Table Of Contents

1. Project Management Software
2. Top 10 Project Management Software
3.  Project Management Software - By Major Regions
4. Best Project Management Software for free
5. COMPETITIVE LEADERSHIP MAPPING TERMINOLOGY
6. Who Uses Project Management Software?
7. Types of Project Management Software
8. Major applications of the Project Management Software
9. Important factors to be considered prior to buying a project management software
10. Major benefits of using Project Management Solutions

Project Management Software

Project Management Software enables organizations to supervise numerous projects at a time and helps them in project planning, resource allocation, and change management activities.

Top 10 Project Management Software

1. Airtable
2. Zoho Projects
3. Smartsheet
4. Asana
5. Basecamp
6. monday.com
7. Teamwork
8. Trello
9. Wrike
10. Workfront

Airtable – It is a digital application that motivates people to create the tools they need to accelerate creativity and make their teams more agile. Airtable puts the strength of a scalable platform in the creator's pocket…. Read More

Zoho Projects – It is a program that allows users to schedule the projects and keep track of success. This also helps the team people to interact effectively, share concepts, and keep up-to-date. This allows for quality results to be delivered on time….Read More

Smartsheet - It is built to harness the rewards of greater job resilience and teamwork by offering a dynamic forum for companies to prepare, document, track, organize, and report on jobs. Smartsheet encourages teams to execute quickly and responsibly and to make smarter choices, quicker…. Read More

Asana – It helps organizations plan and executes their work from routine tasks to strategic decisions.  Using Asana, people become more comfortable, going quicker and doing more in fewer, irrespective of where they are based….Read More

Basecamp – It is all-in-one, combining multiple roles into one, leading to a massive, dynamic network. This provides simple resources that include the ability to accurately handle the job, monitor ongoing assignments, and file sharing, real-time communications programs, timetable control, and achievement monitoring….Read More

monday.com - It is a cloud-based Office Ecosystem where teams build automation software to manage their systems, tasks, and everyday jobs in minutes. Teams develop their frameworks and tasks, code-free, with a system that easily adapts to evolving demands, relieves employees from repetitive manual work, and integrates teams in a shared workspace….Read More

Teamwork – It is an application for the work and project for those who choose to control the overall plan. It keeps track of the specifics of all the tools users need to prepare, focus on, and produce the job so that the creativity of the staff can be liberated to generate the values that are important to the company….Read More

Trello – It is a collaborative tool mainly used with careful attention to plan and coordinate comprehensive activities. It is usually used by companies and provides virtual forums where many individuals can work together and exchange ideas. Embedded in software, it allows eliminating the necessity to execute normal and routine activities to reduce and achieve further research within a timely fashion….Read More

Wrike – It is the first collaborative project managing tool for large enterprises that lets businesses perform their best work — regardless of where their workers are located. So many of leading companies leverage Wrike to link globally scattered teams to maintain the coordination, mobility, the adaptability of their whole organizations….Read More

Workfront – It is the first advanced system for the project to organize all the information in one place. Workfront offers executives and managers the ability to streamline demands, schedule and organize tasks, monitor operations, track properties remotely, and update on work….Read More

Best Project Management Software - By Major Regions

Best Project Management Software for free

All project management differs in one way or the other. A few project management solutions are ideal for developers and designers. Others are precisely designed for marketers. The most suitable software for your business relies completely on the team or department’s workflow and planning model. 360Quadrants has assessed and highlighted a list project management solution which is free of cost. Below is the list with the area of expertise for each software:

Market Overview

Project management software is also used for collaboration and communication amongst project stakeholders. It offers all the technology, approach, and resources that are critical for successful project completion. It helps project managers, investors, and other users to manage expenses and budgeting, quality, and records. Likewise, companies nowadays can more effortlessly manage risk by recognizing deteriorating facets of a project with the help of a time tracking software that estimates completion dates for each phase of the project.

Project management Tools provides users with the ability to handle an individual team, coordinate tasks, and record effectiveness. Companies can use project and portfolio managing tools to handle a large number of projects with similar characteristics.

