research in software project management

Project Management for Research

The tools you need to make your research project a success.

This toolkit includes a variety of tools for managing your research projects including recommendations for general project management software and tools to help you and your team manage activities from grant writing to implementation and project closeout.

Explore the toolkit below:

Grant Writing + Project Development

A Gantt Chart is a popular project management tool; it is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project’s schedule. The chart allows for organizing and viewing project activities and tasks against pre-established timeframes.

Gantt Chart Template Gantt Chart Instructions Gantt Chart Example

Graphic display of the flow or sequence of events that a product or service follows; it shows all activities, decision points, rework loops and handoffs.

Process maps allow the team to visualize the process and come to agreement on the steps of a process as well as examine which activities are duplicated. Process maps are used to:

• Capture current and new process information
• Identify the flow of a process
• Identify responsibility of different business functions
• Clearly show hand-off between functions
• Identify value added and non-value added activities
• Train team members in new process

Process Map Template Process Mapping Guide Process Map Example 1 Process Map Example 2

The Data Management Plan (DMP) defines the responsibilities related to the entry, ownership, sharing, validation, editing and storage of primary research data.

A data management plan must not only reflect the requirements of the protocol/project but also comply with applicable institutional, state and federal guidelines and regulations. The DMP Tool details your agencies expectations, has suggested language for REDCap and exports a properly formatted plan.

DMP Tool NIH Data Management & Sharing (DMS) Policy

The Project Charter's purpose is to define at a high level what the Project Team will deliver, what resources are needed and why it is justified.

The Project Charter also represents a commitment to dedicate the necessary time and resources to the project. It can be especially useful when organizing a multi-disciplinary, internally funded team. The document should be brief (up to three pages maximum).   

Project Charter Template Project Charter Instructions Project Charter Example

Milestones are an effective way to track major progress in your research project.

A Gantt Chart is an effective tool for setting and tracking milestones and deliverables. It is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project’s schedule.  

The proposal budget should be derived directly from the project description.

The proposal budget should follow the format specified by the sponsor. The Office of Sponsored Programs Budget Preparation webpages provide descriptions of the standard budget categories, lists of typical components of those categories, Ohio State rates where appropriate and other details to help ensure your budget is complete. Budget Preparation Resources from Office of Research The 398 grant form from the NIH is a template that includes standard categories required for an NIH grant (and many others) that you can use to develop a preliminary budget.

PHS 398 Forms PHS 398 Budget form for Initial Project Period Template PHS 398 Budget Form for Entire Proposal Project Template

The Risk Assessment and Mitigation Plan first assists the research team in anticipating risk that may occur during the research project before it happens.

The plan then specifies when to act to mitigate risk by defining thresholds and establishing action plans to follow. As a fundamental ethical requirement research risks are to be minimized to the greatest extent possible for all research endeavors. This includes not only prompt identification measures but also response, reporting and resolution. Risk Assessment and Mitigation Plan Template Risk Assessment and Mitigation Plan Example

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) organizes the research project work into manageable components.

It is represented in a hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the research project team. It visually defines the scope into manageable chunks that the team can understand.  WBS Instructions and Template WBS Structure Example

Implementation

A Gantt Chart is a popular project management tool; it is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project’s schedule.

The chart allows for organizing and viewing project activities and tasks against pre-established timeframes. A Gantt Chart can also be used for tracking milestones and major progresses within your research project.

The purpose is to define at a high level what the Project Team will deliver, what resources are needed and why it is justified.   

It is represented in a hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the research project team. It visually defines the scope into manageable chunks that the team can understand.  WBS Instructions + Template WBS Structure Example

A communications plan facilitates effective and efficient dissemination of information to the research team members and major stakeholders in the research project.

It describes how the communications will occur; the content, security, and privacy of those communications; along with the method of dissemination and frequency.

Communications Plan Template Communications Plan Example

The Data Management Plan (DMP) defines the responsibilities related to the entry, ownership, sharing, validation, editing, and storage of primary research data.

A data management plan must not only reflect the requirements of the protocol/project but also comply with applicable institutional, state, and federal guidelines and regulations. The DMP Tool details your agencies expectations, has suggested language for REDCap, and exports a properly formatted plan.

DMP Tool DMP Tool Instructions Ohio State Research Guide: Data

The chart allows for organizing and viewing project activities and tasks against pre-established timeframes. Gantt Chart Template Gantt Chart Instructions Gantt Chart Example

This tool helps you capture details of issues that arise so that the project team can quickly see the status and who is responsible for resolving it.

Further, the Issue Management Tool guides you through a management process that gives you a robust way to evaluate issues, assess their impact, and decide on a plan for resolution.

Issue Management Tool Template Issue Management Tool Instructions Issue Management Example

A Pareto Chart is a graphical tool that helps break down a problem into its parts so that managers can identify the most frequent, and thus most important, problems.

It depicts in descending order (from left to right) the frequency of events being studied. It is based on the Pareto Principle or “80/20 Rule”, which says that roughly 80% of problems are caused by 20% of contributors. With the Pareto Principle Project Managers solve problems by identifying and focusing on the “vital few” problems. Managers should avoid focusing on “people” problems. Problems are usually the result of processes, not people.

Pareto Chart Template Pareto Chart Instructions Pareto Chart Example

Closeout, Transfer + Application

Completing a project means more than finishing the research. 

There remain financial, personnel, reporting, and other responsibilities. These tasks typically need to be completed within a timeline that begins 60 to 90 days before the project end date and 90 days after. Specifics will vary depending on the project and the funding source. The Office of Sponsored Programs “Project Closeout” webpage provides a description closeout issues, a list of PI Responsibilities and other details to help ensure your project is in fact complete.  Project Closeout Checklist Project Closeout Resources from Office of Research

A communications plan facilitates effective and efficient dissemination of information to the research team members and major stakeholders in the research project. 

It describes how the communications will occur; the content, security and privacy of those communications; along with the method of dissemination and frequency.

Project Management Software

An open-source project management software similar to Microsoft Project.

OpenProject  has tools to create dashboards, Gantt Charts, budgets, and status reports. Activities can be assigned to team members and progress monitored. OpenProject also has a tool for Agile Project Management. While the software is free, OpenProject must be installed and maintained on a local server and there will probably be costs associated with this. Talk to your departmental or college IT staff.

A secure, web-based project management system.

Basecamp  offers an intuitive suite of tools at a minimal cost: ~$20/month or free for teachers. Basecamp facilitates collaboration between research team members with features such as to-do lists, messaging, file sharing, assignment of tasks, milestones, due dates and time tracking.  

A project management tool that organizes tasks, activities, responsibilities and people on projects.

Trello can help manage research projects by keeping everyone on time and on task. It uses a distinctive interface based on cards and lists and may be especially useful for smaller projects.

If you have a disability and experience difficulty accessing this content, please submit an email to [email protected] for assistance.

Filter by Keywords

10 of the Best Research Management Software in 2024

Engineering Team

February 13, 2024

Juggling research projects and struggling to keep track of things? Don’t worry. With a spiffy new research management tool at the ready, you could be much more productive.

But what if you don’t have time to sift through dozens of tools and apps for research management to find the perfect fit? That’s where we come in!

We’ve narrowed it down to the top 10 research management software tools to use in 2024, so you can pick from the best of the best. 

It’s time to level up! 🙌 

What Should You Look for in Research Management Software?

3. ganttpro, 4. klipfolio, 5. whatagraph, 8. scispace (formerly typeset.io), 10. databox.

Whether you’re an individual researcher or leading a research team, research management software tools make everything better. Here are some of the features we prioritized when picking the 10 tools on our list:

• Intuitive UI: Most tools will have a learning curve, but a configurable user interface makes it easier to get comfortable
• Compatibility: The best tools offer downloadable software, mobile apps, and web-based apps so your team members can work in Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Linux, and their favorite web browsers
• Integrations: If you and your team use things like project management software, look for research management tools that’ll integrate with all of them
• Automations: Business process automation takes care of everyday tasks and lets you focus on the good stuff
• Templates: Look for something that’ll streamline your workflow with pre-made templates for things like resource management , project management, process mapping , and research planning

The 10 Best Research Management Software to Use in 2024

OK, let’s stop wasting time and get to the good stuff. Here are our picks for the 10 best research management software tools in 2024.

ClickUp is a cloud-based powerhouse with tons of research and project management software features for your research projects. It’s our top pick for a few reasons.

For one, we’ve spent countless hours refining it to be one of the most helpful tools around. It’s highly rated and at the top of several other lists, including G2’s Best Project Management Software Products & Tools in 2024 .

ClickUp has real-time collaboration features, free Gantt charts , AI writing tools, project documentation tools , and so much more. It does almost anything you ask with customizable ClickUp Dashboards and dozens of handy templates, too.

For example, the ClickUp Research Project Plan Template breaks down complex tasks, organizes your resources, and communicates your progress using data visualization tools . And ClickUp Docs serve as a simple wiki software that lets you create beautiful Docs and wikis that are easy to connect to your workflows.

Did we mention that a lot of this stuff is available on the Free Forever plan? 🤩

ClickUp best features:

• Integration with 1,000+ other tools, including Google Docs, Google Scholar, Google Drive, Google Workspace, Microsoft Excel, Trello, Slack, Evernote, Dropbox, Chrome, GitHub, and Asana
• Customizable dashboards, notifications, spreadsheets, templates, time tracking, automations, and more
• ClickUp AI writing assistant summarizes metrics, compose emails, generate action items, draft metadata, and create social media posts in seconds
• Mobile app, web-based app, and desktop software works on all operating systems
• Task management features organize and automate your research process, whether you’re doing academic research for your thesis or managing your company’s research data
• Multiple views and tools allow you to organize large datasets with complex visualizations to manage references, research, and more

ClickUp limitations:

• Some new users report a learning curve (solved with simple, free tutorials)
• ClickUp AI isn’t available on the Free Forever plan (give it a spin with a free trial first)

ClickUp pricing:

• Free Forever
• Unlimited: $7/month per user paid annually
• Business: $12/month per user paid annually
• Enterprise: Contact for pricing

ClickUp ratings and reviews:

• G2: 4.7/5 (8,000+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (3,000+ reviews)

Tableau is a data visualization tool powered by Salesforce. It’s designed to connect data from different sources on a single analytics platform. The reference management software makes it easier to organize complex research data using a drag-and-drop interface and interactive dashboards.

Tableau makes your life easier with access to a range of data analysis and sharing options. And it’s designed for everyone from students and teachers to data scientists and business owners. 

Tableau best features:

• Tableau Cloud provides a cloud-based analytics platform that drives better business outcomes and provides integrated data management
• Tableau Prep is a modern tool that makes it faster and easier to merge, edit, and organize your research data for efficient analysis
• Integration with a wide variety of products to make collaboration, data storytelling, and decision-making easier
• Training modules for onboarding your team minimize the learning curve with Tableau’s many research management tools

Tableau limitations:

• Users report that large files sometimes require long loading times and may result in crashing
• Some reviews mention bugs in new versions of Tableau software

Tableau pricing:

• Tableau Viewer: $15/month per user paid annually
• Tableau Explorer: $42/month per user paid annually
• Tableau Creator: $70/month per user paid annually

Tableau ratings and reviews:

• G2: 4.3/5 (1,000+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (2,000+ reviews)

GanttPRO is a resource management system that uses Gantt charts for efficient project management. It’s also a research and reference management software that’s perfect for managing teams and organizing your workflow.

Import Excel spreadsheets and graphs or use pre-made templates to get your projects going pronto. Of all the research management tools in this list, GanttPRO helps you organize everything you need for thesis research, business data analysis, wiki pages, bibliographies, and more. 🛠️ 

GanttPRO best features:

• Multiple views allow you to create Kanban and scrum boards in addition to Gantt charts for better research and workspace visualization
• Integrations with Slack, OneDrive, Google Drive, and MS Teams collect all your work in one place
• Time logs let you track how much time you spend on each research task
• Collaboration tools make it easy for research teams to work together and communicate in real-time

GanttPRO limitations:

• Some views have limited customization options
• Reviews mention difficulty moving and converting tasks

GanttPRO pricing:

• Basic: $9.99/month per user
• Pro: $15.99/month per user
• Business: $24.99/month per user

GanttPRO ratings and reviews:

• G2: 4.8/5 (400+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.8/5 (400+ reviews)

Klipfolio is a business dashboard tool that monitors your research data in real-time. It’s a metrics-focused platform that helps everyone make better decisions with access to the data they need when they need it. ✨

Individual users and data teams can use this powerful analytics tool to catalog data in a user-friendly platform that provides self-serve access to research information. Draft effective reports for team projects, organize citations for research papers and create useful dashboards for end-users. 

Klipfolio best features:

• Integrations with 100+ other tools and apps, from Ahrefs to Zapier, with dozens of options in between
• Compatibility with Android and iOS mobile devices and most popular web browsers
• Klip Annotations allows you to create, update, and delete annotations quickly and easily
• User-friendly interface helps reduce the learning curve for new users

Klipfolio limitations:

• Some reviews mention a lack of alerts and notifications
• Some users report issues with needing to restart the application after adding elements to their dashboard

Klipfolio pricing:

• Go: $125/month
• Pro: $300/month
• Business: $800/month

Klipfolio ratings and reviews:

• G2: 4.5/5 (200+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.7/5 (100+ reviews)

Whatagraph is a reporting tool that helps manage and visualize research data with customizable templates for efficient marketing projects. Move data, share reports with stakeholders, and build stunning reports. 🦋

Whatagraph replaces multiple tools and collects your team’s work in an easy-to-use data platform with a user-friendly dashboard. This tool is designed with in-house data research and marketing teams in mind. 

Whatagraph best features:

• Integrations with 40+ tools and apps, including YouTube, Google BigQuery, LinkedIn, and BigCommerce
• Automates research data transfer to save your team members hours of work and streamline your workflow
• Generates quality reports in less time using data analytics software
• Analyze and manage web page performance data to give your marketing team the information they need to get results

Whatagraph limitations:

• Some reviews mention slow responses from customer service
• Some users report bugs that slow down their research process
• No real project management software features

Whatagraph pricing:

• Professional: $223/month paid annually
• Premium: $335/month paid annually
• Custom: Contact for pricing

Whatagraph ratings and reviews:

• Capterra: 4.4/5 (80+ reviews)

Looker (aka Google Looker Studio) is a browser-based data analytics platform that uses a unique modeling language to leverage, analyze, and visualize research data. Use it for governed and self-service business intelligence (BI), and to build the best apps for your organization’s metrics. 

Collaborate in real time and capitalize on the fastest analytic databases available. Looker’s lightweight architecture allows developers to create flexible data and researcher apps quickly. 👀

Looker best features:

• Intuitive user interface minimizes the learning curve for new users
• Integrations with multiple tools, including BigQuery Standard SQL and BigQuery Legacy SQL databases
• Customizable charts, tables, and reports allow you to share data insights with your team, classroom, or the world
• Report settings give database users and viewers the option to bookmark existing settings for future use

Looker limitations:

• Users report issues with the varied Google Cloud Pricing structure and the lack of a set monthly fee
• Some reviews report problems with the dynamic tables not displaying full text for headers
• Data focus means few project management software capabilities

Looker pricing:

• Google Cloud Pricing : Contact to request a quote

Looker ratings and reviews:

• G2: 4.4/5 (1,000+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (200+ reviews)

Bit.ai is a document collaboration platform designed for quick and easy note-taking, document creation, and research management. It builds dynamic knowledge bases, projects, and technical docs with various sharing and formatting options too. 

Users have access to advanced design options, robust search features, powerful document tracking, and real-time collaboration tools. And teams can work together using this tool from around the globe across multiple platforms and devices. 

Bit.ai best features:

• Collaboration tools allow you and your team to work together to create documents, wikis, notes, and web pages
• Integrations with dozens of other tools and platforms, including YouTube, Google Sheets, GitHub, Loom, and Typeform
• Intuitive collaboration and workflow design makes document creation simple for new users
• Automations allow you to complete research projects faster by taking care of small tasks

Bit.ai limitations:

• Some users mention issues with document creation
• Some reviews report trouble with the user interface and a need for a more user-friendly experience

Bit.ai pricing: 

• Pro: $12/month per user
• Business: $20/month per user

Bit.ai ratings and reviews: 

• G2: 4/5 (10+ reviews)
• Capterra: 5/5 (5+ reviews)

SciSpace, also known as Typeset.io, is a powerful researcher app designed to save you time using the power of AI. Discover and review a network of relevant papers and get simple answers from each one without spending hours deep-diving the content. 

Minimize time spent on menial tasks and let SciSpace do the research for you while you find your answers. And you’ll have access to millions of papers and PDFs to get the info you need. It’s also easy to use in tandem with applications like Zotero and Mendeley. 

SciSpace best features:

• Access to metadata of 200 million+ papers and 50 million+ Open Access full-text PDFs
• Workspace enables publishers, institutions, and researchers to collaborate and work efficiently on research projects
• Automations minimize time wasted with repetitive tasks so you discover information quickly
• Built-in plagiarism checker allows you to check your documents and identify issues that may be preventing you from getting published

SciSpace limitations:

• Some reviews mention issues with LaTeX templates
• Free plan does not include any major features
• Lack of reviews on major platforms

SciSpace pricing:

• Basic: Free
• Premium: $9.99/month
• Teams and Labs: $5.49/month per user

SciSpace ratings and reviews:

• Capterra: N/A

Businesses use EndNote to build bibliographies and access research articles. This specialized reference and research management software lets you manage and format citations. It also protects your workflow with efficient data restoration functions. 📁

Find, share, and use research within your EndNote libraries and work on your research from anywhere, on any device. The integrated document creation tools will make your writing more efficient. 

Endnote best features:

• License requires a one-time fee instead of monthly payments
• Integrations with popular tools like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Open Office Writer
• Compatibility with desktop, iPad, and most popular web browsers
• Useful organization and research management tools let researchers drafting and citing their theses or writing in-depth research papers get their work done faster

Endnote limitations:

• Some reviews mention limited integration with word processing software outside of Microsoft and Google products
• You may need to correct occasional citation formatting errors manually
• Document system lacks task and project management software capabilities

Endnote pricing:

• Full License: $274.95 one-time fee
• Student License: $149.95 one-time fee

Endnote ratings and reviews:

• G2: 4.1/5 (100+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.3/5 (30+ reviews)

Databox is a business analytics tool that connects your data and tracks it from any device. Monitor your research data in real-time using a single dashboard to build and share reports, discover insights, and monitor trends. 📈

Get daily, weekly, and monthly performance updates viewable through email and Slack and automated alerts for changes in important metrics. Everything is done without the need for coding or spreadsheets.

