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Project Management Applications
From NGOPedia
| ICT Guide for Decision Makers |
Contents |
Introduction
This article is not about the discipline or practice of Project Management (for learning more about Project Management see resources at the bottom), but about IT applications/tools/systems that would help you to manage your projects. Project Management applications are tools or systems to plan, track, monitor (and evaluate) projects in terms of schedule (time), cost (budget), and deliverables (scope), which are the three main components of project management.
Project Management Application Features
Although most Project Management applications would cover most of the basics, level of complexity differs. Most professional packages are very complex, detailed, and very hard to master. The complexity and detailed functions that are required to manage a project to build a 60 storey office building is vastly different than a project to manage a fundraising campaign. So choosing an appropriate application is very important. I have seen many people who laid their hands with enthusiasm on a professional project management package - and sooner put it away with frustration even after adding a few tasks.
| Project Properties |
Project Phases | ||
| Planning | Implementation | Evaluation | |
| Time | Schedule Planning Critical Path Calculation |
Schedule Tracking, Alerts, Reporting | Reporting |
| Budget | Estimates, Budgeting, Detailed cost analysis | Cost Tracking, Alerts, Budget Revisions, Reporting | Total Cost Analysis, Reporting |
| Scope | Planning Tasks, Relationships, Dependencies | Tracking Delivery, Quality Assurance, Resource Management | Reporting |
Let's have a look into how one can start using a typical package to understand the functions better (again this is not a project management tutorial, just a simple walkthrough to provide some understanding of project management applications - for better guides see the bottom of this article).
One of the first things you determine and enter in a Project Management application is the list of tasks (or activities). In order to do that, you need to breakdown your project into an organised hierarchy of tasks (Work Breakdown Structure - WBS). For example, if you need to arrange a meeting the breakdown can be:
Each of these tasks are entered separately into the application. All of them have a duration,
Then comes the dependencies: which task is dependent on the other. This way we can link tasks together.
Of course we may enter many other details to each task, such as an estimated cost, responsible person, and so on. These would create personalized tasks and an estimated budget.
Once we add a project start date, we can see our project calendar, provided that we have entered all the durations and dependencies. This is shown in a typical project management software as a Gantt Chart as below:
From here on you can track your project schedule, costs, perform analyses, make amendments as you go. Most programs specialised in project management have these basic functions:
Scheduling: The complexity of events or tasks that the program can handle may vary. Here the program should be able to manage/show task dependencies (predecessor tasks), schedule people to work on (assigning tasks), resource scheduling, estimates of duration of each task and whole project.
Critical Path Analysis (CPA): This is a series of tasks that depend on each other and the durations on this path determine the length of the whole project (i.e. the delay on any one of the tasks in the critical path delays the whole project). Many programs automatically calculate and highlight the critical path so we can keep and eye on them or work on optimising the tasks.
Information: Once all the project information is entered, and regularly updated, we should expect valuable information from the program to help us manage our project.
Most applications have these functions covered:
- Enter a task list (work breakdown) with duration and cost data and link them together.
- Provide a calendar view of tasks with linkages, overrides, resource conflicts, slack times, critical path...
- Alerts, early warnings of delays, budget overruns
- Comparing estimates vs. actual costs, schedules...
- Charts (Gantt, PERT...) and reports, evidence for evaluation.
The difference once you get into more sophisticated packages, are on how practical and easier to use, how much detail can it handle, multi user capabilities, team work support, handling uncertainties (3-5 days for example), cost calculation or scheduling methods and reports. Also integration with other applications or services is another aspect.
Applications=
There is a wide spectrum of applications available. Some of them run on a single PC (desktop), some of them run on a server on the network where multiple users connect and work simultaneously (multiuser), some of them work both ways where there are desktop applications which can work individually and connect to a server to collaborate, and even some of them run as online services on the internet.
Here is a selection of applications that you can use for project management:
Programs not specialised on Project Management
Spreadsheets (such as Microsoft Excel): Many organisations use Excel as a project management tool for smaller scale projects. The obvious advantage of using Excel (or any other spreadsheet) is that most office people already have it, and knows how to use it. A brief search on the internet on "Excel project management" brings lots of templates. To be frank, I haven't used any one of them. Here is a simple template from International Association of Project and Program Management (Project Management Templates) and another one from Bright Hub (Excel Project Management Chart)
Desktop Database Programs (such as Microsoft Access) Not as many people use Access for project management as they do with Excel... but it may offer a better alternative. There are many database templates, from Microsoft's own sites (here is an example). If you have Access, this can be a better alternative to Excel project management. There are some free specialised solutions on Access, such as AidProject M+E for donor-funded projects.
