Everyone manages projects differently. Some people like using spreadsheets to track tasks, others prefer visualizing work on a calendar, and some still love the old pen-and-paper system.
That works fine individually, but for team collaboration, you need a flexible project management tool that suits everyone. With many teams still working remotely, a task management tool is essential to track projects, collaborate, and keep everyone in the loop.
As process consultants, we’ve worked with different project management tools to manage various projects. We’ve seen how each one handles the basics, helps teams collaborate smoothly, and the outcomes of project management.
What are project management tools?
A project management tool is a software application that helps you plan, organise, manage, and track projects and tasks. It comes with features like task assignment, scheduling, resource allocation, progress tracking, and collaboration tools.
Think of them like having a personal assistant for your projects. They will help you to track tasks, assign work to the right people, and to ensure that nothing gets delayed. Basically, they make managing projects a breeze.
These tools help businesses like yours to manage their team and streamline their projects. Having a PM tool enables you to make teamwork seamless, monitor issues closely, assess risks, and keeps you posted about ongoing projects.
Spreadsheets don’t have these possibilities. Do they?
So, whether you’re coordinating a team project or just organizing your routine tasks, PM tools can make your life a whole lot easier.
Role of Project Management Tools in Small Business
Project management tools today do more than just schedule and track tasks. They streamline planning, task management, and budget control, helping businesses execute projects efficiently. These tools enhance communication and collaboration, provide real-time updates, and automate tasks to boost productivity.
Here’s the detail, of how they make a difference for your business:
Enhancing Team Collaboration
Looking for a way to make teamwork more seamless and connected?
A Project management tool can do the magic.
With project management tools, you can drop comments within tasks and add descriptions. When your team is working together, everyone can see each other’s comments and share feedback. It will make collaboration smoother and keep your team aligned, turning teamwork into a more connected and dynamic experience.
Tracking your progress efficiently
Projects can easily delayed when you’re not keeping an eye on deadlines. But with project management tools, you get all the features you need to keep everything in sight.
You can set up dashboards to visualize the progress and set reminders to make sure nothing gets delayed
Boosting Efficiency by Streamlining Workflows
Ever felt like your team is stuck doing daunting repetitive tasks?
Tasks that take too much, drain the energy but the value you get is unjustified?
Project management tools enable you to automate those repetitive tasks, saving time and effort. You can spend the saved time on more important tasks to boost your business growth.
Scaling your team globally
Dealing with the hassles of coordinating and hiring team members remotely?
You can do it with Project management tools from anywhere. Not only helps you to reduce the cost but enables your team to execute more with less. These tools streamline workflows and boost efficiency, no matter where everyone is located.
Improving Growth Potential
Project management tools have completely changed how businesses grow. They let you handle effective team collaboration, scale your team’s efforts easily, and keep everything organized even if your team is spread out. It’s like having a superpower for your business—making sure everything runs smoothly and grows without limits.
Key Features of Project Management Tools
Project management tools are a game-changer for businesses looking to handle projects, teams, and workflows more efficiently. They come with a bunch of features that help you to wrap up projects successfully.
Let’s take a look at some of the key features that are essential for today’s business operations.
Dashboards
Ever felt overwhelmed by boring yet super-important data?
Using PM tools you can turn those boring numbers into insightful graphs with the dashboard feature.
Not only that you can setup custom dashboards that can help you track the progress for a task or even the performance of your team members in a single view.
Time tracking
Time-tracking allows you to keep tabs on time and how long you’re spending on each task and project. It’s great for billing clients accurately, estimating project budgets, and checking in on your team’s productivity.
Plus, by keeping an eye on time, you can spot any tasks that are dragging and make tweaks to boost efficiency.
Views
Ever wished for a better way to see and organize your tasks?
The ‘Views’ feature in project management tools lets you do just that. Whether you like the visual board of Kanban, need a calendar for deadlines, or prefer the timeline view of Gantt charts, there’s an option that fits you. It’s all about finding what works best for you and your team.
