What is Project Management Automation Software?

Whether it is a small, medium, or large business organization, they work on different projects both in-house and outsourced, simultaneously. And, managing each project efficiently as well as meeting deadlines is an art. But, this quality is possessed by only a few, and hence, project management isn't as easy as it looks. It involves a lot of aspects that need to be looked upon for the proper and successful completion of a particular project.

However, for a manager handling a huge team of professionals, who are working on different tasks of a particular project is not easy and can often be overwhelming for them. To ease the workload, improve efficiency and achieve the desired results, automating the process can be useful. It will not only save a lot of time and effort but will also ensure better budget management, utilization of resources, tracking the progress of a project etc., so that it can be completed successfully and on time.

Why You Need Project Planning Software

To achieve the desired goals of an organization, execution and timely completion of projects is important. But, managing a project efficiently to ensure timely delivery isn't as easy as it seems. A lot of hard work goes into it. Managing a project includes setting up achievable and clear objectives, identifying requirements, proper delegation of work, and balancing demands from different stakeholders and ensuring completion of the work on time. And, one person cannot do these things single-handedly. Instead of juggling between different projects, tasks and people, having a good and robust project management system is essential.

Most Common Features of Project Management Software System

Resource Management: Resource management is an integral part of project management. Now, what do resources mean? Resources include everything from material required in the project to all sorts of expenditures that are incurred while working on a project. And, proper management of resources is important to achieve the desired goals. Therefore, one of the must-have features of project management software is resource management. This feature helps in managing all the resources from one place; thus, reducing the workload of the managers.

Planning and Scheduling: Proper team management requires outlining of responsibilities and tasks of every employee, who is working on a particular project. In order to avoid any sort of misunderstanding or to delegate work to new workers, planning is essential. Planning and scheduling is a must-have feature as it helps in prioritizing tasks, share team calendars, schedule tasks that are on the pipeline etc. With this feature, a lot of time can be saved and allow managers to focus on other tasks that are important.

Collaboration: The large project involves a huge team of professionals working on different tasks. And, often the team members need to access each other's work to know what's going on and how much more work is left and identify how much time would be required for completion of the project. But without proper and organized channel it becomes difficult for the team members to collaborate and work together in order to achieve organizational goals. Hence, to make things easier for team members and successful completion of a project, a must-have feature of a project management software is collaboration.

Documentation: Manually managing all the data of an ongoing project on spreadsheets requires a lot of effort and is without any doubt extremely time-consuming. Moreover, while maintaining spreadsheets and entering data manually, there is every chance of missing out on important data or feeding wrong data, which can cause huge financial loss for the organization. In order to avoid any such mess yet maintain proper data, another must-have feature of a project management software is documentation.

Reporting: It is important to know about the problems and shortcomings while managing a project. Some such problems need a quick solution and without being aware of the problems, finding the right solution is not possible. Managers should keep themselves updated about the projects and this is only possible when reports are submitted on a regular basis. However, manual reporting is time-consuming as well as is prone to errors. Software that comes with reporting feature will help make the lives of both team members and managers easier, making it a must-have feature.

Advantages / Benefits of Project Management System

Easy Collaboration: Team collaboration on large projects is important so that there is proper communication between team members. A good and robust project management software helps in easy collaboration. It helps to share documents, updates, and timelines so that work is completed on time.

Track Projects: Another major benefit of using a project management software is that it helps in tracking progress of every project a team is working on. It allows providing real-time updates on the projects and let the team members know how much time is required for completion of the projects.

Better Delegation of Tasks: A large project involves a huge number of employees working together on different tasks. To achieve desired results, proper delegation of tasks is important. But, the main problem comes in is deciding who is the best resource for a particular task. Project management software allows a better delegation of tasks and makes things easier for everyone involved in the project.

Better Budget Management: The budget is one of the most important aspects while working on any project. Even a minor mistake can ruin the entire project and the company can face heavy financial loss owing o it. A project management software helps in better budget management as it helps in determining the work budget so that every tasks can be aligned properly.

Proper Monitoring: Another important aspect of project management is monitoring the work of the team members so that nobody can cheat and ensure the work on a particular project is being done properly. Manually monitoring each and every team member isn't easy ; and hence, automating the process using a software will facilitate in proper and better monitoring of the work delegated to every team member.

Things to Consider While Buying A Project Management Software

Project managers are loaded with work and more than work, responsibilities. And, most often the workload increases, it becomes overwhelming. In addition, juggling between different tasks and responsibilities consumes a lot of time as well as energy. Automating the process of managing a large team of professionals, managing resources, planning and scheduling, reporting etc. will help in saving a lot of time and let them focus on other important aspects of business. Hence, using a good and robust project management software can make the life of project managers easier as well as help them manage projects in a much better way. However, with myriad such software available in the market, anyone will get confused. Here are some important aspects that needs to be considered while buying a software for managing projects.

1. Customizable

One of the major concerns of a business organization is whether the software is customizable. This is because the software should be capable of meeting the different needs of different projects. A customizable software is designed in a way that it can be completely configured and it is required for integration of large data, which is often vital for risk management and collaboration. Therefore, it is important to check if the software is customizable and choose the one that best suits the business needs.

2. Easy-to-use Interface

Another aspect that cannot be ignored is the interface of the software. When choosing software it is important that one chooses software that has an easy-to-use and user-friendly interface. Having an easy-to-use interface will let employees understand and encourage them to use the software more. Whereas, software that has a complex interface will make their life more difficult and it will also consume a lot of time to understand the interface of the software.

3. Mobile Support

Today, most of the work gets done on the phone and project managers need to monitor the work throughout the day. Hence, a software that comes with mobile support is better as it lets the managers stay connected with their team, monitor the work and manage other aspects while on the go.

4. Ask Price

Without any doubt, this is one of the most important factors that need consideration. This is because investment in software incurs a huge amount of money and if the investment does not pay back it will be a huge loss for the company. Therefore, considering the price is important before deciding which software to buy.

5. Security

The rise in cyber-attacks has made it critical to keep the data related to any project safe and secure, especially when the data is stored online. With the growing threat of cyber attacks, the risk of falling confidential and sensitive data into the wrong hands is also escalating. Therefore, it is important for business organizations to consider this as a primary factor while making a purchase to prevent sensitive and confidential data of the company from getting compromised.