The 8 best project management software for engineers

As an engineer, you’ve had to master the art of thinking big — and solving small.

Engineers have to understand the big picture and see where the ship needs to go. But they also need to build the microscopic parts and pieces of that ship — sometimes while it’s already on the water!

It isn’t easy to think big and solve small, but project management software can help you keep both sides of the engineering coin in sharp focus.

Below, we’ll review our top five picks for best project management software for engineers — plus we’ll show you which project management features to look for.

But first, let’s explore why engineers should care about using software for task management, project planning, and tracking project progress.

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What is engineering project management software?

Engineering Project management software is project management software that helps engineers plan, prioritize, organize, budget, schedule, and execute projects for customers and clients.

Engineering project management software helps engineers organize project information so that everyone involved can see who’s doing what and when, stay on budget and on schedule, and understand where their tasks fall in the overall context of the project.  

Project management software is indispensable in numerous industries, including architecture and engineering. 

It’s indispensable because it brings order to chaos and provides clarity instead of confusion. Choose the right tool, and you’ll break down silos and increase visibility, productivity, and efficiency.

Project management software can deliver benefits to engineers like:

• Automated time tracking and client billing

• Easy collaboration with team members and clients

• Kanban and scrum boards to visualize agile workflows and sprints

• Issue logging and tracking

The team at McNeil Engineering explains it this way:

“Civil engineering projects often have strict deadlines that must be met to avoid delays and cost overruns. Effective project management . . . helps to ensure that everyone involved in the project is aware of their responsibilities and deadlines and that the project is completed on time.”

Quick note: We’ll focus on the civil and industrial side of engineering for this article, though Teamwork.com is perfect for software engineering project management as well. And no matter which type of engineer you are, the information given here should be helpful. 

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Kanban, scrum, scrumban, and more: if you’re an Agile fan, check out the best software tools for Agile project management.

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8 best engineering project management tools

Now that you understand the ins and outs of engineering project management, here are five of the best project management solutions that support the way engineering teams work.

1. Teamwork.com

Teamwork.com is a powerful, flexible cloud-based project management software solution that’s designed for professional services firms and those who do client work. 

With user-friendly time tracking and intuitive billing features, it’s easy to tie billable hours to specific projects and tasks, helping you create invoices with less effort and more transparency.

Complex projects with multiple deliverables, milestones, subtasks, assignees, and dependencies are common in engineering. And Teamwork.com capably handles this level of complexity. From kanban boards to Gantt charts, Teamwork.com gives you next-level project visibility and clarity.

Teamwork.com also has a rich library of templates to help you get started. Engineers enjoy the project tracker template and client onboarding template, while software engineers love the bug tracking template.

Because of its depth, flexibility, and enhanced time tracking and billing features, Teamwork.com is a best-in-class solution for engineering teams.

Pricing

Teamwork.com has a Free Forever plan for up to five users and a Deliver plan at $9.99/user/month. Grow, the most popular plan, unlocks the full Teamwork.com arsenal at $19.99/user/month.

2. Trello

Trello is an extremely popular lightweight project management tool. It’s a board-based tool ideal for organizing and assigning tasks and moving tasks across the board as they move toward completion.

Trello is designed for agile teams and can be a great fit for teams running scrum sprints or doing iterative work.

The biggest drawback to Trello is also its greatest strength: simplicity. If you don’t need to manage complex projects or run your finances and customer relationship management through the same platform, then all those tools can get in your way. In that case, Trello would be a breath of fresh air.

At the same time, if your project management is more complex, then Trello’s intentionally limited platform just won’t get the job done.

Key features

• Refreshingly simple Kanban board setup

• Plays nicely with other tools and apps thanks to Power-Ups and integrations

• Butler automation service

Pricing

Trello has a limited free plan, a $5/user/month tier, and a $10/user/month tier. Most businesses need the highest tier.

3. Asana

Asana is one step up the complexity and capability ladder from Trello, offering a project management experience that goes a bit deeper and offers additional views. Engineers who use Asana love the way they can assign tasks to users (and guests) and keep conversations connected to individual tasks.

There are scaling concerns here though. You can’t assign tasks to multiple people (which is sometimes necessary for collaboration), and the interface isn’t great for setting up long or complex projects.

Pricing is surprisingly high compared to tools that offer a lot more (Teamwork.com) and tools that offer a similar experience (Trello), so it’s tough to wholeheartedly recommend Asana.

