Evaluating Project Management Software Packages Using a Scoring Model—A Comparison between MS Project and Primavera

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.