Ultimate Guide to Project Management

What is Project Management and Project Management Software?

Project management is a process that involves the act of planning, organising, and managing a project to achieve ultimate goals or outcomes.

The outcomes are meant to be achieved within specific time constraints determined by the client or the project manager. It involves tasks like setting objectives, tracking progress, and ensuring successful project completion.

Project management software on the other hand is just a tool that helps you in achieving the project outcome within a short period of time. Moreover, as per Zippia reports, we can see that 71% of the global organisations are using project management software in some capacity.

Key Takeaways:

• Managing projects is not as simple as it may look, and consists of a number of factors linked together in streamlining work.
• Project management is one of the most versatile ways to logically arrange and execute each phase of a project in a smooth manner.
• The project management software is a tool that helps to offer control in flow of projects using different live tracking project boards.

To understand what is project management you also need to learn in detail about the components involved in a project. The components that constitute a project are as follows:

1. Goal:
The goal is to understand what you are trying to achieve. This is generally understanding the deliverables that you need to produce at the end of the project.
2. Timeline of Project
This is generally the timeline that you are intending for the project to run.
3. Budget
Budget is an essential component that strictly binds the project cost within a certain threshold. This must be strictly maintained to achieve profits and limit excessive spending.
4. Stakeholders
These can be both internal and external to an institution. Everyone involved in the project starting from the employees to other third parties can fall under this aspect.
5. Project Manager
This same person makes sure that project is executed on time and its deliverables are met accordingly.

Now let us have a look at the scope of project management for project managers. The scopes of project management are as follows:

1. Build a plan and execute it :
Project managers oversee plotting out the perfect plan for the course of the project. Coupled with an efficient project management software these people can help in efficient management and execution of the project.
2. Assemble the Entire Team :
Every project needs a proper team and each team needs to have a proper subject matter expert. Finding these experts or utilising their skills is essential for a project. A project guide helps to understand all the project requirements and then assign respective parts of the task to specific people.
3. Assigning Tasks

1. Improve Communication Among Team Members
Maintaining a spreadsheet and updating statuses for each part of the tasks being completed becomes hectic. When you use a project management system it centralises the whole point of operations and communicates the status of individual projects to the whole team.
Such centralised communication ensures that the whole team is aligned and there are fewer chances of errors.
2. Better Risk Management
Project management software also helps to identify, manage, and mitigate the risks in a project. It serves as a tool, which helps to identify threats that may be present in the system and take appropriate measures. Due to the visibility of the tasks, a different member of your team can check if there are some errors and avoid risk in down-the-line processing.
3. Reporting Features Using Project Management Tools
With project management tools, generating project-specific reports becomes much simpler. These reports aid stakeholders in making informed decisions and gaining a clear understanding of the project's progression.
4. Checking the Progress of the Project
One of the crucial uses of the project management tool is that it helps in assigning tasks and maintaining deadlines. Moreover, it also facilitates a project manager to track real-time data regarding completion of projects.

Key Takeaways:

• Project management tools help to manage project managers and consistently help their aim to improve communication among the team members.
• Project management process is improved when there are reporting features available in the tools used.
• It also helps to reduce the chances of risks in a project and identify if there are some threats present in the system.

1. Initiation Phase
This is a documentation and preliminary brainstorming session, involving planning the project and how it needs to be executed. The initiation phase includes preparing a project proposal, the scope of the project, tentative project dates or milestones, and assigning responsibility to specific team members.
2. Planning
Planning involves understanding the project inside out and then chalking out an effective roadmap to achieve it. This phase also requires project managers to assemble a team based on the individual expertise of its members.
3. Execution
In this phase, the project has already begun and involves the project manager or a project management tool to efficiently help in the collaboration of team members. A centralised project management system is utilised at its full capacity in this section of the project life cycle.
4. Control and Quality Checks
Control and quality checks happen in conjunction with the project lifecycle itself. This phase involves tracking progress, reporting, and identifying issues all at the same time. In other words, this stage generally runs parallel and creates a feedback loop that helps in generating accurate results or deliverables for the clients.
There may be some formal and informal meetings between internal stakeholders (excluding or including clients) to manage issues. Moreover, project management software also helps in reporting KPIs to ensure that the project remains on track.
5. Closure
The last phase of the project lifecycle where the entire output generated is delivered to the client. This phase contains some basic inspections of the result and resolves any issues that persist in the deliverable.  

1. Waterfall
This is a unidirectional methodology of project management where each phase is completed first before the next one. There are six phases of the waterfall model:
1. Note requirements.
2. Make an appropriate design of the workflow system.
3. Implement a proper plan of workflow.
4. Test each element of product and service.
5. Deliver the products or services to the system.
6. Ensure a stable connection for providing maintenance.
2. PRINCE2
PRINCE2 stands for ‘PRojects IN Controlled Environments Mark 2’, and is a system developed by the UK government. The approach is almost similar to the waterfall model but has seven phases:
1. Present the viability of the project.
2. Identify the scope of the project and risks to create a plan.
3. Obtain any authorisation or directions from the management itself.
4. Monitor the work progress.
5. Deliverables are sent to the clients.
6. Review the performance of the projects.
7. Evaluate the success.

1. Kanban

Kanban is a Japanese term that denotes a visual signal. Using this system, you have visual access to project task flows, workflows, and progress. Moreover, a team member can assign themselves tasks as per their capacity limits.

The 16th State of Agile Report concludes that 90% of Kanban users benefit from using it in their workflow management process. Not only does Kanban ensure efficient work completions, but solves bottlenecks well before they show their effects.

