Dev Nova logo, a right facing triangle design that represents the D.
DevNova

Features

Highlights of features we think will really help you.

"I used to build cost estimates using a spreadsheet. Now, I use Dev Nova and have confidence in the numbers."

Imagine having a visual tool to help build timeline and cost estimates and give you confidence to know what to charge.

And you can still export to a spreadsheet when you're ready.

Structured architecture

Dev Nova has a familiar structure so you can run your projects with confidence.

Timeline & Cost Estimates

Build a visual timeline of phases and features, attach expenses resources like employees, contractors, equipment, etc. and get a clear picture where the money will go.

Estimating a project is really just guessing. Being able to see the timeline and costs helps you get closer to reality. We have included a "buffer" percent that you can use to cover uncertainty and keep room in your margins for when things don't go as planned.

Remember, you are a company. Companies need profit to survive. After you project costs are estimated, you can now add a percent on top for company profit.

Project boards

Each project can have as many boards as needed. When adding a user to a project, you select which boards they have access to. This allows managers to separate, for example, design and development tasks to their own boards.

Service desk

This is where clients can create tickets, report bugs, etc. You can also use this to assign tasks (responsibility) to a client.

Project scopes, approval, and signature requests

Scoping a project is one of the most overlooked phases in a new project. It is also arguably the most important phase. A written scope of work aligns everyone's expectations and can protect you from scope creep and legal arguments.

Project chat

Integrated chat really helps keep things moving when your client doesn't use other popular chat services. No need to ask them to create another account, they can simply ask questions and keep all the communication right in the project, where it belongs.

More details on features can be found below.

Diagram showing the hierarchy of project features and organization.

Built-in coaching

  • Sample conversation articles
  • Principles and best practices
  • Video coaching with reenactments
  • A growing library of guidance for all levels of engagement
  • In development, coming soon.

Sample conversations, principles, and guidance

Imagine having talking points, example responses to common client requests, and video coaching available right in your project! Not only that, but reminders of best practices for creating scopes of work, estimating a project, and how to move away from hourly billing.
Dev nova inline coaching startup page shows you suggested articles and video to kick out your project

You don't know what you don't know

This is especially important for the "solopreneurs". When you're running client meetings and the only one responsible for coming up with the right questions to pull out the actual requirements for a project while also trying to get a read on how much value the deliverable will bring to the client.

It is game-changing to have reminders of powerful questions to ask, how to set up conversation scenarios, and feel confident when closing the deal.

  • Great for freelancers, contractors, managers, producers, and so many more
  • Keep your mind sharp at any level of engagement
  • Sample structures for scope of work documents
  • Example email structures for common client communications
  • How to escape hourly billing
  • Guidance on starting and growing your business

Projects, tasks, and todos

  • Projects can have multiple boards and as many columns as you need
  • Tasks can be grouped and filtered
  • Tasks have file uploads & previews, todos, comments, and activity feed
  • Todo lists, yes you can have multiple lists and move todos between them

The project board

A column view of tasks with grouping and filtering. Each project can have as many boards as needed. This allows you to separate, for example, design and development tasks into their own boards.

Dev nova project board shows tickets in a column view

The ticket modal (task, user story, or bug)

The ticket modal is packed full of all the communication tools managers and implementers need to get the job done.

Dev nova ticket modal showing all the features available including file upload, comments, and all meta options

Compact and organized. The ticket modal is where many people will be spending most of their time. We have iterated over many layouts and structures and have been actively using this for our internal project management to ensure all the features are actually useful in real-world situations.

Service desk, client interaction

  • A client viewable board
  • Client users can submit tickets
  • You can assign tickets (responsibility) to client users
  • A great way to open support for delivered and ongoing projects

All the features of the internal board

Keeping internal tickets separate from client-facing is important on many levels. That is why they are kept on a separate board.

Only users with permission can access the service desk. Usually limited to project managers and team leads to ensure all communication with clients is kept organized.

Dev nova service desk is a great way to get your client involve in the project

The task modal is also full featured here, just like the internal tasks. Yes, that's right. Clients get the same features as the internal task modal. You can even include these client facing tickets in releases and scope documents.

Project permissions

When adding people to a project, you can clearly see who has access to what and customize the permissions based on the need of the project.

Dev nova project permissions keep everyone viewing only what they should within your project

Scope of work

  • Real-time multi-user collaboration
  • Scope documents help everyone understand what is being built
  • Can help protect from scope creep
  • Client feedback via approve/deny
  • Require client approval with signature
  • Include contract with signature

Project scope documents

Project scoping is arguably the most important phase of a project and the most overlooked. Having a scope, that is included with your signed contract, keeps everyone on the same page, and can protect you from legal arguments.

A project scope details what you are building and delivering and can include timelines, price, and other various terms.

In Dev Nova, you can submit a scope to a client for approval. They will have the option to approve or deny it. And all of these actions are recorded and kept in the project for you.

