9 Project Management Tools the World's Top Startups Actually Use. Unlike more robust project management options, Trello is more visually based and focuses on clarity, making it easy to quickly. The project manager gathers initial project facts from the project charter. In addition, background information on the stakeholder’s workplace, existing business model and rules, etc. Assist in creating the vision of the final product/service, and consequently, the project scope (see Figure 9.2). List of Microsoft Project Alternatives: 1. ProofHub is an all-in-one project management software that comes with a myriad of powerful features. This MS Project alternative brings together everyone from your team members to clients to projects at a centralized place. All Software Adobe Autodesk Chaosgroup V-Ray Get V-Ray, Phoenix FD, Chaos Vantage, Chaos Cloud & VRscans in a single collection. Artists and designers looking for total creative fre.
Missed deadlines. Bottlenecks. Conversation silos.
These issues are costing you time and money. Luckily, you don’t have to break the bank to find a project management tool.
If you have a small team, are on a tight budget, and are willing to compromise on some premium features, then a free or freemium project management tool may be right for you. (Freemium products are free versions of paid software that offer limited functionality, user seats, or both.)
In this article, we highlight the 10 top-rated free project management (PM) software options on Capterra and explain each product offering and the cost to upgrade.
Use this list to determine 1) if free software is the right solution for your organization, and 2) which free project management solution is best for your needs.
What does “top-rated” mean? Each of the 10 tools included in this piece have an above-average overall user rating compared to other products in the category. You can find our full methodology here.
(Products are listed alphabetically)
“Project management (PM) software” has become an umbrella term, encompassing a range of solutions from lighter, collaborative work management tools up to robust portfolio management solutions.
It’s important to understand the differences between these types of software, so you can choose the tool that best meets your needs:
Airtable is a cloud-based, collaborative work management solution. Teams can view tasks on a grid (similar to a spreadsheet), calendar, Kanban board, or gallery. Key features include task management, collaboration, reporting/project tracking, and time tracking.
The central component of Airtable is bases, which contain all the data you need for a project. Bases are made up of a collection of tables, and each table covers a particular aspect of the project. Tables contain fields (file attachments, checkboxes, etc.) and records (relevant data points you’re tracking).
Asana is a cloud-based project and task management solution that helps companies manage and organize tasks and projects, communicate, and collaborate. It’s helpful for teams and companies that handle multiple projects at a time, and it can serve companies of any size.
Features include task management, reporting, automatic notifications, a customer portal, collaboration tools, dashboards, a mobile app, document management, and task assigning. Asana also includes an inbox feature that captures all updates generated automatically by the software.
Asana can be accessed through mobile devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones. It can also be accessed on both Android and iOS smartphones.
Asana can be integrated with various applications such as Dropbox, Slack, Gmail, and Zapier. It has a 100MB limit per individual attachment.
Basecamp is a real-time communication tool. It includes to-do lists, calendars, due dates, and file sharing, which provides a way for teams to keep track of priorities and actionable items.
With Basecamp, users can create projects, document progress, and manage tasks. It’s web-based software, allowing users to sign in either through a web browser or through a mobile app.
Basecamp can be used by any organization that needs to manage a group, including nonprofits, startups, and client service firms—and even freelancers. Subscriptions are scalable, with tiers for varying amounts of storage and numbers of users.
ClickUp is a cloud-based work management solution that bills itself as “productivity software.” It helps individuals and teams set goals, manage tasks, and organize work in “project spaces.” Key features include task management, collaboration, reporting/project tracking, time tracking, and Gantt charts.
The central components of ClickUp include tasks, custom fields, goals (defined objectives that are broken down into, and assigned, a measurable target), and portfolios (a high-level overview of your work, similar to a dashboard).
Jira software is a workflow management tool that Agile teams use to plan, track, and release software. Jira works for teams that use Scrum, Kanban, a hybrid model, or other unique workflows.
With Jira, users can create project roadmaps to map out all in-progress projects. The project board includes a drag-and-drop interface that allows teams to manage every project detail. Users can create user stories and issues, plan sprints, and distribute tasks across the team. Users also have access to information from thousands of business apps, from design and monitoring tools to source code and productivity apps.
