Project management software

The software industry research company, Gartner (http://www.gartner.com/), periodically publish the "Project Management Software Magic Quadrant Report", a review of major packages (2002 report in pdf here).

Table of contents

1 Problems with project management software 2 Proprietary non-internet packages 2.1 Critical path support 2.2 Critical chain support 3 Open source software 4 Proprietary internet-based 5 External links 6 Books 7 See also

Problems with project management software

• Few packages are built around a sound project management method. What is even worse, e.g. Microsoft Project encourages counterproductive behavior by inexperienced project managers by offering as the default start-up view the Gantt chart. This encourages too early focus on task identification and scheduling vs. proper formulation of project objectives and final deliverables. So, such packages implicitly force upon an unsuspecting user an unsound project management process.
• To make things worse, many packages offer advanced visual formatting capabilities, which make it possible to produce nicely-looking but completely nonsense documents.
• Many packages also offer e-mail integration, which encourages automatic assignment of tasks and due dates. This universally leads to counterproductive, date-driven behavior (see: critical chain) and may contribute to improper setting of team members' performance expectations.

• Microsoft Project -- a part of Microsoft Office, [1]
• Primavera -- a high end solution, [1]
• Artemis -- a high end solution, [1]

• PHProjekt -- an open-source, internet-based groupware suite, http://www.phprojekt.com/index.php
• DotProject -- open-source, internet-based, in early development, http://www.dotproject.net/index.php
• MrProject -- a part of GNOME, http://mrproject.codefactory.se/
• KPlato -- a project management application KOffice suite (in early stages of development), http://www.koffice.org/kplato/
• Project/Open -- open-source, internet-based "Project-ERP", with an emphasis on project collaboration and financials, http://www.project-open.com/
• Gantt-Project, written in Java for all OS http://ganttproject.sourceforge.net/

• list of project management topics