The world has changed. Why is this happening? Smartsheet transforms your work.
I use 12 different software tools and online resources in my day-today work. This is more than twice the number of tools that project managers use in their projects on average, according to a recent study.
This raises two questions: How many online tools do you use in your digital projects? What is the best number of project management tools?
You could find yourself or your organization in one of these two camps
Your company is newer and your tech stack is very light. You may only use one tool for everything. Most likely, you’re using freemium software for the majority of your work.
Your org is further along the maturity spectrum and you prefer to use multiple tools with one for each function: internal team communication, project planning and progress tracking, reporting, CRM, etc.
Which approach is better? These are my findings.
That is what I found:
An average of 5.6 tools are used in a digital project.
Project management software was the most popular type.
Google Workspace (previously known as G Suite) was the most popular tool.
This article explains.
The Essentials of Project Management Tool Use
Methodology
What is the Optimal Number of Tools for a Project?
The Essentials of Project Management Tool Use
As I mentioned, the average number used in a digital project is 5. My survey results showed that most respondents included a project planning or scheduler software, email, and a communication tool for internal communications.
Here is a list of the most used types of tools. The number of times a tool is mentioned within a category in a response is indicated by the number of mentions.
In my survey, I asked respondents how many times each type of software was mentioned.
The other category was:
Task management software
Software to track bugs
CRM software
Software for service or help desk
The most talked about topic was project management software. We’ve already written about the benefits and importance of project management software, but suffice it to say that it’s essential for efficient and effective project administration these days.
Google Workspace, previously known as G Suite, was the most popular tool. This is due to the fact that every organization needs file organization, storage, creation, and deletion.
There was also a wider selection of project management software options. 11 different project management tools were mentioned in the responses, compared with 5 different file organization, storage and creation tools.
The world has changed. Why is this happening? Smartsheet transforms your work.
The previous pie chart indicated the number of times each type software was mentioned. However, it did not indicate the specific tool mentioned. This pie chart shows how many tools were mentioned within each category. The number of different tools represents the count of all discrete tools mentioned in all responses.
My survey results revealed the number of different software tools that were mentioned in each category.
The other category was:
Task management software
Software to track bugs
CRM software
Software for service or help desk
It is worth noting that some respondents mentioned multiple software in the same category. One respondent mentioned Airtable and Basecamp, while another said Airtable and Aircamp. Both are project management software, even though each was used for different purposes by the respondent.
Similar Read: Why Use Project Management Software?
Methodology
I used a typeform to ask “How many tools do your use?” to collect data for this piece.
