Recently at my job our teams have grown to include a number of people who are not co-located with us. Here are some of the tools we’ve been using that have helped us develop and design together across locations.

Social coding

• Gitlab – Github-like UI on top of git. Many of the same features of Github, pretty easy to host internally.

Remote pair programming

• Screenhero – by far the best remote graphical pair-programming tool I’ve found – includes streaming audio support so we don’t have to have Google Hangouts, Skype, or another audio application open as well.
• Hastebin – a paste bin tool that runs on node and is easy to set up internally – fast, low memory usage, zero maintenance.

Remote design

• ASCII Flow – java-based, open source ASCII diagramming tool. Great for cutting and posting diagrams into markdown files. Haven’t tried installing it internally yet.
• Etherpad – near-real time collaborative, modeless editing tool – like Google docs, highlights each person’s text in a different color. Runs on node as well.

Remote communication

We’ve heard a lot about various team-oriented chat tools, for now we’ve been sticking to the basics and so far so good.

• IRC
• AIM blast bots