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Ever felt like you're juggling multiple projects with too few hands? Balancing resources across these projects, which is one of the biggest resource management challenges, can make your head spin. The real headache? Not knowing which tool to use to tackle these problems head-on.

Having been a full-time content marketing manager in my previous role, I've been through these resource management hurdles, and I get it.

In this article, I'll introduce 11 resource management tools that will help you tackle the challenges of balancing resources, improving resource visibility, and smoothing out communication issues that often lead to resource problems.

What is resource management software?

Resource management software is a category of software applications designed to help organizations effectively plan, allocate, and optimize their resources. These resources can include human resources, finances, time, and other assets necessary for the successful execution of projects.

Developer marketers can benefit from using resource management platform to streamline their workflows and optimize resource allocation. For example, they run various marketing campaigns like product launches. Resource management tools can help in scheduling campaign activities, allocating team members, and ensuring that all campaign elements are delivered on time.

Similarly,  effective collaboration is essential in developer marketing, especially in cross-functional teams. Resource management tools can serve as a centralized platform for communication, document sharing, and collaboration among team members.

Top features to look for in resource management software

  • Resource allocation and scheduling: With that feature, developer marketers can ensure that the right resources are assigned to the right tasks which helps optimize project efficiency.
  • Collaboration and communication: You want seamless coordination and alignment throughout the project lifecycle, so make sure that the solution you invest in comes with collaboration features.
  • Workload management: Workload management features help distribute tasks evenly, preventing overburdened team members and ensuring that workloads are balanced for better performance.
  • Reports and analytics: Robust reporting and analytics functionalities provide insights into resource utilization, project progress, and performance metrics.

The best resource management software

  1. Runn
  2. GoodDay
  3. Teamdeck
  4. Silverbucket
  5. Asana
  6. WorkOtter
  7. Teambook
  8. Resource Guru
  9. Tempo
  10. Mosaic
  11. nTask

1. Runn: best for project-centric resource allocation and team management

Runn is a resource and capacity planning software with integrated time tracking, project planning, and forecasting capabilities.

What makes Runn a solid resource management tool is its user-friendly interface and real-time insights that help businesses efficiently manage project workloads.

Runn features

  • Resource scheduling: Find and assign the right team members for your projects. You can search for people based on their roles, skills, teams, and other criteria, ensuring that work is evenly distributed and no one is overwhelmed.
  • Project forecasting: Runn helps you see into the future by giving you a clear picture of your company's capacity and how upcoming projects will affect it. You can track real-time insights to plan for what's ahead and ensure your team is ready for the workload.
  • Capacity management:  You can handle time-off requests and holidays seamlessly. Plus, you can customize work hours for each person, ensuring that everyone's availability aligns with your project needs.
  • Reporting: Access a variety of reports about your team, projects, and finances. You can customize the reports by picking the specific numbers and data you want. Then, you can sort and group your data by different time periods.

Pricing

Runn has a free plan which you can use for unlimited projects. Its paid plans start from $8/month and it comes with demo support and API access. See its full pricing here.

2. GoodDay: best for team management and collaboration

GoodDay is a project and work management software designed to help teams plan, track, and manage their tasks, projects, and work processes.

What I particularly like about GoodDay is its advanced task features like subtasks, to-do lists, links, mentions, and tags.

GoodDay features

  • Resource planning: GoodDay helps you manage how your team's time and skills are used, especially when it comes to specific tasks. So, you can make sure everyone is working on the right things efficiently.
  • Work schedule and availability: GoodDay provides a platform for allocating resources and planning task deadlines, while also offering the flexibility to manage hourly-based time allocation. Plus, it lets you keep track of your team's availability, including personal events such as vacations.
  • Analytics: Get insights into your team's performance, including task summaries, distribution of effort, time tracking, and an understanding of how your team follows processes and communicates.

Pricing

GoodDay's free plan covers unlimited projects and up to 15 team members, while its $6/user/month plan includes time tracking, Gantt views, and advanced analytics. See the full GoodDay pricing here.

3. Teamdeck: best for efficient team capacity planning and resource allocation

Teamdeck is another resource management software on my list. It offers features like time tracking, resource scheduling, availability monitoring, and reporting to help teams optimize their resource allocation and project planning.

Teamdeck features

  • Resource scheduling: Plan and assign your team to projects using a calendar. You can set their work hours based on factors like availability, skills, and job roles. It also provides notifications for upcoming tasks and prevents overbooking by identifying scheduling conflicts.
  • Leave management: Simplify vacation scheduling as team members can request time off, which managers can approve or deny within the platform. Approved leaves instantly appear on the schedule, and employees can choose their manager for time-off requests.
  • Time tracking: Teamdeck tracks billable and non-billable hours across projects and departments, and you can tag specific projects or timesheets as billable. Similarly, employees can input time spent on meetings and calendar events through Google Calendar integration.

