It seems like everywhere you go today you are hearing about project management – also sometimes called “PM” – software. That’s not by accident: Increasing demands on teams, shortened deadlines, and remote employees and work-from-home mandates have made creating a way to organize tasks online an imperative.

But the benefits of project management software go well beyond simple deadline setting and communication tools. Well-constructed project management software systems, like those from ProWorkflow, allow teams to save time, money, and resources by providing visibility into workflows, making invoicing and timesheet entry a cinch, and much, much more.

Project Management Software

Project management software is a tool or set of tools that helps teams plan, organize, and manage projects. It can also manage estimation and planning, and provide tools for scheduling, cost control, budget management, resource allocation, decision making, quality management, time management, and regulatory oversight.

The idea of project management grew out of military initiatives for corralling resources and personnel, but migrated into business soon afterward. Cloud-based project management software entered the lexicon around 2010, and applications soon moved to mobile formats.

What can you do with project management software?

Project management software has a number of key uses, as well as many ancillary bonus benefits. With it, you can:

• View the relationships between tasks
• Assign resources and talent to tasks
• Level workloads
• Estimate time demands
• Budget and estimate costs
• See problems before they develop
• Communicate with key stakeholders, both internally and externally
• Collaborate with teammates and customers
• Optimize the use of available resources
• See how other similar projects have progressed

Types of project management software

There are multiple types of project management software systems, with some merging across these designations to serve numerous platforms:

• Desktop applications
• Cloud or web-based applications
• Mobile applications
• Personal use
• Single user
• Collaborative or multiple users

What are project management lifecycles?

Project management software allows teams to break projects into four components and move through them toward final completion. Those components include:

• Conceptualization
• Planning
• Execution
• Termination

Uses of project management software

Project management software has almost unlimited use applications. Just a few examples include:

• Construction and engineering
• City planning and development
• Marketing campaign deployment
• Publishing and editing
• Event planning
• Volunteer coordination

Unexpected benefits of project management software

Well-developed project management software tools do more than just allow you to create projects and work through steps. Top-tier tools like ProWorkflow also let you:

• Choose from numerous pre-built templates
• Easily manage contacts
• Create custom workflow categories
• Easily enter and report on time worked on projects
• Customize the look and feel of the tool to match your business and brand
• Use an optional plug-in to handle invoices
• Use another optional plug-in to handle quotes
• Get onscreen and email alerts
• Instant message team members
• Work on mobile, laptop, and desktop computers

To learn more about project management software, contact ProWorkflow today.