Project management software - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Project management software is a term covering many types of software, including estimation

Software development effort estimation

Software development efforts estimation is the process of predicting the most realistic use of effort required to develop or maintain software based on incomplete, uncertain and/or noisy input...

and planning, scheduling

Schedule (workplace)

A schedule, often called a rota, is a list of employees who are working on any given day, week, or month in a workplace. A schedule is necessary for the day-to-day operation of any retail store or manufacturing facility. The process of creating a schedule is called scheduling...

, cost control and budget management, resource allocation

Resource allocation

Resource allocation is used to assign the available resources in an economic way. It is part of resource management. In project management, resource allocation is the scheduling of activities and the resources required by those activities while taking into consideration both the resource...

, collaboration software, communication

Communication

Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...

, quality management and documentation

Documentation

Documentation is a term used in several different ways. Generally, documentation refers to the process of providing evidence.Modules of Documentation are Helpful...

or administration systems, which are used to deal with the complexity of large project

Project

A project in business and science is typically defined as a collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim. Projects can be further defined as temporary rather than permanent social systems that are constituted by teams...

Scheduling

One of the most common purposes is to schedule a series of events or tasks and the complexity

Complexity

In general usage, complexity tends to be used to characterize something with many parts in intricate arrangement. The study of these complex linkages is the main goal of complex systems theory. In science there are at this time a number of approaches to characterizing complexity, many of which are...

of the schedule can vary considerably depending on how the tool is used. Some common challenges include:

Events which depend on one another in different ways or dependencies.
Scheduling people to work on, and resources required by, the various tasks, commonly termed resource scheduling.
Dealing with uncertainties in the estimates
Estimation (project management)
In project management , accurate estimates are the basis of sound project planning. Many processes have been developed to aid engineers in making accurate estimates, such as*Analogy based estimation...

of the duration of each task
Task (project management)
In project management a task is an activity that needs to be accomplished within a defined period of time. An assignment is a task under the responsibility of an assignee which should have a start and end date defined. One or more assignments on a task puts the task under execution. Completion of...

.

Providing information

Project planning software can be expected to provide information to various people or stakeholders, and can be used to measure and justify the level of effort required to complete the project(s). Typical requirements might include:

Tasks lists for people, and allocation schedules for resources.
Overview information on how long tasks will take to complete.
Early warning of any risks to the project.
Information on workload, for planning holidays.
Evidence.
Historical information on how projects have progressed, and in particular, how actual and planned performance are related.
Optimum utilization of available resource.
Cost Maintenance.
What kind of buildings are made i.e. schools,home,collages,shopping mall etc.

Desktop

Project management software can be implemented as a program that runs on the desktop

Desktop environment

In graphical computing, a desktop environment commonly refers to a style of graphical user interface derived from the desktop metaphor that is seen on most modern personal computers. These GUIs help the user in easily accessing, configuring, and modifying many important and frequently accessed...

of each user. This typically gives the most responsive and graphically-intense style of interface.
Desktop applications typically store their data in a file, although some have the ability to collaborate with other users (see below), or to store their data in a central database. Even a file-based project plan can be shared between users if it's on a networked drive and only one user accesses it at a time.

Desktop applications can be written to run in a heterogeneous environment of multiple operating system

Operating system

An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

s, although it's unusual.

Web-based

Project management software can be implemented as a Web application

Web application

A web application is an application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. The term may also mean a computer software application that is coded in a browser-supported language and reliant on a common web browser to render the application executable.Web applications are...

, accessed through an intranet

Intranet

An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...

, or an extranet

Extranet

An extranet is a computer network that allows controlled access from the outside, for specific business or educational purposes. An extranet can be viewed as an extension of a company's intranet that is extended to users outside the company, usually partners, vendors, and suppliers...

using a web browser

Web browser

A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...

.
This has all the usual advantages and disadvantages of web applications:

Can be accessed from any type of computer without installing software on user's computer.
Ease of access-control.
Naturally multi-user.
Only one software version and installation to maintain.
Centralized data repository.
Typically slower to respond than desktop applications.
Project information not available when the user (or server) is offline.
Some solutions allow the user to go offline with a copy of the data.

Personal

A personal project management application is one used at home, typically to manage lifestyle or home projects. There is considerable overlap with single user systems, although personal project management software typically involves simpler interfaces. See also non-specialised tools below.

Single user

A single-user system is programmed with the assumption that only one person will ever need to edit the project plan at once. This may be used in small companies, or ones where only a few people are involved in top-down project planning. Desktop applications generally fall into this category.

Collaborative

A collaborative system is designed to support multiple users modifying different sections of the plan at once; for example, updating the areas they personally are responsible for such that those estimates get integrated into the overall plan. Web-based tools, including extranet

Extranet

s, generally fall into this category, but have the limitation that they can only be used when the user has live Internet access. To address this limitation, some software tools using client–server architecture provide a rich client

Fat client

A fat client is a computer in client–server architecture or networks that typically provides rich functionality independent of the central server...

that runs on users' desktop computer

Desktop computer

A desktop computer is a personal computer in a form intended for regular use at a single location, as opposed to a mobile laptop or portable computer. Early desktop computers are designed to lay flat on the desk, while modern towers stand upright...

and replicate project and task information to other project team members through a central server when users connect periodically to the network. Some tools allow team members to check out their schedules (and others' as read only) to work on them while not on the network. When reconnecting to the database, all changes are synchronized with the other schedules.

