Chaos rarely leads to cash in the business world. Managing projects effectively takes coordination between all involved. But juggling tasks, …
The post actiTIME Review appeared first on .
actiTIME Review
Nifty Review
Entrepreneurs and project managers need to have tools at their fingertips that manage overlapping responsibilities and initiatives. Nifty presents itself …
The post Nifty Review appeared first on .
15 Best Task Management Software for Small Businesses
Looking for the best task management software for small businesses?
Trying to keep up with quarterly goals and deadlines can feel impossible without the right tools at your disposal. Task management software lets you see all of your team’s work in one place so you can prioritize what matters most and get more done.
In this article, we’ve handpicked the best task management software for small businesses to boost productivity, improve organization, and increase revenue.
What is Task Management Software and Why is It Important?
Staying on top of priorities is difficult, especially for small teams that often wear multiple hats. They juggle client interactions, content marketing, product development, administrative tasks, and more.
Without a systematic approach to task management, important assignments can slip through the cracks, leading to missed deadlines and dissatisfied customers.
That’s why you need task management software. It can be a centralized hub for work management and project planning. You will be able to track everything between project planning and completion.
Your task list will be allocated to the right people in a place designed for team collaboration. And best of all, your team will be prioritizing the important tasks rather than spending time on busy work that doesn’t produce results.
15 Best Task Management Software (Free and Paid)
At WPBeginner, our goal is to help small businesses compete with the big guys. With task management tools, your teams can work faster.
That’s why we’ve sifted through the clutter of endless task management solutions and only given the tools we believe are the very best.
Let’s dive in!
1. Asana
In our opinion, Asana is the best task management software for small businesses.
Asana doesn’t just help you manage tasks. It connects all the work your company is doing to high-level goals and business strategies while also breaking down complex projects into manageable tasks.
You can set key results and goals for your company, team, and individuals and see how they ladder up. Every task links to a goal, ensuring that nobody wastes time on low-priority tasks. There’s even reporting on your goals so you can track progress across your company.
Asana is customizable and flexible to your team’s needs. You can create automated workflows without any coding.
For example, every time a particular task passes a certain stage, you can automatically assign it to the next person in the flow or create recurring tasks so you never forget important activities. And, of course, you can view projects and tasks in many ways, including lists, kanban boards, timelines, calendars, portfolios, and workloads.
Their free version isn’t anything to scoff at, either. Many free plans for task management software are too restrictive and not functional for small businesses. But Asana doesn’t hold back.
Its free plan supports unlimited projects, messaging, file storage, messaging multiple project files, storage, and more. Plus, Asana has a mobile app for iOS and Android devices, so you can manage your to-do list on the go.
Pricing: With Asana’s free version, you get all the basic features you need, like unlimited tasks and projects. If you want access to their advanced features such as timeline, goal tracking, or approvals, look at their Premium or Business plan.
2. Monday.com
Monday.com is one of the most versatile and powerful task management software on the market. Trusted by over 180,000 businesses, it can handle just about anything, from basic task organization to resource management and a full project portfolio.
Establishing workflows from scratch can be time-consuming. But thanks to Monday.com’s customizable templates, you can skip the setup process. Choose from dozens of project templates for campaign planning, project portfolio tracking, product roadmaps, customer support tickets, onboarding, and more.
The dashboards are extremely customizable, with 30 pre-built widgets you can use, including a capacity planning widget that allows project managers to allocate resources to the right people.
And Monday.com makes it easy to break down big goals into manageable day-to-day tasks. You start by setting goals and objectives based on business priorities. Then, you can define the projects and processes needed to reach goals. From there, you’ll create parent/child tasks & subtasks that align with the project and goals.
Monday.com’s claim to fame is its built-in customer relationship management (CRM) app. You can easily organize your prospects by where they are in the pipeline.
The CRM is designed to keep everything organized and save you time. That’s why they have automation features that can set reminders for activities, automatically assign leads to reps, and edit deal stages.
For developers, Monday.com has a specific ‘Dev’ product that helps you launch, design, and iterate products. Their features backload, bug tracking, roadmap planning, and sprints help you address all product-related issues and ensure you leave no stone unturned.
If you own an online store, Monday.com has a WooCommerce integration. That means you can take advantage of their user-friendly interface to manage your online orders and inventory levels.
Pricing: The free plan gives you up to 3 Kanban boards and is great for individuals. To access the Gantt calendar or timeline view, you’ll need to upgrade to their Standard plan at $10 per month. Premium plans give you automation, time tracking, integrations, and a wide range of other features.
3. Kanban Boards for WordPress
Kanban Boards for WordPress brings the popular project management methodology into your dashboard for free.
It’s perfect for businesses that want to manage simple to-do lists without feeling overwhelmed. These project boards are customizable, and you can edit them right from the interface.
You can create and assign tasks to team members with due dates and track how long it takes to finish them. With this plugin, you can even create custom views, which filter the board by different criteria.
But why use Kanban boards in WordPress in the first place instead of something like Asana or Monday.com?
Because publishing content consistently on your WordPress blog is vital for increasing traffic and converting visitors to customers. The Kanban boards will allow you to plan ahead and create highly customizable editorial calendars. That said, you may want to combine Kanban Boards for WordPress with other calendar-specific plugins since this tool doesn’t have a calendar view.
Adding this Trello-like kanban board in WordPress is super simple, too. All you have to do is install the plugin and configure a few settings. Then, start creating tasks and assigning them to your team.
Pricing: It’s free to use, with a paid version available for $149 per year.
4. ClickUp
ClickUp is the do-everything task management platform since it has arguably more features than any other option on the list.
One of the major selling points is the ability to fully customize the tool based on your business model and workflow. For example, the custom fields feature lets you add all types of information to your views, while the custom dashboard gives you over 50 widgets to build your dashboards so you can see the metrics in your business that matter.
Also, Clickup makes it easy to manage your time with flexible time-tracking features. Even if you work remotely, time tracking is still useful. For example, users can track how much time it takes to complete tasks.
On the other hand, project managers can look at past timesheets to help them better allocate the right amount of total hours per project.
One of their latest new tools is ClickUp AI, a feature that brings artificial intelligence to just about all phases of planning. You can use AI to create project timelines, write project briefs, write emails, summarize meeting notes, create status reports, and more.
Pricing: If you’re a freelancer or individual, the free plan gives you 100MB of storage, kanban boards, and a calendar view. The Business plan at $12 per month is perfect for small businesses, providing unlimited storage, goals, portfolios, resource management, and more.
5. AirTable
AirTable is a highly customizable cloud-based task management platform that allows you to build custom databases and applications from scratch. This lets you organize your data, processes, and workflows however you like. Compared to most other task management tools, Airtable is much more flexible.
That being said, starting from scratch isn’t for non-techy people. Fortunately, you can use their many templates for common use cases and then make changes to fit your company. Try one of their many templates within categories ranging from content production and software development to PR and real estate.
One of the best parts about AirTable is its seamless integrations with popular business tools, including WordPress. With over 43% of the internet using WordPress, it only makes sense that task management tools connect with it.
There are two ways to integrate with AirTable. One is through the platform’s built WordPress integration, and the other is the Uncanny Automator tool. Either way, you’ll get the exact AirTable interface right in your WordPress site.
Pricing: AirTable offers a free plan, which provides access to all types of views, 5 editors, and even automation features. Their paid plans offer more storage, editors, and premium features.
6. Teamwork
Next on the list is Teamwork, a task management tool best known for its collaboration features.
While Teamwork can handle many use cases, it really rises to the occasion when handling client work or managing creative teams. For example, you’ll find features like billable time tracking, custom branding, invoicing, intake forms, and client and collaborator access to help manage projects seamlessly.
That said, we recommend using a separate, more robust form builder like WPForms when creating any client forms or questionnaires.
You can also empower clients by giving them partial access to Teamwork so they can add comments and see your task list.
Teamwork connects with popular tools you already use, like Google Drive, Dropbox, Quickbooks, and more. This means you don’t have to go to separate platforms to find the files or data you’re looking for.
Most task management software offers a free plan for individuals. But Teamwork provides more features in its free tier than most of its competitors. You get access to 5 users with premium features like automation, team availability, Gannt chart views, time tracking, and milestones, all of which are rare to find on a free plan.
Pricing: Teamwork gives you everything you need to get started with their free plan. You get up to 5 users, all the project views, and even access to task dependencies.
7. Smartsheet
Smartsheet is a web-based solution that lets companies of all sizes with task management, crowdsourcing, reporting, and more.
Think of Smartsheet as a more advanced version of Excel spreadsheets. This system can feel more familiar for companies who are comfortable using spreadsheets for project management.
That’s because you can add formulas and functions to perform calculations or manipulate data. It’s particularly useful when you need to pull data from different sheets or make calculations. For example, you track sales team revenue or make financial projections based on the team’s current pace of work.
What makes Smartsheet stand out is its advanced reporting capabilities. You can easily pull together the most important information from multiple sheets into a single report with just a few clicks. In doing so, you’ll spot trends and potential bottlenecks to help your team continuously improve.
There are also many ways to use Smartsheet. Much like a spreadsheet, you can manipulate your sheets into almost anything from task management, budget tracking, inventory management, campaign tracking, expense categorization, and more. You can use this tool in hundreds of different ways, making it a contender to replace other business tools you might already use for other functions.
