The new era of digital transformation is shaking things up in all fields and aspects of today’s business world. It is not just about introducing new technologies but somewhat changing how work is managed.
Given the dynamic business environment, numerous project managers may face the challenge of balancing their daily responsibilities and ensuring optimal productivity and performance levels for their teams.
To sustain organizational agility and unite their teams, project managers implement project management tools to keep up with the ever-changing customer and market needs while delivering the final product/ service within time and budget.
Statistics show that this trend of adopting PM software will continue to grow in the following years. The global market share of PM software is expected to reach 15.7% by 2030.
This article outlines the best project management tools and explains their significant benefits, uncovering why you need one.
Let’s get into this.
What Are Project Management Tools?
Project management tools are digital applications designed to help teams plan, execute, and monitor projects effectively. The primary role of these tools is to provide a centralized platform for cross-functional collaboration and keep track of all the work and resources related to projects across an organization.
From small-scale tasks to large, complex projects, project management tools cater to a wide range of needs, fostering efficiency and transparency in project workflows. By offering a complete overview of what is happening, project management tools allow teams to stay on track, ensure continuous strategic alignment, and facilitate unbreakable communication.
Best 12 Project Management Tools
Modern project management tools are no longer a simple visual board with progress bar tracking. Along their evolution path, they became an inseparable instrument for every top-performing organization striving for productivity and efficiency on their way to success.
Equipped with various advanced features that unlock company-wide transparency and create a collaborative environment, PM tools are here to change and, most importantly, help manage work.
To help you make your choice, let’s look at our top choices for PM software.
1. Businessmap (formerly Kanbanize)
Businessmap is a platform for end-to-end project and portfolio management. It effortlessly integrates project portfolios, strategic objectives, and daily operations, offering a comprehensive solution for enterprise agility.
The software allows users to visualize and manage multiple projects across teams and departments through workspaces and interconnected boards. The platform’s robust scalability and adaptable architecture help organizations bridge the gap between strategy and execution, facilitate comprehensive transparency, and enable adequate project progress tracking.
Businessmap is equipped with integrated OKR functionality, assisting teams in establishing their strategic objectives and monitoring the alignment of their daily activities with business objectives. With dedicated management dashboards, organizations can monitor project progress and OKR status in a single place, accelerating decision-making.
Some of the most valuable features that the platform offers are the extensive analytics module and workflow performance analyses. Designed to help organizations display important business metrics, they help managers gain a complete performance summary across teams, highlighting potential improvement areas.
Key Features
- Management & Team Workspaces
- Planning modules
- OKRs
- Reporting & Data Analysis
- Automated project status reporting
- Dependency management
- Integrations with multiple digital tools such as Power BI, Microsoft Teams, Tableau, Google Data Studio, Google Drive, Github, Zapier, etc.
This is just the beginning of what Businessmap has to offer. If you want to try it yourself, sign up for a free 14-day trial.
2. Jira
Jira Software is among the most popular project management and issue-tracking software developed by Atlassian. It is widely used by software development teams for planning, tracking, and releasing software. Jira is a preferred platform for many teams and organizations regardless of size and function.
Jira's core functionality is issue tracking, allowing teams to generate, oversee, and monitor issues or tasks throughout the entire development process. It supports custom Scrum and kanban workflows and advanced roadmaps for a high-level view of project progress and future plans. The software provides pre-built and customizable reports, including burndown charts, velocity charts, and control charts. The Insights feature allows teams to make data-driven decisions.
Key Features
- Timelines
- Advanced Searching and Filtering
- Agile reporting and dashboards
- Customizable workflows
- Scrum & kanban Boards
- Process automation
- Bugs and defect management
- Integrations with a variety of development and collaboration tools
3. Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project is a project management solution suitable for a wide range of industries. It is designed to assist project managers and teams in planning, tracking, and managing projects of various sizes and complexities.
The Gantt chart view is a central feature, providing a visual representation of project tasks, timelines, and dependencies. In addition, the platform comes with built-in project templates for common project types, making it easier for users to start planning and managing projects quickly.
