Project management need not be a complicated thing. Apps and platforms now make it easier than ever.

You can take care of your team, assignments, and deadlines when you have project management tools, without even being in the same office as your colleagues. Working remotely is simplified by these tools but still enables the employees to execute their tasks and projects.

You don’t even have to spend much money on getting most of the things that you want to do like project planning, effective communication, and producing better quality output.

Here are the 6 project management apps you should consider when outsourcing tasks:

Asana

Asana is a business productivity-focused application and is not complicated to use. Software that can be both used as a task management app and a project management tool. In using Asana Premium, the team’s efficiency increased by 45%.

It can be integrated into productivity platforms such as Google Drive, Jira, Slack, OneDrive, and Dropbox.

Asana aims to develop globally – almost 45% of their customers are from outside the US and teams, companies, and freelancers from 192 countries are using Asana.

Features:

• Has a task-oriented design
• Notifies the users of tasks and approaching deadline
• Has a calendar view that tells the input expected from the team members on the calendar

Pros:

• Best for teams

Cons:

• You can’t assign tasks to more than one user
• Features can get too complex and overwhelming

Monday.com

It’s like hitting two birds with one stone!

And it was hailed as one of the best project management software of 2020! How cool!

Features:

• It’s tailored to any type of market
• Provides stellar support features
• With intuitive user interfaces

Pros:

• This provides features necessary for team collaboration.
• Integration with third-party applications.

Cons

• Price

Teamwork

Teamwork is an intuitive tool for handling work that gets out of your way and lets you inspire your team to concentrate on making things happen. It is trusted by over 20,000 companies all over the world.

Nicci Beacham, the Quality and Resource Manager of Liberty Marketing in 2018 said that her team’s onboarding experience in Teamwork has been smooth. Customer service is fantastic and emails and responses were received within the day.

She also pointed out that, with Teamwork, tracking of time is efficient across multiple clients.

Features:

• It can be used on a laptop, a cell phone, and a table as long as there’s an internet connection.
• Provides a user-friendly interface
• Monitors the completion status of a task

Pros:

• Teamwork desk provides efficient collaboration and communication among users
• Available on mobile

Cons:

• Takes time to set up tasks

Trello

This tool acts as a bulletin board! You can pin pictures, documents, notes, and more. On the front of the cards, a summary is shown, which allows the user to delve into more specific details such as checklists, dates, comments, and attachments.

It’s flexible and integrates with various third-party apps! These include Slack, Google Drive, Hourstack, and Gantify among others. Navigation is simple too! That’s why over 2,000,000 teams across the world signed up and joined Trello.

Features:

• Voting options where users/team members can approve or disapprove of a project
• Users have private channels to communicate
• Mobile-friendly
• It has four price points: Free, Standard, Premium, and Enterprise

Pros:

• Flexibility
• Zero pricing for basic services
• Real-time update

Cons:

• Free version has a limited storage capacity.
• Commenting features need to be improved. It allows you to comment but editing is not possible!

Wrike

It’s an all-in-one project management platform that lets you coordinate your complicated work quickly and flexibly. It is ideal for the handling of coordination and contact with clients by remote teams, medium-sized organizations, and businesses.

Wrike is considered one of the Top 10 Project Management Software of 2020.

This is an award-winning tool- which is highly configurable and designed for teams.

Features:

• Interactive Gantt Chart
• The software integrates other productivity apps such as Google Drive, Slack, and Microsoft Teams

Pros:

• Real-time work updates
• User-friendly task management

Cons:

• Expensive for small teams
• No note-taking feature

Basecamp

Basecamp is specifically tailored for small teams or startups, freelancers, or entrepreneurs engaged in personal ventures.

It helps users to easily connect with co-workers, allowing them to send messages, exchange files and emails, host discussions, coordinate meetings and activities, and delegate tasks.

A dashboard provides an overview of all the text documents, discussions, to-dos, and events.

Features:

• Customized-sharing
• With a customizable collaboration option

Pros:

• Ease of use
• Customer Support
• Can create client-specific projects

Cons:

• Conversations can’t be archived; limited chat support
• No time tracking feature
• No analytics

Project Management is Essential When Outsourcing Tasks

Clients and Freelancers work in different locations

Most freelancers and contractors working online with clients are in different locations. They’re distributed, and it can sometimes cause misunderstandings due to distance, different cultures, manner of speaking, language, and more.