That said, it’s not as easy to use as some of the more popular task management software and doesn’t have the familiar Kanban boards we’ve all come to love.
Pricing: Smartsheet offers a free plan with access to all the basic features. The Business plan costs $25 per user per month and is great for small businesses that want to manage projects with unlimited editors.
8. Trello
Trello is a simple task management tool best known for its Kanban-style boards.
Their customizable interface lets users set up cards on different boards like they are post-it notes.
Within each card, you can assign tasks to team members, add comments, share files, tag users, and create checklists. Trello is highly customizable, allowing you to label cards so you can easily identify them.
The drag-and-drop feature is convenient. Simply slide the cards from one column to the next as they hit various milestones. For assignees, it’s probably the easiest platform to use since everything is done through the Kanban board.
It’s worth mentioning the Power-Up feature, where you can add integrations and features to your boards. This includes document management, calendar view, time-tracking, social media, and custom fields.
Trello is great for small teams and individuals since it’s super easy to use. However, it lacks advanced functionality for businesses with multiple teams since it lacks built-in dependency management and a Gannt chart to display a project’s timeline and milestones.
Pricing: Trello is free to use with unlimited cards and up to 10 boards per workspace. Upgrade to the Premium plan at $10 per user per month for the calendar, timeline, table, and map views.
9. PublishPress
PublishPress is an entire suite of plugins, all focused on helping you manage editorial calendars. If you want to start a WordPress blog or already have an active one, PublishPress Editorial Calendar is the plugin for you.
The hallmark of a successful blog that drives traffic is consistency. Getting on a consistent schedule and planning your content in advance will help you output enough blog posts. Also, make sure to use a keyword generator tool to help you plan and create the right type of content that attracts your desired audience.
All the content ties directly to the blog post on your WordPress site. Through the calendar view, you’ll see when each post will be published.
WordPress only provides a few status options like ‘Draft’ or ‘Published.’ With the PublishPress Permissions plugin, you can customize your workflow to fit your editorial process. Additional statuses like ‘Pending Review’ or ‘Edits’ could be useful to let everyone know what stage each blog post is in.
Pricing: It’s free to use all of PublishPress plugins. All you need to do is install and activate them directly from the WordPress plugin repository. However, if you want more advanced features, you can upgrade to PublishPress Pro and get access to the premium version of each plugin. Plans start at $129 per year.
10. Jira Software
Jira Software is designed with developers in mind. It’s one of the many tools from Atlassian to help agile teams get things done. By agile teams, we mean groups that work collaboratively and cross-functionally. This often entails breaking projects into smaller tasks assigned to different people.
Think of Jira Software as a tool to track everything that happens across iterations. You can identify roadblocks as quickly as possible, focus on constant improvement, and hit your objectives with as little drama as possible.
You’ll get cards pre-set for Scrum and Kanban and more than a dozen Agile reporting tools. While they aren’t stunningly beautiful reports, they’re great for progress tracking.
For example, you can create a backlog, which lists all the work items that need to be addressed in the project. Then, create a sprint to commit to solving these issues during a specific time frame.
It’s great for larger teams, especially for teams of designers and developers. However, Jira Software tends to be harder to learn as it includes numerous advanced features and complex terminology.
Pricing: Jira Software lets you get started for free and gives access to up to 10 users. Higher-tiered plans provide more storage and user roles and permissions. In the free plan, every user is a project admin.
11. ProofHub
ProofHub is an all-in-one task management app recommended by many Fortune 500s and trusted by over 85,000 teams worldwide.
The software is best known for its extensive collaboration tools. They make it simple to communicate with your team to execute projects quickly. With one-on-one group chat boxes and discussion boards, you can collaborate with team members without the back-and-forth long email or Slack threads.
You can view all updates about a topic in one place and easily understand where the project is going. Also, project admins can make announcements, similar to social media posts. This lets you celebrate achievements, share updates across teams, and confirm priority changes.
ProofHub also has a wide range of features to let your team collaborate on creative assets. You markup your visual and text files to provide pinpoint feedback on where and what needs addressing.
There’s a variety of project views to fit your use case, such as board, Gannt charts, calendar, and table view.
Pricing: Starting at $45 per month, the Essential Plan offers all the core features to run your small business effectively. That includes project management, boards, Gantt charts, time tracking, file approvals, and chat.
12. Hive
Hive is an all-encompassing solution that does more than just manage tasks. For example, the software boasts a unique email integration allowing users to send messages from Gmail and Outlook to Hive.
There are also real-time collaboration features like a video chat function, a note-taking app (similar to Google Docs), and an intake form builder. You can even use their AI tools to write content, craft email responses, and create project tasks based on suggestions.
As for the task management itself, Hive lets you manage your projects in one of nine project views, including Gantt charts, kanban, and more. They’ve made it super easy to visualize anything you want to see. Plus, you can color code tasks or customize notifications so you stay on top of key action items.
There’s even built-in automation, allowing you to automate routine tasks. For example, you can set up a trigger and action, such as every time a certain task is completed, the system will send an email or update a row in Google Sheets.
Hive is perfect for just about any creative or business operation team that wants to streamline or automate certain workflows.
Pricing: Hive is free to start but only gives access to two users. If you want to manage a small team, go with the Team plan at $12 per user per month. You get all the task views, time tracking, and 7 custom addons to expand your Hive functionality.
13. HubSpot Task Management
While HubSpot Task Management isn’t a traditional task management solution, its CRM platform has task and project management capabilities.
If you’re a salesperson, then you may consider HubSpot because of their email marketing, CRM, chat, and, of course, task management tools, all natively connected in one. This is important because you can easily connect your tasks with contacts, giving you more insight into your leads.
As a user, you can create workflows to schedule new tasks, set up reminders, and compare your performance to past data. Having your task list organized with filter options can prevent you from wasting time on administrative tasks that don’t generate revenue.
However, it doesn’t include a kanban board or calendar view, nor does it allow for dependencies, making it less useful for project managers and other departments outside of sales.
Pricing: HubSpot Task Management is completely free to use. If you want to integrate your tasks with contacts, calls, or other marketing and sales activities, check out the complete HubSpot pricing plan, which includes their entire suite of products.
14. Wrike
Wrike is a comprehensive project management tool tailored to agencies, marketing teams, and professional service providers.
Like many of the top platforms, you can assign tasks, add dependencies, and view the progress of projects all in one place. You can also see projects using Gannt charts, kanban boards, tables, and lists.
Wrike has direct integrations with many of the popular business apps, meaning you won’t have trouble pulling information from your email, CRM, or other software. In other words, you’ll have highly detailed reports since you can connect data from across your organization.
The downside of Wrike is its high costs. As a small business, you’ll need to at least subscribe to their team plan at $9.80 per user per month. Even this plan is missing reporting features and user permission. In this case, you’ll need to upgrade to their Business tier at $24.80 per user per month.
Pricing: Wrike is free to start but only gives you the board and table view. The Team plan at $9.80 per user per month provides access for up to 25 users, unlimited views, and even an AI content generation tool.
15. Atarim
Atarim is an up-and-coming task and project management tool best used for web design agencies. Since it has a WordPress plugin, you can easily install Atarim to your client’s WordPress website.
Essentially, Atarim offers a powerful visual collaboration tool where you can make comments on any part of a client’s website, similar to how you would with Google Docs. You can tag internal team members and link it to a task that directly sends you to a Kanban board.
Or you can notify clients so you can pinpoint exactly what you plan on changing. This eliminates back-and-forth emails, so you can quickly show them which area of the website you’re working on.
They even have everything you need to manage projects for a web design agency, such as the ability to create client intake forms and time tracking for freelancers. That way, you can keep all of your tasks in one place, and you don’t need to switch between different tools.
Pricing: Free plans are available for one user. Paid plans start at $20 for access to 5 users and 20 projects. (Note: this essentially means 20 websites.) Higher plans give you access to more collaborators and projects to work on.
Our Pick: Best Task Management Software
To maximize your team’s productivity and hit your biggest goals for the year, you need the right business tools to grow your small business.
So which one is right for you?
Asana is hands down the best task management software for small businesses. It connects all of your tasks directly to your goals, ensuring your team spends time on meaningful work. It’s affordable and lets you create customized workflows and automation. This automates repetitive work and frees up your time for more big-picture projects.
If you publish content regularly, Kanban Boards for WordPress is the best choice. It’s super easy to use since you simply drag and drop cards across the board as they move stages.
Smartsheet is for spreadsheet lovers who love the grid interface or want to use formulas to make calculations. This is great for sales teams who want to track sales or make financial projections.
Jira Software is the go-to platform for developers and designers. Features like backlogs, bug tracking, roadmaps, and dependencies help teams go from ideation to launch.
We hope this article helps you determine the best task management software for your small business. You might also want to read our guide on the best WordPress plugins for business websites or best live chat software for small businesses.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
The post 15 Best Task Management Software for Small Businesses first appeared on WPBeginner.
Best To Do List Apps
Want to jump straight to the answer? The best to-do list apps for most people are Todoist and TickTick. Staying …
Best To Do List Apps Read More »
The post Best To Do List Apps appeared first on .