Jira offers a mobile app for Android and iOS devices. Support is available through an online support portal, online documentation, and tutorial videos.
MeisterTask is a visual work management software tool that helps teams manage workflows and organize tasks on a shared Kanban board. It can be deployed in the cloud or installed on Mac or Windows OS. Key features include task management, collaboration, reporting/project tracking, and time tracking.
Citrix Podio is a project management and social collaboration tool. It allows businesses to create custom applications to meet unique business requirements and preferred workflows. Users don’t need technical skills to use the software, and it helps save development resources.
Users can access hundreds of free apps through the Podio App Market, such as task management, project portfolio management, and issue management. There are also apps for functions such as customer relationship management (CRM) and applicant tracking.
Across all apps, Podio offers a range of social collaboration features, including Facebook-esque “likes” and file-sharing anywhere within the system, as well as internal instant messaging and video chat.
Podio’s app-building capabilities make it a good fit for smaller organizations that require a high degree of customization—particularly those looking to manage multiple business processes within a single system.
Quire is a cloud-based project management solution designed to help small and midsize businesses manage to-do lists and tasks to enable collaboration across teams. Key features include document management, real-time editing, communication tools, discussion boards, file sharing, milestone tracking, and project planning.
Teams using Quire can arrange and prioritize tasks via a Kanban board so members can visualize workflows. Managers can assign tasks to team members, sort assignments according to priority, filter tasks, and view start/due dates of projects using Gantt charts. Additionally, users can follow tasks in order to receive reminders in registered devices about upcoming deadlines.
Quire comes with an application programming interface (API), which allows integration with various third-party applications, such as Slack, Outlook Calendar, iCal and others. Users can remotely manage business activities through mobile applications for Android and iOS devices. Quire provides support via email and FAQs.
Teamwork is a cloud-based work management solution that helps teams collaborate, organize tasks, and deliver on time. Key features include Gantt charts, Kanban boards, task management, collaboration, reporting/project tracking, time tracking, and resource management.
Wrike is a cloud-based project management platform for teams of 20+ for both enterprise and small businesses. It comes with Gantt charts, calendars, a workload view for resource management, custom dashboards, and real-time updates. It allows for structuring via folders, projects, and tasks and auto-assignment based on task statuses. Wrike supports a wide range of teams, from finance and tech to creative and advertising. Vmware fusion pro 11 0 0.
Wrike for Marketers is a separate product with tailored templates, proofing tools, and an Adobe extension.
Wrike integrates with a variety of tools including Salesforce, Dropbox, and Slack and offers an API.
Lutify me professional 3d luts package for capture one pro. Quickly find the right tool with this snapshot of the most popular project management tools.
Below are descriptions of the software functionality that’s referenced in the product write-ups above:
| Key capabilities and features of PM software | |
|---|---|
| Task management | Create tasks, add descriptions, set start and due dates, set a priority, estimate level of effort (e.g., hours, points, etc.), and assign tasks to users. Users can add attachments, leave comments, and update the task status as they work on the item or move tasks through a workflow on a task board (either Kanban or Scrum). Additional functions include: convert emails to tasks, set dependencies, create subtasks, create recurring tasks, create task checklists. |
| Collaboration | Provides a centralized workspace that enables multiple users to communicate, conference, and coordinate among themselves to facilitate group work. Create shared team and/or project task boards, calendars, wikis, dashboards, etc.; stay up to date with other users’ activity via activity feed; loop in project team members via @mentions; share files; chat; video conference, and invite guests to participate. |
| Reporting/project tracking | Reports and dashboards provide a quick, visual way for users to understand the status of a project, its costs, or other key information. View progress made against the project plan, track milestones, track active tasks, view a completed task list, compare estimated time to actual time spent, compare estimated spend to actual costs, and track team performance. |
| Project planning | Define project scope, timeline, and resources/budget. Break complex projects down into milestones, identify deliverables, and forecast cash flow. Create the work breakdown structure, outline the critical path, identify dependencies and constraints, and plan key resources. |
| Time tracking | Track time spent on various tasks, report on estimated versus actual time spent working on tasks, measure billable versus nonbillable hours, pull time logged into a timesheet for invoicing clients. |
| Resource management | Create resource chart/record with contact information, pay rate, role, and skill level. Allocate staff to projects and monitor workloads. Functions may include resource capacity planning and project prioritization based on demand for key resources. |
| File sharing | Digitally share a wide variety of media types. |
| Gantt chart | Cascading, horizontal bar chart with dates that mark the start and finish of the interdependent parts of a project. Tasks are laid out in order of when each item needs to be completed. Often used to create the work breakdown structure and outline the critical path during project planning and then to compare current project status with initial plans during project execution. |
| Kanban board | The digital equivalent of sticky notes on a white board, Kanban boards provide a visual representation of a workflow or process. The board is divided into columns representing stages in a workflow (e.g., “backlog,” “developing,” and “testing”), or a status (e.g., “to do,” “in progress,” and “done”). Tasks are represented as “cards” that can be expanded to show assignee(s), task details, and comments. Kanban metrics include cumulative flow diagrams and lead and cycle time diagrams. |
Methodology
This article was updated 12/15/20. Products considered for this article had to:
Offer a free, stand-alone version of the software (not a trial version of the software where you must purchase a product after a limited amount of time).
