1. Milestone chart combined with a GANTT chart is the most commonly used PM tool. A major benefit of this chart is it easy to understand and gives great deal of information in a single presentation.
2. WBS - Work Breakdown Structure
It is a tree like diagram that captures all the work of a project in an organized way. It is often portrayed graphically as a hierarchical tree, however, it can also be a tabular list of "element" categories and tasks or the indented task list that appears in your Gantt chart schedule.
The WBS is commonly used at the beginning of a project for defining project scope, organizing Gantt schedules and estimating costs.
Figure here shows an example of a WBS.
3. S Curve
The S Curve is a well known project management tool and it consists in "a display of cumulative costs, labour hours or other quantities plotted against time".The name derives from the S-like shape of the curve, flatter at the beginning and end and steeper in the middle, because this is the way most of the projects look like.
The S curve can be considered as an indicator and it's used for many applications related to project management such as: target, baseline, cost, time etc. That's why there is a variety of S Curves such as:
-Cost versus Time S Curve;(appropriate for projects that contain labour and non-labour tasks).
-Target S Curve;(This S Curve reflects the ideal progress of the project if all tasks are completed as currently scheduled)
-Value and Percentage S Curves;(Percentage S Curves are useful for calculating the project's actual percentage complete)
-Actual S Curve;(This S Curve reflects the actual progress of the project to date)
Figure here shows an S curve generated from MS Project
4. PERT/CPM
With this I recommend this article
http://www.envisionsoftware.com/articles/Pert_Chart.html
I also recommend of using a tracking system for software development project. Below is an open source system you might consider using.
http://trac.edgewall.org/
