This is also very true of old school tools like Microsoft Project. The overhead for entire teams to learn to use the charting and other features is too much.

My experience has been that a spreadsheet containing all the tasks, issues and risks, with owners and dependencies identified is usually enough. Then it's all about the actual discipline of discussing them, saying "No" to lots of things, telling people when you're waiting on things for them, and focusing on the tasks at hand.

Execs frequently get too hung up on the tools themselves. I cringe every time I see MS Project as a requirement for a Project Manager. It tell me that either someone from HR wrote the requisition, or that the project is in trouble.