Project interdependence is a major component of project management solutions since it is primarily used to organize tasks linked to a projected chain or a broader project. Users use the software to monitor various projects, monitor the progress of a team or individual, and evaluate the efficiency of a team. These products can be used practically in any industry where employees are required to organize projects, project tasks, and objectives for weekly, monthly, or yearly projects. Users typically have the ability to break down projects into assigned goals, create schedules for completing the project, assess progress, and collaborate with other members of the team.

The global project management software market was valued at USD 3 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach USD 7 billion by 2026 with a CAGR of 14% during the forecast period. Best Project management software incorporates various frameworks such as resources, financial, time and inventory management so that administrators can handle projects cooperatively from idea through to execution.

Internet-based project management solution is useful in getting market presence, easily transforming strategy into a successful implementation strategy. Often, an online project management solution is used to view the visualizations in near real-time everywhere and anytime. It also helps the project supervisor stay up-to-date on the status of findings and make sure no latest information has been overlooked.

Project Management software is used by various industries and applications. It enables organizations to track deliverables and manages resources for them. The software provides the functionality of integrations with various another platform. It is a comprehensive and flexible solution so that organizations can get the required features in project management software they are investing in. The software ensures that the managers are getting support for the complete life cycle of the project. There are various software that uses intelligent technologies for automating tasks and managing projects. With the optimization of the project, the software ensures that project managers can cut down additional costs and meet the project deadlines. For getting more visibility, prioritizing the resources and time-tracking along with controlled cost, investment in project management software is important.

The competitive leadership mapping showcased provides information for Project Management Solution. Vendor evaluations are based on two broad categories: product offering and business strategy. Each category carries various criteria, based on which vendors have been evaluated. The evaluation criteria considered under product offerings include the breadth of offering, delivery (based on industries that the vendors cater to, deployment models, and subscriptions), features/functionality, delivery, product quality and reliability, and product differentiation. The evaluation criteria considered under business strategy include geographic footprint (on the basis of geographic presence), channel strategy and fit, vision alignment, and effectiveness of growth (on the basis of innovations, partnerships, collaborations, and acquisitions).

Monday.com, Asana, Smartsheet, Airtable, Trello, Basecamp, Wrike, Teamwork, MeisterTask, ClickUp, Workfront, Zoho Projects, and Aha! have been identified as visionary leaders in best Project Management software.

Easy Projects, Freedcamp, Flow, and Thrive have been recognized as dynamic differentiators in best Project Management software.

ProofHub, Teamleader, Husky, Swit, Breeze, and Squish have been identified as an innovator in best Project Management software.

Redmine, WorkBook, Float Project Management, Trigger, Allegra, Forecast, OpenProject, Apptivo Project Management, Nifty, Orangescrum, Taiga, Linkd, Doddle Project Management software, Sheldon, Duet and COR have been identified as emerging companies in best Project Management software.

Who Uses Project Management Software?

Employees – Employees participating in the implementation of projects, who ought to learn what to do and when. They also update the status when tasks are completed, and use the software to communicate with different stakeholders and work collaboratively. Employees may monitor the time spent on operational activities by collaboration with other technologies and solutions, or check the availability of services such as machinery or materials.

Project Managers – Project managers not only need to have access to all software features to define projects and resources, and track all activities, but to also participate and revise any phase of a project if required. This can only be attained via alerts and notifications that should have varying levels of severity which include workflows for escalation frameworks. Project managers also have the right to give project access to various stakeholders.

Executives – For most of the part executives use analysis and reporting to track project status. In addition to detailed project status, executives also need information about the prices of the allocated resources and the actual success of each task. They will also gain from using alerts and reminders while completing project tasks or phases.

Partners – Partners, including contract workers or external services providers who complement the company's product offerings. As extrinsic sources only participate in specific activities at different phases of the project, they need to have the information needed to do complete their task, and not more.

Clients – Clients can often use this form of program to track the progress of one or more projects and tasks, give input, and connect with the service provider via specialized platforms. Clients may have a single person or team working on the project for huge and complicated tasks and may require access to the service provider's software.

What are the various types of Project Management Software?

What are the major applications of Project Management Software?

In Automobile Industry

Project Management Software Solutions in the Automotive Industry help in effective association across departments and better decision making processes. The software offers easy, cross-location teamwork and interaction amongst project members and investors in a central web-based project management system. It allows automobile professionals to check on the project progress at any time and from any location. Project Managers can input their tasks centrally in one system. The central system also shows responsibilities, status, and priority as well as company-specific information which can also be accessed by the teams.

