I am in the process of deciding on a PM software package for my company. One of the main features I am looking for is the ability to have a set group of resources shared by many different projects and be able to keep track of them easily. I am also interested in being able to track resource costs so that I can assess actual product costs. I am looking at JobOrder, Primavera Project Planner and SukeTrak and Microsoft Project. My take on Microsoft Project is that it is hard to manage a pool of resources over several different concurrent projects. Has anyone had experience with these or can anyone recommend alternatives? Any help greatly appreciated.
One other comment I forgot to add to the above: what about learning curve for teh above? While I have had a good deal of experience with PM, I haven't had much experience with PM software (outside of using Project to track individual projects).
Pam OppenheimSr Director| Siemens IT Solution and ServicesBoca Raton, Fl, United States
Microsoft Project will support a commmon resource pool across multiple projects. But, it is less than an ideal situation - the resource pool needs to be set up first and should be in project file by itself. All the other plans just reference it. There is no way to stop folks from addingd resources in their own plans - duplicating or avoiding entries in the master. There is also no why to enforce the allocations of resources across the projects - so you will see over allocations but the individual project managers have to sort out the implications.
All in all, while MSP 2000 is much improved over previous versions, it is still very light-weight when it comes to managing resources across multiple projects and providing any kind of reasonable resource leveling. Saving Changes...
Given the comment that MSP 200 is still "lightweight" in the are of resource leveling....are their any andd in tools to MSP that make up for this?
At our compnay, the full time PM's like ABT Workbench mostly because of it's robust resource leveling functions. The problem with workbench is it's steep learning curve...
Microsoft is most definitely lightweight in resource management and leveling. Also, if you are planning on using their Project Central add-on...DON'T!!!!
One of our divisions works intimately with Microsoft...and word out of one of their development conferences was that Project Central has enormous architecture issues. They are currently reworking the whole thing...primarily due to a number of failed implementations.
All of the tools you mentioned above are adequate to the task of assisting PMs in managing resources.
Another tool you might want to peruse is Rational Concepts' I-Schedule. It has a very effective resource management functionality. You can draw on common resource files...do skill scheduling...etc. Moreover, its entirely written in Java. You can access everything from the Internet...which none of the tools you've listed above can do. Its extremely easy to use and learn; we had no problem with implementation whatsoever.
One caveat...I-Schedule does not currently have a resource scheduling algorithm. However, I am told that it will be included in the December update.
