NSS in project management enterprise wide technologies: the case of PMOffice/sup TM/

Negotiation takes place through the entire life cycle of a project. Negotiation support systems are particularly justified in enterprise wide project management applications where spatial, functional and temporal coordination are very complex. The purpose of the article is to analyse negotiation capabilities of project management technologies and to use NSS as the ultimate test of the maturity of a project management tool. A testing framework is developed within the cooperative distributed problem solving (CPDS) perspective questioning how a loosely coupled network of problem solvers within a project management process can negotiate to solve problems. The article illustrates this type of benchmarking on PMOffice, a new Web enabled tool resulting from a joint effort of a software development corporation specialising in PSS (Performance Support Systems) and PMI (Project Management Association), the largest association of project managers. Some generalisations are proposed as to the use of NSS features as selection criteria for project management technology.