Encyclopedia > Project management software

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Project management software

Allegedly, the first software suport tool for project management was developed by Datasaab for their computer D21[?] in the early 1960s. It was tailored to support the PERT model. Nowadays project planning software is widely used and abused.

Table of contents

Problems with project management software

  • Few packages are built around a sound project management method. What is even worse, e.g. MS Project encourages counterprodutive behavior by inexperienced project managers by offering as the default start-up view the Gantt chart. This encourages too early focus on task identification and scheduling vs. proper formulation of project objectives[?] and final deliverables[?]. So, such packages implicitly force upon an unsuspecting user an unsound project management process.
  • To make things worse, many packages offer advanced visual formatting capabilities, which make it possible to produce nicely-looking but completely nonsense documents.
  • Many packages also offer e-mail integration, which encourages automatic assignment of tasks and due dates. This universally leads to counterproductive, date-driven behavior (see: critical chain) and may contribute to improper setting of team members' performance expectations[?].

Proprietary non-internet packages

Critical path support

Critical chain support

Open source software

Proprietary internet-based

External links

Books

  • Eric Uyttewaal. Dynamic Scheduling With Microsoft(r) Project 2000: The Book By and For Professionals. ISBN 0970827601
  • George Suhanic. Computer-Aided Project Management. ISBN 0195115910
  • Richard E. Westney. Computerized Management of Multiple Small Projects. ISBN 0824786459



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