| Project management software exists in many | | | | Requirements for project management software |
| different levels of sofistication and variety of prices. | | | | change accordingly. At this level project management |
| This article aims to help project managers realize what | | | | software must be able to work not only with the static |
| kind of project management software tools they need | | | | representation of start and finish dates for each |
| and find out how computers can help them in | | | | project subroutines, but it needs to be powerful enough |
| everyday routine. | | | | to simulate the project and reschedule it every time |
| Before choosing some particular tool you should have | | | | something changes in project flow. |
| a look at the different kinds of projects to manage | | | | Project management software for huge multi-project |
| and corresponding PM skills. It is very important to pick | | | | environment |
| a project management software tool appropriate for | | | | At this high-end level we need project management |
| you and your organization. The following types of | | | | software that meets a lot of additional requirements. |
| projects and project management software should | | | | Now we need to roll-up multiple projects and require |
| cover the field broadly, though any categorization is | | | | consistent information for decision-makers. Among the |
| very relative. | | | | features they need are: |
| Project management software for small projects, | | | | * material resources allocating (including finances) |
| usually in single functional area | | | | * scheduling and tracking a pool of human resources |
| At this level project managers usually plan and | | | | * sharing resources between multiple projects |
| schedule only durations of project subtasks rather than | | | | * sophisticated risk assessment tools |
| resource capacity or work estimates. They do not | | | | * detailed project performance tracking |
| need to track a project budget and their project status | | | | * creating a detailed project budget. This brings project |
| reports contain only completion date tracking. | | | | management software closer to the company's |
| Project management software in this situation helps | | | | accounting system |
| project managers to automate such basic routines like | | | | If you need a lot, you have to spend a lot. Project |
| * planning project flow | | | | management software for this purpose costs from |
| * occasional status reports preparing | | | | $400 up to $3000 and even more. Such packages |
| * producing Gantt charts | | | | usually have network versions and team |
| If your project management tasks are not intended to | | | | communication capabilities. |
| grow and such functionality is enough, you should not | | | | Categorization above was rather comprehensive over |
| spend a lot of money nor waste your time on long | | | | the last years. But modern project management reality |
| learning curve about features you'll never use. | | | | changes constantly, therefore we can talk about one |
| Project management software for managing larger | | | | more project management software category. |
| projects | | | | Project management software for managing multiple |
| Project budget is very important now, therefore we | | | | projects in small and mid-size businesses |
| need a project management tool to give us the | | | | It often happens that project managers face the need |
| capability to estimate resources and money at every | | | | to manage multiple projects simultaneously, using |
| stage of the project. As more people are getting | | | | resources that can be shared between them. But they |
| involved in the project, software should provide the | | | | do not need a huge and extremely expensive project |
| ability to create numerous status reports – from | | | | management software tool with thousands of not |
| simple total project cost to more sophisticated ones. | | | | really needed features. What should they choose? |
| As the size of the project grows, the number of | | | | ConceptDraw Project can be the answer. |
| project management techniques increases. | | | | |