Databox best features:

• Integrations with 100+ popular tools, including HubSpot Marketing, Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, and Google Ads
• Setup is easy to manage for non-technical users and data research teams
• Data reporting makes it easy to progress toward your goals and share research data with clients
• Custom metrics and conversion rates are calculated quickly and easily

Databox limitations:

• Reviews indicate that individual users may find the business-oriented prices too high
• Users mention a lack of customization and visual tools
• Free version does not include access to most features and metrics

Databox pricing:

• Starter: $59/month
• Professional: $169/month
• Growth: $399/month
• Premium: $999/month

Databox ratings and reviews:

Unleash the power of your research.

With such a wide variety of research management software options listed above, you’re sure to find an option that does what you need at a price that fits your budget. So get ready to streamline your workflow, collaborate more effectively, and fall back in love with research. 😍

If you want a tool that does it all at a price everyone can afford, try ClickUp . It’s free! You’ll have access to everything you need for research management, plus many other project management tools that’ll make your work and life more efficient.

Questions? Comments? Visit our Help Center for support.

Receive the latest WriteClick Newsletter updates.

Thanks for subscribing to our blog!

Please enter a valid email

• Free training & 24-hour support
• Serious about security & privacy
• 99.99% uptime the last 12 months

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• CAREER COLUMN
• 10 April 2019

How agile project management can work for your research

• Laura Pirro 0

Laura Pirro is a PhD student in chemical engineering at the Laboratory for Chemical Technology at Ghent University, Belgium.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

If you’ve ever written a research proposal, the chances are that you will have planned the work as a list of sequential activities, often visualized in a Gantt chart.

Access options

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

24,99 € / 30 days

cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 51 print issues and online access

185,98 € per year

only 3,65 € per issue

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01184-9

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged. You can get in touch with the editor at [email protected].

Sutherland, J. Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time (Random House Business, 2015).

Google Scholar  

Stark, E. Agile Project Management: Quick Start Guide (ClydeBank Media, 2014).

Download references

Related Articles

How to run a creative and diverse PhD programme

• Research management

Japan can embrace open science — but flexible approaches are key

Correspondence 07 MAY 24

US funders to tighten oversight of controversial ‘gain of function’ research

News 07 MAY 24

France’s research mega-campus faces leadership crisis

News 03 MAY 24

How I fled bombed Aleppo to continue my career in science

Career Feature 08 MAY 24

Illuminating ‘the ugly side of science’: fresh incentives for reporting negative results

Hunger on campus: why US PhD students are fighting over food

Career Feature 03 MAY 24

How to stop students cramming for exams? Send them to sea

News & Views 30 APR 24

How young people benefit from Swiss apprenticeships

Spotlight 17 APR 24

Ready or not, AI is coming to science education — and students have opinions

Career Feature 08 APR 24

Chief Editor

We are looking for a Chief Editor to build and manage a team handling content at the interface of the physical and life sciences for the journal.

London or Berlin - hybrid working model.

Springer Nature Ltd

Junior and Senior Staff Scientists in microfluidics & optics

Seeking staff scientists with expertise in microfluidics or optics to support development of new technology to combat antimicrobial resistance

Boston, Massachusetts (US)

Harvard Medical School Systems Biology Department

Postdoctoral Fellow in Biophysics

Seeking ambitious biophysicists to fight antimicrobial resistance with new technology at the interface of microfluidics and optics

Recruitment of Principal Investigators by the School of Life Sciences, Peking University

The School of Life Sciences at Peking University is actively seeking talents, with an emphasis on bioinformatics/computational biology/AI/RNA biology.

Beijing (CN)

School of Life Sciences, Peking University

2024 Recruitment notice Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology: Shenzhen, China

The wide-ranging expertise drawing from technical, engineering or science professions...

Shenzhen,China

Shenzhen Institute of Synthetic Biology

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Know more about our vision & mission at Zenkins.

Learn more about our process and how we work?

Contact today! Ready to help you with all tech challenges.

Stay updated with latest technologies and tools.

SAAS Product Development

Empowering Your Vision with Expert SAAS Product Development Services

IT Staff Augmentation

Boosting Your IT Capabilities with Staff Augmentation Solutions

Product Engineering

Crafting Innovation Through Product Engineering Services

Platform and Infrastructure

Elevating Your Digital Foundation: Our Platform and Infrastructure Expertise

Digital Transformation

Unlocking Your Digital Potential: Transformation Services for the Modern Age

Data Engineering

Unlocking the Power of Data: Our Expert Data Engineering Services

IT Consulting

Navigating IT Excellence: Our Comprehensive Consulting Services

• Maintenance And Support

Safeguarding Your Success: Exceptional Maintenance and Support Services

Core Expertise

• .NET Development
• ASP.NET MVC Web Dev.
• ASP.NET Core Web Dev.
• ASP.NET Web Form Dev.
• .NET Windows App Dev.
• .NET WPF Application Dev.
• .NET Core API Development
• .NET WCF Services
• .NET CMS Development
• C# Development
• .NET Core Development
• Full-Stack Web App Dev.
• Agile, Scrum & DevOps
• Integration Services
• Mobile App Development
• AI ML Development
• Legacy .NET App Modernization
• E-Commerce Solutions
• Enterprise Application Dev.
• Database Design And Mgmt
• Cloud Integration
• Azure / AWS / GCP
• Migration Services
• Third-Party Integrations
• UI/ UX Design
• Quality Assurance & Testing
• Security And Compliance
• Consulting And Strategy
• Content Management
• Performance Optimization
• IoT Hardware & Software
• .NET Developers
• C# Developers
• VB.NET Developers
• .NET Core Developers
• Windows Desktop Application Developers
• Azure Developers
• SQL Server Developers
• ASP.NET MVC Developers
• Blazor Developers
• Angular Developers
• Full-Stack .NET Developers
• HTML / CSS Developers
• JavaScript Developers
• Xamarin Developers
• Kentico CMS Developers
• Sitecore Developers
• Umbraco Developers
• Orchard CMS Developers
• DNN (DotNetNuke) Developers
• Sitefinity Developers
• NopCommerce Developers
• mojoPortal Developers
• DevOps Engineers
• UI/UX Designers
• Quality Assurance (QA) Testers
• Security Experts

Build Your Team

We help companies transform, scale, and gain a competitive edge with robust, customized, and innovative digital solutions.

• Technologies
• Entity Framework
• Razor Pages
• Razor Views
• Microservices
• IdentityServer
• Visual Studio
• Visual Studio Code
• Azure DevOps
• SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
• AWS (Amazon Web Services)
• GCP (Google Cloud Platform)
• Azure Functions
• Distributed Platforms

Our expertise spans all major technologies and platforms, and advances to innovative technology trends.

Can't find what you need?

• Case Studies

Research Project Management Software: A Case Study

• Post author: Maryliya M J
• Post published: January 29, 2024
• Reading time: 12 mins read

Research Project Management Software: A Case Study 

Table of contents.

Research projects often involve complex tasks, multiple collaborators, and strict deadlines. Effective project management is crucial to ensure smooth workflow, timely completion, and successful outcomes. In recent years, the use of research project management software has gained significant popularity due to its ability to streamline processes, enhance collaboration, and provide valuable insights.

Introduction to Research Project Management Software

Understanding the role of research project management software.

Research projects can be complex beasts with numerous tasks, deadlines, and team members to coordinate. This is where research project management software comes to the rescue. It’s like a superhero cape for your project, helping you stay organized and focused. Research project management software is designed to streamline and simplify the various aspects of managing a research project. It provides a centralized platform for tracking and coordinating tasks, timelines, resources, and team members. With this software, you can bid farewell to the chaos of spreadsheets and endless email threads and say hello to efficiency and collaboration.

The growing need for efficient project management in research

In today’s fast-paced research environment, the need for efficient project management is more pressing than ever. Research projects often involve multiple stakeholders, funding sources, and intricate workflows. Without proper management, projects can easily spiral out of control, delays can occur, and budgets can go haywire.

To avoid these pitfalls, researchers are turning to project management software. With its ability to streamline processes and keep everyone on the same page, it’s become an indispensable tool in the world of research. Plus, let’s face it, anything that helps us navigate the labyrinth of academia with a bit more grace and ease is a godsend. Now that we understand the importance of research project management software, let’s dive into a real-life case study to see it in action.

About the Client

Our client, a distinguished research institution, encountered challenges in coordinating research projects, managing data, and facilitating collaboration among research teams. Recognizing the need for an advanced solution, they sought a Research Project Management Software ( RPMS ) based on .NET. The primary goal was to develop a comprehensive RPMS that includes features for project planning, data management, and collaboration tools to optimize research workflows and improve project outcomes. 

Project Overview

The project aimed to develop a robust .NET-based Research Project Management Software to address the client’s challenges. The primary objectives included providing tools for project planning, data management, and collaboration to streamline research processes and enhance project outcomes. 

The Challenges

• Project Coordination: Inefficiencies in coordinating multiple research projects simultaneously. 
• Data Management Complexity: Difficulty in managing and organizing vast amounts of research data. 
• Collaboration Barriers: Challenges in facilitating seamless collaboration among research teams. 

The Solution

Our team of experienced developers and project managers collaborated to design and implement a comprehensive .NET-based Research Project Management Software. The solution included features for project planning, data management, and collaboration tools to streamline research processes and enhance project outcomes. 

Are you struggling to keep up with your software development needs? Are you looking for a team of dedicated developers who can work on your project full-time and deliver high-quality results? So why wait? Contact us today to learn more about our services and to start the process of hiring your own dedicated development team. Let us help you take your project to the next level! Contact Now!

Key features of the rpms.

• Project Planning Tools: Intuitive tools for efficient planning and coordination of research projects. 
• Data Management System: Centralized system for organizing, storing, and managing research data. 
• Collaboration Platform: Seamless collaboration tools for effective communication among research teams. 
• Real-time Progress Tracking: Monitoring tools for tracking the progress of ongoing research projects. 

Technologies Utilized

Development Stack: .NET, ASP.NET MVC 

Database: SQL Server 

Integration: Web API, REST APIs 

Collaboration Tools: In-app messaging, document sharing, and real-time collaboration features. 

The Outcome

The Research Project Management Software was successfully deployed, resulting in significant improvements in research workflows. The project planning tools, data management system, collaboration platform, and real-time progress tracking contributed to more efficient research processes and improved project outcomes. 

Our team’s expertise in developing a tailored Research Project Management Software using .NET technologies effectively addressed the client’s challenges. The implementation of project planning features, a robust data management system, collaboration tools, and real-time progress tracking contributed to a successful transformation of the research institution’s project management practices. 

In conclusion, research project management software has emerged as a valuable tool in the field of research. Through this case study, we have explored its importance, benefits, and implementation process. We have witnessed a real-life success story showcasing the positive impact of utilizing such software. While challenges may arise during implementation, adopting best practices and staying up-to-date with future trends can help researchers and project managers make the most of this technology. By embracing research project management software, organizations can enhance collaboration, streamline processes, and ultimately achieve greater success in their research endeavors.

Is your research institution seeking to optimize project workflows and enhance collaboration? Contact us today to explore how our expertise in RPMS development can streamline your research processes and elevate project outcomes. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. what is research project management software.

Research project management software is a specialized tool designed to help researchers and project managers streamline and organize various aspects of research projects. It provides features such as task management, collaboration tools, data organization, and reporting capabilities to facilitate efficient project planning, execution, and monitoring.

2. How can rPMS benefit my organization?

Research project management software offers several benefits, including improved project planning and organization, enhanced collaboration among team members, efficient task management, centralized data storage, real-time progress tracking, and reporting functionalities. These benefits ultimately lead to increased productivity, better project outcomes, and effective resource utilization.

3. What challenges can arise during the implementation of research project management software?

Implementing research project management software can present challenges such as resistance to change from team members, integration with existing systems, data migration, training requirements, and ensuring user adoption. However, by addressing these challenges proactively and adopting best practices, organizations can overcome obstacles and successfully implement the software.

4. What are some future trends in research project management software?

Future trends in research project management software include the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities for automated data analysis and decision-making, enhanced data visualization tools, cloud-based solutions for remote collaboration, and increased customization options to cater to the unique needs of different research projects. These trends aim to further improve the efficiency and effectiveness of research project management processes.

Get 50% off on your first project with us! Join our community of satisfied customers and experience the power of our software team today. Contact now and get 50% off your first software project/ product. Don’t miss out on this exclusive offer! Your Name * Your Email * Contact Number * Brief Your Requirement * 0 / 500 Claim Your Discount Please do not fill in this field.

You might also like.

Inventory Management Software: A Case Study

Learning Management System: A Case Study

Retail Analytics Software: A Case Study 

Book a free consultation.

Tailored Solutions, Expert Advice, and Project Estimates Await.

Expect a Prompt Call from one of our Account Managers.

• Top .NET Talent
• Time Zone Aligned
• Experienced Team

At Zenkins, we understand the importance of having skilled and dedicated .NET professionals on your side. Our team consists of top .NET talent with a proven track record of delivering high-quality solutions. Whether you need custom .NET application development or require expertise in ASP.NET, C#, or .NET Core, our talented developers are ready to bring your vision to life.

We recognize that time zone differences can often be a challenge in global collaborations. Zenkins addresses this issue by ensuring that our development teams are time zone-aligned with your operations. This means you can expect real-time communication, rapid responses, and a seamless workflow, reducing project delays and ensuring effective collaboration, no matter where you are in the world.

Experience matters in the world of software development, and our team has it in abundance. Zenkins’ experienced team brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table. From legacy .NET application modernization to building cutting-edge cloud-native solutions using the .NET framework, our team has successfully handled a wide array of projects. You can trust us to navigate your software development journey with precision and care.

+91 70690 18504

[email protected]

Zenkins is a leading .NET development company in India, with over 10 years of experience in developing high-quality, scalable, and secure .NET applications. The company has a team of experienced and certified .NET developers who are experts in all aspects of .NET development, including ASP.NET, WPF, Windows Forms, WCF, Xamarin, and more.

• Methodologies
• Our Services
• IT Staffing Services
• Software Outsourcing
• Careers @Zenkins
• Current Openings
• Technology Insights
• Careers Insights

326, Naroda Business Point, Vasant Vihar 2, Nava Naroda, Ahmedabad, Gujarat 382330

Opening soon in Pune Baner, Pune, Maharashtra 411045 - India

Opening soon in Bangalore Vasanth Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560020 - India

Privacy Overview

Get 50% off your first project with us.

Join our community of satisfied customers and experience the power of our software team today. Contact now and get 50% off your first software project/ product. Don’t miss out on this exclusive offer!

.css-s5s6ko{margin-right:42px;color:#F5F4F3;}@media (max-width: 1120px){.css-s5s6ko{margin-right:12px;}} AI that works. Coming June 5, Asana redefines work management—again. .css-1ixh9fn{display:inline-block;}@media (max-width: 480px){.css-1ixh9fn{display:block;margin-top:12px;}} .css-1uaoevr-heading-6{font-size:14px;line-height:24px;font-weight:500;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;color:#F5F4F3;}.css-1uaoevr-heading-6:hover{color:#F5F4F3;} .css-ora5nu-heading-6{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:flex-start;justify-content:flex-start;color:#0D0E10;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s;transition:all 0.3s;position:relative;font-size:16px;line-height:28px;padding:0;font-size:14px;line-height:24px;font-weight:500;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;color:#F5F4F3;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover{border-bottom:0;color:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover path{fill:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover div{border-color:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover div:before{border-left-color:#CD4848;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active{border-bottom:0;background-color:#EBE8E8;color:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active path{fill:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active div{border-color:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:active div:before{border-left-color:#0D0E10;}.css-ora5nu-heading-6:hover{color:#F5F4F3;} Get early access .css-1k6cidy{width:11px;height:11px;margin-left:8px;}.css-1k6cidy path{fill:currentColor;}

• Product overview
• All features
• App integrations

CAPABILITIES

• project icon Project management
• Project views
• Custom fields
• Status updates
• goal icon Goals and reporting
• Reporting dashboards
• workflow icon Workflows and automation
• portfolio icon Resource management
• Time tracking
• my-task icon Admin and security
• Admin console
• asana-intelligence icon Asana Intelligence
• list icon Personal
• premium icon Starter
• briefcase icon Advanced
• Goal management
• Organizational planning
• Campaign management
• Creative production
• Marketing strategic planning
• Request tracking
• Resource planning
• Project intake
• View all uses arrow-right icon
• Project plans
• Team goals & objectives
• Team continuity
• Meeting agenda
• View all templates arrow-right icon
• Work management resources Discover best practices, watch webinars, get insights
• What's new Learn about the latest and greatest from Asana
• Customer stories See how the world's best organizations drive work innovation with Asana
• Help Center Get lots of tips, tricks, and advice to get the most from Asana
• Asana Academy Sign up for interactive courses and webinars to learn Asana
• Developers Learn more about building apps on the Asana platform
• Community programs Connect with and learn from Asana customers around the world
• Events Find out about upcoming events near you
• Partners Learn more about our partner programs
• Support Need help? Contact the Asana support team
• Asana for nonprofits Get more information on our nonprofit discount program, and apply.

Featured Reads

• Project management |
• Project management software and tools: ...

Project management software and tools: Your best picks for 2024

Project management software connects teams, enabling everyone in the organization to prioritize the work that matters most. Software that fosters this type of high-level collaboration is essential for most companies. But at a glance, many of the tools organizations use have seemingly similar features. Use our guide to narrow down your choices and understand which tools are best for different types of companies.

If you manage work, you’re a project manager. But that wasn’t always the case. For many years, the only people responsible for managing projects were (unsurprisingly) project managers. These highly specialized roles used legacy tools that required extensive training and knowledge to use. 

Now, almost everyone is expected to manage their own projects, and these outdated tools are no longer practical. And while project manager roles and legacy softwares still exist, modern project management software has adapted to fill the needs of a more dynamic, collaborative workforce.

Whether you’re a brand new business owner who just needs help with invoicing or you're operating a multi-national company, there’s a project management software that’s right for you. Read on to see which project management software fits your company's needs.

What is project management software?

Project management software is a tool that helps teams to organize, track, and execute work. In its simplest form, you can think of project management software as an interactive workspace, where you coordinate the way you work, collaborate, and communicate with others. But the best project management software goes far beyond that—connecting your most advanced workflows across the company and helping you achieve your biggest, boldest goals. 

It’s a broad category, and can be as simple as digital checklists or as advanced as a full work management platform. The type of project management software you choose—and the way you use it—will depend on the size, needs, and overarching goals of your organization.

Why use project management software?

These days, everyone manages projects, but they don’t always have the tools they need to manage projects effectively. This often leads to teams using a spreadsheet, which is great for organizing work but doesn't show real-time updates. Spreadsheets are extremely manual, and can actually impede cross-functional collaboration. In short, they lack the capabilities of project management software. 

That’s why project management software is so crucial to today’s working environment. Among its many benefits, project management software serves as the connector for work, teams, stakeholders, goals, and everything in between.

The benefits of project management software

Focus your work. You’ll get more done—but more importantly, you’ll get the right work done. With project management software, you’re less likely to duplicate work or waste time searching for materials.

Reduce busywork. With project management software, you can connect every single task to goals that support the company’s biggest, broadest vision—so everyone knows how they’re driving the success of the company with every project. When employees understand how their day-to-day tasks impact the company, they’re even more motivated to produce their best possible work.

Create a system of record. Project management software serves as a system of record for all your projects and their related tasks. As a result, you can simultaneously store information while also making it easier for stakeholders and teams to access and use that information.

Increase cross-functional collaboration . Project management software is, at its core, a team collaboration tool. By bringing together work, goals, and people across projects, teams, and departments, project management software helps you build an interconnected, thriving cross-functional organization.

Store work safely. Ever delete a cell by accident in your spreadsheet? Or forget where you saved your latest to-do list ? Keeping everything cloud-based both helps you stay organized and reduces the chance of you losing work—all while maintaining your privacy. 

The 11 best project management software & tools in 2024 

There’s a wide range of project management software available in today’s market—choosing just one can feel overwhelming. That’s why we compiled this list of the best products in the industry today, and the types of businesses they’re most likely to help. See how each one compares, and the different ways project management software can streamline and enhance your work.

1. Asana: Best for enterprise companies

Asana goes beyond traditional project management software to provide a full work management solution that supports the dynamic, changing needs of enterprise companies. Asana doesn't just help you manage your tasks (although you can do that too)—it connects all the work your company is doing to your highest-level goals and business strategy. With Asana, you get so much more than project management software, including:

Integrations to all your favorite tools and systems, so you can keep your work organized in one platform.

Goals that connect to everyone and every task across your company, so you can ensure the work that gets done is always the most important.

Automations for tasks, scheduling, assigning work, and much more—all designed to reduce the amount of time you spend on low-priority busywork.

Ready-made project templates so you can get to work on your most important tasks right away.

Reporting dashboards that automatically update stakeholders and eliminate status update meetings.

Security, privacy, and compliance features that keep your data safe.

Discover even more of what Asana can do.

2. Trello: Best for simple project management

Trello is a Kanban-board style project management software , owned by Atlassian. In Trello, you nest project tasks under boards labeled with an overarching theme. For example, you might have a board for “Not started,” “In Progress,” and “Complete.” The setup makes it easy to track project progress from board to board, which is helpful when you need a simple tool for small projects.

3. Smartsheet: Best for spreadsheet lovers

Think of Smartsheet as an advanced version of a spreadsheet, with more capabilities. This system can be intuitive for companies who traditionally used spreadsheets for project management, such as time tracking with timesheets. 

4. Jira: Best for Agile-specific project management

Designed specifically for software development, Jira comes ready to launch for teams that use the Agile methodology to do their work. Owned by parent company Atlassian, Jira is often used for common development projects like bug tracking, as well as projects that use the Scrum process .

5. Monday: Best for small businesses

Monday offers a broad spectrum of apps that make it easy to implement and get started right away. This works for small businesses who are new to project management software, though once you rev up your work, company size, or collaboration across teams, you might hit a threshold for what’s possible.

6. Clickup: Best for small teams or startups

Clickup’s intuitive and colorful interface makes it easy to understand and adopt. Clickup is a popular choice for startups with limited resources and smaller teams that may not need as many capabilities. 

7. Notion: Best for notetakers

Notion is an elevated system to create and store dynamic documents, sheets, and note taking. This works best for companies or individuals who just need a more organized space for thoughts and ideas, though Notion can feel limited in how you can work with others in the tool itself.

8. Airtable: Best for those who want to build it themselves

Airtable provides a flexible no- and low-code database you can use to build your own bespoke project management system (or other custom application). For those who prefer to oversee the backend development of their project management software, Airtable offers that option.

9. Wrike: Best for client management

Wrike offers stackable storage and security in an easy-to-use format, so both clients and internal teams can safely access information. This can be helpful when you’re working with external partners, such as clients, in addition to managing work as a company.

10. Workfront: Best for marketing-only teams

Workfront (owned by Adobe) is a project management software that was initially developed for marketers. They’ve built out their platform to be a tool for all teams, but because it’s so targeted, users may struggle to coordinate with other teams outside of the marketing department. 

11. Microsoft: Best for personal tools

Microsoft Office is often labeled as a project management tool, but that’s mostly because their products are a staple at any company. Because we already know and understand how to use them, Microsoft Office products are often the first tool managers turn to when they start experimenting with project management. But the reality is, Excel spreadsheets and docs weren’t built for collaboration, so you’re better off using them in conjunction with full-fledged project management software. 

Features to look for in your project management tool

Ready to buy? Each project management system will have different features and functionality, but we recommend you prioritize a platform with these features at a minimum:

Collaboration features that enable work between team members, departments, and across the company—including file sharing, project tracking, and resource management.

A platform that provides portfolio management capabilities and the ability to connect goals to actionable tasks, so the entire company can see how all work is connected.

A mobile app so you can send off approvals, receive timely notifications, and manage projects on the go.

Project and reporting dashboards that are easy to access and view.

Varying project view styles that support all your project types and operations, including Gantt charts , Kanban boards, Lists, and Calendars (so as your company grows, you know your software has the capability to grow with it).

Enhanced project scheduling to set due dates, create important milestones, and easily track time so everything stays on schedule.

Project management app integrations that fit your custom business needs.

Automations and dependencies that update you and stakeholders in real-time.

The best project management software is the one that grows with you

A lot of project management software claims similar features, and at a basic level, many of them are the same. But when you choose a project management solution, it shouldn’t just be another tool. It should be a full-fledged project management platform that enables you and your team to get their best work done, with less effort. 

This means you need a platform that continues to grow, expand, and adapt as your company does. The last thing you need is to hit a ceiling just when you’re getting into your ideal workflow. Asana is built for enterprise teams, which means it can support your project management work from the beginning—when you’re a one-person team with an idea—all the way through your Fortune 100 growth. In fact, more than 80% of Fortune 100 companies use Asana*.

With Asana, it’s not just about putting out more deliverables. Instead, Asana focuses on how you can connect and leverage every aspect of your company’s work, goals, and resources to produce the right work. 

Project management software FAQ 

Which software is best for project management.

The best project management software is the one with the features you need. Look for a tool like Asana , a full work management platform where you can integrate the apps you already use, connect goals to work tasks, break down silos between teams, and automate time-consuming busywork.

What type of software is project management software?

Project management software is a type of software used for every aspect of project management. Often, this includes everything from the project planning stages (resource allocation, setting due dates, and building and assigning work task lists) to project scheduling, tracking, and reporting. The best project management software will help you coordinate and automate work not just across projects, but also across portfolios, teams, and departments.

What’s the difference between project management software and task management software?

Task management software is used strictly to manage tasks and is focused on production. Often, this looks like a digital to-do list with more capabilities. Project management software goes beyond task management to the actual planning, coordination, and goals of a project. This incorporates the bigger-picture, high-impact work and the actionable tasks you need to get there. Good project management software will also have task management capabilities, but the reverse isn’t always true.

How does project management software work?

Project management software is a tool to help you coordinate everything you need for project management. Often, this includes capabilities to create and assign tasks, scheduling all aspects of a project, and coordinating with others in your project team. The best project management software will also enable you to work cross-functionally across all teams, departments, and projects within your organization.

Is project management software worth it?

The short answer: yes! Project management software has an almost endless list of benefits. Most people immediately think of productivity as the reason to purchase project management software, but the right project management software can do more than increase your output. If you invest in the best project management software, you can break down silos and connect your entire company to your largest visions and goals. This enables everyone to work better on the projects that matter most.

*Accurate as of September 7, 2022 . Asana makes no representations about updating this number.

Related resources

How to choose project management software for your team

7 steps to complete a social media audit (with template)

3 visual project management layouts (and how to use them)

Grant management: A nonprofit’s guide

30+ Essential Software for Researchers

This post may contain affiliate links that allow us to earn a commission at no expense to you. Learn more

Are you stuck with inefficient research tools? Discover the best essential software for researchers to revolutionize your work.

Academic research can often feel like a complex puzzle. Every researcher knows the struggles of data crunching, project coordination, document writing, and intensive note-taking. 

But here’s the good news: online tools for researchers can turn these challenges into manageable tasks.

Table of Contents

Academia has transformed from a domain dominated by a survival-of-the-fittest mentality into an inclusive sphere of shared knowledge, growth, and discovery.

This paradigm shift signifies the evolution of academia from a space where only the intellectually elite thrive, to a nurturing environment that promotes intellectual curiosity and learning for all.

We encourage researchers to try out the tools mentioned below to find the perfect research tool.

Essential Software for Researchers

#1. google scholar: best for scholarly literature search and keeping up-to-date with research in your field.

• One of the top academic search engines
• Enables users to keep up-to-date with the latest research in their respective fields
• Provides citation data for each article, contributing to the ease of referencing

In the quest for identifying pertinent research problems and gaps, Google Scholar acts as your invaluable companion. This search engine is your lens into the cutting-edge developments in your field. 

It helps you pinpoint where your investigation could contribute to the existing body of knowledge. Here are other academic journal discovery platforms that can help you at this stage of research .

How much does it cost?

Source: https://scholar.google.com

#2. NVivo: Best for Designing and Conducting Qualitative Research

• Provides robust tools for data organization and analysis
• Encourages meaningful insights from qualitative data
• Promotes efficient coding, making it easier to sift through mountains of data

NVivo stands as a beacon of hope for qualitative researchers in the data fog. Its unique features categorize, analyze, and draw connections like a seasoned detective, unearthing meaningful insights with ease. 

With an intuitive interface, NVivo transforms complexity into a rich tapestry of knowledge. It empowers researchers to capture nuances, emotions, and subtleties, illuminating the essence of their study. 

As a guiding light, NVivo enhances the rigor of research and reveals profound insights that resonate with human experiences, making the journey through the data fog an exhilarating quest for wisdom.

• Free trial available
• Academic version costs $849 yearly

Source: Lumivero

#3. Qualtrics: Best for Survey Design and Distribution

• Comes equipped with sophisticated features for survey creation and distribution
• Includes advanced data collection methods
• Simplifies analysis with powerful analytics tools

When it comes to creating and distributing surveys, Qualtrics stands as the gold standard. This essential software is akin to having a personal survey consultant, streamlining every step of the process, from crafting engaging questionnaires to collecting and analyzing meaningful data. 

With its user-friendly interface and robust features, Qualtrics empowers researchers to gather valuable insights effortlessly. This powerful tool ensures that the journey from survey creation to data interpretation becomes a seamless and rewarding experience.

In the world of survey research, Qualtrics is your steadfast ally. It not only simplifies the process but also empowers you to glean meaningful insights from the data, adding immense value to your research. You can also check out other survey tools.

• Free version available
• Premium starts from $2,500 per year

Source: https://www.qualtrics.com

#4. SPSS: Best for Statistical Analysis and Data Interpretation

• Provides comprehensive tools for statistical analysis
• Simplifies data interpretation with an intuitive interface
• Supports a wide range of statistical tests

If statistical analysis is your battleground, SPSS becomes your formidable armor. This software doesn’t merely crunch numbers; it possesses the alchemical ability to transform them into comprehensible insights, making data interpretation a breeze rather than a battle. 

With its robust toolkit and advanced analytics, SPSS empowers researchers to extract meaningful patterns and correlations from complex data sets. 

SPSS takes the intimidation out of data analysis. With this robust software, you’re not just analyzing data; you’re demystifying it and transforming it into actionable insights that can drive your research forward. Here are other top data analysis software for researchers.

• Starts at $99

Source: https://www.ibm.com

#5. Tableau: Best for Data Visualization and Reporting

• An industry-leading tool for creating interactive, insightful data visualizations
• Empowers users to turn complex data into easy-to-understand, actionable information
• Streamlines reporting with customizable dashboards and real-time updates

Tableau dominates the field of data visualization and reporting as a true titan. It serves as a personal data storyteller, adeptly converting intricate raw data into visually captivating and easily comprehensible narratives. 

With its powerful features and user-friendly interface, Tableau empowers users to unlock valuable insights and make informed decisions from data that might otherwise be overwhelming. 

From interactive dashboards to dynamic charts, its versatility and effectiveness make it a go-to tool for businesses, analysts, and anyone seeking to extract meaning from data in an engaging manner.

• Starts from $180 per user yearly to $840 per year

Source: https://www.tableau.com

#6. Overleaf: Best for Collaborative Writing and LaTeX Editing

• A powerful platform for creating and editing LaTeX documents
• Enables seamless collaboration with real-time syncing and shared access
• Simplifies LaTeX editing with a user-friendly interface and pre-made templates

As your LaTeX guru, Overleaf offers an efficient, collaborative workspace tailored to crafting and editing LaTeX documents. Whether you’re a researcher, engineer, or academic, this platform empowers you to produce polished and professional papers effortlessly.

Say goodbye to the complexities of document preparation and welcome a seamless, intuitive experience that enhances productivity and fosters collaboration among peers.

Overleaf facilitates collaboration and simplifying the editing process, making crafting complex documents less daunting and more productive. You can learn more about LaTeX tutorials here.

• Standard: $199 per year
• Professional: $399 per year

Source: https://www.overleaf.com

#7. Grammarly: Best for Checking Grammar and Improving Writing Clarity

• A sophisticated tool for real-time grammar and spelling checks
• Enhances writing clarity and eliminates errors
• Provides personalized suggestions to improve your writing style

Grammarly is more than a proofreader; it’s your personal writing coach. This software is designed to guide you towards impeccable grammar, clear writing, and a refined style, ensuring your academic work shines.

With Grammarly at your side, you’re not just writing; you’re crafting compelling narratives. This tool helps ensure that your ideas shine brightly, unmarred by grammatical errors or unclear writing.

• $25 per monthly

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org

#8. Turnitin: Best for Plagiarism Checking and Originality Reports

• A plagiarism checker tool
• Provides detailed feedback to maintain academic integrity
• Supports multiple languages and file formats for broader accessibility

Turnitin stands at the forefront of safeguarding academic integrity. As a vigilant watchdog, this software diligently ensures the authenticity of your work and detects any inadvertent plagiarism, guaranteeing its originality. 

With Turnitin’s cutting-edge technology, students and educators can have the confidence that their academic pursuits maintain the highest standards of integrity and authenticity. 

By continuously refining its capabilities, Turnitin remains a trusted ally in upholding academic excellence and promoting a culture of originality in educational institutions worldwide.

Here are the best academic writing that can help you in your research.

• $3 per student per year

Source: https://www.turnitin.com

#9. Mendeley: Best for Discovering New Research and Collaborative Work

• One of the best reference management tools available
• Provides a platform to organize, share, and annotate research papers
• Facilitates easy referencing with a built-in citation tool

When navigating the extensive realm of academic research, Mendeley serves as your reliable compass. With its centralized hub, this tool facilitates the discovery of cutting-edge research, fosters collaborations among researchers, and efficiently organizes your ever-expanding library of academic papers. 

By offering seamless access to a wealth of knowledge, this reference management software empowers scholars to delve deeper into their fields of interest, stay up-to-date with the latest findings, and engage in meaningful academic endeavors.

You can compare collaborative writing tools here .

• Starts from $4.99 to $14.99

Source: https://www.mendeley.com

#10. Zotero: Best for Collecting, Organizing, and Citing Research Sources

• A comprehensive tool for collecting and organizing research sources
• Supports a wide variety of citation styles
• Integrates with numerous browsers and word processors for seamless usability

In the bustling marketplace of academic resources, Zotero stands out as a first-rate organizer. It helps you collect, manage, and cite your research sources, transforming a haphazard collection into a well-organized library.

Zotero is your personal library architect, ensuring your wealth of sources is well-structured and easily accessible. It doesn’t just simplify source management; it elevates your research process to a new level of efficiency.

Source: https://www.zotero.org

#11. Trello: Best for Research Project Management and Task Organization

• A robust platform for managing research projects and organizing tasks
• Facilitates team collaboration with shared boards, lists, and cards
• Enables tracking progress and deadlines for efficient project management

Trello is one of the best project management tools. This platform boasts a visually appealing and intuitive interface, facilitating seamless organization of tasks, progress tracking, and team collaboration.

Trello optimizes efficiency, enabling researchers to focus on their work, not administrative hassles. With an array of intuitive features, it remains an indispensable tool for coordinating and executing successful research endeavors.

Learn more about task management tools here.

• Standard: $5 per month paid yearly

Source: https://trello.com

#12. ResearchGate: Best for Connecting with Fellow Researchers and Sharing Publications

• A dedicated platform for networking with global researchers
• Enables sharing and discovery of academic papers and publications
• Provides a space for discussions, questions, and collaborative problem-solving

ResearchGate, a haven for those yearning for a community of like-minded researchers, offers a platform that facilitates connections among scholars. 

By joining ResearchGate, you can share your work, connect with fellow researchers, and discover new research that aligns with your interests. 

This dynamic environment empowers you to stay at the forefront of knowledge and contribute to the scientific community.

