Any thoughts on good project management tools out there? Our PMO uses microsoft project and microsoft project central, however, has found these tools to be too complex. I am looking for a resource management tool that can house multiple projects. Any input would be appreciated. Saving Changes...
Russell GeakeProject Management Consultant| Deciduous Partners LtdLostwithiel, Cornwall, United Kingdom
Hi Amy,
first place to look is the tools section here on Gantthead, some of them even allow you to "test drive" them.
what capabilities are you looking for in the software, are you only looking for resource management? How about progress tracking and reporting abilities? What are the PMO's defined responsibilities? Bear in mind that with MSproject and project central you can adapt the system to suit your own needs, and (pardon the expression), dumb it down to suit your PMO. It is a powerful tool, as are many of them. If the system is already implemented it might be more cost-effective, and beneficial to the business as a whole, to improve the PMO's understanding of the system and arrange some good training. This could improve the quality of output and value to the business of the PMO. Saving Changes...
Amy, the 1st step in picking a tool is identifying your organization's needs, then build a list of capabilities, and finally, evaluate the various tools available in the marketplace based on your capability list.
BTW, if you're looking for real simple PM tool, then checkout *ProjectKickStart.Com*, I wrote several planning templates for this program. Saving Changes...
Amy, I just finished a "beta" first draft of a white paper regarding MS Project Enterprise Server 2002 vs. a 100% Web Based PM Tool called Autotask. If interested, feel free to contact me direct.
Features are important but what is truly important is basing your decision on Business Value and not features. PSA/PM tools, alone, are behind the curve. Today, you should be able to not only manage at the project level but also manage the opportunity, client issues during and after the engagement, and manage projects in several ways. (time & material, fixed, retainer etc.)
Then you have price:cost of SW, cost of implementation, cost of change mgmt.
Regardless of the tool you utilize, remember to include $$ for training spread over several months for the end user.
I appologize for the quick - multi-statments, but in a hurry today.
As pedestrian as it might sound, but good old Excel is remarkably powerfull, and cheap bearing in mind it ships with office.
I use in in conjunction with our timesheet and budget system to guage whether or not a project is running to plan. Results from this can then be few directly into MSProject / WIP statements. Saving Changes...
Anonymous
Does anyone have information on good tools for project reporting. I am faced with the challenge of finding a tool to replace an in house application that will need to:
Track Budget (Cost & ROI) Track progress against milestones Be easy to implement and use preferably be intranet / internet enabled
It would also be nice to have integration with MSProject.
As part of a large corporation there are multiple tools in place, but nothing that really suits the needs of our business unit, and none of the corporate standards offer sufficient benefit for the required overhead.
Forgive the anonymous post, corporate policy requires it. Saving Changes...
andrew smithPMO Project Manager| Dimensional Fund AdvisorsAustin, Tx, United States
My company (an IT services company) has been looking at enterprise PM tools for a couple of months. We created a scoring matrix that was heavily weighted toward resource management, integration with MS project, and document sharing/collaboration. Our projects are small in terms of number of team members, of generally short duration, and we have an immature pm processes. We have a 75 person user base, but are an Unix/Oracle shop.
We looked at several of the products in Gartner's magic quadrant: they were MS Project Server, Primavera TeamPlay, Business Engine, Artemis, PlanView, eProject, Quickarrow, and Niku. Primavera, Business Engine and Artemis sales people did not return phone calls, possibly because we are small.
eProject, Planview, and Niku are are on the shortlist. Anyone out there have thoughts or suggestions for or against any of the contenders? Saving Changes...
I work in IT and we implemented VPMI (Virtual Project Management Intranet) by a company called VCS. GREAT TOOL, integrates with MS Project if you want, I highly suggest checking them out. They are at: www.vcsonline.com Saving Changes...
Andrew, you need to also evaluate these packages from a total cost of ownership perspective (TCO) by considering the training aspect and your ability to attract and hire project managers in the future if you adapt a tool not widely used in your industry. BTW, I believe Niku stock is selling below a dollar a share, so I would question how long this company will be in business. If you go with Planview or Niku, you'll have a very small pool of PM candidates to choose from since these packages each has less than 1 percent share of the market. Saving Changes...
andrew smithPMO Project Manager| Dimensional Fund AdvisorsAustin, Tx, United States
Tom, thanks for the input. I definitely have concerns about Niku, but they have a current market cap of roughly 40m, and are nearing profitability. I did endless web searches and couldn't find a single report on market share. The market for "PSA" tools seems to be in a churn of convergence right now.
I definitely did consider TCO - the Planview interface was quite unintuitive, and Niku seemed much easier to use. Niku has a pretty long list of customers in the consulting industry. Also, Niku makes our IT guys happy.
I was very interested in Primavera, but I refuse to chase down sales people.
I wanted to like MS Project Server for a lot of reasons, but it was by far the worst product we reviewed in terms of functionality, and the most expensive (surprisingly).
Like I said, if you have suggestions, I'm all ears. Saving Changes...
