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In practice, the administration of these two systems is frequently found to become very different, and as such requires the development of distinct technical skills and also the adoption of separate administration.

There are numerous approaches to managing project activities such as agile, interactive, incremental, and phased approaches.Regardless of the methodology employed, careful consideration should be given towards the overall task objectives, timeline, and cost, too as the roles and responsibilities of all participants and stakeholders. A traditional phased method identifies a sequence of steps to be completed. In the “traditional approach”, we can distinguish 5 components of a task (4 stages plus control) in the development of the task:

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Scope of a project

The project scope may be the definition of what the project is supposed to achieve and also the budget (of time and cash) that has been produced to achieve these objectives. It’s absolutely imperative that any change to the scope of the project have a matching change in spending budget, either time or resources. If the task scope is to build a creating to house three widgets with a spending budget of $800,000 the project manager is expected to do that. However, if the scope is changed to a building for four widgets, the project manager should obtain an appropriate alter in budgeted resources. If the budget is not adjusted, the smart project manager will avoid the alter in scope. Watch out of scope creep.

Who would be a Project Manager?  There are times when it is akin to being a referee at a particularly fractious soccer match.  You have to keep both sides apart while making sure that they play the same game and abide by the rules that they want to wilfully ignore.  Sometimes it feels as if only you realise the fundamental difference; this is not a game, and if one side loses then nobody wins!

We’ve all seen the cartoon about the difference between what the Customer wanted and what they got and we all know who has to manage the gap. What the team on both sides of the requirements/delivery divide should acknowledge is that this situation does not exist only as a comic creation, it exists as inevitable outcome of the fact that requirements evolve from abstract needs but Software Developers can only build still life.  If this was honestly stated by all parties right from the outset then the first question that would be asked is who is going to make sure that we all walk away from this with a satisfactory outcome in the bag?  The notion of the Project Manager as the Client’s mole or the Supplier’s secret salesperson would evaporate.

One of the most irritating debates would also get put to bed; namely why the Client should pay for Project Management.  The client should pay because the Project Manager serves the project, not the Client nor his or her direct employer, who only employs Project Managers because they have long experience and understand the necessity of Project Management.  A Project Manager is a necessary part of the cost of delivery.

Fortunately we live in a world where the value of a good Project Manager can be proved beyond doubt, provided he or she tracks everything related to the “infamous gap“; issues, changing requirements, moving time lines etc., and stays on top of it.  Our Project Manager can walk into a meeting with the Client or Delivery Team, and the data at their command rams home their value to either side.  Wait a minute, either side?  Maybe Project Managers are the enemy within after all.

CounterSoft are the provider of Gemini, a leading.NET project management software solution. bug tracking software that offers a very effective browser-based project team experience, enabling total project issue and bug tracking.

The typical scenario involves one project manager who must track numerous projects and people.  That person becomes responsible for following up with each and every person involved in each job, which quickly becomes too much to effectively maintain. Most existing project management software provides a good way to create a list of tasks, then assign them durations and resources.  However, they are not as good at providing an easy way to track every detail of every task – a project manager must use a lot of valuable time making many, many phone calls to gather information. Most project management systems do not provide a way to notify team members when they are either due to complete a task, when they are late, when a task date has been moved, with a summary of tasks they have due in the next 30 days, or any useful data such as this. Most companies have specific needs that are not covered by systems that are not customizable. Creating on-the-fly reports is impossible, and any reporting is done by the project manager who is controlling the tracking system.  Many organizations literally spend days each week generating reports for management.

Using the Web to Make Project Tracking Easy
Imagine how much easier it would be to track projects if individual team members could simply make updates on their own tasks directly, instead of requiring a project manager to transcribe that information into a tracking tool.  There’s no need to imagine this today, because this is precisely the sort of problem that the Internet is perfect for solving.

A Web-based project management system easily solves the problems listed above:

Each member of a project team can simply enter task status information into the system via any Internet-enabled computer (no need to install software on each PC used because it is delivered via the Web from a server that houses the software). Project managers can use their skill where it should be used: for planning projects and handling exceptions, not for transcribing routine task data from team members. Project managers can use the project creation software they are used to (such as Microsoft Project) to create project task lists, then import them into a Web-based tracking system. Team members can enter more detailed information about individual tasks than might ever be collected by a project manager who is tracking thousands of tasks. An online system can notify team members automatically when it is their time to perform a task, and when they are late.  Team members can use a Web-based system to perform complex queries on their tasks, including which tasks are due in the next week, month, or year. Reporting in such a system is immediate, and always up-to-date.  Anyone, based on their permissions, can pull up a dynamically generated report from any Web-enabled computer. A Web-based system opens up new frontiers that are not possible using traditional tools.  For example, have you ever wanted to share certain information with clients, such as the status of their projects?  A Web-based project management tool can completely and securely automate such processes.

