Project Management Software
Project management software is used for all aspects of managing, monitoring, and controlling a project, including project planning, scheduling, resource allocation, and change management. Project management software also provides a central knowledge base for project documentation and information.
This software is the backbone of project management success, as its knowledge base functionality enables project team members to collaborate and communicate with each other as well as with other project stakeholders.
Project management software also allows everyone to optimize processes and work together in the most efficient manner possible. The software supports the planning, management, and oversight of projects within one centralized virtual location. Plus, it allows teams to stay on top of project statuses, workflows, and tasks in real time.
Whether you’re managing a single project or multiple projects, programs, and portfolios, project management software allows you to monitor, manage, and coordinate everything and everyone. By adopting project management software, teams can replace more rudimentary tools like email and spreadsheets.
Unlike these simple tools, project management software is flexible, requires little manual labor, and makes you more productive. It’s a solution that helps project managers and teams manage project work, instead of having to spend a lot of time managing the tool itself.
Project management software is beneficial for all companies that manage projects, regardless of organizational size or industry. In fact, the software provides effective project planning and resource management capabilities that anyone can make use of, including businesses that don’t run formal projects.
Any company that needs an effective method for estimating, planning, tracking, delivering, and billing for their services can benefit from adopting project management software. Project management software allows you to create, implement, and manage efficient and optimized processes for all areas of your team and your business.
Here are three of the key benefits of implementing project management software:
Project management software creates a central workspace and knowledge base for both communication, tracking, and the storage of documents. Without this centralization, it becomes difficult to track tasks and projects. After all, when you’re forced to pull data from multiple tools or sources, the accuracy of reports can become questionable.
This visibility also improves the planning and estimating of future projects. Time logs allow managers to review past projects to accurately predict how long certain tasks will take and estimate billable hours. This information can also be used to determine whether potential projects will be profitable.
Project software also reduces the labor and time required to track and compile data manually. With manual methods, such as spreadsheets, there's always the risk of human error, delays in updates, and having multiple versions of the same file. With software, on the other hand, you can easily maintain a single source of the truth.
Project management software can help project teams coordinate tasks and automate the workflow, so that team members are notified when the task before theirs is completed, and they are required to start. This reduces delays and eliminates the need for the project manager to act as a go-between.
Project management software also provides visibility into work progress, roadblocks, and success. The number one benefit of project software for small businesses is time-tracking. Seeing where every minute goes helps small business owners identify and remove bottlenecks and time wasters. This functionality also allows for early identification of delays and issues.
Plus, without a centralized base for coordination and knowledge sharing, documents can be easily misplaced, communications can be missed, and teams may resort to guesswork when it comes to responsibilities and work progress. Project management software ensures that quality doesn’t suffer and tasks take no longer than necessary.
Streamlined communication is one of the most significant benefits of project management software. Businesses are relying more and more on remote teams, contract workers, and freelancers. This trend illustrates why it’s becoming increasingly important that companies are able to effectively communicate with team members who are not all located within one central office.
With cloud-based project management software, virtual teams and stakeholders can log in and access your central workspace from anywhere, any time they’re connected to the internet. This 24/7 connection enables team members to communicate with one another regardless of where they are or what time it is.
Project software provides all key parties with instant access to updates, progress reports, and project notifications no matter where they are. Stakeholders never again have to wait for someone to email them a stale report. One centralized hub also allows everyone to leave feedback on tasks without creating long, hard-to-follow email threads.