12 Key Benefits of Using Project Management Software

Managing a project is by nature no easy task. Project managers often face having to handle multiple projects at once. With so many moving parts involved in managing multiple projects, it is easy to miss out on crucial elements and for the projects to seem chaotic and unorderly. 

To manage multiple projects successfully, you need to use project management software. Without using a project management tool, you will spend more time than necessary on tasks and overall record lower productivity levels.

The absence of project management tools when managing projects makes it difficult to track your project team’s progress and activities. Collaboration and communication among team members and project stakeholders are ineffective without project management tools. You can easily miss out on deadlines and produce deliverables that leave your clients unsatisfied. 

An efficient project management system helps you manage your projects throughout their life cycles. In this article, you will learn 12 key benefits of using project management software.

Let’s get started. 

Essential Project Management Functions

Project management is the process involved in achieving the goals and objectives of a project. It involves the process of planning, managing, and executing the project. 

1. Planning

One of the essential functions of project management is planning and working towards realizing the goals and objectives of the project. This includes drawing up a project charter that describes all that the project is about to give a clear understanding to all parties.

Planning acts as a guideline for the project and also serves as a reminder to the team on how to carry out the project. In the process of planning, the project undergoes a thorough evaluation which will assess the strengths and weaknesses of the project and the team.

The planning stage involves the project plan, project schedule, and project estimates. This entails all information about the project to plan every sector or department that will be responsible for delivering the project. Project managers through these plans map out how best to achieve the purpose of the project.

2. Organizing

Project management organizes the process of the project as well as the team that will be carrying out the objectives of the product.

The work breakdown structure (WBS) helps organize the team’s work into manageable sections. Through a hierarchical outline of tasks, project managers can easily assign tasks and organize each department to meet their deadlines or targets. 

Through a well-organized system, project managers can easily process or adjust scope creep into the scheme of work without interrupting the project.

A good and detailed project management plan will include a risk breakdown structure, a work breakdown structure, and project management software.

In addition to using online project management software like Monday.com and ClickUp organizing roles and tasks for effective communication of task schedules, use online collaboration tools like Slack to communicate tasks to teams.

3. Monitoring 

This involves procedures to ensure a well effective team and high-quality project. Project management monitors the project timelines to ensure the project does not exceed the time frame and it does not come out too early as well.

Monitoring of the project involves managing the project team to ensure they work towards the attainment of the project goals. It also includes managing the cost and budget of the project so it stays within budget and brings the possible best result.

Project management ensures a strong and effective communication channel between the team and the management.

4. Managing

Management is a key component of project management. This component is so important that a job was created from it to help organize, coordinate and execute projects. 

A project manager is the one responsible for managing all aspects of the project. He or she oversees all departments and gets reports from heads of these departments and reviews the progress of the project. 

The project manager performs the following responsibilities: 

• Leads the project team to achieve all project goals 
• Allocate all necessary inputs and apply them to meet the pre-defined objectives 
• Produce a complete project that meets the client’s objective

Benefits of Project Management Software

1. Effortless Project Planning

A plan is a guideline or a first step towards delivering a project. Project management software helps to easily plan schedules, tasks, and objectives of a project. This includes laying out key project deliverables.

Through web-based project management software like Monday.com, ClickUp, and Wrike, you can create a plan to provide an overview of the entire project. This is where you create a project charter. The project charter describes and explains the purpose of the project including the end goal.

Project management software creates effortless planning that makes the job of the project manager less cumbersome and easy to focus on other important aspects of the job. This helps to assign tasks easily in a well-organized manner. 

With a detailed view of the project, the project team gets an idea of what they are working towards. When every aspect Is planned to the letter using project management software, it makes changes easier and planning faster.

2. Easy Task Management

A well-planned project makes assigning tasks easier. The project objectives will define the tasks that will be given to the team. 

Simple project management software makes assigning these tasks easier as well as tracking the progress of these tasks. This helps to reduce the workload of the project manager as his or her presence will not be required in all sectors. 