Key Features
- Timeline view
- Project roadmap
- Pre-built reports
- Custom dashboards
- Task management system
- Time tracking
- Resource management
4. Smartsheet
Smartsheet is an Agile project management platform that combines the functionality of a spreadsheet with project management and collaboration features. It is known for its flexibility, ease of use, and the ability to streamline work processes.
Users can generate and oversee tasks, set due dates, and monitor the progress of numerous projects spanning various workflows. This capability enables full transparency throughout all levels of the organization. The platform provides several distinct views for workflow visualization, including card, calendar, grid, and Gantt chart view.
Key Features
- Automation
- Digital asset management
- Content collaboration
- Inteligent workflows
- Integration
- Dashboards and reporting
- Resource management
5. Project Manager
Projectmanager.com is another example of a project and work management software solution taking an Agile approach. This cloud-based platform offers tools like but not limited to project planning, project tracking, resource management, and workflow management. These tools are well-suited for overseeing projects in diverse sectors such as manufacturing, IT, professional services, and construction.
Along with the essential Agile project management tools such as kanban boards, Gantt charts, project calendars, and more, Project Manager is ideal for teams using the hybrid approach to work execution.
The software enables teams to unlock their organization agility as they can manage multiple projects and get real-time reporting data in a single solution.
Key Features
- Workflow automation
- Project dashboards
- Customized reports
- Project timesheets
- Product roadmap
- Task lists
- Integrations with a wide variety of business and PM apps
6. Asana
Asana is crafted to assist teams in organizing and monitoring their work. With its intuitive design and adaptable architecture, the platform helps teams manage tasks, projects, and workflows, making it a suitable option for diverse teams and industries.
The wide variety of features allows teams to connect workflows across multiple departments and align work to company-wide objectives. The scalability of the software enables users to manage and visualize multiple projects in one view. It helps in tracking progress and dependencies across a portfolio of projects.
Asana provides a flexible project view with options for a list, calendar, timeline, Gantt charts, and kanban boards.
Key Features
- Portfolios
- Ready-made templates
- Custom fields
- Workflow automation
- Real-time reporting dashboards
- Time tracking
- Status updates
- Task management
7. ClickUp
ClickUp's rich feature set and flexibility make it suitable for a variety of teams, from small businesses to large enterprises. Its customizable nature allows teams to adapt the platform to their specific workflows and project management methodologies.
Teams can get a complete overview of what is happening across all organizational levels thanks to ClickUp’s Hierarchy. This feature offers a hierarchy structure that includes Spaces, Folders, Lists, and Tasks and allows for a granular breakdown of projects and tasks. Furthermore, ClickUp organizes work into Workspaces, representing different teams, departments, or projects. Within Workspaces, users can create Spaces to categorize further and structure their work.
With more than 15 powerful views, work can be organized and managed through List, Kanban Board, Box, Calendar, and more.
Key Features
- Gantt Charts
- Mind maps
- Project timeline
- Customizable Tasks
- Task checklists
- Integrations with a wide range of third-party tools and applications
- Time tracking
- Pre-built and custom automation
8. Monday.com
Monday.com is built around the concept of Workspaces, which serve as collaborative environments for organizing projects, tasks, and information. Within Workspaces, users can create Boards to represent different projects or workflows. Boards contain a variety of customizable features to facilitate task management and collaboration.
The platform offers advanced features to help teams get a high-level overview of multiple projects and connect organizational goals with daily execution.
Key Features
- Kanban boards
- Gantt chart
- Custom workflows
- Dashboards and reporting
- Integrations & Add-ons
- Code-free automations
9. Wrike
Wrike is an adaptable project management and collaboration platform that helps teams streamline their workflows and improve productivity. It provides a centralized workspace where teams can collaborate, manage projects, and track progress. Wrike supports various project management methodologies, including Agile, Waterfall, and hybrid approaches.
Wrike supports customizable workflows, allowing teams to define their own processes and project stages. Given its scalability nature, teams can oversee projects aligned with their organization’s strategic goals while ensuring cross-functional collaboration.
Key Features
- Kanban-style boards
- Interactive timeline (Gantt chart)
- Resource booking
- Cross-tagging
- Document collaboration
- Time tracking
- Advanced analytics and BI
- Shareable dashboards
- Real-time reporting
10. Teamwork
As a project management software, Teamwork offers an extensive platform for teams to collaborate, plan, and execute projects. Its key features include task management, project timelines, Gantt charts, collaboration tools, document sharing, time tracking, and integrations with popular tools. Teamwork emphasizes user-friendly interfaces, flexibility in project planning, and efficient communication to enhance team productivity and project success.
