The Importance of information technology in project management

The Importance of information technology in project management.

 

In modern world, any business, small or large, needs to manage its projects wisely. With most markets quite saturated and with increasing and improving competition from almost all angles, it is important how businesses conduct their projects. In most situations, the success of the project depends on many factors, especially the project manager him/herself, his/her experience, knowledge, intuition, and sometimes, even ability to “push-back”.  What if one does not have all those traits but has a strong vision and direction of the business? One, quick solution is to find and hire individual who would help materialize that vision. On the other hand, with fast growing information technology, there are some tools that may help the project manager to improve implementation and effectiveness of any enterprise.

 

What is project management software? It is a software application usually available for all computer systems, which with easy to navigate and intuitive user interface allows managers to effectively control their projects. Most modern project management software provides great help to managers in conducting all phases of the project: planning, managing, and execution from most critical aspects such us: budgeting/cost, resourcing, scheduling, and many more. They allow quick and easy glimpse on the projects development, check current and predict future constrains, as well as analyze alternative project’s paths or adjusting current project settings. Such applications are usually very critical especially for big and complex enterprises that require large budgets, involve of various resources, and are time critical.  However they are also very helpful in conducting projects in small businesses as well. In any case, PM software may support project leaders to manage projects more efficiently and run business operation more smoothly.  Overall, technology has a big impact on project duration, tracking costs and overall project performance.  Per study conducted by Vittal Anantatmula, the use of technology can assist managers better communicate, share knowledge and improve processes.  Moreover, complex projects that deal with a large amount of data and information can be challenging for project managers, therefore the use of software tools that help track all this information is beneficial in successfully completing any project. (Anantatmula, 2008).

microsoft_project image1

http://www.danesys.com/Portals/0/microsoft_project.jpg

 

There are different types of project management software available on the market. From the ones, designated for small businesses to the large ones, created for big corporations in mind. There are those that are web-based, hosted by the software developer applications, available in cloud, as well as software developed for desktop users. They may also come in server-client configuration, which allows central control (server) of the application with granted access to it for personnel involved in the project (client).

 

There are many project management software available on the market today that have helped many managers to complete their projects successfully. One of the most popular are:

 

–       MS Project – http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/

–       Basecamp – http://basecamp.com/

–       Wrike – http://www.wrike.com/

–       Genius Project – http://www.geniusinside.com/

 

What project management software do you use in your company? Is it really helping you with your daily work?  How difficult would your job be without the help of technology?

 

 

 

Additional article used from DePaul Library:

Anantatmula, Vittal S. “The Role of Technology in the Project Manager Performance Model.” Project Management Journal 39.1 (2008): 34-48.

5 thoughts on “The Importance of information technology in project management

  1. I use Microsoft Project extensively in not only managing large projects for my organization but also for tracking progress on smaller, day-to-day operational goals. While I find the software as a necessary tool to manage my work, many others in my department seem to be using antiquated excel spreadsheets and assume that Project should only be used by the PMO. The only flaw in the software is the time needed to maintain the project update at the optimal level require FTE resources that often are not allotted for the project and hence delays the posting of the progress (i.e. when a designated project manager is not assigned, often use of this software is combined with other operational responsibilities).

  2. I firmly agree that technology is critical to many successes within a project’s lifecycle. Now a days, resource allocation is critical as well as the metrics to track overall performance within a time table and pool of assets. Software helps firms and project managers better allocate these resources and more importantly track progress. At my firm, we use a project tracker on SharePoint. This is a really simplistic tool that allows for status updates within a project mainly for reporting purposes. As I take on more of a leadership role within the project management arena, I find it to be both an advantage and a challenge. Simplicity is a great benefit when someone is trying to keep a high level overview of the progress being made and thus allows for quick export for reporting to internal stakeholders. On the other side of the coin, this simplistic system does present a challenge due to the fact that many of the capabilities required to efficiently communicate responsibilities to team members is completely lacking and requires a manual solution to track progress.

    On the other hand, technology needs to be adapted to the task at hand. You need to find a happy medium for each project as technology can also be a significant slowdown to a simple implementation. An example of this would be a creation of a blotter to a client which would not require a high level of detail. A highly complex application such as project would simply not be needed to support such a request. On the other hand, SharePoint is simply inadequate to support a global change of process taking nearly a year to complete and costing millions of dollars in capital.

  3. I currently use MS Project to manage work related projects. I basically follow the traditional approach of project management (initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and completion) when using MS Project. This helps me with my daily work to organize key project tasks and/or action items. I think it would be difficult to keep track of key tasks and/or action items without the help of any technology. Nonetheless, my company is now switching to a new project management software called PRIME. Training is this week, and all our projects need to be entered into PRIME by July 1st. I am interested to learn more about this new project management software, and see how the transition from MS Project will be. I just hope it will help me in my daily work and would not be an extra burden to understand the tool and its capabilities.

    – PRIME – http://primepm.net/

  4. I actually most typically use Excel for the types of projects I use. I have used MS project in the past, and for large, linear projects, it is a life-saver. But for projects that are less linear, I find MS project creates work instead of eliminating it. Also, our clients often do not have MS project installed, so to share the work plan with them, we have to PDF it or move it to Excel anyway.

  5. I do most of my project management in Project. Although as discussed in class it does not do everything I need it to do it does make project tracking relatively simple. With out the software it may be easy to put together a simple gantt chart but the issue would be updating and adding to the project. at least 3 times a day I find my self updating a gantt chart to add a task, to adjust times or to update the completion percentage. Without project what would normally take minutes would take me hours and be prone to mistakes.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *