What's the difference between project management tool and Excel?
What's the difference between
project management tool and Excel?
In many cases, Excel are used to manage projects in the field of project promotion.
This report discusses issues that arise when Excel is used for project management, particularly when it is focused on schedule management.
We interviewed Mr. Kuriyama, who plans, develops, and improves TimeTracker RX.
![[Interview] Junji Kuriyama, IOTA Promotion Department, DENSO CREATE INC.](/concept/column/images/02-01/img-intro-interviewee.jpg)
There are few project management tools that are easy for Japanese people to use.
The actual situation where Excel is used without any difficulty.
−−−Why are so many Japanese companies using Excel to manage their projects?
KuriyamaFirst of all, the idea of using project management tools has not yet permeated much in Japan, but I think there is also a reason why mainstream products are difficult to use in the first place because they are European and American in nature and do not suit the detailed project management methods of Japanese people. The results of one market survey show that 70% use Excel for project management, indicating that even if there is a need for a project management tool, there is no suitable tool, so it is inevitably managed by Excel.
Excel is just a spreadsheet.
−−−What are the challenges of using Excel for project-management?
Excel is a very useful tool. I'm sure you use it every day for a variety of purposes. But Excel is a spreadsheet. It is not designed as a project management tool, so for example, here are some problems.
- Good for early planning, but vulnerable to plan changes.
- The order of work between tasks cannot be represented.
- Gantt Chart is a mere drawing-level.
- The load status of the member is not visible.
- The larger the project scale (number of people, amount of tasks, and duration), the more difficult it becomes to operate.
- It is not possible to visualize multiple projects across the board.
- It is fine from the viewpoint of planning, but recording/collection of results and View of the difference from the plan are troublesome.
If you are a Excel project-manager, you may have many problems that come to mind. Of course, even in Excel, there are some things that can be solved by making full use of macros. However, I think there are still limits.
If you're just planning, you can make it in Excel.
−−−Is there any possibility that it will be managed by Excel?
KuriyamaI think anyone Excel manages a relatively small project-just planning-can do it in time.
However, the problem is the change of plans. In the past, I used to express my Gantt Chart in Excel and make schedules with a lot of hard work and ingenuity. However, although it was good at first, it was difficult to change from the initial plan due to the hassle of updating, and the end result was that I was out of touch with the facts.
Excel's weakness is collecting results.
It is not suitable for project management where "know the facts and reflect them in the plan.
−−−What's your biggest weakness in project-management for Excel?
KuriyamaA project is a multi-person project. I think the important thing in project management is to gather not only plans but also achievements (facts) and feed them back to the next plan. Repeating such a feedback loop is important for the project to proceed.
From this point of view, "knowing the facts" is a prerequisite. One of the weakest areas of project-management in Excel is the collection of achievements. If you want to gather Excel results to compare and analyze with a plan, it is troublesome to enter them yourself, and even more difficult if you are hiring more than one member. If you need cross-sectional project management or "know the facts and reflect them in the plan" project management, you will need the help of a project management tool.
−−−So what is the specific point that project-management tools are better than Excel?
In a nutshell, "project management tools" range from project planning tools that focus only on planning schedules, to systems that can manage issues, and to systems that can store data on deliverables. Project management tools that plan schedules and manage progress generally have the following functions.
- You can define a tree structure (WBS) of tasks and organize the tasks logically.
- The work order between tasks can be set and scheduled.
- Gantt Chart and intuitive View and editing of scheduled events.
- The load status of the members can be easily checked with graphs, etc.
- You can easily view and edit projects on multiple members.
- You can easily visualize the status of multiple projects.
- It is possible to collect, aggregate, analyze, and View actual results to Gantt Chart.
I think general project management tools are excellent in this phase of solid project management.
The idea is to learn the truth from actual time and support them to improve.
−−−TimeTracker RX also have such functions, don't they? What is the difference between this tool and a typical project management tool?
KuriyamaYes, TimeTracker RX has all the features of the project-management tools I mentioned earlier, but the biggest difference is that it is very easy to collect actual results, particularly man-hour data. The biggest difference is that it is very easy to collect actual results, particularly man-hour data.
In general, project management tools focus on planning, and there are often no features that can collect achievements (especially man-hours), or they are a bonus. In this respect, TimeTracker RX also focuses on performance. This is because TimeTracker RX is based on the idea that we can learn from Actual time and use the findings to help improve our work methods, costs, and quality. Therefore, Time Management is designed so that anyone can easily start it and continue it every day.
Use Excel and project-management tools in the right place.
−−−Finally, is it wrong to use Excel to manage projects after all?
KuriyamaNow, Excel has its own Excel qualities. Excel is not very good at scheduling, but it is a very good form tool. We use it in various aspects of our projects.
For example, the entire planning document can be compiled in a Excel. The goals, objectives, and agreements with customers, as well as the list of risks/deliverables, should be described in Excel and agreed with the parties concerned. On top of that, scheduling and progress management are done with project management tools. In addition, you often submit a weekly progress-report in the same Excel formats.
As you can see, in project management, Excel and project management tools have their own strengths and weaknesses, so I think the key is to utilize each other in the right place.
To meet such demands, we have constantly refined our data-linkage capabilities with Excel in developing and improving TimeTracker RX. TimeTracker RX makes it easier for companies who have been managing projects in Excel to migrate to tools, so that Excel and project management tools can coexist.