Smartphones and tablet computers are all the rage these days, and that goes for project managers, too. Mobile technology has radically altered the world and made it simpler than ever to stay on top of your projects. A wealth of project management apps can be found in the various app stores today (Apple, Android and Microsoft), but they’re far from being all the same. You need to know what specific functionalities make apps worth your time and money (as well as the frustration of going through the learning curve with a new app). What are these?
Budgeting
Your project’s budget is enormously important – and it can be very easy to shoot over it in no time at all if you’re not keeping a close eye on things. One of the most important features in an app that’s worth your time is accurate, constant, easily accessed budgeting tools. What’s more, make sure that the budgeting feature can break down the project by task so you can see exactly how much everything costs.
Project Indicators
Visual indicators of task completion levels within a project are vital considerations and can be enormously helpful. It’s very nice to be able to look at an icon and tell where the task is at in its lifecycle. Of course, you need more than just completion indicators. Others you should have include conflict, state and budget to name just a few.
Task Management capabilities
Your project is composed of numerous smaller tasks. A task management feature lets you update tasks, add new ones, mark off completed ones and get an in-depth look at how the entire project is coming along as a whole, based on completed or incomplete tasks.
Team Collaboration
Fostering better collaboration and productivity within your team is essential, and a good app can help you do that. Look for features such as automatic notification to alert team members to important status changes and other milestones, and for real time team updates. In-app notes are also very good to have, as is the ability to share documents and direct access to contact information for stakeholders so you can send an email or make a call immediately.
The Level of Customization
No two projects are the same. Therefore, your project management app should allow you to customize each project and task as necessary. Custom fields, actions, schedules and rules should all be possible with ease. It’s vital that your app allows customization to avoid needless complexity and navigation headaches from unnecessary options cluttering up your screen.
Project management apps are available on all platforms, from a variety of different providers. However, it should be noted that the industry leaders maintain that position for a reason. There’s nothing wrong with experimenting with apps from new developers and brands, but remember that those companies that have been doing this for some time know what they’re doing and generally offer the most useful features. With that being said, it’s a big world in the mobile app segment, with tons of possibilities.