Business Essentials: Project Management Software
Tech companies have been
hard at work over the last decade finding ways to streamline their workflow. As
a result, numerous companies have entered into the domain of developing
software specifically designed to manage their various projects and they have addressed
almost every growing concern under the sun. Project management software in this
day and age is powerful, easy to use, ubiquitous, and cheap. Businesses are
quite literally spoiled for choice in this area and, if your company is not
currently using any project management software to coordinate your projects,
it’s time to take a serious look at how one of any of the number of programs
that are out there might add value to your company.
What’s out there?
Sometimes choice can be
a difficult thing to handle. With so much choice out there, how do we know
which program is going to be the right one for our business? How do we know
that it will be able to do the things we need it to do? Basecamp, Asana,
Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, what’s the difference?

However, there are a
couple of points worth investigating first:
Web-based or on-prem? – One thing you
need to decide is whether or not you want to operate your project management
software literally from within the building (or “on premises), or if you want
your project management to be handled on the web. On-premises software has the
advantage of typically being more robust than web-based software. However, companies
more and more are trending toward web-based programs because they have been
stripped down in order to be more easy to use and because it does not involve
installing the program on every computer in the office. Instead, project
members simply visit the relevant website.
Proprietary, GPL, or Open source? – What these three terms refer to is
the type of license a program might use and defines what you are allowed to do
with the software once you have it. Whether a program is free to use or not,
project management software will most commonly use a proprietary license
meaning that you agree to use the program the way it is simply to help you with
your business. Other licenses may give you the freedom to tamper with the code
and tailor the software to your company’s needs, but this does take some savvy and
you’ll need a competent computer engineer.
How they work
As mentioned earlier,
every project management software is initially designed to do more or less the
same thing and most will cover all the essential components of what it takes to
coordinate a project.
Communication – If a program does not
allow for a team to communicate with each other, then it’s not of much use.
Virtually all programs keep each project separate from one another so, when
running more than one project at the same time, it’s easy to track what’s been
discussed about which projects. It’s even possible to cherry pick who needs to
know which pieces of information so that the right people get the necessary
information while everybody else doesn’t have to feel bogged down by excessive
communication that is not relevant to them.
Scheduling – Project management software
also allows your company to set milestones and completion dates for aspects of
a project. Anyone involved can then go to the calendar and see what tasks need
to be completed, allowing them to better manage their own work.
File Sharing – Any project management
software acts as the central hub where all the information regarding a specific
project is located. It is open for all the people involved in the project to
get their hands on. Relevant documents can easily be uploaded and shared for
all to give their insight or make changes.
Although these represent
the core of what most project management software will address, each program
provides its own nuance, bells and whistles, and special features. How you
decide to use these features is anybody’s guess but you’ll eventually find that
there 101 ways to solve any number of problems right at your finger tips.
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