Project planning and project schedule can be hard, and thus, you need a perfect software for your project that can flawlessly plan and schedule your project. Many software’s available in the construction market, to pick the right & exact is the need of an hour. The pricing of the software’s also mattered most. Some assume a much higher budget than your total project cost. You might even need to consider the usability of the software as for how the project team members will handle the software? Below are some of the best up and coming project schedule tools that you may consider as best options for your construction project.

Let me preface this section before we start. Some tools have been around for quite some time. The reason we have mentioned these tools up and coming is that they are now re-positioning themselves in the global market and kickstarting against the major players.

Let’s get started…

Safran Project

On the very first position, we have Safran Project. Do you have a planning tool? A risk analysis tool and yes, a separate cost management tool with a reporting tool too? Well, use Safran Project! It has everything under one roof. This is a very thoughtful approach to designing a planning tool. Monte Carlo analysis does an excellent job with reports that can be pushed to the web for easy access. Since years Safran has been in the project management software games and is being extensively used, but now they are expanding to new markets.

Safran project schedule tool comes in two flavors Enterprise or for individual or smaller firms. The tool’s interface has been recently changed with tabbed ribbon-bars to match the look and feel of Excel or Word. Under the hood, there are some enhanced natural features like schedule comparison, what-if analysis, and change control. The project schedule tool is priced similarly to Primavera P6 Professional and also offers Primavera P6 replacement program. The Safran project is an up-and-comer to take a look.

Asta Power Project

Asta Power Project is another project schedule tool that is not new to many and is easy to use, unlike Safran Project Tool.

Like Safran, Asta features a full-blown CPM scheduling engine with power to manage resources, costs, earned value, reporting and much more. Unlike Safran, P6, Asta Power Project is also an enterprise project management tool with a database at the back-end. The software works just like a spreadsheet where you can copy data across cells and from Excel itself. It also imports MSP and P6 files as well.

 Phoenix Project Manager

Phoenix Project Manager features a lot like Primavera P6 Professional. The Gantt Charts handles drawings very well and looks much more refined than P6. There are some unique features like the Flag activity type and can also store versions of your schedule to track the history and revisions. Phoenix boasts superb CPM Scheduling engine and seems to be similar to P6.

The only difference is, Phoenix runs on Macs (OS X) which is nice, but the price factor is significant here. Comparatively, the pricing of Primavera P6 license is much higher than Phoenix Project Manager project schedule tool.

Micro Planning X-Pert

X-Pert could be a Bonus Project schedule tool in the list. It is a standalone planning tool that aims to be true to CPM and scheduling best practices as possible. X-Pert is really expert in the handling of calendars where you can create various activities. X-Pert also does some specific things on the resourcing side with a construct termed as a resource pool. That efficiently manages the customer’s demands. X-Pert is one of the best tools to consider for a standalone used who is looking for a project schedule tool that can handle the complex situations at a very reasonable price.

Conclusion

Each of these project schedule tools has different strengths and task handling capacity, yet they offer excellent options for a variety of management requirements. Well, take a look at the project schedule tools, and you may also find the right fit for your future construction projects.