How to choose the best project management software?
When a company is looking for project management software, they will find various alternatives in the market. How to choose between all these project management tools? What is the most appropriate tool in each case?
In any business, project execution must be done as quickly and economically as possible. For this, there is a series of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs ) that we cannot lose sight of, and a series of tasks to be carried out which will guarantee their execution in time and form.
The best project manager will be the one who responds to the selected KPIs, addresses them and delivers the functionality most appropriate to the objectives, priorities and values of each company.
What is a project management tool and what is its function?
A project management tool is a planning tool that helps organize and optimize resources in order to execute a task plan with the best possible results.
Its main function is to ensure that the actions of a project are carried out as efficiently as possible according to the objectives set.
Let's imagine that a company intends to implement a new cloud computing system on which the applications used by its employees will run. The organization sets the following objectives for this project:
- Implement the new solution within six months.
- Keep the current system active until the new system is implemented.
- Avoid overtime in the development team and IT team, in order to control salary costs during the process.
- Maintain a good working atmosphere in the department, by fairly distributing the workloads derived from this new project.
In this case, the role of the project manager will be to organize all the tasks and processes so that the action is executed in less than six months . This will help distribute workloads fairly , control overtime costs and monitor the working environment in the department.
What are the criteria for choosing project management software?
When choosing such software, the company must therefore pay attention to:
- The key performance indicators that it must measure.
- The tasks and functionalities that will be managed from the management program.
Depending on the company's KPIs and priority tasks, one tool or another will be more appropriate. All trying to cover most of them. But a rigorous analysis leads us to conclude that certain tools are more suitable than others, depending on the company's objectives.
For example, if accounting and resource planning are crucial to the business, Stafiz would be the best choice. But if we are trying to organize projects related to ticketing systems (common operation in IT departments), it will be more appropriate to use managers such as Jira and, more specifically, its Bug Tracking model.
1. Project management KPIs to follow
Below we will break down several KPIs that may be relevant in project management. Not every business needs to track them all comprehensively. It all depends on the goals and values that take priority in each case.
Four main groups of KPIs
This is data that is closely monitored because it is an indicator of good or poor performance in a given element of the process.
In the case of project management, indicators can be grouped into four main groups which are fundamental for effective project planning:
- financial compatibility,
- personnel management,
- productivity and efficiency,
- the organization.
Find out more about KPIs for project management.
Accounting and finance KPIs
At Stafiz, we believe that knowing how to implement project accounting is the basis of effective project monitoring. When it is well implemented, it allows managers and project directors to use management control techniques such as a finance team could do, but this time on a daily basis, throughout the project. If the company manages many projects and clients, it will need to move towards project portfolio management software. This will allow them to be compared in order to identify the most interesting projects or clients as well as the best practices to implement across the entire portfolio.
| KPIS | Definition | Objective / Usefulness |
|---|---|---|
| Completion rate | Ratio between the theoretical time a project needs and the time it actually takes. | Measure actual performance against planned budget. |
| Production carried out not invoiced | The production produced (either in value or time) which has not yet been invoiced to the customer. | Useful to better manage cash flow. |
| Sales pipeline | Sales opportunities detected but not closed. | Forecast sales and anticipate the resources needed to cover them. |
| Actual turnover vs. expected turnover | Calculation of income based on the executed part of the project (percentage of completion). | Recognize revenue based on the percentage of the project executed. Allows you to economically quantify the time invested in the project and its profitability. |
To find out more, consult our detailed article on the 12 project financial indicators to keep an eye on for project management.
