Project Management Software Selection

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A decade ago, companies seeking software to handle project management data didn’t have much choice beyond a spreadsheet. Today, the market is rich with options. Products most of us knew ten years ago have been joined by worthy competitors, playing for market share in interesting niches.

Unless you’ve a well developed sense of adventure, this breadth of offerings may not be welcome. After all, construction operations personnel are not known for having passive, neutral personalities; they have strong opinions on processes they believe are crucial to success. And busy people won’t tolerate even the most functional software if it doesn’t fit their existing processes. The phrase “I’m here to build a building, not to manage software” will be tossed out more than once during the course of the selection, a sentiment shared by many operations people even if they don’t verbalize it.

So, if you’re charged with making technology decisions about PM software, the right answer starts with making good observations and asking the right questions. You can start by assessing your operations group’s personality, doctrines, and structure:

• Is the group cohesive in philosophy and practice at the company, divisional or job level?
• Is the management team a loose federation or a strict, structured group?

These and other questions bring into focus the characteristics you need - and flexibility, structure, and ease of use take on more meaning.

The buzzwords around PM applications today are Collaboration, Integration and Automation. Not just vogue concepts in vendors’ marketing collateral, these are relevant considerations. How important are these concepts to your operations and management team? Understanding this helps define your team’s character and their needs.

After surveying the organization, move to concrete elements - such as what the software can do. Functionality matters, but not in the way you might expect. More than any other application, your PM application will handle the tasks that are the bread and butter of your day-to-day operation. How this functionality dovetails with the organization’s vital processes often predicts its acceptance by people in the trenches. And users must be involved in the selection. Companies get more mileage from software selected by the people who will be using it.

Choosing the right PM application can be difficult. The starting point is hard to find given the wide range of needs and opinions, but the process can be successfully navigated. Assess and accept the nature of your organization and enlist core users to help make the decision. The choice they make often surprises everyone - including themselves.