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If you’re a beginner project manager you probably have asked the question “what is the most popular project management software”? There are many reasons why you will care to know about this. Perhaps, you are looking for the most used PM software because you believe if people have been using them they must be enjoying them and so you can easily be guided by their reviews and experience with those tools. Or, you are just a fan of popular tools. Whatever your reasons are, we are going to help you find what you’re looking for and also cover some relevant points you need to know about a few of the most popular PM software that is available out there.
Let’s with what project management apps so you have a basic idea of how they work. The thing about project management and project management software is that organizations run multiple projects at the same time and, in doing this effectively, they need project team members who are to work under the supervision of certain experienced leaders. These leaders have the major responsibilities and roles of ensuring the job are done successfully and delivered within the allotted time. Achieving all these can be tasking and difficult to do in an organized and timely manner. This is why project management software is useful to help managers in things such as project planning, team collaboration, budget management, resource management, and many more. With project management software, you do more a few times.
Key Feature of Popular Project Management Software
Team Communication and Collaboration
One of the purposes of using project management software is to help you keep team members on the same page and allow them to collaborate effectively on the project progress. The right PM software should allow your team to discuss and exchange direct messages whether privately or collectively within the app’s platform.
Oftentimes, you want to send a notification to update your team via SMS or an email. The right PM solution should let your team check such updates without having to log in to the app.
File Sharing and Storage
While running a project, you tend to share the file with your team, clients, and other stakeholders. The best PM software should be able to keep all your files and documents in a secure and central database for your team members to access easily. It’s important that the documents are well secured to ensure the privacy of the documents is protected.
Gantt Charts Feature
Gantt charts are useful to help you with visualizing your timeline. For project managers juggling multiple projects, they need visualization in the form of Gantt charts to see the progress of their projects. Most popular project management software solutions come with this feature.
Mobile App
Today, the world has gone mobile and so the need for project managers and team members to stay up-to-date on the project progress. The best PM software should provide a mobile app feature to enable team members working remotely to access the app with ease and on the go.
Most Popular Project Management Software
1. Wrike
Wrike is a free web-based project management software that offers you lots of amazing facilities that will let you do things like building a path, set a timeline, prioritize and visualize, check the outcome, and analyze results. Wrike interactive Gantt charts feature lets you view your projects and set dependencies in real-time using drag and drop. The tool supports integrating with other software like Excel, Google Apps, etc.
2. Zoho
Zoho is one of the most popular project management software available in the market. As such, it’s a PM tool that offers lots of exciting features like Gantt charts, a tracking system, and elementary reporting abilities. Zoho, as a free tool, doubles as task and project management software for businesses. This tool is ideal for both small and medium-sized organizations that are looking for PM software to manage their projects. Zoho, like other PM software above, supports integration with third-party platforms.
3. Monday.com
Monday.com is a versatile Work Operating System (Work OS) that enables project managers to create their ideal workflow by utilizing customisable features with no coding necessary. It enables you to create personalized tools to track progress on your projects and increase team communication, cooperation, and efficiency. monday.com has different levels of pricing depending on the size of your team, the features you need, and how often you prefer to pay (monthly or annually).
4. Basecamp
Basecamp is one of the most popular projects management software with an exciting team collaboration feature. Apart from allowing users to post their comments within the app, you can also send updates via emails without your team having to log in to the system. However, Basecamp’s biggest drawback is the inability to add a deadline for each individual task. To do this, you may need to get a third-party app, which will be an extra cost for you.
5. JIRA
JIRA is a popular agile project management tool used for working on the Agile SDLC principle. JIRA allows you to work on your own flavor and it also supports other agile methodology like kanban or scrum. The software is an idea for tracking and resolving bugs. More so, JIRA is meant for the agile software developers who are looking for the right tool to plan, create backlogs, boards, roadmaps, and reports. It’s an all-in-one tool for tracking and managing agile software development projects from a single app.
6. Asana
Asana is an exciting project management software that helps your team reach its goals leveraging its team page feature. The tool lets you create projects, assign tasks to team members, set a deadline, and communicate with your team about tasks directly in the tool.
More interestingly, Asana supports third-party integration with tools like Google Drive, Dropbox, Github, and more.
7. Teamwork PM
Teamwork PM is an all-inclusive project management software with a user-friendly interface. With the tool, you add milestones, manage tasks, and view you’re your projects in a Gantt charts form. Teamwork PM also lets you integrate it with other platforms like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.
Choosing The Right One For Your Team
Considering the wide range of options available, choosing the right project management software for your team can be very difficult. Although most of the popular PM solutions highlighted above offer similar features there is a big difference in how the feature are combined in each of the tools. There are so many factors to consider before concluding on one project management software that is right for you. Instead of looking at the features alone, consider what your team needs and the peculiarities of your project. This way, you wouldn’t go wrong in your decision.