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Microsoft Project is a project management software. It provides core PM functionality, including agile workflow support and resource management. Project can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise.https://media.trustradius.com/product-logos/ZB/hz/TANUZCC6XALF.PNGAgile Development Made EasyMicrosoft Project is a project management tool which helps maintain the agile methodology of project development amongst the team members and company. It makes it easy to monitor developers and assign them work accordingly using Microsoft Project. It is the best way in which software development can be carried out to make most out of the resources you have.,Following Agile Methodology Assgining Work Tracking Resources Documentation for Software Developed,Requires better documentation Hard for naive or new developers UI improvements,10,Positive Return on investment Human Resource Tracking Development Tracking Consumes some of your time,9,8,JIRA Software,Agility CMS, Slack, Google HangoutsProject is the Industry Standard Large-Scale Project Management Tool for Enterprises!I work on a process optimization team within my workspace. It is an administrative job where we perform process audits (for customers), recommend people, process, and technology changes for those customers, and then implement accepted solutions based on our recommendations. It is a relatively small team that has three major components: strategy, implementation, and continuous improvement. We utilize a variety of project management tools in order to successfully carry out our recommendations for completion. Microsoft Project is one tool that has been widely adapted, not only across our team but across most administrative areas in our company. Our business is heavily integrated within the Microsoft ecosystem and Project is one tool that used to achieve our business objectives.,Being a Microsoft product, Project integrates extremely well into the Microsoft family of applications! Furthermore, the user interface is similar to other Microsoft applications. Therefore, there is a valuable familiarity out of the box. Project is incredibly detail-oriented and always receiving valuable updates. Project Online is now the cloud-based version of Project. Scheduling works really well for the most part. One can be extremely detailed with Gannt charts and other project management metrics!,Remote work can be challenging - as Project must be downloaded to a specific computer. Upgrading to the top of the line version can feel like a requirement. There is a lot of functionality that is not available unless in the most expensive pay-tiers. Microsoft Project can be extremely expensive on a per user basis. Other tools can be much more cost-effective - especially for more basic project management needs.,9,Integration and user-interface familiarity allow for more time doing work and less time searching for tutorials. Extremely detailed scheduling tool that enables project managers to perform extremely well. Works extremely well when cross-collaborating between companies as this is the industry standard.,Smartsheet, Basecamp, Trello, ProofHub, Workzone, Asana, Workfront, Wrike and JIRA Software,JIRA Software, Basecamp, AsanaMicrosoft Project is the industry standard for a reasonI used Microsoft Project to develop the framework of all our projects, and to track their progress and resources throughout implementation. We typically had about 20 projects running at any one time, so it was useful to see everything in one place. While we used a ticketing system for the day-to-day stuff, Project worked better for long-term, per-planned operations.,Gantt Charts: Every project manager's favorite thing, MS Project does this very well. A Gantt chart keeps everything in a project timeline visible, and in Project, you can drill down to look at resources, costs, and a myriad of other things. It's also very easy to rearrange items as necessary, either by dragging them around or opening them and manually entering data. Resource Management: Project allows you to set up resources, either as individuals or with type of work (e.g., Bob Smith or Network Engineer I). Within those resources, you can set up hours of availability, when overtime kicks in, costs, and a myriad of other useful items. Then, when you assign them tasks, the software calculates the time needed or how much extra it will cost if you need a resource to work longer on a particular piece. Multiple Projects: With the resource pool and other elements shared between projects, managing multiple projects becomes easier. Project will warn you if resource is over-scheduled, and show which projects that resource is being used on. It'll also show conflicts. Integration: Since this is a Microsoft product, it integrates very well with other Microsoft products, especially those in the Office suite like Excel. That allows you to, for example, export the Gantt chart to a spreadsheet to send to stakeholders, or link it into a Word document. Time Management: Tied into the Gantt and Resource pieces, Project lets you set prerequisites and linked work, so even if you have to adjust steps to deal with scheduling or change management, Project will keep everything organized. It will automatically re-adjust dates and milestones as things are shifted.,Expertise Needed: The software is not always easy to use or intuitive. I took several Project courses, on top of my project management certifications, to understand the software better. While all the elements are there for anyone familiar with standard project management processes, it takes experience and training to really get the best out of the software. Collaboration: Project does not work well with multiple users simultaneously. There's no real-time updating, and if we had multiple project managers, there'd be no way to work together on the same projects. Price: Project is expensive, largely due to it being an industry standard.,10,Project saved me, as the project manager, countless hours of digging through tickets and schedules to plan everything out. It also saved me time in adjusting the project triangle as needed, since it does so much automatically. It is costly, and since it requires extensive training to master, it's not just the high licensing cost that you need to take into account. The reporting features - even just printing out Gantt charts - makes it far easier to communicate with stakeholders. That means less time for PMs doing all of this manually, and it means less follow-up questions and delays moving forward.,Wrike and Trello,ConnectWise ManageThe former reference software for project managementMicrosoft Project was for many years the goto platform for project management at eSilicon. Most of the managers from different departments were using it to manage their projects: tasks breakdown and assignment, resource management, tracking tasks progress, etc. While it does the job well, it also has some flaws and things to improve. Due to this, there are many other tools that gained market share in the last several years and will continue to do so even more.,You can manage any size project and complexity. The visuals of the timeline and gantt charts. The way task dependencies work and the whole plan gets updated for any change you do.,It is so easy to mess up a complex project plan by a simple change and can take hours to fix. It is lacking the collaboration that is so needed these days. You need to use Project Server for that. The cost is a differentiator for many start-ups selling project management tools.,7,For many years Microsoft Project helped us manage our projects well. It increased the time to market for some of the projects. While it helped with our project management, the cost of this tool is not negligible.,8,7,Smartsheet,Basecamp, OpenAir PSA, WunderlistGreat for the novice who isn't ready for P6We use it as a quick and dirty backup to P6 scheduling software. We have an in-house scheduling department that uses P6 to schedule our projects. However, for teams looking for a quick schedule that need turnaround when the scheduling team is unavailable or when it just makes sense to make a project themselves (ourselves), we can use Microsoft Project as a little more user-friendly quick option.,Schedules and Logic. User-friendly. Easy to learn interface, similar to all Microsoft products, so familiar to most new users.,The overall look of the schedules produced is a little lackluster. There are not a whole lot of customization options, and to the construction field, it is quickly recognizable that the schedule was produced in Project. It's not a bad thing, but not the industry standard. I think it would be better to design the output to follow P6 just for credibility. It almost looks a little bit "cartoonish" or juvenile. Now I understand that MS design is certainly "better looking," but this is simply in comparison to the industry standard for credibility purposes.,7,The simplest answer to this is that it makes "on the fly" or quick turnaround scheduling possible without engaging an outside provider or getting bogged down in the long list of scheduling projects that our in-house scheduling team is working on. Its best fit is for small and fast-tracked projects.,Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management,Microsoft Teams, GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, GoToWebinar, Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management, Procore, Vista by Viewpoint, ADP TotalSourceOne of the basic tools for Construction ManagementMicrosoft Project is the tool of choice in our organization to create and follow up on construction project schedules. We use it as a planning and decision-making tool.,Basic and/or detailed sequencing of activities. Helps determine credible timelines for projects.,The resources assignment tool could be made easier. With so many resources to be