Microsoft Project Reviews

My primary use case is to take advantage of Microsoft Project Server to plan and track program project work at an enterprise level. Particularly, to enable tracking of actual project and program costs across multiple business lines.

The look and feel is familiar for users of the Microsoft Office Suite of applications. It is pretty straightforward to use. If you are not from a professional scheduling background, you could open it up and you would see how to do some pretty basic things without too much training.

It's most useful feature is that it interfaces with Project Server which enables a whole portfolio or enterprise perspective across the organization.

Project Professional is a powerful tool with many features and functions available for an experienced scheduler with advanced scheduling knowledge and skills. One primary problem that we have is that users that are new to project management and scheduling find it a little overwhelming when they are first introduced to the tool, particularly when they are introduced to features required to enable enterprise level planning and reporting. 

To address this, we are creating a trial of custom views that mask some of the complexity involved to enable project cost estimates, effort records and resource assignments to be consumed at an enterprise level. Some people find having to fulfill enterprise level task and resource assignment rules a little overwhelming and frustrating when all they want to do is a simple project plan.

I haven’t experienced any stability issues with Project Professional client – problems can however occur on the server side depending on the number of custom fields used, and number and nature of dependencies created by multiple users in a single master schedule with links embedded in multiple project records.

Some users can create some very convoluted inter-dependencies and schedule conflicts that can impact performance of reporting at an enterprise level.

We have around 700 active projects and over 4,000 users, at times the product is slow – this is often a result of insufficient server capacity.

At present, we have in-house tech support. We really on Microsoft Partners with Project Server and Sharepoint Server experience for support occasionally.

I have had experience using Primavera and Open Plan Professional previously. I personally find Project Professional to provide the same functionality from logic and scheduling perspective.

The packaging of Microsoft Project Professional for enterprise use is relatively straight forward. The end-to-end enterprise implementation with Project Server is complex. Most of the complexity is on the people and process side of set-up for an enterprise rather than for a single project.

I am not involved with this.

My suggestion is to do  homework and compare what other products are out there and how well they will fit with your organisation. This one's okay. I've personally used a range of different products, all potentially good choices, it just depends on the operating context and culture of the organization whether it's going to fit, or not. 

• To manage projects in the area of telecommunications and infrastructure

• The control of time and money is paramount in today's world, with this tool it is possible to assign activities, resources, periods of duration, calculation of costs, calculation of deviations, reporting, among others.

• The monitoring, control and corrective actions are possible with this tool.

• Lifting of work plans
• Assignment and effective control of the resources of the organization
• The establishment of baselines allows the project leader to take corrective actions in case of deviations.
• It ensures quality and efficiency in each activity.
• Control of project costs.

• Application of hierarchies on activities
• Reassignment of resources in case the program detects an excessive workload on a particular resource
• Comparison with the baselines
• The possibility of automating repetitive activities utilizing "Visual Basic for applications"
• Robustes in the calculation of costs
• It's easy to use.
• Combined with a project management methodology such as PMI for example, it is effective for monitoring and control.

• The productivity of resources

• The tool allows the allocation of resources to the activities, however, if I want to measure the productivity of someone in particular, it is not so simple.

We use the solution for its Gantt diagrams and resource planning features.

The solution provides a better project view with the help of Gantt charts. As well as the resource planning features help us streamline tasks efficiently.

The solution could be easier to use. We require some assistance in case of tedious tasks.

We have been using the solution for many years.

The solution is stable. I rate its stability as an eight.

We have around ten users of the solution in our organization.

The solution's initial setup was straightforward.

Our in-house team, including engineers and system administrators, implemented the solution.

I rate the solution as a seven.

We use the solution to manage the timeline for projects.

The solution is easy to use.

The solution's portfolio management and project management features need enhancement.

The solution is stable. I rate its stability a nine.

The solution is easily scalable for new versions and features. I rate its scalability an eight.

I have used different products before. Later, I decided to switch to Microsoft as it is user-friendly.

The solution's initial setup is easy. It takes a few hours to complete.

The solution is expensive. I rate its pricing as a nine. We purchase a yearly basis license for it.

The solution is easy to use but needs to be more comprehensive. I rate it as a seven.

It's mainly for project management or portfolio projects, managing schedules and workloads, and assigning tasks.

One of the best features is that it is easy to use.

It is positioned at the more high end. Sometimes it's more complicated than we need, so we look at other solutions that might be cheaper. So, the pricing could be better.

I've been using it for around twelve months. We are using the latest version.

It is a stable solution.

It is a scalable solution.

The customer support is good. I am very satisfied. 

The initial setup is straightforward. It's just downloading the initial file version, and it can be done on the same machine. It took me half a day to deploy it. 

It can be done in-house or with the help of a third-party integrator or consultant.

I have seen ROI.

It is a subscription-based model.

It's a handy tool for budget management.

Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten.