Microsoft Project Server Reviews

We use it for master project scheduling, that is, the first schedule of each project.

I like the way you can build the schedule by the Don't Start Before or Don't Start After values. You can use it to build your schedule based on how you change your dates. This is how it actually builds the schedule.

It needs to be more collaborative from inside the application. It only does project scheduling for me. It would be good if it could do other things and be more collaborative, such as sharing tasks for users. 

It is not really incorporated into MS Office, so you can't copy-paste stuff. It is on its own, doing its own thing. It is only used for scheduling, and it doesn't work well with anything else.

I have been using Project Server since it came out almost 20 years ago. In my current company, I have been using it for two years.

It is stable.

It is scalable. It appears that you can scale it as much as you want. 

We have 70 or 80 licenses, but in reality, there are no more than 10 people actually using it.

The initial setup was complex.

It is on the expensive side.

It seems to me that it is the standard for doing project scheduling, which is a shame. It should be used for more. You should be able to do more things with it because now it is not enough for people to just build a schedule and then use something else to do your daily planning. I used to work for Microsoft, so I know how these things were built. I know some of the issues they have. It seems to me that it is a product that was built on its own. It is very standalone, and it hasn't been incorporated into the Office suite or other things that Microsoft products do. For example, we work a lot with Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams would be a nice front end to an MS Project.

I would rate Microsoft Project Server an eight out of ten.

From my point of view, there are many features that are valuable for portfolio management, such as linking between company strategy and each project, resource management, overview of portfolio projects and their separate parameters for resources, budgeting and forecasting perspectives.

I also mostly use resource allocation and resource assignments to see an overview of separate resources and specific project allocation.

After implementing this product, the biggest improvement was with timesheet compliance with company rules, because resources had to write their allocation and time spent on each project, along with tasks across many projects. In addition, resources also had to fill in their non-project time such as administration and vacation. When they submitted their final timesheet, project managers of separate projects had to approve the specific time spent on their project and team leads approved the non-project time. After implementing this product, all project schedules were automatically actualized. This kind of automation was really helpful.

Another improvement was related to project portfolios and the initial decision regarding which new project to start at the moment and which projects should be postponed or canceled for strategic reasons.

There is definitely room for improvement with the algorithms that are used for resource allocation. There should be options for using generic algorithms or multi-objective generic algorithms with more inputs from the resource and the HR department. This should really improve the way resources are allocated to separate project tasks. At the moment, there are parameters such as resource allocation, personal calendar and availability of resource. Also the role or added primary skill of resource, but nothing else.

I used this product at my previous two jobs/companies, and I also have been implementing this product since version 2007 to different customers for almost six years, together with configuration, integration and training.

There are no issues with deployment when the implementation company realizes what the deployment needs as prerequisites and which steps need to be done during the process. There are also many best practices, as well. Of course, they should take into consideration many issues related to security, to database maintenance and to resources, as well.

I also had some issues with patch management, where clients have different versions of operating systems, Microsoft Office, Project Professional, etc. There needs to be some rules and policies, as in every other information system implementation.

I have not encountered any stability issues. I always had patch management policies and all the issues were with SharePoint Server Platform or with Project Server Queue, but this weren’t stability issues. J

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

Well, the Project Server product isn’t often installed to be honest and there aren’t many people with deep-dive knowledge, so many times we use Google searches for troubleshooting.

I did not previously use a different solution. Some customers use Excel to drive projects, some of them use Primavera or some cloud-based products like Trilio, etc.

Initial setup was complex from the point of view of the complete implementation. Setup of the product from the installation point of view was simple, because it is only an add-on for SharePoint Server. In SharePoint Server 2016, Project Server is only a new service, which can be turned on or off.

I work for a reseller as the Head of the Microsoft Department and as the Principal Architect. The level of expertise on my team is good J

If there processes already exist in the company, let’s say 1-1.5 year ROI; otherwise, about three years.

Well, for the on-premise version, there are only CAL licences, not any other types, so you only need to buy a Project Server licence and then CAL licences for access. Important and often problematic are licences for SQL Server, or Windows Server (the domain controller is important).

Before choosing this product, I did not evaluate other options.

We primarily use the solution to plan our projects.

It gives us good visibility into the amount of work needed for each person and how to delegate it appropriately.

The working blocks within the solution are excellent. I can follow four or five projects and see the dealine of items in the calendar. We can understand the amount of work - if it's full or not - and we can plan a team member's activities based on that.

The initial setup is not complex.

The solution, overall, is excellent for project planning.

I'd like it if we could divide out the project calendars. On one project server, we might follow five projects or more at one time, and we'd like to see all of the items at once so that it becomes a long loop, but one where we can identify different projects in tandem and then focus on which we need to at the time. While I only have visibility into one, I'd like to see several at a time.

I've been using the solution for seven years.

The solution is reliable. There aren't glitches. There are no bugs. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's very stable.

The solution is very scalable. If a company needs to expand the product they can do so quite easily.

We use it in our company and have about 1,000 users on it currently.

We did previously use a different solution, however, it was only for about a month.

