Project management software provides you a birds’ eye view of the tasks within a project and lets you interact with the team in a streamlined manner without any communication gaps.
Managing a project in any business can be a really tedious task. Every business has its own goals that it wants to achieve, and achieving these goals and measuring the trajectory in a time bound manner would need a project management software.
What is a Project management Software?
Providing a clear definition of the concept of
project management software not be easy as it involves a lot of factors spanning different aspects. Project management as a task would involve planning, creating strategies, administering, and implementing the scope, objectives, time, and budget for a project.
The tasks here would involve a lot of time and effort. That is where
project management software like Kanban would come into the picture. The choice of the right software can assist you in avoiding the primary cause of failure in any organization.
Given the fact that only around 20 to 22 percent of the businesses opt for Project management software, it is quite essential to understand how to choose your tool and how beneficial it can be for ensuring successful projects.
There are several areas that a project management software can be highly beneficial.
Collaboration - A project involves an active participation of a wide range of people completing their own tasks. The communication and cooperation between the team members ensure a better alignment of functions and strategies. This type of tool like the
5th Kind can help achieve a high degree of collaboration. Some of the
elements where collaboration can be helpful would include file sharing, communication, and data sharing about the customers.
Planning and Scheduling – Planning and scheduling involve setting guidelines and timeframes for the sub tasks within a project. Shared team calendar, time slots, and task priorities are a few areas covered by this module of the project management software.
Managing Resources – Resource management is the prime reason for opting for a project management tool. It aims at streamlining the availability of materials, equipment, and tools so that you don’t run into bottlenecks in your
project timeline.
How to Choose a Project management software?
With plenty of options available for a project management tool, it would be essential to check out a few prime features before you finalize a particular
software that gels well with your organizational culture.
Here are a few pointers that should be helpful in this venture.
Analyze your needs
There are different tools that should meet different needs. Choose a tool that best meets your exact objectives. You may also need to give a thought to the features you frequently use. Unless you are sure you are planning to use the additional features, there may not be any need to go with a tool that has extra features. Also, pinpoint the issues you want to resolve in your current tool or solution and go with a tool that takes care of them.
Go for the reviews and ratings
Check out the reviews and first-hand accounts available for your chosen software. You can go with a dedicated and reliable software review platform to arrive at the best solution that perfectly matches with your actual requirements. These tools provide a real experience score as they come from someone who is using the software rather than from those who just review it after trying it for a few weeks. The review and rating platforms assure a real world review with a focus on the pricing, features, and their usefulness, support, and other resources and, of course, the reviews and ratings.
Go for a test drive
Never buy a software just because there is an overload of positive reviews.. The real world scenario in your case may be different from what has been projected in the reviews. Make sure the software fits well in your work culture. It can only be possible if you opt for a demo software. Install it and run it to ascertain how it works along with your existing system. Make sure to get every stakeholder – who will be using the tool- in the running the test drive of the software. This will also help you get access to the issues if any, in the software you have planned for purchase and let you compare it with your existing solution.
Do note that the Project management software is something an entire team will be using. That would mean you need opt for a brainstorming session for assuring a better collaboration of the people involved. That way, you would be able to choose, check, and implement the project management software that would improve your performance indices by almost every count.
A project management software is extremely helpful in letting your team focus on the core operations of the project efficiently. It would be the right choice for realizing your goals and objectives rather quickly and in a streamlined fashion.