Fred, this is a great topic for discussion! And you're right-on about the
administrative overhead of PM software and its potential as a substitution for
thought.

Over the years, I've had a lot of "first contacts" with people seeking PM
workshops that go like this:
Prospect: "We need MS Project training."
Me: "What makes you think so?"
Prospect: "Our projects are all screwed up! We're always running over budget and
behind in our schedules. And people are frequently frustrated."
Me: "Hmmm... So let's think about this analogy: Your company's annual reports
are sloppy and hard-to-read and sometimes contain inaccurate projections. So
what you need is a good desktop publishing package maybe? To make them
prettier?"

The point: In the analogy, what is
needed is better research and writing
skills. THEN, when you get content that is trustworthy and worth publishing,
you make it pretty and well-organized as a final document by using desktop
publishing software.

PM software is similar to desktop publishing software in this regard: It is a
means of effectively (even beautifully!) organizing and displaying a project's
details: Allotted people and other resources, deliverables, time, milestones,
task relationships, and so on. In fact, I think the main two benefits of PM
software are:
* Selling the project (Wow! Look at all these charts & graphs! This looks like
they got our act together! I TRUST them!"
* Coordinating (communicating) key elements of the project by making their
relationships immediately comprehensible and easy to grasp.

The bad news, however, is this: PM software (and particularly outputs such as
lovely colored charts and graphs and detailed tables) has the ability to make
the most ill-conceived,
bone-headed project plans look great! People who would
otherwise argue your strategy if you presented them with rough notes on a flip
chart will simply accept what you tell them as well-designed strategy when its
depicted in a beautifully detailed chart and set of subtasks.

In my Project Management Basics class, we work in small teams to work though
exercises brainstorming project deliverables, project tasks, etc. The object of
the game is to create a "high resolution" project plan that everyone can
visualize and support.

Every once in a while, someone on one of these teams wants to "capture" their
teams' thoughts in MS Project during these exercises, so they whip out their
laptop. In contrast, the other teams in the room are using flip charts with
markers and yellow stickies, pasting stuff on the walls, etc. I've found that
the loose, free-wheeling nature of people working with flip charts, markers and
stickies stimulates creativity and encourages participation by everyone. In
short, this is "brainware" at work! This contrasts sharply with the PC-based
teams who are focusing on PM Software fields, document formatting, squinting to
see the screen, and figuring out how to get he ideas squeezed into a form that
the MS Project will accept.

My bottom line: When I plan a project, I don't crank up the PM software until
I've allowed the team time to argue, doodle, scribble, slop-up flip chart pages,
and paste stickies all over the place. Then I use the software to capture and
display the resulting best ideas. In this way we create a more meaningful
"shared vision" that everyone helped create and "owns."

One final thought: One of MS Project's strong points related to "doing the work"
is that you can easily create weekly schedules, sub-schedules targeting
particular team members, schedules focusing on only one deliverable, and so on.
On big, complex projects, this really helps me keep everyone "on the same page."
I have the master schedule (all tasks) and they have sub-schedules that focus
them on their specific tasks and hand-off points.

One FINAL final thought: If you want to learn to use MS Project, DON'T take a
class! Instead, get one of the $30 "MS Project: Step-by-Step..." books from
Microsoft Press. These are really quite well-designed, self-study training,
complete with disk-based exercises. And, unlike participating in a class full of
students, when you use the book you may go at your own pace and repeat or skip
modules as you see fit. It's the only training I ever had for MS Project before
I immediately went to work building a client's MS Project-based website! It's
good stuff!

Mike G.

Michael Greer
(530) 688-6613 [24 hr voice mail & fax]
Author of
The Project Manager's Partner and creator/presenter of on-site, customized PM
workshops. Visit Michael Greer's Project Management Resources
at http://www.michaelgreer.com for freebies and links. And visit
my fun blog, The Best Free Training, at http://www.bestfreetraining.net/





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