Ismail MuhammadPlanning Engineer| Olayan DesconJubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia
I have been using Primavera P2, MS Project and MS Excel for managing projects. In my opinion Primavera has very good reporting options but it is not much user friendly while MS Project is much user friendly but in case of a big project I found it comparatively less reliable. And MS Excel gives much flexibility but it is not a ready to use software and it can be a supplement to a specialised project management software.
I am interested to know about other softwares which could prove better. All are requested to share their experiences Saving Changes...
Wai Mun KooPMO Director| Intergraph PP&MSingapore, Singapore
That would be a long list. However, Gartner does provide a good annual evaluation on the tools which you can use as a guide. Check out the latest in the link below.
Carl BlakeleySr Cost Analyst| MCR FederalO Fallon, Il, United States
Excel has the benefit of low cost and many free add-ons. For big projects or multiple projects under a unified Program, perhaps not so good. Primavera is good for Program management (multiple projects) but is pricey and requires training and experience.
first question to ask: do you really need a product to manage the task? I have seen many small projects overwhelmed by their documentation/reporting systems. Do you find yourself spending 30% of your time updating your tool? Producing output no one has requested? Or, looks at? Sometimes a large roll of 24inch paper and some markers work well. Ask yourself, "What IT application did the Romans or Egyptians use to plan/execute the aquaducts and pyramids?" Point is, tools can be overrated and over used. Saving Changes...
Considering it the best really depends on many factors(requirements, budget, performance, etc.). Currently we're using Latitude project management software as we find it very suitable to handle our business processes. From job tracking, timesheets, project costing, to quotes, invoices, and reports. Saving Changes...
Alex ForbesEditor in Chief| QuickBase, Inc.Cambridge, Ma, United States
Hi Ismail,
Your post reminds me of the Goldilocks and the 3 Bears fairytale. Too hot, too cold...ah, just right.
I work for Intuit QuickBase, mostly managing The Fast Track blog which recently shared a interesting post about recognizing the signs when your project is DOA or headed for disaster.
QuickBase, unlike out of the box PM tools or readily available spreadsheets, is an online (SaaS) database with project management templates enabling you to build your business process into the tool any way you like without having coding skills. Most people use it to manage projects where emailing around spreadsheets was causing more pain than gozd, or out of the box solutions weren't customizable enough.
I've even heard it referred to on several occasions as a great RAD tool to spin up a quick app to solve a singular problem, and then become the platform of choice for several business process challenges, from project management, to CRM, to IT and Sales Management.
Have a look and let me know what you think sometime.
Best,
Alex
Intuit
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Bernard GorePortfolio, Programme & Project Professional| NZ PoliceWellington, New Zealand
I'm tempted to stay stick with Excel, but get an Excel poweruser to work with you for a bit on how you can use it more - the capabilities are way beyond what alsmot anyone uses - few use more than 10% of it's capability. Saving Changes...
Peter WrightProgramme Manager| BAE SystemsSouthport, Merseyside, United Kingdom
If you want your teams to be ab;e to record and manage risks in a project I have found many web based solutions force you to go into each individual risk to record updates / change and this becomes too cumbersome for teams with only a PM on a large project (e.g. SME with 1x PM running a large project)
Excel provides this flexibility to quickly review risks and provide an update for each one on one page - but excel has it's own limitations.
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Bernard GorePortfolio, Programme & Project Professional| NZ PoliceWellington, New Zealand
I've used maybe 10 systems over the years, and my conclusion - not one is ideal. Every one is a tool and can be used well or poorly.
Also, what is the right one depends mostly on the organisation and its level of PPM maturity - I wouldn't put Primavera in an organsiation with only early maturity!
Finally, managing expectations is critical - too many organisations I've seen think if they put MS-Project in, or some other tool, it provides everything they need and they don't need good process, governance, or even professional PMs. A tool can only ever support good practice, not actually make this happen. Saving Changes...
Jacob SamuelsProject Manager| SynoTechNy, United States
Documentation is the very hectic process for managing the project effectively. Many project managers stick to the ready industry based project management templates for example PM Toolkit 1.0, Smartsheet, etc. These templates are user-friendly, easy to use and provide alongside instructions during executing it. Saving Changes...
We have been using Eylean Board for the project management and we find it to be a very nice solution. It is a relatively clean software with a variety of features such as time tracking, team management and others available.
You can find more at www.eylean.com
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I have implemented the stakeholdershape software and I believe it is an innovative solution for the management of the project stakeholders and project communication. You can view the software at the following link www.stakeholdershape.com Saving Changes...
