Is MS Project the best/most commonly used piece of software for PM?
Chris Harkinsformer operations manager| noneCosta Mesa, Ca, United States
I used MS Project ~15 years ago but didn't take that career path until now. Is it still the go-to platform for PM? Any recommendations on where to take a class again?
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Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Believe it or not, at least until recently, Outlook (sorry, no reference) was the most widely used Project Management tool. I would say because most businesses are a Microsoft shop, MS Project or MS Excel.
I don't know how much a class would help. Check out MPUG - https://www.mpug.com Saving Changes...
Product Operations Program ManagerBarcelona, Cataluña, Spain
MS Project alone is a good scheduling tool. If embedded in Share Point, even better. Saving Changes...
Deepa KalangiManager, Program Management, Author, Trainer| CVS HealthCharlotte, NC, United States
MS project is still the best. I don't know of a special class but I know most PM trainings offer a complimentary MS project course. There are some good youtube videos to learn. Saving Changes...
Sten SoderbergECM Solution Manager| ConsolisVärmdö, Stockholm, Sweden
I was responsible for introducing MS Project as project management tool in our Swedish Corporation (about 1000 people). My lessons learned (as from many other IT-applications) is that MS Project could been used in so many ways and that it has so many functions where people only use 2-3% of them. Some persons are just interested in the GANT, but there you have the area of automatic or manual task, different kind of relations and constraints. Then you have the resource area, working with different schedules, costs and reporting. And then you have the formulas where you easily slip into VBA-programming and connection to other systems.
The best way of learning MS Project is according to my opinion, Youtube where you easily can search and find the guys teaching it the style you like.
Since I’m a guy thinking about “why” – I would be very interested to hear more about your ideas (requirements) regarding MS Project. What kind of problem would you like to be solved my using MS Project (besides that it can be very impressive and/or keeping bosses nose out of your project when showing tons of nice graphs and charts, communicating that you have 150% control of everything in the project).
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1 reply by Eduard Hernandez
Aug 03, 2017 5:18 AM
Eduard Hernandez
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Sten, you make very valid points. As with any other software tool, the level of knowledge/usage is often low, and in the case of MS Project limited to create Gantt Charts (sometimes without resources, baseline, etc, just a nice colored chart...).
Anyhow, one of the biggest challenges when using MS Project Online is time writing. The theory "Garbage in = Garbage out" holds true more than ever. Thus, educating a vast number of people in time writing and in the related process becomes essential to effectively manage projects/programs/portfolios.
Product Operations Program ManagerBarcelona, Cataluña, Spain
Aug 03, 2017 4:33 AM
Replying to Sten Soderberg
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I was responsible for introducing MS Project as project management tool in our Swedish Corporation (about 1000 people). My lessons learned (as from many other IT-applications) is that MS Project could been used in so many ways and that it has so many functions where people only use 2-3% of them. Some persons are just interested in the GANT, but there you have the area of automatic or manual task, different kind of relations and constraints. Then you have the resource area, working with different schedules, costs and reporting. And then you have the formulas where you easily slip into VBA-programming and connection to other systems.
The best way of learning MS Project is according to my opinion, Youtube where you easily can search and find the guys teaching it the style you like.
Since I’m a guy thinking about “why” – I would be very interested to hear more about your ideas (requirements) regarding MS Project. What kind of problem would you like to be solved my using MS Project (besides that it can be very impressive and/or keeping bosses nose out of your project when showing tons of nice graphs and charts, communicating that you have 150% control of everything in the project).
Sten, you make very valid points. As with any other software tool, the level of knowledge/usage is often low, and in the case of MS Project limited to create Gantt Charts (sometimes without resources, baseline, etc, just a nice colored chart...).
Anyhow, one of the biggest challenges when using MS Project Online is time writing. The theory "Garbage in = Garbage out" holds true more than ever. Thus, educating a vast number of people in time writing and in the related process becomes essential to effectively manage projects/programs/portfolios. Saving Changes...
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