Ten Things to Look for when Buying Project Management Software

Shopping for project management software can be overwhelming. You've searched on the web and found a multitude of options. Metafuse would like to assist you with your search. There are some key questions you should ask yourself and the vendors in the marketplace.

1. What kind of project management software product do you require and what type of project management software does the vendor offer?

There are three tiers of project management solutions: the low-end products, the mid-range solutions and the high-end tools.

Low-end project management software products are often good for small groups with limited needs as those products usually have limited functionality. These software tools can be a good fit if your requirements are minimal and your budget is limited. Low-end solutions are usually available in a hosted only environment and can be priced as low as $10/user/month.

Mid-range project management software solutions offer more robust features at a palatable price range from $2,500 to $25,000. These products are usually offered in both hosted and installed options. Project Insight is the leading mid-market on demand solution.

High-end portfolio management systems are designed for very large organizations with PMOs (project management offices) that need to collaborate with thousands of team members worldwide. These solutions are heavy in pre-project planning features such as strategy planning, initiative alignment, risk analysis and opportunity analysis. Many times, high-end software solutions satisfy the executive management but not the actual project team. The high-end products' starting prices are $50,000 and up and longer implementation timeframes.

So, first ask yourself which tier of project management softare you are looking for, then ask the software vendor where their solution fits in the marketplace.

Project Insight is a mid-range project management software solution that is branded for each customer, and can be customized to fit each client's exact requirements. Project Insight boasts a robust feature set that will satisfy demanding project managers, yet it is easy enough for basic team members to adopt.

Project Insight offers a Workgroup Edition as well, which is rich in feature set, yet very affordable. If you are considering a low end project management tool, but need robust features, check out the Project Insight Workgroup Edition.

2. What platform is the solution built on?

If you are looking for a mid-range or high-end software solution, you will want to know what platform the software is built on. Why? Your organization is making an investment for several years, most likely. You will want that selection to be the most flexible project management solution around, so if your needs change, the software can be modified, extended and integrated with other systems. Make sure that the software is built with industry standard platforms and languages.

Project Insight is developed using Microsoft's .NET platform. The language used to develop our software is C#. Project Insight uses a Microsoft SQL Server database. What does this mean for you? It means that Project Insight follows the industry standards and that you can customize, extend and integrate our project management software with your other enterprise software systems.

3. How does the project software perform project scheduling?

Most low-end and mid-range solutions have project scheduling, but not all software has intelligent scheduling. Some low end tools schedule using hard coded dates. This is little better than using a spreadsheet to schedule project tasks. It is more efficient to have a scheduling algorithm that can schedule projects based on the information that project managers supply. For instance, a project manager gives a project a start date, and sets up tasks with the estimated amount of work, the span of time that tasks are to be worked on, and so forth. If a project manager chooses to use task relationships (predecessors and successors), then the project schedule can be automatically calculated. We call it intelligent scheduling.

The beauty of this is that if your project start date changes, or a task duration changes, all you have to do is change that value and your entire project shifts! Many project management products in the low-end and mid-market require project managers to enter in the start and end date for each task. Imagine the administrative nightmare you would have if your project start date changed and your project had 100 tasks. That would mean at least 200 manual changes to your project schedule!

Project Insight has intelligent scheduling which automatically calculates schedules, eliminating the administrative headaches associated with schedule changes.

4. Does the software offer one click Microsoft Project import and export?

Many project management solutions claim to have Microsoft Project import and export, but you have to ask, how does the software perform the import and export? Does the software require you to install a client side add-on? Does the vendor charge extra for that feature? If so, you could be in for another headache.

Does the software import all of the Microsoft Project task types, constraints, and dependencies? Many project management solutions cannot recognize nor import these relationships, again taking away any administrative advantages.

Ask the vendor to import a 100 or a 1000 task project from Microsoft Project. Does it import properly? Is all the data there? Are the task relationships intact?

Project Insight seamlessly imports and exports all major Microsoft Project data fields, including all task types and constraints, easily and elegantly, without complicated procedures.

5. Can the project management software separate your clients, partners, vendors and subcontractors from each other at any level in the system?

If you plan to use your project management software with outside vendors, contractors, clients, or individuals from different departments, you will most likely require multi-role and multi-level permissions set up. Multi-role means that you can assign different team members varying roles such as: team member, project manager, project report viewer, timesheet approver, expense report approver, invoice manager, and systems administrator.

