With remote work as the new norm in the modern workplace, project managers are facing increasing pressure to ensure their teams are running efficiently, meeting deadlines, and prioritizing work, even when they do not work within the same physical space. Thankfully, the rise in high-quality collaboration and project management tools have enabled project managers to provide business and project solutions through swift communication and top notch workflows.
Below, we have detailed 5 of the highest rated project management and collaboration tools for 2018. Some of these tools are free, while others you have to pay for but can handle large teams and complex projects such as pin boards, task lists, file attachment, scheduling, and calendar integration.
One of the most popular project collaboration tools, Trello gives each team member their own personal whiteboard, and features a user-friendly interface that allows users to create tasks on individual “cards” and then move them to different columns as they move through tasks to completion. Trello offers free versions and business class versions that project managers can pay for. The business version offers more functionality such as the ability to view your team members activities and integrate with other apps. Reviewers of Trello praise the tool’s ability to add tags to cards when using boards across multiple departments and the overall simplicity. Reviewers also mention that Trello may pose some challenges when working with large teams and wish Trello could improve the overall functionality on the mobile app.
Asana is offered in a mobile app as well as web platform and was created to help teams organize their work and files. Team members also have the ability to create schedules, assign tasks and speak to each other through commenting and messaging boards. Asana makes email communication and tracking easy with it’s all-in-one platform. Asana reviewers on TrustRadius enjoy the intuitive interface and the timeline and scheduling features. Users mention that they wished they had more visibility into what other people are working on and more customizable reports.
The most streamlined of the project collaboration tools, Wrike offers personalized dashboards to team members, Gantt charts, and team member calendar sync functionality. This online collaboration tool offers many tiers of premium versions that project managers can upgrade as they scale. Wrike users highly praise the clean user-interface and the custom project views and filters, but do also mention that it may take awhile to become comfortable with the system.
Google Drive is a cloud storage system that allows for users to collaborate on sheets, docs, and slides together. Uses are limited to file type when sharing since any file can be converted to Google format and back to the original. There are also no file size restrictions, but there is less ability to restrict team members access to make changes on documents. Google Drive reviewers enjoy the ease of use and sharing abilities. Users also mention they would like improved security features for sensitive information and better search functionality.
Slack allows for your team members to engage in group messaging, one on one or in private chats, and upload files for sharing. Slack also has a great messaging archive system which allows you to store communications between team members and files. Slack is free to use for any business, large or small with paid plans that offer more features. Slack can be integrated into other project management software tools such as Wrike, APM+ and HipChat. Slack reviewers praise the simplicity and the multiple integrations available. Slack users wished there was an improved search functionality and the ability to mute certain channels.
Project collaboration tools will allow your team members to all be on the same page, all the time. It’s clear that efficiency goes up when collaboration tools are used effectively.
Krystle Dickerson is a researcher and regular contributor to TrustRadius, where she shares her knowledge of the latest trends in B2B news and software.
