Find and compare top Project Management software on Capterra, with our free and interactive tool. Quickly browse through hundreds of Project Management tools and systems and narrow down your top choices. Filter by popular features, pricing options, number of users, and read reviews from real users and find a tool that fits your needs. Project management tools should not become the focus of a project manager's life or add time to project activities. If a project manager has to spend too much time learning a product's features, their ability to actively manage the project process diminishes, totally defeating the purpose of the tool. 9. Trello is the project management tool of choice by teams at The Verge, The New York Times, Tumblr, and others, and it doesn't hurt that it's free and simple to get started with. Microsoft OneNote. Wrike is a project management tool that is trusted by Google, Airbnb, Dell and other huge technology companies. You can use this platform to create custom workflows, set timelines with interactive. ProofHub is a project planning software with every tools your team needs to get work done faster, together. No per user fee. No learning curve.
1. Project Management Software for Gantt Chart
A Gantt chart can help manage projects by breaking a large project into a series of smaller tasks in an organized way. Each task has an expected time duration, presented by a horizontal bar whose left end indicates the beginning date of the task and whose right end indicates the completion date of the task. Tasks may run sequentially, in parallel or overlapping. During the process, significant events can be highlighted as 'Milestones,' marked by small diamond shapes.
You can recognize what the sub-tasks are and when each task begins and ends from a Cantt chart. Presenting a visual overview of the project, you can easily track the progress by seeing what should be happening at any stage in the project.
Software Recommendation
• Workzone
It comes with a broad range of powerful features but whose interface is more straightforward to use than other software in the market. This software allows you to create tasks and subtask dependencies, get quick access to statuses with Gantt charts, and assign more tasks per individual. You can also set permissions for specific users and create personalized to-do lists.
2. Project Management Software for PERT Chart
The PERT stands for 'project evaluation and review technique.' It's a primary project management tool for planning and scheduling entire projects and tracking the implementation phase. PERT charts can also show task division, time allocation, and starting and ending dates. Unlike the Gantt chart, which uses bars to represent tasks, the PERT chart displays information as a network model that uses boxes to represent tasks and arrows to present dependencies between tasks. The layout of a PERT chart makes the relationships between activities easier to see than with Gantt charts. But the disadvantage is it can be challenging to follow when there are many complex dependencies and tasks.
Software Recommendation
• Score
This is a comprehensive software that provides all the tools you may need for project management. It offers effective features such as Projects with sub-tasks and deadlines, a real-time KPI dashboard, time tracking and billing, detailed reports on project progress and finances.
3. Project Management Software for Calendar
The Calendar is the date or time-based project management tool, which is the easiest to understand. It is more suitable for personal time management better to manage your daily, weekly, or monthly schedules. The outstanding part of this tool is that it has more space for adding to-do lists. It will remind you what to do every day and make sure things can be finished before the deadline.
Software Recommendation
• Teamweek
This is a time-based project software that enables teams to schedule their upcoming tasks and meetings into a common calendar. It comes with unique features such as simple project management, Gantt chart interface, scheduling work every hour, overseeing team members' availability, drag-and-drop task management. It is a simple add-on to more complex project management tools, thus making time-scheduling an easy task.
4. Project Management Software for Timeline
The Timeline is also a visual project management tool to help track project progress. With a timeline, you can clearly visualize by what time a task needs to be done. It is a more sequential way of looking at tasks over time. However, the timeline is not as popular as the Gantt chart since it has limitations in showing task dependencies and the completion state.
Source: lucidchart
Software Recommendation
• Creately
This could just be the simplest way to work visually and collaborate with team members. The software allows you to draw anything and fast, from sketching out concepts, brainstorming plans to analyzing processes; team members can create tool timelines to track the progress and allocate deadlines to tasks.
5. Project Management Software for WBS Diagram
The WBS, also known as Work Breakdown Structure, is a common project management tool that helps visualize the scope of work by breaking a project into individual components that can be effectively scheduled. The WBS is a tree-style structure with the overall task on the top, followed by project sections and further into individual tasks. WBS examples are similar to a flowchart that has its components linked logically. The components may be explained in the text or the boxes.
Software Recommendation
• EdrawMax
Using EdrawMax, you can draw an effective WBS diagram using a set of professionally designed tools and easy-to-customize templates that come in large varieties.
6. Project Management Software for Mind Map
The mind map is also a powerful tool to manage your projects. Unlike other project management tools, the mind map is less formal, yet more flexible. You can use it to break the whole complex project into smaller tasks that are easy to manage to-do lists and analyze problems. With a mind map, you can insert pictures, link files, and drill down to focus on a specific part, which other tools couldn't do.