Do you know that you can also use Kanban board’s versatility with Jira for maintaining agile teams? The process is similar to a visual board but it combines the power of an agile team functioning in order to meet the deadlines.

2. Scrum

Scrum is also a dynamic system where there are three elements, Product backlog, Sprint Backlog, and Increment. Product backlog in Scrum is just like a to-do list that is constantly reprioritised as per the client's needs. Scrum workflow implementation with Jira can also be a great way to manage projects and get tasks delivered on time.

A Sprint backlog is a list of deliverables that need to be completed in a particular sprint cycle. Lastly, the increment is the final goal that a project seeks to meet within a specified deadline.

3. Lean Management
Lean project management is more of a theory rather than a model, which mainly focuses on waste minimisation. Waste minimisation using lean management is possible when you have a complete guide on digital requirements management. Moreover, lean management also ensures that the whole team works together in tandem producing the desired value a client needs.

1. Jira Supports Various Project Methodology

Agile stands as a fundamental aspect of Jira, offering project owners the ability to leverage the flexibility of both Kanban and Scrum boards. When choosing to utilise this, users are often presented with the option to select from Kanban or Scrum methodologies.

However, owing to its inherent flexibility, Jira can also be tailored to incorporate multiple add-ons or agile methodologies like both Kanban and Scrum, thereby facilitating the adoption of Scrumban. Thus, you may implement Kanban or Scrum workflow implementation with Jira as per your project needs.

Please Note: Scrum boards are relevant when you plan all the subtleties of a project in detail. On the other hand, Kanban boards are suited for initiating a project without having any structured plan.

2. Helps You in Project Tracking

Jira helps you in project tracking and resolving issues or placing them under specific criteria at the same time. Using Jira Query Language or JQL, you can filter out issues based on various criteria.

Moreover, you may also create tasks, stories, or epics and even create sprints as per the Scrum board methodology. All these features are essential to help track issues and create a plan to solve them.

3. Report Generation Based on Jira Software
Jira may be used to generate reports on essential project-related information. Some reports available in Jira are the burndown chart, sprint report, velocity chart, and cumulative flow diagram.
4. Variety of Additional Add-Ons
There are several add-ons which are available with Jira, like Jira Toolkit Plugin, ScriptRunner for Jira, Jira Charting Plugin, and ‘Zephyr for Jira - Test Management’. Additionally, you may also include Salesforce Sales Cloud, Service Desk, Zendesk, and Github within your Jira workspace.
5. Agile Planning Using Jira
Besides these, Jira project management software also helps you to get real-time notifications and an activity log that tracks every tidbit about a project. It also offers a customisable dashboard for its users. Simply, Jira provides agile project management for software teams to stay updated and receive real-time information about the project and its progress.

1. Improved Project Tracking
With Jira, your teams can easily track the projects and prioritise the issues that they want to address. Several customisations in the Atlassian marketplace can be added on with it to help in such project tracking needs. Some of the comprehensive issue-tracking systems available with Jira are custom fields, attachments, and comments.
2. Enhanced Collaboration Among Team Members
Whether you are working with a large team or multiple teams at once, collaboration is necessary for its execution. Jira for project management is recommended due to its real-time feature. A single board can help you know the status of the project and see who is changing the status of tasks, even if they are online all at once.
3. Jira Project Management for Project Managers
Project managers are directly answerable to multiple stakeholders regarding the deadlines and expected project completion date. These data can be gathered only when you have advanced reporting features available with the project management software. Jira acts as a bridge here in the collection of data and lets managers know the status of the project.
4. Add Project Milestones
Jira project management offers unique flexibility in creating and adding project milestones or checkpoints. In business, the projects have several milestones, and all these milestones can help in organising and tracking the project completion. To ensure that milestones are created, you may integrate Jira with other tools, like Bamboo.

Let us consider a real-world example where using Jira can prove to be fruitful. Take a scenario when a head office shifts from its previous location. The issue lifecycle for such a case scenario will be to:

1. Using Swimlanes

Swimlanes helps you to track your project board and the progress of a project. Using Swimlanes, you can group tasks by assignee, priority, or even status.

2. Creating Custom Workflows

Custom workflows are one of the basic features of Jira for project management and improving efficiency. This is beneficial for the teams to handle projects seamlessly and meet deadlines without compromising on quality.

Custom fields in workflows also help to track the project from the start (issue stage) to its end (verified build stage).

3. Add Automation Rules

Consider using automation rules to assign tasks, send notifications, or update statuses. This feature not only helps you to save time, but is devised to reduce chances of errors while assigning tasks.

Lastly, we advise you to regularly review and update your project management software to help your team stay on track. Align the goals of the projects in a way that meets all the deadlines within the scope of the project.

Jira Vs. Other Project Management Tools: A Fine Comparison

1. Jira Vs. Trello

Developed by Atlassian itself, both Trello and Jira achieve the same purpose. However, Trello is a lightweight management application and cannot handle intensive processes as Jira.

Besides that, Trello offers limited log and search capabilities, making it difficult to track information for longer periods of projects.

2. Jira Vs. Asana

Initially, Asana was developed as a tool for Facebook’s internal team, but it has gained popularity over the years. Although it is in its developing stage, it offers almost the same functionality as Jira.

However, the reasons it cannot top Jira are the limited multi-assign function and the fact that Scrum workflow is supported by installing third-party add-ons.

3. Jira Vs. Wrike

Wrike is a heavy-weight project management tool, but it does not offer as much customization as Jira. Moreover, they have a tricky pricing policy, which increases when the headcount using the tool increases by 5.

There is also limited third-party integration available with Wrike, unlike Jira. One of the major lacking in Wrike is sprints in the Scrum workflow.