Project management software is a term covering many types of software, including scheduling, cost control and budget management, resource allocation, collaboration software, communication, quality management and documentation or administration systems, which are used to help deal with the complexity of large projects.

One of the most common purposes is to schedule a series of events or tasks and the complexity of the schedule can vary considerably depending on how the tool is used. Some common challenges include events which depend on one another in different ways or dependencies, scheduling people to work on, and resources required by, the various tasks commonly termed resource scheduling, and dealing with uncertainties in the estimates of the duration of each task.

In many complex schedules, there will be a critical path, or series of events that depend on each other, and whose durations directly determine the length of the whole project. Some software applications can highlight these tasks, which are often a good candidate for any optimization effort.

Project planning software can be expected to provide information to various people or stakeholders, and can be used to measure and justify the level of effort required to complete the projects. Typical requirements might include: Tasks lists for people, and allocation schedules for resources Overview information on how long tasks will take to complete Early warning of any risks to the project Information on workload, for planning holidays Evidence Optimum utilization of available resource