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Project Management

Author: TechShortcut Staff | Article updated: December 31, 2008

1. Overview

At the highest level, a project may be either a capital project or a service project. Capital project costs will usually be collected and eventually become the basis for an asset. With service projects, the project may either be for internal purposes—like an IT project or marketing campaign—or for an external customer. Some projects emphasize cost tracking where others emphasize the schedule.

The level of collaboration on a project is also key. The term "project" usually means working with other people on a common objective, which is really the definition of collaboration. With the Internet, the number of available options for collaboration has exploded, sometimes making it difficult to determine the solution that will best meet a company's need.

Considerations

Enterprise-wide Solutions
If projects are your organization's lifeblood and you need a high degree of integration with your accounting system for cost collection and billing you will want to look at business management or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suites that include project management functionality with the accounting and supply chain software. One of the primary benefits of using a business management suite is the seamless integration of projects across all applications which can increase efficiency.
Niche or Industry Solutions
In some cases, project management software exists for a particular industry, like architecture design projects, professional service projects, software development so it is import to see if options exist for your niche.
Project Collaboration vs. Project Management Software
Project management applications have been adding more collaboration functionality but there is still some distinction between applications that focus on project team collaboration vs. traditional project management applications that include more features related to cost and scheduling.

Below are some additional items to help you determine whether a project collaboration or project management solution will best meet your needs.
- Multiuser Updates
  Will there be more than one user maintaining project information?
- Project Schedule
  Not all project management applications will calculate the critical path of a schedule.
- Cost Integration
  Collect costs by project or activity and integrate with accounting for costs and billing.
- Document Management
  Track versions of documents and facilitate document sharing.
If you think collaboration is a better fit, check out our overview of collaboration solutions overview for more options.

Implementation Options

1. In-House Project Management Software	2. Internet Project Management Service
Install a project management application locally. You will need to decide whether to run the software on a single machine or whether to run it on a server, which will make it available to multiple users.	An Internet-based application that requires no installation.

2. Option Comparison

	1. In-House Project Management Software	2. Internet Project Management Service
Requirements	None	Internet connection—preferably DSL, T1 or cable.
Cost Factors	Hardware
	PC or Server	Client PC
	Software
	Project Management software	None
	Labor
	Install and configure	Configure
	Services
	None	Usually a monthly fee
Integration Show/Hide details The most common form of integration to consider is the accounting system. Do you need to collect project costs and send them to your accounting application or vice versa? Other forms of integration to consider include reporting and project scheduling.	Possibly	Possibly
Anywhere Access Show/Hide details Will you need to provide access for users in more than one location?	Possibly, it depends on the software	Yes
Multiuser Updates Show/Hide details Will you have more than one user making project updates? Will you need users outside your network, like customers or suppliers, to make updates?	Possibly, it depends on the software being used and how the network is configured.	Yes
Electronic Backup & Archiving Included	No	Yes

3. Next Steps

It can be challenging to find the right balance between project management features and collaboration. While there are in-house solutions that provide web collaboration pieces, keep in mind the corresponding maintenance and management of the solution. However, it is not a given that all Internet services will be cheaper than in-house solutions so be sure to compare costs.

	1. In-House Project Management Software	2. Internet Project Management Service
General Advice	Use if a single user will be the norm or when outside access is not a priority.	Use when collaboration and mobility are key.
Find Local Tech Specialists Search TechShortcut's tech profiles for specialists in your area	"Project Management"
Find More Information Use Research Helper to find related web articles	"Project Management" Application Software	Online "Project Management"
Examples of Products and Services These are not endorsements, simply some product or service names we encountered in our research to get you started finding your best fit.	dotProject^{2, 3} Microsoft Project and Project Server ¹ Oracle Primavera ¹ PHProjekt^{2, 3} Project.net¹ ¹ Includes project scheduling with critical path method (CPM) calculation ² Open source ³ Offers a free version	Clarizen Basecamp Daptiv Wrike Zoho Projects ¹ ¹ Offers a free version