3 Must-Have Tools for Smart Project Management

There’s plenty of project management software available, but which ones are truly must haves?

Honestly, it depends on the type of project you’re working on. If you’re working alone, you won’t need collaboration software. But for large projects where you’re managing teams, budgets, receipts, task delegation, and deadlines, a simple tool won’t cut it.

Here are three project management tools you need, for collaboration, note-taking, and chart creation.

1. Basecamp for the best collaboration

Basecamp is a software service for growing businesses that need to organize important details, projects, and client relationships. For project managers, Basecamp organizes project details, including task assignment to team members, budgeting, schedules, and keeps track of essential documentation all in one place.

In Basecamp, the project manager creates a project and adds their team members. Everyone can see the defined milestones of the project. They can post feedback which reduces the need for back-and-forth communication, like emails, which can get lost or clutter your inbox.

As the project manager, you can assign to-do lists, message boards for communication, attach and see document attachments from others, and set deadlines for each task. So, if Bob hasn’t completed their assignment, you can see immediately.

You can try Basecamp for free, but after that, it’s $99 a month for businesses.

2. Evernote for the best project management note-taking

For all your note-taking needs, Evernote fits the bill. You can:

• Create simple notes
• Manage notebooks for each project
• Tag each note for easily searching

Also, you can take notes verbally, attach documentation, add photos, and more.

For example, if you need to keep all receipts and invoices in one place, create a notebook in Evernote, then add a note to each invoice, and upload the image of the receipts.

Evernote can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be. You can even add your teams to your notes when using Evernote for Business. But when it comes to task delegation and deadlines, software like Basecamp may be a better choice.

Evernote Basic is free, but for all the bells and whistles, it’ll cost you. Evernote Plus is $46.99 a year, premium is $89.99 a year, and Evernote for business is $12.00 a user per month. Each tier provides more features, some of which may be critical for your project.

3. Aha! For road mapping and Gantt charts

Charts are simple visual guides to understand complex information. You may require them during meetings with company stakeholders to explain the flow and deadlines of a project. You’ll want to cover each milestone, the expected deadline, and how each milestone leads to the completion of the project.

As far as charts go, the Gantt chart is one of the most used diagrams in the project management community. It comprises horizontal bars that explain project progress, milestones, and deadlines. When you need to show the project developments and progress on a macro-scale, Aha! is the tool for you.

Pricing for startups is special, but you’ll need to call Aha! to learn more. For everyone else, the price is $59 per user a month or $99-$149 per product owner a month.

Millions of users have downloaded and incorporated Basecamp, Evernote, and Aha! into their projects. You may need all of them, one, or a combination of the two. But you can count on each of them to help your project be a success.

Photo by picjumbo.com from Pexels