Best Project Management Software
Here are the 5 best project management software for small teams, small businesses, and freelancers.
- Trello
- Wrike
- Basecamp
- Zoho Projects
- JIRA
Great project management means much more than keeping project management’s iron triangle in check. Delivering on time, budget, and project scope. It unites clients and teams, creates a vision for a successful project, and gets everyone on the same page about what’s needed to stay on track for success. When projects are managed properly, a positive impact reverberates beyond delivering deliverables.
That brings a need for project management software to handle all the aspects of project management. The simple truth is that one size only fits some when it comes to software for small businesses, small teams, agile project management, and freelancers. Here are my picks for the best project management software options for small businesses, small teams, agile project management, freelancers, and start-ups.
1. Trello
Trello makes it easy to organize anything with anyone in your company or team because it is a visual system that gives you control of your projects in one place. Based on the Kanban card-based management system, Trello’s user-friendly interface and openhanded free tier make it ideal for individuals and small teams to get started with agile project management.
Rather than traditional project management software designed for managing resources and tracking progress towards a specific end date, Kanban-based apps like Trello are more free-form and provide more flexibility.
You can manage individual projects and ongoing workflows equally well, and the board and card metaphors are easy to understand. There’s plenty of power under the hood, with cards that include images and attached files, hyperlinks, custom dropdowns, due dates, and plenty more.
Once a particular card is done, it can be archived to hide it from daily view while still being accessible if needed. Reporting features in Trello are limited, and though third-party extensions add more options, you’ll likely need to look elsewhere if detailed reports are a major requirement.
However, Trello is a great place to start with project management software, especially when dealing with small teams. It’s available on the web, mobile, and desktop.
2.Wrike
Trello’s approach seems limited, but if you don’t have hours to learn and set up complex project management software, it’s time to check out Wrike. As the name implies, it’s a more serious online project management software than Trello, and it’s also much easier to learn and use than many alternatives.
There are no complicated processes or workflows to master here, but Wrike also includes a ton of important features you’d expect in more complex software. People and projects are assigned to different teams or departments for better organization. Projects are divided into individual tasks, each assigned to at least one other user.
Earned points and status updates help keep teams informed of progress, while features that balance the need for high-level visibility with easy management get you a lot of what you need.
Wrike project management software is available on the web, desktop, and mobile devices. It integrates with Slack and Asana, and a few third-party tools add additional features.
Standard project management software features like Gantt charts, useful dashboards, and a comprehensive reporting suite are built-in, and getting up and running on a small- to a medium-sized project can be done quickly without learning all the ins and outs of a new, complicated system.
A time tracking tool is built-in, available to the individual working on a particular task and whoever is managing the project. Like other project management software, it’s not a replacement for a dedicated time-tracking system but easily handles most basic requirements.
3. Basecamp
Basecamp, a veteran project management software, was founded in 2004 and now boasts a user base of 3.5 million people.
Many project management teams utilize Basecamp, a popular project management platform. This software includes a distinct discussion space where users can submit comments and other collaborative capabilities. A daily summary of the projects on which your team is working (with statuses and updates) is also delivered to your email. Users can also participate in conversations by email. If you can’t find something, you can utilize the advanced search engine in this software to locate files or discussions. Some of the flaws are the absence of milestones and customizing choices, as well as the inability to provide an anticipated duration for work or assign it to more than one user.
The software touts its capacity to replace other paying monthly services, including Slack and Dropbox. While the software is only sometimes a comprehensive substitute, it does combine many of the functions of various tools into one system. Scheduling and calendars are provided, as well as real-time chat, private messaging, file storage, and more.
A clean UI and powerful search capabilities make it simple to locate the task, image, or message you’re looking for, and a robust reporting suite allows you to drill down as far as you need to.
With email integration and the option to share specific assignments and messages with persons outside the organization, working with customers is a breeze. Notifications can be tailored to your needs, including being turned off during business hours.
4. Zoho Projects
Zoho Projects is a project management software that can handle projects of various sizes and complexity levels. The software includes features on social networking sites, such as feeds, forums, and debates, and is available for iOS, Android, and other platforms. Gantt chart capabilities in Zoho Projects let you divide large projects into manageable portions and actionable tasks, plan and visualize specific activities and milestones, and generate task lists to help you plan in greater depth for project planning and monitoring. Gantt charts in Zoho Projects may also be used for resource allocation, allowing you to see your project schedule and team’s workload. The resource consumption table displays who is available, busy, and overburdened.
You may use Zoho Projects to define task dependencies and assign them to the appropriate people, schedule events in your calendar, and track the percentage of work performed after the project has started. You may also upload and share files for team collaboration and generate and download project documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. Please keep track of your time on projects and compare it to what you had planned. Itis is done manually or with the assistance of a built-in timer. Entries are automatically entered into your timesheet, and invoices are generated with just a few mouse clicks.
5. JIRA
JIRA is a well-known project management software aimed mostly toward agile software development teams. These teams can utilize the software to design custom scrum boards and Kanban boards and employ agile reporting. Users can also keep track of problems, see any open issues, and track how much time they spend on each activity. JIRA includes a sophisticated set of APIs that allow users to integrate it with various third-party applications.
It’s a popular software for agile teams created exclusively for them. Users can also generate reports that help improve teams and establish workflows, write stories, plan sprints, monitor issues, and ship up-to-date software. It connects with various software as part of Atlassian, allowing teams to manage their projects and products from start to finish. Jira Software is designed to help every member of your software development team plan, track, and deploy high-quality code. For shipping software, each team has its procedure. Use a pre-made workflow or develop your own to fit your team’s needs.
Select a framework to learn how Jira Software may assist your team in producing higher-quality software faster. r