If you have a business project in development or you plan to have it soon, you must have some project management tools or software. These tools help you to follow its development, organize tasks, and assign a date on the calendar and a responsible, in short, to keep a check.
Whether you work alone or have a team behind, you need to be organized. But if you have a team, things get complicated since the tasks multiply, mainly because it is necessary to centralize the information so that everyone receives it, distribute and assign managers to each task, assign time, sometimes even coordinate teams of remote workers and Of course, to be able to know at all times where we are in it and make corrections if necessary.
Fortunately, there is a wide range of professional tools for project management. Many of them are oriented to specific industries or professions.
In this article, we are going to focus on project management tools aimed at small businesses and digital entrepreneurs.
Each tool is different, and all have their pros and cons, as well as different prices, so it is necessary that you at least know the most important ones so that you can orient yourself in your choice. Many offer a free trial period that will help you decide.
Project management software: definition
Project management software is a tool that allows you to organize each stage of your project to help you achieve the objectives you set for yourself in the allotted time.
You can use it to organize all the projects you have in progress in your company.
How to choose a project management software
The first step in choosing a project management software is to be clear if you need help managing a project entirely or just to manage work tasks.
Top project management tools
1. Trello
Trello’s strong point is collaborative work. It has a very simple and visual design that allows us to know the status of the project at all times and with the naked eye.
The information is organized in the form of dashboards that all users view in the same way. You can add tasks, assign them to one or more users, and mark once they have been completed. You can also add tags to make searching more comfortable later.
Everyone can comment on progress or annotate any of the tasks. You can drag any file (text, photos, Google Drive files, etc.) to the board.
All the information is synchronized through all your devices, so even if you are on the bus or resting on the beach, you can access the status of the project and add your collaboration.
Trello is free, but it also offers two paid options (starting at $ 9.99 / month) that add much more functionality.
Trello works as a desktop web application and offers Apps for countless devices: iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, smartwatches, and Kindle Fire tablets.
2. Basecamp
It is a complete tool that ranges from internal communication to the management of all the processes of an organization. The platform can be accessed both through the browser and by mobile applications for iOS and Android operating systems.
Basecamp is characterized, fundamentally, by the simplification of work methods and by favoring the fluid circulation of information among the members of the work team. The application has a dashboard in which all our programs are seen, with a calendar, actions, etc.
It is possible to access each of the projects and analyze the open processes (messaging, assignment of tasks, time management, files shared among the members.
3. Monday
Monday is a project management software that improves teamwork through the management of workflows and communication between team members. It helps to manage calendars and plans visually and intuitively.
It offers a complete dashboard that allows you to capture at a glance the status of the project. Periodically incorporates new features. It is highly customizable.
Unfortunately, it does not offer, at least at the time of publishing this note, integration with Gmail.
Another con that we see is that it does not have any plan for a single user.
It offers a free trial period, the most basic plan starts at $ 25 a month (for five users) and accompanies you in the growth of your business even if you have 200 people collaborating with you.
4. Asana
One of the peculiarities of Asana is that it allows you to create different teams (marketing, accounting, sales, etc.) and assign different projects to those teams.
Asana is a very appropriate tool for large work teams structured in departments and whose members work on several projects at the same time. It has an internal chat.
Asana’s strengths
- Real-time updates to quickly see the latest changes made.
- Simple and intuitive interface that facilitates the use of the tool and reduces the learning curve.
- Task priority function to help you and your team to be more productive and effective.
- The free version is complete.
- Visualization of general objectives to monitor the progress of the project.
Weaknesses of Asana
- It only works online
- The search function is not very robust
- Payment plans include features that may be of little use.
It offers three alternatives: free, premium, and business version. For a small team of up to 15 members or a one-person business, the free version is sufficient.
5. Remember the Milk
Remember the milk allows us to organize and share tasks and integrates with Gmail, Google Calendar, and also with Twitter.
The strong point of this tool is the management of the list of tasks. It can be synchronized with Microsoft Outlook, IFTTT, the smartwatch, and unlimited storage of tasks.
Some disadvantages that are important to know:
- The web design that it has is simple, but it is not the best.
- Sometimes it isn’t easy to find something in it.
It has two plans, one free essential and the other paid “Pro.”
6. Slack
Slack’s strong point is internal communication. You can share and modify files of all kinds.
In Slack, teams work in channels, the place where all their messages, tools, and files are concentrated. Channels can be sorted by team, project, customer, or according to the needs of your organization.
The Slack Application Directory has more than 1500 embeddable applications in Slack.
7. Facebook Workplace
The look and feel of Facebook Workplace are familiar since it is practically the same as that of Facebook: user profile, wall, groups, internal chat, and other elements of the social network that we all already know.
In the same way as in the original social network, in the Workplace, we can create groups (public or closed) for team members. Besides, we can create and schedule meetings, give access to documents, communicate things internally.
In addition to internal chat, we can make voice and video calls if we wish so that we can be connected and have meetings or remote calls at any time.
It should be noted that Facebook Workplace is decoupled from the original Facebook. This implies that your private Facebook user will never appear related to your professional Workplace profile.
It offers a free plan and a premium plan that costs $3/month per active user.
Conclusions
So far, we have presented a very brief summary, and there are hundreds of tasks and project management tools.
Ideally, you should pre-select and take advantage of the free plans to test them with your projects and see if they meet your needs and if you feel comfortable with them. Featured image source