The difficulty Xnet faced was finding a project management tool that balanced their needs without being too robust or too expensive. As a boutique data center, Xnet projects are complicated but, like most companies these days, there are only a few people assigned to any given task. For Xnet, the perfect project management (PM) software has to accurately track all project complexities while remaining simple and fast to use.

Knowing precisely what you want PM software to actually do is the key to ending up with something truly workable. However, that’s easier said than done.

“Selecting any software requires the typical project lifecycle components, including stakeholder involvement, planning, execution, controlling scope, and decision making, so be prepared to treat your PM Software selection process as a project itself,” advises Adam Nelson, director of IT Consulting at Keane Inc., a $1 billion IT services firm.

The first steps to cutting the selection process down to size is to get agreement from your company’s powers-that-be on specific tasks you need the PM software to accomplish, and get their early commitment to PM in the process. From there, proceed with brutal practicality. Pare the options down to a list of must-have functionalities.

“One of the things I noticed was that while many of them had unique features or some kind of unique trick, what I really wanted was something basic that worked without having to learn a new way of thinking,” said Metcalfe. “Anything that purported to be revolutionary or a new way of streamlining project management, I immediately discarded.”

Round 1

Nothing is quite as useful as feedback from actual users so it’s smart to ask your peers what worked best for them. Justin Honaman, director of Customer Intelligence at Coca-Cola Customer Business Solutions said the following is his initial criteria in selecting which PM software vendors make the first cut:

The Basics: PM software should absolutely include the ability to manage activities, tasks, resources, time lines and calendar/dates. These are basic and foundational to any solid PM software solution. In addition to the core basics, PM solutions should also offer document management capability, a view into critical path activities and milestones and finally, enable the project manager to manage a budget/baseline.

Collaboration: When working as part of a team led by a project or program manager, the ability to share information, link multiple projects and track/manage issues is important to effectively keeping a project on-track and status updates to stakeholders accurate.

Resource Management: While resource planning and ongoing management is often a soft skill frequently found in the best project managers, the PM software should enable this process by allowing the manager to allocate individuals and/or teams to a specific activity or task. In addition, PM software should have the ability to enable entry of costs (e.g., hourly rates), specific skill sets and contact information.

Support: A final key area that is often overlooked is technical and business support. How accurate are the help files? Is there a technical support phone line to call for help (and is there a cost for this service)? What are the resources engaged with ongoing update and development of the solution?

Metcalfe adds caveats to Honaman’s list: make sure the user interface is “dead simple" or it’s difficult to get everyone on board with it and triple check security issues.