For IT teams, 2022 is expected to be a year of transition and difficulties. The IT PMO now has to handle a wide range of initiatives, and as a result, IT Project Management has taken a leap in Remote team management.

We have a great introduction to IT PMOs that explains what an IT PMO is, what an IT PMO can accomplish for your firm, and how Orangescrum can assist.

It serves as a fundamental manual for how IT PMO and IT Project Management Software might support organizational alignment with and achievement of strategic goals.

A crucial component of the jigsaw is IT Project Management. In order to match your business ambitions, it must ultimately prioritize and enable project work that IT teams may carry out.

We aim to move on to the IT PMO over the course of a three-blog series. The following subjects will be covered when we delve a little further into IT initiatives made possible by the PMO:

1. The teams’ condition of readiness and flexible IT project management in 2022
2. Enabling openness in product development and IT operations
3. Ideas for launching the execution of an IT project successfully

The challenges: The condition of IT in 2022

The COVID and post-COVID worlds, which IT teams have successfully led with remarkable success, have been discussed and written about extensively. IT teams effectively enabled their whole organization to stabilize and prosper as their workforce migrated remotely, changing from a “black box cost center” to a “business-enabling value center” in what seemed to happen overnight and during 2020–2021.

These same teams have been entrusted with reducing the inefficiencies within their hybrid models as we moved toward more permanent remote, hybrid, and in-office setups. While some businesses have had incredible success, others are having trouble. Due to this, concerns over the efficacy of remote and hybrid teams will likely increase in popularity by 2022.

Organizations have seen economic flashes of uncertainty during Q2 2022, which has heightened worries about a potential recession. As businesses look for ways to cut expenses through OpEx and CapEx spending, the early response has started to become apparent.

These COVID and financial realities have given rise to a new baseline of expectations for IT teams, which is further supported by the following prevalent patterns in IT leadership polls in 2022:

1. Teams in IT and business must work together more effectively than before.
2. Despite the enormous expansion of Agile, Waterfall is still useful today.

IT teams must switch from custom software to collaborative solutions where actual product development gets into the domain and team management gets easier. With IT project management software like Orangescrum, it can be much easier to achieve what has been planned.

The post-COVID realities provide us with a prism through which to view fundamental issues that have existed for some time:

1. When adjusting to today’s changing world, flexibility is crucial.
2. There are still inefficiencies between the business and IT operations.

The best IT teams can easily adjust to the difficulty. The best may take it as a chance to not just adapt but also set new standards for adaptability, cooperation, and openness across the board. Let’s look into a few more options for improving our IT personnel.

1. Enable IT teams, to use flexible project management

The SaaS and cloud transition notwithstanding, the information technology industry is still quite complicated. There are many situations in IT project management that contradict corporate standards or processes, which makes cross-functional integration with other business units even more necessary. It’s crucial to have a strategy that may be both prescriptive and adaptable in case your project calls for novel or unusual ways.

Let’s start by taking a look at some of the typical project difficulties that IT teams encounter internally. Then, we’ll talk about how working with the company further reveals the gaps in our connections.

Agile

IT teams all search for ways to incorporate organizational culture into their methods for working on agile projects. While some people prefer more empirical techniques, others search for entertaining and original ways to gauge the length of a tale.

Agile approaches are a great fit for product development, but what about teams like IT Operations or IT Support?

When attempting to integrate Agile approaches into their work (such as data center move), these teams frequently encounter difficulties. A mixed strategy might frequently become a reality. Instead of tearing work apart and compelling it to conform to a predetermined strategy, processes and projects need the flexibility to allow teams to finish their task successfully.

Waterfall

Although Agile is often the technique of choice for product development teams for managing IT projects, there are still prospects for Waterfall projects in the IT industry today.

For instance, Waterfall, or a mixture of Waterfall and Agile is frequently used in projects within IT Operations, Support, or other infrastructure teams and projects. As IT engineers and administrators spend more and more time on capability enablement in comparison to traditional historical methods like infrastructure provisioning, SaaS and Cloud environments are also altering the work of an IT engineer and administrator today.

Once more, a strategy that preserves the adaptability to carry out tasks effectively becomes ideal.

Since the many initiatives within an IT department are dynamic, no one technique or structure can possibly be ideal. Your teams require the flexibility to carry out their task in a logical manner in the modern world. They must promote efficiency while upholding the standards for security, dependability, quality, etc. And the IT department is the only one using this internally.

What about cross-functional engagement with the business, where IT can take part in a variety of projects carried out by other departments in addition to IT-led projects with standard business collaboration?