Personnel management KPIs
| KPIS | Definition | Objective / Usefulness |
|---|---|---|
| Time control | Monitoring of hours stipulated in each employee's employment contract. | Take into account the hours set in the contract to optimize the workload appropriately. It is also a legal obligation for all businesses. |
| utilization rate (TACE) | A percentage that determines the time spent on billable projects compared to the employee's total working time (excluding vacation periods). | Ensure that the work of the teams is profitable. |
| Staff rate | Same as above, but including total time spent (both billable projects and other activities, e.g. internal projects). | Control overall workloads. |
| External personnel costs | In good project management, production capacity, utilization rate and external personnel costs should also be measured. | Adjust workloads and workflows more efficiently, using external resources, which can be of great help in achieving goals and better managing staff. |
| Turnover rate | Number of people leaving their job by moving to another company. | Alert about possible malfunctions in the work methodology which are not necessarily encouraging for workers. Their departure generates an increase in labor costs and a loss of productivity. |
| Vacations and leave | Employee absences | Quantify the economic and productivity impact that the absence of a certain profile has on a project. And be able to reorganize resources and compensate them, if necessary. |
| Feedback | This is qualitative information which can nevertheless be very useful for decision-making. | Improve the efficiency of processes and tasks that are part of a project. If, during feedback sessions, a high percentage of employees reveal the ineffectiveness of a certain software, we will have precise information that will help us assess the cost of replacing it, the impact on productivity, etc. |
Productivity and efficiency
| KPIS | Definition | Objective / Usefulness |
|---|---|---|
| Production capacity | It measures the time spent on a project and is multiplied by the value of a day's work. | It allows you to know if the company can take on more projects, and at what level. If a company has ten developers, with a labor value of €700 and working 240 days per year, it will have a production capacity of €1,680,000. It should seek contracts of at least equal value. |
| Potential productivity | Number of hours which, a priori, are necessary to carry out an action, segmented by type of job profile or function. | Estimate the number of hours (and their cost) that will be required to undertake a given task on a project. |
| Real productivity | Real time needed to carry out an action, segmented by type of professional profile or position. | It is compared to the previous figure to assess the actual profitability of a project in terms of the difference between potential productivity and actual productivity. |
Organization
| KPIS | Definition | Objective / Usefulness |
|---|---|---|
| Communication | Number of meetings and time spent on communication actions. May include time spent on Slack, email, or other similar applications. | Know how much time a given profile spends on this issue, in order to allocate it to projects appropriately. Qualitatively, it is interesting to extract information from employee feedback, to corroborate that this time spent is of real use for greater process efficiency. |
| Tasks | Number of actions that must be carried out to correctly implement a project. | Estimate the time a task will take, the number of employees needed, the time each of them will have to invest, the duration of a project, etc. |
| Projects | Number of projects in progress and their progress. | Know how many projects are being carried out in parallel, what resources they consume, what the expected turnover will be, etc. |
2. Tasks & features of project management software
Depending on the KPIs and objectives chosen, companies must give priority to project management tools that have the functionalities allowing them to achieve them.
A simple but easy to understand example: imagine that a company has sufficient manpower to carry out five projects in parallel, so it sets itself the objective of managing this number of projects. But the selected project manager limits the number of projects on their platform to a maximum of two. This company will not be able to use this tool. On the other hand, it will be suitable for a freelancer working for a single company.
Therefore, the second parameter to look at is: what is most important to achieve the objectives and track the set KPIs? Or, in other words, which features and tasks are priorities for the company in project management? Among the most relevant are:
- Planning and task management.
- Resource planning.
- Communication.
- Project reporting (BI)
- Ticket management.
- Budget monitoring.
- Project documentation.
1. Planning and task management
This is a very important feature in project management because it allows us to visualize the overall status of tasks, workloads, estimated completion times, etc. quickly and agilely. The two most common representations are the Gantt chart and the Kanban.
- The Gantt chart is an online charting system that represents the tasks that must be performed to complete a project. In addition to the interrelationship with other tasks, the time allocated to each task and the person responsible for each task. So, if a task is late, the tasks that depend on it will have to start later. Compared to the initially planned schedule, it allows us to quickly visualize whether the project is on time or behind schedule. It is also possible to know if there is a need to reallocate resources, change workloads, or make temporal adjustments.
- Kanban is another planning methodology which, in this case, is represented by columns. Each column is associated with a status, for example: “In progress”, “In progress”, “Finished”
This proposal is just an example. In project managers that integrate Kanban templates, tasks can be easily organized and notes such as priority, responsible person, estimated completion date, dependent tasks, etc. can be added. In this way, the project manager can check the progress at a glance and make decisions regarding the organization of tasks.