Dev nova scope documents with approval and signature requests and optionally attach your contract so every scope is a legal contract

Inline coaching

Throughout Dev Nova, you will notice inline coaching sections. In addition to the project startup page, there will be context-specific coaching for quick access to reminders, articles, and videos to help you write effective scopes. This coaching can help reduce scope creep, assist in billing what you're worth (get away from hourly billing), and what to include to help avoid legal arguments and misunderstandings.

Dev nova inline coaching helps you write affective scope documents and offers suggestions of questions to ask during discovery with your client

Releases

  • Track tickets/changes included in a deliverable
  • Great for software development, design asset deliverables, and more
  • The ability to set a rich text description and add comments really help keep everything on track

Track changes and delivered assets over time with releases

Having a historical changelog for a long running project is essential. Being able to see which tasks were included and attaching release notes makes looking back such a joy.

Dev nova release with example release notes and tasks grouped by scope and feature


Releases are good for more than just software development

We use releases to track delivery and changes in design work, 3d modeling, audio work, and more. Whenever you are delivering an asset to a client that may need to be updated, changed, or revised, it is good practice to track what was changed on each delivery. This organization will always come in handy if a client questions what changed, why the final was delivered on a different date etc.

Invoicing

  • Get paid with integrated invoicing and automatic reminders
  • Learn how to get away from hourly billing with guidance on pricing a project in the scope and invoicing based on the scope price
  • Process credit and ACH transfers
  • In development, coming soon.

Professional invoicing with credit card and ACH processing

In Dev Nova, invoicing is integrated with your project and project scopes. We encourage you to estimate your project based on the value your providing to your client instead of guessing or tracking your hours and multiplying that by an hourly rate.

In-line coaching will assist in transitioning to setting a project price and invoicing based on that.

Imagine estimating a project to not just cover your time to design or develop it but also include a company profit markup, equipment usage charge, and even if you are a single-person team, break up the charges into all of the different roles you perform on the project. All these adjustments in billing will help you go from project to project to having some breathing room with cash flow and company profit.

Dev nova invoices with line items and scope attachment to track the project price and help you bill based your value.

Invoices with automated reminders, late payment notices, and more

You know that feeling when you meet someone new, and your good friend introduces you and says some amazing and flattering things about you? It means so much more to that other person because it is coming from a third party. If you were to say the same things, it could come across as being full of yourself and off-putting.

A similar feeling can be there when reminding people to pay you.

Dev Nova handles some of those conversations for you, at least getting them started with payment reminders and late payment notices.

Project chat

General Chat

General chat is a channel open to all users with access to the project. This also allows people who have access to the project but no boards to access chat and request access to a board.

Project Boards = Channels

Each project board in a project will be used as a chat room/channel.

The permissions will use the project board permissions, so if you have access to the board, you have access to the corresponding chat room.

In development, coming soon.

Integrated chat to keep important conversations findable right in the project

Most organizations already have a dedicated chat/communications service. That's great! We're not trying to replace that. Project chat is more about posting information and asking questions that you would want to have searchable in the context of the project.

Imagine if, two months after a project, you needed to find a question/answer on the project. Where do you search? A third-party comms service private messages, various group messages, a couple of internal channels? Or, just search the project where it should be. So simple.

Dev nova integrated chat, keeping internal and client communications all inside the project

Project pages

  • Real-time collaborative documents allow you and your team to type in the same doc at the same time
  • Public sharable link
  • Private permissions to restrict access

Project documentation, notes, whatever you need to

Imagine having documents right in the project! Project documents are editable by multiple at the same time. Real-time collaboration is enabled on pages, releases, tasks, and scope documents to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Dev nova project page with edit view overlaid


Permission-based with quick sharing

You can set a page to private and allow only certain people to view it. In addition, you can also create a shareable link that allows anyone to view using the link. This opens up the ability to create a quick walk-through or documentation and share it with a client organization without having to onboard every single person that needs to view it.

Meetings

  • Integrated screen recording and uploading to log and archive meetings
  • Automated AI transcription of meetings (In development, coming soon.)
  • Search the transcript and link directly to the part of the meeting recording
  • Real-time collaborative documents allow you and your team to type in the same doc at the same time

Easily capture meeting notes with collaborative meeting documents

Meeting notes are an essential part of doing business, and they so easily get lost. Dev Nova meetings are enhanced with integrated screen recording in the browser to capture your business conversation while you take notes.

Meeting recordings can be uploaded and transcribed

Once your meeting completes, you have the option to upload it to your Dev Nova project and have it transcribed. Once transcribed, you have a searchable transcript that links you directly to that portion of the meeting recording.

Dev nova meeting notes with screen recording, upload, and AI transcript for search.

Now that you’ve seen our showcase of features...

Try it out and see if
Dev Nova works for you.