You’re a consulting professional. What are the best project management tools for you?

Existen muchas herramientas de gestión de proyectos disponibles, cada una con sus características específicas, para seleccionar la mejor herramienta dependerá de la necesidad. Desde mi experiencia Smartsheet combina funciones de hoja de cálculo con gestión de proyectos, ideal para quienes requieran seguimiento detallado y de colaboración. Se puede utilizar para planificación, programación y seguimiento de recursos.

Some of the best tools are user-friendly but also provide useful features such as workflow capabilities and reporting dashboards. Both of these are essential if collaborating with teams and providing timely reports for clients.

In my humble opinion, for project management, you need two most important tools: 1. Presentation software to showcase project results to the client periodically. 2. Excel or Google Sheets, where you'll calculate models and draw Gantt charts for the project. Essentially, all your work on the project with these tools boils down to following the schedule outlined in the spreadsheet.

Project management tools are software applications designed to help professionals plan, organize, execute, and track tasks and projects efficiently. These tools provide a centralized platform for collaboration, communication, scheduling, task assignment, and progress monitoring, streamlining project workflows and improving team productivity.

A PM tool is very beneficial for managing the team and their tasks. It helps to check the progress and efficiency of your team and helps to manage the project is very efficient and transparent manner.

A project management tool is an essential asset for any team aiming to achieve their goals efficiently. It fosters collaboration by ensuring that information and tasks are shared among team members, promoting a unified approach to problem-solving. It also facilitates transparent communication with clients, which is key to building trust and fostering a strong partnership. Moreover, a project management tool provides a secure framework for the project, ensuring that the right people are allocated at the right time. This helps control potential overruns or delays and effectively manage risks.

Project management tools bring order and accountability; you can have accurate deadlines and effectiveness once established. Having the right project management tool is not a question; it is a necessity.

Project management tools are indispensable for consulting professionals as they facilitate effective project planning, task delegation, and progress tracking. These tools enhance team collaboration, streamline communication, and ensure project deadlines are met. With features like task lists, calendars, file sharing, and reporting capabilities, project management tools empower consultants to manage projects more effectively, stay organized, and deliver high-quality results to clients.

It helps to streamline the processes, identify and reducing errors, and most important, it helps in on-time delivery for the project

A project management tool can serve to help facilitate the process and ensure that the project team follow a structured approach. Furthermore it can ensure that there is a constant focus on the project goal and that the team can collaborate effectively

Test. Test. And test. There are countless solutions but the one that's the best value is the one that you'll actually use. Everyone has different preferences so test a few and see which you like using most.

Start with a diary. Use it to plan your day and your timelines. This should be good enough. 99% of professionals don't adhere to these simple steps. If you know at the start of every day what needs to be done by the end of it, and successfully negotiate it, you are God.

Always look out for below key aspects for a project planning tool : -?Ease of use - Should be easy to use and a simple UI - ?features and functionality - Alignment with your use case. -collaboration - Users from across functions should be able to work on the software. ?- integrations - Should have cross integration functionality with your present tools ?- pricing - should have a economical and credit worthy subscription renewal cost.

Don't get caught in analysis-paralysis, get moving and start delivering. This means initially focusing on the minimum viable tool to get the project started. It could be as simple as a to-do list or a spreadsheet. Over the days/weeks/months of a project switch to new tools or add additional tools which add value - because they save time, improve visibility or otherwise support delivery of the project. This must be context-dependent (considering the project, the people, the company, etc). The key things to look for are: - Access, everyone needs to be able to use (or at least view) the tool - Integration, tools which integrate with existing workflows reduce management overhead - Visualisation, tools should give useful dashboards/etc

Be clear on what you need to be more efficient and serve your clients better. Then make a list of the software that you wish to continue using that you'd like to integrate with a project management tool. Starting with your most critical current software, check to see which PM tools it integrates with and explore those. Check which ones integrate with your other software tools and then consider features, price, and flexibility (API access, support, roadmaps, etc). It's easy to be dazzled by bells and whistles but a vast number of features often translates to a software that is bloated, time consuming to set up, vulnerable to glitches, and a closed system that doesn't play nicely or at all with our other apps so we end up not using it.

