Top 5 Project Planning Software Applications

Written by:  • Edited by: Linda Richter
Published Jul 28, 2010
• Related Guides: Microsoft | Microsoft Project

Five of the top examples of project planning software include MindView 3 Business, Microsoft Project, Tenrox, Project KickStart, and FastTrack. All have their advantages and disadvantages, but all are recognized as being great choices, depending on your needs.

Introduction - Who Needs Project Planning Software?

Project planning software keeps everyone working on a given project on the same page, so to speak. Used correctly, it can keep projects running on time, within budget. It also helps your team avoid interruptions from lack of accountability or miscommunication. Here are five top project planning software packages, in no particular order.

MindView

MindView stands out by offering different ways of looking at your project: timelines, outlines, Gantt charts, and “mind maps,” which look like brainstorming bubbles. All forms are easy to update and they allow each participant to view the project in the form that makes the most sense to them. It also has the standard collaboration modules like timelines and team calendars, both of which are very easy to use. Drawbacks include a lack of a dashboard and no ability to group or sort resources by department or skill type. It also lacks goodies like automatic notifications, which can streamline the job of the project manager.

Mindview 3 Business
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Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is considered by some to be the gold standard in project planning software. Most other project planning software can integrate with this through its importing process. It is also familiar to many project managers and other professionals. It’s also aces at building professional diagrams and charts. Drawbacks include the lack of a dashboard, which would allow project managers to see all current projects at once. Document tracking could be better. It doesn’t allow tracking of different versions of the same document, meaning that different team members could unwittingly be getting information from outdated document versions.

Microsoft Project
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Tenrox Project Management Software

Tenrox has a very complete feature set. It could be mind boggling, but it’s designed well enough that it isn’t. The project planning tool is intuitive and very user friendly, and its time-tracking, billing, and cost-accounting features are second to none. The communications features are tops, too. Tenrox has a workflow-driven approach that makes it almost impossible for a team member to fall behind on deadlines or go over budget. In fact, users describe this project planning software, complex as it is, as being practically foolproof.

Terrox PMS
click to enlarge

Project KickStart 5

Project KickStart 5 integrates with applications like PowerPoint, Excel, Word, and Outlook. It’s perfect for basic project planning. Its best features include the plan creation wizard, a question / answer process, and sample projects. It uses GoToMeeting as its collaboration program, which costs $49 a month. Project KickStart 5 doesn’t have as many features as some of the other top project planning software packages, but you may not need those features for some types of projects. Resource management doesn’t include a way to spell out the resources needed for a project, which is a drawback. But its simple user interface and Gantt charts do the job competently. The company is also notable for its excellent customer service.

Project KickStart 5
click to enlarge

FastTrack Schedule 10

This project planning software is great whether you’re just starting out as a project manager or whether you have years of experience. The “Getting Started” screen contains all the program features in its dialog box. With FastTrack, you can easily plan projects, avoid scheduling conflicts, track performance, and test out the effects of schedule changes. Where FastTrack falls short is in collaboration features. However, the project management and resource management features are superb.

Fasttrack Schedule 10
click to enlarge

Images are inserted by the author, representative of each product mentioned.


Comments

Showing all 10 comments
 
Rain Jul 14, 2011 9:44 PM
softwaredownloads
Multi Project Planner also a good one,you can download it here:http://www.softwaredownloads.org/windows/business/project-management/multi-project-planner/ ,and www.softwaredownloads.org is a nice place,I found many useful softwares there,I think you can find out the one you like most.
Lucian Ioan Mar 31, 2011 2:05 AM
RE: A different perspective...
@Steve Yes we heard about Basecamp but it is not a project planning software but rather an organizing and collaboration solution. And Apollo is the same thing...
Paula Mar 30, 2011 2:30 PM
Project Management Software
I have tried a bunch of different software tools and have found that Swiftlight (http://www.swiftlightsoftware.com) is great for handling relatively complex projects and yet is very simple to use. It is also great for presenting status updates to our board of directors (I just download the timeline or whatever else I want into my Powerpoint presentations).

Thanks for the interesting article!
Mark Peters Sep 22, 2010 4:14 PM
Project Managment Flash Based
Another alternative available is AnyGantt, provided by AnyChart. It is a Flash based solution offering project management software. It does have the ability to integrate with MSProject.

http://www.anychart.com/products/anygantt/overview/

Just a thought.

Good luck to all.
Lucian Ioan Sep 10, 2010 2:45 PM
RationalPlan
How about RationalPlan? http://www.rationalplan.com/

What were your criteria to determine these top 5 products?
Anonymous Sep 6, 2010 6:57 AM
If Apple made a project management software..
Guess we still have to wait for that. I cannot understand why PM software has to have so many bells&whistles. For me a dynamic "excel" with traffic lights for tasks&subtasks would be sufficient.
Jamesy Sep 6, 2010 3:50 AM
hmm...
Hmm… I am quite surprised to see that list. We’ve been looking for project management solution for our team recently, and none of the ones we liked the most is on this list.
There are quite a lot of nice programs, but we chose Wrike. It is web-based project management software, with very advanced project management features, although easy to use. From my point of view it is way better than any of those 5.
Steve Aug 15, 2010 6:33 AM
A different perspective...
Most of the programs listed here are for "software packages"., but the world is changing and people are noticing... Anybody heard of Basecamp etc.?

If you really want an application, then use Apollo ( http://www.apollohq.com ) -- it's a proper app, although it's from tne internet.

Steve.
tom Jul 30, 2010 2:40 AM
Tom's Planner
http://tomsplanner.com might be a nice addition to your list. It's also a tool to create project plans with & much easier than MS Project. No courses or survival guides, you can start working immediately.

We are in beta for a few more weeks and everybody who signs up now receives a free account for a year.
Eva Goyena Jul 29, 2010 9:59 PM
project planning and management
Timelines, outlines, Gantt charts, detailed report, project management, task tracking –all these are also available on web crm and project management software Worketc (www.worketc.com), which I believe are features that make Worketc good enough to be included in your list.

Though Worketc isn’t labeled as a project planning software its project management features are cool that any project manager would love to utilize. It is in fact an integration of many online tools which is usually compared to other brands. See this side by side comparison which can be good resource for fellow readers www.worketc.com/compare.
 
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