Project Management Software

Planning an event involves many moving parts, each generating costs that must be carefully tracked. Whether it’s venue rentals, equipment, catering or staffing, event planners need a structured approach to budgeting. Without a well-organized budget, costs can spiral out of control, leading to financial surprises. To simplify this process, an event budget template can help keep track of all expenses. Our Google Sheets event budget template provides an easy-to-use format for logging estimated and actual costs, ensuring your event stays within budget. Why Use an Event Budget Template for Google Sheets? Google Sheets is an excellent tool for creating an event budget because …

Whether a professional project manager or an accidental project manager who suddenly finds a project assigned to them, knowing how to manage a project is essential. You can never know enough for the journeymen and newbies should try to wing it. Let’s break down the process of how to manage a project step by step. Below are the 10 pieces that show how to manage a project successfully. While we recommend using project management software, for those not ready to upgrade, we end with free templates. 1. Define the Project Goals and Objectives Defining clear goals and objectives is the foundation of how to manage a project successfully. This step ensures all stakeholders have…

A Microsoft Project plan file, or an MPP file, is a file format that’s exclusive to Microsoft Project. This means users need to purchase Microsoft Project to open them. Otherwise, using and more importantly, sharing MS Project files, will cause problems. However, you can avoid those hurdles if you have a Microsoft Project viewer to view and edit MPP files. What Is a Microsoft Project Viewer? A Microsoft Project viewer, also known as an MS Project viewer or MPP viewer, is software that allows you to open MPP files without having to purchase a Microsoft Project license. MPP viewers were created as a workaround for users who need to open MPP files but don’t have Microsoft P…

The key to starting a project that will be delivered on time, on budget and meeting quality standards is simple: writing a project plan. How to write a project plan is not as simple. It involves smaller plans that all add up to a means of completing the project successfully. After defining what a project is, we’ll explain what should be included and the steps to writing a project plan. We’ll also include a free project plan template and a few others related to the planning process. What Is a Project Plan? A project plan is a structured document that outlines the objectives, scope, timeline, resources, risks and responsibilities needed to complete a project. It serves as…

Looking for free project management software? Here's our list of the top free tools to help you plan, organize, and execute projects in 2023. The post 10 Best Free Project Management Tools to Boost Team Efficiency in 2025 appeared first on project-management.com. View the full article

Explore content operations templates that support strategy, calendars, collaboration, and cross-team workflows—from Wrike and Google to ClickUp and Jira. The post Content Operations Project Management Templates to Keep Teams Aligned and Output Flowing appeared first on project-management.com. View the full article

You’re probably here because you’re looking for Microsoft Project for Mac. Unfortunately, Microsoft Project, also known as MS Project, wasn’t designed for Mac computers, so its desktop-based editions (Microsoft Project Standard and Microsoft Project Professional) won’t work on any Mac operating system (macOS). Is There a Microsoft Project for Mac? Microsoft Project for Mac doesn’t exist, but there are alternatives for those who want to work with Microsoft Project Plan (MPP) files on an Apple computer. The two most commonly used workarounds are trying one of the inferior, web-based versions of Microsoft Project or installing a virtual machine, a software that allows users…

When managing projects, users have many options. Microsoft Lists and Microsoft Planner are two of the most popular project management apps. But are they the one-stop solution project managers and their teams need to plan, manage and track work? There’s only one way to find out. We compared Microsoft Lists vs. Planner. Let’s see how they stack up. We’ll put Microsoft Lists vs. Planner through a series of tests. First, let’s define each to understand what they are and how they’re used, including key features. Then we’ll explore Microsoft vs. Planner in terms of the pros and cons of each and where one excels over the other. When comparing Microsoft project planning tools, …

If you’re looking to manage a project and facilitate better collaboration with your teams, chances are you’ve heard of and are thinking of trying Microsoft Project and Microsoft Planner. To help with that decision, we’ve set up a comparison with Microsoft Project vs. Microsoft Planner. May the best app win. The stats when comparing Microsoft Project vs. Microsoft Planner tell us that the former is a robust project management tool and the latter is more of a stripped-down version. MS Project integrates with MS products such as Office and has financial management tools and Gantt charts. However, it doesn’t have a mobile app and is expensive and complicated to use. Microso…

Explore SEO project management templates built for campaign tracking, team collaboration, and on-page/off-page optimization. The post 7 Must-Have SEO Project Management Templates to Launch Your Campaigns Right and Keep Them on Track appeared first on project-management.com. View the full article

Asana vs. Monday is a matchup made for project management professionals. Which one to choose? That’s why Monday vs. Asana is such an important battle. You can’t have both, so you want what’s best. We’ll help you pick between Asana vs. Monday. It’s difficult. Asana vs. Monday are both similar project management tools. They have features, such as project tracking, workflow automation and other standard project management software features. Let’s look at those features, pricing and other comparisons between Monday vs. Asana. Of course, you can have the best of both worlds, with more powerful features and at a price point that fits your budget. ProjectManager is award-winni…

Before comparing PRINCE2 vs. PMP, it’s important to understand that though they’re often mentioned in the same context within project management, they serve different purposes. PRINCE2 (Projects IN Controlled Environments) is a project management framework. That is, it’s a structured approach with defined principles, themes and processes. It focuses on governance, organization and clearly defined roles and responsibilities. While PMP (Project Management Professional) is a certification that validates a project manager’s experience. What Is the PMP Certification? PMP certification is a globally recognized credential awarded by the Project Management Institute (PMI). It v…