Meet our project management market definition.
This definition includes project management software’s evolution to encompass a range of solutions, from lighter task/work management tools up to robust portfolio management solutions:
Work management software helps teams plan and manage workflows, organize tasks and activities, and collaborate in a shared workspace. These tools capture the work execution, providing live notifications and views relevant to different stakeholders.
Project management (PM) software helps managers and organizations execute projects: initiatives with a defined start and end date, a defined scope, and defined resources/budget. PM solutions help businesses plan, monitor, and control project costs and schedules so they can deliver value and meet project success criteria (e.g., on time, on budget, within scope, and meeting business goals).
Software that met the market definition also needed a minimum of 10 user-submitted reviews published between Nov 30, 2019 – Nov. 30, 2020, and have an above-average overall user rating compared to other products in the category.
Note: The content in this piece that provides opinions and points of view expressed by users does not represent the views of Capterra. The applications selected in this article are examples to show a feature in context and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations. They have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.
Looking for Project Management software? Check out Capterra's list of the best Project Management software solutions.
You always want to know exactly what work has to be done before you start it. You have a collection of team members, and you need to know exactly what they’re going to do to meet the project’s objectives. The scope planning process is the very first thing you do to manage your scope. Project scope planning is concerned with the definition of all the work needed to successfully meet the project objectives. The whole idea here is that when you start the project, you need to have a clear picture of all the work that needs to happen on your project, and as the project progresses, you need to keep that scope up to date and written down in the project’s scope management plan.
You already have a head start on refining the project’s objectives in quantifiable terms, but now you need to plan further and write down all the intermediate and final deliverables that you and your team will produce over the course of the project. Deliverables include everything that you and your team produce for the project (i.e., anything that your project will deliver). The deliverables for your project include all of the products or services that you and your team are performing for the client, customer, or sponsor. They include every intermediate document, plan, schedule, budget, blueprint, and anything else that will be made along the way, including all of the project management documents you put together. Project deliverables are tangible outcomes, measurable results, or specific items that must be produced to consider either the project or the project phase completed. Intermediate deliverables, like the objectives, must be specific and verifiable.
All deliverables must be described in a sufficient level of detail so that they can be differentiated from related deliverables. For example:
One of the project manager’s primary functions is to accurately document the deliverables of the project and then manage the project so that they are produced according to the agreed-on criteria. Deliverables are the output of each development phase, described in a quantifiable way.
After all the deliverables are identified, the project manager needs to document all the requirements of the project. Requirements describe the characteristics of the final deliverable, whether it is a product or a service. They describe the required functionality that the final deliverable must have or specific conditions the final deliverable must meet in order to satisfy the objectives of the project. A requirement is an objective that must be met. The project’s requirements, defined in the scope plan, describe what a project is supposed to accomplish and how the project is supposed to be created and implemented. Requirements answer the following questions regarding the as-is and to-be states of the business: who, what, where, when, how much, and how does a business process work?
