Before I completely give up on Entourage Projects...

[Pitch]

Before finally and completely letting go of the idea of using Entourage
2004's potentially great Projects as a way of tracking my large
projects for 2006 and beyond, I wanted to find out if anyone has a
story (yours or some link) of someone truly successfully using it to
track large, long-term business development plans, such as taking a
product from idea stage to completion.

E'rage Projects has been one of those "I think I can use it if I can
just learn it better!" things in my life. I don't think a week has gone
by since Office 2004 came out (bought it immediately) where I haven't
opened up Project, or read another article or book on it, trying to get
my mind around using it. Part of the problem for me is that I have yet
to meet anyone (live or on the Internet) who actually is using it to
track and organize a large business project. I'm a big fan of modeling:
if I can see an example of how something is used, I can usually get it.


As the year end approaches, I'm going to give it one last go around
this next week, and then dive deeply into the world of OmniOutliner Pro
(with its cool add-on, kGTD from www.Kinkless.com).

Anyone out there just loving Projects and think it's the cat's meow for
your million-dollar dream idea?

Bueller? Bueller?

 

[JE McGimpsey]

Anyone out there just loving Projects and think it's the cat's meow for
your million-dollar dream idea?

First, I wouldn't use Project Center for my million-dollar projects.
It's not intended for, nor designed for, that size project.

Nor would I use an outliner, or an outliner plus a beta add-in to do so.

I regularly manage $250K-$25M projects. I use full-fledged project
management software, from Primavera P3, or Microsoft Project (running on
a Windows box, or, in a pinch, in VPC) to Mac-apps like FastTrack,
GoldenSeal, SharedPlan, PMX, or even Project Desktop. I've got one
client now who insists on BaseCamp, but I'm not very comfortable with it
yet.

OTOH, I also typically have 3-8 small ($50-$50K) projects going at once.
For them, Project Center is ideal, and I use it all the time to track
commitments, correspondence, and files. For small independent projects,
where I don't need sophisticated scheduling or financial tracking, it's
much more convenient - just being able to automatically see
correspondence from clients is a big plus.

It's especially helpful when I get a call from a client while I'm
working on another client's job - switch to Entourage, select the
caller's project, and I've got everything laid out in one place. I can
make notes right in Entourage, and when the call is done, I can update
tasks and schedules, then switch back to what I was working on before in
a heartbeat.

 

[Pitch]

A very thoughtful and educated reply, JE. Many thanks. I have a lot to
think about! Much appreciated.

 

[Melba's Jammin']

Before finally and completely letting go of the idea of using Entourage
2004's potentially great Projects as a way of tracking my large
projects for 2006 and beyond, I wanted to find out if anyone has a
story (yours or some link) of someone truly successfully using it to
track large, long-term business development plans, such as taking a
product from idea stage to completion.

E'rage Projects has been one of those "I think I can use it if I can
just learn it better!" things in my life. I don't think a week has gone
by since Office 2004 came out (bought it immediately) where I haven't
opened up Project, or read another article or book on it, trying to get
my mind around using it. Part of the problem for me is that I have yet
to meet anyone (live or on the Internet) who actually is using it to
track and organize a large business project. I'm a big fan of modeling:
if I can see an example of how something is used, I can usually get it.


As the year end approaches, I'm going to give it one last go around
this next week, and then dive deeply into the world of OmniOutliner Pro
(with its cool add-on, kGTD from www.Kinkless.com).

Anyone out there just loving Projects and think it's the cat's meow for
your million-dollar dream idea?

Bueller? Bueller?

I'm not a business person nor do I play one on Usenet, but for some
reason, it just doesn't seem to me that a feature or component of an
email program was meant for a project of that size. That maybe you
should be using something else.

My husband teaches a Project Management class to ME students and grad
students at the U of MN. MS Project (functional for 120 days - a
semester) comes with the textbook he uses. He says it's got a good Help
file and a tutorial. I know it's an expensive app for permanent use; I
don't know what the textbook that contains the temp disc costs. His
comment was, "Tell them the biggest value of MSP is scheduling
resources. Don't buy it to make a Gantt chart - you can use Excel for
that." FWIW.