Asana is a popular work management software that helps teams collaborate on tasks and projects. Microsoft Project is a popular project management software that has the tools that project managers need to manage teams and projects. If you’re looking at Asana vs. Microsoft Project and trying to decide which is the right tool for you, we have the stats to help you make that decision. There are problems in the battle of Microsoft Project vs. Asana. For one, MS Project is notoriously difficult to use and expensive. Then there’s Asana, which is a great work management tool that calls itself a project management software solution, but in reality doesn’t live up to delivering th…

A Gantt chart is a project management tool used to view project tasks scheduled over a time period, and provides information on overall project progress. The post What Is a Gantt Chart? appeared first on project-management.com. View the full article

The Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) “traces ” the project’s deliverables by establishing a thread for each requirement—from the project’s initiation to the final implementation. The post What is a Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM)? appeared first on project-management.com. View the full article

There are many projects, but not all are the right fit for an organization. Project appraisal is how one determines what is right for them. It’s like risk management or risk analysis to ensure that the approved project delivers benefits worth the investment. To better understand this process, let’s define the term and when a project appraisal should be done. Just as there’s more than one type of project, there are different types of project appraisals. We’ll explore those, including project appraisal techniques and more. What Is a Project Appraisal? A project proposal is a formal document that outlines a project’s objectives, scope, timeline, budget and overall plan. It…

Projects might have a roadmap, but when executed, they rarely go as planned. Internal and external factors can impact the project’s scope, budget, schedule and more. To address these issues before they even occur falls under project contingency. Let’s start by defining project contingency and what makes up a contingency plan. Then, we’ll show how to execute that plan to avoid scope creep, budget overruns and schedule delays. Finally, we’ll share a few free templates to help facilitate the process. What Is Project Contingency? Project contingency refers to a reserved amount of time, money or resources set aside to address unexpected events or uncertainties that may arise…

Successful projects aren’t had by holding one’s nose and jumping in. There must be preparation. In project management, once a project has been approved, it starts with a project outline. While a project outline might seem obvious, it’s worth spending a little time defining what the phase means. Once that’s clear, we’ll show when a project outline is made, what should be included and provide an example to show how it works in a real-life scenario. What Is a Project Outline? A project outline is a high-level overview that summarizes the key components of a project. It typically includes the project’s objectives, scope, timeline, key milestones, deliverables, stakeholders …

A project list is the starting point for any project management process. They’re a great way to take what seems an insurmountable amount of disparate tasks and organize them. A project list can be as simple as a to-do list or a corral for many projects. Using a project list is so important it’s worth taking a moment to explore what it is, how to create one and how it fits into managing your project with project management software tools. What Is a Project List? The most straightforward answer is that a project list is a to-do list for a project. You could use a project list as you would any to-do list, creating a list of tasks you need to do today, this week or over the…

Keeping your employees engaged and on task is, well, no easy task. They say one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch—and it’s true. A bad hire can cost your business valuable workplace productivity, not to mention nearly 20 percent of their salary on average. And those are just a couple of reasons why workforce management is so important. Whether you’re in IT, construction or retail, mastering the basics of workforce management can benefit you immensely. What Is a Workforce, Exactly? A workforce is the total number of people employed or available for work within a specific context, such as a company, organization, industry or geographic region. Think of it as the human c…

Effective process management is the backbone of successful project execution and operational efficiency. To streamline planning, execution and tracking, teams often rely on a suite of templates designed to simplify and standardize their workflows. Process management templates are ready-made tools that help organize tasks, monitor progress, allocate resources and maintain budgetary control. While project management software does the job better than these process management templates, we understand that not everyone is ready to upgrade. Therefore, in this roundup, we explore key types of process management templates, including flowcharts, service blueprint and RACI matrix …

Ask a dozen people what agile is and you’ll get a dozen different answers. But it’s best defined by scrum as a model. Scrum is a way to manage a project within an agile framework and is made up of three roles: product owner, scrum master and team—all of whom are involved in sprint planning. The product owner is focused on the business side of the project, the scrum master is the expert, who acts like a coach. The team is self-directed and works as they see fit to meet the goals of the product owner. If you’re interested in the nuts and bolts of scrum, check our our guide. For this post, we’re going to take a deep dive into one of the events in the scrum framework, the s…

Before project management software, there were manual methods and traditional tools to plan, track and manage projects. This added time and effort, which exponentially grew with the size and complexity of the project. Paper-based planning, physical communication and manual resource management feel as if from another time. That’s because it is. While technology has pros and cons, few project managers and project teams dispute the improvements that project management software provides. Let’s explore how this project management tool is used, its features and the variety of commodities available and those that rise to the top of the list of preferred products. What Is Proje…

A project is like a car; it starts somewhere and moves somewhere else. No one would think of taking that trip without a dashboard to monitor their speed, gas levels and other important data. The same is true with a project, which is why we’re going to write about dashboard examples. First, we’ll answer the question: What is a dashboard? Then we’ll move on to what is typically included in a dashboard and illustrate some dashboard examples. For each, we’ll list the type of metrics that they monitor. We’ll end with a few free downloadable dashboard templates for a hands-on idea of how they work. What Is a Dashboard? A dashboard in project management is a visual tool that p…

For any company to profit from a product, there must be a strategic plan in place to produce just enough to meet that need. Create too few products, and there’s a missed financial opportunity. Create too much, and money is wasted in production and warehousing. Aggregate planning is a technique to create an equilibrium between demand and capacity. It’s something every company that is producing something needs to know. Let’s take a look at what aggregate production planning is and some aggregate planning strategies. What Is Aggregate Planning? Aggregate planning is a method for analyzing, developing and maintaining a manufacturing plan with an emphasis on uninterrupted, c…