Get My Free WhitePaper - 10 Tips for Choosing the Right Project Management Software
New web-based project management software can totally transform how your organization manages projects. Or, it can fail to bring any measurable change, be under utilized and resented by the staff that is “forced” to make a change and use it. Both scenarios are certainly possible. Like any project, without the correct planning, stakeholder alignment, and buy-in, total failure is a risk. Its ironic that most project management software is never purchased directly by the project managers that must use it on a day to day basis. Often times, it is dictated from above or just an assumption that MS Project or Excel is just the PM software that simply “must” be used. Even more challenging, with today’s economic reality, getting any purchase approved is a struggle. Trust me, I have been there. Asking for additional budget for a software solution or tool, perhaps in midst of layoffs or other budgetary reductions, is certainly akin to swimming upstream at best, and putting a giant target on your back at worst. So is it worth it to make a change? It certainly can be! If you are lucky enough to be in an organization where change is easy or you have more control over the tools you use to complete your job, then you are in a great position already to use today’s latest tools to become an even more effective project manager.
The good news is that in the last 5-6 years, project management software has seen a tremendous boom. What once took project managers hours or even days to put together weekly, can now be completed in a matter of minutes with new project software featuring many “Web 2.0” features combined with tried and true project scheduling, document sharing, plus instant dashboards and reports, creating all in one project solutions that delight clients, ease workloads of your team, and inform management of the bigger picture with calling you the project manager every 5 minutes. All of this is possible for amazing inexpensive prices, but does come with some caveats.
The bad news is (and its not all that bad), that at last count on a popular software directory, there are over 420+ listings for web-enabled project management software. That is quite a few vendors to evaluate. How can you cut through all noise to find the solutions that are right for your particular situation? There are some good ways to do just that, and we will get to them shortly in the tips section.
As with any software solution, it is a good idea to develop a business case for why this software makes sense financially. Depending on your organization and your particular processes, this business case may be a simple 5 minute oral discussion in your boss’s office, or it may be a 100 page word document complete with its own project plan, resourcing estimates, and ROI calculations. Regardless, you must be able to show some value for this particular purchase.
So, what is the value of good PM software anyway? Enter Your Name and Email below to get my Free Whitepaper, and signup to my mailing list.