Joanna SochaSenior Project ManagementLondon, ENG, United Kingdom
hi, I am looking for recommendations on PM tools for an upcoming HRIS implementation programme. We will likely go with the external partner with the internal PM as well. Context:
global organisation with multiple workstrems and stakeholders ( payroll, HR, IT, integrations, change).
Pm maturity is light/pragmatic
looking for something collaborative and easy for non pm stakeholders to engage with
need to manage RAID, actions, decisions, timelines, dependencies, governance
ideally integrated with teams/ share point
we want to avoid creating overly heavy admin or duplicate tracking between internal teams
Would be particularly interested in hearing:
-what tools others have used sucesfully for hris (Workday, Hibob)
-pros/cons of smartsheet vs MS project vs JIra vs Monday/Asana/ Click Up in PEople transformation environment
-what worked well in organisations with less mature PM governance
Joanna, based on the environment you described (global HRIS implementation, multiple business workstreams, light PM maturity, and a desire to avoid duplicate tracking), I would optimize less for “the most powerful PM tool” and more for organizational adoption and coordination simplicity.
In HRIS programs, the failure mode is usually not lack of tooling sophistication. It is fragmentation:
multiple versions of status,
disconnected RAID logs,
unclear ownership,
duplicate action tracking between SI/vendor/internal teams,
and non-PM stakeholders disengaging because the tooling feels too operationally heavy.
A few observations from similar environments:
1. Avoid over-engineering the PM layer
For organizations with lighter PM maturity, tools like MS Project often become “PM-only systems” that stakeholders rarely engage with directly.
You end up with:
beautiful schedules,
poor adoption,
and manual translation work by PMs.
For HRIS transformations, collaboration visibility usually matters more than scheduling sophistication.
2. Jira works well when the organization already lives in Jira
Especially for:
integrations,
technical delivery,
defect management,
cutover coordination,
dependency mapping.
But if HR/payroll/change stakeholders are not already comfortable there, Jira can become intimidating quickly unless heavily simplified.
I’ve seen the best outcomes when Jira is primarily the delivery engine behind the scenes, while stakeholder-friendly governance happens elsewhere.
3. Smartsheet tends to work surprisingly well in HR transformations
Particularly because it sits in a middle ground between:
spreadsheet familiarity,
lightweight governance,
executive visibility,
and cross-functional accessibility.
For less mature PM organizations, Smartsheet often succeeds because non-technical stakeholders actually participate in it.
It handles reasonably well:
RAID,
actions/decisions,
steering governance,
dependency tracking,
milestone reporting,
cutover readiness,
executive dashboards.
And it reduces the “tooling intimidation factor” that sometimes happens with Jira/MS Project.
4. Monday/Asana/ClickUp are excellent for engagement, but can struggle at enterprise governance scale
They are often:
easier to adopt,
visually intuitive,
great for action management.
But for large global HRIS programs, they sometimes become weak around:
dependency rigor,
governance traceability,
auditability,
integrated RAID/change control,
and enterprise reporting consistency.
Very effective for teams.
Sometimes less effective for enterprise transformation governance.
5. The most important decision is actually operating model clarity
The tooling matters less than establishing:
a single system of record for decisions,
clear ownership boundaries between vendor/internal PMO,
escalation paths,
dependency management routines,
governance cadence,
and reporting standards.
I’ve seen mediocre tools succeed with strong operating discipline.
I’ve also seen sophisticated tooling ecosystems collapse into chaos because every workstream tracked differently.
If it were my environment, I’d probably lean toward:
Smartsheet (or similar lightweight collaborative layer) for enterprise governance + stakeholder engagement,
Teams/SharePoint integration for accessibility/documentation,
and possibly Jira underneath for technical/integration delivery if IT already operates there.
That balance tends to work well when:
PM maturity is pragmatic rather than highly standardized,
stakeholders span HR/payroll/IT/change,
and adoption simplicity matters as much as governance rigor.
The biggest success factor is usually not the tool itself.
It is minimizing coordination friction across the program. Saving Changes...
Your implementation partner will likely have their own tool for tracking work. I'll let others go into more detail about software. Imran's done a decent job already.
You're not just introducing a new system, you're introducing change. For example, if people aren't already using a tool to track their work, you will likely run into resistance with adoption. You will likely benefit from engaging a Change Manager to help with the project. Whether or not you are able to, examine what is changing, who is affected, how they are affected, and try to identify possible areas of resistance so that you can include potential responses in your plan. Resistance planning is similar to risk planning, even if they don't call it probability and impact in resistance planning. Saving Changes...
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It is a tale told by an idiot,
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