Encourage seamless teamwork for all organizational tasks

The days of IT teams using tools made specifically for one use and rendered useless when applied to other uses, such as supporting Enterprise Service Management (ESM) inside an organization or taking part in business-led projects, are long gone.

The modern workplace demands that IT teams communicate in the same language as the rest of the organization, collaborate on the same platform, and move work among the numerous teams as seamlessly as possible.

Great IT teams are unable to revert to a “black box” mentality where their actions, metrics for success, and outcomes are internal to their department and unconnected to the rest of the business.

A single language for the IT PMO and/or organizational PMO is enabled through transparency into Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), shared dashboards with uniform measurement criteria, and reporting that can handle any department.

Modern projects should make it simple for any employee to carry out the task remotely without having to gradually learn how to use specialist equipment. The leadership should have a constant understanding of their PMO accomplishments or issues, and staff members should be able to work with one another with ease even remotely. This can happen only in good remote team management.

What could be done right away, though?

A stiff cliffhanger simply doesn’t feel right in a post on flexibility. Here are some provocative questions you may start debating right now to assess where you are right now and where you can go:

• Do we adapt our IT project management strategy to the work, or does the work adapt to the strategy?
• Do our interactions actually encourage productivity across all teams?
• Do other departments and vice versa have seamless access to our work?
• What tools do we employ to collaborate on business goals outside of IT?
• Are the Enterprise Service Management solutions actually intended for the enterprise?

IT industry is still facing certain difficulties in 2022. The need to collaborate closely with departments outside of IT is driven by the ongoing need to adapt to the post-COVID workplace, uncertainties in the economic environment, and a number of trends.

With the best project management software for IT Teams available in the market, managing the work and team along with adapting to the environment was made easy.

As was mentioned, two excellent methods to start adapting to all of these changes are by providing flexible project management and encouraging seamless cooperation across all departments using effective tools like Orangescrum for Project Management for IT teams. Try Orangescrum with 15 days free trial to manage your IT team.

All businesses manage multiple projects simultaneously and have different team members working on them. The timely completion of a project depends largely on how well it is managed. Keeping all team members informed about the progress of the project is a huge task in itself.

That is where project management software comes in. It helps in eliminating the hurdles associated with handling a project when a team is working together. Let’s check out what this software is and why it is important for your business.

What Is Project Management Software?

A Project Management Software or PMS is a solution that makes it easy for teams to collaborate on projects. It helps in planning, organizing, developing resource estimates, managing resource tools, and allocating resources for the project.

Project managers can assign the tasks and define the responsibilities of all team members. At the same time, the members can keep a track of the stage at which the project is. So, Project Management Software allows a smooth flow of information between everyone involved in a project.

Why is Project Management Software important for your business?

Proper planning and efficient communication between the team members leads to your project’s success. Project Management Software helps you do that and much more. Let’s find out how a PMS is important for your business:

Ease of use

As a project manager, you need to keep a track of all your ongoing projects and the activities carried out by different members. Doing it without management software becomes extremely time-consuming. You will have to use spreadsheets, emails, notepads, and many more tools for manually managing a project.

All your project files will also be scattered around different places. It becomes difficult to manage everything when you are working on multiple projects.

Project Management Software makes it very easy to handle different projects at the same time. It brings in efficiency and keeps everything in a single place for easier access at all times.

Well-Organized Workflow

The biggest obstacle in achieving a project’s deadline lies in the unorganized workflow. When handling it manually, a team member might not know when to start working on the project, thereby leading to delays.

On the other hand, Project Management Software provides a clear picture of the project’s progress to each of its members. Everyone knows when to begin working on a specific project. Such a well-organized workflow leads to the timely completion of the project.

Team Collaboration

Big business projects are often divided into smaller parts to achieve the goals easily. Such smaller tasks are then assigned to different employees according to their efficiencies. But this collaboration becomes extremely difficult when managing a project manually.

But with Project Management Software, teams can easily collaborate on different projects. Employees can discuss the tasks involved in finishing the project, the dependencies of these tasks, and their timelines. Every project member knows his duty and the deadline to complete it because of improved team collaboration.

Security

With manual project management, your task files are shared through mediums that might not be secure enough. However, specialized Project Management Software, like Orangescrum, comes with stability, security, and professional support.

When you install a PMS with a shared host, you risk the security of your project files. A shared server has hundreds of users, including the ones carrying out shady activities. So, you won’t be able to protect your account even if the host servers are bulletproof! It is, therefore, recommended to choose self-hosted software for managing your project for better security.