managed, assigning resources in construction schedules turns them into huge files that are difficult to manage if your computer is modest in processing capacity.,10,It has helped us maintain a competitive offer in the project management field, enabling us to ensure our clients that their projects are kept within the schedule or those foreseen obstacles are handled well in advance.,Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management,ProcoreMicrosoft Project for Financial ProjectionsWe use Microsoft Project to schedule electrical construction projects. Microsoft Project easily allows for accurate projections when resources are input accurately. Tasking of employees and planning for labor is accomplished easily and it is easy to see when a single labor resource is over-allocated allowing us to decide to increase manpower or adjust the schedule.,Auto schedule for holidays and weekends without referencing an outside calendar. Allocate resources for accurate projections. Visualize actual construction progress in the timeline. Multiple views and reports for presentation to construction crews and clients.,Import other schedules from Excel would be nice, but that's asking a lot.,10,Easily project P&L for input resources. Manage labor flow more efficiently.,Procore, Trimble Accubid, Bluebeam RevuMS Project - A very good tool to manage projects from end to endI use MS Project in my group which is the Data Conversion group. We use Project to track and manage our workload which is specific to Database conversions. At any given time we have 50 to 75 active projects that start in Requirements, move on to Design and then Development, Testing and then cut over to Production.,MS Project is fairly easy to use. Adding Projects, Activities, Tasks, etc. are easy to add, and adjust when necessary. It offers many different views, so based on your own needs, it is very flexible. The reporting functionality is terrific. You can customize what you need to look at, from a full-blown project, or a more slimmed down version of just key milestones.,It can be a little more difficult to work with when you use all of the hooks, bells and whistles that are available. It will take some time for the Novice user to pick all of this up. The columns (if all are used) offers a very crowded view, but I have never used all of these columns and most are hidden, so this may not be an issue to most users of MS Project Graphics need to be brought into the 21st Century.,6,Allows my team to better manage DB conversion projects from end to end Easy visibility into current status Easy to report off of. Exec reporting can be pulled together rather quickly.,IBM Proventia,JIRA Software, ChangepointMicrosoft Project for your all in one project Management and Creation.It helps us to make decision charts and then help to look forward to stick to the plans. It is a great tool as we can make charts for work allocation to different personnel involved in the team. In our department, it helps in creating a budget for different units and one can easily track to the resources and deviation from the same. As it's implementation is easy and cost-effective, I like Microsoft Project personally very much.,Work allocation charts Personnel involved and duties and tasks allocated to each individual Short term budgetary goals of each units and departments of our company Deviation chart from budget,It needs training for new recruiters as it is much advanced Creating and analyzing project report is still a very complicated task,9,It is little costly as the work done on this application is not that of too complicated. There are many unused features for which we have to pay even if we don't use them. The features are bundled and custom options are not available.,Teamwork ProjectsExcellent cost vs. benefit for Project ManagementIt is used at the whole organization as the official and standard tool of project management. Microsoft Project helps the company to address project management capabilities such as budget tracking, project planning, resources allocation, reporting, baseline and actual progress, and many other things. It is an essential piece of our projects.,Budget management - You can easily set the available budget and indicate for each activity/resource the necessary amount. Therefore, it is good for the plan & actual budgets. Project management - Key elements such as progress management and critical path. Basic charts - Gantt charts are really developed and compelling. Planned versus actual budgets - Track progress. Baseline management - Manage and versioning of baseline. Resources allocation - Redistribute and rebalance resources across activities.,Overall financial management - Microsoft Project is not indicated for complex financial management, such as Net Present Value, S-Chart, and others. It is strongly suggested to complement this capability with either an Excel or integration with SAP or Oracle Primavera Unifier. KPIs and dashboards - Microsoft Project still lacks advanced charts and analytics. This should be complemented as well with other tools/software.,9,Project Progress Risk Management Process Efficiency Decision Making Process,Primavera Unifier,Agile Manager (formerly HP Agile Manager), Primavera Unifier, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) PlatformMicrosoft Project Gets the Job DoneWe use Microsoft Project in the engineering department to manage our water jobs. This helps us coordinate different activities and make sure our projects are on time.,Easy to use out of the box Good integration with the rest of our Office suite,High price To use it well some training would be necessary,8,Our engineering team has gotten a lot of use out of the product. I believe ROI has been great.,7,5,,Jira Service Desk, KeePass, DropboxProject is greatI used this at two different companies. With Mortenson, we used it to do the 2-week look ahead schedules for a $480 million 32-month project, that were then given to the scheduler to update the overall schedule in P6. It was cost saving because there were four superintendents that needed to provide an update weekly. The second company used it exclusively for scheduling purposes for periods of a few weeks to a year + from a $100K to $14 mill. Microsoft Project is cost-effective, versatile, and gets easy to use once you get used to using it more and more.,First off, the cost is reasonable so a project team can have 4 or 5 licenses compared to a P6. Project is easy to use and gets easier to use the more you use it. I can print effective schedules that are easy to understand.,I remember that there were a few files that were corrupted in some way, shape or form, and that forced us to have rebuild and start over. I would like more control over the appearance of the schedule. I would like to see more online support videos.,8,It is well worth the money because you can get more licenses to more people. It used to be a one time purchase and not a subscription. A schedule that is well put together is always an effective tool. The project allows for an effective communication tool for owners, team members, and subcontractors.,,Bluebeam Revu, Procore, Vista by Viewpoint, iSqFtMicrosoft Project: To Use Or Not To Use?I was introduced to Microsoft Project the first time in about 2003, while working as a Project Manager for L-3 Communication Systems. The training was left mostly to the latitude of each Project Manager. Microsoft Excel was considered an acceptable safety net, being used extensively in the past. Personally, I used 'Microsoft Project 2000 Step-by-Step'. The learning curve was average for Sciex as an independent contractor, tasked to oversee all steps required to complete the upgrading of two legacy projects and turning them into being RoHS-compliant (RoHS - Restrictions of Hazardous Substances). Sciex is specialized in the design and manufacturing of medical instrumentation. The two projects I was involved with were mass spectrometers. Project was used widely across the company for all projects having a start day and estimated completion day, as recommended by Project Management techniques. The first task that I took upon myself was to estimate the best way to ensure a completion of the project in time since a rather artificial due date was already in place. I proceeded to create a task list followed by a work breakdown structure and as a result, I requested the addition of two additional members to the team, since while the budget was relatively generous, the time constraints were not. Also, I requested from the management to intervene with another company, operating as a sub-contractor to Sciex, to make an effort and beef-up their team. We finished within the budget and schedule.,Microsoft Project allows users to input a large and varied amount of detail pertinent to a specific project and then creates numerous varied out reports, as per the specific needs of a certain user working on that project. Microsoft Project is very flexible in relation to the familiarity of a specific user with the Project. Someone with very little knowledge of Project can still input some data and receive some useful reports, without using the whole capability of the package. Project allows a varied types of data to be inputted, such as definition of various subtasks related to the project, time information about the original estimates for tasks and the actual figures, monetary information about the cost of all items required to complete a project (such as rate per hour of specific participants working of a project, cost of equipment to be bought or rented, cost of materials required for project execution, etc). A Project Manager very conversant with Project can get a very large number of reports, each one for a specific need.,The Project software package, while being very powerful, it also has a rather lengthy learning curve. A fresh Project Manager which didn't use Project before (due to being in a different role, or using until now a different project management tool) and put in charge of a project having as a requirement the utilization of Microsoft Project for a new project starting very soon, will have a hard time to assimilate all aspects of the package, if he wants to take advantage of Project's full capabilities. While not being exaggerated, the cost of the software package is relatively high (around $650.00) This is maybe not a lot for a company needing one or two packages, but is relevant to a company needing to procure 20 packages. I would like to see more specialty books pertinent to Project. 