Evaluating Net Costs
A customized Web-based tool sounds expensive, but it does not have to be.  The net price of such a system should be evaluated not only in terms of up-front and maintenance costs, but also in terms of potential cost savings, efficiency improvements, and additional revenues.

Determining cost savings is relatively easy.  Figure out how much time your project managers spend tracking projects, and cut that by 80% to 90%.  Calculate how much time is spent each week creating reports for other people, and cut that by 95%.  And so on …

Projections for additional revenues that could be generated is not as easy, but it is an exciting topic to explore.  How much more business will your sales people close (compared with your less forward thinking competitors) if they are able to offer instant, on-demand project status updates to clients?  How could your office staff utilize additional free time created by automating the tedious tracking process?  These are questions that require some creativity to answer, but they are the types of questions that, if addressed appropriately, can give you a significant edge on the competition.

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These days businesses have to save time and money and accept as much work as possible. Most businesses will tackle any job that comes their way, even if it is really too big for them to handle. You can get help to conclude your projects quickly whether the problem is having too many jobs or too little staff.

Project management software is helping many businesses manage their own projects. You can find a number of different types of software to help you stay on top of a project with deadline. This software offers spreadsheets and printed reports that can support information presented at weekly meetings. If you already have some project management experience and you have a little time to learn, this kind of software can be really useful.

A project management consulting firm can help businesses that have taken on too much work or have jobs that are really too big for their staff to manage. A competent project management company will supply project managers with years of experience and training in a variety of management areas. With a successful project management system, you can expect your projects to be organized, your deadlines to be met, and a weekly audited report of the progress of all your projects.

Project managers who work with a successful project management firm are well-trained to demanding standards. A successful firm will have a solid background of successfully completed projects of every type and size. They can help you manage large construction projects as well as facilitate IT project management. They will help you work on bigger projects that you might hesitate to take on with your current project management software, and they allow you to organize your projects and keep them current.

When you get help from a professional, experienced project management consulting firm, you can breathe a little easier. You will have less of a burden to bear, and you will be secure in the knowledge that your projects are being handled quickly and efficiently. As a result of this, you will be able to accept more projects that you might otherwise skip, helping to grow your business.

Project management is crucial for running business effectively, no matter if we talk about a huge enterprise or a company with just two employees. The way you organize your work depends to a large extent on the project management software you are using.

Today I would like to make an attempt to classify popular PM applications available on the market. Considering their user-friendliness to an average user, I would divide them into 2 types. Let’s define them for convenience as “complex” and “easy” applications.

Complex project management applications (MS Project, Primavera, Artemis, etc.) are intended for those who usually deal with big projects and have extensive project management background. However, even with the necessary skills, spending a great deal of time to learn how to use the software is required. Some of the companies (for ex, Instant Business Network) even offer videocasts to help their customers understand how to use their app. If you decide to avoid training, this may result in struggling with the software, instead of managing projects.

Complex PM tools usually have multilevel task scheduling based on hierarchical system of privileges inside a project. Their feature set includes tools for resource managing, portfolio analytics, schedule planning and many more. In a typical project environment where time is short, only a small percentage of these numerous features is utilized. Apart from that, a great number of such complex solutions are intended solely for IT companies. Accordingly, they use the appropriate methodology and terms in their apps (like subversion or bugzilla).

Easy project management applications are tools of the other kind. Here are just a few of them: Basecamp, Zoho Projects, AtTask etc. In order to make an analysis of their user-friendliness, let’s take TM Projects module inside TeamLab as an example.

TM Projects are considered to be the next step after using to-do lists in your daily work. They suit your needs if you are not an expert in project management, but still require fundamental PM tools in order to run business efficiently. This module is suitable for almost any kind of company, including design studios, educational, medical and consulting companies. Here are the reasons why:

1. Ergonomic interface. The UI of TM Projects is intuitive and user-friendly, so you can focus on your work instead of reading heaps of documentation in order to sort out how to use the software.

2. Basic yet powerful functionality. No confusing and useless fluff has been included into TM Projects. As a result, your work with projects is concentrated on accomplishing certain tasks.

3. Universal project scheme. The principle of the software use and its features are suited for any company. You can manage almost any kind of projects using the step-by-step guide on TM Projects start page:

Nadezhda Shipova, PR Manager, Ascensio System SIA: “Whereas other applications either offer unnecessary interface complexity, or are easy-to-use yet lack basic PM functions, TM Projects has been designed to offer just the right balance.”

The company is planning to enhance the first version of TM Projects in future by providing more features essential for business. However, at the same time, their main goal is to keep its interface ergonomic and intuitive. This can be considered as a serious attempt to prove that easy project management is not a myth anymore. And taken into account lots of positive feedback they’ve already got from users and mass media, it seems that the idea of easy project management is becoming more and more attractive.