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What should a good project management tool feature?
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5 Answers
Alex, this is a good question and one that follows what might be the Project Management Motto...It Depends.
Some key things to think about when selecting the right tool....
1) What purpose will it serve? Is this for PMs to manage the project or will it be a more collaborative tool for the team to work with and the business to have visibility into? All to often, PMs select tools that show the best Gantt and so forth but the other functions on the team have zero interest. If it is going to be simply for the PMs then you can go with bells and whistles, but if the business is going to need to work within than you are looking for usability.
2) Where is your organization at from a project maturity level? If the org hasn't run with some formal project management yet, then a tool that is based on a methodology might be too much for the first few projects. Keep in mind that you will mature, so the tool should scale with your strategy.
3) Do you have a project methodology/framework in place today? The tool should be able to match that and help develop and mold to the best practices/lessons learned as the org moves forward.
Generally, we look for something that handles some basics such as task lists and dependencies, resource management, reporting (time/budget/resources) and dashboards, document sharing & repository, and team collaboration. Some of the tools we like include Project Vantage, AtTask, SmartSheet...and always looking for more.
I hope that helps.
I was suggested to use Confluence. Had some brief intro, but didn't check it as it looked a bit complicated for what I need.
One caveat to add to Robert's comment: some solutions attempt to cover every conceivable client wish and desire, and thus become needlessly complicated and lose any resemblance to an intuitive UI. I recommend you first define what you need to accomplish, and determine the simplest solution which serves your need.
Together, let's put the fun back into work!
Belldon Colme
belldoncolme@gmail.com
A good project management tool should be easy to use as social networks and manage/desiminate information as easily as well.
Alex:
What a great question. It's also a gtough one as nearly everyone seems to have a different definition or vision of what a project is today - it's become a very misaligned word.
Where then do you start? First, know how you define a project and what you define as project management and scheduling. Given that there are all sorts of project management sotware tools available, it's best to start by understanding what you need in terms project scheduling and communication. If you don't get this first part right, you'll either under or over estimate what you need, what is will cost and most importantly, the learning curve you'll encounter.
Here are some basic questions you must answer to get you started:
-Will you be managing one project or several?
-Will the resources (i.e. people) working on one project be shared with another?
-Will you alone produce and publish the schedule for others to view and follow, or will you need to collaborate with others?
-Are you looking for something simple, such as a tool to manage a to-do or task list, or to see when things are due or were completed?
-Perhaps you need something more grand, something that will allow to develop and model complex, multi-level project schedules?
Project management software comes in several varieties today. There are web based project management tools (e.g. BaseCamp, iTeamWork), there are i-Pad/i-Phone based (e.g SGProject) and there are PC-based singlee user or standalone project management tools, including Microsoft Project, Primavera SureTrak, OfficeWork TurboProject and OpenProj all run on Windows PCs. Choices on the MAC are limited, but OpenProj is a good option. There are multi-user systems available and systems designed to manage portfolios or collections of projects at an enterprise level as well.
If you can invest the time and effort, it never hurts to start simple (or with a free or trial system). Most of the online (cloud) services offer these and OpenProj is completely free for PCs and Macs.
Good luck!
Bob
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