The project manager can manage and supervise the whole team by using project management tools that enable steady communication and monitoring of tasks. These software tools help to track milestones of the team and also make accountability easier. 

Reviewing project tasks helps you know team members who are meeting their targets and those who are slacking behind. You can use these tools to calculate the percentage of work effort of each department. With these project management applications, you can organize and create a task schedule for the team.

3. Balanced Resource Management

Balanced resource management is when you manage all tasks, human resources, budget, or funding properly. This includes allocating, scheduling, and planning the project’s resources.

To start a project, resources are very important as they are the core elements needed to achieve a goal. However, you have to manage these resources well to reach the goal of the task.

Resources include the funding, the time, and the staff involved in the project. Without these resources, you cannot run a successful project.

Project management software helps to strategize and prioritize these resources across the portfolio to maximize their value. This simply means project management tools are essential for organizations to ensure they allocate resources to the right initiatives. 

The best project management applications provide resource planning, resource utilization, and resource allocation features for users.

4. Higher Project Visibility

One of the key benefits of using project management software is that it creates a clear view of the project status and its overall plan. Higher project visibility can improve communication, help manage resources, and result in better decision-making.  

5. Improved Team Collaboration

Although over-reliance on project management tools can bring about less human activity, its importance in creating a channel or link through which team members can collaborate and work together cannot be overemphasized. Project management tools help teams to communicate effortlessly and work on delivering the project.

6. Real-Time Project Budget Management

Budget management is one of the key elements needed to finish a project successfully. Cost tracking helps project managers to examine every phase of the project and their necessary resources.

Project budget management includes the process of overseeing the finances related to the project. This ensures the project delivers the quality Intended, makes it easier for the project team to stay on track, and gives accurate budget analysis for a company’s long-term prospect.

7. Real-Time Project Reporting

Project reporting software analyzes data, filters specific errors, and shares findings or progress with the project team. You can use this tool to communicate the progress of the project to stakeholders. This enables improvement and allows for adjustments where needed. 

Real-time project reporting provides real-time project data, allows easy tracking of current progress and milestones, and provides background detail and a final summary to the entire project.

8. Effective Internal & External Communication

Communication is key in any organization. This project management skill gives room for improvement and growth not only for the project but for the organization of the team. 

Internal communication will provide higher visibility about what the project entails with the project team. Easy transfer of information from the project manager down to the least member of the project team enhances productivity.

External communication with the stakeholders and customers provides transparency. This will create a link between the project management and the stakeholders.

Effective internal and external communication enables the exchange of information and ideas, facilitates the achievement of goals and objectives, and faster decision making and conducting stress-free meetings.

9. Enhanced Customer Satisfaction

The end goal of every project is to meet the requirements of the customer. Project management software plays a huge part in helping you manage projects successfully and deliver deliverables that satisfy your customers. 

Thanks to planning, tracking, task management, and communication features, you can communicate effectively and seamlessly with your client or customer throughout the project’s life cycle. 

Enhanced customer satisfaction will increase your customer lifetime value (CLV) as satisfied customers are very likely to become repeat customers.

10. Increased Team Productivity

You can increase team productivity and enhance customer satisfaction by avoiding holding unnecessary team meetings that eat up time and produce little results for the project. 

You can use the web and video conferencing software tools such as RingCentral, Zoom, and UberConference to hold work meetings with your project team and stakeholders from any location. 

The ability to hold work meetings conveniently makes decisions faster. You do not have to wait for physical meetings to make decisions.

11. Better Project Risk Management

Project management software helps to calculate the risk level in a project and analyze the weak spot so you can easily address it. A risk breakdown structure analyses all levels of risk. Project management software organizes these risks according to their level of seriousness and urgency.

This helps to identify and evaluate potential risks, prevent loss and falling short of the desired outcome, and prevent unplanned scheduling of events and scope creep.

12. Enables 24/7 Remote Project Management Capabilities

Unlike humans, project management applications do not need rest or develop fatigue. They can operate 24/7 without time out. Although they may experience some technical issues, it can go all day and serve an unlimited number of people.

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