Project management software – Essential Guide - Desktop project management software

- Desktop project management software
In this post, you can ref useful information about desktop project management software such as project management skills, project management tools, project management templates … If you need more assistant for desktop project management software, please leave your comment at the end of this post.
Other useful material for you: 64 free project management templates
Introduction to PM: What's So Great About Project Management

I. Contents of desktop project management software

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There are literally dozens of good project management software applications out there, with Microsoft Project being one of the most popular mid-range project management packages, and the likes of Primavera being popular at the higher end. Free and open source project tools are also available to download or use via a web browser.

What does project management software do?

At the most basic level, project management products will help your organisation tomanage projects from start to finish, and allow employees at different levels to have an input into the process.

Project management software has been around for a number of years now and as a result, it does far more than just manage the projects themselves.

Project applications can also carry out scheduling, cost control and budget management, resource allocation, collaboration, communication, quality management and documentation or administration.

The aim with these is to handle all aspects and complexities of larger projects and help keep costs down.

What do businesses tend to use project management software for?

Projects can be complex and dependent on many different factors, departments, and outcomes.

As such, project software can help to determine which events depend on one another, how exactly they depend on each other, and what happens if things change or go wrong.

In addition, they can schedule people to work on various tasks, and detail the resources – physical, financial or anything else - that are required, and this is called resource scheduling.

People also use project management software to deal with uncertainties in the estimates of the duration of each task; arrange tasks to meet various deadlines; and juggle multiple projects simultaneously, as part of an overall objective.

Types of Project Management Software: Desktop

There are different ways in which project management software is made available by vendors and service providers.

Firstly, organisations can buy it as a desktop package, and this typically gives the most responsive and graphically-intense style of interface.

Desktop project management applications typically store their data in a file, although some have the ability to collaborate with other users, or to store their data in a central database.

Multiple users can share file-based project plans or data held on a database, if only one user accesses it at a time.

Types of Project Management Software: Client Server

Server-based collaborative project management applications are also available. These are designed to support multiple users who are working on different parts of a project.

Server-based project management systems hold data centrally and can also incorporate collaboration tools so that users can share knowledge and expertise.

Types of Project Management Software: Web-based

Project management software can be implemented as a web application. This is accessed through an intranet or extranet, or the internet itself, using a web browser.

Benefits of web-based project management applications include the fact that they can be accessed from any type of computer without installing software.

The software is also automatically updated and maintained by the service provider, and the nature of the system makes it naturally multi-user.

Also, web-based software tends to come with a monthly charge which is cheaper than buying and maintaining the application yourself.

However, web-based project software tends to be slower to respond than desktop applications, and project information is not available when the user is offline.

Types of Project Management Software: Integrated

An integrated system combines project management or project planning, with many other aspects of company activities.

For example, projects can have bug tracking issues assigned to each project; or the list of project customers can become a customer relationship management module, with each person on the project plan having their own task lists, calendars, and messaging functionality associated with their projects.

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II. Project management videos

1. Top 10 Terms Project Managers Use

2. Introduction to Project Management Fundamentals

3. Project Management

III. Project management ppt

1. Project management

Project management from Satish Yadavalli

2. Project Management Concepts

Project Management Concepts (from PMBOK 5th Ed) from Jeremy Jay Lim

3. Project Management Basics

Project Management Basics from Tito Sierra

Other topics related to project management

• project management software
• project management tools
• project management methodologies
• project management training
• project management templates
• project management skills
• project management process
• project management life cycle
• project management system
• project management techniques
• project management phases
• project management certificate, degree
• project management cycle
• project management apps
• project management qualifications
• project management quotes
• project management examples
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The Top 6 Free and Open Source Project Management Software for Your Small Business - Desktop project management software

- Desktop project management software
In this post, you can ref useful information about desktop project management software such as project management skills, project management tools, project management templates … If you need more assistant for desktop project management software, please leave your comment at the end of this post.
Other useful material for you: 64 free project management templates
Introduction to PM: What's So Great About Project Management

I. Contents of desktop project management software

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Trying to manage a project without project management software can turn into a Godzilla-like apocalypse quickly. Even with the best intentions and strategy, a wrong turn can quickly demolish months of work, and a misstep can mean the small-business equivalent of losing San Francisco. Taming this project gone bad can be a horrific task—especially when you have to pay a lot of money to do it.

Fear not.

Small businesses have a variety of possibilities for organizing their projects from the deep. And the best part? Most of these options are free.

I’ve compiled a list of the six best free project management software applications. Depending on the size of your business, these software solutions cost a total of nothing. Let’s start with number six.

