Introduction to the hottest IT project manager app

Introduction to it project manager application tools

a basic work of project management is to track and manage the work process, actual cost and actual resource consumption. Most project management software packages allow users to determine a benchmark plan and compare the actual process and cost with the corresponding parts in the benchmark plan

with the development of IT industry, project expansion and investment can be found everywhere in IT industry. In order to improve the level of project management and win market competition, especially after China's accession to the WTO, more and more people in the industry are participating in project management training in different ways and striving to obtain the most powerful professional project manager (PMP) qualification certification in the world (see,). At the same time, most project managers in the IT industry are trying to use project management software to assist in the management of their projects. In order to facilitate everyone's use, we now give a brief introduction to project management

at present, there are many kinds of project management software in the market, the representative of which is Microsoft project management software 2000, but most of them are based on the project management theory of the American Project Management Association (PMI). In the process of use, we should pay attention to the following contents:

I. characteristics of project management software

1. Budget and cost control

most project management software systems can be used to obtain various activities in the project Information about resources. The salary of personnel can be calculated by hours, overtime or one-time, and the due payment date can also be specified; For raw materials, one-time or continuous costs can be determined; For various materials, corresponding accounting and budget codes can be set up. In addition, you can also use user-defined formulas to run cost functions. Most software programs use this information to help calculate project costs and track costs during the project. During the project process, the actual cost and budget cost of a single resource, team resource or the whole project can be compared and analyzed at any time. This information is used in planning and reporting. Most software programs can display and print the cost of each task, each resource (personnel, machines, etc.) or the whole project at any time

2. Schedule

the schedule program is mainly used to determine the working time of each single resource or a group of resources in the project. These schedules can be used to calculate the project schedule. Most system software sets a default value for basic working hours, such as Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with an hour of lunch in between. This schedule can be modified for individual resources or a group of resources. For example, modify the on-duty and off-duty hours, enter company holidays according to non working hours, and enter various shifts (day and night), including holidays and quantity units (hours, days, weeks). These schedules are used when reporting work progress. They can usually be printed out by day, week or month according to each individual resource, or the schedule of the whole project can be printed into a comprehensive, possibly wall sized project schedule

3. Email

the common feature of some project management software programs is that project information can be sent by email. This function enables users to obtain information directly from e-mail without having to use a printer or screen display. Through email, project team members can understand major changes, such as the latest project plan or schedule, master the current project work, and send various business forms

4. Graphics

for project engineering with a large number of activities, it is extremely tedious and error prone to manually make a Gantt chart or network chart, or manually modify the drawing. One of the most prominent features of current project management software is that it can easily and quickly make various charts, including Gantt chart and network chart, on the basis of the latest data. With the benchmark plan, any changes can be easily entered into the system, and the chart will automatically reflect these changes. The project management software can connect the tasks in the Gantt chart to show the workflow. In particular, users can use only one command to convert the display back and forth between Gantt chart and network chart. In addition, graphics and tables usually have the following functions for users:

Interactive operation processing of tasks and relationships. For example, connect tasks through charts, change priority relationships, or change activity duration by extending the activity duration display function

. Customize formats, such as graphic size, title, color, font, and file layout

. Benchmark table showing tasks or costs

. Highlight the critical path and show the delay of any activity

. Zoom in or out of the displayed image

5. Transfer in/transfer out data

many project management software packages allow users to obtain information from other applications, such as word processing, spreadsheets, and database programs. The process of entering information for the project management software is called transfer in. For example, you only need to transfer the information in a spreadsheet when you need it, and you don't need to re type the cost information about personnel or machines in the spreadsheet into the project management software program, and this may also input conflicting or incorrect information. Similarly, it is often necessary to input some information of your project management software into these applications. The process of sending a message is called transfer out. For example, it may be necessary to transfer the progress plan report of a contractor to the word processing remarks file

most project management software programs allow the information files in the standard ASC Ⅱ code to be transferred from the Windows client to SQL database, lotus, Excel, Microsoft Project Exchange, OLE client/server, DDE client/server and some other systems

