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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Project Plan 3
$30
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per user/per month
Project Plan 5
$55
On Premise
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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
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April 18, 2018
Microsoft project has really made my life easier
I am the IT project manager for the company I work for and I live and breathe Microsoft Project. Before using this software, I was stuck with using Excel spreadsheets to track project statuses and milestones. As the projects got more complex, Excel just wasn't doing the job anymore. I presented Project to Exec. management and we made the purchase and tracking my projects have gotten so much easier once you get past the steep learning curve.
- Ability to track Milestones
- Ability to track Resources
- Has a really good Gantt chart
- Steep learning curve
- To get the full suite with the Project server, it is very expensive
- Printing the project plan is a bit challenging
April 14, 2018
Projects in line with Prince2
We are a telecoms company and currently use Microsoft Projects for our phone system installation projects. This includes on premise and hosted solutions depending on the customers requirements and broadband / connectivity options. This compliments our existing use of the Microsoft Office / 365 products. This allows for project management in line with our Prince2 project management framework.
- Project Planning
- Project Tracking
- Cost analysis vs budget
- Time analysis vs budget
- Not industry specific - No templates for Telecoms
- Difficult to learn initially
- No integration / API's for 3rd party collaboration tools
March 16, 2018
General purpose power tool --for good and for bad
Our organization relies at many levels on the Microsoft platform, from desktop operating systems, to productivity (Microsoft Office 365), and additional services such as storage (One Drive, etc). So we do use Microsoft Project on certain occasions. The main need is resource coordination and project planning. Most users use the desktop app, we haven't deployed many on mobile devices so far.
- Generic, classic projects with well defined constraints
- Gantt-based planning
- Waterfall methodologies
- Agile project planning
- Vague requirements
- Domain-specific applications
February 08, 2018
Project Management
In my organization, Microsoft Project is used purely for managing, monitoring and showing the progress of software developments. The Gantt [charts] are developed through Microsoft Project and are then shared and in this way continuously updated on the timing of development and delays if there were any.
- Management of multiple resources on heterogeneous projects
- Easy project sharing
- Helps in the sudden change of scheduled tasks
- If shared the user must have a locally installed project
- Working with many resources makes it difficult to view the Gantt chart
- Working on very long projects and others that are too short makes the chart not very effective
MS Project is used to track fairly complex drug development projects. Typically these projects run over multiple years and have hundreds of interlinked and interdependent activities across a multitude of functional groups. MS Project serves as the universal tool by which project team members and management can monitor project progress, identify obstacles early on to take corrective actions.
- Easy set up for a project and additions/deletions of activities is straightforward
- Interfaces well to many other Microsoft programs
- The basic feature set is easily accessed by any user quite easily. More advanced functionalities are accessible to those who need them
- Server additions are costly and needed for true sharing between local users
- Printing functionalities and flexibility need to be enhanced to better window section of project plans to print
- Tiered training programs would enhance broader utilization within organizations
January 26, 2018
Microsoft Project - Not for our team
Microsoft Project is used in some departments but not across the board. In our department, we have two licenses.
- Helps keep transparency in a project.
- Keeps tasks visible to the entire team.
- Shows time needed to complete and allows you to work backwards from deadlines.
- Microsoft project is not intuitive to the user.
- It can be challenging to use the software effectively because it does not feel user friendly.
- When you move one task, you need to make sure to reset all the precedents.
{It's being used for} Project management, collaboration, scheduling, creating timelines to visualize schedules, created project reports that allow us to visualize data, assigning project tasks in order to better utilize time, outlining project goals and keeping track of resources and research, and keeping track of project team members.
- Schedule management
- Project management
- Data visualization
- Doesn't have as many integrations as other project management software
- The calendar doesn't sync well with other calendars
- Can only be installed on a limited number of computers
January 17, 2018
Your Project Needs Project!
We use Microsoft Project to schedule and track work across the organization. Everything from short (1-2 months) to long (12-18 months), cross-functional and individual contributor. Microsoft Project offers the versatility that we need when something more dynamic than an Excel spreadsheet is required to plan tasks, durations, dependencies, and resources.