'Leaning Microsoft Project Step-by-Step' issued by Microsoft themselves and used by me when I started learning Project is a bit cumbersome, unlike other books in their series for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.,8,On the projects that I dealt with, Project had a positive impact on the overall business objective, allowing realistic estimates of the duration, personnel, equipment and materials extremely important for the preparations of responses to RFQs (Request for Quotations), ensuring that the company is not capturing a contract for work that the company is very well capable of performing, however, due to a bad quotation, is not going to realize any profit. Once a contract is awarded, Project again had a positive impact, by allowing the construction of a correct WBS (Work Breakdown Structure), the personnel requirements, the identification of critical paths, the budget to be allocated and the creation of work orders (WOs) used by team members for weekly reporting of the hours expanded on the project , the purchase of equipment sufficiently in advance of the date when it will be needed and the identification of specific personnel required to be assigned to the project team, as per they specific skillset, and also when each member must start working on specific segments of the overall Work Breakdown Structure. Once the project started, Project was invaluable in monitoring the actual progress of the project in comparison with the very initial schedule and its milestones, the identification of slippage and enhancing an early advance for the formulation of solutions required in order to pull the schedule back. Project also was highly beneficial in creating practically automated financial reports of expenditures to date, such reports being of high on the priority list of higher up management.,Excel4apps,Zoho Projects, TeamGantt, TrackMavenAn overall great tool for proejct managementWe've been using Microsoft Project in our company for over 2 years. It has been a great implementation for improving productivity via software. We chose Microsoft because we knew we would get the best in terms of quality standards. It has plenty of tools we use daily, such as resource planning and a working timetable. We don't feel the need to upgrade it yet.,It has a great portfolio of tools for its price. It's really easy to use, almost everyone can implement it and start using it quickly. The fact that project plans can be accessed basically from any place with an internet connection, making it extremely useful for updating those plans on the go.,A little buggy from time to time, but just in some of our team member's experience. UI can be improved, maybe keeping the same design that Office 365 has. It can give sometimes an overwhelming feeling when using this product for lesser projects in smaller companies than it is maybe intended to.,9,Increased productivity and on-time task achievement More efficiency for remote members located away from HQ Time saving,Atlassian Confluence,Atlassian Confluence, OneDrive, SysTools G Suite/Google Apps BackupMicrosoft Project 2016 - It's come a long ways, and thank goodness, because Project 2007 sucked.I am currently using Microsoft Project for a construction project where we are using it to plan out and track Work Packages. We have budgets for each work package and we also have resources loaded for each work package as well. We are able to track both cost and schedule performance using Project.,The custom columns and the ability to use formulas within Project allows the user flexibility with respect to the data that they want to display, and how they want it displayed. For example, I was able to enter a formula into a custom column that calculated the week of the project a particular task was scheduled to finish. We have also used custom columns to upload data from other systems into our schedules, for example the work package status out of SAP, and material information as well. Using VBA to automate certain task is very useful and can be a great time saver. For example, I recently worked a program where I was managing 10k+ tasks in a single schedule that were comprised of material, engineering, and production activity, which required inputs from multiple stakeholders. Using data downloaded out of our enterprise systems, I was able to create a single set of data in Excel's Power Query, and I uploaded this data into Project using code developed in the VBA editor. Typically it would take a week or more to manual status a schedule of this size. But because I was able to automate this step, I could update my schedule in 20 minutes. This allowed me to status my schedule on a daily basis, making my schedule more relevant. We were also able to make the schedule more informative: we loaded any kind of material and/or engineering issues in to the schedule, along with comments from other systems that provided benefit to correcting an issue, or to help with taking advantage of an opportunity. Where I worked prior, we received various audits from different entities, and we always received positive input for the kind of data we were able to present. Timelines! Timelines offer the user a way to quickly convey a high level narrative of the schedule. This gives the audience a more efficient way to dive into the schedule. The timeline view can allow for a super clean view of the project, and is great to use in presentation. Project Online/Server - when this version of Project is used it really does turbo charge the functionality that is available to the user and tremendously grows the collaborated engagement with stakeholders. Project Online/Server is able to take advantage of all the resources that lay within Office 365 and SharePoint. Those resources would be SharePoint lists, Power Apps, Flows, Team, & Planner. And Project Online/Server makes it available for stakeholders to make updates directly into the schedule through several different mediums with all of these inputs having to go through an approval process prior to updating the schedule. The reporting functionality is really impressive. The reporting features within the standalone Project allow the user to quickly cobble together some really impressive metrics that their IPT will find very helpful to managing a project. The reporting layout is really intuitive, and looks something similar to what you would find working with PivotTables in Excel. And the format that is provided for displaying data is really flexible and gives you several options on how to display the data. In a very short time, the user can put together a fairly impressive looking dashboard. But as impressive as the new reporting functionality is, the standalone version is nothing compared to what is available in Project Online/Server. With this version you are able to use Power BI to drive your reporting, which will put you into Superman status with your co-workers.,As impressive as the reporting piece is in the standalone version, currently it does not allow you to report on the data that resides in the custom fields. It's only the standard columns that you can report against. If Microsoft would work to include the data out of the custom columns into the reporting it would make for some really cool reports and would negate the need for exporting the data into Excel for the most part. Even though custom columns allow for formulas to be entered in, there is a max of 256 characters that can be entered. There have been a couple of times that this has created an issue, not only with entering formulas but also with the entry of data from other systems. Doubling the amount of characters for certain custom column types would go a long ways to alleviating this issue.,10,We are currently only now opening the door to these opportunities but do see ways to implement and save in areas that include a reduction of man power and gaining efficiencies and reducing cost and schedule by providing more real time relevant data to our project team which will allow them to make better informed and timely decisions.,Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management,Power BI For Office 365, Microsoft Office 365, MS SharePointGreat Project Management ToolWhen I was in the position I was in I used Microsoft Project for my project management needs. I used this to make sure we were on target with staying within budget for our projects. It was very simple to use and easy to set up. It also has a great interface and showed well especially when presenting the data in meetings.,the simpleness of tracking budget for a project track projects on a task level basis real time what if scenarios in terms of task delay,better built in Visualization capability like One Pager offers as an add on sometimes it feels the software is too big and complex to manage really simple projects There are not many choices of nice icons to use,8,keep track of the risks that the project has with the data that is provided in the template it included the ability to create and manage activity plans, also known as lightweight projects, and personal projects This can also be great for beginners or experts in project managementMS project in higher education environmentMS Project is a very powerful tool in project management. I use it both for work at the IT department and for educational purposes in advanced