Automation
Project management tools come with built-in automation that handles the heavy lifting for you. They streamline repetitive tasks like assigning tasks, sending reminders, and updating statuses.
This saves you time, reduces errors, and lets you focus on more important work. It’s like having a personal assistant for your projects!
Integration
Wouldn’t it be great if all your tools could work together effortlessly?
Project management tools seamlessly integrate with tools like CRM, email platforms, and your industry-related tools ensuring smooth data sharing and task automation across applications. This synergy enhances productivity and simplifies workflow management.
How To Choose a Project Management Tool
So far you have learned what a Project Management Tool is and how it can contribute to your business growth.
The next and the most obvious question that you might have in your mind could be;
Which PM tool is the right fit for my Business?
You’re on track!
You will find a plethora of PM Tools available in the market, every one of them claiming to be the best.
But after implementing PM tools for 73+ businesses (globally), we can assure you that;
Not every tool can cater to the unique requirements of your business.
Basically every PM tool in its core is based on some project management methodologies.
Even if you have heard the term “Project Methodology” for the first time still your way of managing things does resemble either one or multiple methodologies.
Don’t worry! You don’t have to master project methodologies to find the perfect PM tool for business.
We have listed some best practices, following which you can find the dream Project Management tool for your business.
Purpose: What will it be used for?
Businesses are unique so are the challenges that they have to tackle.
It’s important to know what’s halting your growth or what’s stopping your business from reaching its true potential.
Start by listing down all the management-related challenges that you’re struggling with.
Try to be as specific as possible; audit your processes, talk with the team members, or even consult an expert (if possible).
Here’s a list of the most commonly identified pain points that we have noticed over the years serving businesses globally;
- Lack of trackability
- No processes and SOPs in place
- Too much manual work
- Communication gap within the team
- Missing deadlines
Prepare a list of all the pain points that you and your team are facing and then make sure that whatever tool you consider for your business, it must have the ability to solve those problems.
Users: Who will be using it?
Now you know what feature your ideal project management tools should offer.
But what if that PM tool turns out to be too complex for your team?
That’s what makes it critical to access the technical competence of your team.
By matching the tool’s complexity with your team’s expertise, you can ensure a smoother implementation and maximize the tool’s effectiveness.
Remember, a tool that complements your team’s skills will drive productivity, while an overly complex one can hinder progress and cause frustration.
Integration: What other tools should it integrate with?
Are there any must-have tools or services in your industry?
If so, your PM tool should ideally sync with them for a smoother workflow.
You can check the compatibility of your PM tool with any tool you are planning to use in parallel by doing a simple search:
How to integrate [Tool name] with [Project management tool]?
Usually, that will be enough to determine whether or not there’s any possibility of integrating the tools.
If you don’t find a satisfactory answer as a result of your search, email us your query at contact@readylogic.co, and we will check it for you.
When choosing a project management tool, ensure it can integrate with the tools you need. For instance, if you’re in the healthcare sector, look for a tool that’s HIPAA compliant to integrate smoothly with your existing tools. Tailoring your selection to your specific industry requirements ensures seamless integration and adherence to necessary regulations.
Goals: What key outcomes are desired?
After completing all the aforementioned tasks, move to the last piece of the puzzle: checking the tool’s compatibility with your ambitions.
Are you interested in dashboards?
Is automation a top priority for you?
With these items in check, you’ll find the perfect Project Management tool to help your business reach its full potential.
Do you need advanced reporting features?
Is team collaboration a critical factor for your projects?
If you have any of the above or other expectations from your dream PM tool, make sure to check these possibilities before integrating the PM tool into your business.
Top Project Management Tools
Choosing the right project management tool can make a difference for your team. It’s all about finding the one that clicks that fits your team’s needs and working style. Let’s explore three popular options, each with its own unique features:
ClickUp
ClickUp is a project management and productivity software designed to help teams organize and manage tasks, projects, and workflows.
