Project Management Software

Projects need a variety of resources to be executed and delivered successfully. In most cases, these resources come from a sponsoring organization or project sponsor. What Is a Project Sponsor? A Definition A project sponsor is an individual who offers financial resources to fund a project. Besides securing the project financing, a project sponsor might also propose the project’s business case, establish a project vision and set the project governance guidelines. The project sponsor is also usually responsible for the project’s return on investment and the impact it has on the organization. Once the project is approved, the project sponsor supervises the project manageme…

The scope of a project is the sum of all the work that needs to be executed. A project scope statement helps project managers define the boundaries of what will and what won’t be done. But scope statements aren’t just about work management. To write a project scope statement, you’ll need to understand the project goals, work breakdown structure and requirements, among other things. Then, once you’ve defined your project scope, you can create a scope document. What Is a Project Scope Statement? A scope statement is a document that defines all the elements of the project scope as well as assumptions, project requirements and acceptance criteria. Your project scope stateme…

An abundance of information is created, transferred and stored over the project management life cycle. Without a way to organize the documentation that’s produced, your project may be doomed to fail. That’s when PMIS comes in, an acronym for project management information systems. A PMIS enables an organized and controlled flow of information so nothing is siphoned off or misplaced. Project management software that’s collaborative and offers unlimited file storage, such as ProjectManager, is a given. Our tool can organize your documents and make them accessible to the project team on any of our multiple project views. For example, the list view allows teams to share file…

The triple constraint of project management has been given many names – the Project Management Triangle, Iron Triangle, and Project Triangle – which should give you an idea of how important the triple constraint is when managing a project. If you’re managing a project, then you’re working with the Triple Constraint. Therefore, it can be easily argued that the triple constraint might be the single most important concept in the history of project management. When used in combination with effective project management software, it can give you the ability to drive your projects to success. What Is the Triple Constraint in Project Management? So, what is the triple constrain…

There’s a change order process to manage when there are requests for something new or altered in a construction project. A variation order is also instrumental in managing change. This is especially important in construction, where the project often undergoes many changes. What is a variation order? We’ll define the term and explain when to use one and who requests and approves it. Then we’ll break down the components of variation orders and illustrate how they work in a real-life situation by providing an illustrated example. What Is a Variation Order? A variation order is a formal document issued to modify the original contract terms, typically concerning the scope of…

Project managers know the importance of project documentation. Project documents must be accurate and constantly updated to keep current with the project. Creating and managing project documentation throughout the project life cycle is critical for project success, but where to start? This guide defines what project documentation is and why it’s important in addition to outlining the top 15 project documents that you should always create to plan and execute your projects. What Is Project Documentation? The term project documentation refers to the project management documents that are created throughout the project life cycle. These documents, such as the project plan, p…

Construction project management is designed to deliver projects on time and on budget while maintaining or improving quality. Value engineering in construction is one method general contractors use to achieve those goals. What is value engineering in construction? We’ll answer that question and show how to implement it through various techniques. Then it’ll become apparent why this benefits anyone involved in construction projects. What Is Value Engineering in Construction? Value engineering in construction is a systematic method aimed at improving the value of a project by optimizing its function while reducing costs. It involves analyzing project components, processes…

Project managers often wonder if they are measuring the right things on a project. It’s difficult to know how much time to spend evaluating past performance and how much time to spend on keeping the work moving forward. Of course, there are many indicators of project success, but what do you need to be measuring while the project is in motion? At various points during the project, you want to evaluate five points: schedule, quality, cost, stakeholder satisfaction and performance against the business case. You should be doing this informally anyway. A formal project evaluation is of use during the end of a phase or stage as it can give you a clear indication of how the p…

Managing a project with copious moving parts can be challenging to say the least, but project evaluation is designed to make the process that much easier. Every project starts with careful planning—this sets the stage for the execution phase of the project while estimations, plans and schedules guide the project team as they complete tasks and deliverables. But even with the project evaluation process in place, managing a project successfully is not as simple as it sounds. Project managers need to keep track of costs, tasks and time during the entire project life cycle to make sure everything goes as planned. To do so, they utilize the project evaluation process and make…

Scrum is a flexible project management methodology that’s designed to help self-organized teams execute projects quickly in an agile environment. The scrum framework consists of artifacts, roles and ceremonies. These elements help product and software development teams manage their work. Scrum artifacts are critical for the success of any scrum team. But before we learn how to use them, we need to define them first. What Are Scrum Artifacts? In software development, the term “artifact” refers to information that stakeholders and the scrum team use to describe a product that’s being developed. Scrum artifacts define the work that must be done, and they always add value …

Your business operations are only as good as your ability to monitor and control them. For example, manufacturing teams would be lost without a controlling process that lets them measure and improve on their management function. The process of controlling management is essential for any business to remain viable. When you monitor with software and control the process of your manufacturing, you’re able to see what works and what isn’t working. What Is Controlling Process in Business Management? The controlling process in business management is when managers set, measure and refine their business operations and manage cost control. By using a controlling process, a compa…

Construction projects are complicated and rarely are executed without change orders or some other internal or external impact that affects their schedule. Construction project managers have techniques to assess these issues, such as time impact analysis. What is time impact analysis? We’ll define the technique, explain when to use it and who is responsible for conducting one. Then we’ll show how to do one and why it’s advantageous to use this method to keep projects on track. What Is a Time Impact Analysis? A time impact analysis (TIA) in construction is a project management technique used to assess how specific changes or disruptions will affect the overall project tim…

