Personal vs. team task management

There are two types of task management software, including personal task management software and team task management software. The first type is a single-user solution that helps a person to manage tasks, create small projects and design schedules which are not expected to be shared. The second type offers multi-user solutions to manage teamwork, shared projects and group schedules. Let’s briefly review each of the software types to understand them better.

Features of personal TM software
It is a single-user product that offers a combination of personal task management tools to help a user do daily routine (from office duties to home chores) on schedule. It usually includes simple functionality to create, manage, track and report to-do lists and small projects. Due to necessity to organize our lives and work, that solution is a popular choice of many users.

For example, a housewife can use those tools to create a list of home chores to do next week. A student can use personal task management tools to design a schedule for lessons or list homework tasks. An office employee can install the package on his computer to track current status of office duties and design reports at the end of each month to summarize monthly achievements.

Features are the following:

• Scheduling or prioritizing tasks
• Organizing tasks into categorized to-do lists and simple projects
• Displaying tasks, to-do lists and projects on calendar
• Setting email, pop-up and sound reminders
• Specifying tasks by using notes, attachment and comments
• Creating and printing reports

These features are relevant to all single-user software products, including Windows and Mac based solutions.

Features of team task management software
Team task management software is a multi-user solution designed to help users manage group tasks, share information, communicate with each other, work on common projects and participate in teamwork. Team task management software offers a complex system that includes a set of integrated team task management tools to allow team members collaborating with each other, sharing tasks and exchanging documents in real time.

For example, a project manager can use integrated tools of team task management Outlook software to plan tasks, schedule journals, create a folder view for projects, track current progress of teamwork, send task status updates to team members, and review reports. Team members can use team task management tools to communicate with each other, receive task lists, review work schedules, and send feedback to the project manager.

Features of team task management software are the following:

• Creating tasks and assigning them to a group of people
• Organizing tasks into hierarchical projects and categorized to-do lists
• Displaying tasks, to-do lists and projects on calendar
• Creating project timelines and schedules
• Sharing information and setting user permissions
• Managing project resources and teams
• Setting group reminders and sending group notifications
• Creating and submitting reports

These features are equally relevant to all kinds of team task management software, including client-server solutions and online team task management solutions.

The best combination of personal and team task management solutions
VIP Task Manager is a client-server program that combines the best features for personal task management and team task management. VIP Task Manager offers great functionality to manage personal and group tasks; create schedules, calendars, and project timelines; set task permissions and manage project resources; collaborate with team members and send/receive notifications; etc.

VIP Task Manager is a great alternative to freeware team task management software or team task management open source solutions. You can use this product for free during 30 days. If you download the 30-day freeware team task management solution, you can also get a set of checklists and templates for personal and team task management.