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SOFTWARE SELECTION 31

Start by holding workshops and brainstorming the desired PM processes. Re-
view your current methodology. Assess the adequacy of your current methods.
Consider the corporate culture and the system users. We can describe Processes
as the steps that employees follow to accomplish a result. Culture is defined as
their attitudes and behavior. Naturally, both must be considered.

Identify the project stakeholders and get them involved in the process. Project
stakeholders may include The Project Manager, The Functional Managers, The
Project Sponsor, Top Management, The Doers, The Client, and Regulatory
Agencies. Don’t forget the staff functions, such as Finance, Training, Systems,
and Personnel.

Ask the team: What do you manage? What are project sizes, data volume, up-
date frequency? Who are the system users? What is your computer environment?
Is this environment changing?

All of this should lead to the determination and documentation of your pre-
ferred PM process. Now you can move on to determining your PM software
needs and developing the selection criteria.

Software Selection

I think that I have seen just about every possible approach toward software selec-
tion. I have seen teams of more than 50 people formed and spend 2 years in a
structured selection process. A selection specification was developed that would
dwarf the typical phone book. Vendors were called in for presentations. Shortlist
products were tested. Selection candidates were approved by several levels of
management. Perhaps a bit of overkill?

On the other extreme, I have seen PM software selected by the edict of a sin-
gle 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 ex-
tensive selection specification, and then reject the lot of them in favor of
developing an in-house tool. 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 mission. The firm’s mission is not “to develop project manage-
ment 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. Nevertheless, I can prescribe a
middle-of-the-road solution.