Requirements may include attributes like dimensions, ease of use, colour, specific ingredients, and so on. If we go back to the example of the company producing holiday eggnog, one of the major deliverables is the cartons that hold the eggnog. The requirements for that deliverable may include carton design, photographs that will appear on the carton, colour choices, etc.
Requirements specify what the final project deliverable should look like and what it should do. Requirements must be measurable, testable, related to identified business needs or opportunities, and defined to a level of detail sufficient for system design. They can be divided into six basic categories: functional, non-functional, technical, business, user, and regulatory requirements.
Functional requirements describe the characteristics of the final deliverable in ordinary non-technical language. They should be understandable to the customers, and the customers should play a direct role in their development. Functional requirements are what you want the deliverable to do.
If you were buying vehicles for a business, your functional requirement might be: “The vehicles should be able to take up to a one ton load from a warehouse to a shop.”
For a computer system you may define what the system is to do: “The system should store all details of a customer’s order.”
The important point to note is that what is wanted is specified and not how it will be delivered.
Non-functional requirements specify criteria that can be used to judge the final product or service that your project delivers. They are restrictions or constraints to be placed on the deliverable and how to build it. Their purpose is to restrict the number of solutions that will meet a set of requirements. Using the vehicle example, the functional requirement is for a vehicle to take a load from a warehouse to a shop. Without any constraints, the solutions being offered might result in anything from a small to a large truck. Non-functional requirements can be split into two types: performance and development.
To restrict the types of solutions, you might include these performance constraints:
Similarly, for the computer system example, you might specify values for the generic types of performance constraints:
For the customer records example, the constraints might be:
One important point with these examples is that they restrict the number of solution options that are offered to you by the developer. In addition to the performance constraints, you may include some development constraints.
There are three general types of non-functional development constraints:
Technical requirements emerge from the functional requirements to answer the questions: how will the problem be solved this time and will it be solved technologically and/or procedurally? They specify how the system needs to be designed and implemented to provide required functionality and fulfill required operational characteristics.
For example, in a software project, the functional requirements may stipulate that a database system will be developed to allow access to financial data through a remote terminal. The corresponding technical requirements would spell out the required data elements, the language in which the database management system will be written (due to existing knowledge in-house), the hardware on which the system will run (due to existing infrastructure), telecommunication protocols that should be used, and so forth.
Business requirements are the needs of the sponsoring organization, always from a management perspective. Business requirements are statements of the business rationale for the project. They are usually expressed in broad outcomes, satisfying the business needs, rather than specific functions the system must perform. These requirements grow out of the vision for the product that, in turn, is driven by mission (or business) goals and objectives.
User requirements describe what the users need to do with the system or product. The focus is on the user experience with the system under all scenarios. These requirements are the input for the next development phases: user-interface design and system test cases design.
Regulatory requirements can be internal or external and are usually non-negotiable. They are the restrictions, licenses, and laws applicable to a product or business that are imposed by the government.
Automated teller machines (ATMs) can be used to illustrate a wide range of requirements (Figure 9.1). What are some of the physical features of these machines, and what kinds of functions do they perform for the bank’s customers? Why did banks put these systems in place? What are the high-level business requirements?
The following represents one possible example of each type of requirement as they would be applied to a bank’s external ATM.
The effective specification of requirements is one of the most challenging undertakings project managers face. Inadequately specified requirements will guarantee poor project results.
Documenting requirements is much more than just the process of writing down the requirements as the user sees them; it should cover not only what decisions have been made, but why they have been made, as well. Understanding the reasoning that was used to arrive at a decision is critical in avoiding repetition. For example, the fact that a particular feature has been excluded, because it is simply not feasible, needs to be recorded. If it is not, then the project risks wasted work and repetition, when a stakeholder requests the feature be reinstated during development or testing.
Once the requirements are documented, have the stakeholders sign off on their requirements as a confirmation of what they desire.
While the project manager is responsible for making certain the requirements are documented, it does not mean that the project manager performs this task. The project manager enlists the help of all the stakeholders (business analysts, requirement analysts, business process owners, customers and other team members) to conduct the discussions, brain-storming, and interviews, and to document and sign off the requirements. The project manager is responsible only for enabling the process and facilitating it. If the project manager feels that the quality of the document is questionable, his or her duty is to stop the development process.