Source: https://www.researchgate.net

#13. Notion: Best for Comprehensive Note-Taking and Project Management

• A versatile tool for both note-taking and managing research projects
• Provides customizable templates for a tailored user experience
• Facilitates real-time collaboration among research teams

Isn’t it just exhilarating when you find a tool that simplifies your academic life? Well, that’s exactly what Notion is all about: a revolutionary digital workspace designed to merge the realms of in-depth note-taking and sophisticated project management.

With Notion, the tedious becomes straightforward, the overwhelming becomes manageable, and the complex becomes clear. It’s about getting the most out of your A-level studies, fostering a sense of achievement while making the process enjoyable. So, buckle up and let Notion revolutionize the way you work.

• Plus: $8 per month paid yearly
• Business: $15 per month paid yearly
• Enterprise: Custom price

Source: https://www.notion.so

#14. Quillbot: Best for Paraphrasing and Improving Writing Clarity

• Assists with paraphrasing and enhancing writing clarity
• Offers various writing modes to cater to different styles and tones
• Supports the construction of coherent and concise sentences

Quillbot is your personal wordsmith, adept at paraphrasing your text and enhancing its clarity. Its variety of writing modes cater to different styles and tones, and it can help in crafting concise and coherent sentences, making it an invaluable assistant in your research writing process.

Quillbot is your digital co-author. It helps in expressing your research findings in a clear and engaging manner, thereby improving your writing’s readability and impact. This is an essential companion in the quest to make your research more accessible and understandable. 

Here are other academic writing tools you may need.

• Premium: $9.95 monthly

Source: https://quillbot.com

#15. Jasper AI: Best for AI-Powered Writing Assistance

• Provides AI-driven assistance to enhance your writing quality
• Suggests improvements for clarity, coherence, and grammar
• Supports various writing styles and contexts, including academic research

Ever dreamt of having a personal writing mentor, constantly at your beck and call, simplifying the intricacies of academic writing for you? Welcome Jasper AI into your world – an exemplary writing companion that surpasses the functionalities of a typical digital assistant. 

This state-of-the-art tool propels your writing to a higher level. Gone are the days of laboring over endless edits and revisions. With Jasper AI, your writing process is streamlined, facilitating the creation of clear, compelling, and high-quality research work.

Here is a deep Jasper AI Review. Read it to learn more about how you can use Jasper

• Creator: $49 monthly
• Teams: $125 monthly
• Business: Custom price

Source: https://www.jasper.ai

#16. GanttPRO: Best for Project Scheduling and Time Management

• Offers robust tools for project scheduling and time management
• Provides a visual representation of your project timeline
• Supports team collaboration and task assignment

GanttPRO illuminates your project path with its visually appealing timeline representation. It becomes your dependable ally in planning tasks, monitoring progress, and optimizing your time management strategies. 

No longer do you have to wrestle with disorderly schedules and haphazard task allocations. GanttPRO simplifies the chaos and brings order to your project management landscape.

GanttPRO is not just a tool that assists in project scheduling; it’s your personal steward of time. This tool does more than just manage your project; it ensures your research endeavor is a resounding success.

• Basic: $7.99 monthly
• PRO: $12.99 monthly
• Business: $19.99 monthly

Source: https://ganttpro.com

#17. Scholarcy: Best for Quick Summarization of Academic Papers

• An efficient tool for extracting quick summaries from academic papers
• Supports in-depth understanding by highlighting key points
• Provides a reference list for further exploration

Scholarcy is your dedicated summarizer, rapidly transforming complex academic papers into digestible summaries. This amazing tool supports your understanding and equips you with a reference list for further research.

Scholarcy is your academic digest. It ensures you efficiently comprehend complex research papers, and ultimately, saves your precious time.

• $9.99 monthly

Source: https://www.scholarcy.com

#18. R Discovery: Best for Statistical Analysis and Data Visualization

• A potent tool for comprehensive statistical analysis
• Offers a robust platform for data visualization
• Supports reproducible research with code sharing and reusability

R Discovery provides a platform for comprehensive statistical analysis. It also facilitates data visualization. This supports you in presenting your research findings convincingly.

Overall, R Discovery is your statistician, your illustrator, and your collaborator. It aids you in understanding data, presenting it effectively, and maintaining research integrity. This way, it contributes significantly to your research quality.

Source: https://discovery.researcher.life

#19. Scopus: Best for Comprehensive Literature Search and Citation Tracking

• An extensive database for literature search across various fields
• Supports citation tracking for managing your bibliographies
• Offers analytical tools to assess the impact of research

Scopus is your academic searchlight, illuminating a vast landscape of scholarly literature. With its extensive database, citation tracking, and analytical tools, it aids you in finding relevant research, managing your references, and assessing your work’s impact.

Scopus is your scholarly sleuth and your research analyst. It equips you with the tools you need to conduct impactful research.

• Paid ranges from $500 to $1000

Source: https://www.scopus.com

#20. Journal Finder: Best for Identifying the Right Journals for Publishing Your Research

• A dedicated platform for pinpointing suitable journals for research publication
• Analyzes research abstract and keywords to suggest optimal matches
• Helps researchers avoid unnecessary rejections and hasten publication process

Journal Finder serves as your publishing compass, steering you towards the right journals to publish your research. This tool saves you from the guesswork, maximizing the chances of your work reaching the right audience.

With Journal Finder, you’re not merely seeking publication – you’re targeting impact. By leading you to the most suitable journals, it increases the visibility and influence of your research.

Source: https://journalfinder.elsevier.com

#21. Global Journal Database: Best for Accessing Information about Various Journals

• A comprehensive database of various academic journals
• Provides detailed information about the journals including impact factor
• Assists researchers in finding the right publication platform

Global Journal Database is your encyclopedic companion in the quest for the right publication platform. It provides you with detailed information about various journals, helping you make informed decisions about where to submit your research for publication.

The Global Journal Database does not just offer information—it provides clarity. This tool empowers you to choose the best platform for your research, maximizing its impact.

Source: https://researcher.life

#22. Citation Gecko: Best for Literature Review and Citation Network Exploration

• A specialized tool for exploring citation networks
• Aids in the literature review process by identifying key papers and authors
• Supports academic networking by linking researchers with similar interests

Citation Gecko is your guide in the maze of academic citations. It helps you identify key papers and authors in your field. This way, the tool supports your literature review process, and fostering academic networking.

Citation Gecko is not just a citation tool—it’s your academic navigator. It not only aids in your literature review but also fosters academic networking, broadening the horizons of your research.

Source: https://www.citationgecko.com

#23. OpenRefine: Best for Cleaning and Transforming Messy Data

• A powerful tool for cleaning up and transforming data into a usable format
• Facilitates the exploration of large data sets with ease
• Allows for batch editing and scripting for advanced data manipulation

OpenRefine is your personal data janitor, turning messy and inconsistent data into a clean, usable format. It gives you the power to explore, tidy up and transform large datasets, thus providing a robust foundation for your data analysis.

OpenRefine is not just a data cleaning tool—it’s your foundation for reliable data analysis. It provides you with clean, consistent data, which is vital for accurate results and insights in your research.

Source: https://openrefine.org

#24. MATLAB: Best for Complex Mathematical Calculations and Data Analysis

• Offers an advanced platform for complex mathematical calculations
• Supports high-level data analysis, visualization, and algorithm development
• Provides an integrated environment for multidisciplinary research

MATLAB is your math whiz, providing a platform for handling complex mathematical calculations and data analysis. It offers a comprehensive environment for calculations, algorithm development and visualization. This makes MATLAB a one-stop shop for researchers in quantitative fields.

Overall, MATLAB is more than a calculator—it’s a complete computational environment. It allows you to perform complex calculations, analyze data, and visualize your results.

• Premium: $860 yearly or $2150 for the perpetual license

Source: https://www.mathworks.com

#25. Amazon Drive: Best for Storing and Sharing Research Files

• A reliable solution for storing and sharing research files
• Ensures data safety with secure cloud storage
• Supports collaboration by allowing file sharing among research team members

Amazon Drive is your digital locker, providing a secure home for your precious research files. Its cloud storage solutions ensure data safety and allow you to share files with your research team, promoting collaboration and efficiency.

Amazon Drive is a storage tool and a guardian of your research. It provides secure storage and facilitates collaboration, making sure your research work remains safe, organized, and accessible, wherever you are.

• Ranges from $6.99 per month to $11.99 per month

Source: https://www.amazon.com

#26. Otter.ai: Best for Transcription of Interviews and Meetings

• Efficiently transcribes audio content from interviews and meetings
• Supports multiple languages and speakers
• Provides keyword search in transcriptions for easy data navigation

Otter.ai is your personal scribe, tirelessly transcribing your interviews and meetings into clear, accessible text. It recognizes multiple languages and speakers, and allows keyword search in transcriptions. This makes your data more manageable and the research process more effective.

Otter.ai does more than transcription—it simplifies your qualitative data analysis. By transforming audio into searchable text, it saves time and enhances data accuracy, which can significantly boost the quality of your research.

• Basic: Free
• Pro: $8.33 per month paid yearly
• Business: $20 per month paid yearly

Source: https://otter.ai

#27. LabView: Best for Data Acquisition and Instrument Control in Lab Environments

• Offers a platform for data acquisition and instrument control
• Facilitates lab automation by integrating hardware and software
• Allows real-time visualization of data for immediate analysis

LabView is your laboratory maestro, orchestrating a smooth interplay between data acquisition and instrument control. Its robust integration of hardware and software allows for lab automation, while real-time data visualization ensures immediate analysis, saving you valuable time and energy.

LabView is not just a lab tool—it’s a catalyst for efficiency and precision. By facilitating data acquisition, instrument control, and real-time analysis, it turns your lab into a hub of productivity, taking your research a notch higher.

• Starts from $493 to $2771

Source: https://www.ni.com

#28. SAS: Best for Advanced Statistical Analysis and Predictive Modeling

• Provides a platform for advanced statistical analysis and predictive modeling
• Supports data management and decision-making processes
• Offers visualization capabilities for better data understanding

SAS is your statistical powerhouse, offering advanced statistical analysis and predictive modeling capabilities. Its data management, decision-making support, and visualization tools make it a comprehensive solution for researchers looking to derive deep insights from their data.

SAS is more than a statistical tool—it’s a comprehensive solution for data-driven research. By enabling advanced analysis, predictive modeling, and data visualization, it empowers you to make the most of your data, thereby enhancing the quality and impact of your research.

• Paid ranges from $1000 to $5000

Source: https://www.sas.com

#29. BioRender: Best for Creating Scientific Figures and Illustrations

• Facilitates the creation of high-quality scientific figures and illustrations
• Offers a vast library of pre-made templates and icons
• Enables sharing and collaboration with peers and colleagues

BioRender is your personal scientific illustrator, providing a platform to create high-quality figures and illustrations. With a large library of templates and icons at your disposal, and collaborative capabilities, it empowers you to communicate your research visually.

BioRender is not just a graphics tool—it’s a bridge between your research and your audience. It aids in communicating your findings more effectively, amplifying the impact of your work.

• Individual: $35 monthly
• Lab: $99 monthly
• Institution: Custom price

Source: https://www.biorender.com

#30. Slack: Best for Team Communication and Collaboration

• Enables smooth team communication and collaboration
• Allows for organized discussions through channels and threads
• Integrates with other productivity tools for a cohesive work experience

Slack is your team’s digital huddle, fostering effective communication and collaboration. Its organization of discussions into channels and threads, along with integration capabilities with other productivity tools, ensures a seamless, efficient research process.

Slack isn’t just a communication tool—it’s your team’s virtual meeting room. By enabling efficient communication and collaboration, it brings your research team closer, improving productivity and fostering a cohesive research process.

• Pro: $7.25 per month
• Business: $12.50 per month

Source: https://slack.com

#31. RStudio: Best for Statistical Computing and Graphics in R

• Offers a dedicated environment for statistical computing in R
• Facilitates the creation of high-quality graphics for data visualization
• Supports the use of markdown for creating reproducible reports

RStudio is your personal statistician, providing a comprehensive environment for R, a popular language for statistical computing. 

This tool aids in creating high-quality graphics and supports markdown for reproducible reports, making it an essential tool for researchers dealing with statistical analysis.

RStudio isn’t just a programming tool—it’s your guide in the world of statistical computing. It aids in data analysis, visualization, and reproducibility, ensuring your research findings are accurate, compelling, and repeatable.

Source: https://posit.co

Academic research isn’t just about the pursuit of knowledge; it’s about leveraging the right tools to streamline that pursuit. As we’ve explored, these essential research software applications aren’t merely aids. 

They’re game-changers. They’re here to tackle challenges head-on, from organizing sources to research data analysis, and transform them into opportunities for growth and learning. 

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

We maintain and update science journals and scientific metrics. Scientific metrics data are aggregated from publicly available sources. Please note that we do NOT publish research papers on this platform. We do NOT accept any manuscript.

2012-2024 © scijournal.org

Artificial Intelligence in Software Project Management

• First Online: 20 July 2023

Cite this chapter

• Liyan Song 8 &
• Leandro L. Minku 9  

Part of the book series: Natural Computing Series ((NCS))

685 Accesses

2 Citations

The success of a software project highly depends on how well the project is managed. This includes crucial activities such as estimating the effort required to develop the software project, creating a software project schedule including allocation of human resources, managing project risks, monitoring progress, etc. Inadequate handling of such activities can thus lead to serious consequences to software companies. However, software project management is also a very challenging task that involves multiple business and human factors, and conflicting objectives. These challenges are exacerbated when dealing with medium- to large-size software projects. Under such circumstances, artificial intelligence has the potential to play a significant role in supporting software project managers, enabling them to make more informed management decisions. This chapter discusses how artificial intelligence techniques can support software project managers with two key software project management activities: software project scheduling and software effort estimation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Durable hardcover edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Editors note: The source code linked in this chapter could change after publishing this book. A snapshot of the source code accompanying this chapter can be found at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6965479 .

I. Sommerville, Software Engineering , 10th edn. (Pearson, USA, 2016)

Google Scholar  

E. Alba, J.F. Chicano, Software project management with GAs. Inf. Sci. 177 , 2380–2401 (2007)

Article   Google Scholar  

L.L. Minku, D. Sudholt, X. Yao, Improved evolutionary algorithm design for the project scheduling problem based on runtime analysis. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 40 (1), 83–102 (2014)

X. Shen, L.L. Minku, R. Bahsoon, X. Yao, Dynamic software project scheduling through a proactive-rescheduling method. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 42 (7), 658–686 (2016)

L. Song, L.L. Minku, X. Yao, Software effort interval prediction via Bayesian inference and synthetic Bootstrap resampling. ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol. 28 (1), 1–46 (2019)

M. Di Penta, M. Harman, G. Antoniol, The use of search-based optimization techniques to schedule and staff software projects: an approach and an empirical study. Softw. Pract. Exp. 41 (5), 495–519 (2011)

F. Ferrucci, M. Harman, F. Sarro, Search-based software project management, in Software Project Management in a Changing World , ed. by G. Ruhe, C. Wohlin (Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 2014), pp. 373–399

G. Antoniol, M. Di Penta, M. Harman, A robust search-based approach to project management in the presence of abandonment, rework, error and uncertainty, in International Symposium on the Software Metrics (2004), pp. 172–183

W.-N. Chen, J. Zhang, Ant colony optimization for software project scheduling and staffing with an event-based scheduler. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 39 (1), 1–17 (2013)

F.P. Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering (Addison Wesley, Boston, 1995)

L.L. Minku. minkull/SoftwareProjectScheduling (2022). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6308397

M. Lukasiewycz, M. Glaß, F. Reimann, J. Teich, Opt4J - a modular framework for meta-heuristic optimization, in Proceedings of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computing Conference (GECCO 2011) (Dublin, Ireland, 2011), pp. 1723–1730

A. Trendowica, R. Jeffery, Software Project Effort Estimation: Foundations and Best Practice Guidelines for Success (Springer, 2014)

J. Wen, S. Li, Z. Lin, Y. Hu, C. Huang, Systematic literature review of machine learning based software development effort estimation models. Inf. Softw. Technol. (IST) 54 (1), 41–59 (2012)

K. Dejaeger, W. Verbeke, D. Martens, B. Baesens, Data mining techniques for software effort estimation: a comparative study. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng.(TSE) 38 (2), 375–397 (2012)

B. Baskeles, B. Turhan, A. Bener, Software effort estimation using machine learning methods, in International symposium on Computer and Information Sciences (2007), pp. 1–6

T. Menzies, R. Krishna, D. Pryor, The SEACRAFT repository of empirical software engineering data (2017). https://zenodo.org/communities/seacraft

K. Maxwell, Applied Statistics for Software Managers (Prentice Hall PTR, 2002)

P. Abrahamsson, R. Moser, W. Pedrycz, A. Sillitti, G. Succi, Effort prediction in iterative software development processes – incremental versus global prediction models, in International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM) (2007), pp. 344–353

M. Usman, E. Mendes, F. Weidt, R. Britto, Effort estimation in agile software development: a systematic literature review, in International Conference on Predictive Models and Data Analysis in Software Engineering (PROMISE) (2014), pp. 82–91

M. Fernandez-Diego, E.R. Mendez, F. Gonzalez-Ladron-De-Guevara, S. Abrahao, E. Insfran, An update on effort estimation in agile software development: a systematic literature review. IEEE Access 8 , 166768–166800 (2020)

S. Keaveney, K. Conboy, Cost estimation in agile development projects, in European Conference on Information Systems(ECIS) (2006)

N.C. Haugen, An empirical study of using planning poker for user story estimation, in AGILE Conference (2006), pp. 21–31

Spareref. NASA to shut down checkout & launch control system (2002). http://bit.ly/eiYxlf

M. Jørgensen, A review of studies on expert estimation of software development effort. J. Syst. Softw. (JSS) 70 (1), 37–60 (2004)

M. Jørgensen, Forecasting of software development work effort: evidence on expert judgement and formal models. Int. J. Forecast. 23 (3), 449–462 (2007)

M. Jorgensen, S. Grimstad, The impact of irrelevant and misleading information on software development effort estimates: a randomized controlled field experiment. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. (TSE) 37 (5), 695–707 (2011)

M. Shepperd, C. Schofield, Estimating software project effort using analogies. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. (TSE) 23 (12), 736–743 (1997)

