Microsoft Project Reviews

My primary use case is to take advantage of Microsoft Project Server to plan and track program project work at an enterprise level. Particularly, to enable tracking of actual project and program costs across multiple business lines.

The look and feel is familiar for users of the Microsoft Office Suite of applications. It is pretty straightforward to use. If you are not from a professional scheduling background, you could open it up and you would see how to do some pretty basic things without too much training.

It's most useful feature is that it interfaces with Project Server which enables a whole portfolio or enterprise perspective across the organization.

Project Professional is a powerful tool with many features and functions available for an experienced scheduler with advanced scheduling knowledge and skills. One primary problem that we have is that users that are new to project management and scheduling find it a little overwhelming when they are first introduced to the tool, particularly when they are introduced to features required to enable enterprise level planning and reporting. 

To address this, we are creating a trial of custom views that mask some of the complexity involved to enable project cost estimates, effort records and resource assignments to be consumed at an enterprise level. Some people find having to fulfill enterprise level task and resource assignment rules a little overwhelming and frustrating when all they want to do is a simple project plan.

I haven’t experienced any stability issues with Project Professional client – problems can however occur on the server side depending on the number of custom fields used, and number and nature of dependencies created by multiple users in a single master schedule with links embedded in multiple project records.

Some users can create some very convoluted inter-dependencies and schedule conflicts that can impact performance of reporting at an enterprise level.

We have around 700 active projects and over 4,000 users, at times the product is slow – this is often a result of insufficient server capacity.

At present, we have in-house tech support. We really on Microsoft Partners with Project Server and Sharepoint Server experience for support occasionally.

I have had experience using Primavera and Open Plan Professional previously. I personally find Project Professional to provide the same functionality from logic and scheduling perspective.

The packaging of Microsoft Project Professional for enterprise use is relatively straight forward. The end-to-end enterprise implementation with Project Server is complex. Most of the complexity is on the people and process side of set-up for an enterprise rather than for a single project.

I am not involved with this.

My suggestion is to do  homework and compare what other products are out there and how well they will fit with your organisation. This one's okay. I've personally used a range of different products, all potentially good choices, it just depends on the operating context and culture of the organization whether it's going to fit, or not. 

Our use cases are all related to project management and I've actually developed project schedule templates that support both the standard waterfall and all different aspects of project lifecycle management including Agile and Scrum.

Microsoft Project is used as the basis for all the tracking and monitoring that we do for the projects. Everything from staffing resource plan to estimates for work completion and estimates for the project completion. It's all integrated in that way. We also have developed a capability to have interlock tasks that work across schedules. We can look at one schedule and determine whether or not we're being impacted by another project. From those standpoints, integration coordination is key.

The reporting features are quite strong. Being able to do team reports and find out what work is pending, what work needs to be done are key in my day-to-day management of the team. The earned value analysis capabilities and critical path capabilities inside the tool help me make sure that I'm keeping the projects on track.

When you start getting into the more advanced features, it can become unstable. The more you use the advanced features, the more exposure you have to an unanticipated result. I think we need to add the Kanban Board capability to the product that would help them advance that board into the project management methodology that's being used in the industry today. Being able to depend on Scrum management is key. I actually developed a template that allows me to do that, but if they actually productized that, that would help.

I have been using Microsoft Project for 20 years. 

When using the standard features, it's fairly innocuous at that point, it works as intended.

We used shared resource pools and we have multiple project schedules linked into the shared resource pool using Project Server. At that point, if you have a project schedule that is open and you are using a resource pool but you haven't properly baselined that that project schedule, the cascade of change can span across multiple project schedules. That's actually dangerous. What Microsoft may want to do is put an alert in the application that tells you that you're linked to an active, shared resource pool. You are making a change inside your schedule that could impact other project schedules. Similarly, they need to do that based on updates. Then if you were linking into that same resource pool with a schedule, it should come up with an alert that says that changes have taken place. It doesn't do that.

Scalability is like anything. If you're doing fine tasks inside the tool, you can get into a multi-thousand line schedule. When you start dealing with schedules at that level, it's inherently complex. 

