Project management software tools consist of many different types of software, including scheduling, cost control and budget management, resource allocation, collaboration software, communication, quality management and documentation or administration systems, which are used to deal with the complexity of large projects.
There are a few different types of Project Management software tools such as:
Desktop-based
Project management software can be implemented as a program that runs on the desktop of each user. This typically gives the most responsive and graphically-intense style of interface.
Desktop applications typically store their data in a file, although some have the ability to collaborate with other users, or to store their data in a central database. Even a file-based project plan can be shared between users if it’s on a networked drive, and no two people want to access it at once.
Web-based
Project management software can be implemented as a Web application, accessed through an intranet or extranet using a web browser.
This has all the usual advantages and disadvantages of web applications:
– Can be accessed from any type of computer without installing software
– Ease of access-control
– Can be used by multiple user
– Only one software version and installation to maintain
– Normally slower to respond than desktop applications
– Project information not available when the server is offline.
Single user
A single-user system is programmed with the assumption that only one person will ever need to edit the project plan at once. This may be used in small companies, or ones where only a few people are involved in top-down project planning. Desktop applications generally fall into this category.
Collaborative
A collaborative system is designed to support multiple users modifying different sections of the plan at once, for example, updating the areas they personally are responsible for such that those estimates get integrated into the overall plan. Web-based tools, including extranets, generally fall into this category, but have the limitation that they can only be used when the user has live Internet access. To address this limitation, client-server-based software tools exist that provide a Rich Client that runs on users’ desktop computer and replicate project and task information to other project team members through a central server when users connect periodically to the network and other tasks.