7 Tips for Mobile App Project Management
[This article was written by Monique Rivers]
It’s safe to say that mobile app development is just as complex a process as any other IT project. That’s why strategies used in projects aimed at developing mobile apps are to a large extent similar to those used by managers in other fields. Here are practical tips for making sure you pass the 7 following steps of app development smoothly and efficiently.
Agile – What’s a Manager to Do?
Agile - What’s a Manager to Do?
As a manager, when I first started learning about Agile development, I was confused by the fuzzy way that Agile teams and projects are managed (or manage themselves), and frustrated and disappointed by the negative attitude towards managers and management in general.
Attempts to reconcile project management and Agile haven't answered these concerns. The PMI-ACP does a good job of making sure that you understand Agile principles and methods (mostly Scrum and XP with some Kanban and Lean), but is surprisingly vague about what an Agile project manager is or does. Even a book like the Software Project Manager’s Bridge to Agility, intended to help bridge PMI's project management practices and Agile, fails to come up with a meaningful job for managers or project managers in an Agile world.
Trello Alternatives and Competitors
We consider Zoho Projects the best alternative project management software for its affordability, flexibility, and ease of use. Start your 10-day free trial now.
Trello is one of the most widely used project management software solutions for a reason. Its simple Kanban setup makes it easy for new users as well as more seasoned Agile veterans. Millions of teams trust Trello with their projects, especially when you can have unlimited team members for free.
This software has a visual layout that shows your task cards and assigned team members all on the same page. The platform works especially well for simpler projects and smaller teams. It helps prevent bottlenecks and promotes organization and productivity.
The 9 Best Project Management Software Services
We researched several project management software solutions to bring you the best ones to explore for your team. Zoho Projects earns its place as the best overall project management software for its user-friendly interface and extensive tools that have what you need for projects of any size and complexity. You can see the full list here.
- Zoho Projects—Best overall project management software
- Monday.com—Best for customizing your project workflow
- Wrike—Best for marketing and creative teams
- Favro—Best for small teams doing it all
- Teamwork—Best for remote teams and agencies
- Trello—Best free project management software
- TeamGantt—Best project management software for beginners
- Celoxis—Best for enterprises and large businesses
- LiquidPlanner—Best for complex projects
Zoho Projects—Best Overall Project Management Software
Zoho Projects gives you a solid foundation with its easy setup, and it doesn’t take long to learn the software. The platform’s customizability and extensive tools make it an excellent tool for businesses of any size. With so many options, from workflow rules and automation to time tracking to task management, you can build a dashboard unique to your team’s needs and get started on your project in no time.
Zoho Projects’ task management tools give you more options than most project management software with tools for work breakdown, issue tracking, task views, sprints, and project baselines. With custom fields, views, and functions, your team can prioritize tasks with a clear view of what needs to get done next. Plus, Zoho Projects makes it easy to automate repetitive tasks and free up team members for more focused tasks.
Unfortunately, Zoho Projects doesn’t provide pre-built templates, but you can still build your own to suit your team and projects. Your team also has plenty of communication channels within the software, including chat, mentions, forums, and document collaboration.
How Zoho Projects Compares to Trello
Zoho Projects has many more features than Trello, but part of Trello’s strength lies in its simplicity. However, if you’re looking for something to cover any size project with flexible team sizes, Zoho Projects is a good bet.
Trello is better for small teams and doesn’t have the same level of adaptability as Zoho Projects. It functions as a Kanban board setup with a few extras and add-ons, while Zoho Projects comes with extensive features built-in. In other words, with Zoho Projects you don’t have to go searching for too many things you’ll need to increase productivity.
Zoho Projects is the exact same price as Trello, with a free plan and a $5 base plan that you pay by the user. The next step up costs $10 on both plans, and Trello’s only advantage here is that it offers a fourth plan. At the same time, that plan doesn’t offer much that you can’t get with Zoho Projects.
Monday.com—Best for Customizing Your Project Workflow
Monday.com allows you to customize your dashboard and workflow more than any other software on our list. You can create your own templates to fit your project, color-code your columns and team members, and use drag-and-drop editing to move tasks to create a setup that works for your team. If you want a low-effort startup, Monday.com also has over 200 templates in its library that you can choose based on your project and industry.
This project management software prioritizes communication and collaboration. It lets multiple team members edit a single document and leave comments and suggestions. You can also message team members individually or as a group to stay updated on projects. With the software’s live updates, you can even get alerts to see in real time when someone comments or assigns work.
Monday.com’s Gantt and Kanban charts help you keep track of your tasks visually. Its different views help coordinate your team and prevent bottlenecks by organizing your workflow according to project goals. Whatever Monday.com lacks, you can find in one of its hundreds of integrations.
How Monday.com Compares to Trello
Above all, Monday.com excels in communication and collaboration compared to Trello. While Trello allows you to comment on cards, mention team members, and effectively assign tasks, Monday.com goes several steps further. It also offers much better automation capabilities.
Monday.com may be more expensive than Trello, but that’s because it offers much more. It has significantly more views, with Gantt charts, timelines, calendars, and a Kanban setup that rivals Trello’s. It offers a free plan for individuals, but its most basic package starts at $8 per person per month for a minimum of three users.
If you have a large team, Monday.com will serve you better than Trello. Despite Trello’s unlimited user feature, Monday.com is built for more complexity.
Read about Monday.com in our in-depth review.
Wrike—Best for Marketing and Creative Teams
Wrike stands out among the rest for giving marketing teams everything they need to stay on track. It has extensive tools to help with campaign management, content creation, event management, and more. Your team can collaborate and keep track of campaign results while using Wrike’s templates designed for creating content to take your team from the idea and brief stage to the moment you hit publish.
Wrike offers plenty of reporting and analytics, which is a necessity for marketing teams to ensure their campaigns are working. Wrike updates its analytics every 15 minutes so that you always have the most updated information. Plus, its department-specific solutions mean that you can choose templates made specifically for the kind of work your team does.
Wrike has more than 400 integrations and over 100 automations to make your team’s lives easier and streamline your workflow. However, its enterprise-level features also mean that Wrike works better if you know what you’re doing before you get started.
How Wrike Compares to Trello
Wrike is much more complicated to use than Trello, but it also comes with more specific functions. While Trello’s Kanban boards and collaboration features work on a general scale, Wrike’s industry-specific templates and marketing compatibility give it a leg up in those areas.
Wrike coordinates everything you need into three panes, unlike Trello, which keeps it all on one page. These panes make it easy to view and manage your projects, assign tasks, and focus on the tasks you’re currently working on. This setup allows you to come together with your team while staying focused on your own tasks, as opposed to viewing everyone’s tasks along with your own.
Wrike is much more expensive than Trello, with its cheapest package after the free plan starting at $9.80 and a Business package beginning at $24.80. That’s almost twice as expensive as Trello, but Wrike gives you significantly more project management options. It also offers a free trial.
Check out our in-depth review of Wrike.
Favro—Best for Small Teams Doing It All
Favro was built for small teams with big goals. Its agility makes it ideal for teams that work in SaaS and the games industry, as both are constantly changing. Its Agile tools present all your tasks and information upfront, so you can work efficiently with a visual system.
Favro makes it easy to collaborate and communicate with simple file sharing, organization, and progress views. It shows any edits from team members in real time, so everyone is always working from the same document version. The software allows you to quickly transfer work between departments when necessary so that no matter where everyone works from, they have access to the information they need to boost productivity.
The software lets you create complex rules for automation to help your team stay on track with the more technical projects. Its integrations, including GitHub and GitLab, only serve to streamline your workflow even further.
How Favro Compares to Trello
Favro and Trello have one thing in common—they’re both built for small teams. However, Favro takes a more niche approach with its focus on tech and gaming. Favro’s Standard and Enterprise packages especially offer more technical features, like API calls and OAuth with Google and GitHub. The main difference between Trello and Favro is how you use them, and more technical industries probably won’t get everything they need with Trello.
Favro looks more expensive at first glance, but it’s priced not based on the number of seats but by offering a set price up to a certain number of users. Its Lite package starts at $10.20 per month for up to 10 users. Standard goes up to $13.60, and Enterprise begins at $25.50.
Teamwork—Best for Remote Teams and Agencies
When you need to bring your remote team together, Teamwork is the place to do it. It thrives on visibility with project boards that users can navigate seamlessly, templates for fast setup, and excellent communication features.
It has packages built for all team sizes, and its convenient chat feature allows for a check-in whenever you need it. Teamwork’s charts show project milestones with upcoming, current, and late tasks so that as the project manager, you know who’s on track and who might be getting overwhelmed.
Teamwork also has an entire software solution dedicated to marketing. It combines your projects with your team’s client work to allow for better communication about marketing projects while encouraging productivity with time tracking.
How Teamwork Compares to Trello
Both Trello and Teamwork are excellent project management solutions for remote teams. Teamwork offers more specific resources, and it has features that Trello lacks, including project and time tracking. It also has more advanced automations and organization tools to help cut down on busy work.
Teamwork and Trello both have free plans. Teamwork’s Deliver package starts at $9.99 per user per month and its Grow package begins at $17.99. However, because of its five-user minimum, you’ll pay a lot more than that.
Teamwork adds a few features outside of Trello’s wheelhouse, too, including budgeting and billing. Trello also doesn’t let you communicate through chat with teammates without integrations, which can make things less convenient when you have a remote team.
