What would it take to make a perfect work and project management SaaS?

The Work and project management software market has become crowded in the last few years. This is a place of fierce competition. There are some significant competitors and many new incumbents. Asana, Monday, ClickUp, Todoist, Wrike, Trello, and the like are participating. Each one has its strength. But none is yet the perfect work and project management tool.

This article presents my take on what a leading work and project SAAS system should look like. This comes from my 35 years of experience in project management. And it comes from my frustrations while using all those tools. I integrated insights from user research and analysis I conducted. Finally, it describes the future of work and project management SaaS applications.

A new organization of companies

Companies are now using project management methodologies in most aspects of their activities. At the same time, they are becoming more digitalized. And they need a software solution for work and project management.

Besides, companies have to rely on remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic for the last two years. A majority saw an opportunity in this new mode of work. They are now adopting a hybrid mode of work. Part of their workforce works in organized offices, while other works from home. This gives them the advantage of accessing talents where they are.

Companies must keep that new organization effective and performing. This requires a new generation of tools. These new tools support a hybrid workforce style. They also try to answer the simple question: “What should I do next?”

Due to the workforce’s distribution, using a SaaS solution became mandatory. Standalone project management software is no more enough. They are not aligned with the need of the teams. Project and work management is now more than ever a team game.

What is a work and project management SAAS?

Work and project management software provides the tools for a team to determine what to do, when, and by whom. In addition, it allows for reporting the progress toward objectives to keep all stakeholders aligned.

Such an application enables users to manage their to-do lists and projects. These applications need to address all kinds of projects. It can be software projects, hardware projects, or projects mixing both. It enables the users to manage the next Christmas party and the launch of the next moon rocket.

Methodologies

The perfect application enables the user to use any mainstream method. This includes Critical path, Agile, Critical Chain, and Gate reviews, among others. The application also supports composite methodologies. For instance, imagine a company creating a new EV vehicle. It needs to coordinate a mix of hardware and software projects. And this is even if the hardware part uses a waterfall approach and the software part uses agile.

Or, Mixing critical chain with agile methodologies can be highly effective. Unfortunately, no well-distributed application allows this now. Implementing a flexible use of the existing methodologies is a great differentiator. Definitely, it also brings tremendous value to the users.

Portfolio

The application enables the management of isolated projects or portfolios of projects. It also considers that projects in a portfolio can be independent or linked. Projects can have interdependence via project outcomes. The input of one project depends on the output of another. They can also share the same resources.

In this case, the application can level the resource usage across the projects. It can do this according to a set of rules selected by the user. Moreover, the application provides a prioritization framework. This way, it shows which project has priority in front of the others when needing the same resource.

Additionally, the application represents this information on a graph to be easily understood

Visualization

The offer of visualizations is an essential feature of such an application. The application offers visualizations that address the needs of all users. Visualizations are the basis of how the users apprehend the project. List view, board or Kanban, Table and pivot, Gantt, and timeline are classical views. The application can combine them in hybrid views to bring additional value. For instance, seeing, at the same time, a Gantt view and a resource usage table brings great value to users.

These visualization modes also enable advanced features like roadmaps or fever charts.

Users Assistance

All users are not certified PMP. Projects involve all kinds of actors. Teams include people with different skills. Some of them will need more guidance than others. The application adapts its user interface to the user. Therefore, it always offers the best experience and is the most beneficial possible at any given time.

For instance, onboarding guides new users in an easy process. In parallel, it determines the user’s skills in project management. Then, the application adapts the options presented to the user. And it changes the level of assistance provided.

Another critical point, the application uses a vocabulary that is easy to understand. It avoids professional slang. It ensures that the users understand all the concepts of the application. When using specific terms, it uses only the most common understanding. And it provides the user with a way to access the definition. For example, the existing applications use the words “dependencies,” “relationships,” or “links.” They look like the same concept. But are we confident that every user understands the same thing?

In addition, not all users need the same features. An application that puts in front of him only the features that the user needs has a real differentiator. Often, the features are so many that users lose too much time looking for a specific feature. And he finished by using a less efficient walk-around.

The user must understand quickly and find their way through the application’s screens. But as a primary approach, the application must adapt to the user, not the other way around.

A clear flow

The application has all the features to enable the users to implement their workflow. For instance, the application allows the creation of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). This helps the user to structure the task list at the beginning. Furthermore, the application offers a graphical representation of the WBS. It also provides an automated codification of the tasks list and even a tool for brainstorming, like a mind map.

Taking the user by the hand

Executing projects can be daunting, so the more help the user can receive, the better.

For instance, the application assists the user in breaking down a task into manageable bits for execution. Todoist is making this very well with an AI assistant.

The application helps the user to discover new features when they become relevant. Therefore, it should also hide from the user the features that would be distracting or confusing at a given moment.

For instance, the application guides the user during the project phases. One typical error a young project manager makes is linking too many tasks with relationships. This ends up limiting the flexibility of the schedule. It makes it more challenging to maintain. The application can alert the user about the complexity of the relationship network. It can also advise how to keep it simple.

