Increase Productivity with Five Project Management Tools
Work more organized!
Introduction to Project Management Tools:
In an active business world, managing multiple projects, meeting deadlines, and keeping continuous communication with your team is a difficult job for any entrepreneur. Not having adequate resources to balance all projects and tasks can lead to business failure and feeling overwhelmed. In order to keep both your ideas and team on track, incorporating a project management tool can keep your work organized. The following tools being presented can help entrepreneurs who value immediate relief from chaos and who seek an organized schedule!
Tool #1: Asana
Overview:
Asana, is one of the most common project management brand tools that have been created to enhance team cooperation and controls projects online. As a team, projects are created, assigned to members, identifies specific deadlines, and allows constant communication at every stage in the project.
Features:
Visuals:
Asana, offers a variety of graphical features to easily visualize your projects and tasks with the options of Lists, Kanban Boards, Calendars, and Timeline Gantt Charts. This software offers an excellent variety of project views for free that would otherwise have to be paid for in other brands.
Workload:
This function is only available for the Business and Enterprise plan however, this feature allows members to see a snapshot of what their teammate tasks are and what they are currently working on. This tool is valuable as it gives insight as to which members are having difficulty with their tasks and if the job needs to be reassigned. Workload gives a further understanding of team members volume of work to ensure no one is becoming overwhelmed or under-worked.
Complexity:
Asana, is a high-quality project management tool that is a great choice to track tasks and projects through this user- friendly interface. This easy to use software offers an intuitive design and does not give a feeling of feature overload. When first starting out, Asana guides you through the software with pop up step-by-step videos to ease learning.
To-Do lists are easy to create and follow as sub-tasks break down work into manageable steps. The ability to view who is the assignee and knowing the due date is clearly displayed on the right side of the list.
Kanban style Board is simple to set up as this vertical column display divides tasks efficiently. The option to add sub-tasks is slightly hidden by disguising the button with an unfamiliar symbol. However, adding a description of what is expected to be completed in the task increases efficiency by given greater project clarity. Collaborators can communicate under each posted task where members can ask questions and provided feedback conveniently.
Pricing:
Plan Highlights:
Basic Plan
- To-do lists
- Free Collaboration with 15 users
- Calendar view
- Kanban Boards
Business Plan
- Comment on pictures/Documents
- Workload
- Timeline View
Tool #2: Teamwork
Overview:
This online project management tool was created to advance the way teams collaborate by providing a software where transparency and accountability is shared among workers.
Features:
Kanban Boards:
This method of project management has a collection of vertical boards where tasks called “cards” are added. Teamwork has the unique feature of “Triggers”, which is a created automation to track if someone moves a card into a different column. For example, if a teammate moves a card into the awaiting Approval column, members can get the notification that the job is ready to be approved. However, the Triggers feature is not accessible though the free plan.
Gantt Chart:
Allows users to visually see their tasks on a timeline and allows them to easily edit by dragging and dropping tasks on the chart. Dependencies can be created among tasks and a log process is visible to see a task completion percent before the job is achieved. Priority levels can be set on tasks and job reassignment is visible to all users.
This Gantt Chart feature is a useful tool however, when compared to other software, this grid style display has compressed feeling and is not consistent with Teamwork’s enticing vibrant display.
Complexity:
Easy and quick to set up an account and start project planning with this software. Within minutes of starting an account, one can have a project created, invite team members, and start planning tasks together. There is no confusing with software terminology and features are easy to identify and use on this interface. Theme colours are easily customizable depending on preference. Features such as lists, tasks, Kanban Boards and calendar are intuitive to generate.
Pricing:
Plan Highlights:
Free Plan
- 2 active projects
- 100 MG files space
- 5 users
Premium
- 250 GB file space
- 100 users
- 2-factor authentication
Tool #3: Wrike
Overview:
Start tracking progress and completing tasks with this powerful collaborative project management tool. Work together in teams to more efficiently plan and prioritize projects in big or small groups.
Features:
Time Tracking:
Users have the opportunity to see the time spent on completing their task which gives them insight into how long similar jobs will take.
Document Editor:
Allows members to edit Word documents, PDFs and images. Easily pin a problem area (orange circle) and instantly start a group chat turning comments into tasks.
Online Software Support:
Wrike, has excellent software support where entrepreneurs can receive assistance through video, interactive training and monthly webinars taught by Wrike’s team.
Keyboard Shortcuts:
Many built in keyboard short cuts to speed up interaction time through continuous mouse clicking.
