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This is also very true of old school tools like Microsoft Project. The overhead for entire teams to learn to use the charting and other features is too much.

This is also very true of old school tools like Microsoft Project. The overhead for entire teams to learn to use the charting and other features is too much. My experience has been that a spreadsheet containing all the tasks, issues and risks, with owners and dependencies identified is usually enough. Then it's all about the actual discipline of discussing them, saying "No" to lots of things, telling people when you're waiting on things for them, and focusing on the tasks at hand. Execs frequently get too hung up on the tools themselves. I cringe every time I see MS Project as a requirement for a Project Manager. It tell me that either someone from HR wrote the requisition, or that the project is in trouble.

cml 13y ago
>a spreadsheet containing all the tasks, issues and risks, with owners and dependencies identified is usually enough. >telling people when you're waiting on things from them I'm working on something a lot like this right now that does all the coordination by e-mail. I would be grateful if you dropped me a line so I can get your feedback when it's up and running. E-mail is in my profile!
- mathattack 13y ago
  I'm happy to look at what you're doing, since I've spent a lot of time recreating this wheel. Unfortunately I don't see the email address in your profile.
  - cml 13y ago
    Oops: cmlaidlaw@gmail.com Thanks!
    - mathattack 13y ago
      Sent!
dragonwriter 13y ago
> My experience has been that a spreadsheet containing all the tasks, issues and risks, with owners and dependencies identified is usually enough. My experience is that it usually seems at first to be enough, and then at some point you have too much information that needs to go in one cell, and then cell-size limits bite you... It may be that there are lots of bad project management tools out there and a simple Excel spreadsheet is better than many of those, but its still not a good tool for the use. OTOH, I would agree that that the real meat of project management is "the actual discipline of discussing them, saying 'No' to lots of things, telling people when you're waiting on things for them, and focusing on the tasks at hand" and that often too much focus is on tools.
- mathattack 13y ago
  Yes - that's my point. An imperfect tool used by a team that's universally following a "good enough" process is much better than striving for perfection in either the tool or the process. I've spent time in organizations that strive for perfection in either the project management tool ("Well, let's just tweak the Access database some more.") or the process ("We need to report on 50 metrics daily.") and wind up much worse for wear. I haven't found the cell limit size to be a problem. Perhaps because I don't use Excel as a substitute for requirements document. I just it to keep track of things, and a couple lines is usually enough.

cml 13y ago

>a spreadsheet containing all the tasks, issues and risks, with owners and dependencies identified is usually enough. >telling people when you're waiting on things from them I'm working on something a lot like this right now that does all the coordination by e-mail. I would be grateful if you dropped me a line so I can get your feedback when it's up and running. E-mail is in my profile!

mathattack 13y ago
I'm happy to look at what you're doing, since I've spent a lot of time recreating this wheel. Unfortunately I don't see the email address in your profile.
- cml 13y ago
  Oops: cmlaidlaw@gmail.com Thanks!
  - mathattack 13y ago
    Sent!

dragonwriter 13y ago

> My experience has been that a spreadsheet containing all the tasks, issues and risks, with owners and dependencies identified is usually enough. My experience is that it usually seems at first to be enough, and then at some point you have too much information that needs to go in one cell, and then cell-size limits bite you... It may be that there are lots of bad project management tools out there and a simple Excel spreadsheet is better than many of those, but its still not a good tool for the use. OTOH, I would agree that that the real meat of project management is "the actual discipline of discussing them, saying 'No' to lots of things, telling people when you're waiting on things for them, and focusing on the tasks at hand" and that often too much focus is on tools.

mathattack 13y ago
Yes - that's my point. An imperfect tool used by a team that's universally following a "good enough" process is much better than striving for perfection in either the tool or the process. I've spent time in organizations that strive for perfection in either the project management tool ("Well, let's just tweak the Access database some more.") or the process ("We need to report on 50 metrics daily.") and wind up much worse for wear. I haven't found the cell limit size to be a problem. Perhaps because I don't use Excel as a substitute for requirements document. I just it to keep track of things, and a couple lines is usually enough.