Project integration management ensures success towards a project by coordinating all elements of a project at the right time, throughout the lifecycle of a project. One of the biggest tools to help in project integration management is various types of software. Using software like email and web to assist in communication, which is one of the main goals of agile project management, is not the only use of software in project integration management. Software tools can also help create documents and presentations through word processing and presentation software. Not only so, but this increase in addition of collaborative features make them even more valuable in project integration management. Additionally, software tools can aid in monitoring and controlling project activities by providing charts/dashboards to show the overall structure of the project and its progress. Although project management software tools can provide a tremendous amount of support for teams within an organization, there are certain aspects of its functionality that help to ensure the effectiveness of the tools. Some of these functionalities include having a task list that is able to assign and update status of tasks to limit confusion. Another important feature is some kind of a schedule, such as a Gantt chart or calendar that helps understand the role of each task into the overall project and how much time there is to complete each, based on the project time limit. It is also important to have a file sharing feature so members of a team can easily find and organize important documents. And lastly, it is crucial to have an easy mode of communication and way of reporting updates. Again, this not only helps the team members have an easier time communicating and collaborating but also helps the project managers see the progress of the project and updates on how the tasks are being completed.
The project management textbook discusses an example of such portfolio management software called ProjectManager. This software offers various features such as planning, budgeting, time, task and document managing projects to ensure the most effective communication and collaboration. One of the key functionality that this software offers is an automatically updated Gantt chart.
Users are also able to customize and create different dashboards with various metrics to monitor and examine the project/team performance.
And lastly, this software also allows project managers to keep track of everyone’s progress on specific tasks of the project, to ensure the team is on the right path.
Another powerful project management software that is simple and effective is MeisterTask. This has a wide range of capabilities and features, some of which are similar to ProjectManager, however a key feature of this software tools is its one of a kind agenda. This agenda acts like a personal board for each user, where they can organize their own tasks using a clear visual design layout.
Additionally, MeisterTask contains helpful features such as automations, which helps users save time by repeating steps in their tasks management workflow so they can stay consistent. Along with creating tasks, MeisterTask also helps automate updating the task status. So when users move a task to “done”, the status of the tasks automatically changes to “completed”. Another automation feature embedded in this tool is updating due dates for users. Users can set the due dates of any task that gets put in a certain section, to a given number of days. Likewise, another automation feature allows users to create a section for tasks that are taking longer than expected to be put into an “on hold” section and then automates the removal of due dates for the tasks within that section. This way, users don’t have to worry about seeing warnings for those on hold tasks in their agenda along with other ongoing tasks, making it an overall less stressful experience for the users. This software tool also contains a time tracking feature that starts tracking a user's time onces they pull a task to “in progress” mode. The tracker stops when that task is moved over to “done”. This way, users don’t need to remember to start and stop the timer themselves, which saves time, helps the users to organize their time better and thus improves the efficiency of the workflow of the project.
Another popular project management software used by project management teams is called Basecamp. Some key features of this software include a designated discussion board where users can easily make comments.
This tool also sends out daily emails on the project recap, statuses and updates. Nonetheless, Basecamp does have some limitations. Unlike MeisterTask, Basecamp does not allow customization of options, assigning tasks to multiple users and the ability to add estimated duration for different tasks. To compare further, although MeisterTask does include some key automation features that Basecamp does not, it does not contain that focus on collaboration like Basecamp and ProjectManager, in terms of software features. ProjectManager, although is very simple and easy to use, MeisterTask and Basecamp does have a better visual design layout. Therefore, it’s understandable to say that all three of these tools are effective in their own way in helping bring effective communication, collaboration and project management into project integration management.
Another very crucial advancement in software that has had a large impact on project integration management software tools is cloud computing. This technology utilizes the internet for storing and managing data on remote servers, that is then able to be accessed anywhere by the internet. The use of cloud computing has been vastly increasing as users are beginning to store files using this technology. Examples of cloud storage include Google Drive, DropBox and Microsoft OneDrive. When users store their information using any one of these cloud storage tools, they can easily access that information using not only computers but also tablets and smartphones. This transfers how, where and when people work. It does so by allowing users to easily login to their account and access their files from any location, at any time. Cloud computing’s role in project management goes on to help coordinate collaboration, planning, monitoring and delivering a project with the use of cloud storage that can be utilized by members of a team to work with a network of tools, rather than paper and pencil.
In conclusion, software as a whole has assisted in making project integration management more effective in coordinating all elements of a project come together at the right time to ensure a project gets completed at the right time, by providing helpful tools in managing the project tasks easier for not only the team members but also the project managers and allowing for there to be an organized platform(s) where team members can maintain and track their progress and be able to see the evolution of the project.
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Holtman, A. (n.d.). How The Cloud Is Enabling Smarter Project Management—Part 4 of 5. viewpoint.com. https://www.viewpoint.com/blog/how-the-cloud-is-enabling-smarter-project-management-part-4-of-5
How it works. (n.d.). basecamp.com. https://basecamp.com/how-it-works
Parson, C. (n.d.). What Can MeisterTask’s Automations Do for You? meistertask.com. https://www.meistertask.com/blog/what-can-meistertasks-automations-do-for-you/