Allegedly, the first software suport tool for
project management was developed by
Datasaab for their computer
D21[?] in the early
1960s. It was tailored to support the
PERT model. Nowadays project planning software is widely used and abused.
- Few packages are built around a sound project management method. What is even worse, e.g. MS Project encourages counterprodutive behavior by inexperienced project managers by offering as the default start-up view the Gantt chart. This encourages too early focus on task identification and scheduling vs. proper formulation of project objectives[?] and final deliverables[?]. So, such packages implicitly force upon an unsuspecting user an unsound project management process.
- To make things worse, many packages offer advanced visual formatting capabilities, which make it possible to produce nicely-looking but completely nonsense documents.
- Many packages also offer e-mail integration, which encourages automatic assignment of tasks and due dates. This universally leads to counterproductive, date-driven behavior (see: critical chain) and may contribute to improper setting of team members' performance expectations[?].
- Eric Uyttewaal. Dynamic Scheduling With Microsoft(r) Project 2000: The Book By and For Professionals. ISBN 0970827601
- George Suhanic. Computer-Aided Project Management. ISBN 0195115910
- Richard E. Westney. Computerized Management of Multiple Small Projects. ISBN 0824786459