Selecting a Project Management software tool

Selecting a Project Management software tool

There are several mature Project Management software products (e.g. Microsoft Projects, Basecamp, Monday.com, Kissflow, Wrike, Trello, Airtable, Zoho) available in the market today. However, the situation is still difficult one for a young Entrepreneur, who is busy in a wide range of business activities while establishing their business and trying to achieve some level of streamlining of business activities by choosing right Project Management software for the organisation. We provide a few key points to be considered while selecting Project Management tools and methodology.

Needs Analysis
  1. Long-term vs Short-term projects. Generally, a novice would tend to manage all the activities perfectly using a Project Management tool. But, it would require a lot of time and effort to mature all the business processes at one go and system implementation would take long time resulting into frustrations for busy people. Therefore, it is essential to classify activities to be managed and focus only on those type of projects that must be integrated using a software during initial phases. Don't attempt everything in one shot. The project templates of activities / tasks are configured in the tool, which doesn’t go well perfectly in first instance. Also, you should try to understand the timeframe required by a typical project assignment that you would manage initially using a project management software. Try to prioritise the project / task templates for initial 3-months at least.
  2. Waterfall vs. Agile methodology. Firstly, you need to classify your projects activities or tasks into sequential process or job-oriented process that is iterative in nature. In case, there is lot of re-initiation attempts by clients on the same piece of work product (e.g. in content development, the client asks for multiple samples and sometime the work product must be reworked completely), then you better choose Agile methodology in project management tools. Otherwise, long running sequential projects are better handled using Waterfall methodology that is available easily in traditional software tools. Some vendors maintain a different set of tools for each project methodology. For example, Zoho Sprints is used for Agile methodology, but Zoho Projects could be used for both the project methodologies.
  3. The Maturity of Staff Members from a Project Management perspective is very important. Many people (e.g. novices) do not like to report or update about each and every activity or task being done to the Project Manager. A very strict enforcement is going to be a challenge initially. Even the best software tools cannot help resolve these mental barriers of the people. Therefore, our suggestion would be to keep adding new activities or tasks into your project templates in a phased manner so that people get accustomed to the software tools and start appreciating the benefits over a period of time.
Scope of System Implementation
  1. Sales vs. Delivery teams. It is a common mistake of many Entrepreneurs. Being a business owner, they tend to visualize the entire set of activities or tasks as a single project. Please do not try to mix your Marketing or Sales team related engagement activities or tasks with the Delivery team functions. While the Sales related activities or task could be handled more effectively using a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, the other activities related to design, development, implementation, documentation, and end-user training are better suited to Project Management Systems (PMS). Type to identity and distribute the business activities accordingly.
  2. Development vs. Operations teams. It is a common mistake of many Entrepreneurs. Being a business owner, they tend to think that all the day-to-day activities that they have handled on their own initially and delegated later to operations team must be managed using a traditional project management system based on the Waterfall model. In fact, one should try to distinguish that fact: while the Scrum view is more suitable for developmental projects due to relatively medium-term to long-term nature of activities, the Kanban view fits the operational activities better since the tasks are relatively short-term. the Agile Methodology project management tools cater to both the needs, but the traditional Waterfall model tools are not designed exclusively for such operational projects.
Phases of System Implementation
  1. Enterprise-wide vs. Delivery-wide functions. Being a novice Entrepreneur, try to implement Project Management Systems (PMS) in two streams. The Delivery function projects can be implemented using any Agile methodology tool (e.g. Zoho Sprints). The Sales, Finance, Accounts, Legal, etc. activities should be implemented at Enterprise-level using software tools (e.g. Zoho Projects).
Also, please do not try to create very fine-grained set of project activities or tasks such that it starts appearing like a burden to the staff members and they won't like to update your Project Management system. It would defeat your purpose resulting in complete failure. Go slow. Mature the business process first by refining activities step-by-step in phases. Try to justify, why a specific task is critical and must be included in project templates during initial phases.

Please feel free to contact us, if you have any queries. Our expert team specializes in organisational-level Change Management with regard to enterprise wide Project Management system implementation and it related business processes.