Project Management Software Selection Criteria

Introduction

The market for project management software is confusing and it is difficult to find a suitable product. The most prominent and most aggressively marketed solutions often offer fewer features than you need in the medium term, and replacing an already-adopted tool can be time-consuming.

The search is further complicated by the fact that even simple task management software is marketed as project management software or project management software, even though essential capabilities for that are missing. This is explained in more detail in this post on the difference between project management and task management software.

General Selection Criteria

Deployment

For many users it is important to know where their data resides and whether a product can be self-hosted (on premises). We have evaluated this under this criterion.

Project Templates and Project Types

In larger organizations there are often groups of similar projects that differ greatly from the projects of other groups — for example, development projects and marketing projects. It is a great help if you can configure and manage such groups (“project types”) as a whole. It is also helpful if you can create a new project from a project template. The difference between a project template and a project type is mainly that a template can already contain tasks. A project type, on the other hand, allows you to retroactively and centrally modify all projects of that type — for example, to assign new workflows.

Tasks and Task Types

Tasks (“issues,” “tickets,” “tasks,” etc.) should be assignable to a task type, which in turn can be given specific properties and behavior. For example, the statuses that a customer complaint goes through must be different from those for a planned project task. It is important that custom task types can be defined.

Task Structuring with Hierarchies

For proper project management it must be possible to nest tasks to any depth. For simple task management, one sub-level is sufficient — or you can manage without sub-tasks at all. A work breakdown structure (WBS) or a project structure plan requires full hierarchical structuring capabilities.

Notifications

The standard today is notification by email and by push messages within the application itself. A “mention” function via @name is also now a given in almost every project management software. The more powerful systems offer precise control mechanisms for who is notified, when, and how.

Access Permissions

There is a wide spectrum of implementations, ranging from predefined user levels and fixed roles with fixed assigned permissions to configurable roles with freely assignable permissions. The best systems allow role-based access control down to individual attributes.

Attributes

As soon as you want to do more than personal project management or simple task management, it must be possible to assign custom attributes to tasks depending on the task type — such as option fields or custom date fields. The range of attribute types and the configuration options can differ considerably.

Input Forms

The input forms for task data are fixed in simpler products. When you add custom attributes, they are appended somewhere at the bottom of the input form. The more powerful systems allow flexible design of input forms.

Dependencies

In project management and task management alike, tasks are often related to one another. For example, a task cannot be started before another is completed. Or a task cannot be closed before a dependent task has been finished. The more powerful systems allow the definition of custom link types.

Dashboards

An overview page is now standard in almost every project management software. The systems differ primarily in the number of views available and their configurability.

Reporting

Reports should be based on templates that can also be customized by non-technical users. Reports should be available in the standard formats PDF, Excel, Word, and HTML.

User Management

User management should be able to work with existing directory servers (LDAP, AD). The application should be able to act as a service provider for single sign-on systems.

Interfaces and Extensibility

You can expect today that a task management system or project management software provides a well-equipped REST interface. Through this it should be possible to manage users and projects as well as run queries.

Criteria for Task Management

Delegation

Task management software should support the delegation of tasks, including follow-up. The delegating party should be able to retain their relationship to the task and set a personal follow-up date. The delegating party should also be able to access an overview of the tasks they have delegated.

Deputy Function

It should be possible to assign a deputy to each user. The deputy can then assume the rights of the original user in the event of vacation or illness and act on their behalf. It remains clear who actually triggered an action.

Recurring Tasks

Some tasks and appointments repeat cyclically — for example, every first Monday of the month. Handling such recurring task series can be helpful and time-saving in task management.

Time Tracking

The project management software should allow you to track the effort (time and money) for each task and assign it to accounts. Accounts can be grouped into cost centers and released for projects.

There should be the option to use timers within the application to automatically log time spent. Reports provide an overview of who was working on which activities during any past period.

Support for the Getting Things Done Method

The Getting Things Done method is a proven approach to personal work organization and a must for any serious task management software. It allows the personal categorization of tasks — such as personal follow-up dates or personally marking tasks as favorites.

Support for the RACI Matrix

For task management and project management, the RACI method defines four task-specific roles through which project participants can be related to a task. Normally, roles are assigned for a project as a whole, not for individual tasks — so there is, for example, a project manager or a Scrum Master for the entire project. RACI allows roles to be assigned on a per-task basis instead.

Workflows

Workflows in task management systems are typically represented in two forms. The first method always refers to the workflow of a task that passes through various stages. The second method involves defining sets of tasks and then working through them.

Criteria for Project Management

Programs and Portfolios

In many organizations, projects run within programs, portfolios, or product areas. Groups of projects must be able to be combined here in order to maintain an overview.

A basic prerequisite for program or portfolio management is the ability to group and hierarchically arrange projects.

Sub-projects

Larger project endeavors with many tasks cannot be adequately structured through task hierarchies alone — they must be split into sub-projects. The sub-projects may require different processes, for example for hardware and software development.

Multi-Project Reports

In multi-project-capable project management software, all queries and reports should be able to span multiple projects and sub-projects, which can be freely defined using appropriate filters.

Work Breakdown Structure

Before a project plan can be created, the activities to be performed or the work results to be produced must be structured. To represent such a product structure or work breakdown structure (WBS), tasks must be able to be arranged hierarchically to any depth.

Interactive Gantt Chart

Gantt charts can be used to define and display the timeline of project activities as well as predecessor-successor relationships. Project management software covers a wide spectrum of implementations, from a simple timeline without dependency definitions to a full-featured Gantt chart with a baseline and critical path display.

Resource Planning

Resources of various types can be managed and assigned to tasks. There is a view in which resource utilization over time is displayed and over- or under-utilization immediately becomes visible. Resources can be sorted by project or department.

Employee Availability

It should be possible to map employee availability in the system and take it into account during resource planning.

Project Progress

Project progress should be visualized and displayable in summary form — for example, with progress bars in the Gantt chart or in a traffic-light diagram.

Agile Project Management

For software developers, integrations with source code management systems such as Git and Subversion as well as with CI/CD servers such as Gitlab and Jenkins are required.

On this blog you will also find an example comparison of two products (Jira vs Allegra).

Form your own impression of the comprehensive project management software Allegra and book a free live demo.