Project Management System Evaluation Checklist

Since the early 1970s the commercial project management system have been seen in all the sectors.Because the project management multitude products are now available on the current markets at some expensive and some reasonably price tag. As PC's proliferated in the workplace, so did PM software, which also brought an ease-of-use element to project management.However,all project management packages were created equally would be a gross exaggeration. Each has a specific niche they address in project management or target a specific industry.

There are some of the general requirements for the project management system evaluation checklists which discussed bellow.

General requirements.

1. The project management system should support any type of project that may be large or small; not just those limited to a specific part of the business.Similarly the project management system should be flexible in application and accommodate any and all methods of work effort (new development, maintenance, and modification/improvements).
2. The project management system should distinguish between Direct, Indirect, and Unavailable activities.
3. The project management system should promote the "Mini-Project Manager" concept.
4. The project management should provide an integrated approach to support all activities of project management, not just some; this includes Planning, Estimating, Scheduling, Reporting, and Control.
5. Project management system should promote and enforce in-house project management standards; e.g., use of standard methodologies, labour rates, time reporting, etc.
   
6. The project management should provide a universally applicable calendar and allow for the specification of a standard reporting cycle.

Planning support

1. The project management system should support various Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) - not just a single methodology. This includes controllable levels of WBS. Also, provides a library facility for reusable methodologies that can be automatically loaded upon request. Ideally, the WBS can be tied to specific information resources i.e. systems, programs, files, thereby enabling the ability to record and monitor time for a specific information resource.
2. The project management system should support internal project dependencies and external dependencies.
3. The project management system should allow for multiple projects, multiple human resources i.e internal employees and external contractors and multiple assignments for a single human resource.
   
4. The project management system should provide a Skills Inventory to track skills and proficiencies.
5. At last project management system should be able to manage the properties of the projects.
   

Estimating support

1. The project management system should provide for both Detail estimates (for a specific phase of a project) and Order-of-Magnitude (for the entire project).
2. The project management system should allow multiple versions of estimates (after all, estimates will inevitably need to be revised).
3. The project management system should provide a means to maintain estimating guidelines and generate tentative estimates accordingly.

Scheduling support

1. The project management system should provide for automated calculations using "Effectiveness Rate."
2. The project management system should allow multiple versions of schedules (project schedules, like estimates, will change over time).
3. The project management system should provide facilities to manage resource allocations. This includes plotting both estimated and actual project assignments, as well as monitoring "effectiveness rates."
4. The project management system should be able to calculate critical paths of projects.

Reporting support

1. The project management system should provide facilities to record and verify time on project assignments.
2. The project management system should provide for the recording of "Estimate to do" (the amount of time remaining on a given assignment).
   
3. The project management system should maintain historical time data that is used in history reports and to update estimating guidelines.
4. The project management system should allow the recording of "out-of-pocket" project expenditures.
5. The project management system should provide a scratchpad facility to record project notes as well as formal reports (e.g. Project Proposals, Cost/Benefit Analysis, Project Audits, etc.).
6. The project management system should provide a standard facility to generate a variety of project reports .

Control support

1. The project management system should post reported time to projects and to human resources reporting it. Also, post time to information resources to monitor activity.
   
2. The project management system should provide various summary reports to analyze projects and human resources, both by project and by department.
3. The project management system should provide the ability to bill end-users for project costs which includes charge back to multiple users at varying rates.