project management classes. The software enables me to manage resource pools effectively, assign resources to tasks, manage tasks and complex schedules ranging between 100 and 2000 tasks.,Has advanced cost estimation capabilities, as it calculates varying hourly rates, overtime, off schedule work and provides advanced cost reports Easy to use when preparing gantt charts and timelines. Dependencies can be set and auto scheduling can be enabled Takes into account resource calendars, holidays and other unexpected off days Has advanced project management features for crashing activities, leveling resources and handling over allocations You can easily customize and export reports Compatible with Excel,It is hard to understand advanced features without a training or advanced project management knowledge Resource pools feature can be added Team planner and web access would make it a full solution,9,It improved the schedule accuracy which in turn improved the overall efficiency in the IT department Finish project with SPI and CPI close to 1 No more missed or unassigned tasks,Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management,Microsoft 365 Business, Google Analytics, VMware vCenter ServerProject Scheduling SoftwareMicrosoft Project gives the present status of any project and is used to inform the project status to management and customer. Critical paths task can be identified in any project. Gantt chart,Multiple projects scheduling More user friendly May be less cost,7,Easy to track a project status Could not schedule multiple projects Resource constraints of other projects cannot be identified,,Microsoft Office 365, Skype for Business (formerly Lync), AspenONE Engineering, Insightly, Microsoft AccessMicrosoft Project is great for PMs and estimators all alike!I really like this product to make schedules for projects and it gives all of my trades the ability to see schedules that are upcoming and how they need to prepare for the schedule coming up. I use this along with our project managers and we use this for certain clients who require a gantt chart when we submit a bid to them. Having a schedule set gives us the option to be more competitive than another general contractor.,Ease of use Detailed Allows me to make charts Way to make a successful project,I think starting the dates one after another is the hardest part. I would like to see Microsoft Project be a little more colorful, it is a little dull.,10,It has help us with maintaining schedules. It has helped us with overlapping trades and rearranging as needed.One of the Most Robust Planning and Controlling Projects Tool: Microsoft ProjectMicrosoft Project is being used as the official software for creating project planning and controlling project resources across the whole organization.,Allows Collaboration using the File sharing option, this is very useful to share files with other members of your team. Reporting is one of the strengths of Microsoft Project, allowing you to generate great reports with little effort. Allows you to manage multiple Projects at the same time in the same organization; this can be achieved thanks to Master Project Plan feature. Provides multiple views of the projects state, making use of Gantt Charts, resource usage charts, calendars.,The installation can't be done with the same Microsoft Office suite. Requires significant training and experience with the tool to use it effectively. Licenses cost could be somewhat expensive for little organizations.,9,Allows you to use organizational resources efficiently. Budget planning is supported by efficient project planning. Human Resources' time distribution is more controlled,ProjectLibre,Microsoft 365 Business, Skype, WebEx MeetingsMicrosoft Project is a time saver.It is being used by various individuals. It is nice to collaborate on schedules with each other. I also use it to figure manpower and durations based on manpower. I still feel like I'm very new at using Project and don't get to use it as often as I'd like. I'm always learning new tricks and things to make it easier to use.,Being able to tie tasks together so when something changes it makes it easier to track. Being able to create categories for tasks and tie them all together. It's nice to set holidays and not have to remember them when scheduling farther into the future. I've been using it for a while but I don't get to use it as much as I'd like. The is a lot of information and help out there to learn how to use it better.,Linking tasks together and the whole SS-1D or FS+4D is very confusing. It usually takes me a few tries to get it where I want. There is always information to help figure this out, just need to be willing to look and ask. Sorting by date and task can be confusing. At least there's always the undo button. I'm always learning something new that makes using project easier and more beneficial for me. I wish I was able to use or more.,10,It saves a ton of time. A little work upfront says on the back end.,,PlanGrid, Bluebeam Revu,1,,I use Microsoft Project to create job schedules We use it to figure manpower based on task durations We use it to figure durations based on manpower,We use it to calculate manpower needs based on durations of tasks to be performed,I would like to learn how to use it more fully. I only use it for basic schedule building but I know that it can do so much more,10,Not Sure,Prior Experience with the Product,I wasn't involved,Don't know,unknown,5,5,I've never used Microsoft support,Entering tasks and basic schedule building are very simple linking tasks together is simple,Linking task tasks together and trying to work off of SS or FS and figuring exactly what it is calculating from I don't really understand much else other than basic schedule building so everything else seem cumbersome to me,9MS Project Wasn't for UsWe are not actively utilizing MS Project. We found the application to be too cumbersome for associates not familiar with Project Management methodologies or technics, nor familiar with technology. All in all, we felt MS Project did not provide an easy or positive user experience, which would not have allowed for high user adoption.,Ability to track resource capacity. Ability to plot tasks & timelines.,Steep learning curve. Not user friendly due to learning curve.,4,N/A,Smartsheet,Smartsheet, Cisco WebEx Teams (formerly Cisco Spark)MS Project, best overall project management toolMicrosoft Project was the primary tool used by all of the project managers when building and managing our project plans. The reason for this is because the tool is very easy to use, it simplifies the process of building out your WBS, adding resources, determining budget, and identifying timelines. Managing your schedule is made simple as the change you make automatically adjust the timelines and help identify any constraints. Also, the out of the box reporting really makes it easy to share the status of your project. Another advantage is most of your resources will probably be quite familiar with MS Project as its so widely adopted.,I found that MS Project is a great tool for developing your WBS with your team. The tool is great to use during a planning session as it easily allows you and you to enter tasks, determine the sequence, add level of effort, and determine resource requirements. Tracking tracks is made simple. Based of your lead or lag, you can adjust your timelines and determine the best outcome or solutions. Report wizard helps you easily report on the project status, forecasts, resource usage, costs, etc...,I feel there is still some room to improve on the reporting, to possible simplify the exporting of reports and how they can be imported into presentations.,10,The biggest ROI when investing in MS project is the adoption. The teams can quickly and efficiently build a working project plan that can ensure the success of the project. Its can be used to manage the resources, tasks, budget and overall schedule without much effort. There are other tools out there that i have used but none are as simple and effective, in my opinion.,Oracle Primavera Portfolio Management and Smartsheet,Smartsheet, MS SharePointGo for it!Microsoft Project is used across the organization for those that need it. It was used to develop reports and catalogs on IT products and services.,User friendly Multiple designs and color schemes to choose from,AllowS for better collaboration by allowing collaborators to work on the same document at the same time.,8,Overall, the experience with end users has been good and therefore a good return on investment,Microsoft Access, Adobe Acrobat DC, Blackboard LearnProject Scheduling and Managing ToolWe use Microsoft Project in the Engineering Department to schedule our projects. We share the same schedule with customers to inform them of the status of their project on a weekly basis. It helps us to track the project in entirety. And gives an idea to Project Managers and Engineering Managers on the status of the projects.,Detail Project Schedule timelines. Gantt Chart. Highlights tasks in critical path.,It would be great if we can schedule multiple projects in one file. It is slightly complicated for beginners. All the features are not being used because of complexity or lack of expertise.,7,The software is not very expensive, so the ROI is positive as it simplifies the task of Project Managers. The negative is the scenario of an individual project and doesn't help much when we would like to schedule multiple projects with the available resources and within available time. Positive is it's an industry standard software and can be shared with clients as they are familiar with it.,,Skype for Business (formerly Lync), Encompix ERP
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Microsoft Project
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Microsoft Project
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Clancy Short profile photo
August 08, 2019

