8 best project management tools
Digital project management tools provide an overview of what is happening and allow efficient monitoring.
With the rapid transition to work from home, the recent adoption of project management tools has skyrocketed. To-do list, timelines, monitoring progress, and file sharing. These are just a few points that some project management tools need to consider to gain managers’ attention and win the teams’ adoption.
Today, we will bring you a list of 8 project management tools best known and used by our teams worldwide! Keep reading to understand which is the best for your project.
1. Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project, also known as MS Project, is one of the most traditional project management tools (PMO) on the market, launched in 1985. It offers solutions for planning and managing work for companies of all sizes. Its interface is very similar to Microsoft Excel, from the Office Package and Google Sheets. It is possible to structure the project flowchart according to predefined and customizable models, being easy to use. The plans are paid and vary according to the company’s needs.
2. Jira
Jira Software is a project management application from Atlassian. A company specialized in product development for software developers and managers.
The application offers a series of tools to manage the teams’ workflow. Therefore, it is focused on a more operational and delivery approach.
Jira is one more case of project management tools focused on a specialty: software development projects. It has tables based on the Scrum and Kanban methodologies.
Its key concepts in JIRA are projects and tasks. Projects are used to group tasks. Tasks and subtasks are created within the projects to be assigned to employees. When completed, task statuses are changed automatically.
For example, the platform can generate real-time reports of the team’s performance or the percentage of completion for delivery. As a differential, there is also the possibility of integrating the tool with about 800 plugins. In other words, it is a stick for every job.
It is worth remembering: from this list, Jira is the only exclusively paid software – and its value varies according to the number of users included.
3. Artia
Artia is a robust software for managing projects, tasks, and teams, whose objective is to contemplate any need that teams and managers may have during a project, from end to end. Therefore, the software is one of the most complete tools on our list.
Bringing together more than 50 resources, Artia has traditional features, such as task tables, in addition to performance reports, functions for setting up project schedules, financial control, and even scheduling systems for employees.
With regard to the task management part, Artia’s tool has an extra productivity feature as a differential: Pomodoro’s dynamics, focused on time management and division of labor in 25-minute periods, followed by brief intervals of time. 5 minutes during the day.
The method, which gathers enthusiasts from all over the world, was created by business consultant Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s and is considered one of the best methodologies to boost productivity and control distractions. The tool is available for free with some limitations and has paid versions such as Slim, Business, and Enterprise plans.
4. GanttProject
GanttProject is another free, open-source software for interactive management of project schedules for desktop. According to the creators, it is focused on small and medium-sized companies that need to monitor Gantt charts. Gantt charts are curves that represent the project phases.
In Gantt Pro, for example, there are tools for projecting and analyzing critical paths and monitoring projects. With a clean and uncomplicated interface, another differential of GanttProject is that it is open-source software, with functionalities adaptable to the needs of each organization.
On the negative side, Gantt Pro does not host anything in the cloud because it is software. However, the software is compatible with the leading operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, and iOS.
5. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 is another complete business management software that offers a free CRM and project management solution focusing on team collaboration. Its main objective is to integrate teams within the organization through a platform that centralizes business information.
The Bitrix24 platform has more than 30 functionalities, with support for Gantt charts, marketing automation, CRM, website creation, document sharing, and communication tools such as chat and video conferencing.
The key feature of Bitrix24 is that it allows the allocation of the estimated workload for each participant in a given project, generating a comparison between the estimated hours and the work performed.
The platform also has other features, such as the traditional checklist functions and task tables, which allow managers to have greater control over the tasks that still need to be performed. Bitrix24 has a free version (limited to participants) and premium versions.
6. Asana
Asana is another champion task management tool. It brings together several features for project management, such as kanban, assigning tasks to participants, and displaying project progress statistics.
Its great advantage is the visualization of the timeline of the schedule: it has an interface that shows the progress of each activity according to the time, allowing to browse through the days and see what each participant is responsible for doing. In this way, the software will enable you to manage your work more assertively. After all, this way, you gain visibility on dependent, overlapping, and unscheduled tasks, creating plans to guide your team, indicating precisely the activities of each one.
To keep work organized, Asana project management software offers tasks, projects, conversations, and dashboards. One of the software’s outstanding features is adding custom fields and tracking only what is important to you.
The software also offers Team Pages, where ideas and conversations are shared for everyone to see, and a ‘Smart Box’ in which team members receive only important project updates. So, instead of sorting messages by registration date, Asana categorizes according to the relevance of the information.
The software can be integrated with many other systems, including Google Drive, DropBox, Github, MailChimp, and many others.
7. Wrike
Wricke is another cloud-based project management software option.
Robust, the solution aims to offer a complete view of the processes that govern a project and full visibility on the work and control of the progress of tasks.
The software has exciting features, such as turning emails into tasks on boards like those we know well. Another function, which is one of the main strengths, is the possibility of editing files within the tool, facilitating team collaboration. An interesting differential is that the software is focused on the integration of different area teams. This element is a widespread pain among developers and designers, for example. In the Closing the Gap Between UX and Development webinar, we talked a little about the need to integrate teams from the beginning to deliver better results.
The platform, which has budget management and interactive control of the project schedule, offers limited free resources in the basic version. But you can take full advantage of the system in the Professional, Business, Marketing, and Enterprise plans.
8. Trello
Trello is present in 10 out of 10 lists of best management tools. This is because, in addition to being one of the most complete tools on the market, it is one of the most famous in the world.
The tool is based on kanbans – only digital – and allows users to move cards between To Do, Doing, and Done lists according to the task’s status. If your team is already used to using a kanban, the chances of successful implementation in Trello are 100%.
Its interface is organized in tables, lists, and mobile cards, allowing users to attach files of various types, write comments, assign tasks to other members, establish checklists, among other functions. Trello is one of the most suitable tools for monitoring the workflow’s status and the evolution of deliveries, being remarkably combined with agile methodology and frameworks such as Scrum.
So, if you deal with remote teams (nowadays, who doesn’t?), you don’t have the physical space to hang pictures or want to save on post-its, Trello is the right choice! There is a free plan option, with some limitations, and paid plans (Business Class and Enterprise). The tool satisfies the basic organization needs in the free version. But those who want to get the best out of it can count on paid plans to have tailor-made solutions.
As you have seen, the options are many – depending on your need. Understand the requirements very well and get to know the professional profiles on your team to select the best project management tool for each situation!
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