Project Management and Information Technology

This document discusses the field of project management and information technology, with a focus on cost management. It provides an overview of available software solutions for cost management and evaluates three selected softwares based on criteria such as functionality, cost, and usability. The results show that FunctionFox is the most suitable software for cost management. Recommendations for project managers are also provided.

Running Head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
EPM5700 Project Management and Information Technology
Name of the Student
Name of the University

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................2
Aims of the Investigation.................................................................................................................2
Introduction of the Topic.................................................................................................................3
Significance of the Investigation.....................................................................................................3
Listing and Description of Available Softwares..............................................................................4
Software Selection for Evaluation...................................................................................................5
Critical Review of Three Selected Softwares..................................................................................7
Criteria for Evaluation.....................................................................................................................7
Weighting for Each Criteria.............................................................................................................8
Evaluation Matrix............................................................................................................................8
Justification for the Weighting Criteria for Each Software.............................................................9
Discussion of Results.......................................................................................................................9
Discussion of Problems and Pitfalls..............................................................................................10
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Executive Summary
Project Management is a field that deals with the management and control of a set of
events connected together in order to achieve one particular goal. However, project management
is not just simple straightforward management of set of activities. Rather, it is management of a
number of various domains and aspects that are related to the project for achieving one common
goal. Some of these domains include schedule management, cost management, scope
management, stakeholder management, risk management, quality management and others. Each
of the domains involve detailed planning, management and execution in order to ensure the
success of the overall project. For this particular assignment, the domain selected is cost
management. Cost management is the financial aspect of a project in which the expenses in the
project are managed and controlled for preventing budget overshoot. For the convenience of the
project managers, there are now various software solutions available in the market for accurately
developing cost plan and also manage the costs throughout the course of the project.
Aims of the Investigation
The primary aim of the investigation is to identify some cost management softwares that
are applicable in the field of project management and identify the best one by comparing some of
the selected softwares. It is important to identify the best possible softwares in terms of the cost,
functionalities and applicability in the field of project management (Pedreira et al. 2015). There
are currently a large number of cost management softwares available in the market but not all of
them are sufficiently suitable and cost effective. Hence, this investigation aims to identify the
most suitable and effective cost management software for project management domain.

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Introduction of the Topic
Cost management is the financial aspect of a project in which the expenses in the project
are managed and controlled for preventing budget overshoot. For the convenience of the project
managers, there are now various software solutions available in the market for accurately
developing cost plan and also manage the costs throughout the course of the project. Cost
management of a project can also be performed manually but that process is extremely time
consuming and erroneous and as a result, manual cost estimation and management process is not
applied in medium to large scale complex projects that have a large number of cost elements
associated (Calderón and Ruiz 2015). Once computing became widespread, Microsoft Excel
software provided a temporary solution for error-free cost estimation and management purpose
but even that is also now not usable for large scale projects as it fails to perform some complex
calculations of cost that have multiple elements to them. Moreover, even Microsoft Excel
software required some manual handling and setting formula that was again time consuming
(Hoda et al. 2017). With time, several new softwares have been developed that are specifically
focussed on effective cost management process. However, not all softwares provide all the
necessary functionalities required for the project and also some are very expensive compared to
the others.
Significance of the Investigation
Project managers are constantly trying to find best possible solutions for various aspects
of the project so that the work requirements in that aspects can be performed with less time and
preferably zero errors. This includes domains involving quantitative approach like cost
management, schedule management and others. Of these approaches, cost management is

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probably the most important since budget overruns can cause significant losses for the company
undertaking the project. Hence, the project manager always need to be aware of the expenses and
the costs involved in the project and also must ensure the team members are not overspending in
the project. In order to prevent overspending, one recommended approach is to allocate a specific
amount of the funds to each of the activities (that are specified in work breakdown structure) and
form a policy that any increase in spending in a particular activity will require evaluation and
approval from the project manager (Berssaneti and Carvalho 2015). However, keeping track of
all the costs individually is a difficult task for a project manager especially if the project is of a
large scale. This research provides solution for selecting an effective and useful cost
management software that can assist the project managers to manage the cost aspects of the
project.
Listing and Description of Available Softwares
Some of the common cost management softwares available are listed and described as
follows.
Software Description Price
ProofHub Multipurpose project management
software with multiple
functionalities
$45/month
Wrike Mostly provides simplified project
management solutions
$34.60/month
Monday.com Mostly focussed on cost
management and business sales
$118/month