Cost Tracking

The success of any business depends on efficient project budgeting. But when you are keeping a track of your project costs manually, you might accidentally skip an expense and go over the budget. Moreover, it is too time-consuming to maintain and manage spreadsheets for different business projects simultaneously.

That is why Project Management Software is important to track your project costs. From the budget planning stage to the final delivery of the project, you get to keep a record of every little expense without missing out on anything.

Additionally, it is easy to compare the planned and actual costs of a project. You can find out the money-leaking spots and the high-earning points for your business.

Reporting Capabilities

Efficiently tracking the progress of each of your projects contributes to the long-term success of your business. It becomes extremely difficult and inefficient to manually keep a track of all the ongoing projects and the activities of different employees involved in them. But Project Management Software makes it super-easy to do this job.

The reporting mechanism of a dedicated software solution allows you to make the right decisions at the right time. You will have all the details and reports related to the project (and the related small tasks) in a single place. Daily time registrations help you monitor the project stage quickly even when you are managing multiple projects simultaneously.

Risk Management

There is a risk of failure in every project. A project manager has to prevent the occurrence of such risks and take his project towards success. With manual management, you might not be able to foresee the risks associated with each of your projects.

But with the use of Project Management Software, you can identify all types of risks in advance. Whether the risk is related to the cost of the project or its deadline, dedicated software leads to early risk detection. It, therefore, allows you to deploy risk mitigation techniques by making you aware of the whole situation well before time.

How to Select Project Management Software for Your Team?

You just got to know the importance of Project Management Software for your business. But there are so many management tools available in the market. How to choose the software that fits well with your needs? Let’s find out:

Software Features

Different Project Management Software comes with different features. From simple collaborative tools to advanced solutions, you will find suitable software for every business. But before looking at the features of tools available in the market, it is extremely essential to determine your business requirements.

Consider the number of employees working on different tasks, the size of different projects, and the goals you want to achieve with a dedicated project management solution. Consider whether you are looking for a solution to remain organized with your projects or want proper budgeting and breakdown of every little thing.

Once you are aware of your purpose to choose a PMS, look at the features offered by different tools. Select the one that covers all the aspects related to your business requirements.

User-friendly interface

One of the most important functions of Project Management Software is to make project handling easier. And it is impossible with a complicated user interface. So when you are selecting a solution for your business, look for a simple dashboard that does not overwhelm your employees.

The project team members have to use the software daily and it should improve their efficiency instead of declining it. If possible, look for a management solution that is flexible and can be customized as per your projects. It must improve your team’s productivity and be a good mix of simple and powerful!

Pocket-friendliness

A Project Management Software should not only be user-friendly and feature-rich, but it should also fit within your budget. You must consider the monthly cost your business is ready to bear currently. Then look only for the tools that are available within the amount you are willing to spend.

You will find a wide variety of software ranging from free open-source tools to dedicated solutions that cost hundreds of dollars. Free and cheap tools have limited features while the costlier ones offer some of the most advanced functions. So you can choose a project management solution depending on the current level of business.

Apart from the upfront expenses involved, you must also consider the cost-effectiveness of the software. Since a PMS aims to improve your productivity, look for a tool that will pay for itself in the long run. It must be able to save your time and help you finish more projects, thereby increasing your business income.

Conclusion

Good Project Management Software ensures the success of your projects while making your work easier. You can give a boost to your business operations by using dedicated management software. Choosing the one that aligns with your business needs is the key to the timely completion of your future projects.

It is recommended to use the free version of the tool you like before paying for it. Getting a review from your team would even be a better option. So, choose the free trial of Project Management Software, like Orangescrum, and see if your employees are comfortable working on it. Pay for it only when they give you a green signal because, after all, they are the ones who will be using the tool daily!

So, which management tool are you planning to use for your business?

Project Management Software is normally used for project and task management, scheduling, resource allocation, and planning. It provides opportunities to create tasks and assign them to the right person for effective completion with deadlines in sequential order.

A project management tool helps the manager and team to execute each and every task according to the project planning. It keeps all data and information in a single place which helps to collaborate with everyone easily.

Businesses of all sizes can use a project monitoring app to track their projects. It can be used among a group of the workforce in an organization or to manage personal or individual tasks. Most business industries are using project management apps for better productivity. So let’s have a look at the industries that are using Project Monitoring Software more like,

IT Team: Information technology is a broad field that involves everything from digital security to software development. Project management software works best in this business as specialists keep track of various forms of work for their teams.

Marketing Team: Marketing teams or industries are using project monitoring software to conduct their marketing campaigns efficiently. Project monitoring software helps the marketers to assign work for execution based on the planning.

