What Communication Tools Do Students Use in Software Projects and How Do Different Tools Suit Different Parts of Project Work?

In software engineering education, the goal is often to provide students with authentic assignments using actual tools of the trade. Students are often allowed to select their preferred tools without specifying what to use for e.g. communication within the team, scheduling, bug tracking, etc. However, there is an abundance of tools to choose from with more appearing rapidly, which can make it difficult for students or staff to select appropriate tools for each task. In this paper, we study the suitability of several commonly used communication and collaboration tools on different tasks that students encounter in team assignments. We surveyed students' experiences with different tools in a university-level web software development course.