Project management tool specifications

Resource allocation planning is the process that describes what type of resource is needed and at what time that is critical for resource management.

So, it is convenient to use a tool that offers resource management. For every project, resource management is an integral part that will make aware of the whole project cost and other related things. Therefore, it becomes really convenient to have a resource management function on a project management tool to calculate expenditures and distribute well the tasks along.

Example: Mavenlink offers solutions for resource planning, collaboration, and financial management. It is quite common to dig into a project where the tasks are connected to each other, like the 2nd task may be connected to the 10th task. In these cases, tasks cannot be done separately from each other.

It is fair enough to have a system where you can define all the development stages of a project along with, task dependencies.

Also, setting milestones to mark specific points in a project will make sure if your project is moving in the right direction. Ease of use is a priority requirement for project managers who unquestionably have to juggle numerous projects and people at the same time.

A project management system should be easily accessible to employees using multiple devices, it should have a minimalistic design with a simple drag-and-drop interface, easy functionality, and smooth maintenance and support.

With teams depending on a project management system every day, it makes sense that your tool should be able to synchronize data with other apps. An integrated suite offers functionalities that are relevant to various businesses for various purposes. This is one easy and direct way to take your project management to another level. Project managers should look for a project management system with integration support for popular appss like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Box.

Agile is a methodology of project management, which is among the most popular methods of managing projects. It is clear that agile organizations grow faster than non-agile. An Agile project management tool will maintain smooth workflow, ensure better transparency, bring agility and flexibility, and help teams to be more productive.

Poorly managed tasks? Try the all new Workflows and boards in ProofHub to get it all done efficiently. Project management boards are the decision-makers that will be helpful in connecting people who are working on the project. It focuses on the status of tasks, by which the task can be moved through different stages of the project. Boards in a project management system like ProofHub will help sustain a steady flow of tasks in a sequential manner, thus speeding up the process of task delivery.

More and more managers are longing for time tracking as an important feature for better planning, accurate time estimation, and working with great precision on project tasks.

A project management system with a time tracking tool will improve the way projects move forward. Customization is the way for modern teams to work effectively. Custom workflows in a project management system will track work progress accurately. Project managers are often on the go, in meetings, or running errands. Nobody wants to limit themselves to laptops. Mobile apps are becoming the need to stay in the loop every minute.

Project management mobile apps is a comfortable way to keep track of tasks, milestones, and deadlines. The system should allow you to share documents, files, status, timelines, and tasks easily and quickly with a large number of people. Discussions and chat should be easily done with respect to both remote and in-house teams.

Jose is a subject matter expert and member of the writing team for Project-Management. He has written hundreds of articles including project management software reviews, books reviews, training site reviews, and general articles related to the project management industry. Workflow Management Software and Tools: Guide. Top 3 Software Alternatives to Sciforma. Top 3 Software Alternatives to Teamwork. Top Help Desk Software Project Management Articles.

Back to top Top 10 Free Project Management Software The best free project management software allow teams to manage one or more projects, delegate tasks, and collaborate easily without breaking the bank.

Wrike Wrike offers a free plan for teams who need work management and team collaboration tools. Read more: Wrike Software Review for Airtable Airtable is a flexible platform that allows teams to create and customize business solutions for project management, work tracking, and collaboration. Read more: Pros and Cons of Using Airtable Software Trello Trello is a visual project management software made up of boards, lists, and cards.

Read more: Trello Software Review for MeisterTask MeisterTask is a task management software that provides teams an overview of work in progress and enables them to track tasks from idea conception to delivery.

Quire Quire is a free project management software for teams with big ideas. Read more: Quire Software Review Asana Asana project management software can help engineering teams to track bugs, marketing teams to plan campaigns, sales teams to manage customer accounts, or HR teams to onboard new employees. Read more: Asana Software Review for Jira Software Jira Software is a project management tool for software development and agile teams. Read more: Pros and Cons of using Zoho Projects monday.

Free Online Project Management Software A majority of project management software providers offer a freemium model for their online tools. Free On-Premises Project Management Software Aside from cloud-based software, free on-premises project management software are also available to users who prefer self-managed implementations.

Free-to-Try Project Management Software Enterprise-grade project management software provide comprehensive and advanced features that can help growing businesses.

Read also : How to Implement Project Management Software Successfully Back to top Free Project Management Software Features Project management software, whether free forever or for a time, aims to help teams and companies go through the different stages and processes of the project lifecycle with ease and precision.

Task Management: Task management enables users to create, add, break down, assign, and monitor tasks through the various stages of the project. Moreover, the best free project management software provide teams several ways to view, sort, and prioritize tasks with the ability to capture details and allow changes as needed.

Team Collaboration: Team collaboration is an important feature of project management software, so users should choose a PM tool that works for at least two team members.

