From Zero to Sixty: What type of Project Management tool is appropriate?
It seems like every month or two, I happen across a forum thread about project management tools. What works? Can you do it with a wiki? Are they necessary at all? Often, there are a slew of recommendations (Basecamp, Central Desktop, MS Project) accompanied by some heartfelt recommendations to stay away from all of them. All of these recommendations are correct, and incorrect.
Project software naysayers make a very apt point: Tools won't plan a project for you. If you think that buying and setting up the tool is all that you need to do to successfully complete a complex project, you're probably doomed to fail. So what are the things that will truly facilitate a project-oriented approach, regardless of tools?
Traditional Project Management applications, exemplified by MS Project, tie your project schedule and resources together, applying resource percentages to timeline tasks. So, if your CEO is involved in promoting the plan and acting as a high level sponsor, then she will
be assigned, perhaps, as five percent of the project's total resources, and her five percent will be sub-allocated to the tasks that she is assigned to. They track dependencies, and allow you to shift a whole schedule based on the delay of one piece of the plan. If task 37 is
"order widget" and that order is delayed, then all actions that depend on deployment of the widget can be rescheduled with a drag and drop action. This is all very powerful, but there is a significant cost to defiing the plan, initially inputting it, and then maintaining the information. There's a simple rule of thumb to apply: If your project requires this level of
tracking, then it requires a full-time Project Manager to track it. If your budget doesn't support that, as is often the case, then you shouldn't even try to use a tool this complex. It will only waste your time.
Without a dedicated Project Manager, the goal is to find tools that will enhance communication; keep team members aware of deadlines and milestones; report clearly on project status; and provide graphical and summary reporting to stakeholders. If your team is spread out geographically, or comprised of people both inside and outside of your organization, such as consultants and vendors, all the better if the tool is web-based. Centralized plan, calendar, and contacts are a given. Online forums can be useful if your culture supports it. Most people aren't big on online discussions outside of email, so you shouldn't put up a forum if it won't be used by all members. The key is to provide a big schedule that drills down to task lists, and maintain a constant record of task status and potential impacts on the overall plan. Gantt Charts allow you to note key dependencies - actions that must be completed before other actions can begin -- and provide a visual reporting tool that is clear and readable for your constituents, from the project sponsors to the public. Basecamp, Central Desktop, and a slue of web-based options provide these components.
If this is still overkill - the project isn't that complex, or the team is too small and constricted to learn and manage the tools, then scale down even further. Make good use of the task list and calendar functions that your email system provides, and put up a wiki to facilitate project-related communication.
What makes this topic so popular is that there is no such thing as a one size fits all answer, and the quick answer ("Use Project") can be deadly for all but the most complex projects. Understand your goals, understand your team, and choose tools that support them.
Project software naysayers make a very apt point: Tools won't plan a project for you. If you think that buying and setting up the tool is all that you need to do to successfully complete a complex project, you're probably doomed to fail. So what are the things that will truly facilitate a project-oriented approach, regardless of tools?
- Healthy Communication. The team on the project has to be comfortably and consistently engaged in project status and decisions
- Accountability. Team members need to know what their roles are, what deliverables they're accountable for and when, and deliver them.
- Clarity, Oversight and Buy-In. Executives, Boards, Backers all have to be completely behind the project and the implementation team.
Traditional Project Management applications, exemplified by MS Project, tie your project schedule and resources together, applying resource percentages to timeline tasks. So, if your CEO is involved in promoting the plan and acting as a high level sponsor, then she will
be assigned, perhaps, as five percent of the project's total resources, and her five percent will be sub-allocated to the tasks that she is assigned to. They track dependencies, and allow you to shift a whole schedule based on the delay of one piece of the plan. If task 37 is
"order widget" and that order is delayed, then all actions that depend on deployment of the widget can be rescheduled with a drag and drop action. This is all very powerful, but there is a significant cost to defiing the plan, initially inputting it, and then maintaining the information. There's a simple rule of thumb to apply: If your project requires this level of
tracking, then it requires a full-time Project Manager to track it. If your budget doesn't support that, as is often the case, then you shouldn't even try to use a tool this complex. It will only waste your time.
