Never has there been a workflow responsible for so many colloquial expressions - “keeping your head above water” or “drinking from a fire hose” or “herding cats”- than project management. Referring to the endless, and oftentimes overwhelming, amounts of information, activities, decisions and issues arising from the jobsite, project managers are tasked the responsibility of harnessing and controlling variables. Amidst this onslaught, it's average project managers who manage variables when they arise. Only great project managers anticipate and mitigate variables before they even appear.

 

As technology tools develop, project managers are now able to get ahead by capturing and analyzing actionable data in less time than ever before. This is translating into better field management, better decisions, better negotiating leverage and more capacity to plan ahead. Effectively, technology is turning the most basic project managers into great project managers.

 

In the Single-Point Project Management Tools category of Construction Tools, Blue Collar Labs explores the technology products that are helping construction companies (and their project leads) better organize, manage, monitor, track and analyze jobsite information.

 

The 9 sub-categories of Project Management Tools include:

1. Analytics: Tools that help gather, organize and analyze project data for improved decision making;

2. Change Management: Tools that help organize and manage project change orders;

3. Document Builder: Tools that help companies build custom, digital forms, reducing the overall need for paper;

4. Document Management: Tools that help capture, organize, manage and store project information;

5. Drawing Management: Tools that help capture, organize, manage and store project designs;

6. Drawing Viewer: Tools that enable digital access to project designs for mobile viewing;  

7. Image (Photo/Video) Capture: Tools that help digitally capture, organize and store project photos and/or videos;

8. Risk Management: Tools that help managers mitigate or eliminate project-related exposures;

9. Subcontractor Management: Platforms that help project leads organize subcontractor information, monitor compliance, and improve accountability;

10. Task Management: Tools that help teams organize task lists and to-dos;

11. Team Management: Tools that help managers monitor the progress and success of their teams