At the risk of sounding like a Microsoft junkie, I am in the process of getting approval for the Visio Connector to MS Project. In v2003 you could use the connector to create a WBS in Visio from data in Project. The following MSDN article details what you can do in 2007:
I am also taking advantage of the new visual reports in Project 2007.
Because most of my stakeholders do not have MS Project, I use Project to export snapshots of project milestones into other apps, such as MS Word, in addition to visual reports, in order to create customized reports that provide the level of detail stakeholders are looking for (nobody, not even project managers, REALLY want to go through hundreds of lines of project tasks to review project status). Saving Changes...
OK - so it's taken me six months to reply, but I do have a very specific answer to your question.
The add-in tool that I find essential is Pert Chart Expert from Critical Tools. This gem will display the network that underlies all plans in MS Project in ways that communicate better than any list of tasks or reports. Unlike the tool in MS Project, you can display as many fields in each box as you need and the boxes can be organized by WBS and/or time-phased. Once you have the network displayed you can edit it within the application and the changes will be reflected back into your project. Editing in graphic mode is so much easier.! The list of things you can do with this add-in is almost endless. Out of the box, it displays the critical path in red. You filter to display all the critical path dependencies in both directions. It's the cliche about a single picture vs. words.
Mostly I use it to prepare filtered, time-phased charts that have the connected boxes arranged by columns of finish dates. I make sure that the person's name appears in large print. By filtering to display only a 'reasonable' period of time, people are able to "see" where there work comes from and who gets it when they are done. Makes it easy for people to talk to each other about handing work off. You can't do that very easily in a Gantt Chart.
I choose the time scale to match the review periods. All I have to do is go down the column and ask each person if they are done with the task. The display eliminates all doubt about when your work was planned to start or when you should have been done.
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