Integrated

An integrated system combines project management or project planning, with many other aspects of company life. For example, projects can have bug tracking issues assigned to each project, the list of project customers becomes a customer relationship management

Customer relationship management

Customer relationship management is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing,...

module, and each person on the project plan has their own task lists, calendars, and messaging functionality associated with their projects.

Similarly, specialised tools like SourceForge

SourceForge

SourceForge Enterprise Edition is a collaborative revision control and software development management system. It provides a front-end to a range of software development lifecycle services and integrates with a number of free software / open source software applications .While originally itself...

integrate project management software with source control (CVS

Concurrent Versions System

The Concurrent Versions System , also known as the Concurrent Versioning System, is a client-server free software revision control system in the field of software development. Version control system software keeps track of all work and all changes in a set of files, and allows several developers ...

) software and bug-tracking software, so that each piece of information can be integrated into the same system.

Non-specialised tools

While specialised software may be common, and heavily promoted by each vendor, there are a vast range of other software (and non-software) tools used to plan and schedule projects.

Calendaring software
Calendaring software
Calendaring software is software that minimally provides users with an electronic version of a calendar. Additionally, the software may provide an appointment book, address book, and/or contact list. These tools are an extension of many of the features provided by time management software such as...

can often handle scheduling as easily as dedicated software.
Spreadsheets are very versatile, and can be used to calculate things not anticipated by the designers.

Criticisms of project management software

The following may apply in general, or to specific products, or to some specific functions within products.

May not suit all projects

May not be derived from a sound project management method. For example, displaying the Gantt chart

Gantt chart

A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project. Some Gantt charts...

view by default encourages users to focus on timed task scheduling too early, rather than identifying objectives, deliverable

Deliverable

Deliverable is a term used in project management to describe a tangible or intangible object produced as a result of the project that is intended to be delivered to a customer . A deliverable could be a report, a document, a server upgrade or any other building block of an overall project.A...

s and the imposed logical progress of events (dig the trench first to put in the drain pipe).

May be inconsistent with the type of project management method. For example, traditional (e.g. Waterfall
Waterfall model
The waterfall model is a sequential design process, often used in software development processes, in which progress is seen as flowing steadily downwards through the phases of Conception, Initiation, Analysis, Design, Construction, Testing, Production/Implementation and Maintenance.The waterfall...

) vs. agile (e.g. Scrum
Scrum (development)
Scrum is an iterative, incremental framework for project management often seen in agile software development, a type of software engineering....

).
Focuses primarily on the planning phase and does not offer enough functionality for project tracking, control and in particular plan-adjustment. There may be excessive dependency on the first paper print-out of a project plan, which is simply a snapshot at one moment in time. The plan is dynamic; as the project progresses the plan must change to accommodate tasks that are completed early, late, re-sequenced, etc. Good management software should not only facilitate this, but assist with impact assessment and communication of plan changes.
Does not make a clear distinction between the planning phase and post planning phase, leading to user confusion and frustration when the software does not behave as expected. For example, shortening the duration of a task when an additional human resource is assigned to it while the project is still being planned.
Offer complicated features to meet the needs of project management or project scheduling professionals, which must be understood in order to effectively use the product. Additional features may be so complicated as to be of no use to anyone. Complex task prioritization and resource leveling
Resource Leveling
Resource leveling is a project management technique used to examine unbalanced use of resources over time, and for resolving over-allocations or conflicts....

algorithms for example can produce results that make no intuitive sense, and overallocation is often more simply resolved manually.
Some people may achieve better results using simpler technique, (e.g. pen and paper), yet feel pressured into using project management software by company policy (discussion).
Similar to PowerPoint, project management software might shield the manager from important interpersonal contact.
New types of software are challenging the traditional definition of Project Management. Frequently, users of project management software are not actually managing a discrete project. For instance, managing the ongoing marketing for an already-released product is not a "project" in the traditional sense of the term; it does not involve management of discrete resources working on something with a discrete beginning/end. Groupware applications now add "project management" features that directly support this type of workflow-oriented project management. Classically-trained Project Managers may argue whether this is "sound project management." However, the end-users of such tools will refer to it as such, and the de-facto definition of the term Project Management may change.
When there are multiple larger projects, project management software can be very useful. Nevertheless, one should probably not use management software if only a single small project is involved, as management software incurs a larger time-overhead than is worthwhile.

Books

Eric Uyttewaal: Dynamic Scheduling With Microsoft(r) Project 2000: The Book By and For Professionals, ISBN 0-9708276-0-1
George Suhanic: Computer-Aided Project Management, ISBN 0-19-511591-0
Richard E. Westney: Computerized Management of Multiple Small Projects, ISBN 0-8247-8645-9

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.