Software Recommendation
• MindMaster
This is a fantastic software that strives to help users draw professional-looking mind maps using built-in templates and share their creations with others through images or PDFs. It doesn't matter whether you're a student, entrepreneur, or office staff because, with MindMaster, you can plan your tasks and boost your creativity. It comes with cloud sync among different devices, rainbow color modes, drag and drop topics, relationship lines, and much more to explore.
7. Project Management Software for Status Table
The Status table is an effective tool that is used to track project progress. It doesn't contain too much detail of the project duration and task relations, but with more focus on the status and complete progress. A great function of the status table is that it can include people who take charge of the task, so that project leaders can better evaluate employee performance and know who to reach when there is a problem.
Software Recommendation
• EdrawMax
If you’re looking for simplicity with professionalism, EdrawMax offers users professional tools that are easy to use; thus, allowing them to create outstanding status tables that are sure to effectively track the project's progress and outline the parts that need more work.
8. Project Management Software for HOQ
HOQ, representing the house of quality, is a quality management tool used to define the relationship between customer desires and product capabilities. It's a tool used in QFD (Quality function deployment) to facilitate group decision-making. Though it looks complicated, it's easy to create through Edraw. All the components in the HOQ, like the roof, matrix, legend box, and markers, are already included in EdrawMax. You can create a high-quality HOQ diagram without much effort.
Software Recommendation
• Sick plan
This website planning system puts all the right tools at your fingertips. It provides you with an intuitive and elegant interface that allows you to focus on creating some of the best diagrams, including HOQ diagrams for your clients. Visualize the process and test scenarios by putting them into action with a Sick plan.
The Ultimate Management Tool: EdrawMax
If you’re looking to create any of the above tools without having to switch between apps just to find the perfect project drawing software, then you can collect all your ideas and transform them into business reality with EdrawMax. This is an all-in-one diagramming tool with professionally designed symbols and customizable templates that allows you to create any project diagram you can think of.
EdrawMax: a swiss knife for all your diagramming need
- Effortlessly create over 280 types of diagrams.
- Provide various templates & symbols to match your needs.
- Drag and drop interface and easy to use.
- Customize every detail by using smart and dynamic toolkits.
- Compatible with a variety of file formats, such as MS Office, Visio, PDF, etc.
- Feel free to export, print, and share your diagrams.
Conclusion
Project management involves effective plans and systematic work assignments. It includes determining the project objectives, making schedules, and assigning tasks to ensure that your team can accomplish a goal. Many tools make project management more effective and efficient. Here we will introduce the commonly used ones that are incredibly useful for visualizing your project. More importantly, all these diagrams can be made in EdrawMax, an all-in-one diagramming tool, which provides professionally designed symbols and multiple easy-to-customize templates. So you can create a diagram like a Gantt chart or WBS diagram with minimal effort.
- Published on January 11, 2020
- Updated on
- Read time 7 minutes
- Category
If you have stumbled on this page, then you’re probably wondering “What the heck are Project Management tools?” Let’s start from the very beginning, and go through some common misconceptions about project management tools in 2020.
Project Management Tools
Well, Project Management Tools are the munitions that project managers require to help a team or an individual in getting their work organized. It is used to manage their projects and tasks in such a way that they achieve success.
A Minor Overview of Project Management Tools
Despite the name, these tools are useful for any stakeholder in the development of the project and not just the project managers. They are dynamic tools that can be completely altered to facilitate the needs of teams with different sizes and goals.
What are some of the basic features that a Project Management Tool offers?
If you use a Project Management application like nTask, then you can enjoy the following features.
- Planning or Scheduling: The most constructive feature that you can use while using Project Management tools is to plan or schedule the activities and tasks. It is required for the success of your project. You can plan and delegate work to all of the team members in a single place with folders, calendars, workflows, templates, tasks, and subtasks.
- Collaboration: Emails are no longer the single form of communication when it comes to transferring information among team members. Project Management tools can be effectively used to add comments on tasks, organize dashboards, assigning tasks and also for approvals and proofing.
- Documentation: When the team or the project managers are working on multiple projects, there are bound to be some blunders where some files can get lost and there is no way to recover them. To avoid these mistakes, project management tools offer features like storing files, versioning them and also editing them which will save you from any mishaps.
- Evaluation: These tools also provide functionalities like reporting and resource management that help the project managers to assess and track the growth and productivity.
What are the tools in Project Management that are used for effective Project Planning?
As we know that Project Management is not a simple science. It is a complex amalgam of a wide variety of concepts that cover strategy to people management, IT communications to number crunching.
In this piece, we will learn about the most important tools that managers have in their arsenal. They are used when they need to plan or schedule their tasks for their projects, identify the critical paths, monitor the progress and all of the other important tasks that are needed for a seamless project cycle. Let’s begin.
