Developers spend only 10% of their time writing new code, and as much as 33% fixing bugs. Despite this, many software projects get delayed, stuck, or abandoned.
That’s the reality of software development; it’s complex, unpredictable, and constantly shifting.
ClickUp can solve these issues by bringing everything, from tasks and coding docs to sprints and team convos, into one place. Whether you are building new features, fixing bugs, or tackling tech debt, this everything app for work helps your team stay in sync and actually enjoy the messy business process of shipping something from scratch.
In this guide, we discuss how to use ClickUp for software development so that your team stays organized and builds programs that ship on time, work smoothly, and make users happy.
How to Use ClickUp for Software Development
- ⭐ Featured Template
- Why Use ClickUp for Software Development?
- How to Use ClickUp for Software Development
- 1. Setting up agile workflows
- 2. Sprint planning and backlog grooming
- 3. Bug tracking and issue management
- 4. Release planning and roadmapping
- 5. Integrate with code repositories
- 6. Automate repetitive tasks
- 7. Reporting and analytics
- 8. Document management and knowledge sharing
- 9. Team collaboration and communication
- ClickUp Best Practices for Software Teams
- Build Better Software Quicker with ClickUp
Summarize this article for me please⭐ Featured Template
The road to building great software starts here. The ClickUp Software Project Template lets you set up an end-to-end project structure, track progress, and ensure milestones are met. It also optimizes collaboration between teammates and stakeholders.
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhy Use ClickUp for Software Development?
Software development isn’t just about writing code. Developers are constantly switching between planning, coding, testing, fixing bugs, and reviewing pull requests. That’s a lot to manage, especially when these tasks are scattered across different tools.
Nearly 9 in 10 developers say that undetected software errors seriously impact the business. Around 26% have seen these bugs drive users away and hurt their company’s reputation, making it harder to gain trust or attract investors. Another 18% say that unresolved issues have even frustrated stakeholders and investors.
One primary reason for this is that teams often struggle with unclear priorities, communication gaps, and tools that aren’t fit to address software development challenges. Tracking sprint progress, updating task statuses, logging bugs, and syncing with code repositories can eat up valuable time, especially when the process is siloed in scattered apps.
ClickUp for software development solves this problem by supporting agile workflows, bug tracking, code reviews, and everything in between—in one collaborative workspace. It lets you:
- Create auto-updating sprint Dashboards with Custom Statuses and Views
- Use backlog lists to organize, prioritize, delegate, and track upcoming work
- Add sprint points, and use the sprint overview and sprint location header to manage tasks
- Track progress with Burndown, Burnup, and Velocity Cards tailored to your team’s style of working
Is tracking and fixing bugs taking up a significant chunk of time? Use ClickUp to log issues with screenshots, descriptions, and Custom Fields. You can assign bugs directly to devs, link them to feature tasks, track software development KPIs, and monitor project progress to get it done on time.
Set up workflow automation to:
- Move tasks to the right people according to action triggers
- Assign code reviews
- Set rules for status updates, reminders, and more
ClickUp even lets you connect your code to simplify the agile software development lifecycle. You can link ClickUp to GitHub, see commits, branches, and pull requests inside relevant tasks, and track who did what and when to ensure accountability.
Moreover, you can add Custom Fields to match your sprint process and find dev tasks, software outlines, and documents quickly. No more wasting time looking for contexts. In case you don’t know where to get started, ClickUp also offers free software development templates that will keep your efforts organized and goal-focused.
Summarize this article for me pleaseHow to Use ClickUp for Software Development
To develop software users actually like, you must combine your strategies with a system that lets you plan, track, and collaborate without slowing things down. And no other tool can bring this collaborative software development under one platform quite as well as ClickUp.
Nick Foster, Director of Product at Lulu Press, elaborates:
From organizing sprints to reviewing code and storing docs, here is how you can use ClickUp to strategize, outline, and execute IT projects with ease.
1. Setting up agile workflows
Agile workflows are key to managing feature releases, bug fixes, and sprint planning in the software development process. They help your team break down dev plans into trackable tasks, set priorities, and monitor progress across each sprint. For that, you need structure, and ClickUp’s Agile Platform makes it simple.
First, you need to enable the Sprints and Sprint Points ClickApp if you haven’t already.
Then, you must create a Space to organize all your software development tasks in one place. Here is how you can create one on ClickUp:
- Click the plus icon in the Sidebar and select Space
- Enter a name for your Space (32 characters max)
- Optionally, you can also click Use Templates in the lower-left corner of the Create a Space modal
- In the Template Center, search for “Engineering” to apply a software development template to your Space
- You can also:
- Choose a Space icon and color, or upload your own
- Add a description
- Set the Space to public, private, or share it with specific people
- Click Continue
💡 Pro Tip: Remember to enable the Sprints ClickApp for the individual Space, as well!
