Teamwork plays a fundamental role on a professional level. The more employees work together on a project, the more important it is to achieve good coordination and communication. Only when all the tasks are optimally distributed and the exchange between the various collaborators works effectively, will it then be possible to achieve the best possible result.
Equally decisive is the fact that all interested parties have the necessary means and information and that they are promptly informed of significant changes. To optimize the process, more and more companies are using project management tools that often allow them to work more productively, particularly facilitating remote work.
What are project management tools?
A project management tool or software offers several functions for project management. The aim is the optimization of the work process, whereby the individual tools are suitable for fields such as planning, organization or analysis. For example, a tool of this type can be distinguished by the following characteristics:
Mind mapping: many tools help teams when it comes to finding ideas and therefore engaging in creative work. Mind mapping tools, as well as other brainstorming functions, invite project members and collaborators to share their ideas and actively shape the project. In this way you can also easily involve the client in the creative process, as long as you want to and have been given the right access to the tool.
File sharing: One of the most important basic thoughts of project management software is that users can share their tables, documents and other data with others. Many tools offer a main storage platform and the ability to define custom access permissions. This way all important files are always available wherever you are. Project managers or project administrators thus decide who has access to specific data.
Real-time communication: Project management tools often include several functions for real-time interaction between all users. Commenting functions allow you to quickly and easily discuss unclear tasks and other related issues. Many applications implemented are also based on established forms of communication, such as video telephony, instant messaging and e-mails, or have interfaces to classic programs, such as Outlook or Skype. In addition, most vendors rely on storing tables or text documents in the cloud, so that multiple users have access to them at the same time.
Calendar: it doesn’t matter if you have a team meeting scheduled, important business calls await you or you have a deadline to meet: emails, phone calls or chat messages are a good way to inform attendees about all those upcoming events that are often quickly forgotten. The more dates there are, the harder it will be to stay in control. For this reason, the project management tools provide calendar functions through which all important shared appointments can be viewed at any time.
Work management functions: Good project management software is characterized by the fact that the team leader or project manager can optimally plan and keep the different work processes under control. In this way, the components are made available through which resources can be optimally organized and divided. In addition, many tools offer solutions for documenting and evaluating work processes and progress. So if these applications are used throughout the company, they also facilitate communication between individual departments.
Which project manager tool to choose?
Jira is a suite of proprietary bug tracking software developed by Atlassian that enables bug tracking and agile project management. The product name is a truncation of Gojira, a Japanese transliteration of Godzilla.
According to Atlassian, Jira is used for problem monitoring and project management by more than 75,000 customers in 122 countries.
Jira is divided into four packages:
Jira Core is designed as generic project management;
Jira Software includes core software, including agile project management capabilities (formerly a separate product: Jira Agile);
Jira Service Desk is intended for use by IT or corporate services desks;
Jira Align is a team-wide data aggregator for real-time work sharing.
Jira is written in Java and uses the Pico control inversion container, the Apache OFBiz entity engine, and the WebWork 1 technology stack. For remote procedure calls (RPC), Jira supports REST, SOAP, and XML-RPC. Jira integrates with version control programs such as Clearcase, Concurrent Versions System (CVS), Git, Mercurial, Perforce, Subversion, and Team Foundation Server. It comes in various languages including English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.
Jira supports the Networked Help Desk API for sharing customer service tickets with other problem tracking systems.
Asana: is a work management software usable on the web or on mobile devices created in 2008 by Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook, and Justin Rosenstein, programmer and former engineer on behalf of Google and Facebook.
The creators worked in the first place to improve the productivity of Facebook employees: only in 2012 they thought of launching Asana commercially, proposing it as a simple system to help teams manage everything with a single tool.
With Asana teams of dozens of people can create projects, assign tasks, specify deadlines and communicate new activities.
Asana allows you to create digital workspaces, or workspaces, within which you can create projects and gives the possibility to have a complete overview of all the activities concerning the project that will be carried out.
Asana allows you to create Tasks, or tasks that team members can carry out and monitor together or individually. To make the workspace even more functional, Asana allows you to integrate other productivity tools.
Trello: It’s a tool for digital workers but it’s actually so much more. When we approach these new services to improve the workflow we think they can only be suitable for those who have a digital project. Trello has garnered so much success because companies and brands around the world, both online and offline, have started using this safe and simple platform. To tell the truth, there are more and more testimonials from those who also use it as an organizer of their private life or a holiday.
Monday: is a web and mobile application for team management. The product is a cloud-based web platform and mobile application, designed to manage activities, tasks, customers, track projects, deadlines, and optimize the collaboration of work teams. The product is customizable and meets various needs and business operations, including research and development, human resources, marketing, sales, product and customer management.
Case Studies
Hack Reactor: Read here how using Asana wall-to-wall has been crucial in helping Hack Reactor scale.
Kickstarting Creativity: How Trello Powers Communication At Kickstarter: This case study explain how using Trello improve communication inside Kickstarter
How a $1 Billion Company Used monday.com to Create a Killer Company Culture: This is the story of how Avishai Abrahami, the CEO of Wix, overcame the company’s growing pains by creating a culture of transparency.
Each software has different features that can be adapted to the needs of the company. To make the right choice, you need to carefully evaluate what the needs of the company are.