Project Management Tools
Are project management tools worth it? There are a plethora of project management tools out there and it can be overwhelming to choose which one is best for you and your team, or if it’s even worth it at all. Below are my thoughts on the pros to using a project management tool and a review of some project management tools I’ve used in the past.
Pro #1 - Managing & Organizing your Tasks
This is how I think project management tools are most effective. I used to use a pen and paper to make a list of all of my tasks, but being able to put my tasks in the cloud, I can organize them better without having to find where I wrote them down and know exactly when they are due. It also provides more accountability to you and your team with reminders, due dates, etc.
Pro # 2 - Collaboration
Collaboration is key for me with project management tools. Assigning tasks or passing on a task to a colleague is easy to do with project management tools. It’s a way to see what you are working on, but also see who is working on what and how all the tasks / project are moving along.
Pro #3 - Document Storage
Documents can be tied to tasks which makes it a great way to easily find what you need in order to work on your task.
Project Management Tools
I haven’t used all the project management tools out there, but I have tried a handful. Below are the ones I have tried and my thoughts on them. I will note that all of the platforms below have some soft of free plan except for Microsoft Project.
Wrike - this is my favorite project management tool. I like the utilitarian design as all I need a project management tool to do is organize my tasks. It’s nothing fancy, but organizes tasks within categories with an easy way to assign tasks to people. I also like how you can easily make tasks dependent on other tasks.
Asana - this has a more bubbly interface, I’ve used it before and find it easy to use and navigate. I don’t love their timeline feature as I think it could be more robust.
Airtable - this was very popular a few years back. I found it innovative as it combined lists and sheets allowing you to manipulate data in an interesting way.
Notion - people love it, including my business partner. It does a bit of everything and is great for businesses that are just starting. Unfortunately, my brain struggles to use it.
Jira - a lot of developers like Jira. It has a nice ticketing system that is easy to use for fixing software bugs.
Smartsheet - I used this tool in the past for building schedules, simple and straightforward.
ClickUp - similar to Wrike and Asana, not my preferred project management tool.
Microsoft Project - this was one of the first project management tools I used. I used it to make a schedule for a multi-year, large project I managed. Unfortunately, I’m not a Microsoft person and find their tools to not be user friendly and clunky. It might be good for larger-scale projects.
- D