What is Project Management Software?

Project Management Software is software used by a wide range of industries for project planning, resource allocation and scheduling. It enables project managers as well as entire teams to control their budget, quality management and all documentation exchanged throughout a project. This software also serves as a platform for facilitating collaboration among project stakeholders.

What makes a good Project Management Software?

From tracking down deliverables to managing resources and from budget management to collaboration with team members, there is a lot to be considered when running and managing projects. This holds true when choosing the right project management software tool as well. Here’s a list of the top 5 key functionality aspects of project management software to guide you in your decision.

• Task lists – being able to assign and update the status of tasks so that everyone in your team is on the same page is critical
• Schedules – many tools offer calendars, Gantt charts or milestone tools that help you understand where a task fits into the project as a whole and how much time there is to complete it.
• File sharing – being able to share and organise key project documents eliminates time wasted searching for files
• Communication – this is critical in project management as a smooth flow of communication means quick and easy problem solving
• Reporting – this is important for all team members when it comes to updating themselves on the project as a whole. However this is also a huge plus for project managers who want to ensure that the project is progressing and tasks are being carried out in a timely manner

1. MeisterTask

MeisterTask’s simple, yet powerful Kanban structure facilitates the smooth management of projects. With its wide range of collaborative capabilities, this smart, intuitive online task management tool is a popular choice for teams that value clean visual design and user experience.

Features such as watching, mentioning, tags and task scheduling make it simple and enjoyable to collaborate with colleagues both in-house and in home office. MeisterTask also includes the first-of-its-kind agenda: a personal board to which tasks from any project can be pinned and organized. Despite this extensive functionality, MeisterTask remains swift and logical thanks to a range of intelligent automations and robust native integrations with software including G Suite, Slack and GitHub.

Pricing: MeisterTask offers a free Basic version with selected core functionality. Pro ($8.25/per user/per month), offers a more comprehensive feature set for single users, while teams are best served by the Business ($20.75/per user/per month) and Enterprise (upon request) packages.

Website: www.meistertask.com

2. Basecamp

Basecamp is a popular project management software that is widely used by many project management teams. This software offers several different collaboration features such as a designated discussion area where users can leave behind comments. Additionally a recap of the projects your team is working (e.g. statuses and updates) is sent out on a daily basis to your email. Users can contribute to discussions via email as well. If you are unable to find a particular item, you can make use of this software’s powerful search tool to locate files or conversations. Some shortcomings, however, include the lack of milestones and customisation options as well as the inability to add an estimated duration for a task or assign it to more than one user.

Pricing: Basecamp is available to businesses for $99/month. For teachers and students it is entirely free of charge.

Website: www.basecamp.com

3. Nifty

Nifty is a new-wave project management tool that reduces project development cycles and improves team productivity by combining all of the important features of project management into one software. The end result is milestone-driven progress that keep teams inspired, insuring organizational goals remain on schedule. Nifty’s software allows you to manage tasks through both kanban or list view, has a built in calendar that can be integrated with Google, as well as file and document sharing. Collaborating on Nifty is natural because each project has an individual discussion thread encouraging project specific communication. Nifty also has an integration with Github that truly makes Nifty unique by encouraging cross departmental collaboration like no other.

Pricing: Nifty’s pricing ranges from $39 for 10 team members, $79 a month for 25 team members and $124 a month for 50 team members. In each plan teams can invite as many guests or clients as they would like for no extra charge.