We are operating the software with novice users and the rich functionality is
causing problems with people getting confused and taking ages to set up
simple plans.
The question is; is there someway of temporarily limiting the functionality
of MSProject 2007 until they all get the hang of the basics of task, start
date, relationships, resources.
Though not a popular recommendation with many of my peers, I often advise
clients that they are trying to train too many people to use Project. I
suggest that only a few of your staff should know it, and that they
advise/train the others in it's use. But the "others" don't need to know
how to implement it themselves. I do this for the following reasons:
1. Background - before you can use Project, or any other CPM based
schedulihg software, you need to know CPM. This takes time, it's not just a
matter of knowing the variables and the forward and backward path, but all
that it implies, which is considerable. You also need to have a fair
knowledge of Project Management.
2. Project, and it's competitors, are complex applications. Go look at the
"Tools, Options" dialog box alone. Do you really expect that even your low
level users would attain a real understanding of all of that? But even a
rather simple schedule could require, to be done properly, some changes
here.
3. If the casual users are your Project Managers, they are "occasional"
users. They start a new project every few months at the most, every year or
two in many cases. So they haven't used Project from the start for months
or years when they sit down to create a schedule. They're back on the steep
side of the learning curve again. And again.
I advise that you get a couple of people (at least two, in case you lose
one) to become experts in Project. Send them to school to start, then give
them a full time assignment to learn it. Then have them do everyone else's
schedules. This way, they are setting up projects all the time, and are
familiar with this process. After they train the users in how to maintain a
schedule, the users can keep their schedules updated on their own.
Those places where they took my advice on this have done much better in the
long run than those that insisted that their PM's should be able to create
CPM schedules on an occasaional basis.
Hope this helps in your world.
