Project 4.0

Rating:
Summary: Microsoft Project 4.0
Review: An excellent tool to develop timelines and plan projects. Could use some additional upgrades to make it more user friendly and comprehensive.

Rating:
Summary: An Improved Communications Aid
Review: Everything the other reviewers have stated about this software is probably true. It is complex, it provides no planning phase shortcuts and you do need to activate it. Personally, I believe authors are entitled to piracy protection - and Microsoft is no exception.

Project management is inherently complex; this software reflects that fact. In practice Project Management is part science, part practice, part communication and part art form. I am convinced the pre-project planning saves countless hours of frustration during the project specification and production phases. No software will ever help with those negotiations.

However, once the project is underway, Microsoft Project proves its mettle. One of my biggest struggles with on-going projects is communication - with team members, sponsors and management. Here Microsoft Project 2000 is invaluable. It offers Project Central, a Web-based portal, which empowers team members to input their daily work time on each task, and have it automatically update Project. In the past the project manager was required to input this data.

There is a module for Earned Value calculations, which can be used to provide sponsors and management an early warning of project slippage.

My only complaint is that it is difficult to roll a sub-project up into a master-project. If anyone has a solution to this problem that carries all the data with it, e-mail it to me. I will be forever indebted to you.

Rating:
Summary: An Improved Communications Aid
Review: Everything the other reviewers have stated about this software is probably true. It is complex, it provides no planning phase shortcuts and you do need to activate it. Personally, I believe authors are entitled to piracy protection - and Microsoft is no exception.

Project management is inherently complex; this software reflects that fact. In practice Project Management is part science, part practice, part communication and part art form. I am convinced the pre-project planning saves countless hours of frustration during the project specification and production phases. No software will ever help with those negotiations.

However, once the project is underway, Microsoft Project proves its mettle. One of my biggest struggles with on-going projects is communication - with team members, sponsors and management. Here Microsoft Project 2000 is invaluable. It offers Project Central, a Web-based portal, which empowers team members to input their daily work time on each task, and have it automatically update Project. In the past the project manager was required to input this data.

There is a module for Earned Value calculations, which can be used to provide sponsors and management an early warning of project slippage.

My only complaint is that it is difficult to roll a sub-project up into a master-project. If anyone has a solution to this problem that carries all the data with it, e-mail it to me. I will be forever indebted to you.

Rating:
Summary: Needs Patching
Review: Helps get projects moving, a great piece of software until around the 50th time you run it when it shuts down. I cant find any patches to repair this problem.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to set up, but...
Review: I have to agree with the other review about the difficulties to install Project 2000. In fact at my office we've yet to have it completely set up to my entire satisfaction.

However I would not give it two stars. I'd rate it three starts, because of the following:
ON THE POSITIVE SIDE:
-It allows for a very nice way to keep track of projects on a distributed environment, such as we have back at the office, where two developers (for example) work from their homes in distant cities. Project Central, the feature Project 2000 includes, which allows for a web-based project management interface is definitely the largest plus it comes bundled with.

ON THE NEGATIVE SIDE:
-The way to update the original Project files by means of the web-based update is very convoluted for the project manager: it generates one individual update per project where the person reporting back is working on, which can be very cumbersome if the person works in several (3-4) activities at the same time.
-There is no way to make comments about the progress of each of the specific activities, in the form of a log, or something similar. So, an update from a person working on a project has to be coupled with a status report, which is not exactly what you'd call one of the best implemented features of Project.

However, overall, I HAVE to acknowledge that it has helped me as Project Manager to have a better tracking of projects occurring left and right.

Rating:
Summary: Challenging to learn and use
Review: I have used three versions of Microsoft Project as a project manager for a small software company. Microsoft Project 2000 is a real step up from its predecessors in terms of functionality and usability. However, I stop quite short of saying that Project is easy to use. Project tries to model an inherently complex process, which in this case has led to an inherently complex product. To successfully set up a project in Project requires you do a lot of project planning first. You won't have much success if you start entering things into Project before you know exactly how your project is structured, what all of the tasks are, and how the tasks interrelate.

Project is best for tracking a single project with a defined beginning and end. It is not well-suited for multiple overlapping projects. To track such projects in Project requires some cunning on your part to make it work.

With Project 2000, Microsoft offers Project Central, a nifty Web-based portal to Project. The biggest benefit I see for Project Central is the ability for team members to input the time they spend each day on each task, and have it automatically update Project. If you managed to set up your project properly in Project, these automatic updates are wonderful. In previous versions, you had to type in your team members' progress yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Microsoft Licensing Problem
Review: It's a shame Microsoft doesn't trust it's customers. This product requires one to eMail, call, or connect to Microsoft through the Internet to register. If you don't, you can't use the product after starting it 49 more times. If that's not bad enough, I wasn't able to register this product because the software key was outside the range Microsoft had in their database and because "I purchased it through an Internet store" (I purchased it from Amazon), they refused to assist me in any way. This is a new directive from Microsoft I confirmed after escillation. Apparently Microsoft doesn't trust any internet store as well as it's customers.

Rating:
Summary: Getting STRONGER with each release.
Review: With the inclusion of 'multiple projecting and internet viewing' MS has made some mojor advances. Two other needs are "Backward Pass and Multiple Resource Calendars". With these included MS Project will have achieved a "strong contender" status with some of the strongest and most expensive project management systems at a very affordable price structure.

Rating:
Summary: Getting STRONGER with each release.
Review: With the inclusion of 'multiple projecting and internet viewing' MS has made some mojor advances. Two other needs are "Backward Pass and Multiple Resource Calendars". With these included MS Project will have achieved a "strong contender" status with some of the strongest and most expensive project management systems at a very affordable price structure.