They also offer agile boards that allow automobile businesses to control and track workflows in the best way. They can also execute processes and permit easier and intuitive track. The software also provides Agile teams who usually have small development cycles. They repeat quickly to build, measure, and study with each version. With fast user response, they save time and focus on building the right things. Quality Assurance plays a huge role in the automobile industry. Project managing tools get in dedicated Quality assurance teams that work on instant issue tracking and clear communication within the team and across various divisions.

Taking ground-breaking automotive products from initiation through to design, into conception and onto the roads is most often a multifaceted set of rules, actions, calculations, and a horde of projects. A progressive and well-defined project management solution makes this process faster, easier, and more efficient, allowing teams to be more fruitful in their efforts. With project management taken care of, automobile businesses can focus on improving revenue by bringing better products, challenging expectations, and taking control of the market.

In the Construction Industry

Project Management Software in the construction industry manages the preparation, organization, and implementation of a construction project, be it agricultural, housing, commercial, official, engineering, and heavy civil, or environmental. Construction Project Management Solutions generally helps in managing complex tasks that need strong skills in communication, deep awareness of the building process, and the ability to troubleshoot.

Construction project management is a complex field, and it demands experience in several areas like finance, mediation, law, business, and more. There are numerous web, cloud, and mobile apps to reorganize communication, streamline document management, and improve efficiency in construction mgmt. Project Management solutions help the construction industry by providing work managing tools with advanced collaboration tools, by providing tools created specifically for builders and remodelers. It also offers tools designed precisely for housing construction firms and offers project management, preparation, service mgmt, document storage, accounting, and customer managing abilities. Businesses can handle all the communication for their team and subcontractors, easily sharing emails, site photos, project agendas, budgets, and timesheets.

In Chemical Industry

Project Management Tools can help the chemical and petrochemical industry, by maintaining a balance between project lead and project execution teams which otherwise can be disconnected from each other by a long distance. The software also supports the project timeline and help in managing costs by offering local project management expertise.

Project Management Software can help chemical businesses with:

1. Instrumentation and all associated services
2. Ensure steadiness and avoid uncertainties
3. Offers enhanced timeline precision
4. Enhanced processes, methodologies and tools to support competence and repeatability for risk lessening
5. Standardization offers restriction of alterations and decreases the difficulty of execution and reduces MRO costs

In the IT Industry

Project Management Software helps businesses in the IT industry in planning, organizing, and defining responsibility for the conclusion of a company’s specific information technology (IT) goals. The project management systems supervise IT projects for software development, hardware systems, network updates, cloud computing, and virtualization rollouts, business analytics and data management, and other IT services.

Also, with the help of project management tools, personnel working in the information technology industry can monitor their progress, their timeline, fix their tasks better, and record their work more efficiently. These kinds of software are also helpful in resource and budget allocation. It also helps employees, managers, and teams in the IT industry with team managing goals and long-term projects, as well as organizing discrete tasks. The project management system achieves this through a variety of tools to manage workloads, monitor productivity, and allocate resources.

What are the important factors to be considered before buying a project management software?

For Start-ups/SMEs

Start-ups/SME may have a limited number of employees and in this situation, having the project management system can be extremely helpful. With the team being smaller in size, each member has more tasks and thus project management can go a long way with supporting everyone who focuses on their specific tasks. Project management software is a key constituent in keeping everyone productive and happy. While the tech sector has received the effect of the benefits that digital project management solution offers, other industries can gain just as much use out of the latest developments if they leverage them properly. It is also very important to look at the business requirements and assess the project management solutions offerings carefully, to ensure that the offerings meet the requirements. 360Quadrants has assessed a few factors which would help start-ups and SMEs in better choosing the best project management software, as below:

1. Task Management – With a limited number of resources at hand, managing the Task becomes very critical, particularly in start-ups and SMEs. The right allocation of tasks to monitoring and completing them, project management helps all along the way.
2. Standups - Automated standups help managers in getting better visibility of what all the team members are working on.
3. Workflow – It helps in making sure that the project workflow is in order. There are generally a few variants of workflows, the two most widely used are Kanban and Sprints.
4. Time tracking – Project Mgmt tools help start-ups not only does in monitoring the team and checking how much time are they spending on a specific project but it also increases their productivity.
5. Productivity monitoring - Another crucial feature that any project management solutions should have is the capability to track productivity. Regardless of the size of the project, being able to understand how each team member is performing will make it much simpler to keep things running efficiently and get ahead of problems.
6. Payroll – Project Management system allows businesses to make payments based on the time recorded for each employee. This is why choosing software that supports both time tracking and payroll is supreme.
7. Integrations – One of the most important factors to look at before choosing the project management software for any start-up is whether or not it can house integrations.
8. Inventory Software - If a start-up or an SME involves an inventory, then an inventory control program or module is important to have. This helps in determining the stock and helps in keeping a track of client orders and ordering from suppliers most resourcefully.
9. Customer Relationship - A CRM module integrated into a Project Management Solutions is important for companies that have deployed a sales force and/or more than a few customers.

For Large Enterprises

1. Project Planning – This helps in mapping project tasks, allows the senior manager to decide which project to spend on, the type of additional resources to hire, and also to plan other investments to meet the project demands.
2. Documentation – Documentation helps in proper tracking of a project. It enables project managers to store the knowledge acquired throughout the entire tracking process.
3. Shared Team Calendar – A shared team calendar helps teams in organizing and scheduling meetings. A correctly harmonized calendar helps all team members by delivering timely alerts.
4. Multi-User Logins – Usually, in large organizations, project management solutions have no restriction on the number of users that it can cater to. Many users are granted different access privileges.
5. Dashboards – Precise dashboards altogether enhance project reporting. They also help users instantly recognizing the company’s KPI.
6. Project Budget Dashboard – It helps in creating a financial reporting dashboard and adding several KPIs that help project managers reflect on the project’s progress. It also helps in adding charts and graphs to the dashboard and receive real-time project updates.
7. Resource Mgmt – In any given project, it is not only important to manage a team’s time but also to manage other resources. These may include the material used in the process and meeting rooms. Resource mgmt offers a great platform in avoiding any conflicts arising due to resource shortage and enables efficient planning of resources.
8. Automatic Email Notification – This ensures that the team members email notifications of all the project related updates.
9. Gantt Charts – These charts are intuitive and they enable users to visualize in which phase of the project they are in.
10. Project Ownership – It keeps a track of the creator of the project and also of those assigned to the project.
11. Project Categorization – It allows managers to categorize projects by industry names and also by the status of the project like complete, on hold, or in progress.
12. File Sharing – This allows the team member to add information to the system which can be instantly accessed by other team members.
13. Project KPI Dashboard – This offers the quickest way to track the progress of a project. Users can also update the information found in the KPI dashboard in real-time.

What is the difference between a Best of Breed Project Management Tool and an Integrated Project Management Tool?

Best-of-Breed

Best of Breed can also be defined as the strategy of choosing the project management software capabilities from various companies and then and integrating all these capabilities yourself, instead of opting for one large integrated solution from a single vendor.

Best-of-breed project management tools are most likely to work efficiently for several industries. Best-of-breed software is usually less expensive and requires less budget upfront. They are also out-of-the-box, which makes deployment simple. A lesser investment directly means less risk to a business. With best-of-breed software, the vendor focuses on a limited set of functionality, which means they can progress the development of those areas in less time.

Typically, Best-of-Breed solution can be opted to, when:

1. A company is good at integrating all the selected 3rd party products and make an efficient product.
2. A company is willing to take training costs to work on the inconsistent GUIs and complicated interfaces required to get the products to work collaboratively.
3. When there are no correctly integrated sets of tools on the market that meet a company’s project management needs.

Integrated Project Management Solutions

Integrated Project Management Solutions can usually be defined as large combined suites of products like for instance Microsoft Office and Lotus Smart Suite, which contain several products that have a constant look and feel, and work well collaboratively but each tool, individually, may not necessarily be the best.

Why and When to Use Project Management Software?

The primary reason organizations are using project management solutions is to allocate resources and monitor costs for little or no repeat daily operations. For example, marketing firms generally provide professional services such as promoting social media, but they could also build custom promotional activities for big clients.

