The following may
apply in general, or only to specific products.
May not be derived
from a sound project management method. For example,
displaying the Gantt chart view by default encourages
users to focus on task scheduling too early, rather
than identifying objectives and deliverables.
Focuses primarily on the planning phase and does not
offer enough functionality for project tracking, control
and in particular plan-adjustment.
Does not make a clear distinction between the planning
phase and post planning phase, leading to user confusion
and frustration when the software does not behave as
expected. For example, shortening the duration of a
task when an additional human resource is assigned to
it while the project is still being planned.
Offer complicated features to meet the needs of project
management professionals, which must be understood in
order to effectively use the product. Additional features
may be so complicated as to be of no use to anyone.
Complex task prioritization and resource leveling algorithms
for example can produce results that make no intuitive
sense, and overallocation is often more simply resolved
manually.
Some people may achieve better results using simpler
technique, (e.g. pen and paper), yet feel pressured
into using project management software by company policy
(discussion).
Similar to PowerPoint, project management software might
shield the manager from important interpersonal contact.
New types of software are challenging the traditional
definition of Project Management. Frequently, users
of project management software are not actually managing
a discrete project. For instance, managing the ongoing
marketing for an already-released product is not a "project"
in the traditional sense of the term; it does not involve
management of discrete resources working on a something
with a discrete beginning/end. Groupware applications
now add "project management" features that
directly support this type of workflow-oriented project
management. Classically-trained Project Managers may
argue whether this is "sound project management."
However, the end-users of such tools will refer to it
as such, and the de-facto definition of the term Project
Management may change.
When there are multiple larger projects, Project Management
Software can be very useful. Nevertheless, one should
probably not use Management Software if only a single
small project is involved, as Management Software incur
a larger time-overhead than is worthwhile.
Sometimes there is excessive dependency on the first
paper print-out of a project plan, whereas it is simply
a snapshot at one moment in time whereas the plan is
dynamic; as the project progresses the plan must change
to accomodate tasks that are completed early, late,
re-sequenced, etc.