Remote Team: A project monitoring app helping the remote team to assign the planned tasks to their distributed team without any hassle. Managers can define clear task lists and well-defined workflows to prevent deviations.

Creative Team:  Digital and creative agencies can streamline and speed up their work process with project management software to deliver projects on time.

Besides the above project management apps are being used in advertisement, manufacturing, banking and insurance, education, pharmaceuticals, real estate, government agencies, retail industries, and many more.

So now the question arises, why use a project management App?

According to recent data, 33% of the organizations worldwide are using project management software and the numbers are growing now because of the COVID-19 outbreak. That forces the organizations to adopt a remote working culture among their team. Digital tools like project management apps help them a lot in managing the projects and team in a centralized place.

Apart from managing projects and tasks, the tool is helping in the smooth collaboration of documents, assisting customers, and many more on the same page.

SMEs and large enterprises require project management tools to help facilitate the production and distribution of products and services in order to maximize revenue.

Project management tools help businesses to plan, execute and manage multiple projects at the same time. This software draws out the entire life cycle of a particular project or scheme on a single screen, including planning, creating, systemizing, and administering the scope, budget, etc.

Why a Project Monitoring Apps are Useful for Businesses of Any Size

1. Collaboration:

Project teams are occasionally made up of people from many departments. Therefore, it can be difficult for all stakeholders to attend meetings and stay informed. This communication gap can cause unnecessary project delays and issues, wasting valuable resources. Project Management Software has the significant advantage of making project team cooperation incredibly simple. It maintains all communication in one location. Furthermore, insights such as project timelines and status updates are easily accessible with a single click, and important notifications are instantly forwarded to the appropriate parties.

2. Planning and Scheduling:

Using the project management software helps organize and visualize tasks. Without a tool, it might be difficult for your team to stay on track. This frequently has an impact on one’s productivity.

3. Management of Resources:

Resource management refers to planning, tracking, and maximizing the use of all available resources for a project. This is another important task that can be done with ease using project management software.

4. Budget Administration:

A project management app helps managers keep track of everything using a real-time project reporting tool and preventing project costs from soaring.

5. Documentation:

Some organizations are using spreadsheets, while others are still using the traditional pen and paper to document the progress of their collaborative project. Spreadsheet is not providing accuracy, which is concerning for firms that rely on spreadsheets. A project management software can show you real-time accurate data based on your planning.

Challenges Without Project Monitoring App

Here are some challenges below, that every managers are facing while managing their projects without having project management software;

1. Goals and Objectives Setting:

Goals are bound to be stated and realistic, upon which the objectives are worked. This is one of the major and critical challenges faced by managers of businesses today.

2. Scope Creep:

Scope creep is a unique project management challenge that refers to a change in the requirements of a project from what was initially agreed at the initiation of the project.

3. Change and Restriction in the Budget:

Just like scope creeps, the budget initiated on a particular project becomes restricted as there is a change in the requirements of the project.

4. Lack of Communication:

Communication is one of the important parts of project success. Good team communication is much needed for proper interaction with the team members as tasks are allocated efficiently, and project progress enhances favorable results.

5. Team Conflict:

Misunderstanding, lack of leadership, and strategy in project development reduce productivity. 14% of project managers reported that lack of direction was a cause of conflict in their projects, and 12% reported miscommunication and misunderstandings within the team as a major barrier.

6. Team Skills:

Keeping the right skilled person in the right place helps the manager to get more productivity and faster development. Any form of mismatch between requirements and skill level will definitely cause the project to suffer inefficiencies that could lead to failure over time.

Top Features of Project Management Software

1. Task management:

This enables the creation and assignment of tasks, as well as the setting of deadlines and the compilation of progress reports.

2. Data Collaboration:

A central document repository accessible to project stakeholders boosts productivity.

3. Project Calendar:

The project calendar helps to stay on track with the team to coordinate the work of several teams and finish the project on time. Project timelines comprise planned meetings, activity dates, and contacts, which should be updated automatically across all PM and stakeholder calendars.

4. Bug and issue tracking:

Project management software bug and issue tracking feature ensure that your team is proactive and stays on top of any potential issues.

5. Time tracking:

Project Management Tool time tracking feature helps to track the time spent by each team member and evaluate their performance with a timesheet.

6. Budget and cost management:

With a clear view of the budget, you can make sure you’re sticking to your budget and on track to finish on time. Project management software should be able to record project budgets and have an automatic billing feature.

