Project Management

Project Management Software Should Not Replace Project Managers

David is an experienced project manager, and founder and CEO of Binfire.com, a SaaS project management and collaboration application.

One of the perks of being the CEO of an online project management software company is that I sometimes participate in sales calls to prospects or service calls to existing customers. Why is this a perk? Because it gives me the opportunity to understand how software is used (or misused).

It also feeds into my curiosity about a subject that I struggle with: why so many customers of project management software show disdain for the discipline itself. So troubling is the term “project management” that we sometimes need to use the term “collaboration software” as a virtual brown paper bag to hide the product.

As a business owner, it does not bother me how customers use my technology. But as a long-time practitioner of project management (agile, traditional and hybrid project management), I am concerned by the perception that project management is only relevant for large-scale initiatives. Perhaps most disconcerting is the argument that project management is a luxury and that in the “real” world, technology can replace its core processes. In other words, buy some software and you won’t need a project manager.

Without mentioning specific names, this phenomenon is reflected in the surprisingly high market share of software vendors who target their marketing to non-project managers with this premise. At least four of the leading top 10 …


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"Truth comes out of error more readily than out of confusion."

- Francis Bacon

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