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37
Chapter 4
one of the challenges a project manager must face is how to keep track of the
many elements of project management, including tasks, milestones,
dependency relation
ships, schedules, people, costs, deliverables and progress toward interim and
final goals. Until the 1980s, these tasks were often performed by hand with a
calculator and a handdrawn Gantt (or bar) chart or by a computerized project
management program requiring a mainframe or minicomputer system. All of
that has changed. There are now powerful computerized project management
(PM) programs that can be run on personal computers costing less than $1000.
The actual PM programs themselves may cost less than $100 for limited
lowend products that can only handle schedules and graphics, to $500 to
several thousand dollar pro grams that not only provide timely and accurate
schedule information, but also powerful resource and cost tracking
capabilities.
We introduce computer tools for project management at this
stage in the book because a large part of the mission of a project
management program is to assist in scheduling and keeping track
of tasks and milestones. So it follows naturally after the previous
chapter on the fundamentals of project scheduling. However,
many good project management programs do so much more than
deal with scheduling issues alone.
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TO
BUY?
INITIAL SETUP
CREATING THE PROJECT PLAN
Typically, a project manager starts with an endpoint in
mind a design is completed, a building is ready for occupancy, a
plant is built, etc. There is a budget, of course, but in planning a
project, PMs tend to think initially in terms of a schedule of tasks
and milestones. The project management programs you want to
consider are ones that make planning the project relatively easy, so
you actually use it, and powerful enough that it acts as a valuable
tool to help you bring the project in on time and within budget.
Activities and Scheduling
Entering the Project Plan
The way you enter the project plan into the program and the
ease of changing the plan will have a direct effect on how much
use you get out of the program. When entering the project plan,
you must define all the project activities. Most of the programs
have you build your plan by listing the project activities down the
left side of a Gantt or bar chart. You then fill in a form for each
activity to identify its duration, the required resources and any
activities that precede it.
A few programs let you create your project as a network first,
actually drawing the boxes for each activity and the connecting
lines that show their sequence. You may prefer one method of creating a
project plan over another, but what is important is the ease
with which you can create the plan and make changes to it. Some
programs make it difficult to add or delete activities once the plan
is created. As any experienced project manager knows, projects
rarely go exactly as planned. So the first consideration is to make
sure the program makes it easy to create the plan and change it. If it
fails this test, you will be less likely to use it and thus take advantage of the
benefits project management software has to offer.
Full Precedence/Relationship Capability
A second important feature to check for is how well the program
TRACKING PROGRESS
Showing actual progress of a project against project plan is
one of the things that separates many lowend programs from
REPORTS
Reports of the project plan and project status are some of the
most valuable tools a program can provide. A software program
can make updating project reports quick and easy. And to the
benefit of all, it is becoming the norm that programs provide both
tabular and graphical reporting capabilities.
The various programs offer a full range of reporting capabilities, but
there are certain reports you will want your program to
produce:
and latest start and finish dates. It also shows how much
float, or slack time, each activity has.
search to find the best one for your project management needs.
Several programs which offer the project manager a balanced
combination of ease of use and power include Primavera Systems,
Inc.s Sure Trak Project Manager and Primavera Project Planner and
Microsoft Corporations Microsoft Project.
The quality of the programs training may be one of your
most important considerations. This will be true if the people who
will be using the software are not themselves experienced project
managers or familiar with project management techniques. In that
case, you will want the program to have a good training tutorial
and very clear documentation.
IN CONCLUSION
The program features discussed in this chapter provide use
full criteria for comparing programs and judging their capabilities.
The most important thing is to take a hard look at your project
management requirements and determine the minimum
capabilities a program must have if it is to meet your needs.
Think about what you want the program to help you with
most. Do your projects tend to be of a certain sort and have special
requirements? For example, is account management and cost
control always a primary consideration? If so, you want a
program
that will let you put in enough detailed cost information that you
will have full cost tracking capability.
On the other hand, after a close look at the nature of your
projects, you may realize they are primarily schedule intensive.
For example, if most of your projects involve meeting strict dead
lines (and many engineering and construction projects fall into
this class), you should look first at those programs that provide
excellent schedule tracking and related reports.
The power and capacity of a program might be your driving
consideration. If you are the master scheduler for a large project
that is made up of many other projects, you will want to look at
those programs that allow unlimited tasks and speed in
processing, keeping in mind as well the hardware requirements.
Along this same line, some projects, especially federal government
projects, have very specific reporting requirements. Even
though federal projects amount in dollar volume to a large piece
of the project management pie, only a few project management