Six of the Best Project Management Tools for Digital Campaigns
Project management is an essential part of any initiative or campaign, particularly in the digital sector where a range of specialists can be involved in a project. Having a well managed project will make the experience enjoyable, rewarding, and most importantly, profitable.
As a digital agency, our campaigns are often worked on by multiple members of the Parallax team. From our account directors and project managers, through to our content marketing, design and development teams, one project will see digital specialists from varied disciplines help to shape it.
A project will be overseen by a project manager who is responsible for ensuring that the project is on time, on budget and meets the client’s objectives. Occasionally the client may meet designers and developers later on in the project, however the project manager is responsible for liaising between the in-house team and the client.
Project management tools
We use a range of project management tools here at the Parallax office and we thought we’d share our tips and tools for effective project management. From client facing tools, to internal project management software, we’ve selected six of our favourites.
Invision
What? Design mockup and demo tool
Who? Internal and client side
Invision is a fantastic tool that allows project managers to share designs with clients online. With a simple navigation and features to manage multiple projects, Invision allows the client to comment and give feedback on design work. Invision also features a historic timeline of activity.
Why is it a great project management tool?
Invision makes the sharing of designs simple and also includes easy asset management, collaborative features, and project documentation.
HipChat
What? Chat room
Who? Internal (very occasionally client side)
HipChat’s clean and flat UI for mobile creates a great user experience. Making internal chat simple, this chat room tool (for desktop and mobile) can be used to create multiple rooms for different projects, various management levels, as well as just chatting one on one with a colleague.
We’ve even created rooms to chat with our clients when we’re close to a launch or on a final push for a project, smoothing the communication process. It also means we’re constantly available for clients via chat if necessary.
Why is it a great project management tool?
HipChat makes instant communications with individuals and groups very easy. It also has some hilarious emoticons.
Basecamp
What? Project management communications tool
Who? Internal and client side
The bread and butter of project management, Basecamp has evolved over the last few years but maintains the mantra of efficient management at the heart of its design.
Basecamp offers hidden and client side elements in its UI as well as discussions, to-do-lists and project updates. With the ability to add in relevant people, share files and create events, Basecamp takes real world management tasks and provides an intuitive dashboard making project management straight forward.
Thread style conversations for different project topics eliminates the nightmare chain of email trails that once clogged up your inbox. Basecamp also has a beautiful mobile app for both iOS and Android devices.
Why is it a great project management tool?
Basecamp keeps client communication simple and clear, showing who said what and when. It also lets you create deadlines and tasks for different members of the client side team.
10,000ft
What? Timesheet and Resource Management Tool
Who? Internal only
We’re relatively new to 10,000ft having experimented with other internal project management tools and we like what we see so far.
10,000ft has a beautifully executed scheduling system allowing project managers to allocate work to the team based on their workflow and hours allocated. A simple and colour coded design reveals who is working on what and for how long.
With a similar feel to Basecamp in the sense that its clean and featuring a mobile friendly design, 10,000ft refines and creates an uncomplicated user experience matched by strong functional elements.
Why is it a great project management tool?
10,000ft makes logging time for employees easy. It also gives project managers and account directors an overview of performance, budget and efficiency for a multitude of staff billing rates and types of work. A useful tool for project management and business development.
JIRA
What? Bugs, issues and development management tool
Who? Internal only
JIRA is a great tool for managing individual tasks for our development team. JIRA helps to organise and resolve any problems that arise on our websites.
Most importantly JIRA is useful for project tracking with deadlines, bug types, project and assignee allocations. Developers are able to create a branches, see commits and pull requests while watching builds and deployments, without leaving JIRA.
Why is it a great project management tool?
JIRA centralises all of our issues and has a great interface for prioritising and assigning tasks to our development team.
Trello
What? Task Management Tool
Who? Internal and Client facing
Trello’s design is based around a series of boards spread across the screen allowing you to categorise ideas into different areas.
Despite beginning to look a little behind the times in terms of design, Trello has a charm to it that’s backed up by its functionality.
For simply sharing ideas, whether shooting from the hip in an internal meeting, or showing ideas in a board meeting with your CEO for project ideas, Trello enables a sharing environment that shows the steps and progression of an idea or project that you or your team are working on.
Why is it a great project management tool?
We found Trello’s design a great way of developing ideas for our rebrand last summer. It’s visual layout allows boards and groups to refine and collaborate on ideas.
Have we missed out any project management must haves? Which tools do you use? Let us know on Twitter