Software for Project Scope Management

What software to consider:

   When using software to aid in project scope management there are a lot of options depending on what you need the software to do. If you need a place to store information about the project scope you could use a word processing software like Microsoft Word or Google Drive. Do you have a lot of data that needs to be stored and edited frequently? Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Do you need to display data? You can use any kind of database, spreadsheet, or charts. Tableau, FusionCharts, and Plotly are some of the most popular data visualization tools. If you need to share information between coworkers email services like GMail work very well or cloud storage such as Mega, iCloud, Google Drive, and pCloud. could also work.

How to pick a software:

   When picking a specific software to use for the company a few things should be thought of, Is the software already used by the company? If yes then great! If not, is the software easy to use? If the answer is yes then that is great! If not maybe try switching to a different software that is easier to use. Is the software free is another question to consider when picking what software to use. If the software is not free how much will it cost to use it? Will you be using the software for just this project or for the company's lifespan? All of these questions should be asked and answered before choosing a software for the company.

Personal Experience:

   Microsoft word is a great word processing program. It's easy to use, comes installed on most Windows machines, and one of the two go-tos when writing a document.

Google Docs is another word processing software that I personally prefer over Microsoft Word.

I prefer Google Docs over Microsoft Word for a few reasons. The biggest reason is for group projects you can live edit a document and share it with everyone in the group. This helps speed up the process and allows for all group members to keep the same format because they can always look at another section of the document and copy the format. 

   Microsoft Excel is Microsoft's spreadsheet program that is used widely and is known by many people.

   Excel is a spreadsheet program that allows you to store data and even create charts.

   Google Sheets is Google's version of Microsoft Excel. I again prefer Google Sheets over Microsoft Excel.

Google Sheets has the same ability for multiple people to work on the same sheet at the same time. Which is why I prefer it over Microsoft Excel for group projects. 

   Plotly is a free python based data visualization software. 

   Plotly is a wonderful software that can be a little difficult to use depending on the user's experience coding with python. If the user is experienced in coding in python then they should have a very easy time picking up how to use this software. Any type of graph that needs to be displayed can be displayed with plotly it is an extremely versatile data visualization tool.

   FusionCharts is another free data visualization tool displayed in the image below

The biggest difference between FusionCharts and Plotly is that FusionCharts is a JavaScript based data visualization software. I find that Plotly has it's advantages because since it is Python based and Python is a more beginner friendly language it's easier to use if you have any coding experience. With that being said if more of the employees are comfortable with JavaScript then FusionChart is just as good.

   Tableau is another free data visualization software that falls under the category of data visualization software that you do not need to know how to code to use. Tableau which is displayed in the image below is more user friendly since users do not need to know how to code to use the software.

If the users need to create graphs and tables despite having no coding knowledge I would suggest using Tableau.

   There are plenty of "free" online cloud storage programs. I put emphasis on free because a lot of the storage is initially free however once you hit a capacity you are required to pay for more storage space. Google Drive, and Mega are the main two that I use.

   Google Drive is probably the most well used of these two is the most user friendly and easy to use out of these three. Google Drive allows you to share documents with individuals and offers up to 15 Gigs of storage.

   Mega Is a less well known software however it offers the same functionality and user friendly experience as google drive with a lot more storage than Google Drive. If security of the files is more important I would recommend Mega over Google Drive since they use a very secure form of encryption.

Honorable Mentions:

   Github is kind of like cloud storage. You can use GitHub to upload files where everyone who is given access to a group can view, and download files. When the files are edited by anyone who accesses them they can be uploaded and then anyone can access any version of the file since the original upload of the file.

Summary:

   Software can help a company with the project integration process by streamlining some of the necessary steps. Since I am a college student I tend to prioritize free software over anything else so all of the recommendations and examples that I use are free to use and they may offer a premium version or even a way to pay for more storage if it is needed.