Any project manager works with four elements: cost, schedule, duration and producing a satisfactory result. Qualified PMs also attempt to make the organization of work better. The majority of tasks utilize such recourses as labour, funds, and tools to achieve something of value and meet objectives. To work with projects effectively one need to handle several factors. You can look through a few of such factors in the list below:

- Goal setting and assessing progress.

- Managing risks. Take any project and you will see that it has a lot of uncertainties that have to be accounted for.

- Assigning and managing resources.

- Determining the products of the project.

- Managing what is happening: giving out tasks, supervising execution.

- Ensuring that the outcomes of the tasks are up to standard.

- Managing changes. Circumstances change. Most projects occur in time, so the element of change has to be properly considered.

- Speaking with those involved with the project.

Regular ways of supervising projects, such a pencil and paper, can be used to manage the majority of of these things. But you get quite a few pluses if you decide to use project tracking software:

- It simplifies scheduling. The software can automate scheduling calculations. Each resource can possess their own time-table. Managing work-in-progress also becomes not that much of an issue.

- Managing a few projects with different prerequisites. Executives can use productivity tracking software to simplify analysis of several big projects.

- Critical path is nicely observable. The critical path is an important concept in project planning. Should a task on this path take less or more time, the rest of the project will be affected. It should be noted that for tasks that are not on the critical path small changes in how long it takes can have no impact whatsoever on other activities.

- Allowing everybody involved know what is going on. Complex projects require communication. Groupware productivity tracking software enables each participant to be on the same page at any given point in time.

Should you always go for task tracking software?

Like any instrument, project management software has its issues. It produces the greatest value when employed for several large projects. Little projects can be managed using a spreadsheet program which allows you to save on overhead costs of managing such complex software.