To run a business efficiently and effectively in the current competitive world, project managers have immense responsibilities such as planning and scheduling, management of resources, analyzing reports, running meetings, etc. Most of the time it becomes quite overwhelming for them.
In order to automate these time-consuming and complex tasks and manage a large team, managers often use project management software.
Such software can be quite useful when it comes to initiating, managing and executing tasks along with various other aspects of business operations, there are a plethora of project management software available in the market which makes it even harder to find the right one.
Most of these software solutions offer similar features such as tracking, management, organizing processes, and improving team collaboration. In this article, we highlight the key features a project management software should have which makes operations of business simpler and easier.
- Efficient Planning and Schedule Management Scheme
The first and foremost feature that a project management software should have is efficient planning and scheduling mechanism. When it comes to managing a team, it is quite essential to have tasks and responsibilities of each team member properly outlined. It should also be visible to the project managers. It helps in avoiding any sort of misunderstanding as well assisting in delegating tasks to team members.
A good project management software enables efficient assigning of tasks to team members as well as helps in setting deadlines and priorities. It automatically adds due dates to the tasks and sends notifications every time the scheduled completion date comes near while the task is incomplete.
It also helps in prioritizing tasks. This allows efficient address of issues in case any problem arises. By the use of planning tool which also has scheduled time slots, the manager can easily make room in his planned schedule without any requirement of manually rescheduling the entire project plan.
Another key aspect is the task management feature of the project management software. When it comes to leading and managing a project team, a manager requires a tool which outlines all the upcoming activities as well as assigns various tasks to each team member.
A good project management software should also have a team calendar which is quite useful for scheduling as well as organizing meetings. A shared calendar synchronized with popular calendar tools makes sure that every team member receives the notifications regarding the meeting and attends it on time. It also allows the project manager to add important due dates to the team calendar to give a quick overview of upcoming deadlines and milestones.
A PM software should also have a planning and task scheduling tool which helps the manager in outlining all the planned project tasks as well as make the necessary scheduling of new activities with ease and simplicity.
Project management software like Taskworld has efficient planning and scheduling tool which allows the project managers to manage their teams and assign tasks as well as schedule tasks to meet the deadline and complete the project in time.
- Enabling Collaborative Work
The collaboration of team members is an essential part of business operations. A large team consists of tens or hundreds of people with each working on particular tasks. Often, team members need to access each other’s work to complement and complete their own work. It means that there is a requirement of efficient, organized and quick communication through various channels.
A good project management software provides all the necessary tools to make sure that team members can collaborate effectively. It includes file sharing features as well as shared calendars along with contact lists. Any team member can just insert the information into the system which can be easily accessed by other team members whenever they need, wherever they are.
Such tool also has efficient communication channel such as messenger app which allows chat between team members and group chat. It allows them to constantly remain in touch regarding various aspects and status of the project on a real-time basis which boosts productivity. Project management software like Asana offer chat feature which enables the team members to communicate effectively which increases their efficiency. Asana also offers Slack integration for chat functionality which allows seamless communication among the team members through both the apps. The sync mechanism of these apps allow the team members to coordinate effectively.
- Streamlined and Centralized Documentation
For running smooth business operations, it is necessary to have all project information and documentation available easily and accessible at any time. It includes planned and completed tasks, customer data, project resources, past and upcoming calendar events as well as expenses and bills which are sent to clients. One of the best example of such project management software is Basecamp which consolidates documents, chats threads, emails etc. and provide single platform to the businesses. It allows team members to coherently discuss ideas, make strategies and implement them, all through same platform. Confluence is another such software which allows the team members to create, share and collaborate at one single platform. The team members can easily publish any document or report, organize them and also access essential company information to accomplish the tasks. This software allows to maintain the work and related documents, in a structured and organized fashion.
A comprehensive project management software has all the data collected which can be easily shared among the team member and can be accessed within few seconds. It takes away the lengthy process of switching between different spreadsheets just to find data. Taskworld provides complete information of tasks within few seconds and other necessary data which team members require which increases the team efficiency and productivity.
- Tracking Team Performance
For successful management of projects as well as gauging the efficiency of the team members along with finding the shortcoming, a project manager requires comprehensive reports. A good project management software provides a complete overview of the project process through insightful reports. It has reporting tools which collect all the inserted project data and duly create customizable reports to give an overview of the project status, bottlenecks and other related insights which are important to make a crucial decision. Project management software like Zoho Projects offers a wide range of customizable reports which allows the project manager to keep track of the projects and remain updated with the key performance indicators.
- Enabling Resource Management
Another key aspect of making business operations simpler and seamless is resource management. Along with managing the team, a project manager also needs to keep track of the project resources related to accomplishing the tasks. A good project management software often includes resource management feature which outlines all the scheduled as well as planned resources and also calculates the cost of their use. Thus, it helps in avoiding any sort of over-assignments as well as possible conflicts which may arise due to lack of resources. It issues notices whenever a resource is over-used which allows the project manager to set a limit of its use or simply set guidelines for usage. Such tool allows the manager to manage and assign resources for specific tasks and make sure that everyone gets the resources and tools they require to complete their tasks.
Conclusion
Running smooth business operations is a challenging proposition and quite overwhelming. Project managers have to deal with huge amount of resources, management of the team, scheduling, task assignment, resource management, etc. To help them in functioning properly, a project management tool can be of great help. A comprehensive tool can certainly reduce the burden on project managers and help in streamlining the business operations while boosting the productivity and efficiency of the employees. So, in order to choose and decide right project management software, consider above-mentioned features which it should have.
