One of the more important aspects of a project management software system is the ability to be able to rearrange portions of the overall project. This may be due to equipment downtime, the availability of parts or components, or, in situations involving outdoor projects such as road construction, shipbuilding, etc., weather-related issues. In these kinds of circumstances, the project management software system needs to be flexible enough to enable adjustments to accommodate these issues.

A project management software system should have a planning board showing the overall project. This planning board is made up of the individual sub-projects which make up the whole. The planning board should also be interactive, meaning these individual portions should respond to drag-and-drop actions via the mouse and cursor. Once one of the portions is “grabbed” and relocated to another spot on the overall project, the schedule for the entire project should be automatically rearranged appropriately.

There will certainly be dependencies from one portion of the overall project to another within the project management software system. If the project is a high-precision jet engine, the turbofans can’t be mounted until the rotor shaft is in place. If the casting or milling of the shaft itself indicates weaknesses in the metal requiring the shaft to be re-forged, the mounting of the turbofans should automatically be delayed until the shaft can be rebuilt. However, housing, hydraulic and electrical components can still be manufactured without any schedule adjustments.

Project management software system needss to be flexible, allow for dependencies from one portion of the schedule to another, and be interactive enough to allow operators to easily take advantage of these built-in flexibilities.