The project manager reviews the requirements, incorporates them into the project documentation library, and uses them as an input for the project plan.
This section refers to requirements of “software” because it is concerned with problems to be addressed by software. A software requirement is a property that must be exhibited by software developed or adapted to solve a particular problem. The problem may be to automate part of a task of someone who will use the software, to support the business processes of the organization that has commissioned the software, to correct shortcomings of existing software, to control a device, etc. The functioning of users, business processes, and devices is typically complex. Therefore, the requirements on particular software are typically a complex combination of requirements from different people at different levels of an organization and from the environment in which the software will operate.
An essential property of all software requirements is that they be verifiable. It may be difficult or costly to verify certain software requirements. For example, verification of the throughput requirement on a call centre may necessitate the development of simulation software. Both the software requirements and software quality personnel must ensure that the requirements can be verified within the available resource constraints.
Requirements have other attributes in addition to the behavioural properties that they express. Common examples include a priority rating to enable trade-offs in the face of finite resources and a status value to enable project progress to be monitored. Typically, software requirements are uniquely identified so that they can be monitored over the entire software life cycle.
As a practical matter, it is typically useful to have some concept of the volume of the requirements for a particular software product. This number is useful in evaluating the size of a change in requirements, in estimating the cost of a development or maintenance task, or simply in using it as the denominator in other measurements (see Table 9.1).
| Property | Measure |
|---|---|
| Speed |
|
| Size |
|
| Ease of use |
|
| Reliability |
|
| Robustness |
|
| Portability |
|
The project manager gathers initial project facts from the project charter. In addition, background information on the stakeholder’s workplace, existing business model and rules, etc. assist in creating the vision of the final product/service, and consequently, the project scope (see Figure 9.2).
Certainly being a seasoned project manager broadens the repertoire of one’s scope planning techniques. An experienced project manager can draw on past experiences with like projects to determine the work that is realistically doable, given time and cost constraints, for a current project. Communication and negotiation skills are a “must-have” as well. Project managers need to educate stakeholders about the project impacts of some requirements. Adding complexity to a project may require more staff, time, and/or money. It may also have an impact on project quality. Some aspects of the project may be unfeasible – stakeholders need to know this so they can adjust their vision or prepare for future challenges.
Gathering requirements is part of scope definition, and it can be done using one or more of following techniques:
The requirements traceability matrix is a table that links requirements to their origin and traces them throughout the project life cycle. The implementation of a requirements traceability matrix helps ensure that each requirement adds business value by linking it to the business and project objectives. It provides a means to track requirements throughout the project life cycle, helping to ensure that requirements approved in the requirements documentation are delivered at the end of the project. Finally, it provides a structure for managing changes to the product scope. This process includes, but is not limited to, tracking:
Attributes associated with each requirement can be recorded in the requirements traceability matrix. These attributes help to define key information about the requirement. Typical attributes used in the requirements traceability matrix may include a unique identifier, a textual description of the requirement, the rationale for inclusion, owner, source, priority, version, current status (such as active, cancelled, deferred, added, approved), and date completed. Additional attributes to ensure that the requirement has met stakeholders’ satisfaction may include stability, complexity, and acceptance criteria.
These are suggestions only and will vary based on organizational and project requirements.
Now that we have the deliverables and requirements well defined, the process of breaking down the work of the project via a work breakdown structure (WBS) begins. The WBS defines the scope of the project and breaks the work down into components that can be scheduled, estimated, and easily monitored and controlled. The idea behind the WBS is simple: you subdivide a complicated task into smaller tasks, until you reach a level that cannot be further subdivided. Anyone familiar with the arrangements of folders and files in a computer memory or who has researched their ancestral family tree should be familiar with this idea. You stop breaking down the work when you reach a low enough level to perform an estimate of the desired accuracy. At that point, it is usually easier to estimate how long the small task will take and how much it will cost to perform than it would have been to estimate these factors at the higher levels. Each descending level of the WBS represents an increased level of detailed definition of the project work.
WBS describes the products or services to be delivered by the project and how they are decomposed and related. It is a deliverable-oriented decomposition of a project into smaller components. It defines and groups a project’s discrete work elements in a way that helps organize and define the total work scope of the project.