2. Planning and allocation of resources ( resource planning )
Resource planning is the process of assessing resource needs and aligning them with suitable resources, like a game of supply and demand: this is capacity planning. The objective of this phase is to provide the company with adequate human resources capacities in order to be able to deliver present and future projects with the expected level of quality. Concretely, for the process to be effective, the tool must integrate profile and skills management functions: sourcing, labeling and organization of profile requests.
Resource allocation and next link planning. This involves allocating available resources to projects and optimizing utilization rate (TACE) while satisfying employees. To do this, the tool must integrate scheduling, simplified manual or automatic allocation functions. The interface should be intuitive with drag and drop if possible to facilitate modifications.
A project manager who contributes to a good allocation of resources will facilitate a correct distribution of workloads, avoiding inequalities that can affect the work environment.
With the right project management tool, the company can quickly view the project's progress against the planned completion date. If employees are performing well, but are not meeting deadlines, the company will have a red flag that will prompt it to analyze whether the technical resources are the most appropriate, for example.
3. Communication
Fluid and quality communication is another fundamental aspect. The communication skills of the leader, manager or project manager are essential. But having the necessary tools for this communication to be truly effective and efficient is required.
Because in good project management, communication must be sufficient but not excessive. Excessive communication, too many meetings or unproductive follow-up sessions can be detrimental to projects, which is why they also need to be controlled.
4. Project reporting (BI)
Project reporting (BI) is essential, particularly for service activities, because it allows you to benefit from a real-time view of the status of a project and to understand the origin of problems.
It is also essential to have functionalities to corroborate the cost of this time, based on the human and technical resources invested. Because, in this way, the company obtains valuable information to optimize budgets and projects in the most cost-effective way possible.
5. Ticket management
This functionality group is important if your project is software development oriented and therefore includes bugs or features to be developed. This type of software often includes repository management . These tools respect so-called agile development methodologies (scrum etc.)
6. Respecting the budget
Staying on budget is essential, and a good project management tool should help control, organize and optimize costs.
In order to successfully complete the project, project managers will need quick access to operational expenses, costs derived from external resources, contracts with partners, purchases, acquisition of licenses… All of these elements must be updated at the time queries are made. Indeed, the closer the budget monitoring is to reality in terms of time and value, the better the orientations and adjustments to the project will be.
It is also important to have a forecast of what these costs will be at the end of the project, depending on the type of task to be carried out, the execution time, the need or not to have more resources… And always in comparison with the initial budget allocated to the project.
7. Document the project
Project documentation is the key to transparent and secure project management. This is a criterion that is often not given the attention it deserves. However, it is crucial for two reasons:
- For the project itself . Sometimes it is necessary to revisit a certain step that was taken several months ago, but is essential to solving a problem that is currently occurring. It is therefore particularly relevant in projects with interdependent tasks. If the project is not properly documented, a lot of time and money may be wasted trying to find a solution to a problem that arises from the way a certain issue has been handled in the past.
- As a reference for future projects . Sometimes project managers are faced with circumstances that other teams, or themselves, have faced in the past. Proper documentation will speed up the decision-making process and increase the profitability of future projects.
Other functions also relevant for choosing a project manager
In some projects, it is necessary to pool the work of several departments . A solution with high usability, which allows easy implementation and which can be used simultaneously and in real time by several users, will be the key to facilitating interdepartmental relations.
Another important aspect is that the project management tool has a good support service and easy integration with other programs. The more information the company has, the better strategic decisions will be made. Furthermore, centralizing all processes on a single platform is a great way to save time and, therefore, make projects an even more cost-effective and efficient process.
And, of course, the price of the solution itself will be another point that the company will need to analyze before making a final decision on which project management system is best for them.
To go further, find out which are the best project management software by category in our detailed article.
Final thoughts
First, businesses need to determine which KPIs they want to track. Only then, they must identify which project management software integrates the most appropriate functionalities and tasks to achieve them, without losing sight of a whole series of global recommendations that make it possible to respect the objectives of project duration and profitability. This may involve, for example, carrying out adequate planning, carrying out exhaustive monitoring or carrying out a realistic and data-based post-project analysis. Questions for which project management software becomes a fundamental ally, capable of accelerating and optimizing work management and, therefore, boosting business growth.