Y. Li, M. Xie, T. Goh, A study of project selection and feature weighting for analogy based software cost estimation. J. Syst. Softw. (JSS) 82 (2), 241–252 (2009)

E. Kocaguneli, T.J. Menzies, Exploiting the essential assumptions of analogy-based effort estimation. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. (TSE) 38 (2), 425–438 (2012)

P.A. Whigham, C.A. Owen, S.G. Macdonell, A baseline model for software effort estimation. ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol. (TOSEM) 24 (3), 20:1-20:11 (2015)

B. Kitchenham, E. Mendes, Why comparative effort prediction studies may be invalid, in International Conference on Predictor Models in Software Engineering (PROMISE) (2009), pp. 4:1–4:5

C. Briand, E. Emam, D. Surmann, I. Wieczorek, D. Maxwell, An assessment and comparison of common software cost estimation modelling techniques, in ICSE (New York, USA, 1999), pp. 313–322

F. Sarro, A. Petrozziello, Linear programming as a baseline for software effort estimation. ACM TOSEM 27 (3), 12.1-12.28 (2018)

P. Braga, A. Oliveira, G. Ribeiro, S. Meira, Bagging predictors for estimation of software project effort, in International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN) (2007), pp. 1595–1600

L.L. Minku, X. Yao, Ensembles and locality: insight on improving software effort estimation. Inf. Softw. Technol. (IST) 55 (8), 1512–1528 (2012)

E. Kocaguneli, T. Menzies, J. Keung, On the value of ensemble effort estimation. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. (TSE) 38 , 1403–1416 (2012)

L.L. Minku, X. Yao, Software effort estimation as a multi-objective learning problem. ACM Trans. Softw. Eng. Methodol. (TOSEM) 22 (2013)

R.G.F. Soares, Effort estimation via text classification and autoencoders, in International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (2018), pp. 1–8

M. Choetkiertikul, H.K. Dam, T. Tran, T. Pham, A. Ghose, T. Menzies, A deep learning model for estimating story points. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 45 (7), 637–656 (2019)

B.W. Boehm, Software engineering economics. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. (TSE) 10 (1), 4–21 (1984)

Nasa93 (2008). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.268419

B.W. Barry, Software Engineering Economics (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1981)

MATH   Google Scholar  

B. Kitchenham, S.L. Pfleeger, B. McColl, S. Eagan, An empirical study of maintenance and development estimation accuracy. J. Syst. Softw. (JSS) 64 (1), 57–77 (2002)

L.L. Minku, X. Yao, How to make best use of cross-company data in software effort estimation?, in International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) (New York, NY, USA, 2014), pp. 446–456

L.L. Minku, F. Sarro, E. Mendes, F. Ferrucci, How to make best use of cross-company data for web effort estimation?, in International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM) (2015), pp. 1–10

E. Kocaguneli, B. Cukic, T. Menzies, H. Lu, Building a second opinion: learning cross-company data, in International Conference on Predictor Models in Software Engineering (PROMISE) (Baltimore, USA, 2013)

L. Song, L. Minku, X. Yao, The potential benefit of relevance vector machine to software effort estimation, in International Conference on Predictor Models in Software Engineering (PROMISE) (Turin, Italy, 2014), pp. 52–61

L. Song, L. Minku, X. Yao, A novel automated approach for software effort estimation based on data augmentation, in ACM Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE) (Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA, 2018)

B. Kitchenham, L.M. Pickard, S. Linkman, P.W. Jones, Modeling software bidding risks. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. (TSE) 29 (6), 542–554 (2003)

M. Jorgensen, Realism in assessment of effort estimation uncertainty: it matters how you ask. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. (TSE) 30 (4), 209–217 (2004)

M. Klas, A. Trendowicz, A. Wickenkamp, J. Munch, N. Kikuchi, Y. Ishigai, The use of simulation techniques for hybrid software cost estimation and risk analysis, in Advances in Computers , vol.  74 Software Development (Academic Press, 2008), pp. 115–174

M. Tipping, Sparse Bayesian learning and the relevance vector machine. J. Mach. Learn. 1 , 211–244 (2001)

MathSciNet   MATH   Google Scholar  

B. Wlodzimierz, The Normal Distribution: Characterizations with Applications (Springer, 1995)

T. Foss, E. Stensrud, B. Kitchenham, I. Myrtveit, A simulation study of the model evaluation criterion MMRE. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. (TSE) 29 , 985–995 (2003)

B. Kitchenham, L. Pickard, S. MacDonell, M. Shepperd, What accuracy statistics really measure. IEE Proc. Softw. Eng. 148 (3), 81–85 (2001)

I. Myrtveit, E. Stensrud, M. Shepperd, Reliability and validity in comparative studies of software prediction models. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. (TSE) 31 (5), 380–391 (2005)

M. Shepperd, S. McDonell, Evaluating prediction systems in software project estimation. Inf. Softw. Technol. (IST) 54 , 820–827 (2012)

M. Klas, A. Trendowizc, Y. Ishigai, H. Nakao, Handling estimation uncertainty with bootstrapping: Empirical evaluation in the context of hybrid prediction methods, in International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM) (2011), pp. 245–254

M. Jørgensen, Evidence-based guidelines for assessment of software development cost uncertainty. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. (TSE) 32 (11), 942–954 (2005)

M. Jørgensen, K.H. Teigen, K. Molokken, Better sure than safe? Overconfidence in judgement based software development effort prediction intervals. J. Syst. Softw. (JSS) 70 , 79–93 (2004)

L. Song. sunnysong14/SoftwareEffortEstimation (2022). https://github.com/sunnysong14/SoftwareEffortEstimation

A. Ali, C. Gravino, A systematic literature review of software effort predictionusing machine learning methods. J. Softw. Evol. Process 31 (10) (2019)

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

Leandro L. Minku

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leandro L. Minku .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Department of Computer Science and Numerical Analysis, University of Córdoba, Córdoba, Córdoba, Spain

José Raúl Romero

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Cádiz, Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain

Inmaculada Medina-Bulo

ITIS Software, Department of Languages and Computing Sciences, University of Malaga, Málaga, Málaga, Spain

Francisco Chicano

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Song, L., Minku, L.L. (2023). Artificial Intelligence in Software Project Management. In: Romero, J.R., Medina-Bulo, I., Chicano, F. (eds) Optimising the Software Development Process with Artificial Intelligence. Natural Computing Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9948-2_2

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9948-2_2

Published : 20 July 2023

Publisher Name : Springer, Singapore

Print ISBN : 978-981-19-9947-5

Online ISBN : 978-981-19-9948-2

eBook Packages : Computer Science Computer Science (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

• Téléchargement PDF (English) XML (English)
• Alt. Affichage

The Research Data Management Organiser (RDMO) – a Strong Community Behind an Established Software for DMPs and Much More

• Ivonne Anders
• Daniela Adele Hausen
• Christin Henzen
• Gerald Jagusch
• Giacomo Lanza
• Olaf Michaelis
• Karsten Peters-von Gehlen
• Torsten Rathmann
• Jürgen Rohrwild
• Sabine Schönau
• Kerstin Vanessa Wedlich-Zachodin
• Jürgen Windeck

This practice paper provides an overview of the Research Data Management Organiser (RDMO) software for data management planning and the RDMO community. It covers the background and history of RDMO as a funded project, its current status as a consortium and an open source software and provides insights into the organisation of the vibrant RDMO community. Furthermore, we introduce RDMO from a software developer’s perspective and outline, in detail, the current work in the different sub-working groups committed to developing DMP templates and related guidance materials.

The Background and History of RDMO

The Research Data Management Organiser (RDMO) is a web-based software that enables research-performing institutions as well as researchers themselves to plan and carry out their management of research data. RDMO can assemble all relevant planning information and data management tasks across the whole life cycle of the research data. RDMO is ready for application in smaller or larger projects.

One of the results of ‘WissGrid’, a collaborative project in the German D-Grid context, was a small collection of guidelines on how to deal with data, including a set of questions to help organise data publication and data management ( Fiedler et al. 2013 ). The publication collected and reflected the discussion driven by the California Digital Library (CDL) and Digital Curation Centre (DCC) on data management and data management plans in the context of Germany and its landscape of research institutions and organisations.

Some of the takeaways from this work were that only writing up DMPs to meet the requirements of a funding agency would not suffice to guide research projects during their subsequent processes of producing and analysing their research data. DMPs and connected information should better remain in the realm of the workgroup/project or institution instead of a central website.

With this motivation, the DFG-founded RDMO project was set up in 2015 ( DFG 2021 ), aiming to develop a modern and easy-to-install and use web application with a questionnaire based on the aforementioned WissGrid guidelines ( Fiedler et al. 2013 ), a storage engine and configurable output options. The web app has consecutively been early-exposed to interested adopters. By giving extensive support, the RDMO project not only improved its web application but also was an attractor for the formation of new local groups to organise their data management work across institutional borders and local and community barriers.

The RDMO project continued in 2018 to interact intensely with the growing group of institutions and groups that used the RDMO web app in many different ways: not only to produce DMPs but also as a tool to organise consulting and coaching in data management, to enforce standardisation of data management within an institution, to feed available information (e.g., from lab instruments) into a project’s RDMO instance or to adapt the collected information into several formats required by funding agencies or research institutions. A DMP with these additional functionalities can also be used to initiate processes and tasks in the whole data lifecycle and is called ‘machine-actionable DMP’ (maDMP). In RDMO, we implemented the recommendations of the RDA WG DMP Common Standards ( Miksa et al. 2020 ).

RDMO from a Software Development’s Perspective

RDMO is an open source tool whose code can be freely extended and modified. It is implemented as a web application. It consists of a backend part running on a server that is mainly written in Python utilising the Django framework ( https://djangoproject.com/ ) and a frontend part based on common web technologies providing the user interface running in a browser to be able to provide a collaborative platform. Python and the Django framework were chosen because Python is a high-level programming language that is relatively easy to learn. Its emphasis is on code readability and usability, which has made it a well-established programming language in the science community. This provides the advantage of having a certain degree of knowledge in the area where RDMO is installed, maintained, used, and its development is driven forward. From the start, RDMO’s code has been freely available with an Apache 2.0 licence on GitHub, which also serves as a focal point for community feedback (bug reports, feature requests) and for defining and tracking RDMO’s future development ( https://github.com/rdmorganiser/rdmo ).

The software’s first release dates back to 2016. Subsequently, the RDMO community has seen over 60 new versions. Regular releases provide continuity and have made RDMO grow quite mature over time. The exact number of software downloads is unknown, but the number of productive and test instances has steadily been increasing during the last few years and has now reached 56 (source: https://rdmorganiser.github.io/Community/ , status: 11/09/2023).

RDMO was designed to make technical hurdles for administrators as low as possible. It can be installed fairly quickly and does not need much storage space or processing power because it primarily deals with textual data saved in rather small databases. RDMO only requires Python to run, a web server like Apache or Nginx to serve static files and a database like PostgreSQL or MySQL. There are Docker images provided as well to ease the RDMO run for those who are familiar with this technology.

Information is stored locally within an RDMO instance and is structured according to RDMO’s data model, presented in Figure 1 . A person compiling a DMP for a project is requested to address a series of questions. The answers are stored as values of internal variables called attributes and can then be further used to generate documents (views) or to activate actions (tasks).

The RDMO data model. RDMO employs a complex data model organised along different Django apps and modules (representing database tables), which is well documented ( https://rdmo.readthedocs.io/en/latest/management/data-model.html ).

The exchange of information among instances is made possible by using a common attribute list (the RDMO domain), which ensures compatibility between question catalogs and still allows use-case-tailored question catalogs, option sets and views. All this content can be exchanged over the GitHub repository for content.

The RDMO domain currently includes 291 hierarchically ordered attributes, which cover all RDM aspects identified so far and thus plays the role of a ‘controlled vocabulary’ for DMPs. The fundamental RDMO catalog contains 125 questions covering all aspects of research data management. Besides that, several other catalogs ( https://www.forschungsdaten.org/index.php/RDMO ) have been tailored to specific disciplines (engineering, chemistry, etc.), institutions (UARuhr, HeFDI) or funding programmes (SNF, Volkswagen Foundation), taking care to reuse as many questions and attributes from the main catalog and domain as possible to ensure interoperability between existing projects, ensuring that the very same attributes are referred to the questions in different catalogs (thus allowing users to switch catalogs when necessary). For example, there were successfully accompanied attribute supplements for DFG questionnaires from FoDaKo, a cooperation of the Universities of Wuppertal, Düsseldorf, and Siegen concerning research data management ( https://fodako.nrw/datenmanagementplan , see Figure 2 ), and the questionnaire of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg for the Volkswagen Foundation, Germany’s largest private research sponsor. An implementation of the Horizon Europe Data Management Plan Template (for the homonym European funding framework programme) has also been added recently, comprising a questionnaire, new attributes and options, and a view (see Figure 3 ). Soon, the sub-working group will deal with other funding programmes from Germany and abroad, such as the Austrian funding organisation, Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF)’ ( https://www.fwf.ac.at/ ).

Overview of the FoDaKo questionnaires for projects funded by DFG. All questionnaires fulfil the DFG checklist and have different subject-specific coverage, from the ‘minimum’/‘intersection’ catalog with 85 questions to the ‘maximum’/‘union’ catalog (an extension of the core RDMO catalog) with 139 questions. The subject-specific questionnaires include further recommendations from the DFG Review Board on that subject. ‘All questions’ is an extension of the catalog RDMO. Below the title, the number of questions is given.

Preview of the ready Horizon Europe Data Management Plan in the RDMO interface. Compared to the funders’ DMP templates, the questions in the RDMO catalogs are more precise and ‘fine-grained’. Filling out a DMP is further eased with the provision of help texts and controlled answer choices (options). Finally, export templates, i.e., views, are available for converting the data management plan into a deliverable, which inserts references to thematically overlapping questions and converts the data management plan into the deliverable form for the funder.

The RDMO Consortium

The RDMO consortium was founded in 2020 by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) ( https://rdmorganiser.github.io/docs/Memorandum-of-Understanding-RDMO.pdf ) between several supporting German institutions and individuals. The organisational structure with various groups has been approved by an RDMO user meeting. This structure supports future development and is detailed in the MoU. There are three permanent groups besides the general meeting of all members of the consortium, i.e., the signatories of the MoU. Members and other interested parties can participate in the general meeting. The general meeting meets at least once a year, as required. All institutions that are interested in the preservation and further development of RDMO are invited to sign the MoU.

Some of the members are active in various RDM working groups, such as RDA and DINI/nestor ( DINI/nestor-AG Forschungsdaten 2022 ), and thus ensure a user-oriented focus on the RDMO content through their external cooperation.

The RDMO Steering Group (StG)

The RDMO consortium is led by a steering group (StG). The representatives of the StG are elected by the members at the general meeting every three years or as needed. The StG accompanies direction of the further development and coordinates the processes for the further development of the software and its content. It is composed of at least five persons.

The RDMO Development Group (DG)

The technical coordination and further development of RDMO are organised by a development group. In addition to a core of long-term committed developers who continuously drive the development forward, the low-threshold participation of a larger number of developers is required and already in place. These, for example, can contribute to development on a project-specific basis.

The RDMO Content Group (CG)

The work of the CG members focuses on maintaining existing and newly generated content, such as attributes or questions for catalog templates. They provide moderation and support for individual processes, as well as domain adjustments. The CG collects user feedback from RDM coordinators and researchers from research institutions in Germany and checks the general usability of RDMO against the background of user feedback.

The work of the CG is currently organised into four sub-working groups and can spawn ad-hoc sub-working groups for special purposes.

Sub-Working Group Guidance Concepts and Texts

The ‘Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Data Management’ published by Science Europe ( 2021 ) provides specific guidance for different stakeholders, such as researchers and reviewers of DMPs, on how to manage research data, describe data management and review a DMP. The guide therefore comprises an overview of core aspects that should be included in a DMP. However, in such guidance documents, discipline-specific recommendations are often lacking. The sub-working group first collected discipline-specific best practices in data management. Based on this collection and findings, the most relevant DMP sections requiring recommendations were identified. For the structuring of a corresponding DMP guidance, the software design pattern concept was used in software engineering for the systematic description of problem-solution pairs ( Gamma et al. 2014 ). The pattern concept provides a template to store information, e.g., problems, solutions, concrete examples and related patterns. A specific DMP guidance template was developed by extending the initial pattern template. The use of such a pattern structure for DMP guidance ensures that recommendations/guidance can be easily compared and linked. Moreover, the pattern structure can help raise awareness of the potential consequences of not implementing proper data management through concrete solutions. As a proof-of-concept and first collection of guidance patterns, examples were selected from the own RDM support experiences for research projects with different disciplinary foci and iteratively improved the template ( Henzen et al. 2022 ). The DMP guidance pattern structure can be applied to other DMP guidance texts and extended accordingly.

In the future, the working group will further elaborate on how to streamline our DMP pattern concept with RDM community activities, like the Stamp project (Standardised data management plan for education sciences; Netscher et al. 2022 ) or the activities of the RDA working group ‘Discipline-specific Guidance for Data Management Plans’ ( https://rd-alliance.org/groups/discipline-specific-guidance-data-management-plans-wg ). Moreover, they are going to implement the envisioned community-driven guidance pattern collection process, e.g., by guiding RDM support teams and researchers to collect further patterns and provide guidance on how to use the pattern collection. On a practical level, they aim to provide a basic set of patterns for the RDMO community to be used in upcoming and existing DMP templates. However, the group envisioned the applicability and usage of the patterns across disciplines and tools, not limited to their usage in RDMO.

Sub-Working Group Editorial Processes

The sub-working group called Editorial Processes is responsible for the development, curation and harmonisation of the content that is necessary for the local usage of an RDMO instance: attributes, catalogs, conditions, option sets and views.

External authors have the option to make their questionnaires available to the general public in the ‘shared’ area of the RDMO repository for content ( https://github.com/rdmorganiser/rdmo-catalog ). Editorial Processes also accompanies the content development by external authors, cares for its harmonisation and adds the newly created attributes and questions whenever they can be of general relevance. Besides that, this sub-working group has coordinated the localisation of the RDMO software and of the RDMO content into French, Spanish and Italian, yielding a total of five languages.

