What is the best software to use for Waterfall projects?

Jacob -

There is no "best" when it comes to software as that relates to the context it is used in, the processes it will support, the maturity of the organization, and the specific requirements it meets.

A lot also depends on how much you are willing to spend. An EPM or PPM solution might tick a lot of boxes but will be insanely expensive to implement & maintain.

Without more information on what you are expecting the software to do, and some of the other info I requested above, it'll be pretty hard for anyone to give you a helpful answer.

BTW, there is no such thing as a "waterfall project" just as there is no such thing as an "agile project". A project might be delivered using a predictive approach of which one very specific recipe for a very specific type of project is "waterfall".

Kiron

Thank you for your response. For context, I'm trying to learn project management software in my efforts to grow & develop, I've been taking tutorials and practicing in a free account of Jira which seems designed for agile.

Noting that maybe there isn't a good answer to this, I was wondering what the most common PM software is used with projects that use the predictive approach?

Thank you for your response. For context, I'm trying to learn project management software in my efforts to grow & develop, I've been taking tutorials and practicing in a free account of Jira which seems designed for agile.

Noting that maybe there isn't a good answer to this, I was wondering what the most common PM software is used with projects that use the predictive approach?

Another consideration is who else needs to use/access it. If it's just for you, MS Project Desktop client is powerful, but not great for reporting or collaboration. Many web-based tools (ClickUp, Monday, SmartSheets...) are great for collaboration, but some are more task management tools with project management features.

MS Project is probably the most common and it was designed around the classic predictive project, although it supports more adaptive methods now.

If I were to suggest a tool, I would say learn that, and you will have the foundational knowledge that can be applied in various different tools.

If anything, the most common suite of PM supporting tools is the MS Office suite or the similar Google Docs one. Spreadsheet for financials and record-based info (e.g. risk registers, action logs) and even rudimentary task management, presentation software for meetings & presentations and word processor for reports.

Jira is a passable work management tool but is not a full fledged PM product. It was originally designed as a bug tracking tool, hence its limitations. Jira in conjunction with other Atlassian tools (e.g. Confluence) gets a bit better...

Kiron

Hi Jacob,in the context of learning the MSP platform Udemy has great resources. I will list a few good courses I did that really helped me utilize these tools to my benefit.-Microsoft Project Like a Boss - Brian Culp
-Scheduling with Microsoft Project like a pro - Ben Moreau
Good luck :)