Project management software has increased significantly in complexity and functionality since the development of the science of project management in the 1950's and 1960's. Today packages such as Microsoft Project, Oracle Primavera and the free open source tools such as open work bench have the capability to plan projects, and evenportfoliosof projects, in full detail. They can incorporate resources loading, costing andinter-projectdependencies. However is this increasing capability leading to more projectsuccess?And how can we use project management software to best advantage of the project? In this article we look are the advantages and disadvantages of project management software and how the disadvantages can be avoided.

Project Management Software Advantages and Disadvantages

The key advantages of project management softwarecomparedto hand drawn plans in excel or powerpoint are:

• Ease with which the critical path can be identified based on the identifieddependencies.
• The ability to model the resource demands for the project
• The ability to integrate a number of project planstogether
• The easy with which the plan can be updated and maintained.

The disadvantages of modern software packages are:

The tendency for plans to become over complex with manyhundredsor even thousands of tasks. This isespeciallytrue with new project managers who want to build every detail into the plan.
The easy of change means that a new plan can be issued every week. This leads to confusion and instability in the team. They are never sure what is the latest version.
the ability to assume the project is in control because of the high level of detail.

The Illusion of Control

People make projects and the aim of planning is to ensure people understand the role they are going to play in the project, not to micro-manage individuals within the project team. Highlydetailedplanning can give theillusionthat theuncertaintieshave beenmanagedout of the project. Howeverdetailbeyond what isreasonablyrequiredto set to overall direction of the project is unnecessaryat a high level for almost every project. Some specific areas which have detailed impact on critical operations may need detailedplanningbut this should be done just in time once the facts associated with the critical activity have emerged.

Hints and Tips for Good Project Planning

Our hints and tips for goodprojectplanning are:

• Fully define the project deliverables first, this will help define the scope
• Maintain the overall plan at high level no more than two pages oflegibleinformation
• Prepare phase plans for the next few weeks take you to the next milestone. Agile experts call these a scrum plan.
• Don't change the plan unless you have to.
• Get the team involved in drawing up the plan, brown paper on the wall and post-it notes work well.
• Do think about resources but don't spend time getting the model perfect.

About the Author

Paul Naybour is business development director at the Project Management Course Provider Parallel Project Training.Specialisingin APMP Training and APM Introductory Courses . Parallel Project Training have the ability to use modern technology to improve your overall project management capability.