A recent study conducted by The Digital Project Manager sheds light on the evolving landscape of project management practices, revealing that project managers typically use an average of 5.6 different management tools in total throughout project development.

While this number might initially seem like a lot, it underscores the widespread adoption and appreciation of project management tools on a global scale. These tools have become indispensable assets, enabling project managers to streamline workflows, enhance communication, and optimise project outcomes efficiently and effectively.

In this blog, we discuss the 6 best project management tools to assist you with your next project.

Why are project management tools useful?

Project management tools were created to aid both individuals and teams in managing their projects and tasks in an effective and efficient way, and have continued to grow in popularity over the last decade for the following reasons.

Clear objectives can be easily established

We’ve all been part of a working group where direction is lacking and there’s no firm plan in place to follow. This is often stressful, inconsistent and a waste of resources! However, this is where project management tools can and do help, with features to both create and communicate clear project objectives.

Goals can be crafted and shared before a project goes ahead to ensure all team members are on board and clear on what their outcomes should be. From there, tasks can be monitored to ensure successful and on-time delivery.

Risks and issues can be clearly identified

Project management tools come equipped with a number of features, including detailed and robust reports, which provide an overview of the entirety of a project. These reports will record relevant information, examine trends, recognise patterns and allow project managers to make data-driven decisions, reducing the overall likelihood of risk occurring.

Better team collaboration

In a remote and hybrid working world, it’s even more important than before that paths of communication remain open when collaborative working is taking place. Project management tools are great aids of communication, encouraging teams to use available chat functions, document share, and make use of various high visibility dashboards.

These functions allow teams to collaborate in multiple different ways, reducing the chances of gaps in knowledge or information.

Improves accountability and transparency

As project management tools offer memberships for multiple individuals and teams, projects, tasks and workloads are made available to all team members and in one place. This reduces risk, allows for full visibility, and means that all contributors can track progress, or lack thereof, in real time.

1) Monday.com

Monday.com is one of the most well-loved project management tools, built by people to be used by people. Passionate about collaboration and integration, Monday.com is fully customisable, built to handle process and celebrate autonomy in the workplace.

Key features include:

• Multiple solutions including project management, task management, client projects and business operations
• Fully customisable using personalised dashboards
• Robust automation options, built to increase productivity and automate daily work flows
• Designed for multiple users, highly benefiting global teams
• Unique tracking functions, through visual boards, user interface and colour coding

Loved by: Cocacola, Canva, Glossier and Lionsgate.

2) Wrike

A versatile, powerful project management tool, Wrike guarantees its users will be able to work faster and easier than ever before, due to their Wrike’s Work Intelligence feature. Allowing you to create your own digital assistant, prioritise, manage risks and AI-subtask, Wrike offer 360 visibilities across departments and teams.

Key features include:

• 400+ app integrations, creating a one-stop shop for organisations
• Enterprise level security including user authentication, role-based access control and additional Write Lock add-on for further security
• Customisable dashboards and reports, which can predict future risk, prevent delays and allow deadlines to be visualised and analysed.
• A workload view which demonstrates progress and can be consistently monitored
• Built-in templates designed for scaling and optimising

Loved by: P&G, Pfizer, T.Mobile and Siemens.

3) Celoxis

Sleek, professional and skilled at what they do, Celoxis state that they have the most powerful reporting and dashboards in the industry. Fully integrable, not only can you track and plan, but Celoxis allows its customers to also complete their company accounts within the tool.

Customers can complete profit and margin tracking, revenue forecasting and create customisable financial KPI’s, ensuring that projects stay within budget and are profitable upon completion.

Key features include:

• Project tracking health indicators which through colour coding allow risk ranking
• Both built in workflows and customisable apps
• Real time charts allow for multiple locations, holidays and exceptions
• 360-degree real time insights including custom drill-down charts and schedule email delivery
• Increased collaboration through shareable calendars and free client portals

Loved by: Visicom, NTI Solutions, Capterra and G2.  

4) Asana

A tool built for scale, Asana will increase project visibility, spot potential blockers and improve overall productivity through its single shared hub feature. With an additional mobile app, users can time track, review and prioritise updates based on varying workloads.

Additionally, Asana offers robust reporting dashboards and portfolios, an admin console and customisable rules so that productivity levels remain high.

Key features include:

• Integration with 270+ apps for a seamless user experience
• Asana assistant, an AI tool and helping hand
• Unique goal feature, making sure projects and company goals are aligned
• Vigorous security including double and biometric authentication, data loss prevention integration, enterprise key management and app blocking
• Capacity planning tool which allows users to visualise staffing trends and focus on hiring needs

Loved by: Figma, Sony Music, Zoom and Gartner.

5) Microsoft Project

Perfect for existing Microsoft users, Microsoft Project can increase flexibility across teams, ensuring visibility through their visual, interactive roadmap feature. Through industry best practices, Microsoft has created built-in templates that can be used to create project management plans, that are both customisable and unique to your business.

Key features include:

• Microsoft’s power BI which creates and shares customisable dashboards
• Native ODara which collects portfolio data for advanced reporting
• Resources engagements ensuring all projects are properly staffed
• Capacity heatmaps which pinpoint both underused and overused resources for project optimisation
• Smart scheduling for further collaboration

Loved by: Northrop Grumman, Harris Corporation, A.M.King and Boeing Co.

6) ClickUp

CickUp has been designed to reduce the use of multiple apps, consolidating tools and resources into one platform. ClickUp’s most used feature, its sprint cycles can be built and automated based on unique projects and allows users to assign points, set sprint dates and mark priorities as they move forward with projects.

Sprint cycles will also automatically transfer any unfinished work into your next sprint, helping teams to set realistic goals and deadlines.

Key features include:

• Trackable goals feature allows projects to be linked with organisational goals, making room for visible timelines, achievable targets and automated tracking
• Customisable dashboards and unique insights
• ClickUp University which allows users to onboard, learn or upskill live training, webinars and other resources
• ClickUp’s whiteboard which is perfect for visual beings who prefer to put pen to paper
• Chat functionality for in-app collaboration

Loved by: Booking.com, Logitech, Spotify and Netflix.

Are project management tools worth the investment?

Although budget is probably one of the biggest factors when it comes to investing in tools and software for businesses, due to the flexibility of features and team size, project management tools can be extremely affordable, with most offering some kind of payment plan.

With dedicated expert individuals working behind the scenes to build software that suit an array of organisations and their various requirements, there’s undoubtedly a project management tool that will work seamlessly for you and your project goals.

If you want to kick start or accelerate your project management career, learn more about becoming PRINCE2 qualified 100% online with ICS Learn today.