Software to bring project teams together

Here’s a scenario that may be painfully familiar: your project teams and partner companies are working in multiple locations. The plans are in place, the teams are top notch.

But there’s a hitch. While one team is running the latest and greatest project management software, with all the bells and whistles, functionality is limited because other partners on the project are using something else.

In the end, the inner team has to resort to exporting schedules in Excel or just emailing details to partners because their software won’t integrate.

Managing projects ad hoc like this can be part of the reason that deadlines slip and productivity suffers. When project data is written in Excel, deadlines plotted on a calendar and documents shared by email, it’s all too easy for tasks to be forgotten or for information to fail to get to the right person.

Integration

Where companies have one main customer or partner, there’s also a question of integrating with their software and tools. Aerospace, defence, engineering and science firm Qinetiq has a large number of contracts with the Ministry of Defence (MOD). Paul Bradley, group head of programme controls and planning, explains that the MOD uses Primavera P6 for scheduling, so Qinetiq uses single instantiations of that program too, but its main software is a Microsoft Project-based solution.

The company recently completed an upgrade of its project management software system, but because teams were already using a Microsoft Project-based tool, Bradley decided it was better to stick with what staff knew. Upgrading the existing Microsoft Project-based solution has meant minimal disruption and training for staff, and the new system has allowed Qinetiq to look at data structure and integrity, and tidy up how data is managed. Bradley says performance has improved markedly on the new system, as the old software had been patched multiple times.

But there is the integration downside.

“Committing to a corporate solution is the right thing to do, but our commitment puts us in a slightly awkward position with our main customer, which has a different software solution, so we have to look at how we work together,” he says.

“It’s not a critical thing. It doesn’t impact on our competitiveness or delivery – it just takes a little bit more time.”

No one project management software system presents a perfect solution. Bradley and Greg Krawczyk would both like to see a system that allows scenario planning and analysis. Krawczyk also mentions integrating stakeholder management and communications, while Ray Mead of p3m global believes there’s a general dearth of tools designed specifically for programme and portfolio management.

“Many programs focus on producing attractive ‘dashboards’ of in-flight projects, but this only gives half of what is needed,” he says. “More tools offering functionality like dynamic prioritisation and benefits realisation planning would be useful.”

Dehumanising communication

But while integration and interoperability can be challenging, and compromises need to be made on which functions a team prioritises, project management software can boost productivity and performance. The key is not which software a firm chooses, but the people who use it, the experts say.

“It’s important to remember the old adage that ‘a fool with a tool is still a fool’,” says Mead. “The more you let a tool dictate and restrict the way you engage in a project environment, the more you risk ‘dehumanising’ the communication process, which can have an effect on stakeholder buy-in and satisfaction. The general rule is to use tools specifically and sparingly, to assist with organising your own work and to collaborate with your team.”

Bradley agrees: “The main thing for us is that the software is great – but it’s not the be all and end all. It’s the competency of the individuals who use it on a daily basis that is the really key thing. Adopting good practice and really understanding how to manage projects and maximise the benefit of the functionality – software is an enabler for me rather than the solution to everything.”

When project managers have built a team of capable people using simple, well-established processes, project management software can really make a difference.

6 of the best: PM software round-up

According to market analyst IDC, the global project management software market is set to grow by around seven per cent per year, reaching $5.8bn by 2022.

“Global 2000 organisations continue to struggle with the complexity of project, programme and product delivery while seeking to manage economic and political volatility as operational needs change dynamically,” says IDC research director Melinda Ballou.

Although Microsoft Project remains the dominant application in the field, there are plenty of upstarts looking to dethrone it. And it’s worth bearing in mind that if you factor in the project and programme management functionality in ERP systems such as Oracle and SAP, it’s those vendors that actually dominate the revenues from ‘PM software’.

So what’s new with the big players? And who’s challenging if you’re looking for change?

1 Microsoft Project

You already know about Project, and as part of many enterprise Microsoft Office installs, it’s the one many non-project managers use if they’re looking beyond Excel. But, as with Excel, most common-or-garden users don’t take the time to explore its full functionality. And that’s where well-trained project managers can add real value.

Upgraded last year to Project 2019 in both Professional and Standard flavours, the on-premise version is now based around ‘Project Server’. ‘Project Online’ is the cloud-based iteration – and that’s the one Microsoft is pushing hardest via Office 365. If you haven’t yet upgraded to the 2016 version and need greater flexibility in licensing and use, it might be time to jump into the cloud. In a letter last autumn, Microsoft told users: “We’re committed to helping you and your teams make this transition smoothly.”

If you can’t (there’s lots of techie stuff around databases and how your company’s SharePoint servers are configured), Project Server 2019 has now incorporated many of the features developed online – mostly under-the-hood performance bumps such as better data handling and some enhanced reporting.

SharePoint does help with smoother collaborative working; the Flow app optimises workflows; and Planner is a cloud task manager supporting agile methods such as Scrum and Kanban, which means the so-called Project Service toolbox is looking pretty comprehensive, even if the nomenclature is getting pretty crowded.

Microsoft launched a new vision for Project in September, setting out plans for both power users and casual project managers. The three pillars are the Home service, a kind of dashboard for all your projects; Roadmap, a cross-enterprise view of work in progress; and the Project Management Service, “designed to support any role, skill level, or project type”.

2 Oracle Primavera P6 (and PPM Cloud)

Oracle’s Primavera suite is a comprehensive tool for enterprise-level project and portfolio management, primarily in construction and engineering. Oracle is still most at home in big enterprises, and its branded project management solution is no exception.

Like Microsoft, however, Oracle is pushing hard for adoption of the Project Portfolio Management (PPM) capabilities within its own PM Cloud suite – which has greater flexibility, but at £200 per user per month is a little on the rich side for smaller businesses. (For comparison, Primavera’s off-the-shelf cost is about $2,500.)

Smaller businesses can get an Oracle experience with NetSuite, a smaller-footprint, lower-cost ERP package that does include project management functionality. But that’s more likely a decision for the finance director than the project management office.

3 Teamwork Projects

So now we’re into the challenger packages. Teamwork, based in Ireland, invented Projects as a way of keeping track of its own work as a web agency. It’s now a four-tier system that flexes to user needs – and sits alongside ticketing and chat apps. The company now boasts nearly five million users worldwide.

It’s entirely web-based, with a heavy emphasis on the mobile apps putting project management on your phone. A functioning trial version is free, and for relatively modest projects the Premium subscription, with hooks into Microsoft Project and SharePoint, is just $15 per user per month. There’s also an Enterprise version with heavyweight support and security. Teamwork maintains a live road map of
upcoming features – which provides welcome transparency.

Fans of the platform often rank it higher than collaboration tools such as Slack and Basecamp – which says something about where it competes in the market.

4 Wrike

Wrike is another web-based project management app that can also be used as a general workflow and collaboration tool. There’s a heavy emphasis on discussion features and document tracking, in addition to the classic project management tools such as interactive Gantt charts and workload planners.

As one project manager explains: “Microsoft Project is a significantly more powerful tool, but collaboration is very difficult without somebody maintaining Project Online/SharePoint. Wrike is not as powerful, but collaboration is far easier.”

5 Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects (ZP) was PCMag’s editor’s choice for PM software last year (an accolade it shared with Teamwork). At its more expensive tiers – like all the web-based apps here, you can shop at the level that suits your team’s needs and budget – its feature-rich software is particularly well suited to those who like flexibility in presentation.

ZP sits alongside a suite of other Zoho apps – the company seems to be assembling a kind of all-in-one ERP solution with more than 40 apps on the roster – so if you’re starting a business from scratch and want to integrate Project with, say, CRM and analytics, Zoho is worth checking out.

6 Liquid Planner

Liquid Planner is an innovative project management software that uses a scheduling methodology concentrated heavily on task prioritisation.

It’s a little pricier than some of the other web apps – $45 per user per month, with a minimum of five licences. But the company makes a selling point of the analytics and predictive capabilities baked into the package.

It also gets positive user feedback for being able to manage project interdependencies well, especially around changing circumstances and inputs. The downside? Some say projects take time to set up – and the analytic/predictive capabilities do require ongoing buy-in from team members to keep everything up-to-date.

The PM’s view: one system makes life easier

Greg Krawczyk is a senior consultant at i3Works and has delivered projects in both construction and IT. For him, software integration lies at the heart of effective project management.

“When I started out working for typical construction and engineering companies, the only real tool I used was Microsoft Project. Everything else was standard, and Excel was pretty ubiquitous,” he explains. “In IT, we also used Project, but for time recording I had to use different systems and none of them really tied back into planning software like Project.”

According to a GetApp survey of project managers, Krawczyk is not unusual. It found that 95 per cent of project managers use more than one tool regularly. That makes interoperability crucial to any decision to augment or upgrade your own suite. And it’s also starting to make cloud-based options – with open APIs – much more attractive.

The PM’s view: don’t make them too specialist

Ray Mead, director and founding partner of specialist project, programme and portfolio management consultancy p3m global, says: “The one ‘con’ that is shared by all project management software is perhaps that it is too specialist. There is not one tool out there that encapsulates all you need to be a project manager.

“For example, I could build a Gantt chart in Microsoft Project or Primavera and even monitor and track resource costs, but I would not be able to log and track issues and risks, or build communication plans.

 “It is for this reason that it is common for project managers to develop their own customisations of Excel with many different tabs for each function they need. Unfortunately, these tend to be too complicated to use effectively and are generally not scalable to a large team of project managers.”