What Are The Benefits of Using a Project Management Tool?
Centralized Workflow
They allow organizations to store all project-related information in a single location, making it easier to track progress, deadlines, and tasks.
Improves Team Collaboration and Communication
Makes it easier to manage remote teams across time zones and regions. With centralized communications, team members can pick up where others left off regardless of their relative work hours. Some allow team members to post updates or comments within tasks, which reduces communication gaps and improves collaboration
Improves Accountability Within Your Team
Although project management software does not necessarily change user behaviour, it does provide small businesses with the tools they need to track project progress, identify roadblocks, and hold team members accountable for their responsibilities. You can use these tools to set clear expectations for team members and foster an accountability culture.
Data-Driven Improvement Processes
Project management software gives small businesses insights into their projects’ performance, allowing them to make data-driven decisions and optimise their workflows. Project management tools also give retrospective data that can inform future decisions and allow you to analyze your team’s productivity based on historical performance. This results in better resource allocation, better project outcomes, and increased profitability.
Factors to Consider When Selecting Project Management Software?
There are so many of them and it can be a challenging task to choose the appropriate one.
Your Business Needs
Your business type (whether you run a consultancy or production-type business) affects the features you prioritize in project management software.
For example, if you run a consulting firm, you might be more concerned about tracking hours as a measure of monetary value. Meanwhile, in production, your focus might be on improving the efficiency of your operations as it relates to production output and demand and supply. A typical project management software will offer features that help you standardise your processes to be more efficient. However, not all of them offer time-tracking features that you may be interested in.
Your Team
The value of any project management software depends on how it is used. When introducing project management software to your team, your goal should be to achieve full adoption so that you can realize its benefits. Here are a few considerations in this regard.
Your Team’s Readiness to Adopt a New Way of Working.
If managing work is something your team has complained about, then a project management tool is the solution. Selling the vision to your team by highlighting the benefits will improve adoption by your team. Furthermore, regular communication ahead of introducing the project management software will increase the chances of a successful launch.
Their Technical Capabilities and their Understanding of Project Management Concepts.
Don’t give your teammates reasons not to use the software. Evaluate their level of exposure to technology and compare that to the software’s usability and usefulness. Furthermore, before you introduce project management software to your team, make sure they understand the basic concepts of project management so they can use the software effectively and efficiently.
Your Budget – How Much Does Project Management Software Cost?
Some are free for a limited number of users, but the free versions also limit the number of features you can access. In terms of the paid versions, you are looking at $3 to $10 a month per user.
How much has your business lost due to poor workflows and processes? You can estimate a 10-30 percent improvement in your work operations in the first year of project management software implementation, but ultimately, you have to make a decision based on whether it makes financial sense to your company.
Features and Functionality
Begin by assessing the features and functionality required to manage your projects effectively. Consider task management, scheduling, collaboration tools, reporting, and integrations with other software used by your company.
Scalability
Make certain that the project management software can scale with your company. Consider whether it can accommodate more team members, projects, and features as your company grows.
User-Friendliness
Select project management software that is simple to use and navigate. It should have an easy-to-use interface and quick access to features and functions.
Collaboration
When choosing software, ensure it has collaboration features that allow team members and clients to work together seamlessly. Features like built-in chat, file sharing, and integration with communication programs like Slack are critical.
Integration Capabilities
Integration Capabilities: Your project management software should work seamlessly with the other tools in your technology stack. Whether syncing with your CRM, accounting software, or development tools, seamless connection improves efficiency by reducing manual data transfer and guaranteeing that all information is current across platforms.
Customizable Views
Choose software that provides adjustable views to meet various project management approaches and team preferences. This flexibility enables teams to organize tasks, timeframes, and processes based on their requirements, whether they use Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or a hybrid approach.
Roles and Permissions
Precise control over team roles and permissions is crucial to ensuring security and accountability in projects with multiple stakeholders. The software used should allow administrators to assign specific responsibilities and permissions to each team member, safeguarding sensitive information and ensuring appropriate access levels.
A List of Project Management Software Applications and Their Stand-Out Features
There are so many PM tools out there so don’t obsess over picking the right one. Sometimes, it all comes down to user experience and design.
- Asana – Very user-friendly with good design. Allows communication among teammates
- Notion – Very good design. Easy to use. You can customize it based on your expertise in project management. You can add notes for other team members
- JIRA – Popular for IT project management.
