Microsoft Project Review
Our company has a business that invests in land and then builds and sells houses on these plots. We use Microsoft Project for resource …
Starting at $10 per user/per month
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What is Microsoft Project?
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.
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Popular Features
- Gantt Charts (103)10.0100%
- Scheduling (105)9.999%
- Task Management (106)9.090%
- Resource Management (103)6.969%
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$10
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$30
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Project Plan 5
$55
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What is 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.
Microsoft Project Integrations
Microsoft Project Competitors
Microsoft Project Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Windows |
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
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.
Earliz and Cerri Work are common alternatives for Microsoft Project.
Reviewers rate Gantt Charts highest, with a score of 10.
The most common users of Microsoft Project are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Reviews
(51-75 of 107)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
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.
August 08, 2019
Agile Development Made Easy
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
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.
June 23, 2019
Great for the novice who isn't ready for P6
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.
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 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.
April 24, 2019
Excellent cost vs. benefit for Project Management
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.
April 10, 2019
Microsoft Project for Financial Projections
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.
March 14, 2019
Project is great
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.
February 15, 2019
Go 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.
December 12, 2018
Project Scheduling and Managing Tool
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.
December 12, 2018
Great Project Management Tool
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
December 10, 2018
MS Project Wasn't for Us
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.
November 27, 2018
MS Project, best overall project management tool
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.
November 21, 2018
Microsoft 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.
October 09, 2018
Microsoft 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.
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.
September 27, 2018
MS project in higher education environment
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.
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
September 04, 2018
Microsoft 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.
August 17, 2018
Excellent project management tool
Microsoft Project is currently being used to plan, manage, and coordinate the different steps/teams involved in the creation of web applications within our development group. It allows upper management to have a quick and easy way to view what is currently occurring within the development process. It also allows us to provide easy and quick information to stakeholders regarding the status of their project.
- Task Management
- Project Reporting
- Project Workflows
- As usual with Microsoft products, it can be difficult sometimes to find exactly what it is that you are looking for.
- Would be nice if there was more integration with third-party products.
Microsoft Project is currently used to track the pace of the project and set up the guidelines of the PM structure. Since we have several projects on the go at same time, we decided to start using MS Project as a company standard app to collaborate and store the advancement stages of each project and how they line up with the company goals.
- It's a great tool to manage resources, costs, people involved, assignments, and many other things.
- It allows the integration with other MS Tools like Power BI, Excel and PowerPoint to strengthen & enhance project collaboration
- The Office 365 version is such a great option to run into major collaborative scales, using Skype for Business conference or GoToMeeting hands-on.
- Advanced features will require a moderate effort to conquer the complex learning curve.
- Reports and Dashboards insights can turn your goals into unsatisfactory results, and this can make it hard to truly stay on top of projects.
- You must have a standard version in all your company computers, or you may experience lack of visuals and features.
July 27, 2018
Microsoft Office for Educational Projects
People have the option to use Microsoft Project but it isn't required. For those who manage people and multiple simultaneous projects, it is super helpful to have as an option. We have multiple projects going on all through out the year that require the attention of several different people, so Microsoft Project is good for that.
- Automated scheduling is super helpful, especially when you have hard deadlines.
- It's extremely visually intuitive and you don't have to search around until you stumble into something.
- It's an easy way to share information among a team that isn't necessarily all in the same place. Also nicer than Google Drive (which a lot of people use).
- If work didn't pay for it, I don't think I would pay for it. There are free options I could use (for what we're doing, but for some people they might need it).
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I work as a coordinator of a laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico. In this role, I have to supervise graduate students to complete their research, thesis work or any particular project. Also, when we are writing proposals for research we need to provide a detailed plan of our research project. MS Project helps me manage the time these kinds of project take. In addition, it helps to elaborate on Gantt charts using task dependencies in case something unexpected occurs and the project gets delayed.
- The Gantt chart tool has many options to manage costs and time in an organized way.
- The file created in MS Project may be exported to be used in another MS Office software.
- Customer support coming from Microsoft is great. There is always an article or forum to help me.
- I would like MS Project to be more user-friendly. There are some functionalities that keep being hard to use like the time organization.
- It should have a way of exporting a nice and well presented PDF document to be shared. Today is very hard to create a nice image showing the goals.
- I think it should have integration with internet and social networks in order to engage other people to work together in an easy way.
June 14, 2018
MS Project, still clunky - still works :)
Used for project managements slightly differently for each product. I used it to keep the input of my projects in order. Others in the company use it for managing the entire development project. Again, I mainly use it for managing my deliverables for all of the projects that I am involved in.
- Gantt charts Gantt charts Gantt charts! It is the best tool for flexibility of creating and updating the scheduing charts
- Flexibility and ease of updating relating certain tasks relating to or relying on other tasks.
- The resource management tools are very useful
- Integration with the other Microsoft tools that we also all use.
- With not every team member using project, is difficult to share the full plan.
- Not super intuitive as other MS products...but not that bad.
April 26, 2018
Microsoft Project - It is for everyone.
Microsoft Project is used on every project to coordinate with our customers to provide accurate timelines for all work related activites. From material orders, fabrication to installation and start-up, this software is utilized quite a bit.
- Project Analysis / Estimation
- Current status of Activities
- Sub Contractor Coordination
- Ease of use.
- Integration from other software.