What Is Project Management Software?

Tenrox Project Management Software

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Teams that have to handle multiple projects can't simply rely on human memory to keep them all organized. Furthermore, trying to keep everything together via email is a recipe for productivity disaster. To deliver projects on time and within budget, teams must write down information, plot deadlines, and share documents. Individual members need to be in constant communication with one another. When your team needs to get serious about managing projects, the solution is to use project management software.

Project management services are online systems for working and collaborating on projects. These real-time workspaces let team members and outside partners keep an eye on every detail that brings a project to fruition. They typically provide an overview of all the projects in the pipeline, as well as the nitty-gritty details about the daily work being done to move the projects forward. Some contain tools for managing resources as well, whether those resources are workers, materials, or money.

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The very best project management apps help teams handle common problems, such as slipped deadlines, by automatically rescheduling tasks that are affected by them. They generate reports that give managers insight into which team members have too much—or too little—work on their plates. Many track time spent on projects and integrate with invoicing and billing systems.

The most important thing to know about project management apps, as opposed to other kinds of work-management apps, is that they are for projects. That might sound like a tautology, but it's important.

Projects are a specific type of work. Every project has a start date, end date, and deliverable. Building a house is a project. Launching a new website is a project. Maintaining a website, however, is ongoing work with no clear beginning or end date. Publishing a monthly magazine is a project that you complete once a month. Writing daily content for a blog is ongoing work. You could, theoretically, manage each blog post as its own project, but if the turnaround time is quick and only a few people are involved, using full-scale project management software is overkill.

How Project Management Apps Work

Many projects are managed by a dedicated project manager, and that's true even with software equivalent. While a project manager might still be the person overseeing the project and helping to redirect resources as needed, she or he is not the only person touching the project management app.

All kinds of people involved with the project use the app to update their progress on assigned tasks. They check into the project management app to, for example, see their designated tasks and to enter how much time they spent on an assignment. Employees, contractors, and sometimes even clients can use the project management app to share documents, sign off on plans, and so forth.

In a best-case scenario, every milestone, task, and subtask is assigned to a specific person and given a deadline. Typically, other team members can see who is responsible for what, whether that person is on track to complete it on time, and if there are any unanswered questions about the job. That level of insight is important because it alerts people who are further down the planned chain of events of possible delays before they occur.

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Having visibility into every team member's task list is also useful for understanding whether people are falling behind because they're overworked. When you can see that a colleague has six task assignments all due within the next 48 hours, it's easy to spot the problem and redistribute the work before deadlines slip. By looking at a Gantt chart (a pretty common feature in project management apps), for example, a manager can see clearly who is doing what, and how various tasks are related, too. It helps everyone use available resources more effectively.

Projects also usually have assets, which range from a detailed description of the project and its parts to a visual mockup. People on the project team all need access to these assets, and the project management app becomes the central place where they live.

Many project management solutions include storage space so that your team can upload files right into the workspace, where everyone on the team can see and discuss them. It's also common for services to have an option to connect to third-party online storage services, such as Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive, so that team members can link or upload files to the project management system from the repositories they already use.

Free Project Management Tools

A few project management software systems have free versions, but they are generally quite limited. The primary limitation is the number of projects you can manage (think one or two), although sometimes a service might restrict the amount of storage space you get or prevent you from using certain features.

Almost all project management apps have, at a minimum, a two-week free trial. When a free trial has a time limit on it, we don't count it as having a free tier of service. To us, free means you get to use it forever with no charge, even if there are some tight restrictions.

While it's helpful to try out software for free while you decide whether to upgrade, most businesses, in the end, will need (or want) the features and space allotments that come with paid accounts. Still, it's often helpful to try a product for longer than a couple weeks before deciding whether it's right for you, your team, and the work you all do.

Which project management system has a free version? Teamwork Projects, Zoho Projects, TeamGantt, and ProofHub all do (although ProofHub's free account isn't advertised online and you have to contact the company to request it).

Free trials often come with other limitations, which we've listed in the Price section of the complete reviews; the reviews are linked in the table above and the in the short capsules below.

Collaboration Software

Although it may sound similar in concept, collaboration software is a little different from true project management software. While you do collaborate in a project management app, project management software is something much more specific.

Collaboration software comprises many different kinds of apps and services that handle everything from video conference calls to letting two people type on a document at the same time.

Modern project management services often include native communication and collaboration tools. They may also let you connect to the collaboration apps that your team already uses, such as Slack or Google Docs.

Whether you use the integrated communications tools or connect to an outside one, the idea is that your team can log into one workspace and have everything they need to get work done at hand, including a prioritized to-do list, all the necessary assets, notes from other colleagues, a calendar of deadlines and milestones, and a place to ask questions and find answers. Some project management apps even offer billing and expense tools, too.

Workflow Software

Earlier we mentioned that project management apps are designed for managing projects, but not other kinds of work. What kind of work isn't a project? Any kind of ongoing work fits the bill, such as fixing bugs as they get reported or answering support calls. Ongoing work often is marked by recurring tasks.

For ongoing work, people often talk about using workflow management tools rather th

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