- MeisterTask – Good design.
- Teamwork
- Monday.com – Good design
- Paymo
- Todoist – Good design
- Active collab – has a time tracking feature suitable for consultancy businesses
- Bigtime -has a time-tracking feature suitable for consultancy businesses
- Click Up
Monday.com
The platform is easy to use and highly customizable, with lots of features. It’s interoperable with Google and Microsoft, which means that you can import project plans from your Google Sheets or Excel. There are also over 200 project plan templates to choose from. Monday.com allows you to attach external files and leave comments for other members of your team. Unfortunately, Time tracking is only available for Pro and Enterprise plans.
Also, HIPAA compliance is only available in enterprise sales plans. HIPAA, formally known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, is a collection of rules and standards for using, managing, storing, and sharing protected health information. So, if you work with patient data, this will be a strong consideration.
There is a free forever plan that allows up to 2 people to collaborate on projects. The paid plans start at CAD 13 per person.
Asana
You’ve probably heard of Asana because of its robust marketing campaign. In terms of user experience and ease of use, Asana is quite similar to Monday.com. Moreover, Asana integrates with many other project management apps, such as Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, and Slack. Unfortunately, the time-tracking feature is only available when you buy the $25/ month plan. Regardless, you can integrate with another time-tracking software even if you are on the free plan (which is good).
Asana prevents project tasks from being assigned to more than one person. Although some people see this as a problem, it’s a plus. It improves accountability, and the task can be broken into several subtasks that can be delegated to others.
The free plan allows you to collaborate with up to 10 people on your team (this is a huge step up from Monday.com).
Also, Asana is strong on data security and compliance; CCPA, CSA Star, GDPR, FERPA, HIPAA, ISO 27001 and others. You can view all their security certifications on their website.
A few notes about the free version of Asana
- The Free plan allows you to collaborate with up to 10 people.
- There is no limit to the number of projects you can create. However, there are only 3 project views: The list view, the board view and the calendar view.
- Project operations like setting due dates, recurring tasks and assigning tasks are unlimited.
Notion
Notion is not as intuitive as Asana or Monday.com. However, there are thousands of free templates to choose from. Notion is like Canva in that you can repurpose free templates created by other users. This is one of the greatest advantages of the platform. Notion templates are like Lego building blocks and the possibilities are limitless. You can create documents, and use formulas. Essentially, Notion gives you free access to most paid features. Still, anyone new to project management would need some training before using the platform to derive the most benefits. The free plan allows up to 10 guest collaborators. HIPAA compliance is only available in enterprise plans. Paid plans start at $8 per user/month.
JIRA
JIRA is not for everybody. It’s engineering and software-focused. It’s developed to manage agile projects. Scrum boards, Kanban boards, burn-down charts and so on. If you are an IT project manager, it will meet your needs. It’s straightforward.
Click Up
ClickUp supports up to 200 task lists and 100 workflow actions, allowing you to assign tasks to numerous team members, categorize jobs by different priority levels, and add custom tags to distinct tasks. There is a free plan, while paid plans start at $7 per user/month.
Todoist
In short, this is a good and affordable option for many people. It’s not as well known as other software companies, but to be fair, they have all the features needed to manage your team, including the ability to leave comments for other team members. If you’re looking for many features and tools for advanced project management approaches, Todoist is probably not for you. Also, their security policy is not as detailed as that of Asana. This does not mean they don’t have data security compliance.
The Risk of Using Project Management Software
If the software disappears, you can lose all your workflows. According to a GetApp survey, 41% of respondents said data security was their top concern when selecting project management software. Because of this risk, it is critical to choose project management software that integrates well with widely used platforms such as Google and Microsoft to ensure the continuity of your business.
For example, If you plan your tasks on a Google sheet, Asana allows you to upload that sheet to the software. You can also save your work spreads as Google documents and PDFs. Every business must have a backup plan in place in case of software failure. In addition to selecting software that integrates well with other platforms, it is essential to back up data regularly.
In Conclusion
Project management software is an essential tool for small businesses that want to effectively manage their projects, improve team collaboration and accountability, and increase productivity. When selecting the right project management software for your small business, it is critical to consider factors such as your team’s needs, the type of business you run, the software’s functionalities, and its integration capabilities with other tools. Furthermore, proper training and communication with your team on the fundamental concepts of the software can improve its adoption and ensure its successful implementation.