- Critical path management
- Automatic scheduling of tasks
- SharePoint integration with Project Server
- Formatting the page for printing Gantt charts is always a challenge if you want it to be legible without a microscope.
January 05, 2018
Meet Deadlines with Happy Resources
We utilize it for government and commercial IT projects in our professional services organization. All professional services contracts use Microsoft project in the proposal stage and during pre-assessment to outline the approach we will be taking in milestone format.
We have found it essential during kickoff to review the detail tasks within each milestone to obtain consensus with our clients that we are meeting their objectives and the project will be tasked and resourced properly. This avoids scope creep due to unclear milestones.
We have found it essential during kickoff to review the detail tasks within each milestone to obtain consensus with our clients that we are meeting their objectives and the project will be tasked and resourced properly. This avoids scope creep due to unclear milestones.
- Resource Assignments are integral when you have several complex projects occuring during the same time frame and utilizing the same resources across those projects which include different skills. The resource usage sheet allows a program manager to see where a resource is over committed or needs assisstance.
- Small companies are able to stay on task and meet timelines by using the Inspect and Respect links features of MS Project to ensure that dependencies are addressed if delays affect other tasks.
- Report features are essential to small companies to track, not just the resource utilization but to allow accounting and C-level to see costs analysis from the beginning of the project, each week to the end. These costs help C-level in planning for future projects as ongoing projects are spending up or down.
- Program Management using MS Project can be a heavy handed task at times, it would be nice to see in AI in some of the combining features to alleviate the overhead of checking each project detail to ensure the Program is reporting accurately
- The export to Excel can be more friendly in allowing the fields to all export into one worksheet rather than three.
November 02, 2017
Base Software for Advanced working
It is used across the department. Mostly comes in play to reorganise the structure of a project and its dependencies when working remotely. It addresses spontaneous changes and adjustment for validation of data. Microsoft Project can get detailed reporting but can stall at times.
- Fix dependencies in reporting
- Remote access for scheduling changes
- Spontaneous development
- Stalls with no details of missing dependencies
- Requires a learning curve
- More detailed requirements for basic reporting
October 31, 2017
MS Project vs. Others
We use Microsoft Project to plan and track literally hundreds of projects concurrently. The resource pool capabilities allow for consistent utilization of resources. Most fall short in that they are unaware of the complete capabilities or functionality of Project.
- Resource allocation if the resource pooling is utilized.
- Load leveling, to insure realistic timelines.
- Financial tracking provided all data is loaded.
- Automatic updates has always been a problem area.
- Portability if a user is mobile, data required is not always available.
- It would be much better if it was a cloud-based app.
September 19, 2017
Go with the gold standard on this one (Project Planning and Scheduling)
I use it to manage very large (>5M line) software projects with large teams. For me it's both an invaluable planning tool, as well as a status roll-up tool. If it were integrated into source code management, it would be even better. Nonetheless, it's without peers in project management, and I've used them all.
- It's very well integrated with other Microsoft office tools. This saves me a lot of time when I'm writing up stuff for my team. I manage a lot remotely, so we rely a lot on written communication, otherwise I'm up all night with different geographies.
- It's way too easy to get lost in the details. Microsoft Project has a great 'roll-up' view for overall projects or big parts thereof.
- We have a number of very scarce resources, like academic advisors. While we don't control their schedules, we need to 'ration' access to them, and Microsoft Project is great at handling all sorts of resources. As we've gotten into more 'borrowed lab" engagements, we've been able to schedule and manage scarce physical resources as well. Better calendar integration would make that a lot easier, though.
- Really good calendar integration, in all modalities.
- A more expert-AI advisor. Each release has come with its own learning curve. I'm remiss in reading up on each new feature, as I primarily upgrade for hopefully improved security and support.
September 14, 2017
MS Project is the software of choice for Project Managers
Our company and I myself use MS Project for project planning. It is used to support our internal and external stakeholders. It allows us to monitor tasks and ensures any dependencies are actioned by the assigned task owners.
- Project Planning
- Task assignment
- Task tracking
- Create an MS Project viewer similar to a .pdf viewer which allows non-users to easily view rather than having to copy & paste to MS Word.
- Make it collaborative and online for easy sharing.