Agile Development Made Easy

Clancy Short
Score 10 out of 10
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Microsoft Project is a project management tool which helps maintain the agile methodology of project development amongst the team members and company. It makes it easy to monitor developers and assign them work accordingly using Microsoft Project. It is the best way in which software development can be carried out to make most out of the resources you have.
  • Following Agile Methodology
  • Assgining Work
  • Tracking Resources
  • Documentation for Software Developed
  • Requires better documentation
  • Hard for naive or new developers
  • UI improvements
Microsoft Project is very well suited for a large company where various projects are running under different teams and managers above them. It helps best track the human resources that a company has and how they are being used by the company. It increases productivity and helps track their work as well. It follows Agile methodology which is a state of the art project development lifecycle. It is not recommended for small and microscale projects as more time would be spent on managing rather than the original development.
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Joshua Melder profile photo
July 07, 2019

Project is the Industry Standard Large-Scale Project Management Tool for Enterprises!

Joshua Melder
Score 9 out of 10
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I work on a process optimization team within my workspace. It is an administrative job where we perform process audits (for customers), recommend people, process, and technology changes for those customers, and then implement accepted solutions based on our recommendations. It is a relatively small team that has three major components: strategy, implementation, and continuous improvement. We utilize a variety of project management tools in order to successfully carry out our recommendations for completion. Microsoft Project is one tool that has been widely adapted, not only across our team but across most administrative areas in our company. Our business is heavily integrated within the Microsoft ecosystem and Project is one tool that used to achieve our business objectives.
  • Being a Microsoft product, Project integrates extremely well into the Microsoft family of applications!
  • Furthermore, the user interface is similar to other Microsoft applications. Therefore, there is a valuable familiarity out of the box.
  • Project is incredibly detail-oriented and always receiving valuable updates. Project Online is now the cloud-based version of Project.
  • Scheduling works really well for the most part. One can be extremely detailed with Gannt charts and other project management metrics!
  • Remote work can be challenging - as Project must be downloaded to a specific computer.
  • Upgrading to the top of the line version can feel like a requirement. There is a lot of functionality that is not available unless in the most expensive pay-tiers.
  • Microsoft Project can be extremely expensive on a per user basis. Other tools can be much more cost-effective - especially for more basic project management needs.
Microsoft Project is extremely well-suited for larger businesses to tackle long-term project management tasks. Furthermore, it works exceptionally well when the software is accompanied by the entire Microsoft suite. The ability to integrate all aspects of the Microsoft business experience are invaluable and offer unique synergies when navigating Project. I have very much enjoyed Project on the user-interface front and have found the entire process of setting up large scale projects to be one of the most intuitive out of the software that I have used. As stated before, I believe Project is ideal for medium to large-scale enterprises that already subscribe to the entire Microsoft suite of apps. I would be more hesitant if I were working within a smaller business as there are many more cost-effective options out there.
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Robert Paul profile photo
June 20, 2019

Microsoft Project is the industry standard for a reason

Robert Paul
Score 10 out of 10
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I used Microsoft Project to develop the framework of all our projects, and to track their progress and resources throughout implementation. We typically had about 20 projects running at any one time, so it was useful to see everything in one place. While we used a ticketing system for the day-to-day stuff, Project worked better for long-term, per-planned operations.
  • Gantt Charts: Every project manager's favorite thing, MS Project does this very well. A Gantt chart keeps everything in a project timeline visible, and in Project, you can drill down to look at resources, costs, and a myriad of other things. It's also very easy to rearrange items as necessary, either by dragging them around or opening them and manually entering data.
  • Resource Management: Project allows you to set up resources, either as individuals or with type of work (e.g., Bob Smith or Network Engineer I). Within those resources, you can set up hours of availability, when overtime kicks in, costs, and a myriad of other useful items. Then, when you assign them tasks, the software calculates the time needed or how much extra it will cost if you need a resource to work longer on a particular piece.
  • Multiple Projects: With the resource pool and other elements shared between projects, managing multiple projects becomes easier. Project will warn you if resource is over-scheduled, and show which projects that resource is being used on. It'll also show conflicts.
  • Integration: Since this is a Microsoft product, it integrates very well with other Microsoft products, especially those in the Office suite like Excel. That allows you to, for example, export the Gantt chart to a spreadsheet to send to stakeholders, or link it into a Word document.
  • Time Management: Tied into the Gantt and Resource pieces, Project lets you set prerequisites and linked work, so even if you have to adjust steps to deal with scheduling or change management, Project will keep everything organized. It will automatically re-adjust dates and milestones as things are shifted.
  • Expertise Needed: The software is not always easy to use or intuitive. I took several Project courses, on top of my project management certifications, to understand the software better. While all the elements are there for anyone familiar with standard project management processes, it takes experience and training to really get the best out of the software.
  • Collaboration: Project does not work well with multiple users simultaneously. There's no real-time updating, and if we had multiple project managers, there'd be no way to work together on the same projects.
  • Price: Project is expensive, largely due to it being an industry standard.
Microsoft Project is well suited for anyone running a standard, PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) project. It is especially good for managed service providers who need to run projects for clients, not just for support. If you plan to run many projects, either simultaneously or consecutively, this is a good resource.

If you're in a small business and you don't have multiple resources or multiple projects, this is probably not a good solution.
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Cristian Bodnarasec profile photo
August 13, 2019

The former reference software for project management

Cristian Bodnarasec
Score 7 out of 10
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Microsoft Project was for many years the goto platform for project management at eSilicon. Most of the managers from different departments were using it to manage their projects: tasks breakdown and assignment, resource management, tracking tasks progress, etc. While it does the job well, it also has some flaws and things to improve. Due to this, there are many other tools that gained market share in the last several years and will continue to do so even more.
  • You can manage any size project and complexity.
  • The visuals of the timeline and gantt charts.
  • The way task dependencies work and the whole plan gets updated for any change you do.
  • It is so easy to mess up a complex project plan by a simple change and can take hours to fix.
  • It is lacking the collaboration that is so needed these days. You need to use Project Server for that.
  • The cost is a differentiator for many start-ups selling project management tools.
For almost any project size and complexity, Microsoft Project is well suited. It saves a lot of time by helping with project team communication, tasks breakdown, task assignments, resource management, etc. However, you need more collaboration. For example, team members need to update the progress of the task in real-time themselves, so that you have better project tracking and increased visibility into the progress.
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Che Odom profile photo
June 22, 2019

Great for the novice who isn't ready for P6

Che Odom
Score 7 out of 10
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We use it as a quick and dirty backup to P6 scheduling software. We have an in-house scheduling department that uses P6 to schedule our projects. However, for teams looking for a quick schedule that need turnaround when the scheduling team is unavailable or when it just makes sense to make a project themselves (ourselves), we can use Microsoft Project as a little more user-friendly quick option.
  • Schedules and Logic.
  • User-friendly.
  • Easy to learn interface, similar to all Microsoft products, so familiar to most new users.
  • The overall look of the schedules produced is a little lackluster. There are not a whole lot of customization options, and to the construction field, it is quickly recognizable that the schedule was produced in Project. It's not a bad thing, but not the industry standard. I think it would be better to design the output to follow P6 just for credibility. It almost looks a little bit "cartoonish" or juvenile. Now I understand that MS design is certainly "better looking," but this is simply in comparison to the industry standard for credibility purposes.
It is well suited for scheduling quickly, and scheduling by a project team member that may not be familiar with the complexities of other scheduling software. The logic is easy to adjust and understand, and the inputs are easier than typical Primavera products. I overall think that it is a great product, much easier to use, just know that the overall scheduling industry standard is Primavera P6. I am not sure why, or how to address moving that over.
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Gonzalo Justiniani Herrera profile photo
May 01, 2019

One of the basic tools for Construction Management

Gonzalo Justiniani Herrera
Score 10 out of 10
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Microsoft Project is the tool of choice in our organization to create and follow up on construction project schedules. We use it as a planning and decision-making tool.
  • Basic and/or detailed sequencing of activities.
  • Helps determine credible timelines for projects.
  • The resources assignment tool could be made easier. With so many resources to be managed, assigning resources in construction schedules turns them into huge files that are difficult to manage if your computer is modest in processing capacity.
Well suited for all typical projects where tracking of earned value depends mostly on the percent progress achieved.
Less appropriate for projects where tracking depends more on the effort performed by the assigned resources of each activity. For example, in big construction projects where activities depend on the input of many resources like machinery of different types, manpower of different trades, supervision, etc.
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Jay Handleson profile photo
April 10, 2019

Microsoft Project for Financial Projections

Jay Handleson
Score 10 out of 10
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We use Microsoft Project to schedule electrical construction projects. Microsoft Project easily allows for accurate projections when resources are input accurately. Tasking of employees and planning for labor is accomplished easily and it is easy to see when a single labor resource is over-allocated allowing us to decide to increase manpower or adjust the schedule.
  • Auto schedule for holidays and weekends without referencing an outside calendar.
  • Allocate resources for accurate projections.
  • Visualize actual construction progress in the timeline.
  • Multiple views and reports for presentation to construction crews and clients.
  • Import other schedules from Excel would be nice, but that's asking a lot.
Microsoft Project is perfect for small to medium construction projects. Larger construction projects may benefit more from more robust scheduling software. A single contractor on a single project will benefit greatly from Microsoft Project as opposed to no scheduling software and trying to use a calendar method only. Linking of activities prevents missteps of activities when supervised properly.
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No photo available
August 09, 2019