Checklist before Buying Project Management Tool

It’s always great to show interest in buying project monitoring apps for a project manager. It will not only streamline the work process but also helps in improving productivity and growth. A project management app can help you in many ways. There are so many PM tools available in the market but as a project manager, you need to select the best one which will match your business and team requirements. So you need to consider what the software should do and how it can help them manage their projects. Here is the checklist below,

1. Ease of Use

As a project manager, you need to check for an easy-to-use tool for your team so that with less knowledge one uses the tool and does the needful. At the present time, most of the tools are offering free trials through which you can try 2-3 tools and select the best one among them.

2. Scheduling Tools

Scheduling tasks is the most important thing to align the project in the right direction.  Easy scheduling can be done with the help of the Gantt chart feature and can be used to manage projects effectively by scheduling tasks ahead of time.

3. Task Management

Allocating tasks to other team members should be determined by the tool to be purchased so that they can have an understanding of the aspects of the projects they can focus on. You should also be able to organize and group team members and also add target completion dates.

4. Reporting

Pulling real-time data from various areas of a project and generating a complete report helps the manager to produce reports and keep transparency among team members. A good tool can collect all data with the current status of the project and show it all in the dashboard for real-time reporting.

5. Customization

Customization according to user requirements is an important part of any software. When choosing the tool for the team, you need to check whether the tool is allowing customization based on your requirement or not. So that you can be able to improve and make changes to the look and feel according to your work preferences.

6. Security

The security of data is a big concern nowadays. Functionality is very well appreciated; however, the security of your data, as well as the integrity of your project or scheme should not be put at risk while doing this. You should ensure to check out the security options offered by your preferred software provider.

Conclusion:

project monitoring apps are the best options to manage your project and team to get more productivity. This will also help you in meeting the project deadline as it manages your project, tasks, and resources effectively. It helps SMEs facilitate the production and distribution of products and services in order to maximize revenue.

Orangescrum is one of the best project monitoring software for all businesses. It is a simple, powerful, and intuitive project management feature to manage your projects and teams. From planning to execution, it helps teams manage efficiently and meet deadlines. Sign up now with a 15-days free trial to know more about what the software can do and how it can help them manage their projects.

Project management is an extensive domain spanning across industries. In this article, we have listed The 15 best project management software of 2022 that can be adapted by different industries (IT, healthcare, finance, and infrastructure) for their business success.

Also, we have mentioned the feature-wise comparisons with their pricing information and their industry-based best usage,

Before we dig into these, let’s know:

Why do You Need Project Management Software for Your Business?

Project management software helps project managers to manage the entire project lifecycle from initiation to closure.

The PM software can be used online as a SaaS-based subscription model and also on-premise depending on your preference.

These tools have the features to plan projects, track budgets, manage tasks, allocate resources, analyze charts and reports, share documents, and collaborate with teams globally.

Some of the project management tools also include additional portfolio management or program management features in addition to basic task management, time tracking, collaboration, and project reporting capabilities.

The Best Project Management Tool list

Here we have tried to cover a broad range of project management software considering their functionality, complexity, and price points.

But in real-life it will come down to you and your workflow, and what precise functionality you need to make that job better.

Let’s start from here:

1. Jira

Jira Software is a project management tool for agile teams, customizable for any type of project. Teams can start with a project template or create their own custom workflow.

Jira issues, also known as tasks, tracks each piece of work that passes through the workflow steps to completion. Jira’s automation engine enables teams to easily automate tasks and processes. 

Pricing Plan:

• Standard Plan: Is ideal for growing teams, cost $7 monthly per single user. But it allows creating only a single project within this plan with 250 GB of storage.
• Premium Plan: This plan is ideal for SMBs, cost $14 monthly per single user. It allows creating only a single project as like the “Standard Plan” with unlimited storage capacity.

Freemium Plan:

• Available. Jira comes with a free forever plan with limited features.

SelfHosted:

• Available. Jira is also available in a self-hosted edition.

Rating:

• : 4.4
• : 4.2

Ideal For:

• SMB & Enterprise Business
• IT, Marketing, Financial, Business Industries, Business Consultancy

2. monday.com

monday.com is a simple and intuitive Work Operating System (Work OS) for teams to shape workflows, adjust to shifting team and project needs, create transparency, connect collaboratively, and save time by avoiding manual work.

Pricing Plan:

• Basic  Plan: It cost $8 per user with 5 GB of storage. It only allows creating a dashboard based on 1 board.
• Standard Plan: It cost $10 per user and allows to create 5 boards with additional calendar view and guest view access.
• Pro Plan: This plan will cost $16 per user and allows to create of 10 boards with additional chart view, time tracking, and private boards

Freemium Plan:

• Available. Monday comes with a free forever plan with limited features.

