Project management: How to choose a simple and intuitive tool

Some time ago, project management was carried out manually using boards and markers, notepads, folders, post-its, and all types of documents and pieces of paper at the office. With the passage of time, the Internet has taken part in the planning and management of projects and has replaced old manual processes.

When choosing a simple and intuitive tool for project management, you will find that there are several possibilities with different efficiency and integration levels. Many of these tools combine social media functions with planning tools to carry out the greatest number of tasks possible. 

<<< Measuring, monitoring and improving: project management indicators>>>

Moreover, you should take into account that communication, planning, personal chats, calendars, appointments, news, emails, surveys, etc. are executed from just one platform. 

Most tools can be used by both small and big companies that want to manage their projects in a more organized way. While some suppliers decide to keep using their traditional platforms, others find more innovative solutions to organize their work. 

However, due to the technological times we live in, not adding a management tool to your organization is an inconceivable decision that will have a negative impact in the long term. 

What are the difficulties you could face for not having a project management tool? 

There are many problems that may arise in a company (whatever its size) that doesn't use a project management tool. First of all, tasks duplicate and are more difficult to be carried out, therefore, they take more time than they would if you had a project management tool. 

<<< Project management: main problems, challenges and solutions >>>

Since tasks take longer, time is reduced and activities are less productive. Therefore, your employees' performance decreases even though they put all their effort to achieve the same results as other companies using a project management tool; they can hardly reach the same goals within the established deadlines. 

The following are the most common problems that companies that don't use a project management tool face: 

• Inability to track the progress of projects 
• Responsibilities assignment
• Poor traceability 
• Difficulties to plan
• Delays and unclear schedules
• Difficulties to organize 
• Lack of automatic alerts
• Unmet deadlines
• Manual overwork
• Lack of a collaborative workplace 
• Metrics, indexes and reports that aren't in real-time and need to be carried out manually
• Communication problems 

As we can see, the impossibility to meet deadlines, the lack of a collaborative environment due to lack of communication and manual overwork are the main difficulties faced by companies that resist automating their processes. 

Main aspects to have in mind when choosing a simple and intuitive management tool. 

In the same way, organizations that don't adapt to the needs and transformations of the modern world have problems, they can also find solutions to these problems in a project management tool. 

<<< 3 software tools for project management in 2020 >>>

• Collaborative working environment

It's important that the tool you choose to manage your projects fosters a collaborative working environment in which the members of a team are able to influence one another to maximize both individual and collective learning to improve the overall performance of the company. 

• Communication between areas

Another characteristic that the management tool you choose must have is to promote communication among areas, and not just between the employees of an area because, this way, the integration platform chosen will be able to connect all employees, allowing them to send messages to each other and know all the company's plans. 

• Accessibility from everywhere thanks to the Internet 

A very important aspect to choose a simple and intuitive management tool is to have an excellent Internet connection everywhere because, at present, we use the Internet for everything: work, communication, study and entertainment. Therefore, if you don't have a safe and permanent Internet connection at your company, employees will be forced to carry out their tasks manually, causing unwanted delays. 

• Possibility of planning schedules and dependencies

Planning a new project using a management tool allows you to design schedules and dependencies to establish more precise and attainable deadlines. 

• Possibility of appointing people to a task or project 

Since it's a project management tool, it allows you to appoint people to a particular task and project. This functionality fosters a more collaborative and efficient working environment because everybody knows what tasks they have to carry out and there'll always be a person in charge to monitor and do a follow-up of those tasks. 

• Alerts and automatic report deliveries

Lastly, to choose a simple and intuitive tool for project management, it's important you make sure you don't waste time going through an endless number of documents looking for errors since the platform does it for you automatically through a search process and smart detection that most management tools have. 

So far, we have pointed out the main problems companies that prefer to manage their projects manually have to face. At the same time, in the second part of this article, we have explained why choosing a simple and intuitive management tool can help you eliminate delays, manual overwork, and many other problems forever thanks to business management technology.