MS Project - A very good tool to manage projects from end to end

Verified User
Score 6 out of 10
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I use MS Project in my group which is the Data Conversion group. We use Project to track and manage our workload which is specific to Database conversions. At any given time we have 50 to 75 active projects that start in Requirements, move on to Design and then Development, Testing and then cut over to Production.
  • MS Project is fairly easy to use. Adding Projects, Activities, Tasks, etc. are easy to add, and adjust when necessary.
  • It offers many different views, so based on your own needs, it is very flexible.
  • The reporting functionality is terrific. You can customize what you need to look at, from a full-blown project, or a more slimmed down version of just key milestones.
  • It can be a little more difficult to work with when you use all of the hooks, bells and whistles that are available. It will take some time for the Novice user to pick all of this up.
  • The columns (if all are used) offers a very crowded view, but I have never used all of these columns and most are hidden, so this may not be an issue to most users of MS Project
  • Graphics need to be brought into the 21st Century.
In my experience, MS Project can actually work for both small and large projects. As noted earlier, there are a lot of bells and whistles that can be used for more complex projects. It is really a flexible piece of software that is driven by the needs and wants of the PM and more importantly, the company.
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No photo available
August 01, 2019

Microsoft Project for your all in one project Management and Creation.

Verified User
Score 9 out of 10
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It helps us to make decision charts and then help to look forward to stick to the plans. It is a great tool as we can make charts for work allocation to different personnel involved in the team. In our department, it helps in creating a budget for different units and one can easily track to the resources and deviation from the same. As it's implementation is easy and cost-effective, I like Microsoft Project personally very much.
  • Work allocation charts
  • Personnel involved and duties and tasks allocated to each individual
  • Short term budgetary goals of each units and departments of our company
  • Deviation chart from budget
  • It needs training for new recruiters as it is much advanced
  • Creating and analyzing project report is still a very complicated task
The best thing is that it can be easily integrated with other Microsoft Tools. Though the pricing is a little expensive it still solves the basic purpose of our organization. Microsoft Project as far used in our organisation is for work allocation, budget and goal setting of different units and different departments.
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April 24, 2019

Excellent cost vs. benefit for Project Management

Verified User
Score 9 out of 10
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It is used at the whole organization as the official and standard tool of project management. Microsoft Project helps the company to address project management capabilities such as budget tracking, project planning, resources allocation, reporting, baseline and actual progress, and many other things. It is an essential piece of our projects.
  • Budget management - You can easily set the available budget and indicate for each activity/resource the necessary amount. Therefore, it is good for the plan & actual budgets.
  • Project management - Key elements such as progress management and critical path.
  • Basic charts - Gantt charts are really developed and compelling.
  • Planned versus actual budgets - Track progress.
  • Baseline management - Manage and versioning of baseline.
  • Resources allocation - Redistribute and rebalance resources across activities.
  • Overall financial management - Microsoft Project is not indicated for complex financial management, such as Net Present Value, S-Chart, and others. It is strongly suggested to complement this capability with either an Excel or integration with SAP or Oracle Primavera Unifier.
  • KPIs and dashboards - Microsoft Project still lacks advanced charts and analytics. This should be complemented as well with other tools/software.
Microsoft Project is well suited for the basic core concepts of project management. It is flexible and allows basically any kind of control and management.

It is not well suited for heavy CAPEX projects, but you can complement it with Excel spreadsheets or any other tools specific to the financial management of the project and portfolio.
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August 13, 2019

Microsoft Project Gets the Job Done

Verified User
Score 8 out of 10
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We use Microsoft Project in the engineering department to manage our water jobs. This helps us coordinate different activities and make sure our projects are on time.
  • Easy to use out of the box
  • Good integration with the rest of our Office suite
  • High price
  • To use it well some training would be necessary
It is useful in a Microsoft shop to keep your software catalog consistant.
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March 13, 2019

Project is great

Verified User
Score 8 out of 10
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I used this at two different companies. With Mortenson, we used it to do the 2-week look ahead schedules for a $480 million 32-month project, that were then given to the scheduler to update the overall schedule in P6. It was cost saving because there were four superintendents that needed to provide an update weekly. The second company used it exclusively for scheduling purposes for periods of a few weeks to a year + from a $100K to $14 mill. Microsoft Project is cost-effective, versatile, and gets easy to use once you get used to using it more and more.
  • First off, the cost is reasonable so a project team can have 4 or 5 licenses compared to a P6.
  • Project is easy to use and gets easier to use the more you use it.
  • I can print effective schedules that are easy to understand.
  • I remember that there were a few files that were corrupted in some way, shape or form, and that forced us to have rebuild and start over.
  • I would like more control over the appearance of the schedule.
  • I would like to see more online support videos.
It is well for suited smaller companies that need to have multiple people creating schedules, projects of short duration, and projects managers that need to create multiple schedules. I think it is not as well suited for large projects but will hold its own if needed.
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Fred Abraham, P.Eng profile photo
October 09, 2018

Microsoft Project: To Use Or Not To Use?

Fred Abraham, P.Eng
Score 8 out of 10
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I was introduced to Microsoft Project the first time in about 2003, while working as a Project Manager for L-3 Communication Systems. The training was left mostly to the latitude of each Project Manager. Microsoft Excel was considered an acceptable safety net, being used extensively in the past. Personally, I used 'Microsoft Project 2000 Step-by-Step'. The learning curve was average for Sciex as an independent contractor, tasked to oversee all steps required to complete the upgrading of two legacy projects and turning them into being RoHS-compliant (RoHS - Restrictions of Hazardous Substances). Sciex is specialized in the design and manufacturing of medical instrumentation. The two projects I was involved with were mass spectrometers. Project was used widely across the company for all projects having a start day and estimated completion day, as recommended by Project Management techniques. The first task that I took upon myself was to estimate the best way to ensure a completion of the project in time since a rather artificial due date was already in place. I proceeded to create a task list followed by a work breakdown structure and as a result, I requested the addition of two additional members to the team, since while the budget was relatively generous, the time constraints were not. Also, I requested from the management to intervene with another company, operating as a sub-contractor to Sciex, to make an effort and beef-up their team. We finished within the budget and schedule.
  • Microsoft Project allows users to input a large and varied amount of detail pertinent to a specific project and then creates numerous varied out reports, as per the specific needs of a certain user working on that project.
  • Microsoft Project is very flexible in relation to the familiarity of a specific user with the Project. Someone with very little knowledge of Project can still input some data and receive some useful reports, without using the whole capability of the package.
  • Project allows a varied types of data to be inputted, such as definition of various subtasks related to the project, time information about the original estimates for tasks and the actual figures, monetary information about the cost of all items required to complete a project (such as rate per hour of specific participants working of a project, cost of equipment to be bought or rented, cost of materials required for project execution, etc).
  • A Project Manager very conversant with Project can get a very large number of reports, each one for a specific need.
  • The Project software package, while being very powerful, it also has a rather lengthy learning curve. A fresh Project Manager which didn't use Project before (due to being in a different role, or using until now a different project management tool) and put in charge of a project having as a requirement the utilization of Microsoft Project for a new project starting very soon, will have a hard time to assimilate all aspects of the package, if he wants to take advantage of Project's full capabilities.
  • While not being exaggerated, the cost of the software package is relatively high (around $650.00) This is maybe not a lot for a company needing one or two packages, but is relevant to a company needing to procure 20 packages.
  • I would like to see more specialty books pertinent to Project. 'Leaning Microsoft Project Step-by-Step' issued by Microsoft themselves and used by me when I started learning Project is a bit cumbersome, unlike other books in their series for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.
Project is very well suited for large projects involving numerous personnel, equipment and materials,and expected to take many months or even years to completion. Also, it is useful when the stakeholders of the project are rather different in their capacity and require rather different types of reports (strictly financial reports, slippage in schedule and how the schedule can be brought back, etc.)

