User not ready for MS Project Suggestions?

[Louie Landkirk]

Greetings and Thank you In Advance:

I am the IT Director at a non-profit that serves as a training, research,
and funding umbrella for some 40 other programs across our state. Being a
non-profit, we are underfunded and since we are in human services, people are
not neccessarily very computer saavy. That being said, part of my job is to
launch several IT initiatives throughout our organization.

I would like to pilot a project managment initiative within our small
office. I have worked with Microsoft Project in the past and love a lot of
the features. However, I do not believe Project would be the best use of
funds. The learning curve is too complex, plus getting non-technical people
"on-board" with something like this is a headache.

Does anyone know of a good template/plug-in for Excel or for another office
product that would allow users to develop projects containing just the basics
(Project Tasks, Deliverables/Milestones, and GANTT chart). If there is
nothing for Office, is there a product that is free and/or inexpensive to
purchase that just does the basics mentioned above?

 

[davegb]

Greetings and Thank you In Advance:

I am the IT Director at a non-profit that serves as a training, research,
and funding umbrella for some 40 other programs across our state. Being a
non-profit, we are underfunded and since we are in human services, people are
not neccessarily very computer saavy. That being said, part of my job is to
launch several IT initiatives throughout our organization.

I would like to pilot a project managment initiative within our small
office. I have worked with Microsoft Project in the past and love a lot of
the features. However, I do not believe Project would be the best use of
funds. The learning curve is too complex, plus getting non-technical people
"on-board" with something like this is a headache.

Does anyone know of a good template/plug-in for Excel or for another office
product that would allow users to develop projects containing just the basics
(Project Tasks, Deliverables/Milestones, and GANTT chart). If there is
nothing for Office, is there a product that is free and/or inexpensive to
purchase that just does the basics mentioned above?

If you Google for "Gantt Chart Software", you'll get a lot of hits on
all kinds of products to do what you need.

Hope this helps in your world.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Visio has a number of project planning tools that you might want to take a
look at.

 

[Ratheesh]

Louie,

Sorry I am not sure about any other softwares that may meet your requirement.
But if you are looking for a simple solution than you can achieve it via MS
Excel itself like Project Tasks, Deliverables/Milestones, and GANTT chart
(Use the rectangle option in MS excel to manually construct the gant chart)
but you will not get any of the scheduling capabilities that MS project
provides.

Hope this helps.

 

[tonyzink]

Hi Louie --

I'm going to answer your question with another question...

What is the true reason why you are considering MS Project... or any
project scheduling software?

The real power of MS Project is its scheduling engine, and its ability
to provide a platform for the user to create dynamic project schedules.
If the users are simply going to use the tool for recording / reporting
task lists and dates, then it doesn't matter which scheduling software
you use... it will be wasted, and they should simply use MS Excel for
that.

However, if your users want to take the time to build project schedules
that can be used as a tool for accurately reporting project status, as
well as forecasting future performance, then MS Project is the answer.
It's very reasonably priced when you consider the functionality that
you get... especially when you consider its interoperability with the
other MS Office apps.

If you can convince your Project / Program Managers of the power of
building dynamic schedules using MS Project, but you still have a tool
adoption problem on your hands because of the learning curve, then
perhaps you can identify a smaller number of project analysts /
schedulers who can become the MS Project experts for all of your
organization's projects / programs. This is how some larger
organizations run their large programs... they have Program Managers
who deal with the higher-level management, and they have teams of MS
Project-savvy analysts / schedulers who work with the Program Managers
to develop and maintain the project schedules.

Please let me know if you'd like more details.

Good luck!

Tony Zink
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[Kiki]

** Open Workbench **

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Open Workbench? Maybe better than MS Project in some aspects but far more
complex; he who isn't ready to accept advice from Project will be just as
unhappy with a neraly equivalent competitor!

 

[Amir K]

Louie,

I have the perfect tool for your needs, and perhaps even the perfect
framework for your org to consider joining!

Please take a look at the "Standard" (not Project) edition of
www.groove.net. Groove is now a MS company and will be as common place as MS
Outlook when MS Office 2007 Enterprise and MS Office Groove are launched. It
already integrates VERY WELL with MS Office.

I am also an officer of a not-for-profit organisation which exists purely to
educate other people and organisations to collaborate more. We use what is
called an Enterprise Management Server to run Groove for our "members" as if
we where all part of the same large global organisation. Think of it as an
'enterprise only' version of Groove that can be downloaded from groove.net
---- rather than Groove.Net managing the accounts, we create and manage
accounts (and user devices) ourselves.

It could be that your organisations could benefit from collaborating. Please
contact me direct to explore opportunities further. Otherwise, enjoy groove -
as I have for the past 3 years+!

Kind Regards,
Amir