Project Management

Project management has evolved from the field of construction project management to include projects of all types including software project management and information technology project management. A project manager can obtain Certified Project Manager certification from the Project Management Institute. The page brings together the latest trends in project management, news, blog postings, tweets about project management and in particular the latest project management software.

There are several kinds of project management software. Planning and scheduling software are widely used with the most well known being Microsoft's MS Project. A broader class of project management software focuses on the coordination and communication within the project including document repositories and sharing of files. Many projects are managed virtually so online project management software is of increasing importance.

The key to project management, and one area where it is art more than science, is defining the scope and extent of activities and the inter-relationships with other activities. There must be a balance between over-reporting and the burden of maintaining status on too many activities while having sufficient visibility to spot developing problems.

Tools for project management will need to adapt to the way work is being done with many of your workers tied to social networking sites. Producteev is capturing this trend with a dashboard to see what all your project members are doing.http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/02/producteev-now-lets-your-crowdsource-your-tasks-on-twitter/

Planning and scheduling software embodies the planning and control of complex projects. There needs to be a well-defined project scope, estimate of the work (e.g., resources needed) involved in the form of discrete activities or work packages, and a schedule of these activities. The coordination aspect has grown increasingly important. Good project managers look ahead to see what problems might develop looking at the status of activities within the project. The monitoring of a project through watching the progress of these activities is the means to control a project. The status of each activity must be gathered by some form of coordination mechanism. Keep this in mind as one chooses project management software.

See Top 10 Reviewshttp://project-management-software-review.toptenreviews.com/: Current Top 10 (in 2010) Tenrox Project Management Software, Microsoft Project, Project KickStart, MindView, Genius project for Domino, ProjectPlan, FastTrack Schedule, RationalPlan Multi Project, Service Desktop Pro, FusionDesk Professional

See Web Worker Dailyhttp://webworkerdaily.com/2009/07/31/wizehive-upgrades-to-compete-in-the-crowded-project-management-arena/: Reviews of MissingLink Project Center, Zen, Zoho Projects, EasyProjects.net and WizeHive.

Quick tips on choosing project management softwarehttp://www.softwarelisted.com/827-how-to-choose-the-right-project-management-software/

Product Review Producteevhttp://www.appvita.com/2009/04/03/producteev-work-collaboratively-online/

See open source project management software (sidebar)

10 PM Trends for 2010 (ESI)http://www.esi-intl.de/kompetenzzentrum/news/Top_10_PM_Trends_2010.pdf - "Organizations will rely more on project management as the 'need to perform trumps survival' in 2010"

The Implementation of New PPM Solutions Will Soar

Reliance on Requirements Metrics to Measure Performance Will Increase

Senior Executives Will Embrace the Value of Project and Program Governance

PMOs Will Go to the Next Level with BA Centers of Excellence

Demand for Agile Project Metrics Will Increase

Vendor Management and Program Outsourcing Will Move Front and Center

Risk Management will Become a PM Obsession

Crisis Environments will Leverage Project Portfolio Principles for Better Outcomes

PM Learning Measurement will No Longer be a “Nice to Have”

PM Learning will Push out of the Classroom

From NASA 7th Annual Project Management Challenge: global trends in project management for 2010 are 1) the need for innovation, 2) cognitive diversity within project teams, and 3) the changing composition of the workforce.http://pmchallenge.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/2010/abstracts-bios/hoffman.ed.pdf

Trends in 2010 (CM Crossroads)http://www.cmcrossroads.com/cm-journal-articles/13194-2010-trends-in-project-management

Trend 1 - Enterprises continue to look for Efficiencies in Process & Technology

Trend 2 - Agile and Lean Processes are overtaking Waterfall

Trend 3 - PM's are becoming Independent Consultants

Trend 4 - Virtual & Independent Teams will be more Prevalent

Trend 5 - Social Media will become a Norm

Trend 6 - Project Manager (PM) & Business Analyst (BA) Roles are Converging

Rudolf Melik from Talent on Target (The Blog of the Project Workforce) predicted the top 10 trends for project management in 2009.http://www.tenrox.com/blogs/talentontarget/index.php/2009/01/ten-predictions-for-project-management-trends-in-2009/ http://www.tenrox.com/blogs/talentontarget/index.php/2009/01/ten-predictions-for-project-management-trends-in-2009-part-2/ http://www.talentontarget.com/index.php/tag/revenue-recognition/

1 Leadership matters 2 Enterprise software technology cross-pollination gains momentum 3 The rapidly increasing service web 4 Uncertainty is the new normal 5 Emphasis shifts from project management to workforce management 6 Finding the right talent gets a lot easier 7 Dispersed customers, projects and teams kill politics 8 The rise of the Project Workforce 9 The CFO and the project manager friendship 10 The increasing correlation between project management and operational excellence

Upwards of 60% of projects fail according to surveys published up to 2001.http://www.it-cortex.com/Stat_Failure_Rate.htm

A 2003 Gartner survey reports that 42% of CRM purchased software goes unused.http://www.gartner.com/press_releases/pr6mar2003a.html

A 2002 AMR (now part of Gartner survey of vendors found that 47% of CRM projects go live but business change an adoption fail.http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5034681.html?tag=search

According to 2004 Standish CHAOS Chronicleshttp://www.softwaremag.com/L.cfm?doc=newsletter/2004-01-15/Standish

Healthcare information technology failures are rarely discussed. Upwards of 80% of Electronic Medical Record implementation projects fail, especially large scale ones. http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/18821/

Websites that provide a list of free project management software.

Software Projectshttp://www.softwareprojects.org/free-project-management-software.htm lists GanttProject and iTeamwork for desktop applications and a dozen other web-based collaboration tools.

Other free project management software:

JxProjecthttp://www.jxproject.com/ is ad-supported

Open source OpenProjhttp://openproj.org/openproj http://www.aniljava.com/openproj-review/

Every project manager knows about scope creep as the customer adds more requirements. What about scope seep when the project manager does so?http://www.guerrillaprojectmanagement.com/scope-seep-or-what-happens-if-you-give-a-mouse-a-cookie