We looked at the situation Jennifer (the client project manager) was in previous post, let’s look at what important aspects of project management tools are important for a project manager.

Project Management Software Features Critical For Project Manager

Better View of Resource Workload And Their Ongoing Activities

Project management system is not all about assigning tasks to resources. It should allow project manager to check whether that resources has required skills, designation, availability to perform before assigning that task to him/her. The ability to view available resources, current workload, expected work (demand) is important for a project manager to devise a well thought project plan and execute project without overloading or under utilizing resources i.e. Project team members. The project management system should be designed to provide clear resource load visibility and enable project manager to quickly assign, re-allocate work load. Even the team members should be able to know what all activities they are expected to deliver today, this week or this month or next month. In short, integrated scheduling, resource management solution which is intuitive and offering quick operations for project resource management tools is crucial for project manager.

One Place for Management of Project Issues Risks & Change Requests

Project manager needs one place where s/he can quickly glance through list of pending tasks, issues, risks, change requests, meeting action items. Looking at the list of pending activities (mind you, there are not only tasks), project manager can prioritize, decide about next action plan. It is not only about project manager, but entire project team, project stakeholders, sponsors can participate and collaborate around project issues, risks, change requests, meeting action items.

Enable Seamless Collaboration Among Project Stakeholders

The world we today, we are dependent on many resources to get our things done. Invariably, it means that the need to collaborate with others is much more than ever. Same is true about delivering project. Project team has to work, collaborate with each other, with clients, with partners, with sponsors: be it about project timeline, budget, cost/expenses, issues, risks, change requests, documents, etc. The right project management tools enable project stakeholders to work virtually-closely. They don’t have to sit in a closed room all the time to resolve pending things; neither they would need a project manager participate in discussions to move things forward. Project collaboration tools serve as a backbone for speedy and effective project delivery.

Help Team Members Stay On Top of Their Activities: Auto Reminders

Job description, job responsibilities for a given role get updated over a period otherwise as they say generic manager’s job would be at stake..Many of tactical activities which a project manager used to perform a decade ago, are no longer expected from him. Today project manager need not call team members to seek task status, issue status, risk status, time tracking. These are really tactical activities unless something is blocking project progress; otherwise a good project management software should automatically inform, remind project team members about their pending project activities. We human are not perfect, we might forget our deadline or delay activities. Project manager would like the PM tool to show pending things, send them automatic reminder for tasks start date, due date, issues due date, risk due date, project meeting and submission of time tracking. And as I mentioned earlier, project manager should be intervening only in case of escalations or something goes wrong. Thus a PM need a tool that will help project team members to stay on top of their activities.

Clear Project Status: Drill Down Visual Dashboards to Identify Bottleneck

The most important of all, project manager needs an easy way of project progress tracking. In turn, project manager would like project management system to show him/her a real status of project in project dashboard, portfolio dashboard as well as in project status reports. The system should give PM a holistic status of projects at one place. As and when team members update their respective project activities, current or updated project status is reflected in dashboard using online project management software. What’s better, if project dashboard are interactive: meaning, if project manager can drill-down from a high level status to individual task/issue/risk, PM can identify bottleneck and manage hurdles. The facility to quickly & easily track project progress without requiring PM to reach out team members is important for project manager. S/He can better utilize his/her time and energy in deciding the future course of the actions for the project.

Additional readings about project management, leadership

• Case Study: What Happens When Project Team Has Dual Reporting
• Avoid These 10 Most Common Mistakes That Leads to Project Failure
• Back2Basics: Ultimate Project Management Guide: Project Planning
• Online Project Tracking Software Your Organization Need
• How To Select The Right Project Management Software

Your life can be become easier with the right project management system. ZilicusPM is the right PM tool for you and your team. Get started now.

About Zilicus

Zilicus offers All-In-One online project management software ZilicusPM that provides complete project management control for project and portfolio managers; at the same time makes it really simple for project team members to stay on top of things. If you have been managing projects with conventional spreadsheet/ MS Excel templates or emails, it is the right time to start using online project portfolio management software. ZilicusPM is great platform for better project collaboration. Take a screenshot tour of project management software tour of ZilicusPM and Sign up for 30-days free trial of project management software ZilicusPM