Just like any other profession, Project Managers have tools of the trade. Here are some suggestions and ideas of what to put in your ‘toolbox’ and how these tools can be applied:
Project Planning Tools
Creating the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), a hierarchical representation of the breakdown of project deliverables, is the core item in project planning. Tools that can be used to develop the WBS include:
- Spreadsheet software
- Gantt Chart software
- Mind Mapping Software (this one is a favourite of mine for this purpose, particularly if you can then export your results to a Gantt chart format)
- Flow chart software
- Presentation software
Project task planning and tracking
This one really depends on skill and expertise of the Project Manager with various software tools, however the recommended tools for this one are:
- Gantt chart software (highly recommended, however the Project Manager really needs to have some proficiency with this – but then again – there’s really only one way to learn!)
- Spreadsheet software (if you don’t know or don’t have time to learn about Gantt chart software)
Project Documents
Documents such as the project charter, project mandate, project brief or project initiation document are best presented in the standard text based document type format. So the recommended tool here would be:
- Word processing software
Project Reporting
Project progress reporting is really important but you really need to think through how you present this one. Given that you will need to regenerate a similar document many times over the course of the project. Tools that can be used to develop the progress report include:
- Spreadsheet software
- Word processing software
Issue/Risk/Deliverable Management
This area is about logs – issue logs, risk logs, quality/deliverable logs. Suggested tools for this area include:
- Spreadsheet software
- Database software
- Specific software for issue management
