project tools

[mp]

I need advise about project tools for software project management.

What are you think what is good choice based on your opinion?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Steve House]

Can you go into more detail on your question? Not sure just what you're
asking about - project managment software, development tools, what?

 

[JackD]

Try excel

-Jack

 

[mp]

I am looking for something similar like MS Project.
I would like to know what other options are?

Thanks

 

[Steve House]

There are quite a few out there - suggest you searh in Google for "project
management software" and spend some time surfing the results.

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

 

[mp]

I know that, thanks. I am trying to get info based on experience with
different tools. I can not believe as MS Project is only one.

Thanks

 

[JackD]

I've used a number.
Look into Primavera and Scitor. Both make good scheduling tools which I have
used in the past.
I use MS Project now because it meets my needs.
You need to tell us what you want to do before anyone can make a good
recommendation.

-Jack

 

[davegb]

It's been a long time since I used other scheduling software besides
MS Project. I did a quick check to see what's still out there. It
appears that some are gone, but there's still a few of the others
left. Since Project came on the scene, it's taken about 85% of the
market, last time I heard any numbers, and the others scrap over the
15% left.
Let's start by narrowing the field a bit. "Project Management
software" is a misnomer. I know of no single sofware package to help
you do all aspects of PM. MS Project and it's unable to compete
competitors are scheduling software. You still have to do Risk,
Quality, Communications, Cost, etc. to do PM. We're talking scheduling
software here.

There are the heavy hitters, like Artemis and Primavera, intended for
high end users doing enterprise wide scheduling and costing, and take
a long time to learn and understand. They have probably improved since
I last looked at them. And I'm sure they all still have their
strengths and weaknesses. I can tell you a few basic differences that
I'd bet still exist between Project and the others.
The fundamental difference is the original approach taken by the
companies developing these packages, mostly back in the middle to late
eighties when they were developed (and when I started using them). As
far as I know, the other companies, ABT, CA, etc., started with
schedulers who then instructed programmers to write code to do what
they did when they scheduled a project. MS, on the other hand, had the
programmers, so they hired experieced scheduling expert consultants to
advise the programmers to write the code. In theory, this should work
about as well as the other method. In practice, a lot was lost in
translation. In the early 90's, I met one of the 5 consultants MS
hired to help develop MS Project for Windows, Version 1. To quote him,
"We all agreed {the five consultants] that none of us had ever been
paid so much to be so thoroughly ignored". The genisis of Project,
since that time, has been to move away from the many "features" that
were put in against the advice of knowledgeable schedulers in order to
make the program functional. This is why, even today, "features" like
"Auto link inserted or moved tasks" still exist, and are even turned
on by default. No one can successfully link a schedule until they
figure this problem out and turn off this feature. The MS programmers
must have thought they were making scheduling easier, and on the
surface, they were, but in the long run, linking is just something the
end user has to do, software can't know this. At least not yet. I
talked with a number of people at MS during the mid nineties,
including the head of the Project development team, and never met
anyone who knew anything about scheduling beyond how MS Project
attempted to do it.

The advantages of the other software packages I've used in the distant
past (ABT Project Workbench, CA Superproject, Timeline) is that they
follow scheduling best practices. They don't lead you into traps that
you have to figure out and then work around. On the other hand,
Project has the widest support, like this forum, and the best
application of the GUI, something MS does know best.

When a client asks me which software to use, I do a needs assessment
first, find out how they intend to use the progam. Then I research
what's out there on the net, and get as much info as I can on each
product. Then I take the needs and the features comparison to the
client and help them make a choice. I don't support any other programs
other than Project anymore, just isn't much market there, so I try to
find them someone who can support them if they choose someting other
than Project. I suggest you do something similar.

Hope my rambling helps. Best of luck finding what you need.

David G. Bellamy
Bellamy Consulting

 

[mp]

Thanks David, I appreciate your help.

Do you know for some good web based solution (Project management, time
mngmt, gant etc. as usually)

It's been a long time since I used other scheduling software besides
MS Project. I did a quick check to see what's still out there. It
appears that some are gone, but there's still a few of the others
left. Since Project came on the scene, it's taken about 85% of the
market, last time I heard any numbers, and the others scrap over the
15% left.
Let's start by narrowing the field a bit. "Project Management
software" is a misnomer. I know of no single sofware package to help
you do all aspects of PM. MS Project and it's unable to compete
competitors are scheduling software. You still have to do Risk,
Quality, Communications, Cost, etc. to do PM. We're talking scheduling
software here.

There are the heavy hitters, like Artemis and Primavera, intended for
high end users doing enterprise wide scheduling and costing, and take
a long time to learn and understand. They have probably improved since
I last looked at them. And I'm sure they all still have their
strengths and weaknesses. I can tell you a few basic differences that
I'd bet still exist between Project and the others.
The fundamental difference is the original approach taken by the
companies developing these packages, mostly back in the middle to late
eighties when they were developed (and when I started using them). As
far as I know, the other companies, ABT, CA, etc., started with
schedulers who then instructed programmers to write code to do what
they did when they scheduled a project. MS, on the other hand, had the
programmers, so they hired experieced scheduling expert consultants to
advise the programmers to write the code. In theory, this should work
about as well as the other method. In practice, a lot was lost in
translation. In the early 90's, I met one of the 5 consultants MS
hired to help develop MS Project for Windows, Version 1. To quote him,
"We all agreed {the five consultants] that none of us had ever been
paid so much to be so thoroughly ignored". The genisis of Project,
since that time, has been to move away from the many "features" that
were put in against the advice of knowledgeable schedulers in order to
make the program functional. This is why, even today, "features" like
"Auto link inserted or moved tasks" still exist, and are even turned
on by default. No one can successfully link a schedule until they
figure this problem out and turn off this feature. The MS programmers
must have thought they were making scheduling easier, and on the
surface, they were, but in the long run, linking is just something the
end user has to do, software can't know this. At least not yet. I
talked with a number of people at MS during the mid nineties,
including the head of the Project development team, and never met
anyone who knew anything about scheduling beyond how MS Project
attempted to do it.