6. Bitrix24

Bitrix24 is a project management system entirely free for up to 12 users, with an option to upgrade to more for $99 per month. The features rival those of PM’s current go-to software: BaseCamp.

Pros

Users can choose whether to use Bitrix24 in the cloud or self-host on the company’s own server. The PM features are outstanding: Bitrix24 offers Gantt charts, layered task options, time tracking and management, and even employee workload planning.

Bitrix24 also makes real-time communication a breeze with group chat, videoconferencing, and instant messenger. It also acts as a DropBox alternative—the free version offers 5GB of cloud storage for easy document sharing—and, for just 25¢ a month, businesses can add an additional gigabyte.

Cons

Small businesses may struggle with the free version of Bitrix24 solely because of its limitation on user profiles—and the jump to $99 per month may be a non-starter if you’re cash-strapped.

5. Trello

Trello costs a grand total of zero dollars and no cents. They use a method calledKanban, a project management system developed by a former Toyota vice president, Taiichi Ohno, which allows users to move cards—representative of tasks—to create a visual representation of where a project is in development.

Pros

If a more intuitive project management software option exists than Trello, I’ll dress up as a burrito and beg for free Chipotle.

A quick peek at the alignment of the cards lets users know how far along a project is—and what to work on next. While the front of the card has little more than a task label, the back can be filled with all kinds of information—like who’s working on the task, when it’s due, and what parts of the task have already been completed with a simple checklist.

Cons

Because of Trello’s emphasis on simplicity, it’s missing a few key features. There isn’t a good way to look at a project with high detail—for example, it does not offer an option to see task lists broken down by user or due date.

4. 2-Plan Project Management Software

From the glut of open-source software, 2-Plan stands out. The system has three symbiotic programs—all free:

• 2-Plan Desktop, a project-management system.
• 2-Plan Team, a web-based project management tool with multiple hosting options.
• Work 2-gether, a Scrum-based task management board for one-team projects.

All of these options are free, but you may choose to pay for additional extensions.

Pros

2-Plan is a behemoth when it comes to features. On the desktop version alone, project managers can create an animated graphical WBS, craft project milestones,implement top-down and bottom-up planning, and build project control systems.

2-Plan Team makes it easy to coordinate with off-campus teams and track time spent on tasks—and it integrates seamlessly with 2-Plan Desktop. Work 2-Gether is similar to Trello in that it uses the Kanban system, but it also has the ability to expand into a greater workchart.

Cons

2-Plan offers a lot of features that can quickly get overwhelming for teams with little time for their extensive manuals. Furthermore, the free option can be limiting. Work 2-gether, for example, only permits businesses to use two taskboards for freeand team size is limited to three.

Thankfully, their pro accounts are reasonably priced—businesses only have to pay $15 a month to fully upgrade Work 2-gether.

3. Asana

Based on their 40,000 customers and 400,000 users, Asana is one of the most popular project management apps available—and best of all, for up to 15 users, it’s free.

Pros

Dustin Moskovitz, the co-founder of Facebook, also designed Asana. True to the aesthetic and simplicity of the most popular social network, Asana is an intuitive task-management system that works best for teams seeking real-time interaction.

Asana allows its users to visualize their goals, track their time, assign priority to their tasks, and get updates on the project right in the program. It also has a calendar function to graph the team’s tasks right onto the dashboard.

Cons

Asana’s plain design comes with a dearth of features, including progress tracking and offline use.

2. GanttProject

GanttProject is another open-source free project scheduling and management tool.Reviewers have compared this heavy-hitting application to Microsoft Project—both in terms of features offered and complexity. This system can generate Gantt and PERT charts, produce reports in HTML and PDF formats, and offers versatile scheduling and time management tools.

Pros

There is no limit to what you can do with GanttProject. The management platform allows users to quickly create a structured schedule for any project. It offers task assignment and milestone implementation. The open-source software also enables project managers to identify problem areas in the workflow so that companies can set goals for improvement.

Cons

I would not recommend GanttProject to people who are unfamiliar with project management software. Many have found it overwhelming—and support is largelyleft to its forums.

1. Producteev

Producteev offers its clients unlimited users and projects for free—and unless your small business needs Outlook integration, personalized support, or visual customization, there’s no reason to upgrade to Pro.

Among its many features, it permits users to create tasks that belong in multiple task lists, offers real-time communication between users, features results measurement and progress tracking, and lets users turn emails into tasks with a few simple clicks.

Pros

Producteev is incredibly easy to maneuver—almost every function that Producteev offers is self-explanatory. It can filter tasks by people, project, status, due date, priority and more. The application also offers simple file sharing through attachments or DropBox.

