What is project management?
Project management is the application of processes, methods, skills, and knowledge to achieve a project’s objective and target. The primary challenge of project management is to achieve specific goals within the given constraints.An effective general management of the project cannot depend only on the skill of the Project Manager in managing tasks and resources but also depends on the possibility that the Team has to feel supported, to interact, and to check individual and group progress. All this and much more can be achieved only with the use of good software that helps the PM managing the entire project and the Team to carry it out.
The 5 phases of project management are as follows:
- Project Initiation phase
- Project planning phase
- Execution phase
- Monitoring and Control phase
- Project Closeout phase
Project management could look like a difficult task with many risk factors involved, but doing a project successfully requires the above-mentioned phases. It will help with time management, and efficient resources management, and will make complex tasks easier to organize.
Infographic source: https://stafiz.com/5-critical-phases-of-project-management
The need for project management software systems in the apparel industry
The apparel industry is one of the vast capital intensive industrial sectors which require proper planning, designing, organising, procurement, and many such tasks to be completed under the given constraints. The PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE SYSTEMS plays a vital role in helping manufacturers or buying offices to plan, reduce costs and improve quality through dynamic, cloud and mobile-based solutions. These systems provide the company with full intelligence and analytical solution that integrate their processes and data, allowing auditing the supply chain in real-time.The main advantage of having such a solution in the business is to increase quality, shorten lead times, accessibility of real-time data tracking, and boost process efficiency.
Related post: 5 Key Steps of Critical Path Management
Some of the other benefits of these systems are:
- Giving you excessive control over style development
- Reducing lead time through improved coordination
- Providing more effective management of inventory
- Improving supplier compliance
- Reduces the amount of manual work – such as entering data into lots of spreadsheets
- Intuitive to use- flexible data entry screens
- User-defined reports- sets up reports your way as per the requirements.
Some of the common project software systems used in the apparel industry are:
1. Microsoft project
Microsoft Project is the world's most popular project management software developed and sold by Microsoft. The application is designed to assist project managers in developing plans, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing budgets and analyzing workloads.
2. Trello
Trello can be used across the organization by anyone that needs to manage projects but does not need or want a specialized – and complex – project management tool.
3. Asana
Asana is a software-as-a-service designed to improve team collaboration and work management. It helps teams manage projects and tasks in one tool. Teams can create projects, assign work to teammates, specify deadlines, and communicate about tasks directly in Asana.
4. Wrike
The Wrike project management software is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product that enables its users to manage and track projects, deadlines, schedules, and other workflow processes. It also allows users to collaborate with one another.
5. Zoho
Zoho Projects is a cloud-based project management tool that helps you plan your work, track it efficiently, and collaborate with your team wherever they are. It creates a centralized information repository. Team members can document ideas and create content effectively.
Comparative analysis of project management software systems
FEATURES |
MICROSOFT PROJECT |
TRELLO |
ASANA |
WRIKE |
ZOHO |
|
Real time communication |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Access from virtually anywhere |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Gantt Charts to oversee project
process |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
|
Critical Path |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
|
Kanban Board for tasks and issues |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
|
Global/project dashboard |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
|
Custom permissions |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
|
Custom Domain |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
|
User friendly drag and drop facility |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
No |
|
Multiple Workspaces |
No |
No |
No |
Yes |
No |
|
Deadline reminders |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Image and file sharing |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
|
iPhone and android apps |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Cost
analysis of project management software systems
|
MICROSOFT PROJECT |
ASANA |
TRELLO |
WRIKE |
|
$55/user/month |
$10/user/month |
$20.83/user/month |
$24.8/user/month |
|
40 Users |
40 Users |
40 Users |
40 Users |
|
$2200 |
$400 |
$833.2 |
$992 |
*Current prices in August 2020
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