What's the difference between project management and workflow management. Do you know?

As your business grows, getting stuff done gets cumbersome and challenging. You become part of the statistics the Project Management Institute discovered in its 2015 study: On average, over a third of projects don’t meet their goals – the same as it was in 2012.

Source: Project Management Institute

But what criteria should you consider, and how are you supposed to find the most accurate solutions for the goals and operations of your specific business?

 

Project Management vs. Workflow Management

PMChat reports “that the use of commercially available PM software increases performance and satisfaction,” yet “44% of project managers use no software.”

If that’s you, tapping into the market of tools out there can be overwhelming. So before we talk about tools and software solutions, let’s clarify the difference between project management and workflow management, to help you understand what to look for.

Even though the two concepts are related, they are not the same. As the names suggest, one is for managing projects, while the other is about managing operations and processes – or, to say it differently, workflows.

What is Project Management?

According to the Project Management Institute, project management as the “application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.”

This is where they differ from workflow management tools.

What is Workflow Management?

Workflow management focuses on the little details that turn the big picture into reality. According to TaskTrakz, “workflow is… [a] series of stages as well as how you can move between the stages.”

Tools that specialize in this help you manage individual employee tasks and workloads, and create well-defined business processes that become routines.

The Critical Aspect Lacking in Most Project Management and Workflow Management Tools

It’s bad enough that you can find way more methodologies and tools for project management, whereas workflow management solutions often offer you nothing more than glorified checklists.

But what’s really frustrating is that, like in project management, most workflow management tools lack collaboration and communication options. Many tools rely too heavily on external solutions, like email, for coordination and communication.

As a result, you’ll often find yourself managing a team where different people use different tools to work on the same endeavor. For example, some people use Google Docs to make it easier to collaborate, while others still stick to good ole Microsoft Word.

Project Workflow Management: Combining the Best of Both Worlds for a Holistic Solution

Project workflow management is more of an approach than a software category. By implementing project management methodologies onto workflow management (and vice versa), you can get the best of both worlds with a minimal number of systems involved.

That, of course, means higher productivity, faster growth and greater profits.

How to Choose the Best Project Workflow Management Tool for You

Thankfully, there are software products out there that let you optimize both project management and workflow management, while remaining agile and versatile, in a cost effective way.

These tools let you communicate with teams no matter where everyone is located, assign tasks and subtasks back and forth, and collaborate with fellow team members faster and more effectively. That, in turn, translates into cost saving and greater business growth.

What Every Great Project Workflow Management Software Needs to Offer

Most workflow management tools simply give you a bunch of repetitive checklists, but that’s not enough for a software product to truly be considered a project workflow management tool.

Rather, the tool needs to provide a more holistic perspective and be able to demonstrate how the tasks work together as part of a project roadmap, with specific goals, objections and tasks. The software has to be able to provide accountability at the singular employee level and provide these insights in an easy to digest manner. In addition, the tool has to be able to provide a holistic solution for team collaboration on a specific project and across projects as well.

Our Favorite Project Workflow Management Tools: A Comparison

To make it easier for you to get productive, we decided to do all the heavy lifting and provide you with a comparison of our favorite project workflow management tools.

Tool

Pricing

Free Trial Length

  Implementation  

Reliability & Experience

Aha!

$74-149/month. More for enterprise, less for  early  stage startups. 20% off for annual  purchases.

30  days

Offers a great  knowledge base   (videos included)  to get you started.

Success  stories   include  LinkedIn,  Siemens,  OkCupid.

Connecteam

$0-$599/month

Unlimited

Onboarding one-  on-sessions, help-  center, built-in  tutorials, and blog  posts.

Success stories  include  Sodastream,  FOX Group,  Centennial  Sweeping,  Canada  Restoration.

Easy Redmine

$33-111/month for cloud version. More if you  have  100+ users. Annual purchase discounts  available.  Server versions: $559-2,239 one  time payment. More  if over 100 users.

14 days

The knowledge  base includes a  wealth of  manuals.

Success  stories   include Gita  Technologies,  World  Innovation  Technologies,  Lear  Corporation.

ITM Platform

Calculate your price by choosing the number of  team  members, guests, project managers and  those with a  full access pass, as well as  subscription length.  Discounts start with a 3  months subscription.

14 days

The knowledge base offers user  guides and  tutorials  (including video  tutorials).

Customers   include CLH,  Repsol, Loewe,  Elavon.

 

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