Project Management

project management software—in particular, scheduling soft-
ware. Some who are relatively new to project management view
scheduling software as the totality of project management. This
is very dangerous. Although no one can deny the incredible
computing power of scheduling software, an inordinate focus on
it belies the breadth of the project management discipline. As
we discussed earlier, project planning is so much more than just
a schedule. And project management is so much more than
manipulating a software tool.
Also, excessive reliance on the tool tends to discount the
importance of the “art” part of the project management that we
discussed in the beginning of this book. Managing people is the
key to project success. However, I recently saw one software

136 Project Management

Project

XYZ

$120,000

Element 1 $20,000 Activity 1.1 $4,000

Activity 1.2 $9,000

Activity 1.3 $7,000

Element 2 $40,000

Activity 2.1 $12,000

Activity 2.2 $19,000

Activity 2.3 $9,000

Element 3 $25,000

Activity 3.1 $6,000

Activity 3.2 $11,000

Activity 3.3 $8,000

Element 4 $15,000

Activity 4.1 $4,000

Activity 4.2 $6,000

Activity 4.3 $5,000

Contingency $20,000

$20,000

Figure 7-14. Using the WBS to display project costs