Project management software: advantages and disadvantages

In order to find out a suitable solution for your needs you should evaluate project management software advantages and compare them against project management software disadvantages to know if pros are stronger than cons. This article is dedicated to consideration of how to know if software matches your needs and how to evaluate all the project management software pros and cons in order of selecting the most suitable one. The market is growing all the time with new products of different complexity and price, so it may seem to be quite difficult to find a proper solution among all this diversity of offers and solutions. In spite of considerable market size, it is not sharply segmented, so the main rule is the following – the more specific your requirements are the easier it will be to find the answer. First of all you need to decide what kind of general functionality you need in order to cope with your business activities. In other words you should obtain an actual vision of your needs which will be the starting point for your research, for example you may want a powerful application to manage project finances, risks etc, or you may need a simpler solution of practical bent – to assign tasks to your employees, coordinate their workloads and schedules, track job progress in terms of tasks etc.

Advantages – how to define them?

General items are called PM shareware benefits which are not the same as detailed software features which give you more specific definition for software functionality. When you begin initial evaluating of the software pros and cons through studying and comparing their detailed feature lists, this can only complicate the whole process, so what you need to do is to contact sales/support departments of software development companies with a brief request including what you want to see in PM software, asking if they can satisfy these needs. There are the following examples of benefits that you may request:

• collaborate with your teammates in real-time (assigning and controlling tasks).
• share documents – systematizing, editing, status-tracking etc.
• manage work-related costs.
• manage risks, budgeting, business forecasting etc.
• build performance reports and charts.
• Simplicity in use and installation.
• Moderate and flexible pricing.
• Qualified and attentive support service.

What you need to know about the software is approximate market share that it takes to be sure that this tool is quite popular and it has enough of satisfied users to be trusted. Study their testimonials and case studies. 

Disadvantages

Disadvantages are defects in software usability which can prevent you from buying it. You may face the following serious disadvantages that can negatively influence your choice:

• Overpriced costs related to software buying, implementation, maintenance etc. Some products are sold along with different modules which make them more expensive than it is officially announced, for example you may be charged with additional payments for collaborative server etc.

• Poor or ugly user interface. It is clear that you cannot be satisfied using a tool which interface just exasperates you, because it looks weird, it is inconvenient, overloaded etc.
• Poor quality. If software is full of “bugs” you cannot use it normally. In order to understand if it is ok you should join trial period to take all-round testing to know if it is really workable, but not producing error-messages after every operation.
• Careless support service. If you cannot get any answer from their support service for a few days, then you shouldn’t pay them as far as their carelessness doesn't bode well.

Example of effective project management software:

VIP Task Manager is a client-server system which is suitable for small and midsize business, because of its rich tasks management capabilities. It has moderate shareware price which is transparent and fair. There are no any hidden or additional payments, all you need to do is to pay for the number of licenses you want (depending on number of your teammates) and you will get the single installation setup including client and server components. This tool is very easy in installation and use, so you don’t need any trainings, except for simple tutorials which can be found on-line and in PDF. You can test out 30-days trial version to decide if this software justifies its earned value.