Without a dedicated Project Manager, the goal is to find tools that will enhance communication; keep team members aware of deadlines and milestones; report clearly on project status; and provide graphical and summary reporting to stakeholders. If your team is spread out geographically, or comprised of people both inside and outside of your organization, such as consultants and vendors, all the better if the tool is web-based. Centralized plan, calendar, and contacts are a given. Online forums can be useful if your culture supports it. Most people aren't big on online discussions outside of email, so you shouldn't put up a forum if it won't be used by all members. The key is to provide a big schedule that drills down to task lists, and maintain a constant record of task status and potential impacts on the overall plan. Gantt Charts allow you to note key dependencies - actions that must be completed before other actions can begin -- and provide a visual reporting tool that is clear and readable for your constituents, from the project sponsors to the public. Basecamp, Central Desktop, and a slue of web-based options provide these components.
If this is still overkill - the project isn't that complex, or the team is too small and constricted to learn and manage the tools, then scale down even further. Make good use of the task list and calendar functions that your email system provides, and put up a wiki to facilitate project-related communication.
What makes this topic so popular is that there is no such thing as a one size fits all answer, and the quick answer ("Use Project") can be deadly for all but the most complex projects. Understand your goals, understand your team, and choose tools that support them.
Labels: Project Management, tech planning
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16 Comments:
Good points. And it's very true there is no one-size-fits-all solution. I've worked with freelancers who find something like Basecamp ideal for their needs and then I've had many small businesses find something like Intervals more comprehensive and suited to their needs. Whatever the solution, we've found accountability to be the most important factor. There are plenty of communications tools out there (IM, Twitter, web apps, phone, etc) but not so many accountability tools.
The accountability tool will be the VR app that, two days past a deadline, sends a virtual arm out of your monitor to slap you around. :)
I'll have to check out Intervals - I'm not familiar with it. I'm a big fan of an Open Source app called Ganttproject, and I think the stuff that Dreamfactory offers is pretty nice.
I have to say that you haven't mentioned one very important thing in such tools: collaboration, which enforces the idea of communication in Project Management.
Such tools make communications much easier for the Project Manager and team members.
Hmm.. well, it might be semantics, but collaboration is more project methodology than management. Some projects really don't include collaborative elements. I'm talking about tools that you use to keep the project on course, primarily. But, certainly, a lot of the good Project Management tools include collaborative components like wikis and document shares, and these are considerations when you're evaluating tools.
I agreed with PM that "I have to say that you haven't mentioned one very important thing in such tools: collaboration, which enforces the idea of communication in Project Management."
Great post. I have also noticed that people tend to use email/spreadsheets for project collaboration. It becomes pretty hard to measure accountability then. Hence, we have moved to to manage our team and projects.
So, Peak and PM, help me out, because PM's original point, which Peak reiterated, but didn't elaborate on, isn't clear enough for me to understand what you're getting at. I think collaboration is a tool for project execution, not so much management. I would ask you to give me solid examples of how collaboration can help the management of a project, with the clarification that we are not talking about how collaboration helps a project, but the management of it. My org can hold an event, install a database, or build a bridge, and those should be collaborative efforts with tools to support them. But the project management - the job of maintaining the project schedule; keeping all members on task and reporting to the project leaders when events impact the plan, is not, necessarily, a heavily collaborative process. I see it as more of an administrative task that is often best assigned to an individual, so as to avoid duplicative efforts or confusion. What significant role does collaboration play in the maintenance of the schedule, resources and tasks?
We have wrestled with project management tools and dilemmas for some time now. Basecamp is our, well, baseline tool, and mainly for one reason, related to this thread. We have had the most success in encouraging client-consultant collaboration. It has a great balance of easy-to-use, inviting interface with enough control features to get serious collaborative planning and exchange going. Lively communication in itself is NOT project management, but if your project management needs lively communication, it needs to be addressed as a goal unto itself.
