Benefits of using a project planning tool
When you talk about project management, your tools must accomplish these three goals:
- Saving time: There’s nothing worse than running over on a project, especially when you know it could have been avoided. Any tool for planning and completing projects must have time management as a feature.
- Streamlining workflows: Repetitive tasks eat into resource time. One of the best ways to handle them is by automating those workflows. This move frees up resources to do more important work.
- Increasing productivity: Combining time-saving and streamlined workflows leads to increased productivity. This means taking more time to analyze and consult with clients to ensure that all milestones are meaningful and being met. These are the kinds of high-level tasks that lead to more billable hours.
Top tools for planning business projects
When you’re ready to plan your project, there are numerous tools out there to help you. The old stand-bys include MS Project and Excel, which are powerful for visualizing timelines and crunching data. But even those standards have their limitations. Here are a few tools that offer you valuable features, especially for remote teams and projects that adhere to certain methodologies.
Teamwork Projects
Trusted by major companies such as Netflix and PayPal, Teamwork provides a flexible, scalable tool that tracks time and helps managers with workloads and Gantt charts. Board View lets you see how the project is doing, including all of the pending tasks. When tasks are assigned to team members, you have a good idea of how long it will take, which helps you to be more efficient. Teamwork integrates with many common applications, including Slack and QuickBooks. A free plan for teams provides basic task management and milestone tracking, and paid plans start at $12.50 per month.
Jira
Atlassian’s Jira is a useful tool for planning, tracking and releasing software projects. Its color-coded boards make it easy for project managers to plan their Agile sprints and assign tasks to resources. Built-in workflows can be customized for better development, and with integration tools, such as Pipelines and Bitbucket, code changes and build statuses are easier to integrate and deploy. Jira connects with over 3,000 popular apps and is available for iOS and Android. It’s free for up to 10 users, and paid plans start at $7 per user per month.
Podio
Podio is a low-code project management and communication tool that puts all necessary content and processes in one centralized location for easy access. Granular access to work spaces allows for quick adjustment, and internal and third-party team members can share a single space, eliminating confusing emails. Personalized dashboards and calendar availability make it easy to track project resources and schedule meetings. Podio’s data visualization tools make it easy for everyone to understand project challenges and opportunities. There’s a free plan for up to five employees, while paid plans start at $9 per month.
Asana
Asana establishes a shared space for teams to collaborate and stay organized. Using its timeline feature, PMs can see resource overlaps and scheduling so they can more productive teams. They can look at the boards to see the bottlenecks and automate the repetitive tasks, freeing up resources for more important functions. Forms enable a more organized work request procedure, and with over 50 templates to choose from, you can customize the features to suit your needs. Asana integrates with over 100 applications, including Jira Cloud and Slack. There’s a free plan for individuals and teams with unlimited tasks and projects. For more precise tracking and dashboards, monthly paid plans start at $13.49.
Wrike
Trusted by big names such as Google and Walmart, Wrike is a work management platform that offers business versatility and team-specific automation. Companies can get real-time performance metrics from their marketing for quicker decision-making. Teams achieve complete visibility, enabling stronger collaboration and handling roadblocks faster. Enterprise-grade security ensures better data control, and since it integrates with popular apps, including Google and Salesforce, productivity improves. A free plan integrates task management and basic integrations. For Gantt charts and more advanced integrations, plans start from $9.80 per month.
ProofHub
ProofHub is an easy-to-use tool for planning, collaboration, and organization that lets your company deliver timely projects of any size. Managers can customize roles for better organization control and accountability. Tasks and deadlines can be prioritized by team members and labels, while Kanban boards empower teams to properly stage their workflows. All discussions, documentation and chats are in one location for easy tracking, and with reports, PMs can visualize resource capacity and more accurately calculate billable hours. After a free trial, flat-priced plans start at $45 per month.
GanttProject
GanttProject is an open-source project scheduling app that’s been around since 2003. Users can exchange and share data with MS Project, Excel and CSV files as well as export to PDF and PNG. PMs can see a breakdown of their project by resource and work and can build a Gantt chart. Because there’s no complex setup, it’s easy to start, and there’s no monthly fee.
Basecamp
Basecamp aims to be a better way for teams to work and be more productive. Teams can make lists and assign items with deadlines to resources, and they can even post ideas with project updates on the platform’s message board. Automatic check-ins with a question form reduce workflow interruption, and it’s simple to share and organize documents into easy-to-find folders so that projects stay organized. Basecamp provides managers and executives custom dashboards so they see what they need to see. Basecamp has a limited free plan for three projects and up to 20 users. Paid plan starts at $99 per month.
