Project management programs are tools in which project managers can organize their staff, finances and project work. With these programs they can efficiently sort through the tasks for the day and provide a guideline for the future of their company. Without one of these programs project managers would be left to using either several different programs combined to get the same effect, or even reduced to doing thing such as gantt charts by hand.

I have decided to compare to pieces of software that are just that; project management tools. However I’m choosing two which are pretty different: Microsoft Project 2007, and Project Open (it’s actually ]Project Open[ , however the brackets get annoying fast). My initial finding were that the Microsoft product was highly inferior to that of Project Open -  ]PO[ for short - and my later research further proved those claims.

Let’s compare the basics of the two side by side first:

So right from the start Project Open has the upper hand, after all it’s free. As far as the comparison between web based and client based goes, it all depends on what you prefer. Truthfully Project Open is not fully Web Based, as it does require you install some software for it upfront, however you do use your internet browser to access it.

Now we take a look at features, for this we will do another side by side comparison (after all we’re only comparing two products so it certainly is effective).

At this point you may be thinking I’m just biased to Project Open, after all its free and if Microsoft Project has a few more features, well the program being free outweighs them right? Nope, I could not find a single thing Microsoft Project 2007 did that Project Open didn’t do.

Features are one thing; however the program could have the most features on the planet and still be useless if the interface is bad. So maybe this is where Microsoft Project will shine right? Well no, although its interface certainly is not horrible it lacks depth which Project Open has.

Microsoft Project starts you off facing a gantt chart, and that chart represents your project, from there you can add things to the project itself however it all seems to rotate around the chart (figure.1).

Project Open works differently, because of its many more features it starts you off with a start page complete with news about the product itself, your current projects, the current statistics of your company (eg average number of sick days your employees take), and some help information about the product. From there you get a side menu which allows you to navigate through project management, human resources, customer relations, finances and other features (figure 2).

In the end Open Project beats Microsoft Project 2007 in every way imaginable, which just goes to show you how much more powerful open source products can become in comparison to company created ones.

Sources:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/default.aspx

http://www.project-open.com/en/modules/index.php

1. The main steps Cornelius Fitchner goes through when dealing with a customer are first that he makes his baseline assumptions of the triple constraints for the project; this allows the customer to have a basic idea of everything in the scope of the project. Next he discusses the alternatives of the project in order to give the customer a chance to change their mind if they are unhappy with one of the constraints. Finally he leaves it up for Negotiation where the customer will say what they different if they cannot agree on the original assumptions and the alternatives.

2. I fell I would be good at the assumptions part of the strategy, because I am good at making estimates. However I would do poorly at the negotiations portion mainly because I would be hard pressed to change a project I already feel would work out.

3. I believe that the quality is also part of the triple constraints, because without the quality of the project on a whole being decided upon, the client may pay a lot to get a job done fast. Then they may get ripped off for the quality portion, which many of them assume the developers have a high standard on.

I feel that Cornelius Fitchner may have given the clients too much room to change to project, despite it being in the best interest of the clients to be able to change it. Clients for the most part don’t understand the inner workings of what actually goes into the project, giving them control to change the deadline or any of the other constraints in any major way could render the project unmanageable. That being said I like how he included that you should not be afraid to drop the project if the clients have demands you cannot meet, as many people are afraid to do this. I don’t oppose allowing them to change it in a small way, but too much will lead to no where good.

Many of the “baby boomers” in the current workforce will soon be exiting, leaving the “Millennials” as the major group left. These two generations differ greatly in their work ethic and even the reasons why they work. While the baby boomers worked for their own pride, the Millennials work with the expectations of being rewarded with either praise or other means. This will provide a great challenge to the project managers, who will now have to completely alter the way in which they communicate to their workers

Baby boomers are the generation born shortly after WWII, between 1946 and 1960 and Millennials are the generation born between late 1970s and early 2000s. Millennials are also known as the “Trophy Generation” because of the introduction trophies given for participation during this time.

Unless the project managers adapt to the new needs of their workers, productivity will decline greatly. For project managers in the programming field, some simple things that can be done are adding small rewards for the completion of pieces of the project, such as a small bonus or time off. Although allowing such things may seem costly at first, the productivity gained by it will no doubt overcast the initial cost.

Source: http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Project-Management/10-Trends-in-Project-Management/