Top 10 Construction Project Management Software for Program Management

If you handle more than one construction/capital project, it can pay to have some foresight and consider these top 10 Project Management Software for your role as a Program Manager. Your role as a program manager is all about people, processes, and systems. Your job will be to centralize management of these three functions under a PMO or Program Management function and delegate outward your processes and systems to people to ensure the most efficient delivery of all construction/capital projects

Ideally, you are reading this as a client-side project manager overseeing multiple capital projects/construction projects and have an open mind + keen for a better way.

If you love copying and pasting spreadsheets together and doing things the hard way, you can stop reading here and return your spreadsheets :D

Jobs in Program Management vs Project Management

As a Program Manager working for a client/project owner delivering many projects, there are a few key jobs and tasks you perform in your role as a Program Manager, and then what you can expect from each project and their subsequent designers, engineers, and general contractors.

Project Tasks: Some key jobs you can expect to see from your project manager, general contractor, designers, and engineers. You might not use these tools yourself, but you will want to see them used by the project to construct the work for quality and risk mitigation.

1. Project Timeline/Project Schedule, standardized by you for automated roll-up.

2. Construction Superintendent or Contract Administrator of contracts like AIA A133-2019 (for US) or Standards Australia AS 4000 (Australia).

3. Correspondence & Documents for record keeping and efficiency.

4. Safety & Quality, to protect your client's assets and reputation.

5. Defects/Punch list.

Program Management: Some key jobs managing your Program Management Office / PMO for the client ensure you save time and look good doing it.

6. Monthly Report or Status Report that you send to your client/project owner for the entire Program of Works.

7. Budgets and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for standardized financial management across the projects.

8. Risk Management is used for each project, followed by Program Level Risks that mitigate the aggregate of project risks.

9. Meeting minutes.

10. Stakeholder Management

Let's get into it!

Top 10 Project Management Software Tools for Program Management

For these ten jobs, here's our Project Management Software tools ‍

1. Project Timeline/Critical Path

Recommended Tool: Microsoft Project or Primavera P6  

The world of capital projects isn't spoiled for choice when it comes to scheduling tools, and for good reason. Microsoft Project is free, and Primavera P6 is pretty good, which is great for planning or tracking an individual project's critical path. They provide the robust scheduling features your projects need, and the general contractor will probably have this role in the construction stage.  

However, your role as Program Manager will need to standardize phases and milestones across the Project Timeline so you can automate the roll-up of this information. If you are looking for something simpler that manages the phases of the project from inception, check it out here.

2. Construction Superintendent / Contract Administration

Recommended Tools: Hard copy, Spreadsheets

There's a bit to unpack here, from preparing notices and tracking submittal and RFI registers to preparing payment applications. Construction contract superintendent or contract administration roles require many tools, so it has become a balance of traditional methods with modern technology. Overall, though, most construction contract superintendents or contract administration duties use the good old hard copy of the contract printed, combined with Microsoft Outlook emails, so there isn't much you can assist within your role as program manager.

However, try to ensure projects keep registers of their contract interactions. Mastt will make it easy for you to see across the program and track variations and payments, while Aconex will assist with mail and correspondence of notices but doesn't aggregate up for a portfolio view. ‍

3. Correspondence & Documents

Recommended Tool: Aconex  

General contractors manage many subcontractors, and the number of construction drawings flying around is crazy. Aconex does a great job of solving the drawing and document management problem, where centralization, distribution, and revision are required. It also streamlines the correspondence among project teams and stakeholders, so your projects can track who you issued documents, transmittals, or notices to. Honestly, I'd be worried if your project's contractors are not using a document management tool!  

4. Safety & Quality

Recommended Tool: Simpel

Maintaining high standards of safety and quality is non-negotiable on a construction project. We want good-quality construction, and no one wants to get hurt. We found this cool new tool at Simpel that offers many features for digitizing safety and quality processes (think boring but essential stuff like forms, workflows, checklists, tasks, etc.) to good effect. It is worth recommending something like this to each capital project when it gets to construction or having the projects as the general contractor or building is using for these things.

5. Defects/Punch Lists

Recommended Tool: Procore or InEight  

Ok, so the end of the first project is here (substantial completion/practical completion), and there are a ton of defects (as usual). As Program Manager, you promised a better-quality outcome managing them as a Program. Hence, hopefully, your general contractor isn't using memory to keep track of these. Procore seems to be the go-to solution for tracking and resolving defects or punch list items. If you aren't a fan of Procore, the team over at InEight has a Defects Module, which would be a good alternative.

6. Monthly Report or Status Report

Recommended Tool: Mastt.com  

It's a little harmless to put our tool first. However, the pain of preparing an aggregated program monthly report or status report each month is high. Each project prepares one, and combining them all is time-consuming. It requires a lot of info but remains vital for keeping stakeholders updated on project progress. Mastt offers a fast, easy, and simple way of automating a monthly report or status report for each project and then automatically aggregates this information into a Program Monthly Report.  

7. Budgets and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Recommended Tool: Mastt.com

There's a bunch of software in the market for project controls and finances. However, it's important to identify who they were designed for: Subcontractor, General Contractor, etc. For detailed budgeting/work breakdown structure, Mastt is designed with project owners in mind and connected to Dashboards and Reports. So, if you are a project manager working for a client, Mastt will prepare your monthly report and payment-related jobs like payment applications.  

8. Risk Management

Recommended Tool: Mastt.com

Let's face it, spreadsheets suck for risk management. If anyone has tried to combine many risk registers, you'll feel the pain. It seems odd that a spreadsheet remains the go-to project management tool, even though identifying and mitigating risks is crucial in construction projects. Mastt has an automated risk management tool that provides a comprehensive risk management module for projects and then at the program level, so you easily see project risks and identify strategies to manage them at your program level. It also connects to your reports again, making your monthly report a breeze.

9. Meeting Minutes

Recommended Tool: Microsoft Word with Copilot  

We've not yet found a software tool that is as easy or free as Microsoft Word, and especially now with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Copilot, taking meeting minutes and drafting them has become super-fast. If you use Microsoft Teams, record the meeting and ask Copilot to draft them. If you are in-person, take scrappy notes or record the meeting and then tell Copilot to do the same. If you're looking for a Meeting Minutes template, you can download a free one here.

10. Stakeholder Management

Recommended Tool: Spreadsheet  

Again, we've not yet found a software tool as easy or free as Microsoft Excel for keeping track of stakeholders. A basic spreadsheet lets you track basic stakeholder information, contact information, etc. you to track basic stakeholder information, contact information, etc.  

What does the future hold?

Incorporating these specialized tools into your life as a program manager can significantly enhance your projects and program's efficiency, accuracy, and overall success. Each tool has been selected for its ability to address specific aspects of your job, but each does come with different costs and training requirements. Good luck, and we hope this was helpful!