A Checklist and Features for Buying Project Management Software

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2. Project Management software normally used for project and task management, scheduling, resource allocation, and planning. It provides opportunities to create tasks and assign them to the right person for effective completion with deadlines in a sequential order. A project management tool helps the manager and team to execute each and every task according to the project planning. It keeps all data and information in a single place which helps to collaborate with everyone easily. Businesses of all sizes can use a Project Monitoring App to track their projects. It can be used among a group of workforce in an organization or to manage personal or individual tasks. Most of the business industries are using Project Monitoring Software for better productivity. So let's have a look at the industries who are using project management software more like, IT Team: Information technology is a broad field that involves everything from digital security to software development. Project management software works best in this business as specialists keep track of various forms of work for their teams. Marketing Team: Marketing teams or industries are using project management software to conduct their marketing campaigns efficiently. Project management software helps the marketers to assign work for execution based on the planning. Remote Team: A project monitoring app helping the remote team to assign the planned tasks to their distributed team without any hassle. Managers can define clear task lists and well- defined workflows to prevent deviations. Creative Team: Digital and creative agencies can streamline and speed up their work process with project management software to deliver projects on time. Besides the above, project monitoringsoftware are being used in advertisement, manufacturing, banking and insurance, education, pharmaceuticals, real estate, government agencies, retail industries and many more. So now the question arises, why use a project monitoringSoftware? © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 2

3. According to recent data, 33% of the organizations worldwide are using project management software and the numbers are growing now because of the COVID-19 outbreak. That forces the organizations to adopt a remote working culture among their team. Digital tools like project management apps help them a lot in managing the projects and team in a centralized place. Apart from managing projects and tasks the tool is helping in smooth collaboration of documents, assisting customers, and many more on the same page. SMEs and large enterprises require project management tools to help facilitate the production and distribution of products and services in order to maximize revenue. Project management tools help the businesses to plan, execute and manage multiple projects at same time. This software draws out the entire life cycle of a particular project or scheme on a single screen, including planning, creating, systemizing, and administering the scope, budget, etc. Why a Project Monitoring App are Useful for Businesses of Any Size Collaboration: Project teams are occasionally made up of people from many departments. Therefore, it can be difficult for all stakeholders to attend meetings and stay informed. This communication gap can cause unnecessary project delays and issues, wasting valuable resources. Project Management Software has the significant advantage of making project team cooperation incredibly simple. It maintains all communication in one location. Furthermore, insights such as project timelines and status updates are easily accessible with a single click, and important notifications are instantly forwarded to the appropriate parties. Planning and Scheduling: Using the project management software helps organize and visualize tasks. Without a tool, it might be difficult for your team to stay on track. This frequently has an impact on one's productivity. Management of Resources: Resource management refers to planning, tracking, and maximizing the use of all available resources for a project. This is another important task that can be done with ease using project management software. © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 3

4. Budget Administration: A project monitoringsoftware helps managers keep track of everything using a real-time project reporting tool and preventing project costs from soaring. Documentation: Some organizations are using spreadsheets, while others are still using the traditional pen and paper to document the progress of their collaborative project. Spreadsheet is not providing accuracy, which is concerning for firms that rely on spreadsheets. A project management software can show you real-time accurate data based on your planning. Challenges without Project Monitoring App Here are some challenges below, which the manager is facing while managing projects without having a project management software; 1. Goals and Objectives Setting: Goals are bound to be stated and realistic, upon which the objectives are worked. This is one of the major and critical challenges faced by managers of businesses today. 2. Scope Creep: Scope creep is a unique project management challenge that refers to a change in the requirements of a project from what was initially agreed at the initiation of the project. 3. Change and Restriction in the Budget: Just like scope creeps, the budget initiated on a particular project becomes restricted as there is a change in the requirements of the project. 4. Lack of Communication: Communication is one of the important part of project success. Good team communication is much needed for proper interaction with the team members as tasks are allocated efficiently, and project progress enhances favorable results. 5. Team Conflict: Misunderstanding, lack of leadership, and strategy in project development reduces productivity. 14% of project managers reported that lack of direction was a cause of conflict in © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 4

5. their projects, and 12% reported miscommunication and misunderstandings within the team as a major barrier. 6. Team Skills: Keeping the right skill person in the right place helps the manager to get more productivity and faster development. Any form of mismatch between requirements and skill level will definitely cause the project to suffer inefficiencies that could lead to failure over time. Top Features of Project Management Software Task management: This enables the creation and assignment of tasks, as well as the setting of deadlines and the compilation of progress reports. Data Collaboration: A central document repository accessible to project stakeholders boosts productivity. Project Calendar: Project calendar helps to stay on track of the team to coordinate the work of several teams and finish the project on time. Project timelines comprise planned meetings, activity dates, and contacts, which should be updated automatically across all PM and stakeholder calendars. Bug and issue tracking: Project management software bug and issue tracking feature ensures that your team is proactive and stays on top of any potential issues. Time tracking: Project management tool time tracking feature helps to track the time spent of each team member and evaluate their performance with a timesheet. Budget and cost management: With a clear view of the budget, you can make sure you're sticking to your budget and on track to finish on time. Project management software should be able to record project budgets and have an automatic billing feature. Checklist before Buying Project Management Tool © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 5

6. It's always great to show interest towards buying project monitoring apps for a project manager. It will not only streamline the work process but also helps in improving productivity and growth. A project monitoringsoftware can help you in many ways. There are so many PM tools available in the market but as a project manager you need to select the best one which will match your business and team requirements. So you need to consider what the software should do and how it can help them manage their projects. Here is the checklist below, 1. Ease of Use As a project manager you need to check for an easy to use tool for your team so that with less knowledge one uses the tool and does the needful. In the present time most of the tools are offering free trials through which you can try 2-3 tools and select the best one among them. 2. Scheduling Tools Scheduling tasks is the most important thing to align the project in the right direction. Easy scheduling can be done with the help of Gantt chart feature and can be used to manage projects effectively by scheduling tasks ahead of time. 3. Task Management Allocating tasks to other team members should be determined by the tool to be purchased so that they can have an understanding of the aspects of the projects they can focus on. You should also be able to organize and group team members and also add target completion dates. 4. Reporting Pulling of real time data from various areas of a project and generating a complete report helps the manager to produce reports and keep transparency among team members. A good tool can collect all data with the current status of the project and show it all in the dashboard for real- time reporting. 5. Customization Customization according to user requirements is an important part of any software. While choosing the tool for the team, you need to check whether the tool is allowing customization based on your requirement or not. So that you can be able to improve and make changes to the look and feel according to your work preferences. © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 6

7. 6. Security Security of data is a big concern now-a-days. Functionality is very well appreciated; however, the security of your data, as well as the integrity of your project or scheme should not be put at risk while doing this. You should ensure to check out the security options offered by your preferred software provider. Conclusion Project monitoring apps are the best options to manage your project and team to get more productivity. This will also help you in meeting the project deadline as it manages your project, tasks and resources effectively. It helps SMEs facilitate the production and distribution of products and services in order to maximize revenue. Orangescrum is one of the best project monitoring software for all businesses. It is a simple, powerful, and intuitive project management feature to manage your projects and teams. From planning to execution, it helps teams manage efficiently and meet deadlines. Sign up now with a 15-days free trial to know more about what the software can do and how it can help them manage their projects. © 2011-2022 Orangescrum 7