subbu

• Feb 21st, 2007

 

Project management tools are used to track the current status of the project, schedule, effort, Overrun details, Cost, budget, making charts, tracking etc. There are many tools available in the market. One of the famous tool is Microsoft Project.

mgayathry01

 Profile Answers by mgayathry01 

• Dec 5th, 2007

 

Project management tools are used to plan, monitor and control and to report project status. 

During  the planning process, they aid in the estimation of activity time and schedules, costs and budget, resources allocation and levelling, milestone completion etc.

During the monitoring and controlling process, they help you to keep track of the overall status of the project and also track variances in cost, time and plan for future resource needs. They help you calculate the schedule and cost performance indices and thereby plan for risks as well.

They also have different types of reporting for the appropriate audience (senior management, project team etc).

Some of the most common PM tools available in the market are MS Project, Enact, etc.
In addition, you could also build your own customized tools as per your team's requirements (using Wikis etc).

SomGollakota

 Profile Answers by SomGollakota 

• May 8th, 2009

 

A tool is something we use to accomplish a task. The effectiveness of the
task completion depends on the tool of choice. Using the right tool for the job
requires understanding of the tools at our disposal and their functions and
uses.

Therefore, Project Management tools are those that at project managers'
disposal to better manage projects.

Some examples for tools along with their uses are:

1. WBS or Work Breakdown Structure - Identify work units to complete,
estimate work, build schedule, identify resources required to complete
individual tasks
2. Schedule Analysis Management - PERT and CPM - understand the schedule,
analyze critical path, lag times etc.
3. Budget forecast models - Understand funds allocated, spent (actuals), funds
needed to complete the project, on/over/under budget analysis
4. EVM or Earned Value Management - To analyze how project is doing in terms of
delivery, answering questions such as have we produced the planned value at
current time?, Is project falling behind? Is project making sufficient time in
terms of value produced?
5. Scope, Requirements and Traceability Matrix - to understand what the scope of
the project is. Are we building functionality that can be traced back to the
requirements? Are we staying within scope? Is there a scope creep?

There are several software out there that would wrap many of these Project
Management tools into a bundle to help project managers use the tools with ease.
Such software include Microsoft Project, Clarity, Primavera Team Play, etc.

ds1164

 Profile Answers by ds1164 

• May 31st, 2009

 

Project Management tools are normally used to assist in project Planning, Execution and Monitoring & Control activities.

Most common tool for project management are:
1. Microsoft Enterprise Project ( Planning , cost and schedule monitoring)
2. Excel sheet templates (Estimation template, metrics analysis, status reports, project progress, issue/risk tracking, Change management tracking)
3. JIRA (Issue and bug tracking tool)
4. VSS or TFS or All Fusion (Version control and configuration management tools)
5. Project Dash board such as SharePoint Portal