Task Management Software

Task management software buyers guide

Task management software allows businesses to automate processes involved in creating, assigning, prioritizing, and tracking the tasks of a project. This enhances team efficiency and helps complete projects on time. 

In this buyers guide, we’ll look at the key features and considerations you should have in mind when buying task management software.

Here’s what we'll cover:

• What is task management software?

• Deployment options for task management software

• What are the common features of task management software?

What is task management software?

Task management software is a tool designed for collaborative project execution. The solution is used by teams to view task schedules on team calendars and track task status using online project dashboards. 

A key facet of task management software is that it’s usually offered as a module within full-suite project management solutions that include additional features for advanced project planning, in-depth reporting, and extensive team collaboration.  

Deployment options for task management software

Task management solutions come in cloud-based (SaaS) or on-premise versions. The key difference is that vendors take care of hosting and managing a cloud-based solution but with on-premise tools this responsibility lies with the buyer.    

Both the deployment options have their pros and cons but we focus on cloud-based software over on-premise ones. For small businesses, cloud-based tools make more sense as they require lower upfront costs, have faster implementation, receive automatic updates, and need no maintenance on users’ end.  

Here’s the difference between the two:

• Cloud-based: Pay for your preferred monthly/annual subscription plan and you’re good to go; all you need is a computer with an internet connection. You can scale the services up or down as per changing business requirements.

• On-premise: There’s no recurring monthly/annual charge involved; you purchase the license upfront (costlier than the other option) and host the software on your own servers. You sacrifice easy scalability but win complete control over your data. 

Key question to ask SaaS vendors:

• What security measures have you put up to protect our data?

Key question to ask on-premise solution vendors:

• What’s the typical implementation time of the tool? 

What are some common features of task management software?

The core features of task management solutions revolve around execution of tasks: creating, editing, and tracking their completion.  

Let’s look at the most common features of these solutions:

Task creation and scheduling: Breakdown a project by creating tasks and subtasks from scratch or by importing from email, Excel spreadsheets, or .csv files. Assign tasks to team members by adding details about the activity and due dates.  

Scheduling a task in Airtable

Progress tracking: Track status of tasks, such completed, in-progress (with percentage of completion), or overdue. View these details as task lists, calendars, or kanban dashboards. 

Tracking tasks in Asana

View and edit tasks Update tasks with additional details, re-use or copy existing task lists, drag-and-drop tasks to change their status, bulk assign tasks, and color-code tasks to assign priority.  

Viewing and editing task details in Flowlu

Task notifications: Configure automatic emails or in-app alerts to notify stakeholders about changes made to tasks, such as due date extensions. 

Configuring task notifications in Any.do

Task tagging and search: Organize and catalog tasks with appropriate labels for easy search using filters, such as departments, project names, and due dates. 

Using filters to search tasks in Airtable

Collaboration: Share files with team members; attach documents and images, leave notes, and reply on comments to explain the details of a task. 

Commenting on a task in Basecamp

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Note: The applications selected in this article are examples to show a feature in context, and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations; they’ve been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.