Does your car have wheels?

 

Of course it does. So does mine and so does your neighbor's.

Whenever the conversation about project management tools come up, it's really easy to get derailed by the features of individual solutions. Because we've become accustomed to comparing tools that way (not unlike "Does it have wheels? Check.") most of the time we tend to move down a punch-list of features—which hasn't helped us much over the last fifty years. In my opinion, any conversation about project management tools shouldn't revolve around Gantt charts or how they address capacity planning—those are basic features that are included in any project management solution.

Don't get me wrong. Any software that doesn't offer the fundamental feature set required to actively manage a project portfolio shouldn't even be considered. However, when we start talking about collaborative work management (which I believe is the next evolution in project management) determining whether or not your solution provides real business value boils down to a few very important considerations:

1. Does the solution help me capture, prioritize and execute on project requests that emanate from throughout the organization?
2. Does it help me ensure that every potential project is evaluated by the same criteria so only those that meet the criteria will be pushed forward?
3. Will I be able to drill down into real-time data to validate that the business initiatives worked on by teams are those that have been determined to provide the greatest value?
4. Does it make the process accessible to everyone on the project team? If it's easy for teams to use, project leaders will have the timely and accurate information they need to inform decisions.
5. Does it facilitate collaboration among everyone on the team?
6. Will it successfully integrate with my other business-critical systems?

Add these criteria to your evaluation and you might be surprised at how you will look at things a little differently. Does it have wheels? Check. Will it get me where I need to go? Now that's another question entirely.