Now, you can customize your workflow like this:
- Choose other required views besides the mandatory List view. You can try a Kanban Board, or Calendar, for instance
- Apply a View Template, or create your own
- Set up your Statuses (like To Do, In Progress, Code Review, Done)
- Pick which ClickApps you want to use, like Sprints, Time Tracking, and Time Estimates. ClickApps are like power-ups for your workspace—modular features you can turn on or off to customize ClickUp to your team’s exact needs
- Click Create Space
Now you have a fully customizable space to manage all your software development tasks. You can also add Lists and Folders within the Space to organize the tasks further.
2. Sprint planning and backlog grooming
Effective sprint planning starts with a well-organized backlog. With ClickUp Sprints, you can manage product backlogs, prioritize tasks, and plan sprints using Sprint Folders and Lists, Custom Fields, and built-in priority settings.
Here’s how to do it:
- Create a Sprint Folder:
- Click + in the Sidebar next to Space
- Select Sprint Folder
- Create a Sprint List:
- Before setting out, enable the Sprints and Sprint Points ClickApps
- Inside your Folder, click + New List and name it something like ‘Sprint 1’ or ‘June Sprint’
- ClickUp will automatically track sprint points, burndown charts, and velocity
- Add ClickUp Tasks to the Backlog:
- Create a separate List named “Product Backlog”
- Add all upcoming features, bugs, or tech debt items as tasks
- Create Custom Fields like T-shirt size, Release number, or Link to Design Files
- Prioritize Tasks:
- Set each task’s Priority (Urgent, High, Normal, Low) using the flag icon
- Sort or group tasks in the backlog by priority, sprint points, or tags
- In sprint planning meetings, move the highest-priority tasks from the backlog to the active Sprint List
📌 For example, let’s say your team is working on a “User Profile Update” feature:
- You add related tasks like ‘Add profile picture upload,’ ‘Design new settings page,’ and “Write API for user data update” to the Product Backlog List
- Each task is given a priority and story points based on the scope
- Before Sprint 1 begins, you move the most important tasks, like the API and frontend layout, into the Sprint 1 List
- During the sprint, team members work from this List and update statuses as they go (for example, To Do → In Progress → Code Review → Done)
This structure keeps your backlog clean, your sprint focused, and your development team aligned. You can set sprint dates, assign points, and mark priorities to keep everyone on the same page.
💡 Pro Tip: To manage backlog items better, visualize how your team’s moving against a target line of work with burndown charts. Use burnup charts to monitor work completed and the scope of work remaining.
3. Bug tracking and issue management
Without a structured system, bugs can go unnoticed, cause delays in deployment, and resurface repeatedly. A solid issue management workflow helps your team prioritize bug tracking tasks, reduce downtime, and ship better features faster. It also builds accountability and transparency, ensuring that every issue has a clear owner and resolution path.
You can use ClickUp as your bug tracking software, too. Just set up your process by defining key stages like Reported → In Review → In Progress → Resolved → Closed. Use Custom Task Statuses to match your team’s development lifecycle, such as ‘Needs Triage’ or ‘Waiting on QA’, to avoid bottlenecks and improve visibility.
To streamline reporting, create bug submission forms that anyone on your team can fill out. These forms can capture details such as steps to reproduce, environment information, and severity level. Automatically route these reports to the right person using assignments and automations, so nothing falls through the cracks.
🧠 Fun Fact: ClickUp Forms don’t just capture project details—they instantly turn each submission into a trackable task. That means your bug reports skip the copy-paste shuffle and land directly in your workflow, already assigned, prioritized, and ready to tackle.
ClickUp also offers bug-tracking templates you can use to set up a standard software issue management system.
For example, the ClickUp Bug & Issue Tracking Template lets you monitor recurring bugs, assign them to the right people, and drive cross-functional collaboration to deliver smooth features.
Enhance your process further with code documentation templates. These help teams annotate what’s working and what’s not, especially when paired with bug reports.
You can embed code snippets, link directly to tracking tasks, and leave inline comments to provide clear context. This way, your team stays aligned, understands the full scope of an issue, and avoids duplicate work.
👀 Did You Know? 97% of developers, engineers, and programmers use AI tools for coding, with 88% saying their companies actively support it. AI in software development is rapidly becoming the norm, streamlining everything from bug fixing to code generation.
With ClickUp Brain, you can bring that same AI power directly into your workflow—writing code snippets, summarizing bug reports, or even suggesting next steps without ever leaving your workspace.
4. Release planning and roadmapping
Are you dealing with multiple features, bug fixes, and continuous improvements? You definitely need a clear way to plan when everything will happen and how it all fits together.
Imagine all your development tasks laid out on a timeline, showing how long each will take, who is working on what, and how they connect. ClickUp offers a Gantt Chart View that’s perfect for sketching out your entire release schedule, from the initial planning stages to the final deployment.