SelfHosted:

• Not Available

Rating:

• : 4.6
• : 4.7

Ideal For:

• Small scale & Large scaled enterprises
• IT, Marketing, Business Consultancy, Infrastructure

3. Asana

Asana is a remote work tool that helps teams orchestrate their work, from daily tasks to strategic initiatives. With Asana, you can connect all your work in one place and bring teams together, anywhere.

From lists to boards, to calendars and gantt charts, organize work your way.

Pricing Plan:

• Premium  Plan: $13.49/user/month
• Business Plan: $30.49/user/month

Freemium Plan:

• Available. Asana comes with a free forever plan with limited features.

SelfHosted:

• Not Available

Rating:

• : 4.4
• : 4.3

Ideal For:

• SMB & Enterprise Business
• IT, Marketing, Business Consultancy, Infrastructure

4. Orangescrum

Orangescrum is a cloud-based project management software that helps to organize projects, teams, and tasks in one place. This online project collaboration tool gives users full visibility and control over their projects, enabling them to deliver projects on time and within budget.

Its feature-rich Android and iOS mobile apps are a huge plus to access your work anytime, anywhere.

The offering features:

• Agile Project Management
• Task Management
• Kanban View
• Time Tracking
• Resource Management
• Remote Team Management
• Reports & Analytics
• Project Template
• Custom Task Status
• User Role Management
• Workload Management
• Budget & Cost Management
• Bug & Issue Fixing
• Gantt Chart
• Slack Integration
• Google Calendar Integration
• Github Integration
• Invoice & Billing

Pricing:

Orangescrum offers 3 pricing plans:

• Startup Plan: This is ideal for startups, cost $9 monthly for 10 users. It allows to create Unlimited Projects, Unlimited Tasks and enables the features like Gantt Chart, Custom Task Status, Task Reminder with 5 GB of Storage.
• Professional Plan: Cost $4 for each After 10 users. Is ideal for the teams that need to manage work across initiatives, and collaborate remotely. With all Startup features included, this plan enables the features like Timesheet, Resource Availability, Google Calendar, In-App Chat, Wiki, and GitHub integration with 10 GB of storage.
• Custom Plan: This plan is ideal for the team that needs to manage complex projects. Orangescrum also provides Priority Support, Dedicated Account Manager and Expert Setup, and Training for this plan. Contact Sales for more details.

Freemium Plan:

• Available. Orangescrum is available with a free-forever plan. The community edition is also available in Open-source.

SelfHosted:

• Available. Orangescrum is also available in a self-hosted edition.

Rating:

• : 4.6
• : 4.5

Ideal For:

• SMB & Enterprise Business
• IT, Marketing, Financial, Business Industries, Educational, Business Consultancy, Infrastructure

5. Wrike

Wrike is a project management software delivering it’s service worldwide. Streamline your OKR management using Kanban boards, Gantt charts, time tracking, custom request forms with auto-assignment, performance reports, resource management and allocation, automated reporting, and shared workflows all in one place.

Pricing Plan:

• Premium  Plan: $13.49/user/month
• Business Plan: $30.49/user/month

Freemium Plan:

• Available. Asana comes with a free forever plan with limited features.

SelfHosted:

• Not Available

Rating:

• : 4.2
• : 4.3

Ideal For:

• SMB & Enterprise Business
• IT, Marketing, Business Consultancy, Infrastructure

6. Trello

From planning a launch to editorial calendar content to meeting agendas and everything in between, Trello software helps your teams to get more done.

Trello is the command center that connects all your tasks and tools to show status updates and due dates, and allows you to quickly comment back and forth to teammates.

Pricing Plan:

• Business  Plan: $10.49/user/month
• Enterprise Plan: $210.00/user/Annually

Fremium Plan:

• Available. Asana comes with a free forever plan with limited features.

SelfHosted:

• Not Available

Rating:

• : 4.5
• : 4.4

Ideal For:

• SMB & Enterprise Business
• IT, Marketing, Business Consultancy, Infrastructure

7. Zoho Project

Zoho Projects is a cloud-based project management software. It helps you plan your projects, and execute them with perfection.

With Projects, you can assign tasks easily, communicate effectively with both your team and clients, be informed on all project updates, get detailed reports on work progress and deliver projects on time, every time.

Pricing Plan:

• Premium  Plan: $5/user/month
• Enterprise Plan: $10/user/month

Freemium Plan:

• Not Available.

SelfHosted:

• Not Available.