We Advocates are “One Man Army” One of the most important qualities that I have witnessed in any successful Advoacte is that they are self sufficient. Although, we require assistance at several points but an Advocate who can manage his work without any assistance is, in my personal opinion a “Complete Advocate” But even an Advocate who is complete in all material aspects much be equipped with technology. We use case management softwares (eg. Provakil), legal research softwares (eg. SCC), news apps (eg. LiveLaw), file management softwares (eg. liquid text, adobe), etc. With advance of AI, one must also be familiar with AI softwares. It can do wonders.

Salesforce has a great tool named beans. It allows for teams to collaborate and continue to move forward in sync. This is very important especially when teams are in different time zones and even on different continents. You are able to communicate on a unified platform and everything is logged so there is no ambiguity.

Wrike is a nice tool for project management, and offers many features. Smartsheet is also a powerful solution and allows to do almost everything.

We work extensively with Monday and Asana while using Google Workplace as the backbone. Depending on the team's style, we select the tools accordingly.

it all depends on the engagement, most engagement advise one can be done via powerpoint, visio/draw.io and excel sheet. its all about what we put as the content.

To maximize the benefits of a project management tool, consulting professionals should: Define clear project objectives, milestones, and deliverables. Assign tasks to team members and set deadlines to ensure accountability and progress tracking. Use collaboration features to facilitate communication and knowledge sharing among team members and clients. Regularly update project statuses, track progress, and address any issues or bottlenecks promptly. Utilize reporting and analytics features to gain insights into project performance, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions. Encourage team members to leverage the tool's capabilities fully and provide training and support as needed to ensure proficiency and adoption.

Firstly, we need to ensure it is being used throughout teams thoroughly, create a checklist, and do/don't to ensure the implementation can happen smoothly. Everyone must be on board and using the tools in their daily tasks. Forget about advance features initially, start basic, and work your way up. Taking slow in the beginning rewards you with adequate data and efficiency.

Set clear objectives and break them into tasks. Establish structured workflows for efficiency. Foster collaboration through communication features. Monitor progress regularly to address delays. Utilize reporting for data-driven decisions. Adapt workflows as needed for flexibility. Hold team members accountable for tasks. Provide training and support for tool proficiency.

When in doubt, go back to basics. One of the hardest things about project management in practice, is coordinating a pre-established multi-part system. You have a communication tool, that feeds into a scheduling tool, that feeds into a production tool, that feeds into a feedback tool, and so on and so on into infinity. Ultimately you spend more time in project management tools than the actual project itself and that completely defeats the purpose of building that system. If this feels like what you're dealing with, start with a grid and some coordination system like color coding or number coding and build up with your team. It seems almost too simple to be effective, but the reality is you end up with a better system.

1. Comprensión de las Necesidades del Proyecto: ? Experiencia: Antes de elegir una herramienta, es fundamental comprender las necesidades específicas del proyecto. Cada proyecto es único y puede requerir características específicas en una herramienta de gestión. 2. Involucramiento del Equipo: ? Experiencia: Asegúrate de que todo el equipo esté involucrado en el proceso de selección y uso de la herramienta. La adopción será más efectiva si todos están comprometidos desde el principio. 3. Capacitación Adecuada: ? Experiencia: Proporciona capacitación adecuada a los miembros del equipo sobre cómo utilizar la herramienta. La falta de comprensión puede llevar a la subutilización de las características y a la pérdida de eficacia

Stay with the tools that work for your client. Implement tools that suit them. Change tools that are obsolete and restrict productivity.

PM tools streamline workflows & foster a sense of ownership and empowerment among team members. For example, in a software development project, team members can see their code commits, tasks completed, and feedback received—all within the project management tool. This transparency encourages proactive engagement and drives continuous improvement as team members take ownership of their work and strive for excellence. Additionally, project management tools facilitate collaboration across teams and departments, breaking down silos and enabling cross-functional synergy. Through shared goals, open communication, and mutual support, teams can overcome challenges more effectively and achieve greater success together.