On the other hand, a company specializing in projects that are relatively simple and only have a span of a few weeks or a couple of months would be better off adopting a simpler Project Management tool, one that costs less and has a much shorter learning curve.
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Martín Stricker profile photo
January 25, 2019

An overall great tool for proejct management

Martín Stricker
Score 9 out of 10
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We've been using Microsoft Project in our company for over 2 years. It has been a great implementation for improving productivity via software. We chose Microsoft because we knew we would get the best in terms of quality standards. It has plenty of tools we use daily, such as resource planning and a working timetable. We don't feel the need to upgrade it yet.
  • It has a great portfolio of tools for its price.
  • It's really easy to use, almost everyone can implement it and start using it quickly.
  • The fact that project plans can be accessed basically from any place with an internet connection, making it extremely useful for updating those plans on the go.
  • A little buggy from time to time, but just in some of our team member's experience.
  • UI can be improved, maybe keeping the same design that Office 365 has.
  • It can give sometimes an overwhelming feeling when using this product for lesser projects in smaller companies than it is maybe intended to.
I think it is very well suited for small to medium projects, giving users control to a lot of parameters/tools like flexible schedule configuration, reports on real values versus projected ones and tracking of resource allocations. However, it doesn't give you the option to measure the productivity of the machines or people. It doesn't support Mac, so a PC-based platform is required.
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Jason Leidig profile photo
September 04, 2018

Microsoft Project 2016 - It's come a long ways, and thank goodness, because Project 2007 sucked.

Jason Leidig
Score 10 out of 10
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I am currently using Microsoft Project for a construction project where we are using it to plan out and track Work Packages. We have budgets for each work package and we also have resources loaded for each work package as well. We are able to track both cost and schedule performance using Project.
  • The custom columns and the ability to use formulas within Project allows the user flexibility with respect to the data that they want to display, and how they want it displayed. For example, I was able to enter a formula into a custom column that calculated the week of the project a particular task was scheduled to finish. We have also used custom columns to upload data from other systems into our schedules, for example the work package status out of SAP, and material information as well.
  • Using VBA to automate certain task is very useful and can be a great time saver. For example, I recently worked a program where I was managing 10k+ tasks in a single schedule that were comprised of material, engineering, and production activity, which required inputs from multiple stakeholders. Using data downloaded out of our enterprise systems, I was able to create a single set of data in Excel's Power Query, and I uploaded this data into Project using code developed in the VBA editor. Typically it would take a week or more to manual status a schedule of this size. But because I was able to automate this step, I could update my schedule in 20 minutes. This allowed me to status my schedule on a daily basis, making my schedule more relevant. We were also able to make the schedule more informative: we loaded any kind of material and/or engineering issues in to the schedule, along with comments from other systems that provided benefit to correcting an issue, or to help with taking advantage of an opportunity. Where I worked prior, we received various audits from different entities, and we always received positive input for the kind of data we were able to present.
  • Timelines! Timelines offer the user a way to quickly convey a high level narrative of the schedule. This gives the audience a more efficient way to dive into the schedule. The timeline view can allow for a super clean view of the project, and is great to use in presentation.
  • Project Online/Server - when this version of Project is used it really does turbo charge the functionality that is available to the user and tremendously grows the collaborated engagement with stakeholders. Project Online/Server is able to take advantage of all the resources that lay within Office 365 and SharePoint. Those resources would be SharePoint lists, Power Apps, Flows, Team, & Planner. And Project Online/Server makes it available for stakeholders to make updates directly into the schedule through several different mediums with all of these inputs having to go through an approval process prior to updating the schedule.
  • The reporting functionality is really impressive. The reporting features within the standalone Project allow the user to quickly cobble together some really impressive metrics that their IPT will find very helpful to managing a project. The reporting layout is really intuitive, and looks something similar to what you would find working with PivotTables in Excel. And the format that is provided for displaying data is really flexible and gives you several options on how to display the data. In a very short time, the user can put together a fairly impressive looking dashboard. But as impressive as the new reporting functionality is, the standalone version is nothing compared to what is available in Project Online/Server. With this version you are able to use Power BI to drive your reporting, which will put you into Superman status with your co-workers.
  • As impressive as the reporting piece is in the standalone version, currently it does not allow you to report on the data that resides in the custom fields. It's only the standard columns that you can report against. If Microsoft would work to include the data out of the custom columns into the reporting it would make for some really cool reports and would negate the need for exporting the data into Excel for the most part.
  • Even though custom columns allow for formulas to be entered in, there is a max of 256 characters that can be entered. There have been a couple of times that this has created an issue, not only with entering formulas but also with the entry of data from other systems. Doubling the amount of characters for certain custom column types would go a long ways to alleviating this issue.
Microsoft Project--the standalone version--is great for those smaller to medium size projects. But when engaging larger projects where you are engaging with multiple stakeholders who are providing inputs, then Project Online/Server is the way to go; It does an amazing job by driving collaboration in a multitude of ways.
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Paul Enger profile photo
December 12, 2018

Great Project Management Tool

Paul Enger
Score 8 out of 10
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When I was in the position I was in I used Microsoft Project for my project management needs. I used this to make sure we were on target with staying within budget for our projects. It was very simple to use and easy to set up. It also has a great interface and showed well especially when presenting the data in meetings.
  • the simpleness of tracking budget for a project
  • track projects on a task level basis
  • real time what if scenarios in terms of task delay
  • better built in Visualization capability like One Pager offers as an add on
  • sometimes it feels the software is too big and complex to manage really simple projects
  • There are not many choices of nice icons to use

The biggest issue this helped me resolve was that I can now view the actual schedule and make changes if I need to rather than getting a PDF of the schedule and having no control of the document. The benefit of this is that I can edit the schedule to realize hypothetical scenarios and dates for a particular project.

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Timothy Sawah profile photo
September 27, 2018

MS project in higher education environment

Timothy Sawah
Score 9 out of 10
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MS Project is a very powerful tool in project management. I use it both for work at the IT department and for educational purposes in advanced project management classes.
The software enables me to manage resource pools effectively, assign resources to tasks, manage tasks and complex schedules ranging between 100 and 2000 tasks.
  • Has advanced cost estimation capabilities, as it calculates varying hourly rates, overtime, off schedule work and provides advanced cost reports
  • Easy to use when preparing gantt charts and timelines. Dependencies can be set and auto scheduling can be enabled
  • Takes into account resource calendars, holidays and other unexpected off days
  • Has advanced project management features for crashing activities, leveling resources and handling over allocations
  • You can easily customize and export reports
  • Compatible with Excel
  • It is hard to understand advanced features without a training or advanced project management knowledge
  • Resource pools feature can be added
  • Team planner and web access would make it a full solution
I use MS project as a basis for building all my project schedules. After which i import to another team managed web application. It is very useful when you have complex dependencies and over 50 activities. On the other hand, It is not easy to understand by team members with no prior knowledge in project management. It is not always the best idea to share mpp files with management as it will be hard for them to understand what is going on.
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RAMKUMAR GUDIPATI profile photo
December 18, 2018

Project Scheduling Software

RAMKUMAR GUDIPATI
Score 7 out of 10
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  • Microsoft Project gives the present status of any project and is used to inform the project status to management and customer.
  • Critical paths task can be identified in any project.
  • Gantt chart
  • Multiple projects scheduling
  • More user friendly
  • May be less cost
Microsoft Project is utilized by the whole organization, but it's primarily used by the Project Management team. Microsoft Project is used to schedule the every individual project. Microsoft Project gives the present status of any project and is used to inform the project status to management and customers. Resource dependency and critical paths task can be identified in any project.
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Leticia Waller profile photo
November 21, 2018

Microsoft Project is great for PMs and estimators all alike!

