Project management involves breaking down of entire project into several task and subtask and monitoring progress to ensure completion in time and budget. In the Planning Stage, firstly the activities are listed down in initial level, called Level 1 (L1). A rough period is defined and only the major milestones are defined. With respect to the Level 1 Milestones, further levels are defined. And the number of levels depends on the size and quantity of the project.

In Planning, those levels are called WBS – work breakdown structure. And the final level of the WBS is the activity. Completion of the defined activities under the last WBS root will lead to the completion of the WBS on subsequent higher levels.

There are several software and tools available to plan and monitor project but more than 90% of them fails to provide an optimal true enterprise solution. Let us see some of the major players and where it requires an alternate solution to support the business.

While doing this write-up, we have got big regards to all the names mentioned below and some of them have helped us to grown in the field of project management. This study is to show how TIEMCHART has position itself in supporting business and where we can be of help!

SAP

SAP is widely used ERP system by most of the large organization. But when it comes to project planning, there seem to be added tools like MS Project etc to enhance its features. The reason being SAP is a great ERP tool where all the function and divisions of the enterprises are integrated but when it comes to project planning and resource assignment, it lacks simplicity and in some regard does not support.

Let us see some of these areas that SAP does not support

Gantt chart – SAP does not provide elaborate Gantt chart features and is not the best user-friendly platform.

Resource engagement and monitoring – There is no standard report to show availability of resources and assignments. There are better tools that do this job more efficiently and effectively

No relation between MM module and PS Module – While project procurement is ordered via MM module and project is handled in PS module. There is no relation as if any activity is completed, it triggers into MM Module to state where invoices can be accounted for such completion.

Complex to handle – SAP lack simplicity and does involve a lot of practice before a user gets used to the system. Most of the company using SAP does end up in using other tools for project planning

Having said that SAP has got detailed financial monitoring and month end tool such as revenue recognition etc. which no other similar platform provides

MS PROJECT, PRIMAVERA, JIRA

MS Project, Primavera is another widely used tool for project planning. They carry some of the biggest features of project planning and scheduling that no other software can touch their depth. Now let us see some of the features they lack in providing to the industry

Theory of weight: Each WBS may carry certain weights to the overall project. Most of the software seems to be missing the theory of weights

Progress % update: They follow tradition method of updating Gantt chart where the user drags the bar in the chart or edit in % completion field. Using this approach, task update is manually driven by the user. This is a great simple tool. But if you are the project owner, you would like to know what validates that percentage completion? Large project requires project task against certain validation.

Monthly Progress plan v/s actual: Using these tools you cannot build monthly progress of plan vs actual. There is cumulative comparison report but a month on month comparison reports are missing.

Financial progress: Both the tool fails to address financial progress in details if you are the project owner. For project owner, the cost is what vendor bills you and not what is actually incurred in the project (cost to the vendor).  But such tool will only support a scenario where you are the project contractor and not project owner.

OTHER ONLINE PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

There are a lot of online project management software such as Basecamp, Asana, Wrike etc. who are either providing team management, task management or resource management. They are not really a project management software when it comes to project planning and decision making tools such as earliest start, latest start, critical path, resource leveling etc together with the good financial progress of the project.

They are a great tool for small-scale project and for individuals. But when it comes to large complex projects; an alternate solution might be required. While selecting such software, it is down to the business which tool really solves their problem.

ALTERNATE ENTERPRISE SOLUTION TO PROJECT MONITORING

TIEMCHART is web-based enterprise project management software for managing projects, processes and resources. It is a comprehensive platform to view and manage all ongoing projects, streamline resources and track down a task that might be causing delays in the project.

Detailed project estimates and costing: With TIEMCHART, you can easily create project estimates on human and material resources and also on other overhead costs.