Pricing

Teamdeck pricing starts from $1/month which includes custom onboarding and unlimited support. See its full pricing here.

4. Silverbucket: best for resource-intensive project tracking and resource optimization

Silverbucket is a platform for resource management and capacity planning.

What sets it apart is that it’s particularly for organizations that manage projects with large teams and complex resource requirements.

Silverbucket features

  • Resource planning: Silverbucket provides a clear view of resource allocation for individuals and teams, aiding in effective planning. It also visualizes upcoming projects and their resource needs, facilitating better capacity management and recruitment planning.
  • Forecasting: Silverbucket helps improve resource planning accuracy by comparing actual results with allocations, enabling more precise project planning from both practical and financial perspectives.
  • Time tracking: Streamlining time tracking, Silverbucket allows easy addition and removal of projects and tasks, with comments for clarity. It helps assess project success against resource plans, identifying budget deviations and project performance.

Pricing

The cost of Silverbucket depends on how many people are on your team. For each person in your organization using Silverbucket, you'll be charged €9.9/month. See its detailed pricing here.

5. Asana: best for task-oriented project management and team coordination

Asana is a popular project management software that helps teams and individuals organize their work, track tasks, and collaborate more effectively.

Asana is primarily a versatile task and project management solution that, while not specialized in resource planning, can still assist with resource allocation and coordination within projects.

Asana features

  • Goals: Define and track your company, team, or personal goals. You connect these goals to related projects and see how everything aligns. As your team progresses, the goals automatically update and give you real-time insights.
  • Time tracking: With Asana's time tracking, you can monitor the time spent on tasks and effectively budget your resources. You can estimate task durations to improve timeline planning and use an embedded timer or manual tracking to record time accurately.
  • Reporting: Asana provides real-time charts and insights to help you understand your team's progress. You can add charts from templates or customize your own. Plus, you can filter results to focus on specific time periods or exclude certain tasks

Pricing

Asana has a free plan which is great for individuals or teams just getting started with resource management. Its paid plans start from $13.49/user/month. See Asana’s full pricing here.

6. WorkOtter: best for portfolio and resource management with powerful reporting

WorkOtter is a project portfolio and resource management software that engineering, healthcare, education, and government teams use to plan, manage, and execute projects.

I'd say WorkOtter is special because it simplifies the complexities of project management and resource planning by integrating both traditional and Agile methodologies, making it much easier for teams to manage projects.

WorkOtter features

  • Resource management: See a clear picture of resource availability versus project demands, helping you make informed decisions about hiring, project timelines, and completion dates.
  • Project portfolio management: Get control over your project portfolio by understanding your team's capabilities and project needs. Identify areas of inefficiency through straightforward reports and visuals, and allocate costs to roles, resources, and projects.
  • Reporting: Access pre-set reports, easily customized with filters, groups, and visual elements for interactive, engaging insights. Hover over items for additional details with HTML5 animations. Save and download reports and dashboards in various formats like CSV, Word, Excel, and PDF.

Pricing

WorkOtter pricing starts from $10/month which is good for senior executives and consultants. Check out its detailed pricing here.

7. Teambook: best for straightforward resource scheduling and team organization 

Teambook is a project resource planning and team scheduling solution.

One cool thing about Teambook is its ability to let you add and modify project milestones, which are visually represented by colored horizontal bars in front of each project. When you can see these milestones at a glance, it's easier for you to focus your resources when and where they're needed the most.

Teambook features

  • Capacity planning: Get a clear view of your staffing needs with Teambook's unique 24-month horizon. It helps you analyze and simulate staffing effectively, so you can make better decisions about your team's workload and resources.
  • Time tracking: With Teambook's time tracking feature, you can easily log and approve the hours your team spends on projects. This ensures accurate billing and makes sure that no billable hours go unaccounted for.
  • Reporting and advanced filtering: Gain control over important metrics like availability, utilization, and productivity. Teambook enables you to refine these metrics using filters. You can focus on specific aspects by combining project, client, user, tag, or advanced filters.

Pricing

You can use Teambook for free for up to 10 projects. Its paid plans start from $49/month which allows you to manage up to 40 projects. See Teambook’s full pricing here.

8. Resource Guru: best for resource-centric businesses and easy scheduling

Resource Guru is a resource management and scheduling tool to manage and allocate your human resources.

It’s particularly suitable for companies with complex resource management needs, such as creative agencies, consulting firms, engineering teams, and project-based organizations.

Resource Guru features

  • Resource scheduling: Easily see who's busy and who has room for more tasks. You can quickly check if someone is overwhelmed or not fully utilized, preventing burnout and boredom. Just drag and drop to adjust workloads for a more balanced team.
  • Capacity planning: Be proactive by using the waiting list feature to identify under-capacity situations and employ filters for assessing capacity based on skills, departments, and locations.
  • Reporting and advanced filtering: Check your team's upcoming capacity and workload with Resource Guru's reports. Find out which projects and clients are taking up the most time, and see how much time goes into non-billable tasks.

Pricing

It costs $5/person/month to get started with Resource Guru which comes with unlimited projects, flexible user permissions, and calendar sync feature. Check out Resource Guru’s full pricing here.

9. Tempo: best for Jira-integrated resource management and time tracking 

Tempo is a project and portfolio management platform that’s designed to extend Jira's capabilities.

So, Tempo is best suited for organizations using Jira that require comprehensive issue tracking, resource management, and project planning capabilities to optimize their project workflows.

Tempo features

  • Capacity planning and tracking: Oversee your plans and resources all in one place with Tempo. You can filter and find the right people for your tasks, making sure you have the support you need.
  • Resource and cost management: Get a clear, high-level view of all your projects with Tempo. You can see labor costs and track time spent with ease. Visualize project expenses by category, define project scope, set budgets, and configure global cost rates. 
  • Predictive scheduling: Tempo's predictive scheduling lets you model real-time scenarios and updates your plan as things change. It provides a clear view of your team's bandwidth across projects and helps prioritize tasks.

Pricing

The cost of using Tempo depends on the specific features you wish to access. For example, if you wish to use the planning feature and cost tracker, the fee would be $20/month. See its pricing calculator here.

10. Mosaic: best for visual project and resource planning with AI-powered tools

Mosaic is a resource management tool that lets you forecast workload, demand, and revenue to plan for the future.

What I really like about Mosaic is that it brings together all your project details, budget information, timesheets, and planning data to create a comprehensive overview. What's even more impressive is how it uses AI to fine-tune and improve how work is organized and managed across all your teams.

Mosaic features

  • Capacity management: Mosaic helps you figure out when it's the right time to hire by comparing the upcoming demand for roles with your current team's capacity. Instead of hiring in a hurry, you can make hiring decisions based on forecasts of demand.
  • Forecasting: Mosaic's AI analyzes your schedules and team workload, predicting future workloads. It checks all the important data points, including your schedules, demand, budget, and project pipeline, to help you plan for the future confidently.
  • Reporting: Create and share dashboards for individuals, departments, and top-level executives. You can set KPIs on these dashboards to track any metric you need for any group or department.

Pricing

Mosaic pricing starts from $9.99/user/month (billed annually) which comes with time tracking and resource planning features. See its full pricing here.

11. nTask: best for streamlined project management with advanced risk management features

nTask is a project management and team collaboration solution designed to help businesses and teams manage their tasks and projects.

nTask goes beyond task management, offering robust risk management capabilities as well. This means you can spot potential project problems, assign someone to handle each problem, and use a risk matrix to figure out their impact. This is helpful when you want to ensure that your projects run smoothly and avoid any unexpected hiccups along the way.

nTask features

  • Task management: Assign tasks and to-do lists to your team, and they'll get instant notifications. You can also share comments, images, videos, and documents on your task board. Important features include assigning tasks to multiple people, real-time notifications, and handling files/documents.
  • Issue tracking: Simplify how you manage bugs to make software development projects smoother. Customize issues to fit your business with nTask custom fields. Stay connected with your team using the team chat feature and share project updates easily.
  • Risk management: nTask offers risk analysis tools with assessment graphs and risk matrices. Create highly customizable risk matrices in any format you need, and define your custom risk factors. Also, you can create a risk mitigation plan in nTask to keep everyone informed, assign risk owners, and collaborate seamlessly on mitigation strategies.

Pricing

nTask offers a free plan for teams with up to 5 people. If you want more features like time tracking and advanced filtering, you can get the basic nTask plan for just $4/user. Take a look at all the nTask pricing details here.

Final words

Left uncontrolled, resource management challenges can swiftly lead to missed deadlines, resource wastage, and strained team communication.

However, choosing the right tools stands out as a crucial key to regaining control. So, armed with the right resource management tools I mentioned above, you'll navigate project and resource management with ease.

Further reading: