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Project Management Tool Usability Study and Report

TECM 2700-501

Cullen Mims, Xavier Payton, Katie Ricketson, Michael Stewart, Sarah Wiseman

Project Management Tool Usability Study and Report

Cullen Mims, Xavier Payton, Katie Ricketson, Michael Stewart, Sarah Wiseman

Abstract

The software one chooses to utilize when communicating ideas with others can greatly affect the efficiency of the sharing process. The study being conducted poses questions that are designed to measure the overall effectiveness of each project management software.  In order to provide a more well rounded analysis, we chose to use both factual and opinion based criterion when conducting the usability tests and surveys.

Introduction to Project Management Tools Study

With everything being online now, college has become increasingly computer based. Students still need to collaborate when working in a group even if they are not always able to be physically together. It is important to select a software that facilitates project management that allows a group to work effectively and efficiently to accomplish their goals for their class projects.

College students are busy and want to spend the least amount of time messing with a collaborative software. They want the software to be easy and quick to learn, accessible to them from more than one platform and like to be able to communicate with group members easily and be able to connect with them through the software to share ideas and make progress on the project. In this report, we attempted to determine what software would best facilitate project management in college.

 To determine the best software to facilitate project management, we evaluated the following options:

We narrowed down our options to six options for the following reasons:

We did the research to narrow down the software options from nine to two by going to each software’s website and browsing and analyzing the features that each software had to offer. We also viewed the pricing and free trial information on each software’s website to help us with our decision. From  research and group analysis, we decided which two softwares to eliminate.

The two softwares that we decided to use are Google Docs and Dropbox.

We researched the two project management tools from our list by making sure that each tool could do the following:

We chose these two options by imposing these limits:

Based on our research before we conducted our experiments, we hypothesized that Google Docs would be the most feasible option because we think that Google Docs will have the best ratings for accessibility.

Through this usability study and report, we cover the two softwares, Google Docs and Dropbox. We touch on the fact-based and opinion-based criteria. Then, we explain our experimental methods, following with a user test scenario. The results of the evaluation and the discussion of the results wrap up our findings in this study.

Methods of Evaluation

To evaluate software that facilitates project management, our team investigated Google Docs and DropBox. We studied six criteria over a week period to determine the best option for college students. Our first step was to determine the resources we needed to evaluate software that facilitates project management.

We determined that we would need the following resources:

From our research, we developed a list of criteria necessary to evaluate the most feasible software that facilitates project management of our options. To gain the best insight into software that facilitates project management, we divided our criteria into two categories: fact-based and opinion-based.

Fact-Based Criteria

We chose to use fact-based criteria because it gives legitimacy to our report by providing undeniable, concrete evidence.

Time on Task—The amount of time it takes for a user to accomplish a task is an effective way to measure its usability. The more efficient and easier to use program will have a shorter completion time.

Number of Clicks the User Makes to Complete a Task—The number of clicks it takes to complete a task can influence how long it takes. A software requiring fewer clicks is presumably easier to use.

Number of Times the User Complains About a Task—It is important to quantify the user’s frustrations when accomplishing a task. These measurements highlight the number of times the software was more complicated to use.

Opinion-Based Criteria

In addition to our fact-based research, we also included opinion-based criteria in our study to determine the overall preference each user might have.

Ease of Use—  Ease of scheduling a deadline in a project management software helps keep everyone in the group on track and accountable for the work that will be due in the future which helps college students be able to schedule time to complete tasks to keep up with the pace of the project.

The ease of changing a deadline is also important because schedules can change in a busy college student’s life and if the software can easily change a deadline, others in the group can be proactive and get the deadline completed sooner preventing the deadline from being missed.

Ease of communication is a necessity for a project management software because group members need to be able to share their ideas and voice their opinions about any part of the project in order to be a collaborative team and make the project the best that it can be.

After each tester submitted their survey, we added together all the ratings and divided by 5 to determine the average rating for each question on the survey. We determined that an average of the ratings provided the most valuable rating information for each question because college students place higher value on the average of opinions instead of outliers.

To evaluate 6 criteria, we created a paper survey. Our survey included the following 6 questions [1 being the least/worst and 5 being the most/best]:

1.        Time it took you to schedule a deadline. 

                [Give time in seconds]

We included question number one because the time it takes to schedule a deadline can impact efficiency.

2        Rate the number of clicks to complete the task in question one.

                [Give number of clicks]

We included question number two because being able to easily use the program can impact efficiency.

 

3.        Rate the amount of times you complained while doing the task in number one.

[Give number of times complained]

        We included question number three because it is important to use a project management

        software that can easily add new group members to the group so they can start

contributing to the project quicker.

        

        

4.          Rate how easy it was for you to schedule a deadline.

   

       

        1                           2                     3                     4                       5

We included question number four because creating a deadline is equally as important

as rescheduling a deadline. Timelines change and easily changing a deadline is important to keep a group on track and informed of what is going on with the project progression.

5.        Rate how easy it was to change a deadline.

 

       1                        2                        3                       4                        5

We included question number five because deadlines are adjusted based on the progression of the projects.  

6.        Rate how easy it was to communicate in the software.

   

   

               1                       2                   3                        4                      5

We included question number six because communication with others is very important when working in group projects.

After we gathered the completed surveys at the end of the experiment, we added together all the ratings and divided by five to determine the average rating for each question. We determined that an average of the ratings provided the most valuable rating information for this criterion because college students place higher value on the average of opinions instead of outliers.

Experiment Methods

On March 18, 2018, our team scheduled a meeting at 5555 FM 423 Frisco, TX 75034, which is one of our local Mcdonald’s. We chose this as our meeting ground because it is open 24 hours in a convenient location, and has free wifi for us to conduct our project.  These resources that the Mcdonalds offered made it a prime location for us to work in.

 

When we all arrived, the first thing we did was gather our materials and organize our data. The materials that we brought include: laptops, mobile phones, paper and pens. Then as a team we collaborated on the data to came up with 6 various questions in order to rate the efficiency of the 2 different programs, Google Docs and Dropbox.

We used a 1 to 5 rating scale, 5 being the best and 1 being the worst, to evaluate the programs based on our questions. We also averaged out our results from the first three questions..

From our results, we were able to categorize the two programs from best to worst based on efficiency, appearance, speed, fluidity and overall functionality. We believe that the questions we came up with outline the most notable attractions and concerns that potential users focus on.

User Test Scenario

On the day we tested the project management tools, we used the following methods:

  1.  Xavier and Cullen explained our usability test to our participant.
  2. Xavier and Cullen gave our participant, Sarah, a document explaining the tasks she needed to attempt. (See Figure 1)
  3. Sarah attempted the three tasks. While Sarah worked on the tasks, Katie and Michael recorded notes.
  4. After Sarah completed the task attempts, Xavier handed our post-test survey to the user.

(Figure 1) Complete the following tasks:

You are a team lead, and you need to complete the following tasks for your team, so they will know about the deadlines, changes to the deadlines, and when the deadlines are:

  1. Schedule a deadline of March 14, 2018 on the calendar.
  2. Change the deadline to March 18, 2018 on the calendar.
  3. Communicate the final deadline to your team members.

Results of Evaluation

We summarized our findings in a more presentable and understandable way. The summary of the fact-based criteria using averages in seconds and mouse clicks comes first, presented in a table and then a graph. The summary of the opinion-based criteria using averages is second, presented in a table and then a graph.

The table below shows a summary of the fact-based criteria results for side-by-side comparison.

Summary of Fact-Based Criteria Averages Results Table

Tasks

Averages of Results for Google Docs

Averages of Results for Dropbox

1. Time to Complete Creating a Deadline

35.72 s

42.07 s

2. Time to Complete Changing a Deadline

22.65 s

33.56 s

3. Time to Complete Communication with Team

23.74 s

34.48 s

4. Time to Complete Scheduling a Deadline (different date) (Question 1 -  survey)

30.81 s

37.9 s

5. Number of Clicks to Complete Scheduling a Deadline (Question 2 - survey)

3.23 clicks

3.76 clicks

6. Number of Times Complained while Creating a Deadline (Question 3 - survey)

2.28 times

2.82 times

The table below shows a summary of the opinion-based criteria results for side-by-side comparison.

Summary of Opinion-Based Criteria Averages Results Table

Averages of Results for Google Docs

Averages of Results for Drop Box

Rate how easy it was for you to schedule a deadline.

3.73

3.56

Rate how easy it was to change a deadline.

4.28

3.87

Rate how easy it was to communicate in the software.

3.42

3.97

The tables and graphs show the averages for what was tested and surveyed in Google Docs

and DropBox. A comparison of the results led us to choose Google Docs as our primary information sharing software.

Discussion of Results

Our team’s initial hypothesis was that Google Docs would be the best software at facilitating project management. Our team was correct; our results concluded that through the fact-based criteria, the opinion-based criteria and the experiments, Google Docs was more efficient at facilitating project management than its competitor, DropBox.

