Kia Ora Rachael. I think this is a really interesting question, thanks for posting it. Are you thinking specifically about software to manage your course creation process? 

Here in the Totara Academy team, we use a combination of tools. We manage our course development process using a Kanban board (for example using a tool like JIRA or Trello), where each activity in the course has it's own ticket and workflow. It moves between team members and stages of the workflow so we can see where each activity is (and therefore when the course will be ready). We combine this with a schedule (I've used various tools with gantt charts and things in the past, but these days I just use a spreadsheet!) which we use to manage what everyone will do each day. Between the two of them, we know when a course will be ready for release. 

I'd be interested to know what other Course Creators are doing too!