The competition in the project management software market is high. Software comparison websites list about 600 different project management tools and comparing different alternatives can be very time-consuming. It is similarly difficult to make a decision based solely on the feature sets provided by the vendors.
这里我们将介绍六个最流行的项目管理工具, which are divided into three categories:
The tools covered in this article are developed by already established players in the field. This is important to note because as a PM you want to work with the tools that have a higher probability of being around in the long-run.
Below we provide a table comparing some of the key features to look at when choosing a tool for project management. The green color indicates whether a feature is built into the standard version of the tool. 黄色表示此功能可通过第三方提供商获得, most of the time for an additional fee. Red means that feature is not available at all or the suggested workarounds are not satisfactory.
Company: Atlassian
Price: The basic version is free. $10/user/month for extended features.
Used by: Adobe, Kickstarter, National Geographic, Fender
Self-hosted: No
Trello是最流行的轻量级项目管理工具之一. It’s favored by startups, small teams, temporary projects and in various other scenarios where a project manager needs a minimal structure to keep things organized.
在向团队介绍敏捷看板工作流时，它也是一个很好的工具. 基本界面以板、列、卡为主要操作单元. However, you will quickly run into Trello’s limitations if you want to have a more elaborate team process or if you want the whole organization to work with the same tool. Trello offers paid premium plans, which extend the functionality, 但它的价格是10美元/用户/月，很难与榜单上的其他工具竞争.
Meko Kofahl - Agile Project Manager
What makes this tool better than the others?
“这是一个非常轻量级的基于网络的工具，管理起来非常容易. Zero-to-productive in an hour. 我能够让高管们使用这个工具，就是这么简单.”
Something you would change if you could?
“We used this only for Kanban-style projects. 它似乎不太适合多团队或非常复杂的敏捷项目. 没什么要改变的，真的，我认为它完全符合设计初衷.”
Eamon Sousa - Agile Project Manager
What makes this tool better than the others?
“It is lightweight and easy to use. 对于像看板这样的项目或任务控制非常有效.”
Something you would change if you could?
“根据实际花费的时间或点数添加燃尽图表.”
Company: Basecamp
Price: $99/month (unlimited users)
Used by: Many digital/web design agencies, Groupon, LiveChat
Self-hosted: No
The wildly popular web application framework Ruby on Rails was created to build Basecamp. The project management tool itself has seen some steady growth over the last 15 years and seems to have gained the most traction with digital and web design agencies. It achieved this due to its combination of a lightweight interface with powerful collaboration tools like a built-in chat, file-sharing, 以及在Basecamp内与客户协作的能力. Another great concept is that this tool is “adoptional”. Team members don’t have to create accounts to use it and can easily collaborate only occasionally.
However, Basecamp lacks boards, estimations, and other attributes necessary for agile development. While there are third-party applications, that can help you achieve an agile setup, 此列表中的其他工具具有这些现成的特性.
Orsolya Bozso - PMP Project Manager
What makes this tool better than the others?
“It is suitable to create task lists, which you can follow up with the respective assignees. You can also store and share files with version control and forward important emails into the platform.”
Something you would change if you could?
“It would be great to have more user groups per project. Not just client and team, but also to restrict visibility of folders or files within the team. Basecamp缺乏报告和甘特图功能. Moreover, to view a file you have to download it. There is no display option and you cannot collaborate or comment on the files during review.”
Sean Hull - Project Manager
What makes this tool better than the others?
“Low barrier to entry for new users, embedded communication, and knowledge management and sharing.”
Something you would change if you could?
“Task tracking could definitely be improved.”
Company: Asana
Price: $10/user/month
Used by: Yelp, Air France, Meliá Hotels, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Self-hosted: No
Initially developed as an internal tool at Facebook it quickly took off and became a separate tool in its own right. In its early stages, Asana focused on smaller teams and has only recently started to incorporate features like “Portfolio” and “Workloads” aimed at bigger businesses.
An interesting differentiator is an ability for any task owner to see how their tasks impact overall business goals. 此外，这位联合创始人在最近的一次采访中表示，人工智能和 machine learning will be used in future features for intelligent suggestions on deadlines, workloads, and planning.
Oana Ciherean - Software Project Manager
What makes this tool better than the others?
“Asana would be my preferred tool for non-software development teams, like marketing or 3D art production. Its usability is great, I used it when I worked with a team of marketers and school teachers. It has a lightweight interface and it is clutter-free.”
Something you would change if you could?
“I would improve reporting because the charts that it currently offers are pretty basic. “
Sean Hull - Project Manager
What makes this tool better than the others?
“I would describe this as a Slack-like task management solution because of the thread-like communication glommed on to the Tello-like kanban cards.”
Something you would change if you could?
“The biggest downfall here was the lack of organizing projects and task visualization.”
Company: Wrike
Price: $9.80/user/month for basic plan; $24.80 for premium plan
Used by: Hootsuite, Popchips, L’Oréal, Fitbit
Self-hosted: No
Due to its high customizability, Wrike could almost be in the heavyweight category, competing with Jira. 它在这方面还没有达到，但在UI和UX方面确实挑战了Jira. The rather strange thing about Wrike is its insistence on having price tiers based on user increments of 5. That coupled with the fact, that you can only use the basic plan with up to 15 users, means that if your headcount goes up to 16, your bill goes from $147/month (159.8) to $496/month (2024.8). 小公司应该意识到这一事实，不要被价格上涨所困扰.
Sean Hull - Project Manager
What makes this tool better than the others?
“Once fully adopted, it has the right mix of task management, visualization, and collaboration and communication.”
