Choosing a tool to be used for project management is very critical as this has impact on smooth project execution and productivity. If careful analysis is not done while choosing a tool, a project team may suffer with following problems :
- Loss in productivity due to ambiguity or lack of instructions
- Problems in communication between various groups/stakeholders
- Problem in publishing targets/goals
At a high level choosing a tool is a three step process:
- Identify problem you want to solve with the tool
- Evaluate potential Tools available
- Identify Best Fit
Step 1 Identify Problem you want to solve with the tool
Following could be the reasons you are looking for a project management tool :
- Product Road map management : This requires:
- Keeping a list of features/ enhancements
- Ability to document requirement for each feature
- Ability to prioritize requirements and put them in development buckets
- Log defects and prioritize them
- Tasks for getting it done : This could involve
- Managing list of proof of concepts / research required to be done
- Doing competitor analysis
- Plans for items like
- Product release
- Testing
- Code Review
- User Acceptance testing
- Re factoring / Architectural improvements
- Integration with other tools
- Integration with source code management system
- Integration with build release process
- Integration with automated build and acceptance testing
- Integration with defect tracking system
- Integration with public interface for publishing product updates to end users
- Other Documentation :
- Decisions taken
- Design Guidelines
- Code Guidelines
- Technical documents
- Business documents
Following could be the key questions:
- Search : How easy and fast is to search for required information?
- Customization:
- Do I get the flexibility to categorize and view items based on my preferences?
- Can a add new fields /item types ?
- Prioritization :What is the ease of moving items up and down?
- Flexibility:
- How easily can I add an enhancement request and schedule it for development?
- Can i maintain a hierarchy /inter dependency between items?
- Usability:
- Do I have the visibility about the stage of development a particular feature is currently in?
- Can I have a report on open defects in my product ?
- Am I able to communicate requirement to development team efficiently?
- Is their a facility to document the comments/ discussions or queries about a feature requirement?
- Can different stakeholders customize the view to see information relevant to them?
- Are their email notification facility? Can a user update an item by sending email?
- Does it provide interface for bulk operations?
- Does it support import /export from outside source?
- How easy it is perform tasks like:
- update status
- re assign
- add comment
- change priority
- Availability : It the tool available as web interface?
- Performance : How fast can I search, add , edit?
Step 2 Evaluate potential Tools available
Once step one is done , you are clear about your objectives. You can create a comparative analysis of tools available with your specific objectives
Tool 1
|
Tool 2
|
Tool 3
|
|
Objective 1
|
5
|
6
|
8
|
Objective 2
|
8
|
3
|
10
|
Objective 3
|
9
|
7
|
5
|
Total
|
Step 3 Identify Best Fit
You can attach ratings to different objective and based on total rating decide a tool perfect for you.
