Best 10 Features of a Project Management Software in 2025

10 main features of project management software 

Project management is made up of four crucial things – Tasks, collaboration, people, and time. These four things depend on the three pillars of project management: time, scope, and budget. 

Keeping that in mind, we will now discuss the 10 common features of project management information systems must have to make your execution easier. 

1. Task and workflow customization 

Every team operates differently.  

Most tools claim to be flexible, but real flexibility isn’t about choosing between a Kanban board and a Gantt chart. It’s about adapting to how different teams within the same company work. 

• Marketing teams plan in content calendars. 

• Developers work in sprints and need backlog prioritization. 

• Operations teams need structured approval workflows  

At the center of managing all this is customization. It’s one of the key features of a project management software. 

A rigid project management tool forces everyone into one structure and creates friction, which leads to workarounds like spreadsheets, Slack messages, and side conversations that break visibility. 

Without adaptable workflows, teams will either resist adoption or create external systems to compensate, leading to fragmentation. 

A project management software works the way your team works. You can build: 

• Dependable and reusable task types and status workflows based on how your teams follow processes 

• Project dashboards that give you a clear picture of what is happening when, where, and why across teams 

2. Cross-team collaboration

Most collaboration features in a project management tool are limited to tagging someone and their task. But that’s quite shallow. Think about it, do you only talk to your team when you want an update about a project or a task? 

Real collaboration is where multiple teams can rely on and trust each other to get to the project goal without stepping on each other’s toes.  

Here’s how 5day.io supports team collaboration: 

• It brings all project information in one place, so you do not have to hunt through emails or chat threads for updates 

• Your discussions, files, updates, and queries all live alongside the tasks, so every decision can be made with the right context 

• Everyone can operate based on their location and time zone with work schedules that provide clear visibility and frictionless collaboration across the globe 

• Customize which notifications you want and get instant updates on relevant tasks and projects while drowning out unnecessary alerts 

3. Smart automation

Automation can get complicated quickly and requires high maintenance if not set up correctly. At the root of it, the feature is not really about elaborate sequences that need constant attention.  

It’s about having an invisible helping hand taking up the small, tedious, manual tasks that disrupt your focus. Good automation is one of the best project management software features that makes every single person’s job in the project more manageable.  

A survey by Workato observed that around 64% of business professionals aim to use automation to improve their employee experience.  

Here’s how automation can help different members working on a project: 

• Managers can automate progress tracking and follow-ups to make sure the project stays on course without constant intervention 

• Members can move tasks through stages automatically and reduce the burden of manual updates 

• Clients can get timely, automated status updates and approval requests, which keeps them engaged without overwhelming them with unnecessary details

4. Action-driven reporting

Project visibility isn’t about creating every data point in dashboards and reports. When has that ever been helpful if not used correctly? 

It’s about making sure you have the kind of visibility into your project that surfaces the right information at the right time. 

A good project management software filters information intelligently. Instead of displaying raw data. It highlights what needs attention and why.  

5day.io features that help project managers take the right decisions with the right data are: 

• Customizable project dashboard with 6 views 

• Burn up, burn down, and sprint velocity charts for IT teams 

• Workload and timesheet data for equal distribution of work 

• Overdue and on-track tasks to assess any potential delays 

5. Helpful Integrations

Most tools boast long lists of integrations, but the real question is:  

Do those integrations preserve workflow context? 

For example: 

• Syncing tasks between tools isn’t enough, does the tool also sync comments, file attachments, and dependencies? 

• Connecting Slack to a project board isn’t useful unless it allows action and not just notifications 

• A CRM integration isn’t helpful if sales teams still have to manually update project details elsewhere 

A sound integration system means work updates in one tool instantly reflect in another to reduce redundancy. With a bad integration. teams still need to manually update both places, adding friction. 

6. Project Views

A project is a dynamic system with shifting priorities, timelines and dependencies. Yet many tools force teams into a single, rigid way of viewing their work.  

The reality? Different roles need different perspectives.  

• A strategist needs a high-level roadmap of the project  

• A designer needs a visual flow of the task sequence  

• An engineer needs granular task breakdowns 

The best project management tools offer flexible project views like Kanban for flow, Gantt for planning, lists for detailed breakdown, so teams can engage with their work in the way that makes the most sense to them.  

With 5day.io, you can visualize your projects in multiple views that make it easy to get information in as depth as you want, or in just an overview.  

7. Timeline and dependency management

A project’s timeline is critical to decide how your work moves between teams and what happens when one piece isn’t ready on time.  

Most teams realize these issues too late because their tool treats timelines as static instead of a living system that reacts to real-time changes.  

A good project management tool makes dependencies visible upfront and adjusts timelines dynamically when bottlenecks appear, so teams aren’t reacting to missed deadlines but instead they’re preventing them. 

8. Document management

A project is more than a list tasks, it’s files, feedback, revisions, and approvals. When these live in disconnected silos: 

• Teams waste time hunting for the latest version of a document 

• Feedback is scattered across emails and chat threads, leading to conflicting edits 

• Critical assets sit outside the project workflow, increasing the risk of outdated or unauthorized versions being used 

5day.io keeps documents, approvals, and discussions within project context, eliminating version confusion and keeping everyone aligned. It removes the step of digging through endless folders as the right file is always where the work happens. 

9. Mobile accessibility

Most project management tool’s mobile apps are stripped down versions of their desktop counterparts, which often miss critical functionality. 

They are clunky and slow and miss to function on the go to support your teams’ work habits. Having a good mobile application is one of those things you did not know you needed, until you have it. 

10. Easy onboarding and tool adoption

Let’s be honest, we went through this entire project management features list but in reality, a tool is only effective if your team actually uses it. If adoption is a struggle in your team, it indicates that the tool is not solving a problem for you but creating a new one. 

Here are some signs to look out for when adopting a new tool: 

• Does it integrate into existing workflows without forcing teams to change how they work? 

• Does it remove complexity instead of adding another layer of process? 

• Do teams instinctively start using it, or does it require constant internal promotion?

5day.io’s carefully thought-out navigation makes it easy to navigate from day one. It demands no steep learning curve and fits smoothly into the way teams already operate.