Something you would change if you could?
“Ease of on-boarding. I would put this one between Basecamp and Asana when it comes to on-boarding an average user.”
Meko Kofahl - Agile Project Manager
What makes this tool better than the others?
“我们将Wrike用于标准的项目管理，而不一定是敏捷. Managers were able to set up and use the tool readily, no special skills or administration required.”
Something you would change if you could?
“Above the minimum number of users, though, 它变得昂贵，并且没有“一次性购买”的托管选项. Subscriptions are convenient but become a permanent expense that can be a hard sell for some organizations.”
Company: Atlassian
Price: $10 flat fee for up to 10 users. $7/user/month for 11+ users.
Used by: Square, eBay, Spotify, Cisco, Airbnb
Self-hosted: Optional
Jira is one of the most popular Project Management tools out there and is a safe choice for organizations. It can be most fully utilized by larger companies, which need to coordinate between multiple complex projects and have a need to customize the task workflow. For company-wide collaboration, Atlassian also offers Confluence, a data management tool, which integrates nicely with Jira. For smaller teams or temporary projects, there are more lightweight and cheaper tools out there.
Paulo Limp - Project Manager
What makes this tool better than the others?
“Following Agile principles, Jira is very easy to learn, teach and use. It is also designed from scratch to be used as a collaboration tool - something that should receive inputs from the whole team. Finally, 它与市场上许多其他可用的解决方案集成得很好, allowing for great customization.”
Something you would change if you could?
“我仍然不知道Jira工具允许成本管理或风险管理. My understanding is that it wasn’t originally designed to be a project management tool, so, although it works very well with Scrum, 它可能仍然缺乏一些完整的项目管理经验的特性.”
Oana Ciherean - Software Project Manager
What makes this tool better than the others?
“I would use this tool with highly technical teams with a need to implement both simple and complex workflows including at least a couple of approval steps. I love the fact that it is highly configurable and you can add your own workflow steps, custom fields, issue views and you can go in as detailed as setting required fields when transitioning issues from one state to another.”
Something you would change if you could?
“尽管配置灵活性是Jira的优点之一, 我认为Atlassian团队过度设计了一些功能.”
Company: Microsoft
Price: $30/user/month
Used by: 根据最新的研究，三分之二的公司
Self-hosted: Yes
MS Project has been around for 30 years and it is still a major player in the market. According to a survey by GetApp, around 67% of respondents use Microsoft Project as their primary tool for managing projects. The tool itself has a similar look and feel to Excel, with views based on spreadsheet-like tabs and charts. MS Project is a heavy and difficult tool and does not offer too much guidance for newcomers in the form of online tutorials. It is mostly used by traditional project managers, to manage various non-IT related projects. MS Project最近才引入了对敏捷工作方式的支持. It is also not very user-friendly and it can take a long time for new users to get used to it.
Meko Kofahl - Agile Project Manager
What makes this tool better than the others?
“It has a very wide adoption. 现在大家都很熟悉甘特图了. Nobody gets fired for buying Microsoft.”
Something you would change if you could?
“The perception that MS Project is good for all projects. 这对软件项目管理来说很糟糕，对任何敏捷项目来说都更糟糕. 该工具最初是作为建筑项目的管理系统, 它包含了一些不适合软件的细节. 如果没有Project Server，它就不能很好地进行资源管理, and you can’t run a PMO with just MS Project. 链接项目计划在其当前状态下不是一个可靠的特性.”
Orsolya Bozso - PMP Project Manager
What makes this tool better than the others?
“这仍然是我最喜欢的创建甘特图和项目时间表的工具. It’s easy to use, update, and great for resource leveling.”
Something you would change if you could?
“Mac OS version is not available. It is also difficult to export and share with someone who doesn’t have an MS Project license. It would be great if the charts could be exported seamlessly to images which could then be used in presentations.”
The 6 most popular PM tools covered in this article can be grouped into three categories:
Different projects require different tools. Sometimes, as a project manager, you will be able to choose the tool you want to use. In those cases, it is important to determine the complexity of the project and choose a tool that will match the requirements of the project. For example, you might be very used to Jira, 但对于短而直接的项目，Trello可能是更好的选择. Basecamp可能不太适合敏捷开发团队, but it would be a great tool for a marketing team looking to bring some structure into their daily routines.
在其他情况下，您可能进入一个已经在使用特定工具的团队. On the one hand, you have to be mindful of the long-standing traditions and habits within the team. At the same time, a project manager should take a hard look at the current project management software being used, identify flaws within the process, and articulate a plan on how to improve them.
There is no silver bullet solution when it comes to choosing the best project management tool, 每种工具在特定情况下都有自己的优势. Choose a tool that works best for you but be aware of what other options are available in the market.
目前最流行的六个项目管理工具是Jira, MS Project, Trello, Asana, Basecamp, and Wrike.
最好的项目管理工具取决于手头的项目. Short lightweight projects are best handled with Trello. 许多项目和公司在日常工作中使用Asana、Basecamp或Wrike. Highly complex projects would benefit from the customizability of Jira and MS Project.
Project management tools are important because they allow project managers to structure their work and create visibility for stakeholders. The traditional alternative is to manage a project using email and chat but information can be easily lost and people might forget what they need to do.
Jira software is a project management tool with a strong emphasis on agile development methodology. Jira允许项目经理在项目中创建和管理任务.
Trello is good for lightweight project management. Trello is very easy to set up and use and can be an excellent tool for short or process-light projects. Trello falls short on more complicated and longer projects.
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