How Do Project Management Software Help You Manage Projects?

How do you manage your daily life? If you are the organized kind of person, you make things-to-do lists for every day. You also use that list by referring to it occasionally to see that you have not omitted any task. Project management software also starts with to do lists. These are rather more elaborate lists, however. A project task list will be a hierarchical list along the following lines:

• At the top will be the project deliverable, say, a completed shopping complex or software package
• Next in hierarchy will come the major tasks, expressed as specific deliverables wherever possible. For the software project, these can include such things as Client Requirements Study Report, Design Specifications for a Prototype, Coded Prototype, Report on Test Results With the Prototype, Report on Design Changes Required, and so on.
• Each of these major tasks will be broken up into next level tasks. For example, the Client Requirements Study Report will be split into such sub tasks as Problem Identification, Solution Environment Description, Deliverables Required and Constraints Applicable to Solutions.
• This process of breaking up tasks continue until we arrive at specific small activities that can be carried out. Examples of such activities include fixing appointments, discussing questions to be included in requirements questionnaire, and so on

The project management software will typically include devices such as checklists and graphic displays that facilitate preparation of hierarchic project tasks list. These devices help us think about the activities involved and prevent accidental omissions.

Sequencing and Scheduling the Project Tasks

Normally, it will not be possible to carry out all the tasks in the project list simultaneously. There will be interdependencies involved that dictate certain tasks to be completed before others can be taken up. Sometimes, only partial completion of one task is required before the next task can be started. The tasks in the project task list have to be sequenced considering these interdependencies. Project management software will typically have a module for scheduling. You indicate the time required for each task, and the interdependencies among tasks, to this program, and it will come out with a sequenced tasks schedule. The schedule thus created can highlight the "critical path", the shortest time needed to complete the whole project.

Allocation of Resources

Tasks need resources to be completed. Resources include skilled and unskilled manpower, materials, tools, equipment, power, fuel, water and so on. Project management software will have modules to compute resource requirements based on the quantities of work and standard resource requirements per unit of work. You can input the standard requirements and work quantities and the software module will compute the resource requirements, and even schedule these based on the work schedule. If the critical path indicates that the project will not be completed by agreed target date, it is usually possible to shorten tasks completion times by allocating more resources to critical tasks. The relevant module of the project management software can help you visualize the scenarios with different resource allocations.

Costs and Finances

Once the resource requirements have been quantified, it would be possible to compute project costs based on current (or estimated) market prices of different resource items, such as labor, materials, tools, etc. The monetary costs are then scheduled highlighting the timing of financial requirements, based on the project schedule. It would now be possible to explore financing alternatives and start funds procurement initiatives. And once the fund sources have been identified, a cash flow statement can be generated. The cash flow statement, showing inflow of funds from funding sources, and outflows for project expenditure, is the standard used to control finances.

Project Tracking and Control

The major goals of project control are two:

• Complete the project by the target date.
• Complete it without any cost overruns.

The project progress and cost tracking modules of project management software help achieve these goals.

• The progress tracking module will accept details of work completed, and generate reports (typically in graphic formats) indicating the progress of the project and highlighting any delays.
• The cost tracking module will accumulate costs incurred by tasks, as well as the general overhead, and generate reports highlighting variations from standards.

Progress and cost control is exercised by:

• Regularly reviewing the above reports,
• Analyzing the reasons for variations from schedules and standards, and
• Initiating remedial actions where needed.

The project management software itself might generate reports analyzing the variations from standards by the factors responsible. This can make the control task easier.

Collaborative Working

Project management software will include facilities for collaboration so that different specialists can work together interactively during the planning and tracking stages. Traditionally, such collaboration required the persons concerned to find time to sit together and discuss things. With modern project management software, it will be possible for each person to sit at his or her workstation, review the points made by others so far, and respond with his or her suggestions. This can be done at each person's convenience, and so things can proceed faster, with better quality responses.