WHAT IS PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

WHAT IS PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. Project Manager – Role and Responsibility A project manager is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers have the responsibility of planning, execution, and closing of any project. The project manager is the person accountable for accomplishing the stated project objectives within the allotted time. Key project management responsibilities include creating clear and attainable project objectives, building the project requirements, and managing the triple constraint for projects, which is cost, time, and scope. Software Project Management Software project management is the art and science of planning and leading software projects. It is a sub-discipline of project management in which software projects are planned, monitored and controlled. The purpose of project planning is to identify the scope of the project, estimate the work involved, and create a project schedule. Project planning begins with requirements that define the software to be developed. The project plan is then developed to describe the tasks that will lead to completion. The purpose of project monitoring and control is to keep the team and management up to date on the project's progress. If the project deviates from the plan, then the project manager can take action to correct the problem. Project monitoring and control involves status meetings to gather status from the team. When changes need to be made, change control is used to keep the products up to date. By applying the project management cycle, one can make sure that everything gets done on time and that the project objectives are being achieved. Project Management Software Project management software covers many types of software, including scheduling, cost control and budget management, resource allocation, Timesheet management, collaboration software, communication, quality management and documentation or administration systems. These are used to deal with the complexity of large projects. The different project management activities which can be performed using the Project Management Software are: Scheduling One of the most common purposes is to schedule a series of events or tasks. The complexity of this schedule can vary considerably depending on how the tool is used. Some common challenges include: 1.      Events which depend on one another in different ways 2.      Scheduling team members tasks along with the resources required           by them commonly termed resource scheduling      3.   Dealing with uncertainties in the estimates of the duration of each                 task Calculating critical path Computer Applications In many complex schedules, there will be a critical path, or series of events which depend on each other, and whose durations directly determine the length of the whole project. Some software applications (for example, Dependency Structure Matrix solutions) can highlight these tasks, thus helping in optimization of effort. Providing information Project planning software provides information to various stakeholders of the project and can be used to measure and justify the level of effort required to complete the project. Typical information might include: 1.      Tasks lists for team members 2.      Allocation schedules for resources 3.      Overview information on how long tasks will take to complete 4.      Early warning of any risks to the project 5.      Information on workload, for planning holidays 6.     Historical information on how projects have          progressed, and in particular, how actual and        planned performance are related 7.      Optimum utilization of available resources Timesheet Management A good timesheet management system in place, is essential both for the customer projects as well as internal activities within the organization. Timesheets not only help the Project Manager in managing the project in a better manner but is also useful for maintaining employee records for payroll calculations as well as helps in improving the overall productivity of the organization. A timesheet is a record of the number of hours an employee spends in completing a certain task. This task could be associated with a customer project or with internal business activities. The timesheet not only provides the number of actual hours that the employee may have spend on the task but also mentions details of the task involved and the kind of operations that the task involved completing. Another benefit of a good timesheet management system is that it can help management track the efficiency of employees and find ways in which they can improve the productivity in various areas. Further, timesheet management systems can also help employees evaluate their own performances and understand how they can perform their tasks better. Various Timesheet management software are available like Timesheet Reporter, Ace Project, Time Reporting, Qtime and Time Control. Many of the Project Management tools also have a timesheet management module. Tools for Project Management Project Management software tools are of three types: Desktop applications : These are software packages installed on the PC. E.g. MS Project, Gantt Project Web-based Services : These are websites which offer on-line internet applications that support project management. No separate hardware or software is required as the application is installed on some web server from where it is accessed. E.g. iTeam Work Web based Systems : These are web based software which are installed in your own hardware and accessed through intranet network. E.g. dot Project In this section, the main features of MS Project software are described: 4.3.5.1              Microsoft Office Project One of the most widely used software for Project Management used all over the world is MS Project. It is used for planning, managing and organizing resources for all kinds of projects. It uses a powerful scheduling engine to help align different projects and tasks with available resources. Project requires all information about the overall project, the individual tasks needed to complete the project and the resources needed. For each task, the duration of task, its dependencies and constraints are also required. Once it has all the necessary information, it can calculate the start date and finish date for each task. The resources responsible for completing each task helps in Project staffing and management of these resources across projects. After project scheduling if at any point of time, the information about the project changes, the task and resources can be updated and the project schedule is adjusted. The main features of MS Project 2007 are explained below: Create and Schedule Project Most of the projects are scheduled based and the project start date and the finish date is calculated on the basis of the last task to be completed. However, there might be projects where the finish date is known, and there is a need to calculate the project start date so that it is completed on schedule date. Both kind of projects with known start date or known finish date can be scheduled using MS Project. 1.    Click the File Tab, and then click New 2.      Select Blank Project and click Create 3.      On the Project Tab, in the properties group, click Project Information          4.      Schedule the project in the project Information dialog box. To schedule from Start date, select Project Start date in the Schedule from box and then chose the start date. To schedule from the finish date, select the Project Finish Date in the Schedule from box and choose the finish date.  Define File Properties for the Project 1.      Open the project 2.      Click on File Tab, and then click Info 3.      Choose Project Information and then Advanced Properties 4.      On the Summary tab, give the relevant project information Add Tasks to the Project Tasks are created to break the project work into smaller pieces. Tasks are activities of the project. 1.    On the View tab, in the Task Views group, choose Gantt chart option. 2.      In the Task Name field, type a task name. The Task IDs are automatically      created. 3.      It is also possible to create multiple tasks using the Task Form View. To        do this, On the View Tab, in the Split View group, select Details. The              window is split to display the Gantt chart on the top and Task view form at      the bottom. In the Task Form view, type the task information like Name,          Duration, assigned resources and predecessor tasks.   Create Milestones Any major event in a project is marked as a Milestone and is used to monitor the project's progress. Any task with zero duration is marked as milestone. Any other task of any duration can also be a Milestone in the project. 1.      On the View Tab, in the Tasks View tab, click Gantt chart. 2.      Type the name of the new milestone in the Task Name field 3.      Type 0 in the Duration field of the milestone task to create the task as        milestone     4.      To create a task with greater than zero duration as Milestone, select              the task and then on the Task tab, choose the Task Information from              the Properties group. Select the Mark Task as Milestone check box. In         the task Information dialog box, click Advanced tab and then give the             duration of the Milestone.