Introduction
Project planning is the key to success in almost any business. Without it, you’ll end up with work piling up and missing deadlines, while your competition succeeds at their projects. Unfortunately, many people still manage their projects poorly due to a lack of practical project management skills (or basic understanding of how the process works). If you’re one of those people, don’t worry: there are plenty of free and paid tools out there that will help you manage your projects before they start becoming unmanageable down the road.
Best project management tools online
Project Planner – Project Planner is a free online tool that allows you to manage your project’s schedule and budget while communicating with team members in real-time. With this tool, you can create tasks and subprojects; assign resources; set start and end dates; track progress against deadlines; collaborate with others on projects via email or chat conversations within the system itself—all from one central location.
MS Project – MS Project allows users to view charts of progress over time so that they can see what stage a project is at any given point during its course of completion. It also offers features like Gantt charts which show how long each task will take compared with those around it so that you know exactly where things stand at all times during the process (or lack thereof).
Asana – You can use Asana to create tasks, projects, labels, and folders. You can also attach files (such as PDFs) to tasks and add due dates or time frames for each task. This tool is free for teams up to 15 members.
Project Planner
Project Planner is a web-based project management tool that helps you manage projects from start to finish, without the need for additional applications or software. Founded in 2003, Project Planner allows users of all skill levels to easily create and manage schedule plans, collaborate with team members, and monitor progress on projects.
Project planners can use the program’s many features to create and assign tasks within projects as well as measure their completion via charts and graphs. The program also provides users with an overview of their current workloads so they can view what tasks have been completed or are still outstanding at any given time.
Users have access to task reports that provide information on how long each task took them to complete, along with other data such as total hours worked on the project or how much was budgeted for each item
Asana
Asana is a powerful task management tool that helps you manage projects and tasks.
It has a great feature set, including the ability to assign tasks to team members, share documents and spreadsheets, create groups and subgroups within your organization, create recurring due dates and time-sensitive reminders (such as those that remind you when your next meeting is), attach files to an individual task or the entire project timeline, comment on individual items without having to view them in their entirety, mark an item as complete or delete it if it’s no longer relevant. It can be used by individuals working on a project or groups of people who need collaboration tools to get work done efficiently.
MS Project
Project management software is a type of computer program that allows you to organize, plan and track projects. This can be useful for managing large projects with teams and multiple stakeholders.
A number of project management tools are available for both desktop computers and mobile devices, including Microsoft Project (desktop), MS Project Online (cloud-based), Timecamp (desktop) and Any.do (mobile).
Project managers can use these tools to help keep track of tasks that need to be completed and assign them to team members or other stakeholders. The software will also allow them to see how much time has passed since each task began so they know when it’s due.
Other features may include collaboration tools such as chat rooms where people can communicate effectively without having to send emails back-and-forth all day long; calendar apps so you know what commitments are coming up in your busy work schedule; file sharing capabilities so everyone shares information about their contributions toward completing a task or project; etcetera…
Features in project management tools
Project management tools provide a lot of features to help you manage your projects. Features such as task management, time tracking, collaboration and reporting are just some of the benefits that come with using project management software.
I’ll cover a few of the most popular features below:
- Task Management – A feature that allows you to create tasks and assign them to individuals or teams within your organization. Tasks may also have dependencies on other tasks and milestones can be added at any stage in the process. You can view progress on each task or all together by date range, status or tag.
- Time Tracking – This feature allows team members working on tasks within their assigned roles (such as developer or designer) to track time spent working on specific activities related to their role in relation to an individual project or multiple projects over time which is then displayed as timesheets outlining how much each activity took them from start through completion so others can see how much work was done overall per day/week/month etc.. This helps keep track for billing purposes but also gives insight into where there might be room for improvement so no one feels like they’re being taken advantage off when it comes down it what actually needs done versus what could maybe be shifted around some if possible!
Benefits of project management tools
Project management tools can help you:
- Establish and manage a well-defined project portfolio.
- Manage multiple projects and tasks at the same time.
- Improve collaboration across teams, departments, and locations.
- Increase visibility into work in progress (WIP).
Project management tools for Small businesses
Online project planner for small businesses
The benefits of online project management tools are numerous. Online PPM solutions are accessible to all types of businesses, regardless of the size or industry they operate in. They also help improve the workflow by providing a central hub where you can keep track of your projects and monitor their progress, which makes it easier to coordinate people and activities between departments.
One key feature that sets apart good project management software from bad ones is how easy they are to set up, use, and maintain—and how well they integrate with other systems (like payroll). The setup process may require some basic IT knowledge that’s easy enough for most people to learn over time; otherwise there are often video tutorials available on YouTube or within your chosen program itself (if so then watch out for scams!).
Project management tools for enterprises
Enterprise project management software is designed to handle large projects and teams. Instead of having a single person in charge of your team’s work, you have multiple people working on different aspects of the same project. This is why enterprise project management tools allow you to delegate tasks and track them through every stage of completion, from ideation all the way through implementation and testing.
Enterprise edition software also comes with additional features like resource management, which allows you to manage your employees’ availability throughout your projects by assigning them specific tasks based on their skillsets or availability at any given time of day or week (or month).
Project management tools for field service teams
When it comes to project management tools, field service teams have a lot of the same needs and challenges as other types of project managers. The key difference is that their projects are often on-site and require face-to-face interactions with customers or clients. Tools such as mobile apps, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) provide a way to make these interactions easier, more efficient and more engaging for both parties involved.
Here are some great examples of how field service teams can use project management tools:
- Time tracking: Track time against projects in real time so you know where your team is spending their time during each day’s work cycle. This allows you to make adjustments when necessary so no one gets stuck doing unproductive tasks like filling out paperwork instead of helping customers with what they need done.
- Project checklists: Use checklists at every step in your workflow so nothing falls through the cracks when completing tasks related to specific projects or events—such as when creating new accounts for new clients or closing out old ones after they’ve been satisfied with their experience working together with us! It also provides valuable information about which processes need improvement going forward so we can continue improving our customer service levels over time.”
Compare online project management software to desktop software
Online project management tools are more flexible because you can access them from any device, including mobile devices, and it’s easy to share with your team members. Online project management software also provides a better user experience than desktop software because of its intuitive interface, responsive design and other modern features such as online collaboration tools.
Online project management software is cheaper than desktop software. While some online platforms charge for additional functionality (such as tracking time), others offer everything at no cost to you or your team members. There are no installation fees or ongoing costs involved in using an online solution either!
Online project management software is easier to use than desktop solutions because there are fewer steps involved in getting started with your first task list or task board (the main feature of many PM solutions). When you need help—and most people do—you can reach out directly through chat windows in real-time rather than via phone calls or email exchanges that take longer but still lead nowhere fast when they come time after time again each year!
Conclusion
Our goal for this post was to give you an introduction to the world of project management tools. In the end, you should be able to do one thing: Manage your projects… More effectively.