The advantages of the other software packages I've used in the distant
past (ABT Project Workbench, CA Superproject, Timeline) is that they
follow scheduling best practices. They don't lead you into traps that
you have to figure out and then work around. On the other hand,
Project has the widest support, like this forum, and the best
application of the GUI, something MS does know best.

When a client asks me which software to use, I do a needs assessment
first, find out how they intend to use the progam. Then I research
what's out there on the net, and get as much info as I can on each
product. Then I take the needs and the features comparison to the
client and help them make a choice. I don't support any other programs
other than Project anymore, just isn't much market there, so I try to
find them someone who can support them if they choose someting other
than Project. I suggest you do something similar.

Hope my rambling helps. Best of luck finding what you need.

David G. Bellamy
Bellamy Consulting

"JackD" <momokuri@gmail> wrote in message

Try excel

-Jack

 

[Gary L. Chefetz \(MVP\)]

mp:

There are plenty of other tools you can look at: Primavera, Kintana (now
Mercury), to name a couple. You'll be hard pressed to get recommendations
for other tools by asking in a Microsoft sponsored forum.<g> I can tell you
this: Other enterprise-capable tools are far more expensive and more
difficult to learn and support. Microsoft Project enjoys the near ubiquity
that other Office products enjoy, including the distinction of being the
tool that young people are most likely to learn in school. Further,
Microsoft Project is the only major PM tool gaining market share at this
time, according to Gartner.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
"We wrote the book on Project Server
http://www.msprojectexperts.com

-

 

[davegb]

I posted this reply last week, somehow it never got here.

My last reply was to look at my previous reply, that is, as far as web
based solutions, look at the reply I made on needs assessment and so
forth, and apply it to online solutions.

David G. Bellamy
Bellamy Consulting

Thanks David, I appreciate your help.

Do you know for some good web based solution (Project management, time
mngmt, gant etc. as usually)

It's been a long time since I used other scheduling software besides
MS Project. I did a quick check to see what's still out there. It
appears that some are gone, but there's still a few of the others
left. Since Project came on the scene, it's taken about 85% of the
market, last time I heard any numbers, and the others scrap over the
15% left.
Let's start by narrowing the field a bit. "Project Management
software" is a misnomer. I know of no single sofware package to help
you do all aspects of PM. MS Project and it's unable to compete
competitors are scheduling software. You still have to do Risk,
Quality, Communications, Cost, etc. to do PM. We're talking scheduling
software here.

There are the heavy hitters, like Artemis and Primavera, intended for
high end users doing enterprise wide scheduling and costing, and take
a long time to learn and understand. They have probably improved since
I last looked at them. And I'm sure they all still have their
strengths and weaknesses. I can tell you a few basic differences that
I'd bet still exist between Project and the others.
The fundamental difference is the original approach taken by the
companies developing these packages, mostly back in the middle to late
eighties when they were developed (and when I started using them). As
far as I know, the other companies, ABT, CA, etc., started with
schedulers who then instructed programmers to write code to do what
they did when they scheduled a project. MS, on the other hand, had the
programmers, so they hired experieced scheduling expert consultants to
advise the programmers to write the code. In theory, this should work
about as well as the other method. In practice, a lot was lost in
translation. In the early 90's, I met one of the 5 consultants MS
hired to help develop MS Project for Windows, Version 1. To quote him,
"We all agreed {the five consultants] that none of us had ever been
paid so much to be so thoroughly ignored". The genisis of Project,
since that time, has been to move away from the many "features" that
were put in against the advice of knowledgeable schedulers in order to
make the program functional. This is why, even today, "features" like
"Auto link inserted or moved tasks" still exist, and are even turned
on by default. No one can successfully link a schedule until they
figure this problem out and turn off this feature. The MS programmers
must have thought they were making scheduling easier, and on the
surface, they were, but in the long run, linking is just something the
end user has to do, software can't know this. At least not yet. I
talked with a number of people at MS during the mid nineties,
including the head of the Project development team, and never met
anyone who knew anything about scheduling beyond how MS Project
attempted to do it.

The advantages of the other software packages I've used in the distant
past (ABT Project Workbench, CA Superproject, Timeline) is that they
follow scheduling best practices. They don't lead you into traps that
you have to figure out and then work around. On the other hand,
Project has the widest support, like this forum, and the best
application of the GUI, something MS does know best.

When a client asks me which software to use, I do a needs assessment
first, find out how they intend to use the progam. Then I research
what's out there on the net, and get as much info as I can on each
product. Then I take the needs and the features comparison to the
client and help them make a choice. I don't support any other programs
other than Project anymore, just isn't much market there, so I try to
find them someone who can support them if they choose someting other
than Project. I suggest you do something similar.

Hope my rambling helps. Best of luck finding what you need.

David G. Bellamy
Bellamy Consulting

"JackD" <momokuri@gmail> wrote in message

Try excel

-Jack


I need advise about project tools for software project management.

What are you think what is good choice based on your opinion?

Thanks in advance.