It offers a variety of features including task lists, calendars, time tracking, goal setting, and integrations with other tools. ClickUp allows users to customize their workspace and view tasks in various formats such as lists, boards, and timelines.
The software is suitable for teams of any size and industry, and can be used for project management, agile development, marketing, HR, and more.
ClickUp is known for its user-friendly interface, efficient task management, and robust collaboration capabilities.
ClickUp Pricing
- Free Forever: Providing limited features.
- Unlimited: Priced at $7 per month
- Business: At $12 per user per month.
Monday.com
Monday Pricing
- Free Trial: For 14 days.
- Basic: $5/month per seat for a team size of 5.
- Standard: $12/month per seat for a team size of 5.
- Pro: $19/month per seat for a team size of 5.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Asana
Asana is a cloud-based project management software designed to help teams organize and manage tasks, projects, and workflows.
The platform offers a range of features including task lists, calendars, timelines, and integrations with other tools. Asana is highly customizable, allowing users to create custom workflows, templates, and reports.
It can be used by teams of any size and industry, and is particularly suited for creative, marketing, and engineering teams. The software is known for its user-friendly interface and robust collaboration capabilities, making it a popular choice for project management and team communication.
Asana is also known for its mobile app, which allows users to access their tasks and projects on the go.
Asana Pricing
- Personal: Free Forever and collaborate with upto 10 team members.
- Starter: $10.99/month per user and collaborate with upto 500 team members.
- Advanced: $24.49/month per user and collaborate with upto 500 team members.
Jira
Jira is a software application developed by Atlassian that is used for project management, issue tracking, and bug tracking.
It allows teams to plan, track, and manage tasks and projects using agile methodologies. Jira provides a centralized platform for collaboration and communication between team members, stakeholders, and customers.
It supports custom workflows, integrations with other tools, and reporting and analytics to help teams track progress and identify areas for improvement.
Jira is widely used in software development, but it can also be used for other types of projects, such as marketing campaigns, HR initiatives, and legal cases.
Jira Pricing
- Personal: Free forever with limited features.
- Standard: $8.15/month per user for a team size of 30.
- Premium: $16/month per user for a team size of 30.
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
TeamWork
Teamwork is a comprehensive project management tool designed to streamline the organization and execution of projects.
It provides real-time project insights and customizable reporting, allowing teams to build tailored dashboards for tracking key metrics like project finances, timelines, and workloads.
Teamwork’s standout features include efficient resource and workload management, along with a built-in time tracker that simplifies invoicing and budget management. It also offers robust task organization capabilities, utilizing custom fields, tags, and versions.
It facilitates seamless collaboration through comments, messages, document sharing, and proofing, making it easy for internal and external stakeholders to stay connected.
Additionally, Teamwork offers workflow automation and customizable project templates, enhancing productivity and consistency across projects.
TeamWork Pricing
- Personal: Free Forever with limited users.
- Deliver: $10.99/month per user for a minimum of 3 users.
- Grow: $19.99/month per user for a minimum of 5 users.
- Scale: $54.99/month per user for a minimum of 5 users.
- Enterprise: Custom Pricing
Conclusion
Managing projects often felt like juggling countless balls in the air—without a clear view of what’s coming next. Tasks were tracked through scattered spreadsheets, handwritten notes, and endless email threads, leading to missed deadlines and confusion among team members.
Project management tools are game-changer in the way businesses handle their projects. These tools streamline project management processes, offering a range of features like task tracking, real-time updates, and collaborative spaces.
They enhance productivity by keeping everything organized and on track, regardless of how many projects you’re managing or how dispersed your team might be.
Want to enhance your project management skills?
Check out the Free PM Tool Finder.
It offers in-depth knowledge of project management processes and frameworks, preparing you for selecting the perfect project management tool.