A WBS also provides the necessary framework for detailed cost estimating and control, along with providing guidance for schedule development and control.
WBS is a hierarchical decomposition of the project into phases, deliverables, and work packages. It is a tree structure, which shows a subdivision of effort required to achieve an objective (e.g., a program, project, and contract). In a project or contract, the WBS is developed by starting with the end objective and successively subdividing it into manageable components in terms of size, duration, and responsibility (e.g., systems, subsystems, components, tasks, subtasks, and work packages), which include all steps necessary to achieve the objective.
The WBS creation involves:
The purpose of developing a WBS is to:
If I want to clean a room, I might begin by picking up clothes, toys, and other things that have been dropped on the floor. I could use a vacuum cleaner to get dirt out of the carpet. I might take down the curtains and take them to the cleaners, and then dust the furniture. All of these tasks are subtasks performed to clean the room. As for vacuuming the room, I might have to get the vacuum cleaner out of the closet, connect the hose, empty the bag, and put the machine back in the closet. These are smaller tasks to be performed in accomplishing the subtask called vacuuming. Figure 9.3 shows how this might be portrayed in WBS format.
It is very important to note that we do not worry about the sequence in which the work is performed or any dependencies between the tasks when we do a WBS. That will be worked out when we develop the schedule. For example, under 3.0 Vacuum, it would be obvious that 3.3 Vacuum carpet would be performed after 3.4 Connect hose and plug! However, you will probably find yourself thinking sequentially, as it seems to be human nature to do so. The main idea of creating a WBS is to capture all of the tasks, irrespective of their order. So if you find yourself and other members of your team thinking sequentially, don’t be too concerned, but don’t get hung up on trying to diagram the sequence or you will slow down the process of task identification. A WBS can be structured any way it makes sense to you and your project. In practice, the chart structure is used quite often but it can be composed in outline form as well (Figure 9.4).
You’ll notice that each element at each level of the WBS in both figures is assigned a unique identifier. This unique identifier is typically a number, and it’s used to sum and track costs, schedules, and resources associated with WBS elements. These numbers are usually associated with the corporation’s chart of accounts, which is used to track costs by category. Collectively, these numeric identifiers are known as the code of accounts.
There are also many ways you can organize the WBS. For example, it can be organized by either deliverable or phase. The major deliverables of the project are used as the first level in the WBS. For example, if you are doing a multimedia project the deliverables might include producing a book, CD, and a DVD (Figure 9.5).
Many projects are structured or organized by project phases (Figure 9.6). Each phase would represent the first level of the WBS and their deliverables would be the next level and so on.
The project manager is free to determine the number of levels in the WBS based on the complexity of the project. Video blackjack strategy. You need to include enough levels to accurately estimate project time and costs but not so many levels that are difficult to distinguish between components. Regardless of the number of levels in a WBS, the lowest level is called a work package.
Work packages are the components that can be easily assigned to one person or a team of people, with clear accountability and responsibility for completing the assignment. The work-package level is where time estimates, cost estimates, and resource estimates are determined.
The 100 percent rule is the most important criterion in developing and evaluating the WBS. The rule states that each decomposed level (child) must represent 100 percent of the work applicable to the next higher (parent) element. In other words, if each level of the WBS follows the 100 percent rule down to the activities, then we are confident that 100 percent of the activities will have been identified when we develop the project schedule. When we create the budget for our project, 100 percent of the costs or resources required will be identified.
Scope statements may take many forms depending on the type of project being implemented and the nature of the organization. The scope statement details the project deliverables and describes the major objectives. The objectives should include measurable success criteria for the project.
A scope statement captures, in very broad terms, the product of the project: for example, “development of a software-based system to capture and track orders for software.” A scope statement should also include the list of users using the product, as well as the features in the resulting product.
As a baseline scope statements should contain:
In more project-oriented organizations, the scope statement may also contain these and other sections:
Figure 9.2 image description: A project manager develops a Scope Management Plan by taking the project charter, organizational memory, and the project plan and applying the following techniques and tools:
Affinity photo beta 1 7 0 112. Figure 9.3 image description:
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This chapter of Project Management is a derivative of the following texts:
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