September 05, 2017
MS project used by Project Manager
It's used to as a tool to plan and manage projects. It's a common tool to use for standard communication to clients and internal stakeholders. It could help us to save time since there are automated features such as scheduling when we change durations which help a lot. Rather than using Excel or another tool and putting effort into scripting or making updates manually, MS Project would give us time for coffee.
- Automated calculation
- Easy to use, even for newbies
- Standard report available
- New versions like 2016 - it's hard to manage the font (look and feel). Even with ctl+a and set fonts, when adding a new take, it turned out to be the original font. Better to have the same standard as the Microsoft family.
- Stability of auto schedule. Sometimes when setting the auto take, the schedule does not change when changing either the duration or dependency.
- Compatibility with another, well, exporting as Excel or XML is not a choice since it might not import [completelly] to another project management app. Knowing it is a paid app, but the world has changed already, people are looking for open souce. So if it cannot be used compatibly, people will have to choose to pay or move completely to open souce. Tough decision!
- Mac version, please.
As a project manager, I review time lines and schedules produced using Microsoft Project regularly. I produce my own timelines for tracking projects through their lifecycle using Microsoft Project as well. Many project managers on my team also have experience with this software in the same capacity. Microsoft Project easily produces the visual trackers that we need to assess proposals and track Tasks periods and Milestones during a project's lifetime.
- Provides easy to read visual Gantt charts for quick communication of project timeline and milestones
- Provides an intuitive user interface to create Gantt charts
- Allows for very quick changes to the timeline and automatic adjustments
- An easier syncing system to Microsoft Outlook would be helpful for alarms and calendar reminders
- Allowing a task to be variable would be a plus
August 25, 2017
Good scheduling program for general use
We used MS project for granular scheduling of manufacturing projects at plant level and below. Our company level project management software (Windchill) was not well suited to quickly adapting and updating detailed schedules at lower levels. MS Project gave us the ability to schedule projects at a lower level level within the company and a higher level of detail than Windchill.
- Critical path analysis
- Linking tasks and automatically updating the schedule as things change
- Quickly and easily update the schedule with changes
- Didn't really use the man hour calculations.
- If you don't understand how to correctly link and build your schedule, it's easy to lose many of the benefits of the program.
August 04, 2017
Microsoft Project overview
Microsoft Project is a tool that is used by our company to manage the schedule on smaller projects that last less than 1 year. The simple interface and linking allows multiple user to collaborate and update the same schedule. The use of this program is limited to only those projects that deem the benefit worth the cost.
- User interface. The usability is easy for a first time user but there are plenty of tools that take years to master.
- Ease of modification. I will sit in meetings and change some criteria on the front end to develop a scenario that is more appealing to the owner/architect.
- Not a standalone tool for jobsite collaboration. This tool is specifically utilized on small projects only because it does not seamlessly integrate with our daily reporting or change management software. This issue really does not detract from the value of the software because it is not designed to completely replace the other project management tools.
- Difficult to advance beyond the basics. Once the beginning is understood, it requires patience and training to advance your scheduling skills. As with any software, there is a learning curve, but there are only a handful of people in our office that can dive deep enough to fully utilize this scheduling tool.
July 28, 2017
Love MS Project
MS Project is being used across the organization. Our department is using MSProject to manage large scale projects for Provider data projects - working to build new systems and programs. MS Project is being used by IT and business alike to manage projects that make for a better customer experience.
- My favorite thing about MS project is management of predecessors. When set to automatic and when managed well, MS Project handles downstream impacts to date changes and resource constraints. MS Project makes my life much easier
- I like how MS Project allows me to add vacation and holiday dates and helps me to build my schedules around these
- I like how MS Project allows for granularity in scheduling and tracking project costs.
- When I click on a task, I would like a text edit bar a the top of the screen to make changes. It is sometimes challenging to click on that task in just the right sequence/timing in order to make that change quickly.
- MS Project, when not associated with a server, does not have good reporting. It would be great if MS Project gave the ability to design your own reports. Layout, corporate logos, etc. A tool that allows you to make it look like you want it to look.
- More filtering options
June 26, 2017
In time with Project
It is used by our IT project management team to manage IT projects for our organization. It keeps us organized and breaks our projects down into smaller manageable chunks.