Rating:

• : 4.2
• : 4.3

Ideal For:

• SMB & Enterprise Business
• IT, Marketing, Business Consultancy, Infrastructure

8. ClariZen

Clarizen is a cloud-based collaborative work management solution. The only adaptive solution in the market, enterprises can quickly turn ideas into strategies, plans, and actions in order to respond to changing market conditions.

Your teams can work the way they want and you’ll have real-time visibility into all your work streams.

Pricing Plan:

• Not provided by the vendor

Freemium Plan:

• Not Available

SelfHosted:

• Not Available

Rating:

• : 4.2
• : 4.1

Ideal For:

• SMB & Enterprise Business
• IT, Marketing, Business Consultancy, Infrastructure

9. ClickUp

ClickUp is a project management platform focused on efficient task management. It is built for all team sizes and industries. As it is customizable, ClickUp is a must-have tool for agile teams that want to keep every workflow in one intuitive place.

Pricing Plan:

• Unlimited Plan: $5/user/month

Freemium Plan:

• Available

SelfHosted:

• Not Available

Rating:

• : 4.2
• : 4.7

Ideal For:

• SMB & Enterprise Business
• IT, Marketing, Business Consultancy, Infrastructure

10. ProofHub

ProofHub helps you to get more work done faster and together. By keeping your teams on the same page, or committing to deadlines and celebrating success, you and your team and clients can do it all under one roof, using one work management system.

Pricing Plan:

• Essential Plan: $50/month (no user limit)
• Unlimited Plan: $99/month (no user limit)

Freemium Plan:

• Available

SelfHosted:

• Not Available

Rating:

• : 4.2
• : 4.7

Ideal For:

• Small scaled & Large scaled enterprises
• IT, Marketing, Business Consultancy, Infrastructure

11. KissFlow

Kissflow comes with more flexibility and different customization options like drag and drops functionality. Here users can design their own workflow or choose from predefined templates. Kissflow offers unlimited team collaboration options to the users and allows third-party integrations.

Pricing Plan:

• Starter Plan: $35/5-user/month
• Professional Plan: $60/5-user/month

Freemium Plan:

• Available

SelfHosted:

• Not Available

Rating:

• : 3.8
• : 4.3

Ideal For:

• SMB & Enterprise Business
• IT, Marketing, Business Consultancy

12. Mavenlink

Discover the top PSA software solution built by services professionals, for services professionals. Mavenlink unifies resource management, project management, collaboration, project financials, and business intelligence in one solution.

Pricing Plan:

• Professional Plan: $39/month

Freemium Plan:

• Not Available

SelfHosted:

• Not Available

Rating:

• : 4.2
• : 4.1

Ideal For:

• SMB & Enterprise Business
• IT, Marketing, Business Consultancy

13. TeamWork

Teamwork is project management software that helps in-house teams & agencies improve collaboration, visibility, accountability, and ultimately results. With all the features you need to plan, collaborate on, and deliver your work, it takes care of the details so your team’s talents are freed to achieve the results that matter to your business.

Use Teamwork to manage everything from delivering client projects to executing marketing campaigns, to sprint planning and product launches.

Pricing Plan:

• Deliver Plan: $10/user/month
• Glow Plan: $18/user/month

Freemium Plan:

• Available

SelfHosted:

• Not Available

Rating:

• : 4.5
• : 4.4

Ideal For:

• SMB & Enterprise Business
• IT, Marketing, Business Consultancy

14. nTask

nTask is arising, relatively new, yet the most advanced project management software right now. It offers an all-in-one tool that comes with pre-packed features providing smart coverage to all your project needs.

 

Pricing Plan:

• Premium Plan: $2.99user/month
• Business Plan: $7.99/user/month

Freemium Plan:

• Available
  

SelfHosted:

• Not Available
  

Rating:

• : 4.0
• : 4.5

Ideal For:

• SMB & Enterprise Business
• IT, Marketing, Business Consultancy

15. Ganttic

Ganttic is a resource planning and project portfolio management tool. Quickly schedule all your project-related resources, including people, vehicles, rooms, and equipment. The customizable platform ensures you meet project capacity, balance utilization, and hit deadlines with efficiency and ease. 

Pricing Plan:

• Paid Plan: Start at $25 per month/ unlimited users/ up to 20 bookable resources.

Freemium Plan:

• Available
  

SelfHosted:

• Not Available
  

Rating:

• : 4.2
• : 4.0

Ideal For:

• SMBs
• Marketing, Business Consultancy

But what is a suitable project management tool for you?

I have just listed 15 tools above but there are 100+ tools available, even for doing a single project-related job.