TeamGantt—Best Project Management Software for Beginners
TeamGantt uses Gantt charts to give your team a visual platform to track their projects. Its simple drag-and-drop interface lets you order your tasks and change timelines in minutes while keeping all your projects in one transparent space.
TeamGantt makes managing resources efficient with its availability tab that tells you who’s available for more work. You can also share progress and documents with stakeholders to ensure tasks progress as intended. If your team starts neglecting any tasks, this software identifies the problem areas with project health reports and portfolio views.
How TeamGantt Compares to Trello
TeamGantt and Trello are similar in that they both focus exclusively on one specific type of chart. TeamGantt’s free version offers far fewer tools than Trello’s with only the most basic features available.
When comparing these two solutions, they work much better together than on their own. Combining the two can enhance their capabilities, as on their own they’re more suited for small teams and simple projects.
TeamGantt costs much more than Trello’s $5 base price, coming in at $19.90 per month for one user, plus unlimited guests, on its Standard plan. Its Advanced plan starts at $24.45 per month.
Celoxis—Best for Enterprises and Large Businesses
Celoxis works best for users who already know how to use software like it. It’s got a longer learning curve because it handles more complicated projects for enterprise businesses. It allows you to see your team members and delegate work based on their availability and skills, and the software even estimates your revenue per project.
With Celoxis, you can manage your accounting, resources, and portfolio. Its comprehensive project management features, including various board views, issue tracking, and risk management, allow your team to stay on task. It also makes sharing project reports easy by sending them directly to the people who need to see them.
How Celoxis Compares to Trello
Celoxis and Trello are both project management software solutions that include Kanban boards, but the similarities stop there. Celoxis has a much more advanced interface designed for companies much larger than Trello can accommodate.
Celoxis costs $25 per user per month for its cloud-based version, but you can also pay a one-time $450 per person fee for its on-premise version. Above all, Celoxis provides more data than any other project management software. Remember, too, that this software is enterprise software regardless of your package, so it’s fairly affordable for its tools.
LiquidPlanner—Best for Complex Projects
LiquidPlanner adapts to project changes well, which makes it ideal for engineering teams. Its forecasting engine predicts outcomes for your projects based on current progress and project goals. It also dives deep into budgeting and risk to reduce errors and boost productivity.
The software balances your team’s workload by showing availability and each team member’s current schedule. With priority-driven boards, LiquidPlanner ensures that each person works on the most important tasks while reducing uncertainty.
How LiquidPlanner Compares to Trello
LiquidPlanner is a much more advanced and flexible platform than Trello. Where Trello struggles to pivot, LiquidPlanner was made for it. Trello has no predictive capabilities, but LiquidPlanner teams rely on them, and they’re a major function of this software.
LiquidPlanner costs a lot more than Trello at $15 a month per person with a five-member minimum. Its professional package is $25 per person and the Ultimate package starts at $35 per person.
Task Management vs. Project Management
Within every organization, there are always projects that need to be completed and tasks that need to be carried out on a daily basis.
Whether it’s something as simple as a social media campaign or as complex as developing a new product, these projects and tasks need to be managed in order for the organization to run smoothly.
That’s where project management and task management come in. And while project management and task management are usually pieces of the same puzzle, there are some key differences between the two.
In this article, we will explore the similarities and differences between project management vs. task management, as well as when to use each.
The Top-Rated Project Management Tools for Timely and Organized Projects
Project management and task management tools help you complete projects and tasks on time and within budget. There are several project management tools available on the market, but not all of them are created equal.
Here are a few of the top-rated project management tools to consider for your next project:
- Zoho Projects – Best overall project management software
- Monday.com – Best for customizing your project workflow
- Wrike – Best for marketing and creative teams
- Favro – Best for small teams doing it all
- Teamwork – Best for remote teams and agencies
- Trello – Best free project management software
- TeamGantt – Best project management software for beginners
- Celoxis – Best for enterprises and large businesses
- LiquidPlanner – Best for complex projects
If you want to find out which tools work best for you or your organization, read our full review of each product here.
What Is Project Management?
Project management is the process of planning, executing, and monitoring a project to achieve specific goals. These goals could be anything from launching a new product to increasing sales by a certain percentage.
Project management brings together people and resources to achieve a common goal. It involves setting objectives, creating a plan, and executing it.
Project management also includes tracking progress and making changes along the way, if necessary.
The ultimate goal of project management is to complete the project within the given time frame and budget.
A project is a temporary undertaking with a defined start and end date. Project management is vital to the success of any project, as it helps to ensure that all of the necessary tasks are completed on time and within budget.
One of the key duties of a project manager is to create a project schedule, which outlines all of the steps that need to be taken to complete the project. In addition, the project manager is responsible for assigning tasks to individual team members and ensuring that everyone is working towards the same goal.
By managing all aspects of a project, a project manager can help to ensure its success.
What Is Task Management?
Task management is the process of organizing and managing tasks within a business organization. This includes identifying, prioritizing, and assigning tasks to employees, as well as tracking progress and ensuring that deadlines are met.
An effective task management system can help improve productivity and efficiency and reduce the likelihood of errors and mistakes.
In order to be successful, task management must be tailored to the organization’s specific needs.
For example, a manufacturing company will have requirements like tracking inventory levels and meeting production deadlines. They will also deal with compliance-related tasks, such as safety inspections.
A marketing agency, on the other hand, will need to focus on tasks like creating and managing individual components of its clients’ campaigns, as well as analyzing data and producing reports.
By understanding the organization’s unique needs, businesses can develop a task management system that helps them achieve their desired results.
The Basics of Project Management vs. Task Management
Task management can be seen as part of project management because it is necessary to complete projects. However, task management is its own distinct process with a different focus. Here are the basics of each:
Project management focuses on the bigger picture, while task management focuses on separate tasks
Project managers focus on the overall goal of a project. They create a plan and schedule, assign tasks to team members, and track progress. They are primarily focused on the entire project from a high-level perspective.
Project management typically consists of:
- Determining the size and scope of a project
- Figuring out the budget of a project
- Project scheduling
- Assembling and briefing a team
- Tracking project progress
- Making changes to a plan
- Monitoring overall project health
- Reporting to stakeholders
Task managers, on the other hand, focus on the smaller tasks that need to be completed in order to achieve a goal. In many cases, they are members of a project manager’s team.
They are responsible for identifying, prioritizing, and assigning tasks to employees. They also track progress and ensure that deadlines are met.
Task management typically consists of:
- Identifying tasks that need to be completed
- Prioritizing jobs based on importance or deadline
- Assigning tasks to employees
- Tracking the progress of each assignment
- Ensuring that deadlines are met
- Making changes to assignments as needed
- Reporting to a project manager or team leader
Project managers are less hands-on and handle interactions with stakeholders and executives. Within a project, it would be up to the task manager to brief the team, assign tasks, track progress, and report back to the project manager.
Project management is temporary, while task management is continuous
Within an organization, task management is much more ubiquitous because every organization has tasks that need to be completed daily.
Project management, on the other hand, is only temporary. It is only needed when a specific accomplishment that needs to be achieved. Once the project is complete, the project manager and team are no longer needed.
For example, a company may need to launch a new product. In this case, they would assemble a team of marketing experts, product developers, and designers. This team would work together to create a plan, produce the product, and launch it to the market. Once the product is launched, the project is complete, and the team is disbanded or assigned to another project.
Project management is more complex and requires more resources
Coordinating with multiple team members and interacting with stakeholders and executives is more complex than monitoring job completion. It also requires a greater understanding of the organization’s overall goals.
Task management, on the other hand, is less complex because it focuses on individual jobs that are generally repetitive. This means that it can be completed with a smaller team or even by one person.
Project management is more expensive because it requires more resources. These resources include project managers, analysts, and software.
Project management requires a team, while task management can happen at the individual level
Almost everybody engages in some form of task management on their own. For example, a sales rep may have a list of prospects they need to retarget or previous clients they need to follow up with.
A project manager is only needed for more complex projects that require coordination between multiple team members.
4 Tools to Improve Your Project and Task Management
Since so many organizations need this kind of function, there are thousands of business tools that you can use to manage projects. Here are four of the most essential tools to improve your project and task management:
1. Zoho Projects
The best overall project management software is Zoho Projects, a cloud-based solution that offers an intuitive interface, a wide range of features, and scalability for businesses of all sizes.
Zoho Projects offers Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and a host of other tools to help you plan projects, assign tasks, track progress, and more.
It also integrates with over 300 third-party applications–including Slack, Zapier, Google Suite, and Dropbox–making it easy to collaborate with your team.
One of the best things about Zoho Projects is its affordability–for $4 per month, you get up to 20 project templates, unlimited projects, and attached files up to 100GB.
For small teams and budding agencies, this plan is more than enough, and it comes at a cost that you can easily justify to your boss.
2. Slack
If you want to make communication as easy as possible across your entire company, use Slack.
Slack is a messaging platform that lets you create channels for different teams and projects.
You can also use Slack to direct message other users, share files, and make audio and video calls.
Plus, with Slack’s integration with Zoho Projects, you can receive notifications about your project tasks directly in your Slack channels. You can also respond to them directly from Slack and they’ll be reflected in your project management software.
Slack is free, but its $6 Pro plan gives you unlimited searchable history, more app integrations, and the ability to add more guest users.
