Improving the Teaching of Project Management Software Tools Using Scaffolding Based on Cladistics Parsimony Analysis

Project management software tools are essential tools for the different phases of projects. However a number of software tools exist ranging from the relatively simple to those that extremely feature rich. Feature rich software tools have their advantages due to their wide repertoire of options but can be difficult to learn. Ideally the main steps in project management need to be identified and mapped. The five layer domain analysis model was used (but only the first two layers) in conjunction with cladistics and parsimony analysis to produce a diagrammatic, modular abstraction based on hierarchical top down decomposition. This model contextualizes the steps in project management by means of a high level overview that can be decomposed into greater detail. Significantly it is universally applicable to software management tools.