Project management

Tasks or activities of project management softwares

[edit] Scheduling

One of the most common tasks is to schedule a series of events, and the complexity of this task can vary considerably depending on how the tool is used. Some common challenges include:

• Events which depend on one another in different ways or dependencies
• Scheduling people to work on, and resources required by, the various tasks commonly termed resource scheduling
• Dealing with uncertainties in the estimates of the duration of each task
• Arranging tasks to meet various deadlines
• Juggling multiple projects simultaneously to meet a variety of requirements

[edit] Calculating critical path

In many complex schedules, there will be a critical path, or series of events that depend on each other, and whose durations directly determine the length of the whole project (see also critical chain). Some software applications (for example, Dependency Structure Matrix solutions) can highlight these tasks, which are often a good candidate for any optimization effort.

[edit] Providing information

Project planning software needs to provide a lot of information to various people, to justify the time spent using it. Typical requirements might include:

• Tasks lists for people, and allocation schedules for resources
• Overview information on how long tasks will take to complete
• Early warning of any risks to the project
• Information on workload, for planning holidays
• Evidence
• Historical information on how projects have progressed, and in particular, how actual and planned performance are related