Key features

• Attractive UI that’s easy to learn

• Automations help reduce repetitive manual work

• Time tracking and workload analysis (but only in the Advanced tier)

Pricing

For engineers, Asana is functionally $24.99/user/month. There’s a lower-priced $10.99 tier, but it’s too limited for the kind of project tracking engineers need.

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4. Notion

Notion is an intriguing approach. At first glance, it looks like a super-powered collaborative notepad — not exactly what you’d expect a project management platform to look like.

Notion’s selling point is its incredible flexibility. You can customize Notion to do nearly anything — if you have the creativity, technical skills, and time to build it. Or you can browse through a mind-boggling number of templates (over 15,000 of them) to find the functionality you need.

Notion offers table-based project management and automations, and you can set up a card-based view or timeline, depending on the templates you use or your level of technical expertise.

Notion can be a great fit for small, technically savvy, highly motivated teams. But it’s far from turnkey. Someone has to build your project management system within Notion, which takes time you might rather spend on engineering tasks.

Key features

• Highly configurable collaborative environment

• 15,000+ community-created templates

• Supports tasks, subtasks, and dependencies

Pricing

Notion offers a Plus plan at $8/user/month and a Business plan at $15/user/month. The optional advanced AI features add another $10/user/month.

5. Jira

Jira is one product in the Atlassian suite of tools. It’s popular as a project management and issue management tool, especially among software and IT teams, but it can be useful in non-software contexts too.

Jira is primarily a kanban board-style product, where you’re setting up tasks as cards or sticky notes, but it’s far more flexible and has much more depth than other agile-first platforms. Many software teams use it for issue management and bug fixes.

In addition to the core Jira Software product, there’s also Jira Work Management, which could be better suited for engineering teams. It adds forms, templates, and automations — all geared toward non-software contexts.

Key features

• Intake forms for automated tracking and routing

• Track work in list, calendar, board, and timeline views

• Fully integrated with other Atlassian products for one price

Pricing

For organizations with 100 or fewer users, Jira Standard is $8.15/user/month, and Premium is $16/user/month.

6. Monograph

Monograph has been designed with engineers in mind.

Monograph has all of the features that engineers need and their developers have eliminated the complexity of some of the more traditional engineering project management software.

The tool is designed around the concept that time is the key unit of measurement. Employees can track time with Monograph, allowing users to gain additional insights such as profitability, progress, billing etc.

Key features

• Birds eye view of projects, tasks and budgets 

• Easy to share project timelines with clients 

• Invoice fees in phases 

Pricing

Monograph’s pricing structure depends on the number of users. For a firm with 10 employees, pricing starts from $300 per month.

7. Cora Systems

Cora Systems engineering project management software helps engineers manage issues like cost control, risk management and resource allocation.

Cora allows users to manage all aspects of the project lifecycle through the business. The project control feature allows you to track change requests on construction projects and change costs in real time, putting an end to unnecessary delays.

Cora also includes a mobile app for iOS and android users so you can upload documents and photos, even when you are offline.

Key features

• Improved document management 

• Good invoicing and PO capabilities 

• Easily produce project estimates 

Pricing

They don’t display their pricing on their website, but several third-party tools such as Capterra indicate that pricing starts from $50 per year.

8. BQE Core

BQE Core specializes in insights for engineers and architects. It is primarily a practice management solution that helps you save time and focus on your engineering duties. It has a lot of features, with many features that are also available in ArchiOffice.

BQE Core offers powerful reporting tools and helps engineering firms analyze project performance to identify opportunities for improvement.

Features

• Performance metric dashboards 

• Strong financial tracking 

• Automated reporting 

Pricing

To get pricing you will need to speak to a sales representative to get a custom quote.

Find out why Teamwork.com is the best project management tool for engineers

Engineers benefit from a project management platform to plan, track, and execute projects — but how much improvement you’ll experience depends on which solution you choose.

Teamwork.com is the best engineering project management software because it strikes a perfect balance. It offers an easy-to-use interface and the needed depth and complexity to support and streamline the kinds of projects you’re working on. 

Teamwork.com is ideal for team collaboration — everyone can see project status, understand who’s working on what, and work with greater confidence. And visually rich dashboards provide real-time data to enhance decision-making. Plus, with time-tracking tools tied directly to client billing, you’ll bill more accurately with less effort.

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