Every person is not created equal. Similar to this, no two project management tools can be considered equal. How can we determine which project management tool is better? What features and functions would you expect from the best project management tool?
Let’s begin with the basics:
Activity Definition: Define activities.
Activity Scheduling: Define dates
Activity Sequencing: Ability create dependencies between activities
Resource Allocation: Allocate resources to the activities
These are the main features of most standalone project management tools.
Now, let’s move on to the next:
A list of things to do based on tasks given
Ability to track actual progress: Ability track actual completion dates and planned dates
Collaboration: Project team, cross-functional stake holders
Timesheet against tasks
These features are also available in many online project management tools. But are they enough to manage the project effectively?
Consider the following capabilities for your critical projects:
Project Budget Planning: Ability plan and execute budgets for people, material, overhead, etc.
Project Revenue Plan: Ability plan the revenue regularly.
Risk Management: Identify and plan for risks
Project Document and Knowledge Management: All documents and knowledge related to the project.
Access rights: Each project has role-based access rights
Project Material Planning: Project, AoBill of Quantity’/Bill of Materials’ estimate
Employee Expenses: Keep track of all expenses made by the team
Tracking Project Invoices: Create project invoices and track until amount is received
Project Cashflow Tracking – Track cash inflows and expenditures in real-time.
Project Profitability Tracking – Track project profitability in real-time
After Project Completion, Customer Satisfaction Feedback: Formal way to get feedback
Lessons learned: Both good and bad lessons from a project.
Project Analytics: Different executive dashboards with associated analytics for different stakeholder groups, Ai Team members, Project Managers, and Management
The ideal project management tool should have all of these features.
Many people find it difficult to implement and use such a tool. Organizations may need to adapt their processes to maximize the benefits of this tool, even though it may offer many functions.
Another aspect of any project management tool is:
The tool should offer comprehensive features
Allow phase-wise rollout of different features.
Allow users to move from the basic features (e.g., financial planning, document management) to the advanced features at their own pace.
Although there are many project management tools, not all of them are as comprehensive and robust as the ones listed above.
Software for Project Management
If you’re interested in learning more about top rated project management software, the editors at Project-Management.com actively recommend the following:
