Understanding Project Management
Put
simply, project management is the act of planning, organizing, and
managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific
project objectives. The project itself can be anything, from creating a
product brochure to implementing a new hiring process to launching a new
product line. What all projects have in common, however, is that
they’re finite endeavors—every project has a specific start and
completion date. And it’s to this latter date that you must manage.
The challenge, of
course, is completing the project by the assigned date—and to the
agreed-upon budget. Key to this is the tight management of each and task
that comprises the project; if all the component tasks are completed on
time and on budget, the entire project will be completed as planned. If
one or more tasks slip—and you can’t make up the lost time
elsewhere—your project will come in late.
To manage the
individual tasks within a project requires managing a larger set of
resources—people, of course, but also money, materials, space,
communications, and the like. This resource management is crucial to
ensuring the eventual success of a project.
Project management
professionals like to think in terms of juggling a certain set of
constraints: scope (what must be done to produce the end result), time
(the amount of time available to complete the project), and cost (the
budgeted amount available for the project). These constraints are
interrelated; one constraint can’t be changed without impacting the
others. For example, if you increase the scope of a project, you
typically need to increase the time and cost, too. If you want to reduce
the time to complete the project, you might need to increase the costs
(pay more to get it done faster) or reduce the scope (try to accomplish
less things on a tighter schedule).
Note
These three constraints
(scope, time, and cost) are often referred to as the project management
triangle, with each side of the triangle representing a constraint.
The key to effective
project management is to use all available tools and techniques that
enable the project team to organize their work to meet these
constraints. And, not surprisingly, one such tool is a web-based project
management application.
Exploring Project Management Applications
Traditional
project management software helps project managers and team members
organize and track all the various tasks in a project. To do this, the
software typically includes scheduling, budget management, and
resource-allocation components. Web-based project management
applications do all this online, with a centralized project file
accessible to all team members. This enables improved communication and
collaboration between members of the project team.
Note
Some of
the bestselling traditional desktop projection management programs
include Microsoft Project, Primavera Project Planner, and FastTrack
Schedule.
The scheduling component of a
project management application helps the project manager schedule the
series of events that comprise the total project. This should include a
list of dependencies—those events that need to be completed before other
events can start. The project management application should then be
able to calculate the project’s critical path, which is the series of
events that determine the length of the entire project.
After the project has
been planned, it then has to be executed. The project management
application should enable this execution by creating task lists for team
members, allocation schedules for project resources, overview
information for the team manager, and, as the project progresses, an
early warning of any risks to the project’s completion.
All that
said, most web-based project management applications work in a similar
fashion. Let’s examine some of the most popular of these cloud services.
@task
The web-based project management program known as @task (www.attask.com)
offers a variety of traditional projection management functions. The
application includes an interactive drag-and-drop Gantt chart (shown in Figure 1),
critical path analysis, project milestones, planned/projected/estimated
comparisons, resource scheduling, issue management, and calendar views
for project tasks. Tasks can even be managed remotely via a special
software widget for Apple’s iPhone.
Note
A Gantt chart is a type of
bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Individual tasks appear
as discrete bars on the chart. Dependent tasks are linked to the end of
prior activities.
AceProject
AceProject (www.aceproject.com)
is an easy-to-use web-based project management application. It lets
users manage multiple projects using multiple resources and share those
resources across projects. Tasks can be tracked via a variety of filters
that fine-tune the results, and the application offers a number of
different project reports and statistics. AceProject also offers time
tracking, email notification of task deadlines, and a monthly project
calendar, shown in Figure 2. The start and end dates are shown on their individual dates (in green and red, respectively).
Basecamp
One of the most popular project management applications today is Basecamp (www.basecamphq.com). Its web-based nature makes it viable for both internal and external (client) projects.
Project management is provided via a special dashboard, shown in Figure 3.
The dashboard displays all projects and clients on a single screen,
with late items and those due soon highlighted on the screen.
In addition to standard
project management operations such as time tracking and milestones,
Basecamp includes to-do lists, file sharing, message boards, wiki-like
web-based documents, and other group collaboration features. All
web-based pages created by the program can be fully customized.
One of the aspects of
Basecamp that makes it so appealing is its price. The company offers
three different plans (Basic, Plus, and Max), priced from a flat
$24/month to $149/month. This is in contrast to similar applications
that price on a per-user basis. Basecamp’s flat pricing makes it easy
for organizations of any size to pick the plan that’s right for them,
based on the number of concurrent projects and storage space needed.
Copper Project
Copper Project (www.copperproject.com)
is a project management application that can be hosted either on the
company’s servers or on your own server. Either version enables
web-based collaboration.
Copper includes useful
features such as a drag-and-drop weekly or monthly timeline, resource
management, email alerts, statistical reports, and a unique personal
time management tool. The program’s Springboard view lets you see the
progress of multiple projects on a single screen; you can drill down
from there by client or project.
eStudio TaskTracker
TaskTracker from eStudio (www.same-page.com/online-project-management-07.html) is an easy-to-use online project management application. This program includes features such as task lists (shown in Figure 4),
work logs, issue management, automatic task dependencies, subproject
capability, budget and expense tracking, Gantt charts, and a full set of
management reports.
onProject
Another company offering online projection management solutions is onProject (www.onproject.com). The company’s myonProject application is a subscription
service that offers collaborative project management functionality. The
application’s Workspace page provides one-screen access to all key
operations. Other useful features include Gantt charts, time and expense
tracking, issue tracking, a web-based task calendar, automatic email
notifications, file sharing, group discussion forums, contact
management, and full project reporting. Pricing is on a per-user basis.
Project Drive
The Project Drive (www.project-drive.net)
application includes communication and collaboration features in
addition to basic project management functionality. Users get a
customizable overview dashboard, templates for fast project setup, Gantt
charts, task management, resource allocation, document sharing and
management, automated communication tools, a group calendar, cost
analysis and budgeting, and a large number of management reports.
Vertabase
Vertabase (www.vertabase.com)
is a popular web-based project management application. It offers a
summary executive dashboard, multiple schedule views, project portfolio,
cross-project Gantt charts, resource planning, budget control, issue
tracking, and a detailed project schedule.
Wrike
Wrike (www.wrike.com)
is a project management application that offers a unique way to create
project tasks. The application is email based; emails from project
members are automatically converted into tasks in the appropriate
project. Wrike then automatically reminds employees about overdue tasks,
creates individual schedules for employees, and generates Gantt charts
for each project.
Zoho Projects
Our final web-based project management application is Zoho Projects (projects.zoho.com),
another popular product from the Zoho cloud combine. Zoho Projects is a
standard project management application, complete with tasks and
milestones, a project calendar, Gantt charts and other reports
(including the task list view shown in Figure 5), time tracking, and group file sharing.
Zoho
offers several different versions of the Projects application, from a
single-project Free version to the Enterprise version that lets you
manage an unlimited number of projects. Pricing ranges from free to a
flat $80 per month.
The advantages
of using project management software are well known; when you have a
large number of resources and constraints to juggle, it makes sense to
let technology do a lot of the detail work for you. But there are even
more advantages to using a web-based project management application,
especially if your projects involve participants and resources that
aren’t all based out of the same location.
Naturally, a web-based
application lets participants from different locations access the same
master project files. When the master project is housed in the cloud,
there are no issues with maintaining the right versions of files for all
users, or with synchronizing files among computers to make sure they’re
all up-to-date. Users can access files from any Internet-connected
computer using any web browser.
Of course, cloud
project management services also let smaller companies tap into more
powerful applications. A small company pays only for the resources used,
and can easily scale upward if a single project grows in size or if the
company needs to manage additional projects. That one-time cost of
traditional software is turned into a pay-as-you-go charge.
In addition,
using web-based services facilitate improved communication between team
members. Many web-based project management applications include email,
blogs, message boards, and chat rooms for use by project members. When
everything takes place on the web, it’s a lot easier for team members to
talk to each other.
This, in turn,
facilitates group collaboration—which is what large projects are all
about. The more efficiently and effectively you collaborate, the fewer
glitches you’ll encounter over the course of the project. And that’s a
very good thing.
