We want productive, collaborative, happy people on our software teams. is pretty ubiquitous in software. There are a tonne of Slack apps and integrations. Not all of them are good. Rather than put together a long list of tools you’ll mostly never use, I’ve picked out 6 of the very best Slack apps for software developers, product teams, project managers and anyone who designs, builds or maintains software. Slack I’m going to cover one best-in-class tool for some of the best use-cases for Slack add-ons. You can always explore more Slack integrations in their . Slack App Directory 1. GeekBot – Automating Team Updates & Standups : Streamlining remote team communication Use this for GeekBot is a Slack app for remote and hybrid teams. It automates things like your standup meetings, sprint retrospectives, surveys and more. Instead of spending half an hour in a daily standup every day, just answer three questions asked by GeekBot in a Slack message. It’ll aggregate it into a concise, customisable report and share it with everyone who needs to see it. GeekBot reduces the hassle associated with different time zones and allows software teams to crack on with the work that matters. It ensures a consistent flow of information. It means more time for your core tasks, and greater overall productivity. My team use this every day to save a whole bunch of time. Try GeekBot for Slack 2. CollabGPT – AI Companion for Software Projects Keeping track of what’s happening on your projects Use this for: is an AI-powered project companion specifically designed for software teams. It integrates smoothly with , delivering rich summaries of team activities and proposing actionable next steps. CollabGPT Slack, Jira, and GitHub CollabGPT’s complex architecture of AI agents develops a long-term “memory” of your projects, and therefore, a deep understanding of the context of your projects. Software teams will find CollabGPT invaluable. Its ability to “remember” allows it to provide deeply contextual summaries, actionable suggestions, and precise answers to critical questions. I’m biased, because I’m part of the team building CollabGPT – but I can put my hand on my heart and say I believe it’s a game-changer. Try CollabGPT 3. Peoplebox: Strategy Execution Platform : Strategic planning and execution Use this for Peoplebox keeps strategic goals at the front of people’s minds. At its core, it’s an OKR (Objectives and Key Results) platform. It’s easy to get into silos and lose sight of company goals. Peoplebox keeps everyone aligned on cross-functional goals. Its Slack integration removes the friction of having “just another tool” and makes promoting focus, alignment and accountability easier for teams who design and build software. Try Peoplebox 4. Evergreen – Team recognition : Encouraging team members to appreciate colleagues’ hard work Use this for I’ll be honest, I don’t like a lot of the employee recognition software out there. It’s generally well-intentioned, but can have unintended consequences like the perception of favouritism, unhealthy competition, demotivation, and encouraging focus on the wrong activity. However, Evergreen’s take on it minimises some of the harm. There’s no money or rewards changing hands – instead, recognition plants trees. It reminds teams of our collective responsibility towards the environment. There’s a feeling that everyone wins when somebody gets praise, and it feels casual enough to avoid some of the negative side-effects of competitor tools. You can choose to link praise to your company values, which helps people keep them front of mind. Try Evergreen 5. Marker – Sending Annotated Screenshots via Slack : Collecting bug reports with annotated screenshots Use this for Marker lets you send feedback and bug reports directly from your site via its Chrome extension. It makes it easy to send annotated screenshots along with context straight to Slack channels in your Slack workspace. Marker is awesome for software teams, particularly when bug tracking or when visual communication is essential. Capturing, annotating and sharing relevant sections of a screen makes tracking bugs and sharing information easy – it also does things like automatically capturing the URL to make the process painless. Try Marker 6. Donut – Human connections for remote workers : Better team cohesion Use this for Got a remote team? You might miss those “water cooler” moments where random people have bonding moments. Donut sparks interesting Slack conversations and keeps people connecting about something other than work. Informal chat makes for better working relationships And it helps keep people sane! It doesn’t just do watercooler moments – their Slack plugin can do icebreakers and intros too. Donut creates the chance for spontaneous ideas and problem-solving discussions. People who know each other better are more productive together, too. Donut say their tool boosts productivity, trust and morale. Try Donut Wrapping up Software teams have so much to gain from using the right Slack extensions. When you add the right Slack apps, you can make huge gains in collaboration, visibility, alignment and more. Each tool I listed above presents an innovative solution to a common problem. And because they integrate with Slack, they don’t proliferate tools unnecessarily. I’m working on making CollabGPT the ultimate AI companion for your software projects. It works with Slack, Jira, GitHub and soon many more tools development teams use every day. It’s able to provide context-rich summaries of the details that matter about your project, make clever suggestions about what to do next and answer any pressing question in real-time. If you’d like to, you can find out more about CollabGPT works here. Also published here.

This writer has a vested interested be it monetary, business, or otherwise, with 1 or more of the products or companies mentioned within.

The is an opinion piece based on the author’s POV and does not necessarily reflect the views of HackerNoon.

6 Slack Apps & Integrations All Software Teams Need to Consider

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Alex Omeyer

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