Sub-Working Group Website

The transition of RDMO towards a community-based project required the website ( https://rdmorganiser.github.io/ ) to reflect the change from a project to a community as well. This sub-working group is engaged in the improvement of the online representation of RDMO, tailoring the information for the different audiences, including end users (researchers), RDM managers/coordinators and system administrators presenting various aids. The focus is on providing informational material that is relevant, depending on the needs of the audience.

The website intends to be the first point of contact for RDMO users or interested parties and to bring together all the available information about RDMO.

Sub-Working Group DFG Checklists

This sub-working group is working on the implementation of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) guidelines for research data management in RDMO. These guidelines must be considered during the redaction of project proposals and are available as a checklist ( http://www.dfg.de/research_data/checklist ). Since spring 2022, many German universities have developed guidelines, commentated versions of the DFG checklist or specific RDMO questionnaires to support their local researchers. The sub-working group was established in October 2022 to harmonise and map local solutions, creating one community questionnaire and export template.

Conclusion and Outlook

The overall goals of the work of the RDMO consortium are to simplify RDM and DMP planning further for users, improve their experience and build a sustainable open source community. With the user perspective in mind, the focus is, therefore, particularly on motivating researchers to use RDMO for their purposes. One of the ways by which the consortium intends to achieve this is by expanding different RDMO catalogs for various purposes (e.g., additional benefits such as project management functions and exchange between the different researchers in the project) by using DMPs. Researchers can be motivated in this respect, not only by familiarising them with RDMO but also by involving them in developing questionnaires that can be tailored to their discipline and/or to the needs of their community.

The development of several RDM initiatives, including the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI, https://www.nfdi.de/consortia/ ), gives great momentum to the discussion around DMPs and facilitates the harmonisation and establishment of common infrastructures. In the coming years, it is expected that the importance of research data and corresponding data management will continue to increase enormously. This will also give rise to further environments and tools that facilitate RDM. Due to its strong community, RDMO has the possibility to offer a significant contribution to innovative and demand-oriented research data management.

Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to the entire RDMO community for all the work, the discussions and the results reached.

Funding Information

The authors would like to thank the Federal Government of Germany and the Heads of Government of the Länder, as well as the Joint Science Conference (GWK) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the projects NFDI4Ing (project number 442146713) and NFDI4Earth (project no.460036893) for their funding.

Competing Interests

The authors have no competing interest to declare.

Fiedler, N, et al. 2013. Leitfaden zum Forschungsdaten-Management: Handreichungen aus dem WissGrid-Projekt . Verlag Werner Hülsbusch. https://publications.goettingen-research-online.de/handle/2/14366 .  

Gamma, E, et al. 2014. Design patterns:elements of reusable object-oriented software . Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley. https://openlibrary.telkomuniversity.ac.id/pustaka/37782/design-patterns-elements-of-reusable-object-oriented-software.html .  

Henzen, C, et al. 2022. A Community-driven collection and template for DMP guidance facilitating data management across disciplines and funding. Zenodo . DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6966878  

Miksa, T, Walk, P and Neish, P 2020. RDA DMP common standard for machine-actionable data management plans. Zenodo . DOI: https://doi.org/10.15497/rda00039  

Netscher, S, et al. 2022. Stamp—Standardisierter Datenmanagementplan für die Bildungsforschung. Zenodo . DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6782478  

Science Europe 2021. Practical guide to the international alignment of research data management—extended edition. Zenodo . DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4915862  

https://dini.de/ag/dininestor-ag-forschungsdaten/ .  

https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/270561467 .  

• How It Works
• PhD thesis writing
• Master thesis writing
• Bachelor thesis writing
• Dissertation writing service
• Dissertation abstract writing
• Thesis proposal writing
• Thesis editing service
• Thesis proofreading service
• Thesis formatting service
• Coursework writing service
• Research paper writing service
• Architecture thesis writing
• Computer science thesis writing
• Engineering thesis writing
• History thesis writing
• MBA thesis writing
• Nursing dissertation writing
• Psychology dissertation writing
• Sociology thesis writing
• Statistics dissertation writing
• Buy dissertation online
• Write my dissertation
• Cheap thesis
• Cheap dissertation
• Custom dissertation
• Dissertation help
• Pay for thesis
• Pay for dissertation
• Senior thesis
• Write my thesis

125 Project Management Research Topics Ideas

Are you urgently in need of top-class project management research topics for your upcoming exam? Keep reading for exclusive writing ideas.

Those who have handled a project management thesis before can witness that this is not a smooth affair. The creativity, level of research, and critical thinking necessary for developing such a paper require a mature student. The greatest hurdle comes in when you want to develop your research topic. Our professional writers have everything you need to write an award-winning paper. Scroll down to find out how?

What Is A Project Management Research Paper?

It is an assignment that requires students to integrate the different processes to achieve a particular goal and deliverables. Project management is based on the principle that all tasks are special, and thus, you should not treat two tasks as the same.

In this type of assignment, students have to develop many coordination skills and fairness in dealing with various projects. Since various tasks differ in line with their functional procedures, you have to dig deeper to determine how each yields direct and proportional earnings in the end.

Does all these sound like rocket science to you? Well, the next few lines will make you understand this subject better.

Key Points About A Project Management Thesis

There are different steps involved in writing a project management paper. These will contribute to the body paragraphs’ overall quality, length, and depth. The various practices involved in project management include:

Initiating Planning Executing Controlling Closing the work of a team

When you bring all these processes together, you can achieve a particular goal or specific success within the set time. That brings us to a critical component of project management – time!

Every project has a given time frame within which it is complete. It is the primary challenge as time constraints are always when unexpected issues arise. However, with practice, time will not be a factor anymore; it will be the motivation for completing a particular project.

If you don’t feel those skills are important to you, you can get custom dissertation help from our expert team.

How To Write A Top-Rated Project Management Paper

For you to write a paper that will get the attention of your university teacher, there are various steps that you have to take. Remember that you have to demonstrate to your professor that you understand your topic and can significantly contribute to the topic at the end of the day.

Here is a step-by-step guide that will take you through the full process of project management writing:

• Understand your assignment: You should carefully read the question and point out any confusing part that you may need clarity with your professor. You also set the goal, timeline, length, format, and other requirements.
• Develop an interesting project management topic: The best way to generate a writing idea is by brainstorming. You can ask a friend tutor or get inspiration from other research papers.
• Begin your preliminary research: You can point out arguments that seem important to your topic and find captivating angles to present them. It is advisable to consult sources such as books, journals, or reliable websites. Having research questions in this section will give you ample time.
• Think of an exciting thesis statement: This will be your central argument that will establish your research paper’s position and purpose. Remember to include the evidence and reasoning you intend to support your answer.
• Develop an outline for your paper: It includes the key topics, arguments, and examples that will feature in your paper. Having a structured outline helps you complete the writing process effortlessly.

Once you complete these steps, your writing will be like a walk in the park. You will express your ideas clearly and have a logical paper.

Now let’s explore some of the most sought after project management topics:

Easy Project Management Research Topics

• How to implement capital improvement projects
• Discuss the essence of a good project management plan before the onset
• The role of technology and funding in implementing projects
• Consider the effects of working from home on project management
• How global companies manage projects across various regions
• What is the impact of the world becoming a global village in project management?
• Why is it necessary to segment tasks in a multi-sectorial project?
• Discuss the process of harmonizing systems, people, and resources
• Why is project management as a course in school necessary for the job market?
• Discuss the challenges related to transit projects
• Evaluate the various trends in project management in the digital age
• The role of leadership systems in project management
• Why time management is necessary for the completion of any task
• How to develop achievable goals or aspirations in a project
• The role of risk management before embarking on a project

High-Quality Project Management Topics

• The undisputed role of administrators in any project
• Technological systems that have made project management easier
• Discuss the complexity in completing different projects
• Why should every project have a project tracking instrument?
• Steps towards developing a working budget for a project
• Why do project managers write a proposal before embarking on the actual work?
• How often should the project manager meet to discuss the progress of a project?
• How to develop cost-effective projects in developed nations
• Discuss the various sources of primary funding for projects
• Why are communications skills necessary for any project?
• Compare and contrast the completion rate of government projects versus private projects.
• Discuss the authorization process of a project

Custom Project Management Research Paper Topics

• Discuss the roles of various officers involved in the running of a project
• What makes a particular project require a great number of resources?
• How to develop objectives and scope of work for different projects
• Analyze how the 24-hour economy is impacting the completing of massive projects
• Why it is important to determine the timing of an escalation in a project
• Should project managers remain engaged throughout the lifecycle of a project?
• Discuss some of the leadership qualities necessary for project management
• Why motivation is necessary for the completion of any project
• How to point out signs of retardation in a project
• The essence of addressing emerging issues in a project as soon as possible
• What are the differences at the micro and macro levels of a project?
• Steps involved in the termination process of a project

The Best Project Management Topics For Research

• Compare and contrast the procedural and mechanical parts of a project
• How to yield direct and proportional earnings from a project
• Management of a project during the economic recession
• Evaluate how COVID-19 restrictions impacted project management policies
• The role of integrating people and machines in the completion of projects
• Analyze the role of soft skills in project success rates
• How does cultural diversity impact project performance in the US?
• Why it is important to keep financial records in the implementation of a project
• Evaluate the design and implementation of projects
• A review of the stalled projects and why the project managers are to blame
• An in-depth analysis of procurement procedures in project management
• How organizational characters affect the development of a project

College Project Management Topics For Research Papers

• Investigate the organizational characteristics that affect project completion
• Identify cost-effective key performance indicators in a project?
• Social network analysis tools necessary for project management
• Discuss how emotional intelligence leads to the success of a project
• How to develop an effective project scheduling system for large projects
• Why standard operating procedures are necessary for effective projects
• The role of teamwork and collaboration in project completion
• Why quality control is necessary for any successful project
• Effective resource management techniques for technical projects
• Interpersonal skills that will make a project work
• Ethics involved in project management
• Discuss project mapping and progress reporting

Latest Research Topics For Project Management

• Are all project problems an indicator of more trouble to come?
• The role of identifying job descriptions in the success of projects
• Why it is necessary to incorporate staff retention and training in projects
• Evaluate the various project documentation processes
• How to develop better project control and management tools
• Discuss the differences between contractual and commercial management of projects
• Why delays and disruptions increase the cost of projects
• Impact of timely delivery of projects on economic development of countries
• Effects of sanctions of global projects
• Discuss conflict resolution practices in a particular project
• How to develop credit risk modeling techniques for projects
• Why appraisals and incentives are necessary for project success

Hot Research Project Topics In Business Management

• The role of business planning in a competitive environment
• How different business structures affect their development paradigms
• How to develop effective customer service strategies for businesses
• Why it is necessary to resolve employment issues before they escalate
• Inventory control practices in business management
• Discussing the necessity of keeping a keen eye on tax compliance in business establishments
• The role of record-keeping in the management of business ventures
• How to develop pricing structures that will keep the business afloat
• Discuss the peculiarities of merchandising and packaging
• Evaluate how insurance is necessary for any business
• Marketing strategies that will outshine competitors in a business setting
• How e-commerce is transforming project management in businesses

Innovative Topics For Project Management Research

• The role of decision making and problem-solving in project management
• Why technology and analytics are important components of successful projects
• How to use organizational culture to the benefit of project management
• How to manage international businesses using social media
• Discuss the role of entrepreneurs and founders in project development
• Effective operation strategies for developing projects
• How to adjust and adapt to organizational change
• Performance indicators that are necessary for competitive project management
• The role of feedback in the development of any commercial project
• Why personal productivity is necessary for any project management strategy
• Reasons why health and behavioral science are important in project management
• Discuss the effects of globalization on project management policies

Quality Research Topics In Management

• Discuss the role of government policies and regulations in project management
• How power and influence impact award of tenders for various projects
• Human rights to consider in project management
• The role of incubation hubs in project development
• Cross-functional management in projects
• Team member engagement in project management
• Legal issues in project management
• Political interference in development projects
• Evaluate various workspaces design
• Why should workplace health and safety be a priority in project management?
• Virtual teams and project management
• Why mission statements are necessary for project management

Construction Project Management Research Topics

• Best practices in digital project management
• How English as a language necessitates project management
• Online technologies that offer innovative project management ideas
• Student-centered symposiums in project management
• Cheap project management solutions that offer quality output
• The role of expatriates in development projects
• Discuss the four phases of project management
• How to manage change in a project
• Agile innovation methods for project success
• Quantitative tools for project management
• The revival of the construction project economy
• Developing sustainable construction projects
• The impact of building information modeling
• Collaborative work in project management

Want an Expert to Do Your Research?

Scoring top grades is no longer a wish but a reality with these topics. If you wish to hire professional dissertation writers for your project management task, type ‘do my thesis,’ Our writers will come through for you. Our writing assistance is all you need to ace your project management paper today!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment * Error message

Name * Error message

Email * Error message

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

As Putin continues killing civilians, bombing kindergartens, and threatening WWIII, Ukraine fights for the world's peaceful future.

Ukraine Live Updates

More From Forbes

5 highest paying skills for project managers in 2024, from research.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

To remain competitive and gain an edge as a project management professional, it helps to learn one ... [+] or more of these five critical skills this year

Within a competitive job market in which 25 million project managers are projected to be in demand over the next few years, it's critical for aspiring and existing project management professionals to stay ahead of the curve so they can secure the highest-paying roles. While the project management profession in itself is a well-remunerated industry, with U.S. median salaries jumping to as high as $120,000, that doesn't necessarily mean that you can sit back, relax, and assume you're worthy of a six-figure salary.

There are things that lie within your power, which you can do to dramatically skyrocket your earnings.

When exploring how to increase and even multiply your salary as a project manager, it's best to look into what are the highest-paying, in-demand skills within the project management industry, so that you can position yourself as best suited for a promotion, or as a star candidate when job-searching.

Highest-Paying In-Demand Skills For Project Managers

The compensation and salary data company, PayScale, compiled a list of high-paying skills which include a combination of hard, technical skills, and soft or power skills for those within the project industry.

It's worth noting that there are some industries in which the impact of these skills on your pay increase will be more visible than others. For example, considering programme/project management within the technology industry, you can expect to earn more for your skill set, as the tech industry is renowned for offering the highest salaries to project and program management professionals. As such, some of the skills listed below are more specific to the technology industry.

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024

Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024.

However, many of these skills are equally in demand in other industries as well, so they can still be applicable and relevant to you.

These competencies include:

1. Agile Software Development

Using the agile software development approach for building and delivering software products entails prioritising flexibility responsiveness and adaptability to change as well as collaboration. Following this framework, you and your team would be working in sprints, (short iterations) which allows you to make incremental progress and quickly respond to stakeholder requirements and feedback to meet their needs.

This is the highest-paying skill for project managers, with Payscale data revealing that it can boost your earnings by 47%. Coursera and Skillsoft are two of the amazing resources that are available for you to learn this skill.

The tech industry offers the highest salaries for PMs

2. Business Analysis

Analytical thinking is listed in the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2023 as the number one skill needed by professionals over the next few years.

Business analysis, in simple terms, is when you identify business needs and research solutions for them. This skill comes handy in your PM role, as you will naturally be working with stakeholders on a regular basis to gather and analyze data on their needs and define requirements, and then propose the best solution with your program or project. This skill improves salary prospects by up to 43%.

3. Engineering Design

Next on the list is engineering design, which is of course more specifically focused on the technology industry. This involves taking the results of your business analysis, and creating detailed plans and specifications, including prototyping and testing, to ensure you deliver a high-quality product that satisfies your stakeholders' needs. This skill is more relatable to product managers, and provides a 14% uptake in salary.

4. Risk Management/Risk Control

With all the changes that are occurring to disrupt industries in 2024, it's no wonder that risk management and risk control are highly in-demand skills for project and program managers to possess. This skill also has the potential for a 14% salary boost, according to Payscale analysis.

You can learn more about how to comprehensively manage and plan for risk by undertaking courses and certifications such as those offered by the Institute of Risk Management, which are globally recognized.

5. Strategy

Strategic thinking is a trademark of leadership, and of exceptional program and project management. You need to be able to steer your project team in the right direction to achieve successful project outcomes, and this means you'll need to have a solid strategy that is clearly articulated so that everyone is on the same page. Setting clear goals and objectives, and assigning the right team members to fulfil each task according to their strengths requires some practice to get it right, but it can be achieved if you're persistent and intentional. Possessing and showcasing this skill results in a 12% salary increase.

Risk management skills helps ensure your project is prepared for worst-case scenarios and minimizes ... [+] negative outcomes, including those that could affect your job directly

By investing in yourself this year by upskilling in one or more of these five essential competencies, you can position yourself to successfully meet the evolving demands of your stakeholders and the project management industry, and unlock numerous career-building and salary-boosting opportunities.

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

Join The Conversation

One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. 

Forbes Community Guidelines

Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.

In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's  Terms of Service.   We've summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.

Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:

• False or intentionally out-of-context or misleading information
• Insults, profanity, incoherent, obscene or inflammatory language or threats of any kind
• Attacks on the identity of other commenters or the article's author
• Content that otherwise violates our site's  terms.

User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:

• Continuous attempts to re-post comments that have been previously moderated/rejected
• Racist, sexist, homophobic or other discriminatory comments
• Attempts or tactics that put the site security at risk
• Actions that otherwise violate our site's  terms.

So, how can you be a power user?

• Stay on topic and share your insights
• Feel free to be clear and thoughtful to get your point across
• ‘Like’ or ‘Dislike’ to show your point of view.
• Protect your community.
• Use the report tool to alert us when someone breaks the rules.

Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's  Terms of Service.

What Is a Work OS? The Best Work OS Software for 2024

Our content is funded in part by commercial partnerships, at no extra cost to you and without impact to our editorial impartiality. Click to Learn More

During our last round of Work OS testing, we found out that the best work operating system you can currently buy is monday.com. It scores a 4.7/5 overall, higher than the 10 other Work OS platforms we tested. monday.com scored the highest on our ease-of-use tests, has a large set of task management features, solid security and customer support options, and an excellent starter plan that you can try for free . Our top 3 picks are:

1. monday.com – The best overall Work OS, easiest to use 2. Teamwork – Great security features and automation builder 3. ClickUp   – The best Work OS for task management & collaboration

Since the mass shift to remote working, you may have felt bogged down by the number of software applications you and your team have to use to perform your daily duties. You’re not alone, either – according to Wrike , 79% of business leaders think there are too many apps and programs involved in their workdays.

