Project Management Software: Microsoft Project and Alternatives

This project management assignment provides a comparative analysis of four project management software tools: Microsoft Project, Basecamp, Jira, and Trello. The analysis begins with an overview of MS Project, highlighting its flexibility and features like Gantt charts, resource management, and budget management. It then discusses the pros and cons of MS Project, including its cost and compatibility issues. The assignment proceeds to evaluate Basecamp, focusing on its communication and collaboration features, along with its advantages like simple pricing and integration capabilities, and disadvantages such as lack of time tracking. Jira software is then examined, detailing its customizable workflows, task assignment features, Kanban boards, and support for agile project management, along with drawbacks like integration challenges and limited file size. Finally, the assignment reviews Trello, emphasizing its visual approach, ease of use, mobile-friendliness, and Kanban system. It also addresses limitations such as its suitability for simple projects and difficulties in handling large, globally distributed teams. The assignment concludes by recommending MS Project as the best software based on the detailed comparative analysis.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Task 4: Project management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
Task 4...............................................................................................................................................2
4.1 Microsoft project...................................................................................................................2
4.2 Basecamp...............................................................................................................................3
4.3 Jira..........................................................................................................................................4
4.4 Trello......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

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Task 4
4.1 Microsoft project
MS project is a project management software that mainly help the users in executing
projects properly by allowing them to evaluate and optimize the entire project portfolio
effectively. The MS projects are generally helpful in both planning and managing the projects.
Pros of MS project
According to (Wale, 2015) MS project is considered as one of the most flexible project
software tools that help the managers with different scheduling features including Gantt charts
with the help of which all the activities of the project can be effectively planned by getting
proper understanding about the project. In addition to this, other activities like resource
management as well as budget management for the project can be effectively done by using the
MS Project software (Fuller et al., 2017).Furthermore, the projects are generally managed from
starting to the completion phase for effectively controlling the project and for determining
different types of challenges and issues that mainly occurs within the project.
Cons of MS Project
On the other hand, it is stated by Baumann and Trautmann (2015) that Microsoft on-
premise solution generally has greater number of features as compared to different cloud-based
version and therefore they are quite expensive which can be considered as a major disadvantage.
In addition to this, MS projects are considered proprietary so there are a number of combability
challenges if one generally need to open a project in some another workstation that generally
does not have the particular software. As most of the users generally prefers MS project as it

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provides a number of features but they also receive a number of complaints due to improper real
time updates for tracking project progress.
4.2 Basecamp
According to Fishburn (2017), Basecamp is defined as a cloud based online project tool
that is mainly suited for small projects where both communication as well as collaboration is
needed. It is considered as one of the simple as well as elegant tool that is quite easy to utilize.
Pros of Basecamp
Basecamp helps in allowing integration with the different third-party tools for proper
synchronization as well as backup. In addition to this, the pricing system of basecamp is found to
be very much simple as it generally has two options that is the free plan and the paid plan. The
first one generally has a number of limitations for the users while the second one generally helps
in offering unlimited number of projects as well as users (Boonen, 2018). Aside from this, the
software also helps in offering 30 days of free trial for the customers who generally want to
know much more about the software. Furthermore, basecamp is helpful in storing documents,
images, files while sending messages. It can be properly connected with the Google docs such
that when documents get attached, they can be properly dragged as well as dropped for
uploading. Moreover, basecamp can be properly integrated with other types of apps as well as
software so that they can be properly connected with the Bridge24 for Basecamp that further
expands the existing as well as non-existing features which are considered necessary for the
users.

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Cons of Basecamp
On the other hand, it is stated by Onwuanumkpe (2016), Basecamp does not provide
proper time tracking facility. Time tracking within the project is important aspect for making
sure that the deadline of the project must be met effectively. This is considered as one of the
significant parts of Basecamp which requires proper improvement. In addition to this, it is
identified that Basecamp does not provide starred items sections in order to find out some of the
files or messages that they are generally looking for. Furthermore, the topic list of Basecamp can
get crowded but it generally does not allow the users for archiving the unused ones.
4.3 Jira
Jira software is considered as one of the customizable workflows that helps in allowing
the users for tracking different types of issues, tasks, bugs as well as activities which are
predefined workflow that can further be utilized for modifying the fit user’s needs.
Pros of Jira Software
It is found that Jira software helps in allowing the users to properly assign the required
tasks to complete the project effectively. It further has tools including views as well as reports
that helps in providing information about due dates as well as statuses (Ortu et al., 2016). The
entire team is able to properly collaborate with each other for providing proper feedback for
managing the approval for requests. Furthermore, Jira generally include proper flexible Kanban
boards for providing the users proper visibility about what is completed in the project. By using
the Kanban system, the entire system helps in allowing the team to properly prioritize their work,
visualize workflow as well as minimize the progress of the work (Ortu et al., 2015). Moreover, it
is one of the projects tracking as well as management software that helps in supporting both the

