6 Project Managers Tell Us Their Unpopular Opinions on PM Software
Project management software is everywhere — and so are strong opinions about it. We asked practicing PMs and operations leaders to share the takes they don't always feel comfortable saying out loud. From gatekeeping their own tools to calling out industry darlings by name, here's what they really think.
Who Are These Tools Actually Built For?
The PM Tool Is for the PM — No One Else
Most project managers will tell you that project visibility is a good thing — the more people who can see the project plan, the better. But Jeff Chamberlain, Manager of Broadband Services and PMO at Frederick County Government, has a counterpoint.
He runs his projects with a strict access policy: the PM software stays with him, and everyone else gets the information in a format they can actually use. "It’s kind of an unpopular opinion, but the project management tool is not for anybody else other than the project manager," he says. "And everything that comes out of the tool needs to be in a form that people can consume democratically... So, unpopular opinion, but I get to play with the tool and you don't."
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The project management tool is not for anybody else other than the project manager.
For Chamberlain, protecting the integrity of the tool isn't about control — it's about keeping complex schedules clean and delivering information to stakeholders in a way that actually serves them.
Tools Are Built for the Buyers, Not the Users
There's a tension baked into how most PM software gets sold — and Yonelly Gutierrez, Senior Program Manager at Palo Alto Networks, has noticed it. The people buying the software and the people using it every day are rarely the same people, and she argues that shows in the product.
"I think sometimes tools focus too much on high-level governance, reporting, and dashboards," she says, adding that PM tools "should be created with the project managers actually using it daily in mind and not so much for the high-level people purchasing the software." The result, in her view, is software that looks impressive in a sales demo but creates friction for the practitioners living in it.
[PM tools] should be created with the project managers actually using it daily in mind and not so much for the high-level people purchasing the software.
The Problem With Trying to Do It All
The "All-in-One" Tool Dream Is a Myth
The appeal of a single platform that handles everything — tickets, schedules, communication, reporting — is obvious. The reality, according to Chamberlain, is less convincing.
“A lot of people want their ticketing system and their project management system to be the same thing,” he explains. “And I don't know that any one company does that well." The tool that does everything but masters nothing is a tale as old as time.
For Matthew Fox, Sr. Project Manager and Operations Specialist at Fox Consulting, ClickUp is a prime example of a tool that reaches further than it should. "ClickUp is trying to replace a lot of tools right now. But they don't do a good job of actually solving end-user problems," Fox says. "Just because a tool can doesn't mean it should."
Just because a tool can doesn’t mean it should.
Full Integration Can Kill Creativity
Too many integrations can lead to a similar problem as the “all-in-one” tool. Julia Rajic, Chief Operating Officer at Point Blank, experienced firsthand what happens when a team becomes too dependent on a fully integrated system. What started as a move toward efficiency ended up doing something unexpected to her team's culture.
"I went from disparate systems and tools to fully, fully integrated," she says, and "it was to the point where people would say, ‘I'm not doing it until I have a task for that.’ or ‘I'm not thinking outside of the box or being creative or problem solving because this task does not tell me to do that.’" The checklist, she found, had replaced the thinking.
The Tool Is Never Really the Problem
Switching Platforms Won't Fix a Broken Process
There's a pattern Melody MacKeand, Founder of Melody MacKeand Consulting, keeps seeing across agencies: when something isn't working, the instinct is to blame the software and find a new one. She thinks that instinct is wrong.
"I see a lot of agencies changing platforms every year in hopes that the platform is going to solve a process for people," she says. "The reality is, any tool can be helpful and any tool can be harmful. So it's really about the structures and systems that you're putting in place and then the tool will support that." The tool, in MacKeand's view, is never the root cause — and switching it without fixing the underlying structures just moves the problem somewhere new.
Any tool can be helpful and any tool can be harmful. So it’s really about the structures and systems that you’re putting in place and then the tool will support that
A Great PM Can Work in Any Tool
That same logic extends to individual practitioners. Sabrina Di Paulo, Founder and Principal Consultant at Celeste Consulting Inc., pushes back against the idea that the right software can rescue a struggling project.
"I think that as project managers, we believe a tool might save us," she says, "but again, being a project manager, I think one of the biggest skill sets is adaptability and you should be able to use almost any tool."
Jeremiah Hammon, Leadership and Project Manager Trainer at Project Revolution, takes it a step further, arguing that the search for better software is often a distraction from building real competency. "A lot of us run around looking for the latest and greatest tool, not realizing that if we understand how to tie all this stuff together, then any tool works for us," he says. "You can put me in Asana, you can put me in Jira, you can put me in anything... the same methodologies work."
The Tool Doesn't Make the PM
Project management software will keep evolving — new platforms will launch, existing ones will expand their feature sets, and the debate over which tool is best will continue in every team Slack channel and LinkedIn comment section.
But the PMs we spoke to aren't waiting for the perfect solution to come along. They've already figured out that the work gets done because of the thinking, the adaptability, and the systems behind it — not because of what's on the screen. The tool is just the tool.
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