That’s where a Work Operating System (OS) comes in. It’s an all-encompassing setup for managing day-to-day work activities, processes, and tasks, as well as projects . You can use a Work OS to successfully replace spreadsheets, boards, and notepads, making your processes more efficient, your projects clearer and your business leaner.

In this guide, you’ll find:

What Is a Work OS?

• The Best Work OS Software: Test Summary
• The Best Work OS Software: Provider Reviews
• The Benefits and Features of a Work OS

Choosing the Right Work OS for Your Business

• How a Work OS Makes Remote Work Better
• About Our Work OS Research

Work OS FAQs

The term Work OS refers to the future of project management software , which is evolving into a comprehensive dashboard for seamless workflows for all employees, whether they’re in-person or remote. Over the last decade or so, businesses have found this software so useful for managing projects that they’ve started to use it for all their operations and day-to-day activities.

A Work OS is “the operating system for putting all your work in one place,” as Zeb Evans, CEO and founder of project management service ClickUp , told Tech.co.

But what does that actually mean in practice? Here’s how business software is evolving to meet the new normal of the business world and your new-look working day. With the days of fully in-person offices gone, the Work OS’s status as a single record-keeping platform is key.

“A modern Work OS is designed to save people time, make teams more efficient, and serve as a single source of record for all work so that everyone can know what everyone is working on” – Zeb Evans, ClickUp.

You might not be able to tip your chair back and holler across the open office to that one coworker, but when dropping a comment on their project, file or task feels just as easy, you’re still connected where it counts.

Best Work OS software to choose

Before we look at the best Work OS software in greater detail further on in this article, here’s our sneak peek at the tools we’ve tested, and what they’re good at:

• monday.com – Best overall Work OS, easiest to use
• Teamwork – Great security features and automation builder
• ClickUp – The best Work OS for task management and collaboration
• Asana   – The best Work OS for data-intensive projects and planning
• Wrike – A Work OS ideal for large businesses, with a large number of integrations
• Trello   – The best basic Work OS, with the cheapest paid plan
• Smartsheet   – The best Work OS for spreadsheet fans

Note:  All the images used in this article were taken during Tech.co’s project management user testing series. For more information on how we test project management tools, as well as other products, visit our  product research page .

Test Summary (2024)

monday.com impressed me the most during our latest round of work management platform testing. I found it the easiest to use by far. Editing dates, deadlines, the names of columns, etc. is all really intuitive. When you’re using software like this for day-to-day work management, it’s important you don’t dread opening it up in the morning – and monday.com’s minimalistic interface immediately makes you feel more organized .

That being said, it’s not quite as feature-rich as ClickUp , which you may find more useful if you’re managing a really big project that involves a bunch of really complex tasks. But monday.com is much more user-friendly – when using it, I could immediately see how this would save my team time. The live chat function was great too – during testing, someone at monday.com sent me a video showing me how to fix a problem I reported within minutes.

Teamwork is another good monday.com alternative if you’re a small or medium-sized business  that needs a bit of an organizational boost – I found it quite similar to Asana, but it just felt like it had been built a little better. The automation builder is excellent and the instructions are really clear.

Tech.co Work OS User Testing Score: 4.7/5 Best for? Overall Work OS, easiest to use

Sheer scope helps monday.com stand out: Its Work OS “spans hundreds of business verticals,” says Matthew Burns, Startup Ecosystems Leader at  monday.com . “Companies use it as homegrown as construction or as industrial as space travel. It requires no coding experience to get started while offering low-code tools for those who wish to create their unique applications on top of our platform.”

• Highly customizable platform
• Custom fields feature available on all plans (including the free plan)
• Rule-based automation can be used to complete simple tasks, like archiving items
• Free plan has 2-person user limit
• Limited third party integrations
• Higher tiers required for basic features

monday.com overview: the best and easiest-to-use Work OS overall

The service’s flexible custom templates helped it score 4.3/5 for workflow creation, as did features like monday.com’s form builder, which can be used to compile post-project feedback, and its range of preset project templates. It’s important to note that monday.com’s ease of use score is higher than the other 10 providers we tested, with an almost perfect 4.5/5 (by way of comparison, Smartsheets scores just 3.6/5).

During our most recent series of tests, monday.com impressed our testing group the most. It has a minimalistic interface and won’t overwhelm you with features or jargon.

“In terms of the look of the platform, I really like [monday.com],” said Ollie Simpson, a tech.co software researcher who participated in our ease-of-use tests. “I think it’s really clear. I like the use of white space because I think project management tools often use different shades and colors to separate different parts of the interface, and that can be quite hard to read and be quite overwhelming”.

monday.com also has the task management tools to compete with the best Work OS systems, scoring 4.5/5. It supplies all the basics (like Gantt charts, sub-tasks, and task dependencies) plus some useful extras (like an AI assistant, which is currently available but in beta). The software also scores 5/5 for data visualization, thanks to the options on its more expensive plans, such as six different chart categories and six different widget options.

You’re welcome to try monday.com for free to get a feel for the Work OS platform.

monday.com’s Kanban board. Image: Tech.co’s testing process.

monday.com pricing

monday.com’s pricing plans only helped the provider to a 3.9/5 for pricing – making it the 7th best provider out of the 10 we tested when it comes to value for money.

Its pricing structure puts it in the middle of the pack, but it also has more plans than most providers with 5 in total compared to Smartsheet, which has 3 pricing plans , so you may find there’s a monday.com plan that fits your budget.

• Free ( $0 ):  monday.com’s free plan has a user limit of two, which means that most businesses won’t be able to use it. However, if you are a duo, you’ll enjoy monday.com’s kanban board, custom fields for inputting all kinds of data, and collaboration tools.
• Basic ( $9 per user, per month) : this plan has no user limit, and the storage is upgraded from 500MB to 5GB. This is the first plan you’ll be able to create or use project templates on, but there’s still not a huge number of features.
• Standard  ( $12 per user, per month): This is where monday.com truly becomes a Work OS, with custom and pre-built automations, a milestone-setting tool, and a Gantt Chart for managing tasks, dashboards for displaying data, a calendar), and integrations with other software, and guest access to top it all off.
• Pro   $19 per user, per month : There are more task management features added on this plan (like task dependencies), a budget management workaround, as well as a chart builder for showcasing insights to the rest of your team. There’s also a resource management tool available.
• Enterprise (tailored pricing): This plan is monday.com’s only plan that offers onboarding assistance, and there are large business-focused functions like dashboards that let you manage multiple sub-boards.

Tech.co Work OS User Testing Score: 4.6/5 Best for? Budget tracking and security options

Teamwork is one of the better all-around Work OS tools we’ve tested – it performed well in ease-of-use tests (4.3/5), tied with monday.com for security (5/5). Best of all though, the least expensive paid plan is $5.99 per user, per month , which is cheaper than monday.com’s.

• Lots of collaboration tools
• Kanban-style boards and Gantt charts available
• Affordable pricing and solid free option
• Great security options
• Limited built-in integrations
• Data visualization isn't the easiest

Teamwork overview: The best work OS for tracking budgets, with excellent security features

Teamwork is the runner-up to monday.com in the race for best Work OS. It scores 4.6/5 overall, an increase from its 4.4/5 score on our 2022 tests. This was heavily influenced by Teamwork’s impressive ease-of-use testing performance. I personally found the platform one of the easier to get to grips with initially – the onboarding is really clear and instructive and the template library is impressive.

“The best and biggest standout feature was possibly the automations – I think they were possibly some of the most thorough that I’ve seen really, really clearly signposted really well laid out,” commented Natasha Willet, Tech.co’s Insights Manager, during testing. “I didn’t have to read an awful lot. It covered so much that I thought straight away I could pretty much do anything”.

Teamwork has a great range of security features, offering two-factor authentication on all paid plans. Single sign-on, Google authentication, and IP restriction are also available on all of Teamwork’s plans, meaning you don’t have to buy an enterprise plan for enterprise-grade security features. There’s also phone and live chat support offered on every Teamwork plan when you get stuck (Asana and monday.com don’t offer phone-based support).

Adding a task in Teamwork. Image: Tech.co’s testing process.

Teamwork pricing

Teamwork has a free plan available, as well as an Enterprise plan with no public pricing. Here’s the lowdown on all five plans:

• Free Forever ( $0 ): On the free plan, you’ll get two project templates and be able to create a maximum of five projects. However, there’s a five-person user limit and only 100MB of storage, so this plan won’t be suitable for large teams that have complex projects to manage.
• Starter plan ( $5.99 per user, per month ):  This plan has a 100-project limit and no user limit, 10 project templates, 50GB of storage, and a portfolio and workflow view. It also integrates with more programs than the free plan, such as Google Drive, DropBox, and OneDrive.
• Deliver plan ( $9.99 per user, per month ): The Deliver plan comes with everything in the start plan plus 5,000 automation actions per month, three custom fields, 20 project templates, portfolio health, planned v actual and project status reports, as well as burndown charts for scrum teams.
• Grow plan ( $19.99 per user, per month ): This plan is geared toward large businesses that may have multiple teams working on different projects. You’ll get 50 project templates on this plan, 20,000 automation actions per month, company timesheets, resource scheduling, and advanced task management tools like Gantt filtering.
• Scale ( contact sales ) : The Scale plan is for teams that want an all-encompassing solution, and would be the best plan for work management if money was no object. On this plan, you’ll get unlimited projects, more than 500GB of storage, Enterprise dashboards, and a custom reports feature.

Tech.co Work OS User Testing Score: 4.5/5 Best for? Task management, collaboration, and overall functionality

ClickUp aims to replace a team’s entire productivity stack, from project management and docs to OKRs, workload management, and more. On our last round of testing, we found it to be the third-best Work OS overall, but the best when it came to the sheer number of features and subsequent functionality on offer.

• 11+ ways to view project progress and data
• Useful "Chat" view for collaboration
• Team view for organizing tasks by team member
• Cheaper than monday.com & Wrike
• Agile project management features
• Vast number of features, even on cheap plans
• Customizability can be overwhelming to new users
• Not great at compiling project feedback
• Comparatively clunky automation builder
• Slow to load on our tests
• No 24/7 live support
• Fewer integrations than competitors

ClickUp overview: the best Work OS for t ask management, collaboration, and overall functionality

ClickUp’s impressive overall score of 4.5/5 is helped by its 4.6/5 for overall functionality, a rating it achieved because it offers the full collection of features you’d expect a proper Work OS to have for managing tasks and workflows. Many of these features are available on its free plan and first paid plan, the Unlimited Plan ( $7 per user, per month ), which is great value despite being more expensive than Teamwork’s Starter plan ( $5.99 per user, per month ).

But ClickUp isn’t all about task management. ClickUp is a 5/5 provider for data visualization (with lots of options for customizing your own charts and widgets) and gets a 4.3/5 for workflow creation, thanks to a huge range of custom templates available in the ‘Template Center’, as well as a custom automation builder that’s available on all plans.

When we tested ClickUp, some members of our testing group experienced long loading times and screen freezes, which led to an underwhelming ease of use score (3.9/5) this time round. I personally thought the setup was quick, but when I started to get into some of the more detailed functionalities of things, it became more complicated and I felt like I was running into dead ends, something I didn’t feel with Teamwork or monday.com.

However, ClickUp’s native email integration helps users tie in their email use, which might be a core concern for your business. ClickUp also recently added a new feature, Pulse, which uses Machine Learning to create automatic activity reports. there’s also now an AI assistant available on all ClickUp plans aside from its free plan, for just $5 per user per month .

Thanks to that low initial price point and relatively cheap third-tier Business plan, ClickUp scores a 4.4/5 for pricing. This makes it our joint-best value-for-money Work OS, tied with Teamwork. Check out our full ClickUp review for a more comprehensive look at all of its features.

The List view & AI assistant in ClickUp. Image: Tech.co’s testing process.

ClickUp Pricing

All in all, when we tested ClickUp’s paid plans , it scored particularly high scores across the board. The provider has an impressive library of communication integrations, lots of task management tools, and integrates with top CRM Salesforce, helping it to a 4.4/5 for pricing overall.

• Free ($0):  ClickUp has the best free Work OS on the market. Although it has a project limit of five, it’s got no user limit, custom and pre-built automations, custom project templates, a Gantt Chart with 100 uses, sub-tasks and task dependencies and a dashboard for data (100 uses).
• Unlimited Access ($7 per user, per month): If you have a little bit of a budget to spend on software, definitely go for this ClickUp plan. The usage limits on some of the free plan features are lifted, as is the project limit, and there’s a calendar as well as 1,000 automations a month.
• Business ($12 per user, per month ): this plan is geared toward larger businesses and has a 10,000 automation limit, a huge upgrade from the Unlimited plan. There are also custom chart and widget builders, so you’ll have more control over how your data is displayed in your Work OS. This plan also has burndown charts for teams deploying Scrum , the Agile working methodology.
• Enterprise (tailored pricing): ClickUp’s enterprise package comes with a dedicated success manager and live onboarding training, as well as a single sign-on function and a tailored Enterprise API.

Before you purchase ClickUp, find out how it compares to other project management software .

Tech.co Work OS User Testing Score: 4.5/5 Best for? Displaying data

Asana is another work management solution that helps businesses handle everything: organizing, tracking, and managing and is used by big names like Uber and AirBnB .

• Unlimited storage
• Plenty of third-party integrations
• Incredible clean and intuitive interface
• Easy to use dashboards and chart builder
• Most key features require a Premium plan
• Very high prices for larger teams
• No phone-based support

Asana overview: a Work OS with best-in-class automation

On our last round of testing, Asana scored 4.3/5 for task management because it provides a Gantt Chart, a Kanban board, time-tracking, and task dependencies, among other useful features. There’s also a spreadsheet view that supports formulas and a resource management feature on the Business and Enterprise plans.

Asana scored 4.8/5 for data visualization – there are 5 different types of charts you can create, and you can pull through data from custom fields you’ve made to display on your dashboard, which other competitors on this list won’t let you do. You can also use a counter-style widget if you have some data that can’t be displayed in a graph. However, none of these features are available on the free plan.

A data dashboard in Asana. Image: Tech.co’s testing process.

Further, the provider’s “Portfolios” functionality helps teams reduce work with project portfolio management, for any number of Work OS benefits, from high-level views for department heads to consolidated institutional knowledge that’s referenced frequently.

Asana scores 4.1/5 for workflow creation (3rd), thanks to one of the simple-to-use rule-based automation builder. While not as good as Teamwork’s , it’s much better than ClickUp’s automation builder, which is clunkier compared to Asana’s.

However, all things considered, Asana isn’t quite as clearly laid out as monday.com. Sometimes , when I clicked on tasks, it just felt like there was way too much on the screen. monday.com’s slightly more simplified interface is a bit less overwhelming, all things considered.

Asana Pricing

Asana, like monday.com, scores 3.7/5 for pricing – it’s a fantastic program, and the first paid plan, the Premium plan, has a lot of what you need to run a project for small teams. The only problem is providers like Teamwork offer very similar packages for less money ( $5.99 per user, per month ), making it better value for money overall.

• Basic ($0):  Asana’s free plan is decent, but it lacks data visualization tools as well as important task management features. It also has a user limit of 15, so won’t be suitable for medium and large businesses (as well as some small ones) which will have more people who need access to the Work OS.
• Premium tier ($10.99 per user, per month): there’s a full set of data visualization tools on this plan, as well as useful task management tools like a Gantt Chart, Milestones, and task dependencies.
• Business tier ($24.99 per user, per month): This is the first plan that Asana will let you build custom automations with its incredible automation builder, which was really easy to use and the best one we tested in our last round of research. There’s also a resource management feature that’s useful for managing the available hours of team members.
• The Enterprise plan (Bespoke Pricing):  This plan, as the name suggests, has enterprise-level capabilities, including increased data control, an Audit log API for security alerts and priority support (including a 99.9% uptime guarantee).

Tech.co Work OS User Testing Score: 4.4/5 Great for? Large Businesses, integrations

Wrike has more choices for larger businesses than most other providers, with an Enterprise and a Pinnacle plan. It’s also got an impressively large suite of useful integrations, scoring 5/5 in this assessment area on our recent tests.

• No-nonsense, robust feature catalog
• Lots of customizability
• Strong task management and data tools
• Huge integrations library
• Not entirely easy to use
• Difficult to use automation builder
• Not the best for collaboration

Wrike overview: a Work OS with excellent integrations

Wrike scores 4.4/5 overall, making it the 5th best Work OS we’ve tested. It’ll be of particular interest to you if you’re looking for software for a large business, as Wrike has two plans geared towards enterprise-size companies. It also came joint first for task management (4.7/5), which means it’s more capable than the likes of Smartsheet, Asana, and even monday.com when it comes to handling complex tasks.

Although work management platforms like Wrike are designed to be an all-encompassing, central hub for your work operations, such is the way of 21st-century work, you’ll still probably end up using some other apps. That’s where Wrike has an advantage over the other work management platforms we’ve tested – it’s the only one to score 5/5 for integrations.

With Wrike, you’ll be able to connect to Salesforce, HubSpot, RingCentral, Teams, Zoom, Slack, Goto, CISCO, Quickbooks, Mailchimp, Zoho CRM, Xero, and a range of other integrations that are likely to have you covered if you use finance, marketing, CRM or communications platforms alongside it.

That’s not all, though – along with ClickUp and monday.com , Wrike is one of the Work OS programs with generative AI capabilities. There are AI-recommended tasks and even a project risk prediction function (although this is only available on paid plans). Wrike has a number of other AI tools coming soon too, including an intelligent search function, smart suggestions, and a work assistant.

The Table view in Wrike. Image: Tech.co’s testing process.