Mostly project managers use it. We also have business analysts and other team members who in several instances may be able to go in. I don't do this with my teams because I want to be accountable to the team and make sure that the schedule is up to date and that it's accurately representing the work that's being performed. I use a timesheet entry approach and actually collect data from the team and enter that data into the project schedule. I've got one point of entry and one point of failure. I do know there are other project managers that are out there that allow their teams to go in and update their time in their tasks. I've seen that both work successfully and I've seen it cause significant issues so I prefer to hold onto the control myself that way.

They used to have a very robust help capability and I found that to be quite useful. They cut back on that now. I find that some of the support that was in the product before has not been kept up to the same level. Then we find ourselves having to reach out to the internet and looking for help texts out there from other users. That becomes then less professional. I'd recommend that they continue to upgrade and maintain the in-product help capabilities.

I've had very good support and I've had the support that's been frustrating. I would rate them a seven out of ten. 

I've had exposure to Clarity and several of the other products that are out there. TFS itself as a squiggle management tool.

In terms of the initial setup, if you're using it as a fairly basic tool, it's fairly straightforward. When you start getting into the more complex tools and the features of the product, it becomes harder to use. That's to be expected. You have to have knowledge of the tool to be able to use it properly.

It is a mainstay product. A lot of people use that as their first introduction and it's not meant to be a project management ERP solution, like Life Clarity or the others but it is a capable product that establishes a framework and a basis that can be used across the industry.

I would rate Microsoft Project a seven out of ten because you'd have to have in-depth knowledge of the tool for it to really be beneficial to you. It also allows the new developers and new project managers to come in and be proficient and be able to develop schedules fairly readily. From that standpoint, it's fairly strong. From the overall usability of the product, it can be cumbersome.

We use Microsoft Project to develop IT projects for a pharmaceutical company. It helps us coordinate between teams of developers and admins. 

Microsoft Project is easy to use and helps our teams visualize the evolution of our projects.

The Microsoft license is relatively expensive. 

I have used MS Project for about five years.

I rate MS Project nine out of 10 for stability.

MS Project is scalable. Twenty-five people in my company

We had another project management solution, but we switched to Project when the company adopted 365.

Installing Microsoft Project is effortless. The initial installation took me about two or three days. It was easy to install after I took the online courses. I didn't need an integrator or a consultant. 

I rate Microsoft Project nine out of 10. 

I was using this solution for project planning and status reports for a work project I was involved in.

Microsoft Project is user-friendly and easy to use to do very complex project plans.

The dashboard could be improved.

I have been using this solution for six months.

The solution is stable.

I have found the solution to be very scalable. 

We had evaluated other solutions before we chose Microsoft Project, such as Clarizen. Based on our discussion with the client, we decided to go with this solution.

I rate Microsoft Project an eight out of ten.

The roadmap functionality is very nice. All the dependencies and timelines are there. 

The board mode and the list of tasks are very handy to have in front of me. It looks very similar to a Trello board. It's very easy to navigate and understand.

The stability is very good.

Technical support has been very helpful.

I'd like to have few more specific features, however, it's possible that Microsoft will decide to implement and deploy them in the future. 

It would be nice, for example, if we have stages of the project, to have some tasks that can be split. We'd like to be able to see different timelines as a part of one task. 

I'd like to see the dependency of one task but split into a few parts. I'm mostly working with infrastructure projects in the company. Sometimes I have to stop the implementation of one part of the project due to various reasons, and I have to switch to another task. I have to see the stage and stop and show in another part I'm taking in the work. I'm not stopping the project. I'm just switching tasks and I have to see when I can continue the previous response. I need to see that the one task continuing, but not all the time. Right now, the organization is done mostly in my head, however, it would be ideal if I could visualize it with adjusted timelines.

We just started using the solution a few months ago. We're still in the testing phase and haven't fully decided on what were are going to go forward with.

We didn't have any problems with the product. It's very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It works great.  

We had contact with technical support on another project and had questions about our migration between two tenants. We talked directly to support and it was quite helpful to use them to get advice and assistance. We had a nice experience overall.

We've worked with Zoho One in the past, as well as a few other premium CRM providers. We were working on a full complex solution for our office that was a CRM with different other solutions. It was for complicated projects, however, we decided to switch to another software.

