Every project manager knows how hard it is to manage every individual and their needs. Often, it can be hard to keep everyone informed, brief team members, and get timely updates. The results can be, missed deadlines, stressed colleagues, and maybe even a lost client.
Managing projects is hard. But it is a job we love! Surely, though, there can be something to help us with this mammoth task.
The Answer is Project Management Software
Happily, there have never been more available tools for project management. These are designed to help a business or a team like yours manage a heavy workload on time, on budget, and to specification.
This abundance, however, can make selecting the best project management software overwhelming. It is important to take your time sifting through the sea of available options and picking one that best suits your needs.
According to technology expert Kirsten Lamb, the best tools are the ones that streamline the process of monitoring, planning, and executing projects, making your team’s work more efficient and helping you achieve business goals.
Project management software doesn’t discriminate between industries, businesses, or teams. Teams working in retail, accounting, marketing, digital, healthcare, online gaming, education, or other industries can all use project management tools to streamline their work and become more efficient.
So, I asked the experts at Techopedia to share their expertise. In this collaborative article, we’ll answer your three most important questions:
- What is Project Management Software?
- Why Choosing the Right Project Management Software Matters
- How To Choose the Best Project Management Software
Let’s start at the beginning. What is project management software?
What is Project Management Software?
Project management software tools help teams organize themselves adequately, and to complete projects on time. Most project management software offers a platform where teams can come together through messaging, to discuss the project, set a deadline, allocate work, and track each other’s progress effectively. This software can help a team be better organized, on time, and within budget.
Definition of Project Management Software
Project management software is a specialized software tool that helps the planning, organization, tracking, and management of projects and their associated tasks, resources, and timelines.
Capabilities of Project Management Software
Project management software has various features that can help you and your team work better. Key features typically include:
- Task management: Ability to create, assign, and track individual tasks and subtasks within a project.
- Scheduling and timeline: Tools to plan project schedules, set and track deadlines, and visualize project progress over time.
- Resource allocation: Functions to allocate and manage human, financial, and material resources across multiple projects.
- Collaboration: Features that enable team members to communicate, share files, and coordinate work within the software.
- Personal time management: individual to-do lists that each team member can tick off as they go
- Data management: Store, share, and track versions of project documentation
- Reporting and analytics: Dashboards and reports to monitor project KPIs, budgets, and performance.
- Integration: Ability to connect with other business systems like calendars, CRM, and accounting.
The primary goals of project management software are to improve productivity, increase visibility, enhance coordination, and optimize the delivery of projects. Popular examples include programs like Microsoft Project, Asana, Jira, Monday, Trello, and Primavera.
Each newly developed software tool brings with it new and exciting features that may be the right fit for you or might hinder your team’s progress. Increasingly, this means the addition of a wide range of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to support project managers and their teams.
AI in Project Management Software
To learn more, we have loads of great resources:
- What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? | Video
- How can AI Transform Project Management? | Video
- Artificial Intelligence Tools: Top 5 Practical Project Management Applications
Why Choosing the Right Project Management Software Matters
You might think that the way you’re doing things right now works. Sure, there are hiccups now and then but, mostly, things go well enough. You haven’t lost any clients yet.
But are you really in control or just barely holding on?
It might be hard for you to see that you need project management software so here’s a checklist to get your head in the game:
- A: Do all your teammates work using the same systems?
B: …or do they use different systems, that are hard to keep track of? - A: Are all your teammates aware of what they should be working on all the time?
B: …or do they have to come to you for instructions or, worse, hang about unproductively? - A: Are they prioritizing the right tasks?
B: …or do they work on whatever most attracts them at the time? - A: Is everyone aware of all the key information
B: …or do you have to call frequent meetings to discuss things that everyone should know? - A: Is everyone hitting their milestones?
B: …or are there a lot of teammates missing deadlines frequently? - A: Are you aware of the status of all tasks?
B: …or are issues and delays constantly catching you unawares?
How does your project score? Does it get mostly A’s?
If you’ve answered B to any of these questions, then you need to get aboard the train and start hunting for a tool that can improve your workflow.
Choosing good software with features that align with your project and business goals will prove to be a game-changer and, your team will thank you for it. Here’s why good software will make your work much easier:
Keep Your Projects in One Place
A project management tool’s main purpose is to be a safe box for all your and your team’s work.
While you’re evaluating each option, think about how each tool breaks down the various features that it offers. See if it allows you to break down tasks into bigger or smaller chunks, and more important and less important tasks. Also, figure out what information is included in each task and whether or not it’s the same across the board.