Moreover, in the run-up to release, tasks often depend on each other. ClickUp Gantt Charts make these dependencies crystal clear. For example, you can’t build the front-end user interface before the back-end API is ready.
Using Gantt Charts in ClickUp, you can easily:
- Drag and drop tasks to adjust their duration and see potential conflicts
- Link related tasks together, so if one task gets delayed, you immediately see the ripple effect on subsequent tasks, helping you identify potential bottlenecks early
- Ensure your timeline is realistic by visualizing the entire flow together
You can mark the critical points and important dates of the software release with ClickUp Milestones directly on your Gantt Chart. This provides clear targets for your team and stakeholders, helping everyone track progress towards the big picture goals of the release.
📮ClickUp Insight: 92% of workers use inconsistent methods to track action items, which results in missed decisions and delayed execution. Whether you’re sending follow-up notes or using spreadsheets, the process is often scattered and inefficient.
ClickUp’s Task Management Solution ensures seamless conversion of conversations into tasks—so your team can act fast and stay aligned.
5. Integrate with code repositories
Connecting ClickUp with your code repositories, such as GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket, creates a powerful link between your tasks and the actual development work being done. You can see commits, branches, and pull requests directly within your ClickUp Tasks, giving everyone full context. No more guessing which code change relates to which task!
Here’s a simplified guide on how to link a code repository, using GitHub as an example (the process is similar for other repositories as well):
- First, you will need to go to the ClickUp App Center and locate the integration for your chosen repository
- Within the integration settings, you will find an option for Workspace Settings
- Choose the specific repository you want to link from the list of your connected repos
- Now, click + Add Space and select the ClickUp Space where you want this repository’s activity to appear
- If you have multiple repositories or want to link the same repository to different ClickUp Spaces, simply repeat the process
Once connected, your team gains immediate visibility into development progress. You can easily track who committed what code, when, and directly link it to the feature or bug task it addresses, making accountability straightforward and ensuring your project updates are always in sync with your code.
📖 Also Read: A Day in the Life of a Software Developer
6. Automate repetitive tasks
Stop wasting time on manual updates, status reports, and routine follow-ups. With ClickUp Automations, you can streamline grunt tasks like assigning work, updating statuses, sending reminders, and moving tasks between stages. You can choose from 100+ action triggers, such as task completion or due dates, and let the system handle the busywork.
This not only boosts team productivity but also reduces the risk of human error, so your team can focus on what really matters: building great products.
Here is how you can automate repetitive software project management tasks with just a few clicks:
- When a bug is marked ‘Ready for Review,’ automatically assign it to QA and set a due date for two days later (or your preferred frequency)
- When a high-priority bug is added, set it to ‘Urgent,’ add it to the current sprint, and notify your code editors
- When a new task is created in the ‘Frontend Sprint’ list, auto-assign it to the Lead Developer and apply a ‘Needs Spec’ tag
- When a Sprint is completed, start a new Sprint or automatically
- When a pull request is approved, update the task status to ‘Ready to Deploy’ and notify the release manager in Slack
You can also use GitHub Actions and sync it with ClickUp to automate actions across task management tools, code repos, and notification systems. Whether you are managing product sprints or using continuous deployment tools, automation ensures everything moves smoothly without constant manual input.
💡 Pro Tip: Go beyond simple triggers with Autopilot Agents in ClickUp. Instead of just running pre-set rules, agents can decide what to do next based on context. For example, they can flag blockers in your sprint, reassign tasks if workloads get unbalanced, or draft release notes when a deployment is completed.
7. Reporting and analytics
Without a clear view of what’s being worked on, how long tasks are taking, and where blockers exist, it’s nearly impossible to complete software projects on time. That’s why reporting and analytics are a core part of running efficient, high-performing dev teams.
With ClickUp Dashboards, you can build fully customizable reports using reporting cards that track everything from open issues and sprint velocity to burndown charts and workload distribution in real-time.
You can track activities from each dev team member, monitor progress against goals, and measure essential KPIs like cycle time, lead time, code review turnaround, task completion rates, time logged per sprint, and more.
Want to know how much time your team is spending on code reviews vs. actual development? Use built-in Time Tracking inside ClickUp to gather that insight automatically, with no need for extra tools.
ClickUp also offers templates to help you get started with software project reporting quickly.
For example, your dev teams can share clear updates on project milestones, task completion, and upcoming deliverables with the ClickUp Software Developers Project Status Report Template. You can highlight any challenges and roadblocks that can potentially impact the project timeline.
This template makes it simple to communicate progress with stakeholders, clients, and team members in a simple and visual format.
🧠 Fun Fact: Margaret Hamilton is famously known for writing code by hand for NASA. She was the lead software engineer for the Apollo space program at MIT’s Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed the onboard software for the Apollo missions, including Apollo 11, the first successful moon landing.