Wrike pricing

Wrike has a relatively limited free plan available, as well as Enterprise and Pinnacle plans that don’t have public pricing. Here’s the lowdown on all five plans:

• Free Forever ( $0 ):  Wrike’s free plan has no project or user limit, which puts it ahead of some other free plans. However, there are very few budget and resource management features, no advanced reporting options, no dashboards, and no automation options.
• Team plan ( $9.80 per user, per month ):  On the Team plan you’ll get automation capabilities and be able to create 50 actions per month. Instead of 2GB total storage, you’ll get 2GB per user, as well as personal work schedules, dynamic Gantt charts, and dashboards.
• Business plan ( $24.99 per user, per month ):  Along with everything in the team plan, the Business plan offers real-time reports, AI-recommended tasks, sub-items, project risk prediction, custom templates & blueprints. You’ll also get a full suite of resource management tools, including a “Resource” view.
• Enterprise plan ( custom pricing ):  The Enterprise plan is quite similar to the Business plan, but there’s a whole range of admin and security features that larger businesses will find useful, like two-step verification, admin permissions, and advanced user access controls.
• Pinnacle plan ( custom pricing ): The pinnacle plan adds “locked spaces” for added security siloing, as well as some advanced resource and planning features, such as job roles. There are also a few extra advanced analytics tools thrown in.

Tech.co Work OS User Testing Score: 4.3/5 Best for? Basic, Simple Work OS

Trello’s 2021 team collaboration-centered upgrade gives the platform a range of views including a timeline, table, dashboard, and a calendar, and centers the service even more on team connection. However, it’s still a basic platform compared to the likes of monday.com and ClickUp – but that might be exactly what you’re looking for.

• Kanban-dominant approach
• Automation is available on the free plan
• Cheaper than most competitors
• Live chat support on all paid plans
• Very simple project templates
• Basic functionality, not updated regularly
• Sparse collaboration tools

Trello overview: the best basic Work OS

Trello didn’t score as highly as some of the other providers on this list (4.3/5 overall). It is, however, a great solution for very basic task management without all the bells and whistles offered by monday.com’s Pro plan – and, sometimes, keeping it simple is the quickest route to success.

Its task management (2.9/5) and workflow creation (3/5) scores are nowhere near as high as Work OS programs like Asana’s scores, but not everyone needs a flashy data dashboard – particularly if your project isn’t data-intensive at all. And besides, Trello still has a very capable automation builder, loads of preset project templates, and a Kanban board.

Trello’s Kanban board. Image: Tech.co’s testing process.

Trello’s security score of 4.4/5 is very decent. Two-factor authentication is available on all plans, as is Google authentication and user permissions. There’s guest access available on all paid plans as well, which is a secure way to ensure stakeholders can view your project without accessing confidential information. However, there are no IP restriction capabilities (even on the Enterprise plan), which stops Trello from getting full marks.

One of the upsides to Trello is the customer support (5/5) options – on its Enterprise plan, which is priced at a very affordable $17.50 per user, per month , you’ll be able to contact the provider by phone, email, live chat whatever time of day your problem arises. This is certainly assuring, especially when downtime can cost some companies tens of thousands of dollars an hour.

“[Trello] is incredibly well signposted and really, really easy to use for what is required from a work management perspective,” said Natasha Willet, Tech.co’s Insights Manager, who took part in our work management platform testing.

Trello pricing

Trello scores 4/5 for pricing, and has one of the cheapest Enterprise tiers available at $17.50 per user, per month – a lot of competitors (monday.com, ClickUp, Asana, etc.) don’t even make their Enterprise pricing public.

Granted, Trello is not as feature-rich as many competitors, but it’s not trying to be – and Trello’s pricing matches that. You will, however, have to pay extra for some power-ups and add-ons. If you’re managing a large project, you may find it cheaper to buy a platform like monday.com, which won’t require much extra to be sufficiently functional.

• Free ($0): Trello’s free plan is an excellent option for teams who don’t want to overcomplicate their task management or workday duties, but need an extra bit of organization and an efficiency boost. Trello will let you build automations on its free plan (although only 205 per month), as well as custom project templates. It has a user limit of 10 and 10MB per file, however, so it won’t suit most medium or larger businesses.
• Standard ($5 per user, per month): On Trello’s first paid plan, you’ll get unlimited project boards, and you’ll be able to show stakeholders your progress via Guest access. The automation limit is expanded to 1,000 per month, but there are still no data visualization tools and you’re only entitled to Trello’s standard support.
• Premium ($10 per user, per month):  On the premium plan you’ll be able to display data on dashboards, and you’ll have a calendar to aid better organization and forward planning. There are also some extra task management tools like a Gantt Chart and a spreadsheet-style view, as well as priority support.
• Enterprise ($17.50 per user, per month): Trello’s plan for the largest businesses adds free Single Sign-On (SSO) into the mix and you can build multiple workspaces for different teams working on different projects.

Tech.co Work OS User Testing Score: 4.6/5 Best for? Ease of use

Smartsheet was the provider our research team finds the easiest to use (4.3/5, 1st) – and as it looks so similar to a spreadsheet, it might not quite be the “baptism of fire” other project management software might be.

• Free Trial available
• Familiar, spreadsheet-like interface
• Great for any sized company
• High scores for security & customer support
• Some features have limited functionality
• Not the easiest tool to use at first
• Competitors like ClickUp have better collaboration features, such as an online whiteboard

Smartsheet overview: the best Work OS for spreadsheet fans

Smartsheet’s spreadsheet-style default layout means transitioning from Excel or Google Docs is quite straightforward. However, it only scored 3.6/5 on our recent ease-of-use tests, which contributed to an overall score reduction from 4.6/5 in 2022/23 to 4.2/5 in 2024.

When using the software, I found it a little hard to know where to start due to the range of options. As someone who hasn’t spent a huge amount of time using Excel, I felt a little lost initially. However, after about 45 minutes of playing around with stuff, it finally clicked and became super simple. It suddenly became a lot easier to navigate than Jira. But that initial confusion is something I didn’t experience when using monday.com and Teamwork .

“You have to spend a lot of time actually setting up this platform for a team” agrees James Macey, one of Tech.co’s software researchers who participated in our ease-of-use testing. “Other platforms are a bit more straight out of the box and ready to go.”

Despite this, Smartsheet performed well when it came to task management, scoring 4.1/5. All the basics you need are included, such as a Gantt chat, task dependencies, and sub-tasks. A range of preset project templates are included but you can also build your own, and a form builder is thrown in for post-project feedback.

The customer support options offered by Smartsheet are pretty good too, with the provider scoring 4.4/5 overall for this assessment area. Email support is available on every plan, while onboarding assistance, phone and 24/7 live support support can be purchased for a small fee if you subscribe to the Business plan (the Enterprise plan includes the latter two for free).

Smartsheet pricing

Smartsheet scores 4.2/5 for pricing, putting it 5th out of 10 providers in terms of value for money. The second tier is priced at $25 per user, per month – which is well over double the cost of equivalent unlimited and premium plans offered by ClickUp and Zoho Projects . However, Smartsheet has a free plan for one user and two “editors” who can also make changes to products, and its Pro plan is cheaper than monday.com’s Basic projects plan. The provider’s paid plans are structured like so:

• Pro ( $7 per user, per month ) : Smartsheet’s first plan has a user limit of 25 and an automation limit of 250 per month. There’s also a 20GB storage cap, and you can only make a maximum of one data dashboard and five custom charts. Aside from that, it’s got a lot of tools for its price, including a Gantt Chart, a calendar, and the ability to add guests.
• Business ( $25 per user, per month ) : The business plan from Smartsheet adds, on top of everything in the free plan, phone support (for an additional fee) and resource management tools. There’s also document editing and 1TB of storage, as well as unlimited automation and integration with Microsoft Teams.
• Enterprise (custom pricing): you won’t have to pay for phone support on this plan, and there’s unlimited storage, custom email domains, advanced analytics, and work insights, plus other enterprise-level features like single sign-on.

The Benefits, Features and Capabilities of Work OS

Now, we’ll take you through some of the benefits of using a Work OS in a little bit more detail. Here are some of the main reasons why a Work OS will transform your work day:

Core Benefits

• Centralization workflow and task management in one place
• Ability to Automate the more menial elements of your workday
• The streamlining of workflows and the subsequent time saved
• Capacity to integrate vital data from other software
• Clearer, in-context communication on the most important data

Additional Benefits

• Getting a better handle on the critical path of your projects
• Better management of asset-sharing between colleagues
• Easier to convey findings to stakeholders in your projects/work
• A smaller datasphere to manage
• Minimization of the dark matter of a workday

Centralizing workflows creates less confusion

Since the pandemic, what has replaced our all-binding water cooler conversations and easy access? Too often, the answer is: inconsistently used management software or target documents.

If your team uses even just two different solutions, then comments and updates might slip through the cracks between them. Or worse, keeping everything up to date becomes an entire work task in itself.

“With different teams working across different tools for a variety of different tasks, teams inevitably become disconnected from their work and each other,” ClickUp’s Zeb Evans told Tech.co.

“With all elements of work moving digital – video chats, email, instant communication, project tracking, reporting, document creation, and so much more – workers are feeling burnt out just trying to keep up” – Zeb Evans, ClickUp.

This is perhaps the most important element of a Work OS – it should focus on making the essential aspects of any business’s workflow more manageable and, in turn, it’ll make people feel less burnt out, confused and unsure of whether they truly have the full picture.

Staying connected with colleagues and goals

Matthew Burns, Startup Ecosystems Leader at monday.com , sums up what makes a Work OS by contrasting it against more limited traditional tools:

“Unlike a conventional task tracking or project management tool, which is primarily a focused solution, a Work OS is designed to help teams plan and deliver on all of their work – like ideation, processes, projects, and initiatives – in one place” – Matthew Burns, monday.com.

The Work OS needs to be robust, given the shoes it has to fill to serve as the central software for a given business. It’ll have to be “innovative enough to replace all the software people already use or integrate with software they want to keep,” Evans added.

With a Work OS, tasks can be seen in the context of a wider project. A project can be seen in the context of a wider business strategy and a company’s (and an individual’s) goals. The timeline for that strategy can be viewed holistically or incrementally. Importantly, it provides a way for employees to understand their role in a business in multiple ways, wherever they are.

“A Work OS is designed to address this challenge by enabling cross-collaboration, transparency, and an open flow of information across a company – no matter how far apart teams may be” Matthew Burns, monday.com.

Once the team is freed from work silos and cut time-consuming tasks, that connection is easier than ever, no matter where they’re working from. In order to shake off the ways of the past, though, you’ll need to know what they are.

Learn if monday.com is the best value for you with our monday.com pricing guide

There are some core criteria a Work OS has to satisfy to be considered a true Work OS. These include:

• It should be cloud-based , so it’s easily accessible from any device or location.
• It should also focus on the essentials of a business workflow – planning, managing, and tracking projects and daily tasks
• It must be flexible/customizable – the Work OS must be adaptable to the latest challenges facing your business.

But there are also other things you’ll have to consider when purchasing a Work OS. The main factors are going to be the size of your business , your budget for software, and the general level of tech savviness in your team .

Company size

Organizations of different sizes and different business functions will need different functions, whether it’s an easily flagged quick review process, or a messaging ability that ensures everyone’s comments on a project are in the same place.

Small Businesses can afford to be less concerned with the more expensive Work OS software plans. These often include enterprise-grade features that would be useless for smaller companies and analytics capabilities that just aren’t necessary. There’s also less pressure to go for complex software with a litany of features facilitating duties like managing multiple teams at once – if you only have one team, you don’t need a Work OS with a function like this.

Medium-sized Businesses as a category of business are perhaps home to the most variation in this context. Some medium-sized businesses will need enterprise-level capabilities and some won’t. One thing medium-sized businesses will have to look out for is user limits – Smartsheet’s “pro” plan, for example, has a user limit of 25, which will be too small for many medium-sized businesses.

Large Businesses will have to shop around for those enterprise-level capabilities that small businesses can afford to avoid. Larger companies are likely to be more concerned with compliance regulations and data security, considering how many people will be managing huge amounts of data, much of it likely to be confidential.

Of course, budget is almost always the biggest consideration – and in an economic climate like the one we’re currently in, there’s even more pressure to spend well on software that guarantees ROI.

If you have no budget for Work OS Software , then you’ll be looking exclusively at free plans. Just be sure to not focus too much on the features on offer – many providers have quite strict user limits. monday.com’s free plan, for example, is only available for a maximum of two people, while ClickUp’s free Work OS app only allows for a maximum of five projects.

Remember though, in the second case, you could always just make a new account when you run out of projects (which may solve that issue for smaller businesses working on less than five projects simultaneously). That’s just one example of a consideration you should take into account when reviewing free project management software or Work OS programs.

If you do have a budget for software, and you want to make a Work OS your priority, then make sure you’re looking at Tech.co’s pricing scores. In terms of value for money, it’s those first paid plans like Teamwork’s Starter plan ( $5.99 per user, per month ) and Trello’s (also $5 per user, per month ) that are often the best bets – lots of restrictions from free plans are often removed and, if you don’t necessarily need the enterprise-grade features of the most expensive plans, it’s a no-brainer.

The other thing to think about, however big your budget is, is how much money you’ll be saving by centralizing your operations around a multi-functional Work OS that can do it all. You might be able to cancel your subscriptions to other applications if you find a program that’s feature-rich enough to deal with all your work needs.

So, it might actually save you money to go with a more expensive Work OS that really does it all, and escape the multi-software hell many of us have found ourselves in post-pandemic.

Your team’s tech-savviness

A third consideration you’ll have to take into account is how tech-savvy your team is. Not all employees have the time to be tech whizzes, and even averagely complex software can feel intimidating if you’ve only just managed to get your head around the fact you can make two different tabs in the same spreadsheet.

Luckily, there’s enough clear, uncluttered, and intuitive Work OS software on the market to get around this stumbling block. Asana’s user interface is easy to navigate around, and Smartsheet is a great option if you want a smooth transition away from spreadsheets.

How a Work OS Makes Remote Work Easier

There are a number of issues that arise when working remotely, some of which come down to hardware setup. One recent survey found the two biggest self-reported work-from-home tech struggles were slow connection and slow devices.

Slow file downloads and dropped calls were also high on the list, further driving home the biggest practical concern facing a hybrid work environment: not all broadband speeds were created equal.

Chart via InMyArea.com

Even with these problems, using a Work OS can help — you’ll streamline processes that could otherwise keep you switching between a handful of internet-eating software rather than just one. But, the Work OS needs to be flexible enough to meet employees where they are, and internet speeds are just one consideration.

“The ability to transition the employee experience from human to virtual is complex and fraught with landmines,”  – Matt Abbott, Head of Recruiting Services, The Sourcery .

Abbott recommends any businesses frustrated with their workflow ask themselves three questions before adopting a new software:

• What problem are we solving?
• Does the tool mesh with our company culture?
• Is this a problem to solve using software, or can we efficiently humanize the process?

Don’t go for the quick fix, particularly in the transition from multiple software tools to one, centralized Work OS. If the value of the software isn’t clear to the entire organization, you run the risk of adding yet another micromanaging tool to a long list of them; the opposite of your end goal.

How We Chose the Best Work OS: Our Research

Here at Tech.co, we can give you the guarantee that we only write about products we’ve researched and tested . In order to do this fairly, we create research frameworks and criteria upon which to assess them, based on conversations with small and medium-sized businesses that want to make informed purchases.

If businesses are telling us that one of their key decision-making factors is how easy a product is to use (which many have) we’ll put that front and center of our research frameworks. There’s one rule we have when it comes to research: if we don’t have the data, we don’t write the review.

We’re very upfront about the fact that we have commercial partnerships with some of the providers we write about (see the wording at the top and bottom of this review). However, our commercial partnerships never, ever impact our editorial independence , rankings, or impartiality when it comes to judging software. That is something we won’t compromise on.

Work OS research at Tech.co

Work OS and project management software research is performed very regularly at Tech.co as it’s one of the software categories we cover that changes frequently. The good thing is that this allows us to keep updating you with the very latest market insights, feature updates, and pricing changes.

For our Work OS research, the core criteria we honed in on (based on the pain points voiced by real businesses) were:

• Ease of Use – an assessment of the platform’s user experience when completing basic project management tasks.
• Pricing – an analysis of how many features users get on a provider’s plans for the price they pay.
• Customer Support – an assessment of the customer support options on offer.
• Functionality  – analysis of both the quantity and quality of features provided by the software.
• Security  – an assessment of the security features on offer, and which plans they feature on.
• Integrations  – an analysis of both the quantity and quality of features provided by the software.

Because “functionality” is such a broad category, we broke this down further into four sub-categories into which all Work OS features fall. These include:

• Task Management – assessment of the performance of a provider’s task management features (e.g. Kanban boards).
• Project and Workflow Creation – assessment of project and workflow creation features on offer (e.g. project templates).
• Data Visualization – assessment of features that aid the presentation of data (e.g. preset charts and widgets).
• Collaboration – assessment of features designed for communication with team members (e.g. an instant messenger).

Verdict: monday.com is the best Work OS

monday.com’s multitude of task management features and impressive ease of use score helped it achieve a 4.7/5 in our testing, narrowly beating Teamwork to be crowned the best Work OS out there. monday.com’s first paid plan costs just $9 per user, per month , and the way it pairs a simple interface with powerful tools makes it perfect for managing and organizing day-to-day duties.

The pandemic started over and, since then, the world has changed dramatically. Importantly, our work changed forever along with it. Right now, employees working remotely and in the office feel overwhelmed by the amount of software that they now have to use. A Work OS, like the one provided by monday.com, can change that – not only will it streamline your workflows and make projects easier to follow and track, but it’ll save your staff precious time and energy too.

We explain more about work operating systems and answer common FAQs about Work OS tools.

What is a Work OS?

What are the benefits of a work os, what's the difference between work os and project management software, what's the best work operating system, what is os project management.

If you click on, sign up to a service through, or make a purchase through the links on our site, or use our quotes tool to receive custom pricing for your business needs, we may earn a referral fee from the supplier(s) of the technology you’re interested in. This helps Tech.co to provide free information and reviews, and carries no additional cost to you. Most importantly, it doesn’t affect our editorial impartiality. Ratings and rankings on Tech.co cannot be bought. Our reviews are based on objective research analysis . Rare exceptions to this will be marked clearly as a ‘sponsored’ table column, or explained by a full advertising disclosure on the page, in place of this one. Click to return to top of page

Get the latest tech news, straight to your inbox

Stay informed on the top business tech stories with Tech.co's weekly highlights reel.

By signing up to receive our newsletter, you agree to our Privacy Policy . You can unsubscribe at any time.

We're sorry this article didn't help you today – we welcome feedback, so if there's any way you feel we could improve our content, please email us at [email protected]

Written by:

Reviewed by:.