Key Features
- Workload and Resource Management
- Kanban boards
- Time tracking
- Custom fields
- Built-in and custom reports
- Pre-built and custom templates
- Workflow automation
11. Nifty
Nifty provides an all-in-one solution for project management, team collaboration, and communication. It offers a centralized workspace where teams can seamlessly plan, track, and execute projects. It is a weapon of choice for many engineering, sales, marketing, IT, and product teams.
Nifty comes with features that support different views for task organization, offering flexibility in project planning. Users can create project roadmaps to visualize and plan long-term project timelines.
Key Features
- Kanban and Timeline view
- Integrated Calendar
- Workflow automation
- Document Management
- Time tracking
- Dashboard reports
12. Zoho Projects
Zoho Projects stands as another project management platform, providing an extensive range of features to assist teams in planning, tracking, and collaborating on projects. Tailored for versatility, Zoho Projects is designed to streamline project management across diverse industries.
Equipped with capabilities such as project and time tracking, file sharing, resource management reporting, communication, collaboration, and issue and bug tracking, teams can enhance productivity and efficiently oversee their projects.
Key Features
- Kanban boards
- Gantt charts
- Workflow rules
- Custom Fields and Workflows
- Timesheets
- Analytical reports
How Do Organizations Benefit from Project Management Tools?
Project management tools have proven their potential to bring many positive changes to teams and organizations. From offering comprehensive visibility and dynamic management of work to enabling project managers to make informed decisions based on accumulated data, PM tools benefit organizations in many aspects, regardless of size and functions.
Without delving into too many details, let's go through some of the most notable advantages of using a PM tool:
- Provide a centralized hub for faster collaboration and seamless communication.
- Provide transparency of everything that enters and leaves the process.
- Teams can organize and prioritize high-impact projects and tasks.
- Advanced project management platforms bring portfolio management into the mix by enabling organizations to align project deliverables with strategic objectives.
- Tracking real-time project progress.
- Improved predictability of project completion.
- Addressing issues at an early stage and identifying ways to resolve them.
- Provide quick reporting and data sharing.
What Are the Essential PM Tools Features?
A good project management tool should encompass a variety of features to meet the diverse needs of project teams and organizations. Even though some tools may have extra or unique features in their toolbox, these must-have features contribute to the effectiveness of a project management tool.
Workspaces
Workspaces in project management tools serve as dedicated and collaborative environments where teams can organize, plan, and execute their work. Workspaces act as containers for portfolios. In a workspace, teams have the capability to develop and oversee various projects, each characterized by its own unique tasks, objectives, and schedules. This setup enables teams to effectively distribute tasks throughout the organization, enhance transparency, and seamlessly link planning stages with actual execution.
Project Planning
This functionality allows teams to construct and tailor their project plan with essential milestones and task dependencies, ensuring that the project progresses in the correct direction.
In conventional project management, Gantt charts are a popular tool for work planning. Yet, in the domain of knowledge work, where demands and requirements often shift rapidly, planning is increasingly adopting a more flexible approach.
Work Breakdown Management
Work breakdown structure (WBS) is one of the core tools for project management, helping to define, plan, execute, and control projects by breaking them down into manageable components. It is organized in a tree-like structure, where each level represents a further breakdown of the work into more detailed and manageable pieces.
A good PM platform needs to show you the complete hierarchy of work, so managers can easily see who is working on what. This also sets up the foundation for automating project progress tracking.
Dependency Management
Establishing a connection between work items improves the visibility across multiple tasks and projects. This helps teams understand the order in which they have to complete the tasks for successful project delivery. Thus, it's essential for PM tools to display work connections such as start-to-finish and finish-to-start dependencies, among others. This helps project managers understand the relationships between work items and make decisions on how to best sequence activities to achieve on-time project completion.
