What is a Project Management Software
Project management software is an application used to improve project completion and enhance project delivery. Using the project management software, a PM can set goals, assign tasks, track real-time deadlines, and reassign the work if there is some issue in delivery. The activity tracking in project management is done using dashboards, gantt charts, etc.
Different types of Project Management Softwares
Project management softwares are usually divided into two categories, i.e. Task Management Software and Project Scheduling Software.
- Task Management Software: This type of software is used to collaborate. Some of the features of this type of software are setting deadlines, creating tasks, adding people, etc.
- Project Scheduling Software: This software takes employees' availability and task dependencies into account and calculates the project timeline. With the help of this software, you can know when your project will be completed considering the available number of resources and thus, you can assign the project delivery date.
Limitations of a Project Management Software:
Though the Project Management Software eases out your various problems, there are some disadvantages. You can refer to the below points for some of the significant disadvantages of project management software:
- Maybe an expensive investment:Good quality project management software costs a good amount of money. This is a notable reason that various small startups or small scale companies do not opt for good project management softwares.
- Complexity of the Software:Some project management softwares have a very complex user interface. So it takes some time for the project managers and the other team members to get used to the software.
- Execution might get delayed:Executing projects gets delayed sometimes because project managers depend on the software and spend more time setting up alerts for project management rather than executing the project.
Why is a Project Management Software necessary
Project management software does the following things that make your project completion and project delivery smooth.
- Because of project management software, you don’t need third party software to communicate with the people involved in your project. You can communicate with your team using the inbuilt messaging tools and meeting tools. Real-time file sharing, accessing calendars, and contact lists also become more manageable.
- Project management softwares show the real-time status of all your work.
- You can see any issues in time and assign the task to the relevant team member to fix it. Resource management and prioritizing the tasks also become easier using project management software without rescheduling the entire project plan.
- You get automatic reports on how everyone is performing.
- Using project management software, you can check which methodology works better for you, i.e. agile or waterfall.
- Easy integration of cloud based business apps like Gmail, Outlook, Salesforce, Zoom.
- Budget management like time tracking, budget report, dashboard, automated invoicing can be done very quickly using the software.
What to look for in a Project Management Software
If you are thinking of purchasing project management software, you must first analyze your requirements. Many different project management software offers a 15 day or 30-day free trial, so you can use those trials to see which software works best for you, i.e. which one is making your project management more effortless. Some of the features that you can look for in a project management software are:
- Visually Interactive dashboards with a complete analysis of the project
- East integration with business apps
- Affordable and easy to use
- Compatible on different devices and different OS versions
- The customer service is good in case you need some help with software