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data
Basecamp Project management and team
communication software
$99/month
FunctionFox Useful project management
software for timesheets and cost
management
$15 per month per user
LiquidPlanner Smart project schedules, real time
project data and status updates
$69/month
Clarizen Cloud based simple project
management tool
Price based on requirements
Smartsheet Basic work execution planning
platform
Price based on requirements
Quire Mainly focusses on to-do lists and
project goals
Price based on requirements
Zoho Projects Online project management
application software, popular in
academic sector
$125/month
Software Selection for Evaluation
Considering the nature and functionalities of the softwares listed above and the domain
selected for this study, some are eliminated like Zoho Projects that mainly has academic
application. The selected softwares for evaluation are as follows along with brief description of
their functionalities.

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Monday.com – Monday.com is a very effective project management software that helps
the project managers to perform various tasks in a very organised manner. It is very much
effective for cost management purposes as it is able to organise all the cost elements associated
with the project and helps the project manager to manage the cost elements effectively to
develop the budget of the project. However, although this software is very popular among giants
like Discovery, Carlsberg, McDonalds, Fiverr and others, the package is very expensive
compared to other similar softwares, billed at $118/month.
FunctionFox – FunctionFox is a project management software that has primary focus on
cost and budget management of a project. The software provides customizable dashboards and
helps the project manager to compare various types of data including sales data, estimated data,
actual values and others. Moreover, the software generates interactive charts for various cost
projects and also help to track various aspects of project like costs, schedule and others from the
start till the end. The software is relatively cheap at $15 per month for one user.
ProofHub – ProofHub is one of the very few project management softwares available in
the market that has integrated multiple features for the purpose of project management. While
most softwares provide specific focus on one particular domain of project management, this
particular software provide multiple functionalities that can benefit the project managers during
the planning and execution of a project. Cost management is one of its features and it is very fast,
reliable and simple to understand. Moreover, this software comes at an affordable price of
$45/month.

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Critical Review of Three Selected Softwares
All three softwares discussed above are suitable for cost management operations and
processes in the project. However, the softwares differ in various aspects like functionalities,
cost, features and others. For instance, Monday.com provides some important functionalities but
is very expensive considering the nature of services and features provided by the software. On
the other hand, ProofHub is a software that focusses on multiple domains of the project manager
rather than once or two specific domains. As a result, in spite of having multiple functionalities,
the software is often very complex to use and difficult to handle the functionalities properly.
FunctionFox on the other hand provides multiple services but has been specifically build for cost
management purposes. Various functionalities are provided by the software and also it is very
cheap considering the prices of other softwares. However, one drawback is that the subscription
price is for one user only; for two or more project management stakeholders in an organisation,
multiple copies of the software needs to be purchased.
Criteria for Evaluation
The main criteria for evaluation of the softwares are as follows.
Function – The primary criterion considered in this case is the functionality provided by
the software. The main focus of this study is cost management and not the entire project
management domain and hence, the search has been narrowed down to the softwares that
provide emphasis on the project management aspect of the project (Conforto and Amaral 2016).
For cost management purpose, it is required to find the software that provides cost management
solutions in a simple manner that is easy to understand and operate for the project manager.

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Cost – Cost is one of the most vital criterion for the selection of software for a purpose.
Various organisations do not want to use a software that is very much expensive and takes out a
significant amount of money for providing services (Munir, Wnuk and Runeson 2016). Again,
there are softwares that have limited functionalities but are very expensive compared to other
similar softwares.
Usability – The final main criterion for the evaluation process conducted here is the
usability factor. Many softwares provide a large number of services but are not usable for most
of the users due to complex interface, functionalities and features (Stol, Ralph and Fitzgerald
2016). Often it takes months to understand the full functionalities of the software whereas some
softwares follow simplified approach with a convenient interface and easy to understand
features.
Weighting for Each Criteria
The weighting for each criterion are as follows.
Criterion Weightage
Function 40%
Cost 30%
Usability 30%
Evaluation Matrix
The evaluation matrix for the three chosen softwares are as follows (Rating Scale is 1 to
5, 1 being not suitable, 5 being most suitable and so on).