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traditional as well as agile project management. It is one of the centralized workflows that further
help the users in controlling the project status for properly tracking information.
Cons of Jira Software
On the other hand, it is stated by Harned (2018) that while using Jira software, it is quite
difficult to integrate properly with other applications of lifecycle management. Reports are
generally not usable as Jira graphical reports cannot be properly downloaded in the form of
image effectively. Furthermore, the users generally complain about the size of the file that is
uploaded as size is limited to 10 MB. The UI of the software it bit cluttered and the filtering tools
that are used are not the easiest to utilize. Moreover, some of the Jira graphical reports cannot get
downloaded as an image as it alters resolution of the images that further results in poor images.
4.4 Trello
According to Parsons et al. (2018), Trello is considered as one of the incredible web-
based management as well as collaboration tool which is helpful in planning the projects in one
particular platform. It is highly visual as well as adaptable for making the life easier while
working on the project.
Pros of Trello software
The ease of properly working with Trello is because of three tier information system.
When it is compared with other software tools, Trello is considered to be less complex pricing
structure and it is considered as a version where one can be able to invite unlimited number of
members including card as well as list. Furthermore, Trello helps in properly understanding the
deadlines and it is considered to be very much mobile friendly. Trello generally works on a
number of platform and it is a tool which can be reformatted on the screen size. Moreover, it is

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found that Trello generally follows Kanban system that further helps in scheduling the tasks to a
number of components by utilizing a system of cards as well as boards which further plays a
major role in reflecting the bottlenecks within the entire development procedure.
Cons of Trello software
It is stated by Khoii and Gharibshah (2017) that Trello is quite difficult to handle while
managing big projects that have a number of teams that are spread across the globe. It is found to
be quite suitable for simple team projects when one generally needs to scale. In addition to this,
one of the problems that is associated with Trello generally needs to be encountered for properly
editing and commenting the card. If one post gets saved then one need to write different types of
comments rather than editing the existing one properly. Moreover, the board is quite simple and
therefore it helps in proper software development but it does not assist in road mapping
effectively.
4.5 Best software
It is found that MS Project is the best software out of all the project management
software that are described above. This application is properly designed for assisting the
managers in effectively developing plans, for assigning different types of resources as well as for
tracking the progress of the project effectively (Baumann & Trautmann, 2015). The MS project
helps in creating budget that is mainly based on the assignment work as well as resource rates. In
addition to this, MS project helps in providing reporting feature that is helpful in tracking the
progress of the project and further allows an individual to effectively monitor the progress of the
project quite effectively.

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References
Baumann, P., & Trautmann, N. (2015). Resource-constrained project scheduling with project
management information systems. In Handbook on Project Management and Scheduling
Vol. 2 (pp. 1385-1400). Springer, Cham.
Boonen, T. (2018). Lead-time reduction through modularisation & systems engineering in Dutch
military basecamp design (Master's thesis, University of Twente).
Fishburn, J. A. (2017). Keeping on Track: Using Basecamp to Manage a Classroom-As-Game-
Studio.
Fuller, M. A., Valacich, J. S., George, J. F., & Schneider, C. (2017). Information Systems Project
Management: A Process and Team Approach, Edition 1.1. Prospect Press.
Harned, D. (2018). Hands-On Agile Software Development with JIRA: Design and manage
software projects using the Agile methodology. Packt Publishing Ltd.
Khoii, R., & Gharibshah, A. (2017). Effects of Using the Google Search Engine, the Trello
Learning Management System (TLMS), and Classroom Form-Focused Instruction on
Developing EFL Learners’ Grammatical Knowledge. In 12th International Conference
Innovation in Language Learning (p. 175).
Onwuanumkpe, J. C. (2016). Capacity optimization of battery-generator hybrid power system:
Toward minimizing maintenance cost in expeditionary basecamp/operational energy
applications.

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Ortu, M., Murgia, A., Destefanis, G., Tourani, P., Tonelli, R., Marchesi, M., & Adams, B. (2016,
May). The emotional side of software developers in JIRA. In 2016 IEEE/ACM 13th
Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR) (pp. 480-483). IEEE.
Ortu, M., Destefanis, G., Adams, B., Murgia, A., Marchesi, M., & Tonelli, R. (2015, October).
The jira repository dataset: Understanding social aspects of software development.
In Proceedings of the 11th international conference on predictive models and data
analytics in software engineering (pp. 1-4).
Parsons, D., Thorn, R., Inkila, M., & MacCallum, K. (2018, December). Using Trello to Support
Agile and Lean Learning with Scrum and Kanban in Teacher Professional Development.
In 2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for
Engineering (TALE) (pp. 720-724). IEEE.
Wale, P. M. (2015). Planning and Scheduling of Project using Microsoft Project (Case Study of a
building in India).