Step up a gear with the right project management tools
Which project management tools are right for your company?
Today's organizations are increasingly structured around projects. And these projects are becoming increasingly complex, involving more and more stakeholders.
The consequence? Project managers and their teams have to deal with numerous parameters, while ensuring project success and meeting deadlines.
Planning, resource allocation, task tracking... only the use of project management tools can ensure the success of your actions. But which ones are they?
In this article, we take a look at the essentials of project management, illustrated by specific examples.
What is a project management tool?
A project management tool is a device, and in some cases software, designed to facilitate the implementation of actions to achieve project objectives and improve performance. This is why this type of tool is both
- strategic,
- and operational.
However, project management encompasses a large number of activities and processes:
- planning the project,
- allocating resources,
- managing the budget,
- monitoring project progress and KPIs, etc.
As a result, there are many tools available to support project management. Here we present the most important ones.
☝️ Note, of course, that tool requirements differ from one organization to another, depending on the size of its projects, the number of employees involved, or the nature of its activities.
What are project management tools?
Dashboards
A dashboard provides an overview of your project, giving you at-a-glance access to all important data. As a result, this tool :
- supports operational activities: thanks to the information visible on the dashboard, you can steer and control your project more precisely, and maneuver proactively;
- supports strategic decision-making: a dashboard is an excellent reporting tool for tracking your KPIs:
- project progress,
- completion times,
- budget, etc. This enables you to compare the actual with the forecast, and redirect your actions if necessary.
🛠️ Bubble Plan is a comprehensive, yet simple, project management solution, featuring a dashboard to monitor a portfolio of projects. This feature enables the project manager or PMO to focus on their key indicators and project weather: they can quickly see whether objectives have been achieved or not.
Bubble Plan
🛠 monday.com is a simple, comprehensive and ultra-intuitivework management platform that facilitates your project management thanks to playful and 100% customizable dashboards. Thanks to the 15 widgets available, you can create your dashboard according to your needs: budget, workload, project progress... make decisions based on quantified data updated in real time!
monday.com
Planning tools
Depending on the organization, planning may or may not be part of the steering process itself. On the other hand, it is unquestionably one of the first steps in project management in general.
But what exactly is planning?
Drawing up a project schedule involves, among other things :
- Identifying the tasks required to complete the project,
- prioritizing and linking these tasks to each other, in particular using the PERT diagram,
- defining their duration and deadlines,
- set up a schedule or visual aid to represent this planning. A Gantt chart is generally used, as it provides a good representation of :
- the different tasks to be carried out over time,
- the overall progress of the project,
- important milestones.
🛠️ GanttPRO is a project management and planning solution based on the Gantt chart principle. Among other things, it enables you to plan and control several projects at the same time. All while promoting collaborative working and internal communication:
- creation of workspaces,
- transfer attachments,
- adding comments, etc.
GanttPRO
Resource management tools
Once planning has been completed, it's time to find out what material and human resources will be deployed to carry out the various tasks. This is what is known as resource management, the activity of matching resource capacities with business needs.
This can be achieved by means of capacity planning, a tool offering a strategic vision of resource allocation, with the aim of reconciling :
- employee well-being: each person's skills are put to good use, and excessive workloads are avoided ;
- and timely achievement of objectives.
🛠️ Mavenlink is a project management software that focuses on resource management. With this tool, you'll know at a glance which employee is best suited to carry out which task, based on :
- skills,
- availability.
Task management tools
With task management, you can concentrate more on the operational side of things.
A task management tool, or task manager, lets you :
- track the progress of individual tasks :
- those that have been completed,
- those in progress,
- those still to be done.
- assign the right tasks to the right people.
One of the most widely used project tracking tools is the Kanban method. It consists of representing tasks in the form of labels, which are moved up or down in columns ("to do", "in progress", "to test", etc.) according to their progress.
🛠️ Thanks to Taskworld's timeline, a tool featuring Kanban boards and interactive tasks, you'll be able to visualize your projects more clearly. You'll get an overview of their progress, and strengthen collaboration between your teams.
Time management tools
To manage a project, it's essential to have good time management, to know how many hours were needed to complete certain tasks. In this way, you can :
- anticipate any delays, so you can readjust your deadlines or resource requirements, for example;
- get a more precise idea of the time required for each activity , so you can better control your future planning.
