Project management doesn't have to be a challenge. If you're not sure whether a project management tool is necessary, read on and find out.
Your company depends on teams to keep everything moving forward. This is especially true with development teams, as they not only help define the future of your business, but they also make it happen by creating the software and services that your company and your customers depend on.
As your business expands, so do the projects your teams will help build. As these projects continue to grow, they will become increasingly difficult to manage. However, with the help of a project management solution, these teams can run exponentially smoother.
If that alone isn't enough to sell you on the idea of a project management solution for your development teams, we have some very important reasons to consider. Each of these reasons is not dependent on your teams working with a specific language or framework. So your developers can work with JavaScript, Java, C++, Python or .NET and still benefit dramatically from a project management tool.
For those who don't know, project management tools come in all shapes and sizes, from Gantt charts to Kanban and Scrum boards. The choice will depend on the complexity of your project and how much control you want to exert over your teams.
That said, let's dive deeper into why your teams need a project management solution.
Better planning
There's nothing more straightforward than that. By employing a project management solution for your teams, you greatly improve every aspect of project planning. This applies from the initial planning stages through launch planning. You might already assume that your current spreadsheet/mind map solution works perfectly, and if you're trying to manage a small project, that might be the case.
However, as your projects become larger and more complex, you'll need the enhanced planning that comes with project management software. It also makes it considerably easier to schedule everything for your project lifecycle – from the early idea stages to development, testing and launch.
Easier collaboration
The larger your team, the more collaboration will happen. And when your project needs to involve more than just the development team, you'll want to enable simple, reliable collaboration. This is yet another shining example of how a project management platform can improve your project.
Many project management solutions even include built-in collaboration tools like communication and file sharing. With these features in place, your teams won't need to work with multiple tools to get the job done. That's efficiency done right.
Budget administration
Your project has a budget, and you know that those responsible for spending will be watching this project like the hawks they are. The last thing you need is to go over budget, which can not only send the wrath of those responsible for the budget but also put your project in jeopardy.
With the help of the right project management software, you can better manage your project budget, so you never have to worry about falling short of the numbers set by those in charge.
Resource management
Resources come in all shapes, sizes, and formats. There are employees, time, code, files, APIs, software, hardware, and budget. As your projects continue to expand, resource allocation will become increasingly challenging.
With the help of a project management solution, you can take control of your entire resource management, so you can drastically improve your workflow and control absolutely everything that goes into project creation.
Project Reports
How well is your project? You know? Can you get a quick view of the progress of your project? Or do you just spin around, completely clueless as to what's going on with it?
A good project management solution will include plenty of reporting tools that will keep you, teams, and management informed about project progress. If the project falls behind, you will know. With really good project management solutions, you'll be able to get very detailed reports so that not only do you know that a project is behind schedule, but you can easily discern why. Once you have this information, you can act accordingly.
Less paperwork
Let's face it, everyone hates paperwork. Not only is it time-consuming, but it's also not good for the environment. Why not go paperless? This is another great benefit of using a project management solution: you no longer need to rely on hard copies of reports. Instead, all you need to do is log into the system and view the reports.
This also prevents you from losing paperwork, which happens. So instead of going the old-fashioned way, go a newer, more modern way that can make your project reports more reliable, in the end it will be a lot cheaper (because you're not buying and wasting paper).
Conclusion
There's a reason why project management solutions are one of the most popular commodities right now. With so many incredible projects happening around the world, many of these developers and companies have discovered that a good project management tool is just as important as having a reliable and experienced project manager.
Source: BairesDev