But the tools which are specialized in managing tasks, resource scheduling, making Gantt charts, managing digital assets, communication, creating reports, managing requirements, etc, are more suitable for end-to-end project management.

What makes an adequate project management tool?

Defining an adequate project management tool is focused on capabilities that facilitate the ‘doing’ aspect of a project.

Or the simplest answer is “the better functionalities” and “the usability”.

You might have not figured out the best-required tool from this project management software list. 

So, here we have identified the key aspects of useful functionalities that help run your projects efficiently.

Task lists – Projects are made up of sub-tasks, sub-sub-tasks, checklists, and to-do. Project managers can able to draw what needs to be completed, by when, and by whom, which is critical to delivering a project from this task list.

Schedules – Timelines, calendars, and Gantt charts help you know where tasks fit within the broader scheme of a project. This is key to being able to deliver the project on time.

File Collaboration – No one likes having to waste time trying to dig around for random files. The skill to arrange and share key project files and information is important to timely execution.

Resource & Time Management: Real-time resource and time management helps you to plan and execute new business deals. To deliver the projects on time or ahead of time you need to reply on ideal resource scheduling.

Communication – Contextual project-specific communication to hash things out quickly and chat with your team and client is vital to keep tasks on track.

Analytics & Reporting – As project managers, it’s our job to know whether or not our project is on track. Therefore, it’s essential to know how a project’s tasks are progressing, will it be delivered on time, or not?

And the core features of Orangescrum:

• Agile Project Management – Visual & Clutter-free Agile Project Management brings your customers and teams together to deliver projects successfully.
• Task Management – Get the complete picture of all tasks & team activities in real-time.
• Kanban View – Track the status of all your tasks from start to finish and keep your team aligned.
• Time Tracking – Get the full view of your team’s spent hours across projects for the week at a glance
• Timesheet – Automated Timer for Accurate Time Tracking
• Resource Management – Know your resource availability, allocate effectively and manage workload.
• Reports & Analytics -Fine Reporting tool to monitor project performance 
• Project Template – The customizable templates to fit your teams’ needs and project use cases.
• Custom Task Status – Custom task status lets you build tailor-made workflows for every team & process in your organization.
• User Role Management – Define custom role groups, assign roles & customize the access privileges
• Workload Management – Workload management software for any team and business to coordinates plans, projects, and processes of your entire organization to manage the entire lifecycle of work.
• Gantt Chart – Visualize tasks progress in a single timeline view

FAQs

Q. Why use project management software?

Ans. The project management software is a platform for managers to plan, observe, and report the glitch at projects as well as it lets to collaborate, allocate and track the spending hours on each stage of the project progress. A strong project management tool empowers teams, so they can manage all the details crucial for a successful project.

Q. What are the key advantages of using project management software?

Ans. Many types of project management have been developed to meet the specific needs of certain industries or types of projects.

• Team Collaboration
• Smoother Scheduling & Planning
• Better Time Management
• Cost Reduction
• On-time Delivery

Q. What kind of software development projects can be executed by the scrum project management framework?

Ans: Simply, scrum is a method for managing projects that allow for quick development and testing, especially within a small team & increasing business value by ensuring that customers get what they actually want.

Q. How does Project management software produces project road maps?

Ans. Orangescrum is trusted by product managers to plan their product roadmap, groom the backlogs, run feature sprints, and ship quality products with in-depth agile project management skills.

Q. What is scrum in software project management?

Ans. Scrum is an agile framework, where you deliver or add value to a product or service in an incremental and iterative manner. It encourages constant review, feedback adoption & collaboration that lead to high-quality deliverables and increased productivity.

Q. What other types of software can you use to assist in project scope management?

Ans. Slack, GitHub, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc, we can integrate these into project scope management. 

Q. What does it mean to simplify teamwork with project management software?

Ans. Bringing people together to work collectively is no longer a choice but a necessity for any project-based endeavors. We all know that successful project execution relies heavily on great teamwork and that can be managed smoothly with a well-featured teamwork software which clearly shows the picture of how different skills and personalities of a group of people can work together harmoniously to achieve the project objective.

Q. What are the challenges to face while running the project management tool at your business?

Ans. The key challenges to face:

• Lack of project management tool practice
• Lack of Stakeholder(s) & Sponsor interest
• Unmanageable Scope Creep
• Ineffective Time and Resource Management practices
• Poorly defined Task Management processes
• Not using a relevant Project Management & Collaboration tool

What Do You Think?

So, what do you think? Are we missing something from this project management tools review? Or are there any different criteria for selecting the ideal PM tool?  I would love to hear your suggestions.