Project Management Tools Research Paper

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Introduction

Project management is complex work, and usually the domain of specialists as a result. Modern project management relies on sets of tools that can help project managers scope out a project, outline the critical pathways, and then manage the workflows within the project. The different elements of project management demand different sets of tools, for conceptualizing the project, for task management within a project, and other tools that can help to evaluate the results of a project. The tools that project managers use will often cover the basic functions of project management, such as project charters, work breakdowns, scheduling, risk management and cost management (Desmond, 2014).

Tool Options

Jira/Aha is one tool that can be used for project management. This is typically used for software development. This SaaS tool is has a few critical benefits. The use cases for a project are outlined, which provides needed context for the developers to understand not just what they are building, but how it will be used. Further, there can be input from a variety of teams across the organization, because Jira is built on a model of high collaboration. Management can monitor the progress of each project, and the tool can be used to manage multiple different software projects at the same time. Jira is an easy tool to use as well. One of the key differences versus a more traditional project management tool like MS Project is that its ease of use allows people who are not PMPs to contribute to the active management of a project – updates can be given by everyone due to the platform's relative simplicity (Bradley, 2013)

There are, however, a couple of downsides to the tool. While it is great for the people who are building the project, it lacks some of the functionality such as risk management and financial management that a more complex tool might have. It is a great tool for managing work, but is not a complete project management solution. It is favored mainly in software environments, and would not be powerful enough to manage a large, complex project such as those in construction.

Another software tool that can be utilized for project management is Asana, which has become quite popular.

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The strength of Asana is with task management. When broken down into team tasks, elements such as financial and risk analysis can be incorporated into the project. Aspects of the project can be held on a need-to-know basis as well. Asana's main benefit lies with the visibility, and with its ability to incorporate different aspects of the company. It has integrations with, for example, Instagantt, that helps to apply more traditional project management techniques to the task. This helps it be a powerful tool in terms of managing workflows (Marvin, 2016). Another strength is with the collaborative nature, again a major benefit of the SaaS architecture.

There are downsides as well. For one, and this is a downside that is shares with Jira, is that Asana struggles to manage more complex projects. With increased project complexity, Asana is less capable, as it is better as a task management system. Further to that, the software is unable to create effective links between things like risk management and budgeting. So even with the Instagantt to create workflows and critical paths, Asana cannot handle things like complex risk analysis – that math has to be done somewhere else. Further, costs are not built into the different tasks, so the entire financial aspect of managing a project has to be done somewhere else, and if there is no native integration into any accounting system, there can be significant disconnects between Finance and the other departments, as shifts occur in how the project is executed that are not reflected in the financial controls until much later. Creating those links would improve the value of Asana, as it would allow more fluid financial controls on a project, such as increasing or decreasing budgets for certain things.

A third project tool, one that is highly-rated, is Wrike. Wrike contains a number of features that address some of the weaknesses in other tools. As with other SaaS products, it performs well on collaboration, task prioritization and task management, and allows for the development of critical pathway analysis (Financesonline, 2018). Workload management, easy GANTT charts are also facets of Wrike that make it a solid choice. It has probably stronger security than some of the other platforms, which….....

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