Typical facilities are provided to all consumers in the same manner, and are thus redundant and need identical resources, so their cost is generally the same for each user. Custom projects will differ entirely based on the customer’s preference, which means that the resources committed to each initiative will often differ and the expense will vary.

Another reason to use project management is the ability to integrate several kinds of services to broaden product and service offerings. This versatility helps teams to respond to their client's shifting needs and business needs. The capability to respond quickly to changes in the market can provide a competitive edge in extremely competitive sectors like consulting services.

Furthermore, the project management tool is required to monitor the efficiency and competitiveness of professional services. By allocating the best people at the right moment for the right projects, the project management software will help businesses to execute the project on schedule and within budget, which will increase the company’s consumer loyalty and profitability.

What are the major benefits of using Project Management Solutions?

Two of the most significant things to remember while selecting a project management system are how simple it is to use and how easily it will automate everyday tasks. These are some of the key benefits of project management solution:

Creation of tasks and projects: Almost all of the time, you'll use your project management tool to design recurring, templated tasks. But for the special client request, you will need to create custom tasks and projects to meet the customer demands. The versatility in developing specific activities and initiatives and setting up templated ones is essential to ensuring how one can handle projects in various shapes

Simple and efficient reporting: If the project manager or anyone needs to work on a project management system, the need to create customized reports increases. This feature of reporting is found almost in all the software in the marketplace. The reporting feature always helps when a project manager needs to pinpoint any task or activity where a large number of man-hours were required and which task led to project failure.

Tools for file sharing: It's great when a project management system provides good disk room for all the data that needs to be transferred. But often, it may still be useful to have the ability to use a third-party storage service like Box or Dropbox, particularly if you are more comfortable with another platform for cloud storage.

Simple and clean UI: A strong user interface will make a good project management team or ruin it. Sometimes it is more essential to have a simple time using the software than what the software can do.

Trustable support: If something starts breaking in the project management solutions, whom would you call? Understanding that you are dealing with professionals who are eager and ready to support you find an answer to the issues of your device is a blessing.

What are the most important features of Project Management Software?

Standard features are included in almost all the best project management solution:

Project Definition – The capability to create project definition is the cornerstone of all project management solutions, as it enables businesses to identify the project framework which is the foundation of every business operation. A project layout has to be properly defined as major improvements to it are impossible to undertake when it is being implemented because of the possibility of disrupting the project. At the same point, software for project management should permit users to modify the frameworks to keep a record of the projects.

Project Plans - Project management tools can have several project planning choices, such as prototypes and standards for determining who is doing what and how often. A framework for a project management plan is a reasonable entry point for every project since project leaders do not start preparing from scratch. Project guidelines may be used to identify resource allocation processes, task dependencies, and project deadlines. Planning for the worst-case situation is still superior to supposing that everything would go according to plan.

Project Schedules – Project schedules involve deadlines and targets which decide when the completion of each task of the project is anticipated. Deadlines can often be allocated to tasks and activities, based on the scope of the project. Depending on the interconnections between activities, project management systems should include features for defining milestones.

Project Visualization – Project visualization functionalities provided an outline of all the project's activities, tasks, time limits, and deliverables. The optimal visualization allows the user to dig deeper into every stage of the design of the project to find info about a resource or activity. People with proper authorization should also be capable of adjusting the visual schedules and any alterations to an activity or milestone will update any other related activity in the project.

Workflows – Workflows, and procedures describe how operations are carried out throughout the project stages. These functionalities need to be customizable to suit each team's needs and should provide simple reasoning to consider project restrictions. To increase transparency, workflows will provide permissions to ensure administrators, project managers and executives are accountable for the efficiency of the services they deliver.

Managing the Tasks – Management of tasks is used to define, schedule, and monitor who is doing what, when, and where. This may be critical to the management of multiple teams from different locations, as well as field staff or external contractors and consultants. Project management systems should be able to adjust schedules based on unforeseen changes or requests from customers. To-do lists often form part of job management, which are used by an individual or manager to construct priority lists. Program managers may delegate tasks to workers using to-do lists, without allowing them access to the whole program. To-do lists can also be used as checklists to track employees' progress.

Resource management – Resource management is especially essential as it can have a considerable influence on the project expense. Each type of activity may require specific resources which should be used to keep costs down in the best possible way. Teams also benefit from the ability to allocate resources across multiple activities and projects, allowing them to acquire bulk materials and save on the cost of purchase. However, the potential to replace insufficient services with alternative solutions will reduce costs and prevent delays.