We are using currently using Office 365 and additional applications from Office 365 such as Branches, Project, and Power BI. We decided to have all the complex solutions from one company that offers connected applications, rather than just choose all different software without the basic platform from which we can connect. That's why we chose Microsoft Project.

We have three licenses. Three people have an opportunity to make projects, and two people are included in the project so they can see the timeline, the board, the task. They're quite happy with what they see in terms of being able to watch over the project.

While we're likely to use Microsoft, we're also looking at Jira, Confluence, and Trello.

We're customers and end-users of the solution.

While we are currently using the cloud as we test things out, it's possible, once we make a concrete decision about Microsoft, that we will switch to an on-premises deployment.

Currently, I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten simply due to the fact that I don't know all the opportunities it offers us just yet. We haven't been using it for so long and need some more time to discover all the features on offer.

We primarily use the solution for planning projects.

The running time on the user interface is very good. We love, in general, the usability and the user interface. It's quite intuitive and easy to use.

The pricing is pretty good on the enterprise agreement we have.

I can't think of any features that are lacking. I don't know of any issues with the solution that can be updated.

The technical support could be improved. They are okay, however, they could be much better.

I believe I've been using the solution for about a year now

We've found the solution to be quite stable. There aren't bugs or glitches. It's not crashing on us or freezing. We enjoy working with the solution.

The scalability of the solution is good. If you need to expand it, you can do so.

We've contacted technical support a number of times in the past. We're mostly satisfied with their level of service. If I had to rate it, I'd give it 3.5 out of 5. Support could be a bit better.

The initial setup isn't complex. The implementation is easy due to the fact that the user interface is so good.

The pricing is pretty good. We don't have any complaints with regards to the cost of the solution. It's not overly expensive in comparison to others.

I would recommend the solution to other companies. It's worked fairly well for us overall and we've been satisfied with the experience we've had using it.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. There are still some items that could be better. It's not a perfect solution, although it's pretty good.

I am a project manager, so my primary use cases for Microsoft Project are the creation of a work breakdown structure – the time and schedule of the project – and following up on it. I also create reports. We're not using the enterprise solution and are not connected to a PMO. 

The features I find the most valuable are scheduling and reporting. I mostly do short projects that last three to six months. These are simple projects with a limited team of three to five members. We do not even do updates through the application. We do updates through meetings. 

The tool currently has a limited number of tutorials now. Those could improve, which would be helpful. 

They could also work on integrations with solutions like Teams. We have all of our project files in Teams and it is much easier to use for communication than MS Project, but there is no integration of the two solutions. 

I have been using Microsoft Project for about three years.

I would rate the stability of this solution a nine, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

My impression is that scalability is quite good for more complex projects.

We are in a good partnership with their support team. We have an account manager and we have a support team. They're very supportive.

Positive

I tried to use Primavera, but I didn't find it as easy to operate in as MS Project. However, that was an older version. I don't know if they have updated or simplified the application.

I would rate the initial setup of this solution an eight, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. It's not very complicated. Even if you download and use the application for the first time, you can easily find your way.

Overall, I would rate this solution an eight, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.

I am a utilities consultant, and I use it within the utility industry for managing different types of projects, such as for implementing a new system or new processes.

I don't know how it directly benefits our business per se because it helps our clients.

It is easy to use and pretty intuitive. User interfaces have stayed the same for the most part for the last 20 years. So, there is a familiarity.

Its reporting and its integration with some of the other related systems should be improved. It is not very easy to integrate.

Its scalability is not so good for the most part.

I have been using this solution for altogether 20 years.

It is pretty reliable. I can't recall any issues.

It is not so good for the most part. It is good for what we needed it for. Occasionally, we needed to be able to scale it up, but it is not as effective as some of the other systems.

We have around 30 project managers who are using it. We're all dispersed across the US, and it is being used extensively.

We have no experience with them.

I've used other project management solutions. Its simplicity and ease of use are the primary drivers.

The initial setup was straightforward. I didn't do it. Our IT guys did it, but once they got the process done, it took less than an hour.

We just did it ourselves. For its maintenance, we require probably a fourth of a person. 

As with anything, there is training, and there are standards. Make sure you have enough training and make sure you've established enterprise standards.

It is reliable, and a lot of people know it. I would give it a seven out of 10.