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Function (0.4) Cost (0.3) Usability (0.3) Total Rating
Monday.com 3 1 4 2.7
FunctionFox 3 5 5 4.2
ProofHub 5 3 4 4.1
Justification for the Weighting Criteria for Each Software
In this study, the focus is only on the cost management aspect of the software and hence,
the weightage has been set for each of the softwares that are beneficial for project managers
during managing project costs. Project cost management is a domain that has the highest chances
of having errors that can lead to massive cost and budget overruns. Hence, it is important to set
weightage criteria for the softwares that suit the requirements of the project management work.
In this case, the function is given the highest weightage of 40% since for project
managers, performing the cost management process without errors is the first main priority.
Other criteria like usability and cost are set at a bit lower but equal weightages of 30% since they
both are equally important in determining the applicability of the software but have less priority
than the function of the software.
Discussion of Results
The results of the evaluation table show that the highest rating is for FunctionFox at 4.2
whereas ProofHub is very close at 4.1. On the other hand, Monday.com is rated much lower at
2.7. The results show that the main drawback of Monday.com is the cost that has significantly

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reduced its rating in spite of having good usability rating. On the other hand, FunctionFox scores
maximum at both cost and usability that have driven it towards the best rating among the three.
Discussion of Problems and Pitfalls
In spite of the good rating for FunctionFox resulting in it being selected as the most
preferable software for cost management, there are a number of problems and pitfalls that are
discussed as follows.
Single User Policy – Since the software is only provided on a single user basis, it is not
possible for multiple users to use the same software version from multiple systems i.e. the
company needs to buy multiple copies of the software from the vendors and thus, integration
becomes very difficult.
Limited Functions – In spite of very efficient in terms of project cost management,
FunctionFox lacks sufficient functionality thus some competitors may get ahead of it by
providing a better range of services.
Recommendations
For the project managers, the following recommendations can be suggested.
 While selecting the software, the project manager must check all the
functionalities of the software before purchasing.
 The project manager must check whether he is able to understand all the features
of the software before purchasing.

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 While purchasing, the project manager must ensure he is purchasing a fully
licensed version of the software.

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References
Berssaneti, F.T. and Carvalho, M.M., 2015. Identification of variables that impact project
success in Brazilian companies. International Journal of Project Management, 33(3), pp.638-
649.
Calderón, A. and Ruiz, M., 2015. A systematic literature review on serious games evaluation: An
application to software project management. Computers & Education, 87, pp.396-422.
Conforto, E.C. and Amaral, D.C., 2016. Agile project management and stage-gate model—A
hybrid framework for technology-based companies. Journal of Engineering and Technology
Management, 40, pp.1-14.
Hoda, R., Salleh, N., Grundy, J. and Tee, H.M., 2017. Systematic literature reviews in agile
software development: A tertiary study. Information and Software Technology, 85, pp.60-70.
Lewis, W.E., 2017. Software testing and continuous quality improvement. Auerbach
publications.
Munir, H., Wnuk, K. and Runeson, P., 2016. Open innovation in software engineering: a
systematic mapping study. Empirical Software Engineering, 21(2), pp.684-723.
Pedreira, O., García, F., Brisaboa, N. and Piattini, M., 2015. Gamification in software
engineering–A systematic mapping. Information and software technology, 57, pp.157-168.
Petersen, K., Vakkalanka, S. and Kuzniarz, L., 2015. Guidelines for conducting systematic
mapping studies in software engineering: An update. Information and Software Technology, 64,
pp.1-18.

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Stol, K.J., Ralph, P. and Fitzgerald, B., 2016, May. Grounded theory in software engineering
research: a critical review and guidelines. In 2016 IEEE/ACM 38th International Conference on
Software Engineering (ICSE) (pp. 120-131). IEEE.
Weistroffer, H.R. and Li, Y., 2016. Multiple criteria decision analysis software. In Multiple
Criteria Decision Analysis (pp. 1301-1341). Springer, New York, NY.