Why Engineering Teams Are Moving Away from GitHub Projects in 2025

Managing engineering projects becomes increasingly challenging as teams grow and take on more ambitious goals. Many teams gravitate toward GitHub Projects because it offers simplicity. However, as the scope of work expands, its visibility, organization, and decision-making limitations begin to surface, making it a non-ideal solution for growing teams.

While GitHub Projects is easy to adopt, it often falls short when managing the complexities of larger teams or multi-repository workflows. Key features like hierarchical issue management, cross-repository tracking, and actionable reporting are missing, leaving engineering leaders to rely on external tools or manual processes to bridge the gaps.

The Challenges of GitHub Projects

Lack of Issue Hierarchy

• No multi-level organization: Teams cannot organize work into defined layers like Projects, Epics, and Sub-issues, which forces them to flatten complex workflows into a single level.
• Scaling problems: As projects grow in complexity, managing dependencies and grouping related tasks becomes increasingly difficult without a structured hierarchy.

Limited Cross-Repository Tracking

• Restricted to single repositories: Working across multiple repositories requires manual effort to aggregate information, leading to inefficiencies and workflow interruptions.
• Siloed tasks: Teams often lose sight of broader initiatives when issues remain confined to individual repositories, reducing overall visibility.

Weak Reporting Features

• No built-in insights: Teams lack access to tools like burndown charts, velocity reports, or lead time metrics, which are critical for tracking progress and identifying bottlenecks.
• Time-consuming manual processes: Generating meaningful insights typically requires exporting data to spreadsheets or relying on external tools, which wastes time and introduces errors.

Impact on Growing Engineering Teams

Collaboration Problems

As engineering teams grow, alignment becomes harder to maintain without proper tools. GitHub Projects often doesn’t provide the structure needed to connect cross-functional teams in a seamless way. Without features for tracking dependencies or creating unified views across repositories, communication gaps start to appear. Teams end up working in isolation, duplicating efforts, or misinterpreting priorities because there’s no shared system to guide everyone.

On top of that, the lack of real-time updates and centralized tracking forces teams to rely on manual updates or scattered conversations. This environment makes misunderstandings more common and allows blockers to go unnoticed. As a result, collaboration slows down, and delays become more likely.

Workflow Inefficiencies

The limitations of GitHub Projects push teams toward using workarounds, which often create inefficiencies. For example, automating task progression or managing multi-repo projects frequently requires manual steps. This not only takes extra time but also increases the chances of mistakes, especially during fast-moving development cycles.

Without tools for automated reporting or sprint planning, leaders are left to manually gather data from different sources. This process uses up valuable resources and often leads to outdated or incomplete information being used for decision-making. These inefficiencies spread across the workflow, slowing productivity and holding up deliverables.

The Need for Advanced Project Management Solutions

As engineering teams grow, the limitations of basic project management tools become more apparent. Handling dependencies, monitoring progress across multiple repositories, and keeping everyone aligned demand tools designed to manage complexity. Without the right capabilities, teams often experience miscommunication, inefficiencies, and missed deadlines. However, advanced project management solutions are tailored to support modern development workflows and tackle these challenges head-on.

Key Features Desired by Modern Teams

• Organized issue hierarchies: Teams benefit from structured systems that break down work into smaller, manageable parts, from overarching objectives to specific subtasks. This clarity helps keep projects on track and prevents tasks from being overlooked.
• Centralized project views across repositories: For teams juggling multiple repositories, having a unified view is a game-changer. Centralized tracking ensures all tasks, no matter where they originate, can be monitored and prioritized in one place.
• Live analytics and reporting: Having immediate access to accurate data is pivotal. Tools that provide real-time updates on progress, team performance, and bottlenecks eliminate the need for time-consuming manual reporting.
• Automated workflows and smart integrations: Automation reduces repetitive work by assigning tasks, updating statuses, and shifting issues based on set triggers. Additionally, AI-powered features like intelligent labeling or predictive insights offer extra support for streamlining processes.

Zenhub: A Strong Alternative to GitHub Projects

Integration Built for GitHub

Zenhub works directly within GitHub, embedding tools right into the interface so engineers can stay in their coding environment. Updates made in GitHub, like creating issues, merging pull requests, or changing statuses, are instantly synced with Zenhub. This removes the hassle of manual updates or switching between tools, keeping teams aligned with the most up-to-date information.

Organized Issue Management with Epics and Sub-Issues

Zenhub adds structure to GitHub Issues by introducing a hierarchy that turns scattered tasks into well-organized workflows. Epics and Sub-Issues group related issues to provide a clear view of progress, while Sub-Issues break down larger tasks into smaller, manageable parts. This structure helps teams stay focused on both the big picture and the finer details, improving clarity and productivity across projects.

