MS Project suitable for all projects?

[Jay]

Hi all,
I'm trying to gather information about what kinds of
projects MS Project is best suited for. I was hoping that
anyone out there with experience using Project could weigh
in. Have you found MS Project useful (usable?) for your
biggest projects? Smallest projects? Is there a
particular class of projects (software or product
development, strategy and analysis work, etc) in which
Project was especially helpful for you? Specifics would
be great (i.e. "MS Project was great for our 3 month long
systems upgrade project, but proved unable to handle our 2
year strategic plan with multiple initiatives and over 100
resources")

I realize that this is a very general question but I
thought that there might be some people with opinions on
this board. As background, I work for small consulting
firm that does both project management and strategy work.
My boss has asked me to provide a recommendation on
whether MS Project will work for us - essentially whether
the time and hassle of learning the application is worth
the savings in efficiency and accuracy.

Thanks for you input!

Jay

 

[Cheryl]

Hello Jay
As with any application, You can't always get it to do everything you want, like you want. I have been using Project for 10+ years. I have used it to track very simple projects to very complex ones. I have used it to tie Multiple Subprojects into a Master Project. The subproject approach is great for the individual groups. They only see what they own. The Master is good for upper mgmt to get an overall view. It is a very powerful application
Cheryl

 

[Trevor Rabey]

Better to ask "is the critical path method useful? That's what MSP is all
about and MS did not invent it but just packaged the arithmetic. It was
inevitable that they or any number of others would do this since the
arithmetic in the CPM is really very simple but there is just an awful lot
of it, ie perfect for software.

As for different kinds of projects, how many kinds are there and what are
they? I prefer to acknowledge that projects can be different but they are
more similar to each other than different. A project is a project is a
project. If it has tasks, durations, resouces, costs and predecessor links
then it is a project. The Romans knew this even if they hadn't distilled it
into a BOK when they built 200 ships in 45 days for the invasion of
Carthage.

You say that your firm has been doing project management. Perhaps I am too
much of a purist but I would assert that if you have not been basing what
you have been doing on the CPM, and using tools to do it with then whatever
you have been doing is not project management. If you can't identify a CP
then you really have nothing to manage.

More often, the thing that has not been able to handle some kinds of
projects has not been the software, but the organisation's internal systems.
If you can't produce a full list of tasks with good estimates and way of
communicating the plan and a way of reporting and tracking progress, if you
don't have a good understanding of CPM throughout the project team and if
you are not prepared to devote effort and resources to making it work then
don't imagine that a mere $1000 worth of software will make it happen.