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TEAMFLY310 APPROACH TO PM SOFTWARE SELECTION

tested. Selection candidates were approved by several levels of management. Per-
haps a bit of overkill?

But is the other extreme any better? Should PM software be selected by
the edict of a single individual, based on something that he had read, without
any knowledge of the product or the application? I guess that I’d rather have
the overkill.

I have seen a selection team review dozens of candidates, against an extensive
selection specification, and then reject the lot of them in favor of developing an
in-house tool. This is not something that I would recommend. The firm’s talents
can be better put to use for other tasks that would contribute to the firm’s mis-
sion. The firm’s mission is not “to develop project management tools.”

Again, on the other extreme, I have seen the selection process completely
short-circuited when a complimentary copy of Microsoft Project mysteriously ap-
peared on a desk. “Why bother looking at anything else” was the result.

I cannot recommend any of these approaches. But there is a middle-of-the-
road solution that I can prescribe.

A Simplified and Balanced Approach to PM Software Selection

The selection of project management software should be a team effort. Normally,
the team would consist of from three to six key players, relying on contributions
from all stakeholders. The team needn’t find consensus among all the stakehold-
ers. But their inputs should be sought and valued, and they should be made to
know that their inputs count.

Trap It is a basic tenet of human behavior to wish to be in-
cluded in decisions that affect you. It is usually very difficult to
include all such stakeholders in the entire decision process,
and it is virtually impossible to satisfy the desires of all the
stakeholders. But it is also a general behavioral response that,
if contacted and included in the discussions that lead to the
decisions, these individuals would be more likely to accept the
eventual decision.

Furthermore, this same human behaviorism tends to make
people oppose and reject decisions that were made without
their inputs or consideration. Therefore, to avoid unnecessary
opposition to your PM software selection decisions, you should
openly seek wide discussion and communication of the process.