How to do a good job in IT project management? 9 major project management platforms and 7 major management methods commonly used in project management

A good management is 70% in processes, norms, and tools, and the remaining 30% is free to play. A bad management, only the floor, everyone has to figure out their own way to reach the ceiling. A good tool is to help the team reach the ceiling steps. ——Liu Run

Project management is a complex art, because of complexity, there will always be various problems. For example, the cost of manual management is high, and work feedback is delayed. What should I do? For example, when assigning work verbally, the understanding is not thorough, it is easy to miss, there is no evidence to rely on, and there is no accountability. what to do? For example, work is broken down, executed by multiple people, and cannot be tracked. what to do?

Sometimes these "how to do" problems can be solved with the help of tools, which may include software and method models .

1. 9 software commonly used in project management

1. Product R&D project management platform - PingCode (domestic)

Reason for selection : The project management software with the highest score in the domestic software R&D project list. For example, it will be rated as TOP1 in the field of R&D management in 2021, and will be selected as the top 36 domestic word-of-mouth products in 2022 .

Well-known clients include : Ningde Times, China Merchants Bank, CRRC, Tsinghua University, Dianyin Information, etc.

Applicable type : software development project management for 10-1000 people

Satisfied needs : PingCode is a project management system covering the entire life cycle of software R&D. It is widely used in requirements collection, requirements management, requirements prioritization, product roadmaps, project management (agile/kanban/waterfall), man-hours management, Resource management, test management, defect tracking, project document management, performance measurement and other fields. Integrate mainstream development tools such as github, gitlab, jinkens, Qiwei, and Feishu.

Software advantages:

The product is ready to use out of the box, easy to use, and can be used without months of training and configuration by professional personnel like Jira;
The basic version is provided free of charge for teams of less than 25 people, and the price of the paid version is only 30%-40% of some foreign products;
Localization to meet the needs of Xinchuang, Kirin, etc.;
Support private deployment, customization and saas purchase methods;

Software Cons:

Does not support multiple languages
Unable to meet project management needs other than software R&D projects

【Official Address: PingCode】

2. Project collaboration and goal management software - Worktile (domestic)

Reason for selection : The company has been established for nearly 10 years and is one of the project management software with the highest domestic market share . Well-known customers include: Baidu, COFCO, Xiaomi, China Mobile, New Oriental, China UnionPay, etc.

Applicable types : various types of teams, complex projects

Satisfied needs : Functionally, Worktile is a collection of tools, which has the capabilities of OKR goal management, project management, program management, project planning, project risk, project cost management, enterprise network disk, approval, and briefing. And it has powerful customization capabilities, can configure processes, forms, fields, and data reports that meet various project teams, and has a rich template market.

Software advantages:

Able to meet the management needs of single project, multi-project, complex project, program set, etc.;
Out of the box, easy to use and relatively cheap;
It can greatly help the team save costs, because it is a collection of tools that can meet the needs of projects, OKRs, network disks, OA, etc. at the same time;
Support purchase schemes such as saas, private deployment, and customization;
Basic free version for teams of 10 or less

Software Cons:

It is not as professional as PingCode and other vertical products in software project management;

【Official Address: Worktile】

3. General project management tool - Trello (overseas)

Reason for selection : A project management tool based on kanban, which was very well-known in China in the early years. In recent years, it has gradually faded out of people's sight due to the rise of domestic software. Most of the functions are free, and well-known customers include visa, zoom, etc.

Applicable objects : multinational or overseas small and medium-sized teams

Needs it met : Trello is a flexible and easy-to-use project management and collaboration tool that can meet a variety of project needs. Such as project management, agile development, personal task planning, scheduling, etc. And it is integrated with most overseas mainstream management tools.

Software advantages:

Trello is very suitable for small teams and newcomers, especially because it is simple and easy to use. It can be used immediately without learning or even knowing Kanban. It is equipped with iOS and Android mobile applications to manage your tasks anytime, anywhere;

Software Cons:

It is not suitable for domestic enterprise users and has little impact on individual users; the data report function is limited; it cannot meet the complex project management;

【Official address: https://trello.com/ 】

4. Comprehensive project management system - Asana (overseas)

Reason for selection : One of the top ten best project management software in 2022 by the overseas review website G2. Asana is known as the Swiss Army Knife of project tools abroad. It has very strong project management capabilities. Well-known customers include: Procter & Gamble, Amazon, etc.

