The best thing about this blog is that we have tried to focus on one main topic: the most important tools for managing our project management business. We are not going to talk about all the fancy stuff like Agile methodologies, as long as it’s important and has high ROI, but more than enough that you can use them to get things done quickly.
Of course I do have different opinions on project management tools. Some of these are actually quite useful to me. But for those who just want to see the whole picture, let’s take a look at some tools that work great for us — no matter how big or small our team.
1. JIRA
Perhaps the biggest platform for software to make life much easier for anyone involved in any kind of industry, JIRA stands out as the go-to for everything from getting new users onboard, setting up meetings, tracking progress, etc. It comes with a number of nice features, the most helpful being version control, which means you can modify your projects without affecting the structure of existing versions. However, its greatest advantage is ease of collaboration, not only with other people, but also among stakeholders — making sure everyone is aware of the current state of your project and is able to communicate with the right person. This makes it perfect for smaller teams and/or companies that are trying to establish clear communication channels from the very start.
2. Kanban
One of my favorite tools for planning for complex undertakings, and probably one of many others too. In fact, it even makes creating documents obsolete! Having such an open tool allows you to organize your information both in terms of concepts and workflow rather than simply on paper, giving you much better visibility into what you need to accomplish. You can also track every milestone on the way, thus increasing efficiency of your entire process. There are lots of features like “Priority Lists”, meaning the order of tasks your team should finish (or avoid), so if your manager wants things prioritized correctly he can.
3. Asana
Asana is basically a google doc, but for entrepreneurs. Since it’s mainly used to plan and track daily work activities, it does well for small teams. What you can do with Asana is that it helps keep things organized by keeping tabs on each individual task. This gives you the ability to assign a set of tasks to someone, not only to complete them, but to track their time and effort. For example, say instead of looking at each document manually, you could write down the information there is to print and then add some comments to each task, giving yourself a view into what you’re going to see next. With “Priority Lists”, your tasks aren’t really ranked (there are always multiple choices) but everything that you’ll have to deal with will be given at least some importance, allowing you to do your job properly.
4. Hubris Tasks
One of my favorite tools I’ve found for myself and my family since 2004. Since it helps you easily identify whether you’ve accomplished your task or not, it helps keep track of which tasks you’ve completed, thus ensuring that you know exactly what needs doing. Not only that, but Hubris also has a built-in planner which can help with detailed flowcharting and scheduling, so you can stay on top of everything. If anything else, it will definitely help you gain confidence and build team momentum. This is particularly useful for small companies that have a lot of projects and don’t have a designated owner or manager helping them all.
5. Scrum
Scrum was founded by Eric Ries, Ken Kanter and Bill Mollison. Though originally written for scrum masters, over the years more and more support for other skill levels and types has emerged. Scrum supports cross-functional teamwork, where all members of a team share responsibilities, duties and resources to complete assigned tasks. This is especially useful for large companies, as Scrum encourages a common understanding of values, and by having a shared goal and a common ground, the outcome is usually a positive effect. Personally, I find Scrum extremely useful for large organizations, especially ones with hundreds of departments and a wide range of roles within them. Being able to work efficiently with a dedicated group is a great opportunity to develop leadership skills and a sense of belonging.
6. Trello
For those who have already started using kanban (which I personally prefer), Trello comes with tons of powerful features. You can create boards and cards for free on Google Drive or in the Trello app itself, which you can edit. You can even export your decks and export them as plain text. They have so many features that I still find it hard to grasp. One of particular interest for my team is to define tasks, assign them to individuals and then mark them completed. Also, you can organize them by stage of development, allowing you to estimate when a task needs to be finished. Along with tasks, you can also identify what you want to accomplish, giving yourself greater clarity about what needs doing. All of this is done easily with just a few clicks and without waiting for hours over email. So if you already have an idea how to do something, with Trello you could start working immediately!
7. Basecamp
Basecamp is perhaps one of the most popular project management tools for beginners, but it still continues to grow. It offers web-based and desktop options, though now you have to pay for licenses and other services. On the basis of functionality, I’ve used Basecamp in past and my biggest advice would be to stick with the desktop experience, which works well for quick-time completion and requires less technical knowledge. Another downside we’ve had so far is difficulty finding a co-founder. Most of us just use it as a backup when one of our team members gets sick, or something happens to make her unavailable. This is actually okay. When she’s absent we’ve been working on our own basecamp without problem. But there’s still room for improvement. Still, if you want to try and implement Basecamp with your team, I recommend starting gradually with free solutions that offer basic features. Once you do decide to buy a license, however, there’s nothing stopping you from becoming one of those experienced professionals with excellent functionality.
8. Lino
Lino is a fantastic project management tool that I’ve used both in my career and personal projects. A lot of companies use this software to streamline their day-to-day operations and make daily tasks easy. Their features include collaborative filtering, task lists, issue tags, custom branding, etc. It has a number of great features, and you can sign up here with your email address. But you can do more with it! It’s also customizable so you can customize it to fit your team, whatever you want to call it. Definitely worth a try.
9. Microsoft Project
Microsoft’s MS-Project is a super useful tool for building various kinds of project structures, and being able to visualize each structure on a screen is something that I’ve really enjoyed. Even after years and years of using the product, most people have never seen anything remotely similar and I could never imagine why. And while that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s superior to Adobe Figma for most purposes, it’ll surely be a breeze to navigate and a joy to figure things out — especially when dealing with a little bit of math, which we did with Excel before moving onto excel. Just remember that you will always find a need for extra space or sometimes to remove data and that all will become clear as soon as you start dragging and dropping things around. More importantly, when you’re stuck, you can open the Windows Search bar and type in relevant keywords that match and find what you need.
10. Pivotal
I’ve already mentioned it here before, but if you’ve never heard of Pivotal before it’s certainly worth the time to check it out. Its name alone shows how it can solve many problems that you might have had, and in the case of the software company, they’ve made things better. From the interface to the application, everything is made easy, so that people can see what their work looks like without needing to touch anything. Apart from work, you can use it for everything from creating and maintaining your social media pages, communicating online with your team, setting deadlines, etc. That’s a huge list, isn’t it? It’ll save you a ton of time and help improve your overall productivity.
There are lots of tools to choose from, but for me, none of them are a substitute for a real mentor or coach, but they may be the best tools you’ll ever learn. After all, they’re all tailored to meet your needs, and it takes a lot more than just telling a story to master them. Good luck on your journey.
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