If you don’t have the funds, you’re not going to complete the project successfully. That’s why a project budget is so important: it’s the lifeblood of the project. Follow these steps to secure the funds necessary to support the project through every phase. But first, we need to define what a project budget is. What Is a Project Budget? A project budget is the total projected costs needed to complete a project over a defined period of time. It’s used to estimate what the costs of the project will be for every phase of the project. Creating a project budget is a critical part of the project planning process. The project budget will include such things as labor costs, mate…

Projects don’t just happen. There’s a lot of work before they’re approved, and once they have been given the go-ahead, there’s even more planning and scheduling needed! How do you communicate that information with stakeholders and the team so they understand the project? You use a project brief, an important document that outlines what the project is about, to do just that. A project brief lets you convey the main goals of the project so that everyone understands what they’ll be doing. Read on to learn more about them, and how to make one for yourself. There’s even a free template and in-depth example of a project brief for a construction project to help you get started…

There are many project risks that can affect your project and, as a project manager, you’re responsible for the risk analysis process. Risk analysis, or risk assessment is essential because it allows project managers to classify project risks and determine which of them should be tracked closely. What Is Project Risk Analysis? Risk analysis consists of using tools and techniques to determine the likelihood and impact of project risks that have been previously identified. Therefore, risk analysis helps project managers decipher the uncertainty of potential risks and how they would impact the project in terms of schedule, quality and costs if, in fact, they were to show up…

Defining the project scope is a critical part of the project planning process. That’s because the project scope defines the boundaries of what will and won’t be part of the project work, which is essential when making the project budget and schedule. Naturally, scope management is an important area of project management and there’s a lot to learn about it. But before we jump into that, let’s start with the definition of project scope. What Is Project Scope? The project scope is the total amount of work that needs to be done to complete a project. To define it, project managers must break down the project into the tasks and deliverables that’ll be executed to meet goals …

Asana vs. Monday is a matchup made for project management professionals. Which one to choose? That’s why Monday vs. Asana is such an important battle. You can’t have both, so you want what’s best. We’ll help you pick between Asana vs. Monday. It’s difficult. Asana vs. Monday are both similar project management tools. They have features, such as project tracking, workflow automation and other standard project management software features. Let’s look at those features, pricing and other comparisons between Monday vs. Asana. Of course, you can have the best of both worlds, with more powerful features and at a price point that fits your budget. ProjectManager is award-winni…

Explore content operations templates that support strategy, calendars, collaboration, and cross-team workflows—from Wrike and Google to ClickUp and Jira. The post Content Operations Project Management Templates to Keep Teams Aligned and Output Flowing appeared first on project-management.com. View the full article

You’re probably here because you’re looking for Microsoft Project for Mac. Unfortunately, Microsoft Project, also known as MS Project, wasn’t designed for Mac computers, so its desktop-based editions (Microsoft Project Standard and Microsoft Project Professional) won’t work on any Mac operating system (macOS). Is There a Microsoft Project for Mac? Microsoft Project for Mac doesn’t exist, but there are alternatives for those who want to work with Microsoft Project Plan (MPP) files on an Apple computer. The two most commonly used workarounds are trying one of the inferior, web-based versions of Microsoft Project or installing a virtual machine, a software that allows users…

When managing projects, users have many options. Microsoft Lists and Microsoft Planner are two of the most popular project management apps. But are they the one-stop solution project managers and their teams need to plan, manage and track work? There’s only one way to find out. We compared Microsoft Lists vs. Planner. Let’s see how they stack up. We’ll put Microsoft Lists vs. Planner through a series of tests. First, let’s define each to understand what they are and how they’re used, including key features. Then we’ll explore Microsoft vs. Planner in terms of the pros and cons of each and where one excels over the other. When comparing Microsoft project planning tools, …

If you’re looking to manage a project and facilitate better collaboration with your teams, chances are you’ve heard of and are thinking of trying Microsoft Project and Microsoft Planner. To help with that decision, we’ve set up a comparison with Microsoft Project vs. Microsoft Planner. May the best app win. The stats when comparing Microsoft Project vs. Microsoft Planner tell us that the former is a robust project management tool and the latter is more of a stripped-down version. MS Project integrates with MS products such as Office and has financial management tools and Gantt charts. However, it doesn’t have a mobile app and is expensive and complicated to use. Microso…

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Asana is a popular work management software that helps teams collaborate on tasks and projects. Microsoft Project is a popular project management software that has the tools that project managers need to manage teams and projects. If you’re looking at Asana vs. Microsoft Project and trying to decide which is the right tool for you, we have the stats to help you make that decision. There are problems in the battle of Microsoft Project vs. Asana. For one, MS Project is notoriously difficult to use and expensive. Then there’s Asana, which is a great work management tool that calls itself a project management software solution, but in reality doesn’t live up to delivering th…

The Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM) “traces ” the project’s deliverables by establishing a thread for each requirement—from the project’s initiation to the final implementation. The post What is a Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM)? appeared first on project-management.com. View the full article

A Gantt chart is a project management tool used to view project tasks scheduled over a time period, and provides information on overall project progress. The post What Is a Gantt Chart? appeared first on project-management.com. View the full article