Email Integration: Some free project management software limit the number of users who can access it directly. Email integration is a innovative way to stay on the same page with the team members who do have access to the software. Document Management: Free project management software typically has limitations on the total storage or size of file attachments. It is an issue that users have to deal with and weigh accordingly when choosing a free PM software. Mobile App: Mobility while managing projects is no longer a nice-to-have feature.

Luckily, providers recognize this and generally include mobile access to their free project management software via native integration, HTML5 technology, or mobile apps.

Third-party Integration: Users expect their project management tools, whether free or paid, to have integration to other software. Some free PM tools offer limited integration, reserving more integration capabilities for paid plans. Support Documentation: Some project management software providers reserve customer support features for paid plans. Free users may need to work a little harder to access documentation and support through blogs, community forums, or non-vendor websites.

Customization: Customization allows project teams to adapt the tool to their existing processes, and not the other way around. Customizable features to look out for include configurable dashboards, workflows, forms, and templates. Reporting: A lot of free project management software now include automation, analytics, and AI to provide not just information, but insights. However, free plans can have certain limits to the frequency or depth of reporting.

Scheduling: Scheduling is another vital PM software feature. More tools are giving users a variety of views and interaction to look at their plans and timelines, which include table views, Gantt views, board views, and calendar views.

Time Management: Time management is a core feature of many free project management tools, but not all. If included, users will have access to timesheets, automatic task timers, and time reporting capabilities.

If this is critical to your workflow, look for a tool that prioritizes time management. Back to top Features for Small Businesses Small businesses typically get the most value from free project management software. Task Management: Task management features allow users to organize their tasks, assign responsibility, and track them to completion. Visualizations: A free project management software that provides highly visual dashboards, lists, boards, and reports improves efficiency.

Email Integration: Fewer seats means that free plans limit the number of users directly using the PM tool. Email integration is critical for communication and collaboration. Workflow management: As businesses take on more projects, their teams need PM software with customizable boards, views, and automatic notifications.

Set a deadline by which the project must be launched. As with the budget, don't underestimate the time required to complete each element, and be realistic. For complex projects, do not hesitate to set different milestones and make a schedule in the form of a Gantt chart. The functional part of the project charter is used to translate project requirements into functionalities. It is recommended to go as much in detail work breakdown to ensure that the functionalities are well understood and the project scheduling up to par with your expectations.

The technical part consists of describing how the functionalities will be implemented, and are especially important in the case of software development. Moreover, this part highlights the technical requirements and constraints of the project to meet the needs of end-users. Here you should put all the documents and detailed information that are required to complete the project. These may include wireframes, mock-ups, drafts, etc. Since project charters can be adapted according to the type of project you use and its complexity, therefore, it is recommended to consider different examples of project charters before writing your own.

Here are two project charter examples that may inspire you to design your own. Lucidchart is an online diagram software that allows you to visually build your project specifications.

Thanks to its intuitive interface, you can use Lucidchart to create project charters and diagrams. Drag and drop shapes in the work area, then complete them with your information you can import your data from a CSV file and customize diagrams to your preference. Once you have created your project charter, it is essential to keep track of the completion of your project with a dedicated tool.

Thanks to its system of customisable tables , you can manage your tasks and subtasks using a visual and intuitive tool. Once you have identified your projects, assign each of them the necessary resources and budget. This project management tool goes one step further, by providing time management features to meet the deadlines of your projects and by offering different views of your tables, with a Gantt chart for example.

Project specifications are essential to building a framework for your project and helping you to reflect and formalize your needs and objectives. They allow you to communicate with team members and project stakeholders in the project so that everyone can make informed decisions in a collaborative work environment. However, you must accept that the project may evolve, either because new external elements change the situation or because it is difficult to be exhaustive and perfectly express your needs.

This is where working with an agile method is interesting because it allows you to present a functional version of the product as soon as possible which will allow you to make adjustments to the project charter. Operations Management. Project Management. By Ricardo Singh. Table of contents Free project specification template. Project specifications: definition What are project specifications?

What is the purpose of writing down project specifications? Who writes the project specification? Present the company 2. Present the project 3. Set your target 4.

Identify your competition 5. Use a graphic charter 6. Set your project budget 7. Set a completion time 8. List functional specifications 9. List technical specs Project specification examples. Best tools to help you build your project specification Creating project charters with Lucidchart Monday. Accurate project specifications and agile management to anticipate evolutions.

Here is a free template to get you started:. Project charter template. Here is a short video that explains what a project charter is :.

Project specifications can be used to : get authorisations to start a building project, think about objectives and set them, assign the priorities of the project, help key stakeholders give you more relevant advice, estimate the budget , resources and project deliverables necessary to the successful completion of a project.