According to a report by Capterra, 59% of U.S. workers say communication is their team’s biggest obstacle to success. Managing multiple projects and healthy communication at once is difficult on a good day and absolutely impossible when an unwanted problem get in the way.
Project management is an art of orchestrating all the moving pieces into a concrete plan. And doing this is not an easy job. But how do successful project managers do it so effortlessly? With the use of best project management tools.
During my career as a project manager, I’ve come across some of the best tools which have helped me in flawless project planning and productive team coordination. However, there is no general rule and different tools are perfect to cater to the needs of different team sizes.
If we talk about startups specifically, team sizes are small, project agility is high, and team coordination is really critical. In this article, I’ve listed some of the best project management tools that can work for such cases.
1. Asana
Lists are inevitable and the most celebrated ways to organize information. And that is why to-dos are an integral part of any project management. There are many to-dos list maker, though Asana is the one I’ve preferred the most. Managing to-dos on Asana is easy along with creating and sharing them with your teams.
Also, Asana has an exceptionally easy interface so you won’t be spending too much time navigating through the software. For every to-do, Asana provides you with the option to create sub-tasks, define each task, add a category tag, and attach files.
2. Paymo
If you are a service company, invoicing and time tracking are two important feature requirements for your project management system. Paymo is an excellent software that works directly with clients. The free version allows single-user access only. However, if you’re a small team or a freelancer, this works best.
It helps you track finances, organize project timelines, and create to-do lists. At the same time, it also includes Kanban boards, time tracking, file sharing, Adobe CC extension, reporting, and three invoices.
3. BaseCamp
Successful project management is all about getting team collaboration right. It’s only in the past couple of years that project managers have realized that email is not a productive tool when it comes to team collaboration. If you’ve Googled project management tools, I am sure you must have come across BaseCamp.
Basecamp is a hot favorite among app developers in Los Angeles, where I work. Its simple message boards, native chat app and internal file sharing option make Basecamp a prominent choice for teammates and clients alike.
4. Jira
Jira provides you with Kanban, Agile, and Scrum planning boards along with plenty of other features that allow development teams to share and integrate their data with others. It also has detailed reporting tools and customized dashboards to give you comprehensive progress of the individual projects.
One of the most compelling features of Jira is its customizable workflows. Automating the workflows is also easy with app integration. Apart from this, it has 900 possible app integration to suit your dynamic needs.
5. Teamwork
If you’re a startup that has a remote team, the Teamwork project management tool works best for you. This works best in bringing a remote team together by letting you create team member status updates so remote workers know their coworkers' schedules.
It also has customer service functions which include options to assign tickers, locate customer’s emails in a single place, etc. Apart from this, private messaging and the option to make project details private makes Teamwork an appealing project management tool.
Project management is indeed an integral part of the app development industry. Doing it right is the key! Connect with me on Twitter @Eric_Smith09 and let me know if you use any other tools and why.
Top comments (1)
Hey Eric, great overview. There were some tools here I haven't seen before.
What are you guys using at Rodeo Apps?