It may be hard to find someone or a company that has cultural compatibility, but there are a lot of companies that are willing to find the balance between the clients and their culture.

Time zones vary, some people may be asleep while others are working

Time zones are very important since they can impede or make productivity possible.

Since clients and freelancers are from different states or countries, they would also have different working hours. Some sleep while others work. It has an advantage though! While the client is asleep, the freelancer is working.

But it also presents teamwork problems and needs additional planning costs due to delayed communication, uncertainty, and rework.

Provides a central location to see the progress of a task

Since time zones and locations can be an outsourcing concern, businesses choose platforms or project management software for them to see the progress of the task or projects they want to achieve with their freelancers.

These software are Asana, Trello, and Teamwork! There’s a lot of software you can use, just search for the most convenient and compatible app for you and your team.

But it’s not just for them to see the progress but also to connect with their teams as well.

Updates and comments can be left for when someone is online

Notifications, feedback, clarifications, and plenty of emails shouldn’t be expected to be answered in real-time. Working in a different time and location, the tendency is to leave messages so the other person can see them until they’re ready for work.

Hiring a Project Manager for your Business or Agency

Project managers promote constructive, straightforward, and succinct communication within the project team and the wider organization. This helps to ensure the project is going in the right direction. Having a key person in a conversation decreases ambiguity and increases precision.

Being a project manager is one of the most demanding occupations as of today. They should be flexible and adapt to different situations, people’s behavior, and environment.

It’s hard to function if there’s no manager, right? Yes, that’s why 68% of companies outsource or hire project managers.

What is the role – technical or general project manager?

The technical or general project manager carries a variety of tasks. They plan projects, manage the budget, and direct teams and members to their goals, all in all, they make the team and the company move forward!

What are their responsibilities?

Keeping other freelancers on track

Project managers oversee things like keeping track of schedules. Companies like USource or Upwork, have project management tools that are used to track their teams’ progress.

Project managers make sure that freelancers are always on-task and on schedule to avoid delays.

Keeping the owner/onshore team up to date

Communication is key to almost everything in outsourcing. Your boss (the owner) should know what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. After all, they’re the owner!

You just can’t assume that they know what you’re doing, how the company is performing, the progress of the team unless you provide them information.

That goes with your team as well. They have to be informed with all the schedules, deadlines and deliverables they have to accomplish.

That’s also why project management tools are essential in outsourcing. It makes updating and sharing information easier and quicker.

Are they responsible for when new projects start?

Project managers are responsible for when new projects start. They’re tasked to disseminate the project or to hand in the new ones to employees.

But the work doesn’t just end there! They also ensure that the freelancers meet the clients’ needs – making the project more likely to be successful.

Do they have responsibility for deadlines being met?

Yes! A project manager should make sure that the project is delivered on-time! Project managers should set realistic deadlines and meet with her team from time to time to make sure that they are on track.

What skills should a project manager have?

Attention to detail, strong planning skills, Agile (project management) certification, Kanban project management skills.

A project manager should have the following skills:

Attention to detail

He or she should maintain a checklist, a calendar of scheduled tasks and deliverables. This skill allows you to enhance your team’s efficiency, profitability and success!

Strong Planning skills

One of the skills that a project management should possess is formulating a strategy and a plan to achieve the project’s goals while adhering to the budget and deadline.

He or she should be able to use effective strategies and positive approaches to direct and influence her team members.

Agile Project Management Certification

A project manager should possess the Agile project management certification. It is created to help managers and teams deliver the highest quality of work possible.

If a project manager is knowledgeable about Agile, he or she could implement approaches to planning and project management.

Agile’s basic goal is to be agile and adapt to changes rather than being pressured to operate against a predefined schedule that could become outdated as the project progresses.

Which is very relatable to a project manager for they deal with changes and pressure almost all of the time!

Kanban

Kanban fosters effective collaboration and productivity.

If a project manager has these skills, workflow will be visualized. You can add new ideas, projects, tasks, notes in a board, but digital! With Kanban boards, your team will become self-motivated. The expectations on your team is transparent, and the level of engagement rises.

---

If you are managing a workforce, reliable resources are essential for real-time communication and knowledge sharing that’s why project management tools are essential in outsourcing tasks.

These tools increase resource efficiency and maintain project reach, which are important to project managers and companies involved in broad, complex projects.