8 Popular Project Management Tools and What They're Useful For | Coursera

在這個單身日致力於職業發展。 享受全年的 Coursera Plus，享受 40% 的折扣。
Learn what different project management tools can do, and about the more popular options to help your team stay organized and on task.
No matter which project management methodology you work with, there are tools to make that work more efficient.
Project management tools—software apps or platforms—are often designed to help teams stay organized.
These tools are designed to help teams efficiently track, assign, and schedule various aspects of a project.
Platforms like Airtable, Trello, and Asana are examples of some of the more popular project management tools available.
Learn more about the different project management tools to consider for your team's needs, reasons why project management tools are important, and how to pick the best one. Afterward, build your knowledge of foundational approaches to project management with the Google Project Management Professional Certificate.
There are many different reasons why project managers use project management tools to help their teams have a visual home base. These include:
Task management: Set priorities and deadlines, organize tasks in visually helpful ways, schedule, and assign tasks.
Scheduling: Create and manage project timelines, using either Gantt charts to visualize schedules or calendar views for deadlines and milestones.
Collaboration: Stay in touch with team members via chat or comments, share files and manage documents, and receive real-time updates.
Resource management: Allocate and track team members' time and efforts, as well as manage equipment and material resources.
Time tracking: Log time spent on tasks to ensure efficiency.
Budgeting: Track project expenses, management budgets, and generate financial reports.
Reporting and analytics: Create custom reports and dashboards for project overviews, and take advantage of data visualization tools.
Risk management: Identify and track potential risks, plan risk mitigation strategies.
Integration capabilities: Connect with other business tools, such as CRM or accounting tools.
Project management tools are different kinds of software applications designed to help project managers and their teams maintain an organized workflow. These tools assist in various aspects of project management, from task allocation to resource management and reporting.
Let's review seven of the more popular platforms:
Best for: Teams that want to customize their management process
Airtable does offer the resources to create a workflow, but it's ideal for those who want to code their own process. It's a highly customizable platform that benefits larger enterprises that need to track not only a project but also resources, budgets, and staff.
Ability to import projects from other software
Gain multiple project views for easier project data management
Ready-made processes for things like a product launch or collecting feedback
Best for: Simple projects, small teams
Trello, a Kanban board-style system, is ideal for basic needs. You'll create a workflow and move projects through it. The stages of the project are on Boards, while the projects are listed on Cards. Two boards might say "Writing in progress," and the next might say "Ready for editing." You'll move the Card through each Board until it's complete.
Basic automation, like calendar reminders or items crossed off a checklist
Best for: Enterprise teams with complex needs
Asana offers features and functionality beyond the basics and meets the needs of larger teams that manage dozens or hundreds of projects at a time. Using shared workspaces, managers can set up a workflow, assign roles, and access a project calendar.
A variety of ways to view work, like on a list, a calendar, and a bulletin board
Ability to set goals and due dates
Integration with apps like Microsoft Teams, Google, Slack, and Adobe Creative Cloud
Best for: Teams that rely on spreadsheets
If you organize projects by spreadsheets and are happy with the process but want more features and functionality than Excel or Sheets can provide, Smartsheet could be a good fit. Each column often represents a step in the workflow, and each row is a specific project that the project manager can assign to a team member.
A messaging tool that makes communication easy
Easy-to-send forms to gather feedback on a project
Digital asset management
Basic automation, like reminders and approval notices
Best for: Teams that want to employ AI to accelerate productivity
Generative AI (GenAI) is a technology that can streamline minor tasks so your team can focus on bigger endeavors. Microsoft Copilot is a productivity tool that works with Microsoft 365 apps to increase productivity, creativity, and more.