Business project management software can assist with the planning and scheduling of projects, helping you estimate timescales and produce a realistic plan to deliver on time
Do you need project management software?
You could be developing a product, revamping your website or running a marketing campaign. Whatever the nature of your project, good business project management can help ensure it runs smoothly.
However, traditional dedicated project management packages take real effort to learn. Many offer capabilities far in excess of what's needed for straightforward projects.
For example, a project to run a direct mail campaign to your customers might be a simple undertaking. With only a few key tasks, it wouldn't require project management software.
However, taking a whole new product to market might involve hundreds of inter-dependent tasks performed by lots of people, over a longer time period. Project management software would probably be useful for this project.
Why use project management software?
Project management software comes into its own when you need to plan one or more projects involving several people. Most packages allow you to input tasks, create dependencies between them and build a plan to get the project finished.
Additionally, project management tools can demonstrate what could happen in different circumstances.
Once you've added the tasks that make up your project, you can rearrange them or change dates to see how that affects the project overall.
For instance, what would happen to your launch date if your web designer provided the designs for your new website a week late?
Project management apps can also improve how a team of people is organised and how they work together. It makes it easier to keep track of objectives. If things aren't going to plan, you can input new details for the affected parts of the project and the overall timelines will update automatically.
Most project management tools will also produce Gantt charts, giving you a simple, visual representation of what needs doing to bring a project to its conclusion.
It’s important you understand the limitations of project management tools. While they can help you plan and schedule projects, they can’t define processes for you, nor manage the people involved.
Do you need project management software?
Project management software is typically web-based, enabling projects to be managed regardless of location, and team members to communicate far more easily. Designed to be used by everyone on a team (rather than just the project manager), such platforms are usually charged by the month and can be very cost-effective - particularly if you need to manage a one-off project.