Project management software that is easy to use makes it easy for teams to organize tasks and projects.
Project management software is becoming more essential than ever as the pandemic continues to affect large numbers of employees. It allows remote teams to easily manage their projects and tasks.
While paper and spreadsheets were once the only options, today’s project management software can provide many tools that help increase productivity and simplify the task management.
The features might include the ability to create a team, allow communication between members, assign subtasks with completion dates, goals, interactive calendars, progress reporting, analytics, and data to show workflows.
A number of project management platforms are also compatible with other software applications such as cloud storage of documents (opens new tab), sales reporting software and customer relation management (CRM (opens new tab)).
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1. Asana
It focuses on tracking and teams.
There are many reasons to buy
+Handy tracking functions+Cloud-based+Team-oriented
Asana is a project-management solution that you might have used in the past. Although it has many useful features that can boost productivity, the main focus is on tracking.
You can create reminders and to-do lists to ensure you meet deadlines. Additionally, you can add colleagues, due dates, instructions, tasks and comments to items. Asana can also be used to share images from other apps, such as Google Drive. You can also track the progress of your team members to make sure that everything is on schedule.
You can view a list to see who is involved in certain projects. There’s also an option to search for completed tasks.
Asana provides a Basic Tier for free, which has limited functionality and dashboards. Upgrade to the Premium, Business or Enterprise tiers for more features and administration options.
2. Trello
Cross-platform project management software that is well-respected
There are many reasons to buy
+Cross-platform support+Cloud-based+Team supported
Trello has been a popular project management application over the past few years. Trello allows you to organize your personal and work-related projects from any device, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or computer. Fender, Google, and Kickstarter are all known to use Trello.
You can create boards to organize your work, assign tasks to colleagues, set up workflows, add task cards to to-do lists, attach files, and comment on items. You can manage every aspect of a project in the app, no matter if it is team-based or assigned to an employee.
Windows and Mac desktops both supported. Mobile apps are available for Android and iOS devices. There’s even an iPad Pro version. This version has a larger canvas, as well as a number of email shortcuts that can be used to speed up projects. You can download it for free and use the free tier. However, there are limits on file attachments.
Upgrade to Business Class to get more features such as one-day email support and integration with other services like Google and Slack as well as greater attachment limits.
3. Zoho Projects
Small teams will appreciate these features.
There are many reasons to buy
+Easy visualizations+Document storage options+Integration options
Zoho Projects, another project management tool, allows users to plan and organize projects and collaborate. Gantt charts allow for detailed visualizations of progress and schedules.
You can also use the document management and time keeping options, as well tracking and fixing any errors. There are many integration options available, including Slack and Google, Dropbox and the many other Zoho suites.
Pricing depends on the number of users and projects. Higher level plans offer unlimited projects and greater limits depending on the plan you subscribe to. To explore the software’s capabilities, there is a free plan.
4. LiquidPlanner
There are many reasons to buy
+Smart schedules to prioritize work+Enterprise-grade feature set+14-day free trial
Avoidable reasons
-Expensive
LiquidPlanner offers enterprise-grade project management with a strong feature set. It boasts corporate customers that include top Fortune 500 companies like Bayer, Cisco, and Daimler.
Smart Schedule features include the ability to prioritize work, assign people resources and then estimate the time required for completion. This allows you to track the project based on the hours spent by the assigned workforce.
The Resource Management feature, on the other hand, can track the availability of workers and show how many hours they have worked. This data can be integrated into financial trends and financial metrics by creating easy-to-read dashboards.
You can take LiquidPlanner for a free 14-day test drive before you buy.
5. Basecamp
A powerful tool to collaborate on projects
There are many reasons to buy
+The ability to host group chats+A veteran solution
Avoidable reasons
Basecamp, a project management solution that has been around for over 10 years, is a trusted tool for large-scale businesses.
The app’s latest version offers many useful features such as the ability to send instant messages to facilitate quick discussions, create a schedule so that you only receive notifications during work hours, and applaud colleagues by clicking the applause button. Basecamp prevents fragmentation by keeping all your information in one place.