For project managers, Slack is essential for keeping everyone on the same page and ensuring that no task falls through the cracks. To set up a new project, all you need to do is create a new channel and add the relevant team members.
When a task is completed, you can simply @mention the project manager in Slack and they’ll be notified in their channel.
This way, you can avoid the back-and-forth of email and ensure that everyone is always up-to-date on the status of your projects.
3. GanttPro
GanttPro uses Gantt charts to help you to manage your projects online. You can plan and visualize processes, create tasks and assign them to team members, set deadlines, and track the progress of individual tasks against anticipated timelines.
You can also share the Gantt charts you have created with others by assigning dedicated users specific permissions (e.g., view-only or edit). GanttPro has a set of key features tailored for Agile methods, such as:
- Scrum boards
- Product Backlog
- Sprint planning
For teams of all product developers, GanttPro will be an indispensable tool for managing your project development process.
4. LessonFlow
Lessons learned reporting is essential to project management, but it can be time-consuming. LessonFlow is a tool that helps you to track and report lessons learned quickly and easily.
With LessonFlow, you can create a library of reusable templates for different types of projects.
You can also add tags to individual template items so that you can easily search for and find the template you need.
When completing a project, simply fill out the template with your lessons learned and share it with your team.
For project managers who want to improve their team’s performance, LessonFlow is an essential tool.
3 Tricks for Effective Project and Task Management
Since project and task management play such a big role in the efficiency of your company, it’s important to get them right. Here are four tips to help you manage projects and tasks more effectively:
1. Avoid perfectionism
It is human nature to want to do things perfectly. However, in the world of project management, perfectionism can be your enemy.
There is always a trade-off between quality and quantity–the more time you spend on one task, the less time you have for other tasks.
Instead of striving for perfection, focus on getting things done and making progress. If the completed project meets the predetermined goals and the stakeholders are happy, it should be considered a success.
2. Try not to multitask
Multitasking often seems like the best way to get everything done while working on limited deadlines. But when it comes to working on projects or multiple complex tasks, multitasking can actually be counterproductive.
When you try to focus on too many things at once, your attention is divided and you are more likely to make mistakes. And a mistake that needs to be corrected later can end up costing you more time and resources in the long run.
3. Familiarize yourself with product management methodologies
Whether you are a task manager or a project manager, it is important to familiarize yourself with the different product management methodologies.
There are several different approaches to product management, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. By understanding the different methodologies, you can choose the one that best fits your company’s needs.
Let’s take a look at a few of the most popular:
- Agile: The Agile methodology is designed to be flexible and adaptable. It is based on the principle of “iterative and incremental development”, which means that projects are developed in small steps or iterations. Agile is well-suited for projects that are likely to change over time, as it allows for changes to be made quickly and easily.
- Waterfall: The waterfall methodology is a more traditional approach to product development. It is based on the principle of “sequential development”, which means that each stage of the project must be completed before the next stage can begin. Waterfall is best suited for projects that are well-defined and unlikely to change.
- Scrum: Scrum is a popular Agile methodology. It is based on the principle of “empirical process control,” which means that all decisions are made based on experience and experimentation rather than on pre-determined plans. Scrum is well-suited for complex projects that require a lot of collaboration.
- Kanban: Kanban is another popular Agile methodology that is based on the principle of “just-in-time delivery.” This means that tasks are completed as they are needed, and there is no need to complete all tasks before starting work on the next task. Kanban is well-suited for projects that have a lot of moving parts.
By being knowledgeable about the different product management methodologies, you can choose the one that is best suited for your company’s needs.
What to Do Next
If you want to learn more about product management, check out our blog post on everything related to project management. By educating yourself on project management best practices, you can be better prepared for success within your own organization.
And if you aren’t well-versed in project management methodologies or don’t know where to start, check out a few of our resources here:
Compare The Best Calendar Apps
Want to jump straight to the answer? The best calendar apps for most people are Amie and Google Calendar, because …
Compare The Best Calendar Apps Read More »
The post Compare The Best Calendar Apps appeared first on .
Agile Vs. Waterfall Project Management
Whether you’re a project leader at a software development company, a university, or a marketing agency, facing down a big project can feel overwhelming. If you dive in right away, ditching organization for the sake of saving time, you’ll probably end up swamped with what feels like an impossible amount of work.
Even worse, the people you’re completing the project for—your stakeholders—may be breathing down your neck as the deadline looms.
Using a project management methodology can help you organize your team and get the job done well. Two of the most popular project management methodologies are Agile and Waterfall. Which one should you choose for your project?
Top-Rated Software to Implement Agile Project Management
To see which tools we recommend for Agile project management, see our top list below. Many of these can also be used to implement the Waterfall methodology or a hybrid of both.
- Monday.com – Best Simple Agile Project Management Tool
- Jira Software – Best Overall Agile Project Management Tool
- Toggl Plan – Best Project Management Tool for Creative Teams
- Pivotal Tracker – Best Agile Project Management Tool for Integrations
- CollabNet VersionOne – Best Agile Project Management Tool for Scalability
- Targetprocess – Best Agile Project Management Tool for Enterprise Security
- ActiveCollab – Best Agile Project Management Tool for Time Tracking
You can read our full reviews of each project management tool here.
What Are Agile and Waterfall Project Management Methodologies?
As its name suggests, Agile methodology is flexible. Teams break tasks up into manageable sections and work on these sections at the same time, frequently collaborating with stakeholders as they work to meet short-term deadlines known as sprints.
In nature, a waterfall starts at one point and flows straight down to its destination, and that’s exactly what the Waterfall methodology does. A team gathers requirements and a final deadline date from stakeholders before planning out each step required to complete the project. The team then works on the project in a linear fashion, completing each step before beginning the next.
The Basics of Agile vs. Waterfall Methodology
The Waterfall methodology works best in fields where certain steps must be completed before others, such as building a house: if you don’t lay a foundation first, you can’t put the framing up.
Agile project management, on the other hand, excels in scenarios where multiple steps can be completed at the same time. Take a publishing house, for example, where there are multiple moving parts at all times–editing, design, layout, marketing, and more. Using an Agile methodology means the design team can work on the cover while the writer finishes revisions and the marketing team drafts a promotion plan.
Here are the three core elements that help us understand the differences between Agile vs. Waterfall project methodology.
Framework
Both methodologies take completely different approaches to organizing a project. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, as we’ll cover below.
Agile
This project management system centers on the belief that being able to quickly pivot and adapt is critical to the success of a project. Instead of sticking to one specific framework, like Waterfall does, Agile focuses instead on four core values. Each Agile project framework, from Kanban to Scrum to Extreme Programming (XP), abides by these core values:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- A working product over exhaustive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
Keep in mind that processes, tools, documentation, contracts, and plans are all important in Agile, too—they’re just not the most important elements.
By design, Agile is less structured than Waterfall. This can be a downside for some. Because there are several Agile frameworks to choose from, you and your team may need to spend time learning a framework before you can begin a project.
Waterfall
Unlike Agile, Waterfall tends to follow one specific framework:
- Initiating the project
- Planning each step
- Completing each step in order
- Testing the results
- Delivering the product to the customer
This methodology places a strong focus on mapping out an entire project before the team starts working on it. Each step is carefully documented and placed into a spot according to a strict timeline.
The Waterfall system makes it easy for new team members to quickly join a project because they can read all the documentation to understand what’s required of them. However, organizing a project into a rigid framework can make fixing mistakes difficult and expensive.
If someone makes a mistake or the customer isn’t satisfied with the end result, you may have to go all the way back to the beginning and start over—often an enormously expensive and time-consuming task.
Planning
Regardless of which framework you choose for either methodology, Agile and Waterfall come with wildly different approaches to planning.
Agile
Agile methodology uses what’s called an iterative approach to project planning. Working in collaboration with the customer, a project is sorted into phases, sometimes called sprints, each with its own mini-deadline and set of deliverables. Agile uses checklists, drag-and-drop cards, templates, and other tools to help organize these project phases.
Regardless of the specific framework you choose to work with, project development and testing happen all the time in an Agile project, allowing for greater flexibility.
If the client gives you constructive criticism on a certain sprint deliverable, for example, you can adjust both the deliverable and the due date. This means you can easily make changes without derailing an entire project.
Waterfall
With Waterfall, you and your team will plan a whole project at once and organize it into steps that have to be completed in order. This can help you visualize the project and give you a solid understanding of what you need to do. It can also help keep the project moving forward smoothly, as there’s never a need to ask what needs to happen next.
On the flip side, any minor mistake or missed deadline can throw your team off track. This can cause frustration and make you lose focus as you scramble to put the plan back together after an interruption.
Communication
Now more than ever, businesses everywhere understand just how important communication is to the success of a product or project. I’m not going to lie—Agile beats Waterfall when it comes to communication. Let’s take a look.
Agile
Perhaps more than anything else, Agile focuses on listening to people—both your stakeholders and your team members. This methodology encourages you to bring customers into the whole process of creating a product, from start to finish.
Instead of holding your breath and hoping your customer will approve of the end result, you can feel confident that the project meets their standards because they’ve been there all along.
Frequent input from the customer can cause plans to change more often than you’d like, but that’s the heart of Agile project management. Ultimately, your goal is to satisfy your customer, and that’s what Agile helps you do.
