Project Management Tools: Choosing the Best Fit for Your Team

Many teams use project management software to organise their workflow. Platforms like Airtable, Trello, Asana, and Smartsheet could be a good fit for your team as a way to efficiently track, assign, and schedule various aspects of a project. 

Discover some of the most popular project management tools and explore how you can utilise them. 

What is project management?

Project management is the organisation and planning of a project from start to finish. People involved use particular skills, techniques, knowledge and tools to deliver a finished project with value to others, on time and on budget. 

During this process, teams engage in numerous activities, including identifying the project lifecycle. Additionally, teams might establish a project's objectives, set goals, identify resources, assign tasks, explore risks, and set milestones to ensure the project meets its intended deadline.

What does a project manager do?

A project manager plans each aspect of the project to ensure it is complete and delivered within a particular timeframe and budget. Usually, a project manager focuses on time-constrained and temporary tasks.

For example, a project manager who works for a marketing company plans to manage a brand's blog for the next six months. The project manager would likely meet with the client to understand their needs, create a content calendar with monthly topic ideas, assign writers to deliver content each month, and assign someone to proof and publish each piece.

Per the example, each project often has multiple steps in its workflow, so project managers usually have strong organisational skills. Additional skills include:

• Leadership 

• Communication

• Negotiation

• Management

• Technical abilities

• Critical thinking 

Why do you need tools to complete tasks?

Project managers often have several projects to manage, each with different goals, resources, budgets, and teams involved. Project management software helps managers stay organised. With the help of software, managers can:

• See all projects and the progress of each one in a centralised dashboard

• Communicate with their team easier

• Assign roles and set milestones so everyone knows their part

• Manage budgets

• Identify problems quickly

• Create a standardised process that everyone is familiar with

Goals of project management tools

Project management software comes with a handful of features that help managers achieve goals, like evaluating the scope of a project, breaking it down into smaller, assignable tasks, and setting up a workflow to achieve it. More specific goals include: 

Planning a project

Project managers take an initial concept, talk with everyone involved, and create a process to turn an idea into reality. In addition to meetings to assess the project objectives, the project manager will define the project's score and develop a detailed plan to get the job done.

Tracking steps for the project

Projects become actionable steps within the software. Managers assign tasks, with due dates, through team calendars. At a glance, managers can see where multiple projects are in their life cycles and quickly identify problems. For example, if a deadline lapses, the manager gets a notice and can message team members for an update.

Managing personnel

Team members receive task and deadline assignments within the software. While working on their aspect of the project, they have access to collaboration tools, like file sharing and messaging. 

Documenting work

Project management tools document each person's involvement as they complete their tasks. Software often includes time stamping, allowing you to see who finished each task and when. The software also keeps a record of the entire project and its timeline.

Meeting goals

With project management software, teams can set goals and identify key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge success. They can also set up team dashboards and performance reports so everyone can easily understand how well they've performed.

Types of project management tools

Dozens of project management programmes exist on the market, and while they all focus on organising and maintaining a workflow, their features vary. As you research different software options, consider features like:

• Scheduling tools like Gantt charts, timelines, and calendars

• Collaboration tools like file sharing, messaging, and discussion boards

• Integrations with apps and platforms that your company already uses

• Reports that provide project status in one dashboard

• Budget tracking capabilities

• Time trackers or integrations with commonly used time trackers 

4 Popular Project Management Platforms

As you weigh the features your team needs, you can explore individual solutions to see which type of project management tool is best. Consider these popular platforms: 

1. Airtable

Best for: Teams that want to customise their management process.

Airtable offers the resources to create a workflow, but it's ideal for those who want to code their own process. It's a highly customisable platform that benefits larger enterprises that need to track not only a project but also resources, budgets, and staff. 

The features of this platform include:

• Ability to import projects from other software

• Gain multiple project views for easier project data management 

• Ready-made processes for things like a product launch or collecting feedback

2. Trello 

Best for: Simple projects, small teams

Trello, a Kanban board-style system, is ideal for basic needs. You'll create a workflow and move projects through it. The stages of the project are on Boards, while the projects are on Cards. Two boards might say "Writing in progress," and the next might say "Ready for editing." You'll move the Card through each Board until it's complete. 

Other beneficial features of Trello include: 

• Checklists

• Calendars

• Basic automation like calendar reminders or items crossed off a checklist 

• Colour-coded cards

3. Asana

Best for: Enterprise teams with complex needs

Asana offers features and functionality beyond the basics and meets the needs of larger teams that manage dozens or hundreds of projects at a time. Managers can set up a workflow, assign roles, and access a project calendar using shared workspaces. 

Additional features that users like include: 

• A variety of ways to view work, like on a list, calendar, and bulletin board

• Ability to set goals and due dates

• Integration with apps like Microsoft Teams, Google, Slack, and Adobe Creative Cloud

4. Smartsheet 

Best for: Teams that rely on spreadsheets

If you organise projects using spreadsheets and are happy with the process but want more features and functionality than Excel or Sheets can provide, Smartsheet could be a good fit. Each column often represents a step in the workflow, and each row is a specific project the project manager can assign to a team member. 

Its features include:

• A messaging tool that makes communication easy

• Easy-to-send forms to gather feedback on a project

• Digital asset management

• Basic automation, like reminders and approval notices

Gain in-demand project management skills with Coursera

Project management tools are an integral part of project management for organisation and time management, including tracking budgets, collaborating with other teams, meeting goals, and documenting progress.

If you're new to project management, online courses can help you accelerate your learning process. You can check out learning options on Coursera, like the Google Project Management: Professional Certificate. This highly-rated course guides you through learning the best practices and most in-demand skills in the field of project management.