You can also use some of the cool functions to deal with clients. You can save and track feedback from clients and approve them easily. Additionally, you can get reports about how the projects are progressing. You can also create group chats if you wish to collaborate with other people.
To give you a chance to test the software, you can use the free version to create up to three projects and up to 20 people. The only paid-for version includes all features and unlimited users. This makes it a great deal for groups, but not for individuals.
6. Podio
An app that focuses on communication to generate project ideas
There are many reasons to buy
Avoidable reasons
Premium plans can be expensive
Podio was designed for professionals who work on multiple projects at once and are open to new ideas. It is used by more than 400,000 companies and teams around the globe, including those from Sony, Volvo, and the NFL.
Podio allows you to create tasks, customize them based upon your workflow, and take into consideration deadlines and responsibilities. You can also use the built-in instant messaging feature to exchange ideas and monitor how others are doing with delegated tasks. You can also get quick feedback without needing to send multiple emails.
Integrations are available with third-party services like Dropbox and Google Drive so you can quickly share content. Podio can be used in a variety of languages including French, German and Chinese as well as Spanish, Russian, French, German and Chinese.
Check out these more project management software reviews
For more information on the best project management software, check out these reviews:
What is Agile project management?
This section is authored by Cliff Berg, Agile evangelist
Some people claim that Agile does not have a place for the role of the project manager. That is a harsh claim, though, and it is a little like someone who has just turned 18 saying to their parents, “I don’t need a parent anymore”.
The role of a project manager was firmly established before the Agile movement, largely because work on software was usually organized as a project: that is, a chunk of work that was budgeted for, and was scheduled for, and for which requirements were defined up front.
Today, software is best viewed as a living thing: once you create it, you need to keep evolving it. Thus, the view that you create it and then maintain it, and that if you ever need to change it you propose a project – that approach is too slow and cumbersome. Instead, one needs to build the evolution of the product into its process for creating and maintaining it.
It is like for most living things, most creatures are not born and then stay the same, and then at some point undergo a metamorphosis and change to a new state. Some do that, but most are born and then continue to evolve and change continuously throughout their lives. Software is like that today – or needs to be, to keep pace with today’s market demands, let alone stay ahead of the market.
The “project” construct is based on a corporate finance model whereby an organization is in a steady state, and one then proposes a “project” and an accompanying ROI analysis – usually through an annual planning cycle – that will change the organization to a new state. That heavyweight and plodding approach is an obsolete model. Today, change needs to be continuous. The construct of “project” should be reserved for things that need an unusual boost – a “one-off” step change – but most things need continuous change, so most things should not be funded as projects.
A better way to look at automated business systems is as products: things that comprise a capability, that have a life cycle, and that are continuously being enhanced.
If most business initiatives are not funded and managed as projects, then there is less of a need for project managers; but project managers have skills that are still needed.
Unfortunately, the top-heavy methods of the 1990s created a community of project managers who were trained in those top-heavy methods. It is those methods that are largely obsolete for software. They still work for other things, such as building construction, but software is just too dynamic. Software is not like a building: you cannot see it, you cannot assess at a glance how “done” it is, it connects in myriad ways, rather than only in three dimensions. It is different every time, you never build the same software twice, even though there can be some requirements that are repeated.
That means that the process of building software is not repeatable, and so it cannot be managed as such. It is a highly creative process, and there is a lot of trial and error in it. One cannot fully design software upfront; one has to create a tentative high-level design, build it and alter the design as one discovers some elements don’t work right until everything fits and works in the end. This is a craftsmanship of unique products that won’t be the same again.
Such efforts need leadership, and organization, and decision making, and inspiration. The function of management includes all these things, by definition, and thus, there is very much a role for managers; but what does not work is an autocratic manager who tells everyone what to do, or one who sits at their desk checking off documents. Instead, leadership is needed, from the managers and from others, and the kinds of leadership that work are those that encourage thoughtfulness, rational Socratic discussion, and transparent decision making. People need a high degree of autonomy – not complete autonomy, but a lot. They also need a lot of coordination, and those who lead need to be good listeners and always watching for issues that are being overlooked.