Waterfall
The project stakeholder often provides input at the initial stage of a Waterfall-based project, but once the project is set and contracts are signed, the stakeholder doesn’t have much of a role. The team develops and tests the project on its own before delivering it to the customer.
This means there’s a risk that the customer won’t like the way you’ve done something. To keep them satisfied with you, your team, and your product, you may need to go back and fix an early step. This can cost a lot of time and money.
3 Tools to Improve Agile and Waterfall Project Management
Whether you want to try an Agile or Waterfall project management methodology—or you want to build your own system that incorporates elements of both—here are three tools to help you get started.
Monday.com
No matter what type of project you’re working on, Monday.com can handle it. Monday gives you control over the type of dashboard you see, and you can customize it to fit the needs of your team. Monday offers templates for both Agile and Waterfall workflows, which is part of why we love it.
Despite the flexibility and customization Monday offers, the tool is intuitive and user-friendly. It’s also GDPR compliant and has earned SOC and ISO security certifications, which means you don’t have to worry about the security of your projects and data. Plus, teams with 25 or more members can select HIPAA-compliant plans.
Toggl Plan
The more flexible your team needs to be, the more flexible Toggl Plan is. This tool offers drag-and-drop timelines to help you organize projects according to multiple due dates. Toggl Plan really shines when it comes to creative projects—think magazines with multiple stories to juggle or video streaming sites that constantly need to serve up new content.
Toggl Plan also lets you color-code milestones to help implement those sprints that Agile project management is known for.
ActiveCollab
This tool comes with a suite of features to help you organize each element of your project management strategy. Even better, ActiveCollab offers visually pleasing, UI-friendly instructions that make it easy to learn how to use said features.
Whether you want to implement a more Waterfall-oriented strategy or keep things Agile, ActiveCollab can do both. Or a hybrid of both. With ActiveCollab, it’s easy to bring both team members and clients together on any project.
3 Tricks for Agile and Waterfall Project Management
Wondering how to get started with Agile vs. Waterfall project management? These tricks can help.
Trick #1 — Determine Your Project Methodology
Everyone is different, which means that some people on your team may work better with a Waterfall methodology, while others will thrive with Agile.
If you’re just starting out, introduce both methodologies to your team. Discuss the pros and cons of each one. Collaborate with your team to figure out which methodology works best for everyone. Or, map out a plan for a hybrid of both Agile and Waterfall for your team to implement.
Trick #2 — Research the Best Tools for Your Team
Before you choose a tool like Monday.com or Toggl Plan, research their features with your team in mind. Are you more of a remote team, or do you all work together in an office? Which tool best serves your team’s particular skillset? How ready is your team to learn new software, and which software would be the most valuable for them to learn?
Our guide to the top Agile management tools—some of which can also work well with Waterfall methodology—is a great place to start, as is our guide to the best project management software.
By doing this research in advance, you’ll lower the risk of wasting valuable time learning how to use a tool that ultimately doesn’t work for you.
Trick #3 — Give Everyone Time to Learn the Methodology
Once you and your team have decided on a methodology and tool to use for a project, make sure to take the time you need to learn how to use both before you embark on a big project. Take a few days to learn your chosen methodology together using videos, blogs, and discussions between team members.
During this time, learn how to use the tool you and your team have chosen to work with by watching demos and reading how-to articles. When everyone feels knowledgeable and prepared, you can tackle projects with confidence.
What to Do Next
Even though Waterfall came first, both Agile and Waterfall have been around for decades. This means that there are tons of resources out there—and plenty more to learn. Dig deeper into Waterfall project management or discover project methodologies that go beyond both Agile and Waterfall to help you decide what could work best for you.
Reach out to other project managers in your network and ask them which methodology they use and why. By taking the time to explore project management systems, you’ll help set your team up for success no matter what project you take on.
Agile Vs. Scrum
When it comes to project management, the Agile philosophy stands out among the rest. It combines several tools to create better organization, communication, and productivity for your team.
Scrum is only a small part of Agile solutions, but it can make all the difference for your business. Since scrum is a piece of the whole here, you don’t technically have to choose between them. However, if you’re looking for a comprehensive, all-inclusive solution, Agile has much more to give.
Agile Pros and Cons
Pros
- Versatile platform
- Wide range of industries
- Centers the customer
Cons
- Difficult to plan for resources
- Unclear progress measurements
Scrum Pros and Cons
Pros
- Focused work sprints
- Continuous feedback for improvements
- Easy to use
Cons
- Not suitable for larger teams
- Difficult to get ahead on work
Ease of Use: Scrum Wins
Many Agile solutions are built for ease of use, including Monday.com. However, it can take more effort to combine multiple methodologies.
You have to figure out how to use each one and whether it’s right for your team. Then, you need to put them together to see if they increase team productivity long-term. Building a whole Agile system for your team takes some trial and error, which can delay starting valuable projects.
Scrum has one of the shortest learning curves as an individual Agile solution. Once you get Zoho or another scrum solution, you have access to boards that you can arrange in whatever way works for your team.
Zoho uses a drag and drop system modeled after physical whiteboards in software engineering. Its initially simple setup is just as effective virtually and helps you organize tasks into a visual layout.
Team Size: Agile Wins
Scrum works best for teams of no more than ten people. More than that, things get disorganized and efficiency goes down. It works well for smaller teams, but if you plan to grow yours, it may have too many limitations.
Because Agile has so many frameworks, it essentially removes the team size limit. You may not be able to use one methodology on its own, but by combining them, you can increase the capacity for more team members.
Agile’s varied methodologies allow you to focus on different areas of your project, like how eXtreme Programming (XP) homes in on the customer experience while Lean Software Development (LSD) streamlines your project while reducing resources needed and the waste it produces.
Once you determine which frameworks apply to your team, Agile solutions become an asset. You can also break its solutions up based on a group’s specific focus. Agile is more flexible when it comes to team size since it functions as a system you can combine and adjust as needed.
Project Complexity: Scrum Wins
Scrum can handle complex projects by breaking them down into smaller ones. Its sprints ensure that each aspect of the process gets done, so you can’t get too far ahead without completing the current sprint.
Scrum reduces team overwhelm by separating smaller tasks within the big picture. It also helps with working toward specific goals and clear benchmarks on the way to overall project completion.
Agile allows for consistent versatility to support your team at every step, from planning to design to completion. You can always add more tasks and frameworks as needed.
It gives you various tools so that you have the right one for any part of your project, no matter its complexity. The only downside here is that you can get carried away and create never-ending projects, which can lead to difficulty measuring your team’s progress and setting KPIs.
Features: Agile Wins
Scrum’s straightforward framework doesn’t mean it lacks features. The ones it does have are easy to understand and use.
With drag and drop, timed sprints, retrospective meetings, it gives you a solid base for project organization. Most Agile systems include scrum along with other collaborative features, like chat or documents.
Next to Agile, scrum lacks many tools that can boost productivity. Agile’s versatility as a philosophy means that it comes with a wide range of tools. It can include issue tracking, planning and design, portfolios, and much more, depending on which methodologies you use.
Scrum can’t support as many stages of your project as multiple Agile frameworks combined can. With Agile, you get a full view of your project and can add or remove elements as well as include new methods when you need to.
Price: Scrum Wins
Often, with more features comes a higher price. When comparing the price of a single tool to several, it’s not surprising that a scrum system is cheaper than a full Agile system.
Still, scrum comes out ahead in terms of value, since most project management software won’t give you every Agile tool built-in. You may still need to buy other tools separately, depending on which ones you want to integrate.
Zoho gives you plenty of scrum-specific tools at a great price. It has a free version, but it offers its Professional package on a sliding scale cost based on how many users you have.
Starting at $5 per user per month, you can add anywhere from one to 500 users. After you pass the 100-user mark, the price per person starts to go down.
With Zoho, you don’t pay for extra features, since Zoho gives you everything in one package. You get unlimited projects with scrum boards, meetings, chat, and even a vendor portal so that you can collaborate with stakeholders, too. The software’s reports help you ensure that the software does its job well and supports a cohesive team.
Monday.com is one of the best Agile solutions available with many different Agile tools in one space. While Zoho has lower pricing for what you get, Monday.com offers a complete project management solution for a little more money.
Monday.com offers five plans:
- Free
- Basic: $8/user/month
- Standard: $10/user/month
- Pro: $16/user/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Small businesses may get by on the free plan with its unlimited boards and documents. Still, it limits your team size with only two users allowed.
The Basic package doesn’t add many new features, but you do get unlimited items and free viewers, plus more storage. Upgrading to Standard lets you make more use of other Agile features with more charts, including Gantt charts and calendar views. It even gives you the ability to automate your tasks.
The Pro plan lets you work using private boards, and you get 25,000 automations and integrations per month. Enterprise is by far the most customizable package. With it, you can set your own automations and integrations, as well as get advanced analytics and reporting to make sure your projects stay on track.
Despite how much Monday.com has to offer, we still put Zoho ahead with pricing. It doesn’t make you purchase a minimum number of seats with your plan. Monday.com does, so even with its cheapest plan, you won’t pay less than $24 per month.
Multiple Productivity Methods: Agile Wins
Scrum’s productivity method works well on its own, but it’s only one method. It works well for longer projects that you need to break down, but its main focus is sprints.