Documentation of Project - The functionality of project documentation facilitates the process for all records related to a project, such as agreements, work statements, quotations, and propositions, etc. Generally, these documents are stored in a digital form, which makes it simpler to share them internally as well as externally.

Reporting — All the parties involved in a project use reporting, analytics, and dashboards, from employees, project managers, and directors to external experts and even clients. Therefore, the analytics apps must be versatile enough to adjust easily to each category of customer. At the same moment, sensitive data or financial details must only be provided to authorized users via encrypted platforms.

Collaboration - Collaboration among staff members or between a firm and its customers and partners may be critical to a project's success. Although collaborative systems and applications can be used individually from project management systems, combining them in one module is preferable, especially for large and complex projects.

Instant notifications: The user or project manager needs to be promptly notified of the approaching time constraints, when a job is done, or when something requires someone’s action. Alerts from your mobile enable you to remain linked no matter where you are.

Integration: Projects are made up of many movable parts. Whenever anything shifts you ought to learn the effect of one aspect on another. To put it another way, look for capabilities that help analyze trade-offs, and allocating the resources affects the project's overall timeline.

What are the limitations when it comes to using Project Management Software?

Despite all of the advantages of the best project management tools, there are still some potential issues that need to be considered.

A complication of simple projects: Some projects can be basic and easy enough to finish without depending on the software for managing projects. These things can certainly improve the implementation of bigger projects, but if you're working on something pretty simple, you might not even need this platform.

Cost: It's always advisable to start the free trials first before you spend money on an entire project management solution. This can give a better idea as to what a company has to offer and can be the best way to determine if you can afford the software, or if it will not be an excellent long-term investment.

Security: Most people's biggest problem with positioning their data online that isn't hosted on-premise is that security becomes a concern. Given that most project management systems are hosted in the cloud, the security problem is a tricky thing. It encourages the accidental leakage of knowledge to third parties by workers operating remotely. Suppliers have figured out a way to solve this by making sure that you can restrict access to classified data for top executives and by properly logging who has viewed which areas of the application, it is easy to address the security of your company.

What are the current trends in the Project Management Software market?

Although best project management software essentially guarantees that the specifications of the business's KPI are fulfilled, certain developments in the market tend to move into the more subjective dimension of a project and its staff, rather than just pure measurements.

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Automation: Many organizations have already begun to use AI in project planning to perform their daily tasks via process automation and require human effort. The influence goes above automating basic tasks but is also very useful in gathering insights into results. Project managers may use automation to execute complicated tasks ranging from scheduling to visualizing results and making educated choices based on the information they have gathered.
2. Hybrid project management approaches: In adopting the hybrid model, you would be able to put all your ventures, assignments, staff, and interactions to one location to enable you to make the best strategic decisions. For starters, by combining the conventional model with the Agile technique, team leaders with diverse viewpoints, working styles will function together in their way making room for more flexibility, commitment, and performance.
3. Impact of emotional intelligence: Project management goes beyond identifying the reach, setting targets, agreeing on the budget. Project managers will always handle individuals and that requires further problems. A good awareness of feelings (both yours and others) is needed to work with diverse personalities and maintain project performance-making it a required leadership ability for project managers across the globe. Mastering the art of emotional responses and what tends to drive individuals is thus becoming more essential than ever in predicting the future success of the project.
4. Focus on the group's strategy: This is a phenomenon that began to evolve as project management started drifting away from specific projects and concentrating more on aligning priorities with all departments around the organization. Several companies also go so far as to centralize the project managers under one project management unit, to enhance coordination with every stakeholder. Task software addresses this head-on by simplifying workers' hierarchical framework within their program.
5. End of email: It is a fairly new development, arising from the desire to centralize both internal and external correspondence into one entry point for faster collection and analysis. This has also been one of the problems this project management solution has tackled.
6. Project managers as innovators: While the need for increasingly creative answers to daily challenges grows rising, it is increasing the need for visionary leaders with unconventional approaches to everyday issues. Project management is a natural role of leadership that is well suited to effectiveness and creativity. Good software for project management gives PMs the techniques to generate new ideas for project handling.