Leticia Waller
Score 10 out of 10
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I really like this product to make schedules for projects and it gives all of my trades the ability to see schedules that are upcoming and how they need to prepare for the schedule coming up. I use this along with our project managers and we use this for certain clients who require a gantt chart when we submit a bid to them. Having a schedule set gives us the option to be more competitive than another general contractor.
  • Ease of use
  • Detailed
  • Allows me to make charts
  • Way to make a successful project
  • I think starting the dates one after another is the hardest part.
  • I would like to see Microsoft Project be a little more colorful, it is a little dull.
I use Microsoft Project whenever I am putting together a bid and my PMs use it for the entirety of the project. We use it to make deadlines (or beat them) and discuss when our trades will be in.
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Richard Vizcaya profile photo
September 27, 2018

One of the Most Robust Planning and Controlling Projects Tool: Microsoft Project

Richard Vizcaya
Score 9 out of 10
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Microsoft Project is being used as the official software for creating project planning and controlling project resources across the whole organization.
  • Allows Collaboration using the File sharing option, this is very useful to share files with other members of your team.
  • Reporting is one of the strengths of Microsoft Project, allowing you to generate great reports with little effort.
  • Allows you to manage multiple Projects at the same time in the same organization; this can be achieved thanks to Master Project Plan feature.
  • Provides multiple views of the projects state, making use of Gantt Charts, resource usage charts, calendars.
  • The installation can't be done with the same Microsoft Office suite.
  • Requires significant training and experience with the tool to use it effectively.
  • Licenses cost could be somewhat expensive for little organizations.
Microsoft Project is well suited for medium projects where stakeholders need to access projects information constantly and the sharing of reports is very frequent.
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February 11, 2019

Microsoft Project is a time saver.

Verified User
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
It is being used by various individuals. It is nice to collaborate on schedules with each other. I also use it to figure manpower and durations based on manpower. I still feel like I'm very new at using Project and don't get to use it as often as I'd like. I'm always learning new tricks and things to make it easier to use.
  • Being able to tie tasks together so when something changes it makes it easier to track.
  • Being able to create categories for tasks and tie them all together.
  • It's nice to set holidays and not have to remember them when scheduling farther into the future.
  • I've been using it for a while but I don't get to use it as much as I'd like. The is a lot of information and help out there to learn how to use it better.
  • Linking tasks together and the whole SS-1D or FS+4D is very confusing. It usually takes me a few tries to get it where I want. There is always information to help figure this out, just need to be willing to look and ask.
  • Sorting by date and task can be confusing. At least there's always the undo button.
  • I'm always learning something new that makes using project easier and more beneficial for me. I wish I was able to use or more.
I like being able to copy directly to Excel for certain items and vice versa. Linking tasks can get very confusing. It requires a lot of time up front but will save a ton of time in the long run. I'm still learning, and as I do, it becomes so much easier to use.
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December 10, 2018

MS Project Wasn't for Us

Verified User
Score 4 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We are not actively utilizing MS Project. We found the application to be too cumbersome for associates not familiar with Project Management methodologies or technics, nor familiar with technology. All in all, we felt MS Project did not provide an easy or positive user experience, which would not have allowed for high user adoption.
  • Ability to track resource capacity.
  • Ability to plot tasks & timelines.
  • Steep learning curve.
  • Not user friendly due to learning curve.
I believe MS Project is best suited for an organization with a Project/Program Management Office, which will be managing projects. For organizations wanting front line users or departmental managers to create and track their own projects, I would suggest an alternative to MS Project.
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November 26, 2018

MS Project, best overall project management tool

Verified User
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Microsoft Project was the primary tool used by all of the project managers when building and managing our project plans. The reason for this is because the tool is very easy to use, it simplifies the process of building out your WBS, adding resources, determining budget, and identifying timelines. Managing your schedule is made simple as the change you make automatically adjust the timelines and help identify any constraints. Also, the out of the box reporting really makes it easy to share the status of your project. Another advantage is most of your resources will probably be quite familiar with MS Project as its so widely adopted.
  • I found that MS Project is a great tool for developing your WBS with your team. The tool is great to use during a planning session as it easily allows you and you to enter tasks, determine the sequence, add level of effort, and determine resource requirements.
  • Tracking tracks is made simple. Based of your lead or lag, you can adjust your timelines and determine the best outcome or solutions.
  • Report wizard helps you easily report on the project status, forecasts, resource usage, costs, etc...
  • I feel there is still some room to improve on the reporting, to possible simplify the exporting of reports and how they can be imported into presentations.
MS project is a very versatile project management tool that can be used for all project sizes. I have used MS Project to manage multimillion dollar projects and also for developing a simple test plan. Its biggest advantage is its ease of use as the interface is very intuitive and best of all if you need assistance there are tons of tutorials and courses one can take to get you up and running in no time.

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February 15, 2019

Go for it!

Verified User
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Microsoft Project is used across the organization for those that need it. It was used to develop reports and catalogs on IT products and services.
  • User friendly
  • Multiple designs and color schemes to choose from
  • AllowS for better collaboration by allowing collaborators to work on the same document at the same time.
It is well suited for creating reports that are easy on the eye and have various graphics.
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December 12, 2018

Project Scheduling and Managing Tool

Verified User
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Microsoft Project in the Engineering Department to schedule our projects. We share the same schedule with customers to inform them of the status of their project on a weekly basis. It helps us to track the project in entirety. And gives an idea to Project Managers and Engineering Managers on the status of the projects.
  • Detail Project Schedule timelines.
  • Gantt Chart.
  • Highlights tasks in critical path.
  • It would be great if we can schedule multiple projects in one file.
  • It is slightly complicated for beginners.
  • All the features are not being used because of complexity or lack of expertise.
To schedule an individual project where we know the tasks in the sequence and the time it takes for each task. Microsoft Project is very useful to keep track of scheduled time versus actual time taken for any task, and also to know the status of given project at any point of time, and to communicate the same with clients.
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Microsoft Project Scorecard Summary

Likelihood to Recommend (425)
8.0
Likelihood to Renew (2)
10.0
Usability (5)
8.2
Support (6)
6.3
Implementation (1)
5.0

Feature Scorecard Summary

Task Management (67)
8.5
Resource Management (64)
8.3
Gantt Charts (64)
8.9
Scheduling (66)
8.7
Workflow Automation (48)
7.5
Team Collaboration (59)
6.9
Support for Agile Methodology (43)
6.5
Support for Waterfall Methodology (43)
8.0
Document Management (40)
7.1
Email integration (48)
7.2
Mobile Access (37)
6.8
Timesheet Tracking (38)
7.6
Change request and Case Management (32)
7.1
Budget and Expense Management (46)
8.1
Quotes/estimates (24)
8.0
Invoicing (20)
7.0
Project & financial reporting (40)
8.4
Integration with accounting software (25)
7.4

About Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is a project management software. It provides core project management and planning functionality, including agile workflow tools like Gantt charts. The software provides prebuilt workflow and report templates for rapid deployment. Project also enables resource management and planning and integrates with BI tools and other 3rd party programs. It can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise.
Categories:  Project Management

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Microsoft Project Technical Details

Operating Systems: Unspecified
Mobile Application:No