Reporting and Performance Management
Project managers can track progress in real time through intuitive dashboards, reports, and analytics modules. This data-driven approach enables informed decision-making and helps identify potential issues before they escalate. Through various instruments, managers can monitor work and employee performance, striving to create an environment where organizational culture and strategy are aligned.
Daily Work Management
The tool of choice should be intuitive enough and offer a toolbox of features that support the daily work of every team member. To name a few:
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Visualization boards: Their primary function is to display how deliverables are managed in a project work process. As a result, teams can better understand their workload, achieve a new level of transparency, and manage their work more efficiently.
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Real-time collaboration and communication: Features like comments, discussions, and real-time editing promote seamless cooperation among team members. Built-in messaging systems and notifications keep team members informed about updates and discussions.
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Data sharing: A centralized repository for sharing and storing project-related documents is essential for easy access and collaboration.
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Time tracking: Time logging features allow team members to log the time spent on tasks or projects. This data can be used in various reports to track the health of teams’ performance or for better-informed project delivery forecasts.
Project Management Tools Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What Are the Different Types of Project Management Tools?
Project management software comes in various types, each designed to cater to different project management needs and methodologies. We can divide project management software into four main categories:
Traditional/Linear Project Management Software
Also known as Waterfall project management, this type follows a sequential and linear approach to project management. Tasks are usually organized and carried out in a sequential manner, where the completion of each phase relies on the finishing of the preceding one.
Agile Project Management Software
Designed for Agile methodologies, such as Scrum and Kanban, that prioritize customer feedback and allow for iterative project delivery. Features include interactive visualization of work, advanced progress tracking, Lean/ Agile analytics, integration capabilities, sprint planning, user story tracking, and collaboration tools to adapt to changing project requirements.
Collaborative Project Management Software
Focused on fostering collaboration and communication among team members, often in real-time. Includes features like document sharing, discussion boards, and instant messaging to enhance teamwork.
Hybrid Project Management Software
The hybrid model comes when traditional and Agile project management approaches combine. Allows flexibility in project planning and execution, accommodating various project management methodologies.
Why Use Project Management Tools?
Project management software is essential for fostering collaboration, improving team performance, and ensuring project success and timely completion. It enhances communication, accountability, and overall project visibility, contributing to the efficiency and success of both small and large projects.
Who Most Frequently Uses PM Tools?
If you're a project manager, team leader, or part of a cross-functional team, incorporating the best project management tools into your workflow can revolutionize the way you work and elevate your project management capabilities.
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Project and portfolio managers are the primary users of project management tools as they rely on these platforms to plan, execute, and monitor projects. These tools provide the necessary infrastructure for creating project timelines, allocating resources, and overseeing the entire project life cycle.
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Team leaders benefit from project management tools by gaining insights into team performance, identifying bottlenecks, and ensuring alignment with project goals for everyone involved. These tools empower leaders to make data-driven decisions and lead their teams effectively.
- In organizations where collaboration spans multiple departments and disciplines, project management tools serve as a common ground to coordinate efforts, share information, and contribute to the overall project success.
What Criteria to Look for When Choosing a Project Management Tool?
Choosing your tool depends on your specific needs, team size, and the nature of your projects. Always consider factors such as:
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An advanced set of features: Consider a solution with various functionalities. This allows you to manage a project throughout its lifecycle, from resource allocation and planning through visualizing and working on project deliverables to monitoring project performance and making decisions.
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Scalability: The tool should scale within your organization as projects and teams grow.
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Integrations: Integration capabilities with popular tools like email, calendars, and communication platforms enhance workflow efficiency.
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Customization options: The ability to customize workflows, fields, and views allows you to tailor the tool to match your team's specific processes and requirements.
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User interface (UI): A user-friendly design minimizes the learning curve and is easy for team members to navigate.
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Security and permissions: Ensure the tool offers robust security features, including data encryption, secure login, and role-based access control.
Tip: Stay updated on the latest releases and user reviews to ensure you use the most suitable tools for your team.
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In Summary
In the dynamic landscape of project management, the right tools can make all the difference between chaos and cohesion. Project management tools offer a unified platform for collaboration, organization, and communication, ultimately leading to increased efficiency and project success.
Explore the options available, find the tool that aligns with your team's and organization's needs, and positively change your work processes by enhancing productivity and collaboration.