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II. Project management videos

1. Top 10 Terms Project Managers Use

2. Introduction to Project Management Fundamentals

3. Project Management

III. Project management ppt

1. Project management

Project management from Satish Yadavalli

2. Project Management Concepts

Project Management Concepts (from PMBOK 5th Ed) from Jeremy Jay Lim

3. Project Management Basics

Project Management Basics from Tito Sierra

Other topics related to project management

• project management software
• project management tools
• project management methodologies
• project management training
• project management templates
• project management skills
• project management process
• project management life cycle
• project management system
• project management techniques
• project management phases
• project management certificate, degree
• project management cycle
• project management apps
• project management qualifications
• project management quotes
• project management examples
• project management terms

Top 5 Best Free Project Management Software for Windows - Desktop project management software

- Desktop project management software
In this post, you can ref useful information about desktop project management software such as project management skills, project management tools, project management templates … If you need more assistant for desktop project management software, please leave your comment at the end of this post.
Other useful material for you: 64 free project management templates
Introduction to PM: What's So Great About Project Management

I. Contents of desktop project management software

===============

Are you looking for a free alternative to Microsoft project professional? If you want an effective project management software that will help you organize, track, and chart your projects without spending a dime then you will be delighted to know that we have come up with the Top 5 Free Project Management Software for Windows that will give you robust project scheduling and management features that are great even for professionals!

1. Open Workbench

Open Workbench is superior project management software that does not come out as half-baked or amateurish for a free software. One of its best features include the ability of the program to also read Microsoft project files – which are not a common feature to even the paid project management programs. This program is ideal for large scale projects with its robust functionalities such as project planning, resource management, project scheduling and project review.

• Our Rating: 
• Download Open Workbench
• Home Page
• Pros: Packed with world-class scheduling applications suited to large scale projects; superior project management software comparable to the paid programs.
• Cons: Not ideal for small scale projects due to its advanced functionalities; takes time to learn the program
• OS: Windows 2000, XP or 2003 Server Edition

2. OpenProj

OpenProj is another great free tool for Windows-based desktop project management which is a great alternative to Microsoft Project. It is equipped with efficient scheduling engine. It also supports all major project management features such as resource management, task handling, project scheduling, and work bench approach. It also has a similar interface as the Microsoft project.

• Our Rating: 
• Download OpenProj
• Home Page
• Pros: easy to install; interface is similar with Microsoft project; ideal for simple and moderately complex projects;
• Cons: Some features are not designed for the novice; some features are also available only for premium members and hence you need to upgrade.
• OS: Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7

3. GanttProject

GanttProject is again a free tool that offers a plethora of task building, project charting and milestone implementation. It can also export and import functions to Microsoft project which makes it a really versatile program. It is ideal for small to medium sized projects.

• Our Rating: 
• Download GanttProject
• Home Page
• Pros: Supports milestone feature that it not available with other project management tools; quick and easy to install; can save files as .xml files which makes it easy to transfer to other programs such as Microsoft project.
• Cons: It can be overwhelming if you are not familiar with using graphs, charts and bars; does not have as much functionality as Open WorkBench
• OS: Windows 7, Windows XP, Mac OSX, Linux

4. DotProject

DotProject is a free web-based project management program that provides functionality for scheduling, planning and staffing projects. The Dotproject system fundamental units are companies, projects, tasks and users. It has an extensive functionality especially when using it for task management.

• Our Rating: 
• Download DotProject
• Home Page
• Pros: it is web-based; user-friendly; superior task management functionality
• Cons: lack some fucntionalities that other web-based programs have
• OS: 64-bit and 32-bit Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP. Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Home Server 2011

5. ReqMan

ReqMan is another free project management tool that is highly versatile and configurable. It has powerful features such as questionnaire module, planning and time module and a reporting module. It is a great option for businesses and organizations to meet their particular project requirements.

• Our Rating: 
• Download ReqMan
• Home Page
• Pros: web-based program; powerful features such as questionnaire module, planning and time module
• Cons: also a bit short in some functionalities
• OS: All flavors of Windows including Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows XP

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II. Project management videos

1. Top 10 Terms Project Managers Use

2. Introduction to Project Management Fundamentals

3. Project Management

III. Project management ppt

1. Project management

Project management from Satish Yadavalli

2. Project Management Concepts

Project Management Concepts (from PMBOK 5th Ed) from Jeremy Jay Lim

3. Project Management Basics

Project Management Basics from Tito Sierra

Other topics related to project management

• project management software
• project management tools
• project management methodologies
• project management training
• project management templates
• project management skills
• project management process
• project management life cycle
• project management system
• project management techniques
• project management phases
• project management certificate, degree
• project management cycle
• project management apps
• project management qualifications
• project management quotes
• project management examples
• project management terms