SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS

BY
1731021
MUTHU KIRTHAN K
INTRODUCTION

 Every business move is all about either increasing market share or improving productivity.
 Increase in market share brings more revenue, and increase in productivity reduces costs.
 Depending on the situation, the degree of emphasis on either of the two may vary.
 Top level growth of any organization is determined by its ability to innovate its products and services and enhance
quality.
 Bottom level cost improvement is achieved by continuously increasing productivity.
 There are many ways in which this bottom line productivity can be improved.
NEED FOR TOOLS

 Tools, in any form, are used by human beings to increase their productivity.
 For instance, a software developer can write his code on a plain text editor.
 His productivity can be increased if the text editor integrates with the compiler as he will now have a single interface to
work with instead of two interfaces on two separate applications.
 If he is provided with a smart debugging facility that can provide detailed information about why and where his code is
failing, he can quickly fix his code.
 This will save a lot of time in debugging and thus increase his productivity.
 Modern software projects use a lot of tools in all areas of the project, including project management, product life-cycle
management, etc.
 In software projects, tools are not only used for increasing productivity but they are also used for improving product quality
COMPATIBILITY WITH ENVIRONMENT

 Most project managers and their teams keep evaluating the latest tools in the market that promise to increase
productivity.
 If a tool, however good it may be, does not fit properly in the environment in which it has to be used, it is of no
use to the project team.
 For instance, a remarkably good database access management tool may not serve much purpose if the team has
only limited work to do with databases.
 Instead, the team should invest in tools that will be used extensively on the project.
COST OF TOOL

• Some tools may be too expensive to afford.

• But if its cost of use per seat is good compared to some other tools, it can be a viable option.
• For instance, there are two tools in the market that seem to be equally good.
• The price of one tool is $400 (server license) plus $15 per seat.
• The price of the other tool is $1000 (server license) plus $10 per seat
• If you feel that the second tool is more compatible to your needs, buying it would be a better decision
than buying the first one.
DATA INTEGRATION AMONG TOOLS

• When you decide to buy a tool, remember your existing configuration and find out if the new tool
can be integrated with your existing tools.
• If the new tool cannot be integrated, or it is too difficult to integrate it with the existing tools, it is
simply not worth it. Seamless integration of new tools with existing tools is a must.
EXISTING SKILLS ON TOOLS

 Providing training to the project team on a new tool is expensive

 If many team members already have good skills on a particular tool, that tool should be used on the project even if
the tool is costlier than other tools.
 In this way, the cost of training on learning new tools can be saved.
TOOL OBSOLESCENCE

 Like many commodities, tools also have a shelf life.

 If you are going to buy a tool, make sure that it is mature and it is not at a stage in its life when it may see its
demise soon.
 Check with the tool vendors how they provide support for their discontinued products.
 SCALE OF OPERATION

 Some projects are long term in nature. Sometimes they also grow in size over time.
 So it can happen that a project has 10 people at the start of the project grows to more than hundred 3 years down
the line.
 When you invest in a tool, ensure that it can support your team even if the team size grows.