Wednesday, 07 October 2009 18:01
The activities of a project manager are diverse and complex. Some of the activities cannot be made easier by using a project management tool. However, where the planning and control of a project are concerned, the use of software can be practical.
1 – Development of a well-founded project plan
The project manager is responsible for the development of a sound strategy and ongoing control throughout the life of a project. The project manager needs high-quality information to be able to make well-founded decisions in the area of conflict between the team and the stakeholders. A tool supports the project manager in this context with a series of visual charts and calculations. For example:
- Can we reach the milestone?
- Which performances were realized in the last iteration?
- Will we achieve financial goals?
- Will we need further resources in the next phase?
Not every tool is equally able to support the collection, presentation, and sharing of this information. A tool that excels at these tasks improves the quality of the planning and this, in turn, can be a positive influence on the control of the project.
Conclusion: Project management software offers high-quality information to the project manager to develop the project strategy, control the project and communicate with stake holders.
2 - Controlling complexity
Projects easily consist of several sub-projects and several hundred work contracts, activities and dependencies. If you try to control this complexity manually, a project team has to work in a highly disciplined manner. A project management tool can start at this point, administer the entire planning, control information systematically, and show it in a well-structured way
This enables individual participants in the project to see the planning and control information that is relates to them. Using separated planning and control leads to the ability to subdivide complex projects into smaller units that are more accessible. Examples are the formation of individual sub-projects, teams, and project parts.
Conclusion: Project management software helps to grasp a complex project, to subdivide it, and so make it easier to control.
3 - Controlling of multi-projects and portfolios
A project manager who is in charge of several projects or a project management office that administers a portfolio of projects has to be able to track the goals of several projects. To avoid conflicts between projects, a plan for the use of resources for which there are competing demands needs to encompass all projects. At this point, a tool can make the capacity transparent, so that on one hand, the capacity of the team members is known, and on the other hand, the projects remain able to progress according to their current project status.
Another advantage is when information is available in aggregated form for use in several projects. This allows prioritizing of the projects within the portfolio or on a strategic level and thus supports the translation of the business strategy in a positive way.
Conclusion: An integrated project management tool provides an advantage for integrating a business strategy into the company.
4 - Establishment of a uniform project management planning method and platform
In many organizations, the success of a project depends on individual project managers (CMMI level 0). Uniformity with respect to planning methods and tools is often absent in this case. A decision to use a defined PM method and tool offers, on one hand, a chance to establish the methods configured in the tool, and on the other to improve the quality of the tool.
By standardizing methods and tools, learning curves can be diminished and the focus can shift toward project management and content. Even in the dialogue between a project and stakeholders, uniformity of information can enable a more purposeful communication and higher quality decisions.
Conclusion: The standardization of project management tools serves to support the implementation of existing PM methodology and to increase the quality of the tools.
5 – Process automation
During the course of a project, many routine processes can be automated. It is often nerve wracking to prepare numbers repeatedly to be able to present information. It is very useful when a tool can do this work through standardized reports.
In many scenarios, the information is sitting in multiple tools and needs to be exchanged in a complicated way. If it is possible to integrate the tool, information can be prepared for the recipient so that few breaks in the media occur and thus the information is available in real-time.
Conclusion: Unnecessary manual interfaces and repeated activities should be avoided. Automation of PM processes and information integration lead to an increase in efficiency and motivation.
Summary
A project management tool is no guarantee of the success of a project. Frequently, its use can even have negative effects. If a tool is evaluated according to individual requirements and introduced carefully, a particular project or a project-oriented organization can be influenced in a positive way. A project manager can, with the help of an appropriate tool, prepare a project strategy more deliberately, and can carry out the project more efficiently and with higher quality.
0 Comments