🛠️ Gryzzly is a project profitability management tool. Thanks to a chatbot integrated into Slack, the recording of hours worked is easier and more regular, while relying on a non-intrusive declarative system . As a result, companies and agencies control their customer budgets thanks to more reliable and precise indicators (Average Daily Rate, man cost, gross and net margin).
Gryzzly
Communication and collaboration tools
Project management requires optimal communication and collaboration with all stakeholders, in order to streamline processes and improve productivity.
For organizations, this means being able to :
- exchange information in real time,
- share data and files,
- work on the same documents,
- create collaborative workspaces, etc.
🛠️ Thanks to NetExplorer Workspace, a file sharing and storage solution, you can collaborate not only with your internal teams, but also with external service providers. In particular, this tool enables you to create shared workspaces, manage access rights and track actions carried out on various documents.
Project management tools
How about avoiding the proliferation of tools, with a solution that centralizes all the functions essential to project management?
There are project management software packages available that can act as "co-pilots" for project managers and their teams, providing an overview of all activities.
🛠️ Have you heard of Jira, the project management software for developers and agile teams? It lets you prioritize tasks based on Scrum and Kanban methodologies. But the tool is also great for building roadmaps and generating reports. Teams then have the data they need to adopt the best course of action.
Jira
Project portfolio management tools
If your company is large enough to have a large number of projects, project management involves taking an even greater view of the operational side of the business (e.g., deciding which projects should be given priority).
In this case, it's best to opt for project portfolio management software, or PPM software.
🛠️ Clarizen is particularly well suited to large accounts and multinational companies. It offers complete integration of all needs, from collaborative work to complex project management, by connecting exchanges and documentation with the relevant tasks. Its reporting functions are easy to use, and the tool can be set up independently.
Clarizen
🛠️ SuitePro-G covers the whole spectrum of project portfolio management, with dashboards, time and resource tracking and planning. It not only aligns innovation, strategy and operations, but also federates all teams. Its main asset is its pragmatic and intuitive aspect, which gives all contributors (PMO, project manager, IT department, etc.) a genuine project mode culture.
SuitePro-G
🛠️ Triskell is a project portfolio management software designed for small and medium-sized companies and major accounts. Its main advantage? It goes further than a simple PPM, positioning itself as a genuine strategic governance tool. It addresses the entire value chain of corporate management, right through to the operational level, focusing on capacity and resource management. At the same time, the software remains easy to use and learn, and its agility meets all your specific needs.
Triskell Software
🛠️ Z0 Gravity centralizes your data in a single environment. A highly-customizable, all-in-one solution, it manages all aspects of your projects, from budgeting and task planning to document management and time recording. What's more, it's quick and easy to learn, thanks to well-thought-out ergonomics and fluid navigation.
z0 Gravity
A free project management tool?
Finally, there are some "free" project management tools.
Gladys, for example, is a complete solution (task management, resource allocation, task costing, collaborative functions, etc.). But above all, it's free for the following scope: 2 workspaces, 5 guests per space, 2 GB storage.
Indeed, if you're looking for free project management software, you'll always come up against constraints:
- limited number of users,
- limited functionality,
- insufficient storage space, etc.
However, these "free" solutions are often a good way of testing the tool, to see if it meets your needs, before you opt for a paid version.
Gladys
Your project's success depends on your toolbox
When it comes to project management, choosing the right tools isn't a luxury - it's a necessity. They enable you to stay on course, coordinate teams and optimize resources.
Whether you opt for specialized solutions like Jira or versatile ones like monday.com, the most important thing is to select tools adapted to the size, complexity and objectives of your project.
Take the time to try out different options, because, after all, a good project is like a recipe: it's all about the right ingredients!
Article translated from French
Currently Editorial Manager, Jennifer Montérémal joined the Appvizer team in 2019. Since then, she's been putting her expertise in web copywriting, copywriting and SEO optimization to work for the company, with her sights set on reader satisfaction 😀 !
Trained as a medievalist, Jennifer took a break from castles and manuscripts to discover her passion for content marketing. She took away from her studies the skills expected of a good copywriter: understanding and analyzing the subject, rendering the information, with a real mastery of the pen (without systematically resorting to a certain AI 🤫).
An anecdote about Jennifer? She distinguished herself at Appvizer with her karaoke skills and boundless knowledge of musical nanars 🎤.