Agile has a method for everything, which makes it more versatile and better at achieving overall results. With it, you can use frameworks that include:
- Kanban
- Scrum
- XP
- Crystal
- Lean Software Development (LSD)
- Disciplined Agile (DA)
- Rapid Application Development (RAD)
- Dynamic Systems Development (DSDM)
Each one offers a transparent look at different project stages, which makes it easier to see how they can all impact your team’s productivity. With so many options, you can customize your team’s process based on team size, industry, and even specific projects.
Flexible Application: Agile Wins
Scrum started in software engineering, but it’s spread far beyond that now. Some teams may find it less workable because of the timed sprints, but its flexibility means you can tailor it to most industries.
Agile broadens that application further with its methodologies. Combining them can create ways to apply different frameworks to specific companies beyond the industry itself.
Agile works well for everything from construction to pharmaceuticals to education. Its visual tools and transparent processes make collaboration easy, so you can include your whole team and run more successful projects.
Automated Tasks: Scrum Wins
Zoho lets you automate tasks without limits using its Professional plan. Monday.com doesn’t let you automate unless you buy the Standard tier at a minimum $30 per month. Even then, without the Enterprise package, you’ll always have a limit.
With Zoho, you can set up automations in seconds using the drag and drop system. As a result, your team can work faster when it no longer has to worry about tedious manual procedures.
Monday.com’s lack of automations with its cheaper plans means you can’t use the software fully, even if those functions may be critical for your team’s productivity. That said, Agile itself has the potential for automation with almost every framework.
Sometimes, different frameworks make automation more complicated, especially when you’re working with more than one method. Scrum comes out ahead here largely due to how easy it makes the automation process.
Predetermined Roles: Scrum Wins
Scrum boards come with predefined roles built into the software, which other Agile solutions, like Kanban, don’t have. These roles make it easier to designate project leaders while still allowing everyone to participate equally in the project.
Scrum comes with three roles:
- Scrum master
- Product owner
- Development team
Designated roles allow you to assign tasks more efficiently and decide who has what job within the board. Team members can still move their own tasks and work at their own paces. The roles themselves don’t give any one user more power over the rest.
With software like Monday.com, you don’t have roles built-in. Agile software in general sometimes does, but if you use too many different frameworks, your team can still get disorganized or inconsistent. It can also take time to figure out how best to make each role work, whereas scrum sets you up for success right away.
Timed Work Sprints: Scrum Wins
Scrum is the only Agile framework that uses timed sprints to increase productivity. These sprints let you set a timeline as short as one week and as long as a month to determine how long team members have to complete given tasks.
Each task and sprint is connected to the one before it. That means that a team member can’t move on to the next task until they complete the current sprint. This setup can work to a team’s advantage, but it can also make it hard to get ahead, especially if there’s a debate elsewhere in the project.
Agile as a philosophy doesn’t include sprints in most frameworks. Not all methodologies lend themselves well to sprints, so this system is unique to scrum.
Collaborative Features: Agile Wins
Scrum offers plenty of collaborative features on its own. Everyone works on the same board, and you can leave comments, work on shared documents, and chat with Zoho. Plus, communicating with clients and vendors with the portal means everyone stays on the same page.
Agile’s collaborative features go beyond scrum. For example, the Crystal method helps team members communicate effectively by focusing on the human aspect of your project, whereas scrum is more task-based. The XP method increases communication between customers and team members.
Agile’s strength comes in the form of varied communication and collaborative methods. With software like Monday.com, you have several ways to collaborate. Since different collaborative styles work for different teams, having more options with Agile as a whole can create a more cohesive project that works for individual team members as well as the collective.
Integrations and Apps: Agile Wins
Zoho has about 15 integrations. Most of them are its own apps, like Zoho Cliq for chat and Zoho Analytics for reporting.
It does have some other integrations, like Google Drive, GitHub, and Zapier, but they’re limited, and many teams need more. Other scrum boards may have more, but you can make more use of a broader Agile solution with more capabilities.
Monday.com has 50+ integrations, giving it a much wider range than Zoho and scrum. You can also use its app marketplace to choose from categories that include marketing, reporting and analytics, and project management.
The software has many of the most popular apps, including Zapier, QuickBooks, HubSpot, and Mailchimp. You can also integrate it with other project management software, like Trello and Asana, to broaden your team’s functionality.
Retrospective Meetings and Feedback: Scrum Wins
Agile doesn’t always offer all the necessary components for collecting and implementing feedback. The system is built on transparency, but not all frameworks take the time to look back over what they’ve already done and where they could improve.
Scrum does. Its Sprint Review creates space for your team to look at its work so far, identify what’s gone well, and pinpoint areas that could go better. Using retrospective meetings often allows your team to continue making these improvements throughout your project. During these meetings, team members can submit their unique feedback and contribute to making changes either during the process or after that piece of the project is complete.
Final Verdict
Because scrum is part of the Agile philosophy, there’s no need to choose between them. The real question is whether you decide to integrate other frameworks within the Agile philosophy with your team.
If scrum works well on its own, you may not need to fix something that isn’t broken. However, it may be worth exploring other Agile methods, like Crystal and XP, to determine if their focuses can improve your productivity and collaboration.
We’ve put together even more project management software solutions to help you find the one that works best for your business.
Asana vs. Monday Comparison: Which is Better?
Asana and Monday.com are two of the most popular project management tools today. They offer similar features, but we think Monday.com is the better option. It made it onto our top list of the best project management software, while Asana did not. However, we still believe Asana is capable enough to pit against one of our top picks.
Asana Pros and Cons
Pros
- Easy to use
- 100+ integrations
- Up to 15 users in the free plan
- Terrific collaboration features
Cons
- Lacks native time tracking
- Slow loading speed for larger projects
Compare the Best Project Management Software
We reviewed dozens of project management tools and narrowed it down to the top options.
See Top Picks
Monday.com Pros and Cons
Pros
- All-in-one project management software
- Intuitive task management system
- Highly customizable dashboard
- Built-in reporting and analytics
Cons
- Limited integrations compared to Asana
- Too many email notifications
Compare the Best Project Management Software
We reviewed dozens of project management tools and narrowed it down to the top options.
See Top Picks Project Complexity: Monday.com Wins
You certainly want project management software to keep up with your project’s complexity. Monday.com does a significantly better job of accommodating your project size and complexity.
Starting with the basics, you cannot assign a task to multiple people in Asana. Instead, you’ll need to create copies of the task and assign the copied task to multiple team members. Moday.com lets you assign the original task to multiple members or even entire teams. This feature is especially useful for large teams working on related tasks.
Additionally, Asana doesn’t provide a default way to view all tasks on one page. The default view is Incomplete Tasks, so you’ll need to change your view preference whenever you want to see all the tasks. Similarly, there’s also no default single view of all tasks, for all people, across all projects.
Conversely, Monday.com offers a feature called My Work. You can set your preferences for the information you want to see. For instance, you can choose to view all your tasks from all boards regardless of status. Similarly, you can set your preferences and view specific boards, columns, and people.
Finally, Monday.com focuses more on the project while Asana prioritizes individual task lists. You immediately see this difference when you view each platform’s homepage. Asana has configurable widgets centered on managing individual work that’s tied back to an overall project.
You can still view individual tasks from the My Work view on Monday.com. However, the platform uses Workspace as the default homepage view.
It’s more focused on the larger project, which is the sensible approach for large and complex projects. In short, Monday.com makes it easy to manage personal work in the context of the overarching project.
Team Size: Asana Wins
Good project management software should be able to support the number of people on your team. You also want to keep costs down even as your team grows. Both platforms charge for each user. Asana refers to each person as a user, while Monday.com calls them seats.
Starting with the free plan, Asana supports more users. You can have up to 15 users on the free plan. Monday.com limits its users to five with the free plan. So most teams might prefer Asana if they’re specifically looking for a free project management tool.
Monday.com has a three-seat minimum for its paid plans. This isn’t a problem for most teams. However, it’s a bad deal for individual users. You’ll have to pay for two unused seats if you hope to upgrade to the paid tiers to unlock more features.
Similarly, Monday.com pricing works for groups of seats rather than per seat. For instance, you’ll have to pay for the five-seat subscription even if your team has four people. So, you may see some extra charges here.
Additionally, upgrading your subscription applies to all seats. So, you’ll pay the new premium for all your seats. This setup might be problematic if you only need to unlock premium features for specific team members.
Asana isn’t any different. There is no single-user plan for the paid tiers. However, the platform caters to small teams of two people. As a result, individual users will only pay for one extra user, compared to Monday.com’s three-seat minimum.
Asana also supports groups of 2, 3, 4, and 5 users, so small teams are more likely to get a plan that fits perfectly for the team size.
You’ll also see a difference when it’s time to upgrade your subscription. For example, Asana lets you upgrade individual teams rather than the entire organization. This option is perfect if you want premium features for specific members.
Finally, both platforms let you choose between monthly and yearly payments. Both platforms also offer discounts if you go with annual billing.
Overall, Asana is more flexible for different team sizes.
Ease of Use: Asana Wins
Change is difficult to manage in an organization. So you don’t want software that requires endless hours of training and deployment. Fortunately, Asana and Monday.com are built for ease of use. They come with simple and easy-to-use dashboards and interfaces.