Applicable objects : marketing, sales and other business teams and functional teams

Satisfied needs : It can help users coordinate and manage team tasks and improve team collaboration efficiency. The biggest feature of Asana is that a task can be connected to multiple projects, so if there are multiple teams working together on a task today, I can work together on a task from the perspective of different teams, which greatly improves the cooperation and communication between departments efficiency. Within its Gantt feature there are several timeline views to choose from, including task lists and calendars. However, the Gantt chart timeline is not available in the free version.

Advantages of the software : Efficient, convenient and easy to use, low learning cost, and for the indicators that need to be counted, it can also be counted through the functions that come with excel; very detailed project/task records, you can view the complete history of completed tasks and how they are done Completed; while providing software, it also provides professional management consulting (except domestic);

Software Cons :

Domestic teams may face security risks and access speed issues;
No native time tracking, no way to convert notes to tasks, limited functionality in free version (no custom fields or forms)

【Official Address: Asana.com】

5. Personal free project management app-Teambition (domestic)

Reason for selection : DingTalk's project management suite, although it has been declining in recent years, is still a well-known project management software in China;

Suitable for : individuals or small teams

Satisfied needs : DingTalk's project management software is more suitable for small team project collaboration, and is widely used in product, R&D, design, marketing, operations, sales, HR and other teams. Teambition supports enterprise team collaboration with visual management of projects and tasks, including tasks, documents, files, statistics, Gantt charts and other rich applications.

Software advantages :

Promise that the personal version will never be charged;
Excellent product interface and operation experience;
Tool integration breaks information islands, integrates tools such as project management, document management, resource management, process management, communication and collaboration, and supports different business scenarios;
Deeply embedded in DingTalk, very friendly to users who use DingTalk at the same time;

Software Cons :

In order to pursue "simple and easy to use", project goals and hierarchical authority management are sacrificed - the overall application scenarios are relatively limited, and it is difficult to achieve closed-loop management of projects (lack of goals and network disk management capabilities).
The ability to customize is not strong, and it cannot well meet the individual needs of the team and complex project management;
Unable to communicate with external tools such as Enterprise WeChat and Feishu;

【Official Address: Teambition.com】

6. Complex project management software - Microsoft Project (overseas)

Reasons for selection : Released by Microsoft in 1995, it is one of the most famous project management software in the world, a pioneer of management software, and has a high product maturity. It was one of Microsoft's best-selling desktop products, with little competition in its early days.

Ideal for : Large and complex projects, including architecture, engineering, IT, manufacturing, etc.

Satisfied needs:

Project Plan: Users can create a project plan and add details such as tasks, milestones, resources, and budget.
Task Management: It can help users track the progress, priority and relationship of tasks in order to better control the progress of the project.
Resource management: Users can manage the resources required for the project, including manpower, materials and equipment, and assign them to various tasks.
Timetable and progress management: It can help users create and maintain project timetables and track the difference between actual progress and planned progress.
Project collaboration: Support multi-person collaboration at the same time, users can work together with the project team by sharing task lists, documents, and progress information.

Software advantages:

Powerful functions: Microsoft Project is a powerful project management tool that can help users make plans, allocate resources, track progress, manage budgets and analyze work. It can also help users with resource management, collaboration and communication;

Software Cons :

Complex and difficult to use: Although MS Project has very powerful functions, it is not suitable for all project management. For example: a senior R&D project manager once commented-"I have never seen what is inside my software team. The team has successfully used MS Project for project management. Some teams have tried it before, including my previous team, but they gave up after a while. Why? Because it is really useless and too heavy.”
high price

【Official address: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/project/project-management-software 】

7. Software development project management system-Tapd (domestic)

Reason for selection : A development process management tool under Tencent Cloud.

Applicable objects : Tencent-based or Tencent-type R&D teams, because it is built by Tencent, and Tencent's R&D model has particularly obvious characteristics, which can almost only make users adapt to products, but cannot adapt products to users; small and medium-sized enterprises.

