One of the most interesting debates will centre on what exactly is critical project management functionality, and what is useful supporting features that will be useful to some users but not all.

Of course this depends on the use the software is put to. For example if the project is used as a way to manage a project between multiple companies and multiple, competing suppliers - then extranet permissions might be critical in this context - but only useful supporting functionality in internal projects.

While we have managed to keep only functionality really connected to the actual management of projects on the ‘critical’ list we made an exception with Document Management - it would be hard to manage any project without having access to a permissioned and version controlled document management store and so we have kept this on the essential list.

We have attempted to divide project management tasks into these two lists and welcome all input on what interested parties view as essential, or commonly lacking, in particular solutions and platforms.

With the current interest in mashups we are also interested in users experience in finding complimentary products that can easily work together to provide an integrated environment for project management, particularly if this provides a good functionality set at a competitive price.