1. Network Diagrams
These diagrams are one of the most important tools in project management that can be used in the process of project planning.
Also known as an “Arrow” diagram, because the diagram consists of different arrows that can be used to connect different activities and also to display precedence. By using these arrows you can also show interdependencies between different activities of a project.
In the process of forming the Network Diagram, there are always some assumptions to be made. The first assumption to be dreamt up is that all pending or ongoing activities have been completed before starting new ones.
The second assumption that has to be made is that all the arrows used in the Network diagram indicate a logical priority. What that means is that the direction of the arrow is displaying the unique sequence that needs to be followed for the proper execution of activities.
Best Project Management Software
The last but not the least assumption is that Network Diagrams have no choice but to start with a single event and end with a single event because there is no place for dual start and endpoints.
If the project manager wants to calculate the total duration of a specific project, they need to define a total of four dates for each specific task.
The first two are the start dates. The first date in these two is Early Start which is the earliest date on which the task can be started.
The second date in those or Late Start is the date on which the task absolutely has to start if it hasn’t already.
This same logic goes for the latter two of the four dates mentioned above. Those are the end dates.
Another important element in the Network Diagram is the Slack time. This is the time that is allowed for the task to be delayed but not more than that. Why? Because eventually, it will cause a delay in the overall timeline.
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2. Critical Path Method
CPM is an essential tool that is thoroughly used by project managers. This is because this tool can monitor and assess the progress of the project in real-time. It is to ensure that all the ongoing projects performed by the team are going to finish in time.
The Critical Path of the project is the longest sequence of activities performed on the network diagram. It is also characterized as having zero slack time for all activities that are involved in a particular sequence.
So, if there’s the slightest delay in any activity, it will cause a delay in the overall project deployment.
Zero Slack time is bad but also good in some ways. Good because the project managers will remain more vigilant when they will know that the slightest error can hinder the progress of the project.
Also, project managers can divert resources from a specific project to some other project if they need to. This makes sure that the appropriate resources are used somewhere important and the project is not delayed.
But while doing that, the project manager has to ensure that the activity in question does not become a critical path activity due to the reduction in the number of resources.
3. Gantt Charts
Project Management Tools Excel
A Gantt chart is a visual representation of all the tasks related to your project scheduled overtime. They are used to plan projects of all sizes and shapes.
Why? Because they are an incredible tool to show the work that is scheduled to be done on a project on a specific day. They also show the whole tenure of a particular project in one simple view.
Here are some of the features of a project you can monitor on a Gantt Chart.
- The start and end dates of a project
- What are the project tasks
- Who are the team members involved in each project
- Who is working on each individual task
- What is the duration of each individual task
- How all of the tasks are linked or are they dependent on each other
Still don’t understand the importance of these charts? Well not long ago, people used to plan on paper or show all of the projections with colored blocks because there wasn’t any digital solution available. Gantt charts changed all that.
You can also visit exhibitions where they celebrate the evolution of this amazing tool over time.
4. Project Evaluation and Review Technique
The Project Evaluation and Review Technique, more commonly known as PERT is a form of Network Diagram PM tool that is also used to figure out the critical path of the project. This technique makes scheduling complex projects easier while creating realistic estimates of the duration of each individual activity.
It is a form of Network Diagram but it’s different in a way that it uses three kinds of estimates rather than just one. The first estimate, also known as T-O, assumes that the activity will never falter and all the factors that are related to the activity are going to be in favor of it.
The second estimate, also known as ‘most likely’ assumes that the activity will eventually encounter some issues during the execution phase. It will also provide some contingency buffers to fix the issues.
The final estimate is known as the pessimistic estimate which assumes that whatever factor that can possibly go wrong and ruin the activity is bound to happen no matter what.
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5. Work Breakdown Structure
WBS is an amazing tool in the project management paradigm. It shows a hierarchical breakdown of work activities that are used to define the scope of the project. It is also used to identify all of the required deliverables that are needed in the development of the project.
Having all these details spread out in the open enables not just the project managers but also all the other stakeholders to understand the project scope. Also, it helps the teams to understand exactly what needs to be developed.
The beauty of WBS is that it divides the project deliverables and the work required into very small components that are easily manageable. The lowest level items also known as Work Packages can be monitored, assessed, controlled and easily cost estimated.
6. Project Documentation
Lastly, project documentation is to conclude all of the work that we discussed above in one document. These documents provide all the details about the project and everything inside it. There are created to eliminate any confusion about the project and also prevent any conflict between the stakeholders on the status of the project.
Conclusion
Project Management Tools Comparison
If you want to become an effective project manager to make your projects a success then you should leverage the above mention project management tools and make them part of your daily practice. However, it depends on the nature of the project that what importance you give to each of the project management tools. The best thing is to use them to get the optimal project results.
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