TITLE:
Evaluating Project Management Software Packages Using a Scoring Model—A Comparison between MS Project and Primavera
AUTHORS:
Hani Gharaibeh
KEYWORDS:
Software Evaluation, Attributes, Evaluation Criteria, Scoring Module, Software User, Software Vendor
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Software Engineering and Applications,
Vol.7 No.7,
June
5,
2014
ABSTRACT: Since the Mid 1980’s, an
increasing number of project management software packages (PMSP) has appeared
in the market to support project management organizations. Despite the wide
spread of PMSP, projects based organizations are left unguided
as to how they should select the most appropriate software tool for their
intended business use. The aim of this research was to apply a scoring model
developed using ISO/IEC 14,000 software evaluation criteria to evaluate the
effectiveness of two software packages in terms of functionality and price, and
produce a summary of the evaluation records. To achieve research objective, a
questionnaire survey method was used to investigate the two different project
management software packages. One questionnaire was circulated among software
users in various locations and another was targeting the software vendors. The
findings of this study revealed differences between the two packages under
investigation and highlighted the strength and weakness of each package. The
author was able to assess the efficiency of each software package and provided
a score for each attribute which helps the user to understand how the software
package performs. This investigation revealed that the software user is not
concerned with the most sophisticated package, or the package that has more
advanced tools and features. What is more important for the user is their need
to produce simple time charts, simple resource and cost analysis and basic
reports.