Project Management and Information Technology

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

1PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
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

2PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
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.

3PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
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