Be focused on projects and not just any type of ongoing work. For instance, Airtable, Basecamp and Trello might be often characterized as project management tools — yet in fact, professionals can use them for any type of work.
A project needs to have a start date, an end date and a deliverable. If one of these three essential elements is missing, it means the work you're doing can't be characterized as a project.
Offer instruments for tracking, organizing and scheduling project-based work. Gantt charts are also essential: they provide a timeline view that's typically used in project management. Project management software allows your staffers to juggle dozens or hundreds of projects and their schedules in parallel.
If you try to coordinate all these tasks using email, pen and paper or any other less advanced tools, your work might turn into chaos. When comparing various project management solutions, you should ask yourself these three questions:. Ask your team members about their needs and pain points. Organize training for all your staff on using the new tools. Customize the app to the individual demands of your organization before you start adding projects to it. The setup cost of a project management solution might be rather high — but this investment should pay off quickly.
It will facilitate collaboration within each team and across teams. It will be easier for you to assess the performance of your staff and take measures to improve their efficiency. The best project management software doesn't need to cost a fortune. Many top apps have free versions, whose functionality might be limited in the following ways:. If your company is small and you normally handle only a couple of projects at a time, you might be happy with the free version of the product.
If you have a bigger business, you might want to use the free version to get a notion of the product and decide whether it makes sense to upgrade to a paid plan. Yet the top position in this rating belongs to Bitrix It's a large and versatile product that is available in on-premise or cloud format as well as a mobile app for iOS and Android.
When it comes to project management, Bitrix24 allows you to do the following:. Use extranet to secure your communication and collaboration with external users such as freelancers, partners and customers. Bitrix24 easily integrates with third-party solutions. Apart from project management, it also features excellent task and time management tools. You'll appreciate the built-in contact center of Bitrix24, its free website builder and a powerful CRM that can store an unlimited number of records.
Bitrix24 should come in handy for organizations of any size and industry. Such solutions lack advanced instruments that are unique to pricier software. For instance, the most budget-friendly tool would hardly be able to cope with the following tasks:.
If you've never used dedicated software to manage your projects before, you might want to get started with GanttPRO. It has a low price tag and a shallow learning curve. If you expect your business to scale over time, you might want to opt for Zoho Projects.
It's an ecosystem of useful apps that seamlessly integrate with each other. Large organizations are usually happy with such software as Celoxis or LiquidPlanner.
So when deciding on tool to solve for that individual headache or element of project management, look at the problem holistically and make sure you are building a comprehensive solution which doesn't add more work to your plate.
Navigating through the different types of project management software can be tricky, and it isn't getting easier with more and more tools and more and more nuanced technologies hitting the market. The two best things you can do to get it right is to properly assess exactly what you need - and then make sure you are looking at your tools just like you look at your projects and business: holistically. His aim is to bring awareness to a brighter future for the heavy industries where people and companies work smarter.
Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The different types of project management software. What are the different types of project management software? The main phases of any of these projects are: Tendering and design Project delivery Maintenance While there is some overlap in what areas each software solves for e.
Which project management software type is right for you? Where are your operations least streamlined, and where could the most efficiencies be gained by using software?
Learn more about the IMS component of your project management. How many types of project management software is too many? See how. Sitemate is flexible project managament software which enables industrial companies to deliver their projects the smart way.
Try the software for free. Posted in Project management software , Software. Leave a Comment Cancel Reply Comment Name required Email will not be published required Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
What you read is practical advice from someone who has used classification systems as a project manager and implemented formal project management processes that relied on project classifications.
The main reason for introducing a project classification is to increase transparency. The more projects your organization is running in parallel, the harder it is to manage oversight and to provide support, for example as a PMO project management office. While smaller projects can be handled in a very lean way without much organizational overhead, larger projects should definitely follow a formal process that includes some level of oversight and control why?
Formal elements can include a steering board, the use of quality gates which projects are only allowed to pass if they meet certain requirements which are usually documented in a project checklist. With the right classification system, you can categorize projects by risk , complexity or other criteria and define the process and formal requirements that projects from a specific category have to follow.
With a classification system that reflects the business value or strategic importance of projects, you have a basis upon which to decide where to focus your resources people and money on. Less complex projects can be managed by less experienced project managers while more complex projects may require real project veterans with tens of thousands of project hours under their belt. These are just some of the reasons that justify the introduction of a project classification logic.
You may have other reasons for categorizing projects. The project duration is a good indicator for the size and impact. Longer duration correlates with more resources being needed, higher expenses, more room for error and consequently greater risk of failure. Get my project templates — including schedule, budget, risk log and more! Probably the most important criterion.
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