Project management software aims to help end users oversee the execution of entire projects. It usually includes tools for assigning and organizing tasks, scheduling, reporting, charting, tracking progress, resource allocation and collaboration.
Functions of project management software
- Task management
- Scheduling
- Calculating critical path
- Providing information
- Reporting
- Document management
- Risks and benefits analyzers
- Collaboration
Project management tools are very popular among software companies. Only 5% of organizations never used such an application when working on a new task while almost 50 percent use them on a regular basis.
Available project management tools
Open source downloadable project management solutions
Aiming to be a completely free alternative to Microsoft Project, OpenProj has become a very popular product with more than 250,000 downloads all over the world.
Open Workbench
Open Workbench is a sophisticated project management solution used mainly for scheduling and management. It is open source, therefor free, but can be upgraded to CA's Clarity system.
Trac
Trac is a cross platform open source project management tool written in Python that's suitable for mid-size projects. Trac has an integrated wiki and SVN and requires a project administrator to assign permissions to users
TaskJuggler
TaskJuggler is one of the most popular project management systems on the market. It supports CSV data export and can generate XML and HTML reports
Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project is a "best seller" in project management software with more than 20 million licenses sold so far. Thanks to the integration with other Microsoft popular products like Excel and Outlook, Microsoft Project it's spreading faster and faster even if the license is pretty expensive ($1000 per client) and the documentation can only be obtained for an extra fee.
Mingle
Mingle is the perfect project management and collaboration solution for companies that need to manage Agile IT projects. Mingle is one of the 5 finalists of the 18th annual Project Management Software Jolt Awards