However, Monday.com has a slightly steeper learning curve than Asana. Asana has a simple Kanban-style interface that’s easy to come to grips with. Monday.com offers more complex features and customizations. It’s great for creating your custom dashboard but requires time to learn how everything works.
Asana also maintains a familiar layout. You get all the critical features on the left-side menu. You can quickly figure out core functions such as adding a new task, assigning team members, and creating due dates with no special instructions.
It is not that Monday.com is difficult to understand, but it might be slightly less intuitive for some people.
Features: Monday.com Wins
The ideal project management tool makes work easier. So, you want to look for valuable features to streamline your workflow. Both tools offer decent features across their plans. These features also work more or less the same way on either platform.
For example, you get task management with either software. Both tools let you create and assign tasks, set deadlines, track progress, and mention team members. Similarly, Asana and Monday.com offer workflow management. As a result, you can easily track team members’ workloads and performance on either platform.
However, Monday.com offers more valuable features than Asana.
First off, time tracking is conspicuously missing in Asana. You’ll need to rely on third-party integration. Monday.com offers this capability out of the box.
Similarly, Monday.com has an interactive whiteboard which is helpful for brainstorming sessions. This feature is also missing in Asana. You’ll need to use a different tool if you prefer interactive brainstorming sessions.
Furthermore, many shared features are more developed on Monday.com than in Asana. For instance, both platforms offer portfolio management. However, Monday.com supports granular insights such as total investment and overall profitability. You don’t get this level of detail in Asana portfolio management.
Finally, Monday.com lets you send and receive emails on its platform, while Asana doesn’t support this feature. Monday.com also supports collaborative document editing, while Asana doesn’t.
Both software offers excellent project management and supporting features. However, Monday.com has a more robust and better-developed feature set.
Price: Monday.com Wins
Naturally, price is a critical factor when choosing project management software. You want the best value for your money. Asana and Monday.com are affordable, but the latter is the better deal. Here’s a breakdown of Asana vs. Monday.com pricing:
Asana and Moday.com offer a free tier. But, Asana’s free forever plan is far more attractive. First, it supports up to 15 team members, while Monday.com only provides five seats with its free plan.
Additionally, Asana’s free plan includes unlimited file storage, messages, and an activity log. You also get time tracking integrations and assignee and due dates. You could conceivably use Asana’s free plan to manage small projects with a few team members.
Monday.com’s free plan is better suited for individuals. You’re limited to three project boards, and there are few project management features in this tier.
Then, Asana offers two paid plans, including:
Premium – This plan costs $10.99 per user per month. You get many helpful project management features, including a timeline, unlimited workflows, workflow builder, start dates and times, milestones, and task templates.
Business – This plan costs $24.99 per user per month. This tier unlocks more features, including approvals, workload, goals, proofing, portfolios, and custom rules builder.
Monday.com offers four paid plans, including:
Basic – The plan costs $8 per seat per month. It’s a scaled version of the free plan and comes with unlimited items, unlimited free viewers, 5 GB of file storage, and a dashboard for one board.
Standard – Which costs $10 per seat per month. You get helpful project management features such as guest access, timeline & Gantt views, automation, and a unified dashboard for up to five boards.
Pro – This plan costs $16 per seat per month. You get additional features such as a chart view, dependency column, time tracking, automation, and a dashboard for up to 10 boards.
Enterprise – You’ll need to contact Asana for your Enterprise quotes. The plan offers enterprise features such as advanced reporting and analytics, tailored onboarding, enterprise-scale automation and integrations, and a dashboard for up to 50 boards.
Asana wins for its feature-rich free forever plan. However, Monday.com offers better value for money with its paid plans.
Integrations: Asana Wins
There’s no such thing as perfect project management software. You might need additional capabilities that are only possible with third-party integrations. Furthermore, it’s helpful if your chosen software easily links to other products you use for your daily workflow.
Monday.com offers 40+ integrations with the most popular software stacks. These include GoogleDrive, Mailchimp, Zapier, Jira, Slack, and Shopify. The platform also has an API that you can use to perform other integrations via data share.
Asana certainly offers more native integrations with more than 100 supported software. These include GitHub, Mailchimp, Slack, Dropbox, and an API. Asana also offers more than 100 free integrations with its free plan.
You’ll need to upgrade to the Standard plan on Monday.com to enjoy integrations. Even so, you’re limited to 250 actions per month. You’ll need to purchase the Pro plan to enjoy at least 25,000 actions per month.
Asana offers far more native integrations than Monday.com. There are also no limits for integration actions with any of Asana’s plans, including the free one. As a result, Asana is the clear winner for integrations.
Security: Monday.com Wins
We shouldn’t forget data integrity and confidentiality when choosing project management software. This is especially important if you’re required to comply with compliance regulations. Asana and Monday.com come with security built into the software.
Both platforms offer top-notch security with SOC 1 and 2, EU-US Privacy Shield, and GDPR compliance built into the software. You also get two-factor authentication (2FA) with all plans on either platform.
However, Monday.com has a slight edge over Asana, with more robust security and privacy features. For example, Monday.com complies with ISO 27018, SOC 3, and HIPPA regulations, whereas Asana does not.
Automation: Draw
Automation helps get repetitive tasks off your plate. It leaves more time to focus on core project management functions. So you want software that lets you automate as much of your workflow as possible.
Asana and Monday.com both do a great job of automating everyday tasks. Asana comes with pre-defined rules, such as automatically setting due dates for tasks that are no longer blocked. You can also automatically move tasks to a new section once they’re marked complete. Lastly, Asana also lets you create custom rules to suit your workflow.
Similarly, Monday.com provides predefined rules and creates your own rules. You can also automate creating tasks, assigning due dates, and real-time updates and reminders. You also don’t need to learn any code to automate your workflow.
Both platforms do a solid job of supporting automation.
Compare the Best Project Management Software
We reviewed dozens of project management tools and narrowed it down to the top options.
See Top Picks Final Verdict
Asana and Monday.com have their unique strengths. But Monday.com takes the cake from a pure project management perspective. It’s cheaper and provides more and better features to streamline your workflows.
Still, Asana is notable for its collaboration features. So Asana may be the better option if you’re more interested in creating a cohesive team of somewhat independent members. However, for most project managers, Monday.com is the clear top choice.
6 Agile Methodology Stages You Need to Be Aware Of
Agile methodology is becoming more and more important and popular in modern workspaces. The complexity of projects and the need for continuous modifications have shifted the project management methodology from traditional to agile.
However, to thrive agile methodology in your organization, you need to have an adaptive and flexible team to sudden changes and new requirements.
Gantt Chart vs. Roadmap vs. Timeline
Gantt chart, roadmap, and timeline ― three common concepts in project management. But what do these terms really mean?
If you’ve been wondering about the true meaning of these terms and their differences, you’re in the right place.
Making PMOs More Agile Through Citizen Development
Introduction
Citizen development is one the most recent and most exciting developments in project management. It challenges the established approaches to information systems development through its own professional developers or external vendors. Like with any other professional or bespoke service, application and software development can be very expensive and somewhat lengthy. Project Management Office (PMO) that seeks to be agile, effective, and efficient frown upon expensive and lengthy modifiers. To make matters worse, research has found that a large number of organizations and companies have a huge backlog of IT solution requests. With digitization being one of the key drivers of change in PMO functions these days, this is simply untenable. The PMO cannot do its business without being increasingly reliant on technology. Hence, it needs to address the above challenge effectively.
Given the changing and evolving nature of the PMO, it is starting to play a key role in making organizations and companies more agile, i.e., capable of mastering change under continuous, volatile, and unpredictable circumstances to achieve the strategic goals. This is broadly the concept of citizen development. It is an innovative business process that creates space and opportunities for non-IT staff with basic technology skills to use low-code/no-code (LCNC) platforms to develop new business applications. The goal is to make the process both faster and cheaper.
Relevance of Project Management Skills in an Agile World
As organizations are moving toward Agile transformation, there is a revamp of several roles involved in software delivery. One role that is gaining popularity is that of a Product Owner. On the other hand, a traditional role that is losing its significance in this context is that of a Project Manager: a role that is not a part of the Scrum Team. While both Project Manager and Product Owner roles are accountable for the successful delivery of a product, there are differences between the roles and responsibilities of each. This article examines the project management skills that are essential for the success of Product Owners in a Scrum Team.
Scrum Team and Roles
The Scrum Guide describes the Scrum Team as a small team of people consisting of one Scrum Master, one Product Owner, and Developers.
Tackling Technical Debt: Founding OutSystems
Following a recent interview on the Dev Interrupted Podcast, OutSystems CEO and founder Paulo Rosado joined us to chat about his path to founding the company, advice for successful leaders, and the growing threat of technical debt. The conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell us about OutSystems' founding story. What inspired you to start the company?
2021 Guide On Bridging the Gap Between People Management and Project Management
Project managers in the organizational paradigm are primarily responsible for carrying all of the processes and tasks that are included in the project development process, on their shoulders. They are the backbone of the whole shebang and without them, everything will go to waste.
As we all know, that the primary objective of the project managers is to complete all of the projects in their roster at the appropriate time with just the resources that are in the resource pool. But that doesn’t mean that they ignore the most important element related to the whole process, the people.