Showcase Each Member’s Responsibilities
Another key factor for good software is its ability to let you assign tasks and show you how each task is connected to the main project.
Look out for features like task assignment, which lets you assign an owner to each available task and fosters accountability in the team. A feature like task dependency is also handy because team members can see what tasks others need to complete before they can get started on theirs. Another feature to look for is setting due dates. A good tool could even let you schedule the task to start at a different time, maybe after a co-dependent task is completed.
Provide a Single Source of Truth
For both input (what needs to be done) and output (what has been done), a good software tool will be the one place where everyone can go, from sponsor or client to each team collaborator, for definitive information on:
- Task requirements
- Quality standards
- Schedule
- Budget
- Task allocation
- Risks and issues
- Documentation
- Status
- …and more
How To Choose the Best Project Management Software
So, you now know what makes up good project management software. So, how do you choose the right one?
The Mistake Too Many People Make
The mistake too many people make is to look for the software tool that has the most features. The second biggest mistake is to plump to the cheapest.
The Way to Find the Best Project Management Software for Your Team
You need project management software because you want certain specific features. So…
Step 1: Find out what features you need.
A MoSCoW Analysis will help you determine the capabilities of your software:
- Must have:
The features you absolutely need, that are driving the need for new software - Should have:
Valuable features that will add a lot of useful capabilities that can make a difference to your delivery efficiency and effectiveness - Could have:
Features that might be useful, but will only be used from time to time - Won’t have:
Features that will just weigh down the software and make it feel more complex than it needs to. People won’t need them, and they represent a waste of money if you pay extra for them.
Step 2: Find tools with the features you Must Have
Survey the market for the tools that have all your must-have features. Then long-list those that have strong reputations and have as many as possible of your should-have features.
Step 3: Select a shortlist of three tools
These three tools will all be able to do what you need them to (must-have capabilities). And they can probably fulfil most or all your should-have capabilities too. From here on, your priority is implementation. The biggest challenge for implementing any new software tool is adoption. So…
Step 4: Let team members test, play with, and try to break your shortlist of three tools.
It’s the people who will use the tool day-to-day who should be the ones to assess which is best for them. If you selected the right shortlist, no answer will be a bad answer. All these three tools will fully meet your needs. Let your team choose the ones that meet them best, in the terms they select. These will be things like ease of use – and, indeed, pleasure versus frustration of use. They may also be concerned with extra features.
Step 5: Trust your users
Go with their recommendation.
Techopedia’s Top Considerations for Selecting the Best Project Management Software
Here’s what Techopedia recommends you pay attention to:
What collaboration features does it have?
With pressure mounting for faster results, most teams are under pressure to deliver quality work in very little time. This is where good collaboration and a smooth working process come in. Giving your team a central stomping ground is key to quick and efficient work. When choosing a project software tool, consider the following:
- Is communication smooth and contextual?
Check if you can comment directly on particular tasks and highlight a specific team member so that they can receive a notification and respond directly. - Is it available across devices?
Suppose your teammates are global and working from different places. In that case, you may want to choose a tool that can link all those different people and can be accessed anywhere in the world, on whatever device they use.
Ease of Adoption
Ideally, once you’ve chosen software for project management, it should be easy to incorporate into your work and your teammates should grasp it quickly. Unfortunately, the reality can often be quite different. Many things could go wrong, even if the tool has all the right features and it helps to test out a few options first.
Free Trial
Many cloud-based apps have a free trial period for those who want to see if the tool suits their needs. Usually, at the end of the trial, you can comment on why you’re unsubscribing, allowing the providers to improve the tool and implement some of the suggestions customers give.
Always sign up for a free trial first while you and your team feel it out. Utilize all the features and conduct a fair assessment to ensure that you have made the right choice.
Education
Does the tool guide first-time users? Does it take you through each feature and help you learn all that’s associated with the feature as well as how to make the most of it? Use all these if they are provided as they might reveal the tool to be more than adequate.
User-Friendly
As you test new software out, find out how long it takes to set it up and to create the projects or assign tasks. Anything too time-consuming might waste your time and distract you from completing your work. Also check to see if it allows for dragging and dropping files, which helps save time. Finally, check if all the features are clearly marked and easy to see so that your team doesn’t struggle to find anything they might need.
Conclusion
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. The best project management software is the one that aligns with your specific needs and workflows. By following these steps, carefully evaluating your options, and doing research like reading professional articles or watching YouTube guides online, you’ll be well on your way to selecting the perfect project management software that sets your team up for success.
What are Your Thoughts about Selecting Project Management Software?
Please add your thoughts to the comments below. I’ll respond to every contribution.