  1. Experiment

Data that we collected during the experiment testing how much time it took each individual to create a deadline, change a deadline and communicate in each of the two softwares was a key deciding factor in deciding which one was a better facilitator of project management. Time is very important because no one wants to waste time in a project, especially when working as a team. The better the software, the less time it takes to do things in it, allowing for a more efficient team. Looking back at this experiment, when it came to Dropbox it took participants longer to complete the three tasks compared to when the the participants used Google Docs. Dropbox is less efficient due to the longer amount of time it took to complete tasks in the software. To improve the testing, we could brief the participants more on how to schedule deadlines because some participants knew and others had no idea. Because of the vast differences in prior knowledge, the results could be skewed drastically. Because we felt that this part of our findings was particularly important, we decided to revisit it in our fact-based criteria in our survey.  

II. Time to Complete a Deadline

The time it takes to complete a deadline is a very important aspect in deciding if a software facilitates project management well. This is why we had the participants schedule a deadline two times, this time having them use a different date when scheduling. In this scenario, the participants could schedule any date they wanted to. Google Docs’ averaged times to schedule a deadline were still faster than Dropbox. By doing this testing twice, it provides more legitimacy that scheduling a deadline on Google Docs is faster than if you used Dropbox. The time it took to complete each task corresponds to the number of clicks it took to complete each task. Next, we will discuss the number of clicks it took to complete each task.

III. Clicks to Schedule Deadline

Google Docs’ average number of clicks to complete the task of changing a deadline was smaller than that of Dropbox. The amount of clicks it takes to finish a task corresponds with time and efficiency. To improve the testing , we would not make the participants count the number of clicks that they made because this made them end up focusing more on remembering the number they last used rather than focusing on the task. Someone that is helping conduct the experiment will count the number of clicks the participant made instead. The number of clicks to finish a task can potentially correspond to the number of times the user complains about a task. Next, we will discuss the number of times the user complains about a task.

IV. Complaints while Completing Task

Due to Dropbox having a higher average clicks used to change a deadline, this caused the program to have more complaints from the participants. Google Docs reigned supreme due to the less amount of time and clicks it took to complete the task. The number of time the user complains about a task corresponds with the frustration in the participant, leading to complaints about the software. To improving the testing, we would also add non-verbal complaining (for example sighs) so that our results are more accurate because some people use more non-verbal communication when they complain than verbal. Fact-based criteria that you can measure, like the number of complaints, is very important in our research but so is opinion-based criteria. Opinions help the overall evaluation by adding more of a personal connection to the findings, which will be discussed next.

V. Ease of Use Creating a Schedule

Easy use of creating a schedule is important for creating deadlines. Time is a important aspect in a group project; not everyone has the same schedule so creating schedules helps with time management and keeping all of the group members on the same page about when things need to be completed. Google Docs’ averages from this question were higher (5 on the scale being the easiest) than the averages from Dropbox, showing that participants thought that scheduling a deadline on Google Docs was easier for them. With scheduling deadlines comes with having to rescheduling deadlines. Next, we will discuss the importance of rescheduling deadlines.

VI. Ease of Changing a Deadline

Situations happens that mess with previously made deadlines; Google Docs proved to be the better software for rescheduling the previous deadlines that were made. Timelines need to be easily changeable to keep a group on track and informed on what is going on with the project progression because things come up all the time and everyone needs to know of a reschedule in a group project. Google Docs proved again to be the software higher in averages (5 on the scale being the easiest) in this question than Dropbox, showing that participants thought the task was easier on Google Docs. Rescheduling a deadline is just as important as communication in the software; we will be talking about communication next.

VII. Ease of Communication

Communication in the software must be easily done because of changes that might happen with the document and the deadlines. Communication is very important when working in group projects especially over the internet due to the fact that communication is not face-to-face. Communication must be easy so that everyone is on the same page with project details and deadlines. Dropbox had a lack of communication through the software, while Google Docs was the best and easiest way to communicate, which is why it was the better software in this situation. Google Docs had a higher average of ease of communicating than Dropbox.

Conclusion

After testing and experimenting with both programs, our research has shown that Google Docs is the better suited program to facilitate project management. Google Docs takes less time, clicks and made participants complain less than when participants used Dropbox. In the opinion side of our findings, the participants also agreed that Google Docs was an overall easier software to use. Google Docs was also the best choice due to the fact of its great accessibility and pricing. Google Docs is a better suited program to complete any tasks a team may have to keep them on top of deadlines and efficient while using the software and collaborating in it.

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