Desktop Project Management
Microsoft Project is one of the most commonly used desktop project management package. It has been developed very significantly over the years (more than 20 years). Though it may be a bit heavy and overkill for simple projects, for NGOs cost can be significantly lower due to Microsoft software grants programme for registered non-profit organisations. Check with Microsoft office in your country to learn about this programme (for South Africa and Botswana, SANGOTech, Kenya, TechSoup Kenya). There are lots of trainings, books, learning materials, and examples for you to get started with Microsoft Project. Also it is tightly integrated with Microsoft Office Programs and Sharepoint to work seamlessly. These are all important factors to consider. Also it can work as a client for Microsoft Project Server (see below) for complex projects run by teams.
Open Proj is an open source alternative for Microsoft Project. It has a similar user experience and can even open Microsoft Project files, though there are some limitations. It runs on Java platform and on various operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and Mac.
TaskJuggler is a Linux only desktop project management solution. It is free and open source. You should consider this, if running Linux.
GanttProject is another Java based desktop project management tool (i.e. it can run on Windows, Linux, and Mac). It is free and open source. User experience similar to the others above - and again worth to look at. Somewhat easier to use.
Open Workbench is another open source (though disputed) and free Java based project management software.
Server based solutions
Again there is a plethora of web based applications both commercial and free. Let me tell you upfront that free or not running/hosting most of these is not a simple job, it requires a lot of technical acumen and work... Here is a limited selection:
Microsoft Project Server is built on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. It is an enterprise level project management solution (for enterprises running many projects run by many teams).
PHProjekt is an open source web based project management solution. It can handle many projects. However have no document management or resource management functions.
dotProject.net is another open source web based application.
project-Open is an open source, web-based project management / ERP system. Can be a bit complex...
Redmine is a project management web application. It is cross-platform and cross-database. Redmine is open source. Seems to be a promising platform.
Online Project Management Services (hosted solutions)
Ones that offer limited free services (there are lots more paid services):
Zoho Projects is a simple online project management and collaboration service. Free plan supports only 1 project and 10 MB of storage.
AceProject also offers a free basic plan (50MB,5 users, 5 projects and 50 tasks).
goplan has an ad supported free service allowing 1 project and 2 users.
There are many more...
The bottom line is, the best tool is the tool you (or your staff) can use, weather it be Excel or something top of the line. Check with your needs in complexity and size of your project and the capacity of the project manager...
Some resources for Project Management
- Free Online Courses on Project Management for NGOs: Project Management for Development (PM4DEV) offers free online e-Courses for development organisations on its e-Learning environment. The courses help self-paced, interactive learning and offers certificates to attest your knowledge.
- Introduction to Project Management: This ebook present the ideas and concepts behind the use of modern project management methods for development organizations.
- Project Scope Management: Project scope management’s primary concern is with defining and controlling what is and is not included in the project.
- Project Schedule Management: Schedule Management is the process includes the actions required to ensure the timely completion of the project.
- Project Budget Management: Budget Management is a set of processes required to ensure that the project is completed within the approved budget.
- Project Quality Management: Quality Management is the process to ensure that the project will satisfy the needs of the beneficiaries.
- The Project Management Cycle: This ebook introduces the concept of managing a project using a cyclical approach.
- The Project Management Processes: This ebook presents the project management processes. These are designed to help manage the different elements of a project, different projects may have different needs from each process.
- Project Quality Management: Quality Management is the process to ensure that the project will satisfy the needs of the beneficiaries. Quality is defined as a commitment to deliver the project outputs and meet the expectations of the beneficiaries, which means that quality is ultimately defined by the beneficiary. Quality is ensuring the project outputs are relevant to the needs and that they are adequate to the conditions in which they have to be used.
- Glossary of Project Management Terms: Our glossary of project management terms and acronyms used by project managers and development professionals. Understanding these terms and acronyms is an important step towards success in project management. An understanding of terms and terminology is essential for both communications and the application of modern project management. In some cases, certain terms have multiple meanings or are subject to frequent misunderstandings. This is especially true on global teams, between cultures and among professionals with different organizational or educational backgrounds.
- The Project Management Roles: This ebook details the key roles and responsibilities that a project manager must have to effectively and efficiently manage a project.
- The Project Management Organizational Structures: This book presents the various structures to organize project management and the advantages and disadvantages of each one.
- Masters in Project Management is a web site dedicated to providing students interested in obtaining their masters in project management with a complete and updated listing of colleges and universities which offer this degree in the USA.
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