Unified Workspaces with Multi-Repository Boards

Zenhub’s multi-repository boards combine issues from various repositories into one central workspace. Teams can view and manage cross-repo projects without constantly switching repositories. This feature is especially useful for teams working on large, interconnected projects, as it centralizes prioritization, collaboration, and progress tracking in one place.

Real-Time Reporting and Analytics

Zenhub offers straightforward, real-time reporting tools that give insight into team performance and project status. Burndown charts show sprint progress and how tasks are being completed compared to the plan. Velocity reports evaluate team output, helping leaders estimate future workloads. Release reports track scope changes and deadlines, while lead and cycle time analytics highlight areas where processes might slow down. These tools provide teams with clear, actionable insights to make better decisions.

Benefits of Switching to Zenhub

Boosting Productivity with Automation

Automation takes care of repetitive tasks that often slow teams down. Workflow automation moves issues between pipelines based on triggers like pull request merges or status updates, keeping boards updated without extra manual effort. Sprint planning is also streamlined by automatically selecting prioritized backlog items, cutting down the time spent setting up sprints and reducing errors in task assignments. These processes let teams focus their energy on writing and delivering code instead of managing administrative details.

Improving Collaboration and Team Visibility

The Team Feed offers a real-time overview of who is working on what, making it easier to spot blockers and track progress without constant meetings. Slack integration keeps updates, issue creation, and team discussions within the platform your team already uses, reducing the need to switch between tools. Centralizing updates and communication helps prevent misunderstandings and keeps workflows running smoothly, even when teams are distributed or working asynchronously.

Smarter Features for Better Efficiency

AI-suggested labels automatically tag issues based on their content, saving time and ensuring tagging stays consistent across the board. Sprint summaries provide clear, easy-to-read insights into completed tasks and trends, helping teams quickly spot patterns or areas that need attention. Predictive risk assessments monitor project progress, flagging potential delays or resource gaps before they become bigger problems. These features lighten the mental load for teams, making planning and reporting more accurate and proactive.

Steps to Transition from GitHub Projects to Zenhub

1. Connect GitHub Repositories

Start by linking your GitHub repositories to Zenhub. This syncs all issues, pull requests, and metadata automatically. Use the integration settings to grant access and connect the repositories you need for tracking projects. Double-check permissions to ensure the sync runs smoothly without interruptions.

2. Organize Workspaces and Projects

Set up workspaces tailored to each team or project to streamline workflows. Within a workspace, customize boards to match your development process, such as pipelines for Backlog, In Progress, and Done. Use Epics to group related issues, making larger initiatives easier to manage. Rearrange tasks by dragging them into the correct pipelines or apply labels to indicate urgency and dependencies.

3. Use Advanced Features

Automation rules can save time by reducing repetitive tasks. Set triggers to automatically move issues between pipelines based on status updates or pull request activity. Use tools like velocity charts and burndown charts to monitor team performance and sprint progress in real time. For more complex projects, organize tasks with multi-level hierarchies for Objectives, Projects, and Subtasks, ensuring every step is clearly outlined and easy to follow.

A Future-Ready Project Management Approach

Engineering teams often struggle to balance fast development cycles with the structure needed as projects and teams grow. Many traditional tools fail to handle the increasing demands of scaling workflows, creating gaps in visibility, coordination, and accountability. To stay competitive, using tools that evolve with the needs of modern software development has become a necessity.

Modern project management tools focus on flexibility. They seamlessly integrate into development environments, cutting down on inefficiencies caused by switching between platforms. These tools handle repetitive tasks automatically, standardize workflows, and provide real-time insights into project data. Features like customizable hierarchies, cross-repository tracking, and predictive analytics help teams tackle complex projects while still staying agile.

Scaling effectively is key. Growing teams need tools that keep everyone aligned across multiple repositories and cross-functional efforts. This alignment ensures projects stay on track and avoids the confusion that can easily lead to delays. Tools designed for scalability help everyone—developers, project managers, and other contributors—stay informed with up-to-date information. Clear communication and streamlined workflows prevent bottlenecks and keep teams focused on delivering results.

Using tools built for growth isn’t just about solving immediate challenges. It prepares workflows for the growing complexity that comes with larger teams, bigger codebases, and tighter deadlines. By adopting scalable project management systems, engineering teams can deliver work faster, collaborate more effectively, and succeed in an increasingly demanding environment.