Relevance of project management tools

Why project management tools are important?
Managing systems complexity has become the number one challenge for the high tech companies. One of the reasons for this increase in complexity is that customers are demanding customized solutions. Another reason is the way in which software systems are tied together. A system may have many sub systems; some of which may be off-the-shelf components, third party solutions or from open source. Integrating these myriad systems is indeed a nightmare.

A more sophisticated approach is needed to build and manage these complex systems. Today’s project and portfolio managers should not only have the right skills and qualifications, but also be equipped with the right tools and solutions. A good project management solution can help a project manager to effectively facilitate project execution and develop collaborative relationships within the organization. Such a solution can also be a great asset to the PMO, to promote best practices and discipline across the organization.

How to make the right choice?
There are a lot of solutions available on the internet, for free. Organizations should definitely explore these options but should mind the fact many of these might not suit their kind of operations. Evaluating a tool and adopting it across the organization involves lot of effort from the process champions. There are other issues like lack of product documentation and support, customization, quality guarantees and security. So, even if the tools are freely available, adopting these tools carry huge costs. Organizations and process champions should consider the long term overall costs and benefits of acquiring these tools instead of focusing on the upfront acquisition costs.

Process champions and project managers should ask these questions before finalizing any solution:
1. Best Practices: Does the solution come with a set of processes and best practices relevant to your business?
2. Customization: Can the tool be easily customized to help continuous improvement of the processes and the changing needs of the organization? Can the tool be scaled up to cater to growing number of employees?
3. Metrics: Does the solution have in-built facilities to collect relevant statistics from ongoing projects and compare them against the industry and organization’s benchmarks; spot deviations and issue timely alerts?
4. Budget: Does it fit into my budget? Does the vendor provide flexible buying options like SaaS, hosted services, yearly and perpetual licensing plans?
5. Support and Training: Is the vendor reliable and will they be around to provide product support post purchase? What are the training costs involved? What is the kind of documentary support that the vendor is providing?

Organizations should also look at utilizing the project management tool for entire gamut of project operations. Popular software packages like Microsoft Project are meant exclusively for project managers. Tools like the GWD Suite have features which can be leveraged by everybody involved in the project operations. GWD has role-based approach to feature access and licensing. This makes it a highly effective project collaboration platform. More on GWD Suite features later.

Go ahead and make the right choice!
Project success rate is dismal. Some sources claim that 7 out of 10 projects fail on delivering the promises. When looked at closely, better decision making ability and leadership are critical for successful projects. The right project management tool ultimately empowers the leaders to take better decisions by providing them accurate and timely information. So, go ahead and make the right choice!