8. Document management and knowledge sharing
Our research shows 42% of disruptions at work come from juggling platforms, managing emails, and jumping between meetings. For software teams, it’s a serious drag on productivity and focus. Centralizing your documentation can dramatically reduce that noise.
With ClickUp Docs, you can keep everything, from technical specs and meeting notes to product roadmaps and internal knowledge bases, in one place. No more digging through Slack threads or outdated Google Docs. Create structured, collaborative documents that live right alongside your tasks and projects, with the ability to link docs to specific sprints, user stories, or bugs.
Moreover, features such as nested pages, real-time editing, contributor tracking, and code block support ensure that your team always has the latest context, without ever leaving the platform.
For example, let’s say your team is building a Bug Reporting Module. You can use ClickUp Docs to outline the software design document, feature objectives, user flow, and technical requirements. Inside the doc, you add API specifications, embed UI mockups, and include links to task bug submission forms, backend endpoint, and the design confirmation screen.
Each task is assigned a priority and story points, and the Doc becomes the central source of truth for the sprint. Throughout the sprint, your team logs daily stand-up notes and adds QA test scenarios in the same Doc. Developers tag teammates for reviews, leave comments for clarification, and update the Doc as the feature evolves.
Everything, from planning to execution and QA testing, is tracked in one place, keeping your team aligned and reducing context switching.
📮 ClickUp Insight: 1 in 4 employees uses four or more tools just to build context at work. A key detail might be buried in an email, expanded in a Slack thread, and documented in a separate tool, forcing teams to waste time hunting for information instead of getting work done.
ClickUp converges your entire workflow into one unified platform. With features like ClickUp Email Project Management, ClickUp Chat, ClickUp Docs, and ClickUp Brain, everything stays connected, synced, and instantly accessible. Say goodbye to “work about work” and reclaim your productive time.
💫 Real Results: Teams are able to reclaim 5+ hours every week using ClickUp—that’s over 250 hours annually per person—by eliminating outdated knowledge management processes. Imagine what your team could create with an extra week of productivity every quarter!
9. Team collaboration and communication
Clear communication is the backbone of successful software development. Without it, misaligned goals, missed deadlines, and redundant work can quickly derail progress. From sprint discussions to last-minute bug reports, ClickUp makes team communication seamless, transparent, and always in sync with your workflow.
With ClickUp Chat, your team can have ongoing conversations directly within your workspace. Whether it’s a quick check-in during a sprint, a design clarification, or a deployment heads-up, chats stay organized and searchable by project or task. You can also drop in code snippets, images, or even documents without leaving ClickUp.
Need to give feedback or assign follow-ups? Use @mentions in task comments to loop in the right people, and start threaded conversations to keep discussions focused and contextual with ClickUp Assign Comments. All the context stays attached to tasks, so nothing gets lost in a sea of DMs and emails.
📖 Also Read: Best Project Management Tools
Summarize this article for me pleaseClickUp Best Practices for Software Teams
ClickUp is incredibly flexible for agile project management, but that flexibility works best when paired with a bit of structure. Whether you’re onboarding new developers or running sprint retrospectives, here are some best practices that can make your ClickUp Workspace a powerful part of your development process.
- Set up a clean workspace: Organize your Space by product lines, sprint cycles, or team functions for clarity
- Use consistent Lists: Create Lists for Backlog, Sprint Planning, and Roadmap
- Build reusable templates: Save time by creating templates for regular tasks like bug tracking, feature development, and QA checklists
- Simplify onboarding: Assign onboarding tasks, link helpful Docs, and guide new members through your project structure
- Host regular standups and sprint planning: Use Tasks, Docs, or Chat to manage daily and weekly agile rituals
- Run retrospectives in ClickUp Docs: Reflect on what went well, what didn’t, and capture action items for improvement
- Review and adjust your process: Set up Recurring Tasks to review workflows and make small changes to improve speed and collaboration
👀 Did You Know? Teams that made the switch to ClickUp report:
- Better efficiency (~97% of teams)
- Better collaboration (~88% of teams)
- Improved visibility (87.5% of teams)
Summarize this article for me pleaseBuild Better Software Quicker with ClickUp
With the right tools and processes in place, your dev team can move from idea to deployment with speed, clarity, and confidence. But to truly streamline software development, you need more than just code editors and testing suites; you need a centralized hub to manage your entire workflow.
With a ClickUp account, you can manage all the intricacies of software development in one place. You can plan sprints, write technical specs, track bugs, collaborate in real time, and automate routine tasks. Whether you are refining code, reviewing pull requests, or preparing for your next release, ClickUp keeps your team aligned and your process agile.
Sign up for ClickUp for free and access the clarity and control you need for smooth and timely software development.
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
