Question

Research various types of project management software tools, making sure to include a variety of options such as Windows or Mac platforms, web-based or cloud-based, and free or fee-based options. Utilize some of the online resources provided to you as well as findings from your own research. Describe your findings by providing a summary of each tool: features, cost, platform, etc. Which tool would you recommend and why? Are there particular projects each tool might be better suited to handle?

There are many factors that affect the success of a project. What are some of the factors, and which one do you consider to be the most important factor to ensuring a successful project? Why? Make sure to support your reasoning.

Answer 1

Solution: Project Management actually refers to the process of taking care of the project from its beginning to the end by using a structured and scientific approach. It may include tasks such as project activities, management of the human as well as monetary resources, keeping a track of time, etc. Project Management tools are actually software that helps the project managers to manage their projects efficiently by improving the productivity and performance of the teams, coordinating between the teams, planning and scheduling important project tasks, project budgeting, reporting, etc. There are many varieties of project management tools that are available these days for the project managers at their disposal. They are mainly divided into four categories:

On-Premise Software: Software applications that are installed on the company's computer systems or servers and the company has to pay for the yearly license for that software.

Cloud-Based Software: These software tools are hosted on cloud servers of the vendor and the users have to pay monthly or yearly for the services.

Collaborative Software: These software tools are designed and developed in such a way so that a number of people can collaborate and contribute to a particular project.

High-End Software: These software tools are designed and developed on special request of the client to manage a very complex project. These are developed as a central project management system for very large scale companies.

There are certain factors that have to be discussed before moving ahead for the comparison between different Project Management tools. These tools are evaluated using these factors. The project management tool must be able to facilitate the collaboration of different teams on a particular project. It must allow different contributors to the ease of sharing files online. It must be able to provide the managers to manage a dashboard in order to monitor the progress that has been made in the project. It must support the integration of third-party tools such as google drive, skype, etc.

Here we'll discuss the top three software management tools. Let's begin with the comparison:

Mavenlink: It is one of the most popular Project Management tools which provides a combination of project management, time-tracking, and resource planning in a single software package. The most important feature of this tool is its powerful BI engine that allows advanced project reporting on a particular project. It allows the allocation of the resources on the basis of the speed of change in project development. It is also not very expensive as the monthly subscription for one month is $37 per user.

Proofhub: The most salient feature of this tool is that it comes with the integration of software tools that are essential to any Project Management process. Due to this, it provides ease of handling the project better and faster. It comes along with inbuilt proofing and annotation tools. It allows flexible task management and it has state of the art file storage system. It can be availed with a subscription of $45/month.

Basecamp: It is a project management and team collaboration software that also comes with an integrated package of tools that are essential to any project. The best thing about this tool is that it provides all the tools that a team needs on a project in a single place. It allows the users to share their work on a project online. It also has the functionality of providing separate dashboards to monitor the work of different teams on a particular project. It also comes with a monthly plan of $99 for unlimited number of users.

Here's the solution to your question. Thanks for asking and happy learning!!