Another example would be when the user wants to reschedule a project after some delays or a change. Again, the application can guide the user to minimize the impact on the final delivery date. The application can even let the user prioritize the effect on the duration or resource usage.

The application has intelligent alerts. These alerts inform the user about risks of delay, over-budget, or scope shortfall based on past projects.

If the application learns from how the user uses it, it becomes more valuable and efficient over time. This ability reduces the temptation of the user to churn.

An assistant or a coach

The application could become a virtual project assistant.

It can even become a coach by detecting costly habits like multitasking. It is then guiding the user to resolve these issues.

Likewise, it also prevents the user from making basic errors. For example, a project with a duration of one month shall have individual tasks shorter than one day. Alternatively, if a project of one year shall not have tasks of less than one day. The application guides the user in selecting the adequate duration of tasks.

Protection of the schedule

In project management, your schedule is always at risk of being screwed.

You change the date of one task, which changes the dates of thousands of other tasks. It can even change tasks in other projects.

And changing back the date will not bring the original schedule. It is surprisingly easy to void hours of work.

The application provides a safety net. It indicates to the users the consequences of their actions. Furthermore, it gives the possibility to inspect the result before irreversibly committing the modifications.

Collaboration

No one manages a project isolated anymore. Project management is a team game. The application takes this into account. It provides the users with a way to collaborate within the project team. It also considers the different roles of each team member. Not only that, but it offers various capacities depending on their roles. For instance, the schedule manager can modify the schedule. But the other team members can only fill in the actual dates of start and end and their progress.

The application supports the team in progressively creating the project journal of progress. First, it automatically registers all events that tell the story of how the project was planned and executed. Eventually, the application even helps identify the issues. It then extracts the necessary information to create the lessons learned on improving the management of the next project.

But the collaboration doesn’t stop at the frontier of the team. The stakeholders also benefit from the application. It provides a way to create reports of progress toward goals. Additionally, the application alerts the stakeholders on what needs their attention — no more risk of missing an issue or having too many alerts.

Make communication easy

The application provides tools for sharing information. It enables both synchronous and asynchronous communications. Alternatively, it integrates with external tools offering these features, like Slack or MS Teams.

In this domain, the application provides ways of extracting information from communication. It summarizes it or extracts action items and adds them to the to-do list of the relevant users.

The application also assists the project team in creating reports on progress and performance. In addition, it provides the tools to distribute them automatically.

It offers templates for reports from the simplest form to the more complex ones. And it provides the tools to make them appealing and easy to read.

Individual productivity

The productivity of the whole team also depends on the productivity of the team members. Therefore, the application needs to address the need of each user. The application converts project tasks into an actionable to-do list for each user. It integrates with an individual external planner (see Routine or Sunsama). It also integrates with a calendar. However, the calendar remains the primary productivity tool at the individual user’s level.

The application offers the user several solutions for the entry of updates. The user can choose between using the application inside a browser, in a native app, or on his mobile or tablet. The experience is seamless and smooth, switching from one mode to another.

Automation

The application provides a way to automize repetitive tasks. But it approaches it innovatively. Classical automation programming is often too complicated for standard users. A new approach, fueled by the progress in no-code programming, is desperately needed. For example, we know that Chat-GPT can generate pages of code in Javascript. So, it is evident that AI will soon be able to generate automation on any platform. The application could then spontaneously propose automation by observing how the user works. The user could also ask for automation using natural language. If we are not there yet, we are not far.

Other characteristics

The application is scalable. It is equally easy to organize a team of 2 people or the entire workforce of a worldwide corporation. It is similarly easy to manage a single project or many interlinked portfolios of complex projects and programs.

The application is also secure. Such an application will contain vital information about the operation of a company. It must protect it with the latest technology of end-to-end encryption and storage. The application drives the users to use the best practices in setting up passwords. But it still keeps the connexion as simple and quick as possible.

Finally, the application is open to the exterior world. It provides ways to interconnect other systems — for instance, accounting systems, cloud storage, messaging, or individual planner. The integrations are simple to set up, but powerful enough to leverage the power of all the platforms. It doesn’t look to replace all the other applications. Instead, it leverages the power of the other application to be a better project management tool.

Conclusion

Overall, an application with these features and performance isn’t seen as software challenging to master. On the contrary, it becomes a virtual and friendly team member. The future of the project management SAAS is not to pack more features into an already crowded interface. The future of such software is to introduce a new way of interacting with the user to allow him to benefit from the new features.

It consists in providing each team with a new team member. The latest reliable kid, ready to help at any time and prepared to tackle challenges.

This was only a dream some years ago, but now the technologies are ready to make this vision a reality. If software cannot make project management riskless and easy, it can make it approachable.

This article was also published on Medium

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Didier Varlot is a product and project manager and an interim executive.?

Didier is an expert in project recovery and the Theory of Constraints for continuous improvement, having accumulated 35 and 25 years of experience, respectively. His expansive knowledge and proficiency in the use of Agile and Open Organization (the TAO Way) for operational excellence have been sought after by many different industries, ranging from the railway to healthcare services, chemical, and green energy.

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