourceful such as Trello, asana, Jira Microsoft teams, and many more.
Let’s look at the most popular integrations that developers have used on Github.
ZenHub
This is the number one choice for project management integration used with GitHub. Inspired by Kanban and Scrum methodologies, ZenHub makes it possible to visualize your team’s work on the boards.
You can carry out agile planning, run sprints, and generate reports which will be useful in the estimation of project completion dates.
It then becomes a GitHub agile or a GitHub Scrum environment which is equal to project success.
The great thing about ZenHub is that it is free for personal, public, and academic repositories.
It has paid plans, though, which are:
- Growth($10/user/month)
- Enterprise($12.45/user/month)
Codetree
This is another widely-used GitHub integration that enables you to use Kanban-style boards and monitor progress through quick inline updates.
With Codetree, you can create projects that pull group issues from various repositories.
You could also track dependencies between tasks and prioritize work with the drag-and-drop function.
Codetree is not free, and it has several plans which cater to various types of groups. They are as follows:
- Small team($24/month)
- Business($99/month)
- Startup($49/month)
- Serious Business($199/month)
Zube
You can run Sprints and use Agile Epics with GitHub, thanks to Zube.
Managing customer service tickets are also an option with Zube, linking multiple repositories to a single project and syncing them.
You will not pay anything for Zube as long as your team comprises four members working on four projects.
The paid plans for Zube are as follows:
- Business($10/month)
- Enterprise(custom pricing)
Waka Time
This Github integration is known as the developers’ dashboard because it uses various open-source plugins to track aspects of programming.
WakaTime enables teams to detect project bottlenecks and any existing skill gaps in a project.
Early detection of bottlenecks and skill gaps makes it easy to address the issues and make adjustments to the project goals to improve overall productivity.
Wakatime has a free plan, but it comes with limited features. The paid plans are as follows:
- Premium($9/month)
- Business ($49/user/month)
- Team ($12/user/month)
Slack
Slack is the perfect GitHub integration to help with team communication.
Developers can easily share files and code effortlessly and create a thriving working community.
As for pricing, slack is free for teams with a small number, but the free plan comes with limited integrations.
The paid plans are:
- Standard($8/user/month)
- Plus($15/user/month)
- Enterprise Grid(custom pricing)
The GitHub Pros And Cons
There are various pros and cons associated with Github, and they are as follows:
The Pros
- Github supports the use of markdown, which is very convenient if you want to have your content in a certain format without having to learn another system.
There is also the GitHub flavored markdown which is a feature that makes it easy to make a few changes to the current markdown to make it more suitable in programming environments.
- Github offers the best documentation, such as guides for best git workflows, guides for generating SSH keys, and so on.
It is a source for all the information you need to make your project a success in a GitHub environment.
- Great collaboration works seamlessly in GitHub, especially for team members working from different physical locations.
When the projects are open source projects, it gets easier for programmers to work collaboratively and even share with other developers who want to contribute to the project.
- Backup options at GitHub are nice and simple because developers can access their code and version history without relying on the physical location(local machine) to save their work.
The Cons
- Security is an issue because GitHub is accessible to anyone with logins. GitHub offers private repositories, but this might not be secure enough for many.
Most project managers would prefer to only allow code on their own secure internal Git for better protection against security breaches.
- There are GitHub features and features available on the other online repositories, but they are within a SaaS paywall.
For projects with large teams, this can be very inconvenient because the costs can get high, especially if you have a limited budget.
Conclusion
GitHub is obviously a very resourceful platform, and we have seen what it is, the features that make it a great project management tool, the integration options, and the pros and cons.
There is so much that Github has to offer as a project management platform, as we have seen.
It continues to be the developers’ favorite, especially when it comes to open source project collaborations.