We find the implementation to be straightforward. It's not too complex of a process.

Deployment typically takes about six months or so.

We have about 40 people that handle maintenance on the solution.

The pricing of the solution is reasonable. It's not outrageously expensive.

Our finance department handles the billing, therefore, I'm unsure as to if we pay monthly or yearly and what the overall costs are.

I'm a consultant.

I'm not sure which version of the solution we're currently using.

I use the solution to follow my company's projects.

I'd recommend this solution. It's excellent for planning.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

• Demand workflow
• Resource management
• SharePoint site integration

Project management.

Permission management needs improvement.

More than nine years.

No issues.

No issues.

No issues.

A seven out of 10.

A seven out of 10.

No.

This is a good product but we have struggled with stability from time to time. The service has stopped intermittently and it has been difficult to find a reason why. Rebooting the system has often solved these issues. 

I have been using this solution for 20 years. 

This is a scalable solution. It is easy to set up and to add clusters to your environment. We have many clusters running for our company. 

We have had a mixed experienced with the customer support team. Some agents are technically skilled and have been able to fix our issues quickly. Others have needed to transfer our case back and forth and this has taken a long period of time. 

The deployment is very straightforward.

We deployed it by our own because we have a big team that looks after all server deployments. This same team takes care of all the maintenance support. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. 

We are not providing this solution, we use it.

Microsoft Project Server helps us to manage our project plan.

It's a great tool for helping us manage our project's plan.

The cost could be lower.

I have been working with Microsoft Project Server for more than 15 years.

I believe that we are working with the most recent version.

Microsoft Project Server is a stable product.

It is a scalable solution.

It's not my area of expertise at the company because I'm not a project manager, but our project manager and BMO team, as well as the rest of the team, use it.

In our company, we have more than ten people who use this solution.

Technical support is good.

We have experience with Microsoft Dynamics Business Central.

We use SQL, Azure SQL, and Windows Server.

The initial setup is straightforward.

From what I understand, it doesn't take a lot of time to deploy.

This solution will be deployed and maintained by a team of 15 or more people.

It's not subscription-based, we purchased the on-premises version.

Everything can always be cheaper.

We do not work for Microsoft. We are a company partner for Microsoft.

For anyone who is working in project management, I would recommend this solution.

I don't have a lot of experience but I know this solution.

I would rate Microsoft Project Server a nine out of ten.

It performs very well. It's something I'm very familiar with. We use it for project management of hardware and software projects.

Traditionally, Microsoft Project has only been stand-alone, and we've never used it on a Web basis. Now we use it on a Web basis. It's been absolutely great in that sense, of being collaborative and also for resource-leveling, so that people can see at an instant just where everything is. 

The key things are

• managing interactions
• resource allocation
• resource-leveling, enterprise 

and as a collaborative tool, because we use it across multiple projects at a time.

I think they need more flexibility with licensing, because there are preconceived ideas that don't allow as much flexibility with the various licenses.

Stability is quite good. The only issue I have had in the past is if our internet connection is pretty slow, but that can happen for any package. Other than that, it's fairly good.

Very good. We haven't reached the limit yet, and we're using multiple projects across many sites. So it seems to scale quite well.

We are on online support, but we don't use it that often. We used it on two occasions, mainly to assist in setting up particular scenarios or to trace a bug or problem with the Web server.

The support was good and we have a direct connection with our support service.

We've always used Project to some extent, but it was more stand-alone rather than enterprise. Now we're on an enterprise scheme, it's much more helpful because we've got a global 3D view of projects.

There are several criteria I look for when selecting a vendor:

• ease of use
• expandability
• resource-leveling
• cost of ownership, obviously
• support needed.

They're the key things.

Very simple. I was reasonably familiar with Project in the first instance, but because we're using it online, Web-based, rather than an on-prem, it was minimal setup from our point of view.

Smartsheet, I think we looked at that. We looked at JIRA in the early phase, but that wasn't portfolio. It was just the normal JIRA bug tracking. We do use that in the company, but not for project management necessarily, more just task tracking.

Research it thoroughly and try to match benefits, rather than just buying features.

• Ease of use.
• Adaptability.
• Stability.

• The centralization of all projects baselines in Project Server gave us control over the process. Additionally, we unified the information into just one source to report indicators, progress, milestones, and much more.
• Microsoft Project Server gave us an easy way to list and classify our projects, creating great views for a high quantity of information with the Project Web Application.
• We can now define our own project indicators and performance KPI’s, according to our project process. During the last 4 years we have used Project Server to save more than 400 baselines.

I think that "earned value calculation" could be improved, and also the relationship between time and cost, that sometimes does not allow adjustments during execution.

I have used this for 10 years.

I did not ecnounter any stability issues.

There were no scalability issues. We have more than 400 projects on our Project Server database, and everything works fine.

Technical support was adequate.

We did not use any previous solution.

Initial setup was hard work, but I wasn't involved.

Scope your needs carefully, in order to get exactly what you want.

We did not evaluate alternatives.

I wasn’t involved during implementation.