Complexity:
Lacks user-friendliness and functionally as the interface is confusing to navigate. The bad interface is not only not aesthetically pleasing but has a cluttered feeling. Overall interface visuals is not clear and requires paying for extra add-on costs for features that are usually free for other software.
Pricing:
Plan Highlights:
Free Plan
- 5 users
- Kanban Boards
- Spreadsheet view
- 2 GB storage
Business Plan
- Time-tracking
- 50 GB storage
- Branded workplace
- Report templates
Tool #4: Monday
Overview:
Monday, is a group management tool that adds team mates, allocates tasks, tailors work process and monitors the progress of job completion. Collaboration and workplace transparency within groups and people is why many major brands such as Costco, PayPal, Walmart, and Tesla use this software for their project management.
Features:
Map View:
Track your clients and team by adding a location or country column to allow a map display to show locations. Markers are coloured by groups and a picture of the location is seen by clicking on the marker. Update client and group contact information by adding a phone number, location, world clock, and photo of the person to never lose a contact again.
Shareable Boards:
Invite guests by giving them access to your boards without allowing them to gain full entry into your account. This allows outside consumers to see what is only shared with them and protects any private personal information on your other boards.
Complexity:
Easy to use with colourful big buttons that makes it simple to navigate the software. Interface has easy to locate due dates, status, priority and assignee through colour coded tabs. At the start, a step-by-step tutorial is enforced to assist in creating your first project.
pricing:
Plan Highlights:
Free Plan
- 500 MG file storage
- Kanban views
- 2-factor authentication
Pro Plan
- 50 GB storage
- Map view
- Share boards
- Timeline
- Time-tracking
- Tailored on-boarding
- Chart view
Tool #5: Basecamp
Overview:
Achieve greater productivity with improved communication among teams rather than using advanced project tracking tools. Basecamp is unlike other project management software as they primarily focus on improving in-group communication. Do not expect the common features such as Kanban boards, Gantt Charts, or timelines as these tools can be incorporated through third-party integration.
Features:
Group Division:
Teams are immediately divided into three subgroups called “Head Quarters, Teams, and Projects”. The purpose of these distinct tiered groups is to form more condensed teams to enhance project communication. The broader Head Quarter team include all member in the company for the purpose of having a place where company wide announcements can be shared. The Teams section is where people of the same roles are placed such as, the Marketing or sales department where they can coordinate together. Finally, the Projects section is where people of varying positions come together and work on a project and have constant communication from start to end.
File Storage:
Exchange picture, files and documents with your team so everyone can gain access to what you are working on and can help the editing process.
Schedules:
Calendar view is available to see by everybody on the team so they can see tasks and projects that are coming due.
To-Do Lists:
Construct a list of jobs that need to be complete by setting due dates. Automatically get notifications when tasks are coming due.
Campfire (Group Chat):
In these chatrooms members in a specific project can directly communicate with each other and link files or documents. The ability to turn off group chat notifications at specific times and days is a unique feature to resolve getting overwhelmed after work hours or when you need to focus on your work. Ask questions quickly and receive solutions just as fast with this integrated communication tool.
Complexity:
Basecamp, has is a user-friendly software that is easy to navigate. Their design may be simple but is effective in getting the task of greater communication and transparency among teams. Creating groups into subdivisions is intuitive and easy to follow as they provide step-by step help. This interface is minimalistic and good for entrepreneurs who are just starting out.
Pricing:
Unlike other project management software brands, Basecamp has a straightforward pricing plan. The two Basecamp plans offered are: Personal Plan which is a free access account and Business Plan which costs $99 per month.
The Personal plan comes with 3 projects, 20 users, and only 1 GB storage.
The reason why the Business plan seems more expensive than the other brands is because the offer unlimited number of users, project templates, priority support, 500 GB, and unlimited number of projects. Basecamp does offer discounts for non-profit and education organizations for their Business rate plan.
This software system is preferably suitable for larger organizations as Basecamp’s fee is priced at having mostly unlimited resources.
Plan Highlights:
Business Plan
- unlimited projects
- unlimited users
- unlimited clients
- 500 GB storage
Free Plan
- 3 projects
- 20 users
- 10 GB storage
Feature Comparison Chart for the Five Project Management Tools
Recommendations:
- Just starting out entrepreneur → Opt for the Asana’s Free Plan with access to free 15 users and a great variety of data views (List, Kanban, Calendar)
- Growing team → Opt for Monday’s Pro Plan with access to Share boards with clients, Map view, chart view, customization, time-tracking and ultimately greater security.