6. deal with multiple projects and sub projects

some projects with melting point (TM) higher than 200 ℃ are large-scale and need to be divided into smaller task sets or sub projects. Another situation is that experienced project managers manage several projects at the same time, and team members also work for multiple projects at the same time, allocating work time in multiple projects. In this case, most project management software programs can help. They can usually store multiple items in different files, which are connected to each other. Project management software can also store multiple projects in the same file, process hundreds or even thousands of projects at the same time, and draw Gantt charts and network diagrams

7. Making reports

when the project management software package was initially applied, there were generally only a few reports, usually a list summarizing the schedule, resources or budget. Today, most project management software packages have a very wide range of reporting capabilities. Here are some report contents that can be made:

Comprehensive report of the project

. Report of main stages (milestones) of the project

. Various information in a certain period, such as tasks completed and ongoing during this period, and tasks ready to start

. Financial statements, showing comprehensive information, including all tasks, the entire project budget, overspending, cumulative budgeted costs, actual costs, and commitments

. Cost/schedule control system criteria (c/scsc) report. This report is usually required by the U.S. Department of defense for defense projects

. Carry out resource configuration report for various or a group of resources of the project

. Customized standard reports, cross reports, and variable benchmark comparison tables

8. resource management

the current project management software has a resource list, which lists the names of various resources, the limits of the time resources can be used, resource standards and obsolescence rates, resource income methods and text descriptions. Each resource can be accompanied by a code and a member's personal schedule. Constrain each resource, such as the amount of time it can be used. Users can allocate resources for tasks by percentage, set priority standards for resource allocation, allocate resources to the same task, and keep notes and descriptions of each resource. The system can highlight and help correct unreasonable allocation, adjust and smooth resource allocation. Most software packages can handle thousands of resources for projects

9. plan

in all project management software packages, users can define the activities that need to be carried out. Just as software can usually maintain a list of resources, it can also maintain a list of activities or tasks. For each task, the user selects a title, start and end dates, summary and evaluation, as well as the estimated duration (including optimistic, most likely and pessimistic estimates according to various timing standards), and defines the sequence relationship with other tasks and the person in charge. Usually, the project in the project management software will have thousands of related tasks. In addition, most programs can create job analysis structures to assist in planning

10. project supervision and tracking

a basic work of project management is to track and manage the work process, actual cost and actual resource consumption. Most project management software packages allow users to determine a benchmark plan and compare the actual process and cost with the corresponding parts in the benchmark plan. Most systems can track many activities, such as tasks in progress or completed, related costs, time spent, start and end dates, funds actually invested or spent, resources consumed, and remaining duration, resources and costs. The management software package has many report formats for these proximity and tracking features

11. Schedule

in practical work, the project scale is often relatively large, and manual scheduling activities are extremely complex. The project management software package can provide extensive support for scheduling work, and it is generally automated. Most systems can make Gantt charts and network charts according to task and resource lists and all relevant information, and the schedule will automatically reflect any changes in these lists. In addition, users can schedule repetitive tasks, make scheduling priorities, make reverse scheduling (from the end to the first day), determine work shifts, schedule occupation time, schedule tasks, determine the latest start or early start time, and specify the date when tasks must start or end, or the earliest and latest date

12. Confidentiality

a relatively novel feature of project management software is security. Some systems have passwords for the project management package itself, a single project file, and basic information (such as wages) in the project file

13. sorting and filtering

with sorting, users can browse information in any order, such as high to low wage rates, alphabetical resource names or task names. Most programs have various sorting methods (for example, by first name, last name, etc.). The filtering function helps users select some resources that meet specific criteria. For example, some tasks need some specific resources. If users want to know the relevant information of these tasks, they just need to command the software program to ignore the tasks that do not use this kind of resources and only display the tasks that use this kind of resources

14. hypothesis analysis

a very practical feature of project management software is to conduct hypothesis analysis. User can