Satisfied needs : TAPD agile R&D life cycle includes requirements, release plan, iteration, task, test plan, test case, defect, Wiki, story wall, Gantt chart, report, document, feedback 13 core applications and support man-hour filling and track the progress of man-hours.

Software advantages :

TAPD provides comprehensive project management functions;
The interface of TAPD is concise and clear, easy to use
TAPD supports agile development, waterfall development and other development modes

Software Cons:

From free tools to paid products, and the price is not low;
Unable to meet the management needs of the entire R&D process;
No after-sales, Tencent no after-sales
For the creation of Tencent, the characteristics of Tencent's R&D model are particularly obvious

【Official address: https://www.tapd.cn/ 】

8. Free open source project management tool - Redmine (overseas)

Reasons for selection : There are not many with good reputation and mature functions. Well-known overseas open source project management products.

Applicable objects : teams with customized development requirements

Satisfied needs : project management, such as project planning, task assignment, progress tracking, etc.; defect tracking management, document management, file sharing, etc.

Software advantages : open source and free; multi-language support (Simplified Chinese is already built in); supports multiple databases, such as MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL; rich functions, such as user role control, problem tracking, automatic calendar and Gantt chart drawing, Wiki Form document writing and file management, and can also integrate other version management systems and BUG tracking systems, such as Git, SVN, etc.

Software Cons :

Higher cost: Although open source software can save a certain amount of development costs, it will bring very high development and maintenance costs. We have calculated an account: the cost of purchasing an online project management system is about 150,000 per year (100-person team); the second open source project management system requires at least one dedicated programmer for development + long-term maintenance, and a The programmer's salary is at least 20W/year, but the staff investment in the early stage of the second opening must be more than one person.
The function is limited, and the system is always in a "usable" state;
Potentially less secure: When a software application's source code is publicly available, its security becomes more vulnerable.

Official address: https://www.redmine.org/

9. Engineering project management platform - Glodon (domestic)

Glodon Technology Co., Ltd. was established in 1998 and listed on the A-share market in 2010. Glodon is based on the construction industry and focuses on the entire life cycle of engineering projects. It is a digital construction platform service provider that provides professional applications in the field of construction engineering as the core basic support, and provides value-added services such as industrial big data and industrial new finance. (Official website: https://www.glodon.com/ )

It should be noted that there are some differences between Glodon genuine and pirated versions at the service level.

2. Seven essential management methods in project management

1. Project analysis: SWOT analysis method

Using the SWOT analysis method, we can conduct comprehensive, systematic and accurate research on the situation of the research object, so as to formulate corresponding development strategies, plans and countermeasures according to the research results. The advantage of the SWOT analysis method is that it considers the problem comprehensively and is a kind of systematic thinking. Moreover, the "diagnosis" and "prescription" of the problem can be closely combined, which is clear and easy to test.

2. Project process management: PDCA cycle model

The PDCA cycle is also known as the Deming cycle, which corresponds to Plan (plan), Do (execution), Check (check), and Action (disposition). Because the method framework is simple and easy to use, it has been widely used in personnel management, sales management, product development, customer relationship and other fields of enterprises. Practice has proved that PDCA is effective. The four processes of the PDCA cycle are not completed once, but are carried out repeatedly, showing a stepwise increase. Each stage is supported by huge process methods and tools, which are worthy of in-depth excavation and application.

The PDCA cycle management model of "planning-implementation-check-improvement" embodies a set of scientific management tools and working procedures. The application of PDCA management mode can be used not only in quality management work, but also in other management work.

3. Project decision planning: 6W2H

6W2H general decision-making is a value-oriented standardized thinking process, which raises questions through eight aspects and selects the most cost-effective method and path to achieve the predetermined goal. When doing any work, we should think from 6W2H, which helps to organize our thinking and prevent blindness. Our reports should also use 6W2H, which can save time for writing and reading reports.

4. Project goal management: SMART principle

The SMART principles are designed to establish measurable goals to help you achieve them. It can help employees work more clearly and efficiently, and it also provides assessment objectives and standards for managers to implement performance assessment for employees in the future, making the assessment more scientific and standardized, and ensuring the fairness, openness and fairness of the assessment. When setting goals, you usually need to follow the SMART principle.

