How to choose the right project management tool

Organizations are still struggling with project management. Some of the common signs include repeatedly updating spreadsheets, frequent meetings for status updates, clarifications and a lot of time and effort wasted!

There are many project management software tools available today, it’s important to choose the right one that’ll provide you with the best results. Stay on top of each project by using our guide to choose the right project management tool.

What is project management software?

Do you have nightmares of bulky project management applications you used in the past? Project management applications today are cloud-based and available in a Software-as-a-Service model. These new applications have been rapidly adopted by a wide range of industries for project planning, management, resource allocation, and scheduling.

Modern project management applications enable project managers and teams to view information in real-time, control budgets and quality. They also facilitate collaboration among project stakeholders which allows the latest updates to be shared with each other.

Before diving into choosing the right project management tool, you need to consider your current project management processes. If you are using an agile methodology, you need a tool that supports that methodology. If your team is into visual workflows, like Kanban boards, choose a project management tool that supports it.

Read on: How Vault works with various project management methodologies

Choosing a feature-rich and flexible project management tool will help your team create and manage project plans, tasks, phases, milestones, and due dates.

Key features your project management tool should have

Project management features vary, but here are the six most important ones and why they are essential:

1. Communication and Collaboration Functionalities

We’ve all heard about why communication is vital in a project. It keeps all stakeholders informed and streamlines communication across teams.

Finding a tool that has communication features across the platform is essential. There are different types of communication modes - you can have comments, alerts, and notifications. Notifications help alert a person about a particular task or activity.

Vault’s project management tool automatically colors priority tasks, and 'My Task' labels appear to people who have tasks assigned to their name. Real-time notifications and visual reminders across devices make communication seamless.

You can also find project management tools that integrate with other applications.

2. Status updates

A good project management tool should provide status updates. It should allow you to easily monitor the project status and provide you with customized views.

Vault provides real-time dashboards that show the project status, key metrics and is customizable for relevant audiences.

3. Monitor Project Timelines

If you want to successfully manage a project, you need to know the status of tasks, dependencies, and other elements. Project timelines offer in-depth information while Gantt charts provide a visual timeline view. So a project management tool with built-in Gantt chart capabilities is a plus.

Read on: How Gantt charts help in different areas of project management

4. Resource Management, Allocation, and Optimization

Project management involves managing various resources. Choosing a tool that helps managers create and assign tasks to resources is essential.

A Survey showed that over 40% of the project managers point out resource management as one of their main challenges, with a few of them relying on spreadsheets for clarity.

As far as resource management goes, a good project management tool must provide visibility into your workflow, tasks, allocated resources, project estimates, planning, and scheduling of your resources, time and work.

5. Measuring Performance

Project success depends on the performance of various key factors. The stakeholders and project managers need to know how the project is performing. If it’s performing well and is on target, then everything is fine. If it’s going beyond schedule, facing scope creep, costs are increasing, or any of the key performance indicators (KPIs) are underperforming, then it requires attention at the earliest stage.

Choose a project management software that helps monitor KPIs and has robust reporting capabilities. KPI dashboards and real-time data views help provide valuable insights into project performance.

Read on: Vault's ultimate guide: tracking KPIs for project management

6. Time tracking

As the famous saying goes, ‘Time is money’. It’s important to know where your resources are spending their time on projects. Many project management tools have time tracking capabilities. You can view time spent by resources on projects, clients, departments, and tasks. By tracking working hours, you can understand the capacity of your team which can lead to greater visibility when billing. Increase project profitability by having insight into time utilization.

Today's project management tools have various advanced features such as visualization tools, API integration, risk analysis, and many more.

Read on: How technology improves project management

What's the optimal project management tool?

With a project failure rate over 70%, choosing the right project management tool for your organization is crucial. If you’re looking for suitable project management software for your organization, we recommend you try Vault.

Vault empowers project managers to take complete control of projects.  

Reach out to us for a consultative call to explore how Vault can help you with project management.