Multi-level permissions is defined as the ability to allow team members to view specific projects, and to separate projects based on the companies, groups and folders they are permitted access to.

In Project Insight, you may set up unique 'project spaces' for each client. What this means is that if you have Client A accessing the system and Client B accessing the system, you can set permissions so that these two clients do not view each other's projects.

Or, if you have a sensitive document that you want only one person to see, you can set up permissions so that this individual is the only one who views this document. Project Insight's permissions can be quite granular. If your permissions requirements are demanding, Project Insight is your answer.

6. Can the project management software's navigation be changed?

With most project management systems, what you see is what you get. The top level navigation is fixed. Many times, you want the flexibility to change the folder structure of the system, according to your business process.

With Project Insight, you can customize the navigation hierarchy any way you wish. As long as a team member has appropriate permissions levels, content can be changed and modified.

Similarly, individual team members can choose the layout and look and feel of their individual portal pages. This customizability and flexibility allows team members to work the way they are most comfortable. Team members may use drag and drop to move items around on their portal page, or they may even remove them entirely!

7. Can the project management software create templates effortlessly?

Many vendors claim that their products create templates. Make sure you see this feature in action. For many teams, the projects they work on are similar or follow similar phases. So, being able to create a project template and reuse that template is critical.

Project Insight allows you to create and store project templates in a template library. The benefit of this is that your project managers can get a new project up and running with just a few mouse clicks. You can even 'clone' a completed project for re-use as a template.

8. Does the product offer 100s of reports and customizable reports?

Many project management solutions in the mid-range offer a dozen or so canned reports. Reporting is another long-term feature that you will utilize more and more as you become more familiar with a solution. So, make sure that there is more than what you require now, as your needs will likely grow.

Project Insight offers over 100 canned reports and hundreds of permutations of reports using filters. You can even create and save customized reports ready to be run at a moments notice. Team members can also share their favorite reports with others.

9. Does the project management software support all four task relationships?

Project tasks are best managed as a network of interdependent tasks requiring accurate duration estimates as the basis for project planning. Dates should be calculated based on the interdependencies of the tasks and the duration of the tasks that must be completed for the successful completion of the project as a whole.  Project Insight allows project managers to set up tasks as any of the four task relationships.

Before purchasing any project management software solution, always test the software to make certain that it can calculate interdependencies on the following commonly encountered task relationships:

1. Finish-to-Start
2. Start-to-Start
3. Finish-to-Finish
4. Start-to-Finish

Finish-to-Start
This task type means that Task A has to be finished before Task B can start.

Start-to-Start
As soon as Task A starts, Task B can commence. For example, in construction, as soon as a hole is made in the wall, the wiring can be put in. You do not have to wait until all the holes are finished to start with the wiring.

Finish-to-Finish
Task A and Task B must be finished before the project can be complete. For example, the asphalt and the road must be finished before the road is complete.

Start-to-Finish
Task B cannot finish until Task A has started.

In addition to the four required interdependencies, lead and lag time duration calculations between the task dependencies are imperative. What are lead and lag time? Lag time is a task that requires a waiting period. For example, if a task is to pour cement and it must dry for 2 days before the next task can start, that is lag. Lead time is a task that can overlap. For example, painting a line in road can start before the entire road is paved.

Once these dependencies are defined in the project Task List, they should be displayed in the corresponding Gantt chart. Test all task entries for these calculations before investing in any project management software.

Project Insight supports all task types, constraints, lead time and lag time, similar to MS Project. Gantt charts in our solution display these relationships so project managers can administer and edit projects easily.

10. Can the software be customized?

Make sure the project management software system you choose can be customized easily and cost effectively. Project Insight can be modified simply. This is mission critical because, six months into your usage, you may find that you need to capture new types of data. That means that you may need new data fields.

Or perhaps you would like to synchronize the time and budget data entered in the solution with your ERP or accounting system. The solution and vendor must be able to permit such customizations and perform these customizations quickly.

Project Insight can be customized. There are four levels of customization available. First, a Project Insight System Administrator may add custom fields non-programmatically. Second, you may invest in the Web Services APIs. Third, for installed systems, you may invest in the Software Development Kit (SDK) to perform your own in-house customizations. Or, last, you can opt to hire Metafuse's Professional Services team. Our project management softare is written in Microsoft.NET and is fully ODBC compliant, so it can be extended and integrated with any other ODBC compliant enterprise system.