How Project Management Tools Enhances the Overall Efficiency

Brainstorming business ideas is all great and exciting until you have to deal with the reality of project management. Yes, it is a wonderful concept and yet an exhausting job.

In a pre-digital world, project management was done with a pencil, paper, and a pre-set methodology.  

Was this efficient? NO! 

Projects are complex, it involves a lot of people who are de-centralized and might work as a moving target rather than one overriding initiative.

Fortunately, as the technology marched and evolved, genius humans thought of simplifying the process of project management, and hence online project management tools came into existence.

And when you wonder, what is so great about these online project management tools?

Remember, online project management tools save our initiatives from melting down into failure, stranded money, and wasted efforts.

In this blog, we will see how online project management tools contribute to enhancing overall project efficiency.

Major Challenges of Project Management

According to the study published by Harvard Business Review,

• One in every six projects overboard the estimated cost and spend 200 percent more than decided
• 70% of the IT projects face project delays
• 52% of the projects face the scope creep
• 49.5% of the projects face the budgeting issue

Poor Communication

Did you know that 29% of projects fail due to poor communication?

Every individual in a project act as a stakeholder. Hence managing the expectations, communicating with the businesses, and trying to align with the unique processes of the partner gives a boost to the complications and confusion.

Unrealistic deadlines

This is one of the most common project management challenges that affect the quality of the process and the outcome. Every project is unique and so are its requirements, the process, and also the timeline.

Unfortunately, a lot of time we miscalculate and end up setting the wrong timeline without actually knowing the team’s capability.

Inadequate risk management

Risk management is an important aspect of project management. It is paramount to have foresight and identify the potential ‘what if’ scenario and contingency plans.

This is because projects never go just as we plan. The involvement of multiple variables opens up innumerable possibilities, which might lead to the risks that need to be managed.

No Clear goals

It is found that the reason behind the failure of 39% of the projects is the lack of clear goals and success criteria.

Challenges like these can be tackled by setting up milestones and consistent quality tests. Besides, having a clear goal and a defined success criterion will enable the team to defend their vision and attain unparalleled success.

What are the incredible online project management tools that enhance efficiency?

1. Jira

Jira tops the list of the best online project management tools. This is built to help your team plan, track, and release the great outcome. Other specific features of Jira are,

• Customizable workflows
• Advanced security
• Advanced Reporting
• Bug management
• No constraint on custom field
• Customizable workflows

2. TFS

• • Customizable Dashboards
  • Kanban Boards
  • End-to-end Traceability
  • Enterprise-grade security
  • Multi-Environment Pipelines Orchestration
  • Branch Visualization
  • Continuous Integration & Continuous Delivery

3. Asana

Established in 2008, Asana is a brilliant collaboration tool that allows teams of small, medium, or large organizations to monitor the project effectively, even virtually.

With a single dashboard, everyone can monitor the project with a customizable view that is tagged with a calendar for the deadlines.

Asana also allows individuals to post comments directly on the platform for clarifications and updates.

4. Trello

Sticky notes and post-its are fun and simplify your daily tasks. It is also hugely favored by organizations. And that’s what Trello has. It is an online project management tool that helps you create boards, assign tasks, and send notifications for every card.

This top choice by the New York Times is also available on Web, Android, and iOS devices. 

5. Microsoft One Note

Microsoft One Note is an online project management tool that takes notes and is a personal planner. 

Available for the web and all devices, it allows the user to take photos of documents and whiteboards with an Office lens.

To induce better collaboration, it can be viewed and edited by other members of the group. 

6. Podio

Assigning tasks, file sharing, etc. are very basic features of online project management tools. But Podio is one step ahead. It also caters to the needs of organizations that have CRM, sales leads, recruitment processes, etc.

It has the features like,

• Unlimited storage
• Full customization
• Integrated Chat
• Meeting Schedule
• Data visualization
  It also keeps track of your progress in simple and even dynamic cardboard.

7. Gantt Charts

Gantt Charts is considered to be one of the niftiest tools when it comes to project planning. It assimilates the data directly from the task list to build a visually perceptible project planning ecosystem.

This leads to a reduction in missed calculated deadlines and promotes timely action whenever there is a block.

Check more project management tools here.

How do online project management tools enhance overall efficiency?

Online project management tools are designed to streamline the flow of the project as the managers zip through various phases. Here, a full-suite platform can offer colossal advantages and one can manage everything from finance to billing to time-tracking to quote and to invoice. This eventually enhances the overall efficiency.

Let’s see this in detail,

Plans the project efficiently

For decades, enterprises have spent a hefty time planning the project. And it has neither been efficient nor fruitful. However, since the inception of project management tools, organizations can get precise AI predictions that give the estimated time the project will take to complete, and identify the constraints like cost, scope, and schedule.

The star of the project management tools is the automation involved in it. It assists the experts in crafting a strong base for the project and maps out the milestones, key deliverables, and roles. They will allow you to track your progress in real time.

Pipeline Forecasting

Maximum enterprises believe that taking multiple initiatives and executing them parallelly is a better way to stay ahead of the competition and be profitable. 

The other side of this coin is that multi-tasking with various projects unplanned leads to a lack of visibility. 

But since we can tap into the power of project management tools, we can get a quick overview of finished, existing, and planned projects. This can help the firms to avoid all kinds of bottlenecks and take a detour from disaster.

Enhanced team collaboration

Project management tools are intentionally designed to enhance team collaboration. People are designated with individual tasks of the bigger project. Hence, there is a scope for disruptions.

This can be tackled beforehand with project management tools that give the employees a medium to discuss the tasks, deadlines, dependencies, outstanding work, etc.

Managing the projects with Kanban boards and Sprints will loop everyone in and ensure that the people involved know the work, experts in the task list, priorities, etc.

Yes, this will keep everyone aligned but it will also minimize the re-work and build concentration on faster deliveries.

Solid Reporting

In businesses, long-term success is directly parallel to monitoring the work progress. With dedicated tools and software, enterprises can analyze the stages of the project, give you insights if the project is sticking to the timelines or not. This is gained with daily time registrations fed into the reporting mechanism. And once the information is in a designated place you can make the right decisions precisely.

While choosing software or tool, it's important to choose the one that lets you chronicle, customize and offer digestible pieces of insights.

These were our top three picks, if you wish to know more tools let us know in the comments below!

In addition to these tools, there are also project management best practices that can help you overcome the challenges.

1. Project Brief

Always remember, that project management will only be smooth when we have clarity. Define the following elements and give a startling beginning to your project,

• Scope and adjectives
• Deliverables
• Project Lifecycle
• Key Milestones
• Success criteria

2. Define a project plan

It is a detailed extension of the project brief. Here you can break the plan down and manageable and visible phases for a seamless flow. You can cover the following points here,

• Role and responsibility of every stakeholder
• Decide on key dates, deliverables, budgeting, tasks, and personnel
• Spot the dependencies 

3. Track scope creep

At the beginning of the project, we tend to set boundaries. However, these boundaries blur out as we move forward with the execution of the plan. This leads to an expanded budget, timeline, and deliverables.

Hence ensure that every party is clear and agrees on the implications of changes. And as the scope changes, you can let everyone know about it.

Conclusion:

Project management calls for great organizational skills, concentration, and also patience. And not being able to attain this can take a toll on your work and project. Hence you can always be equipped and tackle the challenges efficiently with the available tools and best practices.

Even if you are confident enough with your skills, it is always a good idea to use technology and minimize effort and error.