5. Project Time Management: The Four-Quadrant Rule

The most commonly used in the field of time management is Stephen Covey's "Four Quadrant Rule". He uses the two dimensions of "important" and "urgent" to divide things into four categories: important and urgent, important but not urgent, unimportant but urgent , not important nor urgent. If a person spends his whole day doing unimportant and unurgent things, his life will end up being mediocre. If you are always doing unimportant and urgent things, although it seems very busy, but there is no effect, for such things, find a way to entrust others to do it or try to do it as little as possible. If you do too many important and urgent things, the pressure will be doubled, and it is inevitable to "make mistakes in the middle of a busy schedule". Important but not urgent things, such as learning, strategic planning, and cultivating the growth of subordinates, if ignored for a long time, they will gradually become important and urgent things.

6. Project task decomposition: WBS

The three letters of WBS represent work tasks, decomposition tasks, and structured organization respectively. It is a tool for decomposing complex projects into executable projects.

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is to decompose a project into tasks, and then decompose the tasks into tasks, and then assign each task to everyone's daily activities until it cannot be broken down. Namely: Project→Task→Job→Activity. The work breakdown structure is deliverable-oriented, grouping project elements, which summarizes and defines the entire scope of work of the project, and each descending level represents a more detailed definition of project work.

WBS is the center of the project planning process, and it is also an important basis for formulating schedule plans, resource requirements, cost estimates, risk management plans, and procurement plans.

Benefits of WBS:

You can sort out the entire project structure and understand the overall picture of the project.
By analyzing each node, the manpower, time, and cost required for the entire project can be coordinated.
Subdivide the scope of the project and draw a clear line for the project.
When a requirement is proposed, it can be clearly distinguished whether the proposed requirement is a new requirement or a changed requirement, which is convenient for the project manager to manage the project.
Through functional decomposition, it is easy to understand and control the project progress and avoid risks.
Through work breakdown, it is easy to formulate a reasonable work plan.
It is often impossible to accurately evaluate a large work package. After it is subdivided and decomposed, relatively accurate working hours and human resources can be evaluated.

7. Resource management: 28 principles

Barrett's law: "80% of the total result is formed by 20% of the total time spent." The principle of prioritizing affairs according to the "importance" of things is based on "important few and trivial majority" on the basis of the principle. for example:

80% of sales come from 20% of customers;
80% of calls are from 20% of friends;
80% of the total output comes from 20% of the products;
80% of the wealth is concentrated in the hands of 20% of the people;

3. Three essential tools in project management

1. Plan progress management: Gantt chart

As a classic tool for schedule management, the Gantt chart is widely used in project management. Gantt charts, also known as bar charts and bar charts, as the name suggests, use bar charts to show the internal relationship of projects, progress and other time-related system progress over time.

Visually show the sequence and duration of activities of any characteristic project, so that the project manager can easily find out what work is left for a task (project) to evaluate the progress of the work, which is helpful for the project manager to plan and manage projects. (Production tools: Excel, PingCode, Worktile, etc.)

2. Cause Analysis: Fishbone Diagram

The fishbone diagram is also a very common project management tool. It is named for its shape like a fishbone. It is also called a cause-and-effect diagram and a tree structure. It is a method to find the "root cause" of a problem.

The problem or defect (that is, the consequence) is shown at the "fish head", the fishbone that grows from the fish bone, and the possible causes of the problem are listed in order of occurrence, which helps to explain how each cause affects the consequence. The fishbone diagram is characterized by simplicity, practicality and intuitiveness.

3. Implementation Tracking: PERT Chart

PERT is an acronym for project evaluation and review technique. This is one of the main project management tools used to plan and schedule the entire project schedule, tracking the implementation phases.

The PERT chart can not only express the planning and arrangement of subtasks, but also estimate the completion of the task during the execution of the task plan, analyze the impact of the completion of some subtasks on the overall situation, find out the areas that affect the overall situation and key subtasks, so as to timely Take steps to ensure completion of the entire project