GUIDE to Project

Management

How to find the best project management software package for your business.

Managing projects has grown increasingly complex over the past decade.

Business professionals often rely on project management software to help them oversee multiple endeavors and more easily mitigate risk by identifying failing aspects of a projects

PM at a glance

PAST THEIR DUE DATES

OVER-BUDGETLOWER THAN

PREDICTED ROI

The term project management software applies to a range of software platforms, each with a slightly different mix of functionality.

It’s crucial that the software you select makes your projects easier to manage.

common tools and features

the three major pillars of project management

PLANNING

TRACKING & MANAGEMENT

COLLABORATION

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planning

Planning a project first involves finding the team members with the necessary skills, and

estimating how much resources a project will need.

scheduling

Creating completion dates for all of the moving parts in a major project helps managers construct a more accurate timeline.

Most project management software includes automatic alerts when due dates are approaching, or when a task is not completed on schedule.

forecasting

It’s essential in calculating the ROI of a project before its major resources have been invested.

resource allocation

Being able to quickly view the resources dedicated to a project and change them on the fly

tracking and

management

Implementing software that provides the proper amount of granularity and monitoring.

time tracking

Besides simply measuring productivity, time tracking software

also builds an archive of valuable data that can help businesses forecast completion dates for similar tasks or projects in the

future.

task management

Task management refers to being able to quickly determine who’s contributed to what part of the project lets managers better identify bottlenecks and stay on top of the project’s

progress.

While the concept of task management is simple, the software can actually be fairly robust. Task dependencies are often represented through gantt charts, such as the one below:

permission settings

A key part of managing a project effectively lies in vetting the access of each user on the platform.

budgeting and expense tracking

EXPENSE TRACKING

platforms include certain project management

BUDGETING FUNCTIONS

as well as

Although software that budgets for projects, and businesses in general, comes in standalone versions,

analysis and reports

A robust analysis tool can present metrics around productivity in a visual fashion that makes the information easier to digest.

Collaboration tools help connect different departments, and make it easier to include distributed teams.

collaboration

REDUNDANT COMMUNICATION

as multiple messages are sent about the same issue

document sharing

DIFFICULT TO FIND DOCUMENTS

due to the structure

Software that lets team members share documents can improve productivity and increase efficiency.

The depth of such functionality varies from the simplicity of a system such as Google Drive…

to full-fledged wikis that house all of a project’s relevant materials.

internal messaging

Native messaging and meeting functions strengthen communications between team members.

considerations when selecting a product

Businesses today need to choose between project management software that’s installed on a specific company computers (on premise), versus software that’s hosted online by the vendors (cloud).

desktop versus cloud1

Make sure to request a free demonstration (most PM companies offer one), and consider how each of the product’s features will translate to your particular projects.

best of breed versus all-in-one2

Don’t just consider the particular features of each project management software. Examine the overall usability of the platform, too.

usability and integration

3

Now that you've learned the basics, head over to our website where you can download the complete guide or read more about how PM software can help your business.

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