Peter, in answer to your question: "I would ask you to give me solid examples of how collaboration can help the management of a project, with the clarification that we are not talking about how collaboration helps a project, but the management of it."
If done right, collaboration can actually take the place of traditional project management. I create a process whereby everyone reports back to me actively in a collaborative way. Now my group is taking on the role of "updating" things and making sure that we are on track. I am then put in a role of managing by exception rather than chasing down information per the classical PM model. It is quite liberating.
Products like Pelotonics, Basecamp, Central Desktop and the like can all accomplish this new methodology of Project management through collaboration.
Very worthwhile points, Peter. The techniques used to manage a project is as important if not more so than the tools used.
Troy, thanks for that answer - it was enlightening. I tie it back to team culture and accountability -- that's ideal, it certainly beats the Project Manager role of team nag. I'll look more into the formalized aspects of this and follow up with another blog entry if appropriate. I'm curious as to how mechanisms to support this are implemented.
Hi Peter,
Sorry for the late reply. The thing is that all these new tools centralize communication.
Let's say someone finishes a task, he doesn't need to send the PM an email, s/he just updates his task online and everyone else can see it. Someone wants to delegate a task, again, s/he can do it online and everyone else, including the person that the task was delegated to, and the PM, are able to see it.
Tracking progress, task allocation and delegation, are all things that can be done collaboratively using such tools, and can definitely reduce the overhead of the communication part of Project Management.
Maybe the word collaboration is a bit vague in this sense.
Hey, PM - Troy clarified this,a nd your message goes further. I'm actually reviewing tools again for my own job and I'm going to take a closer look at this. My inclination is still to think that the collaborative approach depends very much on the team and their culture - I work often with people who are not all that comfortable with web-based interfaces, so they might not be amenable to this approach. But, where it can work, it would be great. I'd look for ones that integrate with Remember The Milk or other mechanisms that can then be synched to your calendar or sent via Twitter.
What a great discussion you have started here Peter. I just read your post again and I am blown away with how parallel it is to my own thinking on things. Frankly, not many people are going down this road.
I agree with you that culture is key to how you implement feedback loops. I am very biased to online methodologies, but simple email status reports can work as well. I think if you go with email status reports, then your comments make absolute sense that the project management would fall to one person or a small group. If on the other hand, you can get people online in a collaborative tool, people will be checking off tasks and you will be informed as the manager without the necessity to "keep up" the spreadsheet/MS project file/ or whatever you are tracking things in.
Funny you mention RTM integration. That is next on our list after integrating with Evernote. I will send you a sneak peek to our Evernote integration. We firmly believe that you can't change people's habits, but you can help them collaborate in a group system using their own familiar tools like RTM, Outlook, Evernote, etc.
Great thread!
Wow, Troy - I'm definitely intrigued and impressed by the Evernote integration idea. I grabbed an Evernote account and realize how awesome it would be if I could break my impulsive delicious habit and start really using it for project research. Anyone reading this who hasn't checked out Evernote, take a look - it's an ambitious idea for storing and sharing online and, potentially, offline research, one of the sharpest implementations out there.
I have found a Project Management Tool which shares Microsoft Project schedules with team. Includes Project Portfolio Management, Issue Tracking, Risk Management, Timesheet Management, Document Management, Calendar Management, Forums, Reports and Project Dashboard.
A good hosted Project Management software that suits my EPM needs is called valleyspeak project server, which I found at http://www.valleyspeak.com. One of the main reasons why I like the software is the fact that I could continue to work in Microsoft Project 2007 while sharing my Microsoft Project plans with my teams.
ValleySpeak Project Server is a hosted project management solution which can be used by Project Managers to publish, control and execute projects in real time, while continuing to make full use of Microsoft Project 2007.
Because it is a hosted service, I did not have to buy expensive software or deal with installation and maintenance headaches. The functionality that I have with valleyspeak to manage my geographically dispersed teams works well for me. We also evaluated Basecamp and some other solutions but were not impressed.
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