- The work breakdown structure is very useful in splitting a project into manageable pieces.
- By organizing a project it allows us to stay better up to date on timelines and deadlines.
- The entire project team is kept more in the loop on where a project stands and their role within the project.
- Interface is clunky at times and not always intuitive.
- The auto timeline features are nice but cause more issues than they resolve thus are most often just turned off.
June 13, 2017
MS Project Sucks for Small Biz
MS Project has been used in a few facets of our development cycle, primarily to allocate tasks among team members and maintain a central timeline for our larger client engagements.
- MS Project is extremely standard. The UI and functionality did not stand out from competitors, and that made adoption very smooth.
- Project is good at tracking a small number of broad tasks, but simply took too much manual control to scale up or use in an agile process.
- Death by minutiae! I'm a busy guy, so tracking complex projects became a massive waste of time.
- Being the only person with access to the file, I was the only one able to log project updates. This was a huge PITA.
March 30, 2017
Microsoft Project - A Must for Advertisers
Every project manager at my company uses Microsoft Project to create and manage project timelines for all our advertising initiatives. Microsoft Project helps our teams and clients keep project deadlines in mind and allows for easy adjustments if needed.
- The program allows for simple visualization of your project's timeline.
- Allows the user to easily make timing adjustments that automatically change future dates accordingly. This ensures that the user does not create and timing issues that they do not catch.
- The program has a number of settings that the user can use to make timeline creation very easy (i.e. ability to add in non-working dates).
- A tutorial would be good. There are a lot of advanced functions that the user may not know about unless told by someone else.
- When a user receives an error due to incorrect predecessor settings, a more detailed explanation of why that is happening would be helpful.
- The GANTT chart from a timeline is rather difficult.
March 27, 2017
Microsoft Project Explained
Microsoft Project (MS Project) is used throughout Carestream. I specifically use it within the information technology department. MS Project is used to help us manage our IT projects from a work breakdown structure level.
- MS Project handles dependencies very well. You can link tasks to show relationships and manage delivery constraints.
- Assigning resources to tasks is a great feature in MS Project. This will show the work to be accomplished and who is responsible.
- MS Project does not have examples or templates for different methodologies and frameworks like waterfall or agile.
- It would be nice if MS Project could provide some templates or examples of simple and complex projects
- Provide more tutorials and videos for how to start and set up a project.
March 22, 2017
The Good and Bad of Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project is used for planning what we grade as a medium to large-scale project. Depending on the size and scope we may have a completely detailed project plan with everything from project management activities (scheduling meetings) to a simple task list. Project is included in our project methodology as a key tenant used to control dates, resources, and budgets on projects.
- Illustrating resource constraints based on availability and resource allocation on a project.
- Project will keep track of budgets if you include hourly rates for resources and track actuals. This is one of the more advanced features that if fully-implemented helps you project out more accurate costs and timelines.
- Creating custom reports with open tasks, assigned person(s), upcoming tasks and overdue tasks helps keep the project team members accountable.
- Project does require a fair amount of training and repetitive use to fully maximize the tool. Basic tracking with dates and personnel can even become difficult and/or not as useful if things are done out of order.
- There are many 'endless loops' you can get in to with both auto-scheduling and manually scheduling tasks with predecessors and constraints. I highly recommend auto-scheduling all tasks as they force you to gather ROM's from task owners.
- I do not personally like the Gantt chart that Project displays as it seems hard to read and provides little value to me. This may be personal preference as I've built Gantt charts in other applications that I believe are much more informative in a visual manner.
February 14, 2017
Microsoft Project - Scheduling for all
We use Microsoft Project for all of our project schedules. The information is easy to read and pass onto our external stakeholders.
- Easy to naviagte
- The Gantt Chart makes it easy to see any overlaps
- It's easy to pass along to external stakeholders as an attachment
- Maybe an alternate view of the Gantt Chart
November 18, 2016
An easy to use planning and project management tool
I had used MS Project to schedule the activities of a construction project during my internship at the University of Texas at Austin. It was used across the board. It's fairly easy to use and understand.
- Easy to use.
- Clean interface.
- Doesn't have capabilities like Primavera.
- It's at a very basic level.
- No customizable capabilities.