MS Project Familiarization

Write a two to three (2-3) page paper in which you summarize your thoughts on Microsoft Project:

1. Give your opinion on how easy or difficult MS Project seems to be from a user experience standpoint.
2. Suggest at least two (2) challenges you foresee in using MS Project in this course.
3. Describe why it is important to use a tool like MS Project instead of using other tools (e.g., MS Word, MS Excel) to manage and track your schedule.
4. Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
   • Typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
   • Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.

 Q1.

MS Project is a handy project management software solution by Microsoft. It is utilized to plan different activities of project. These activities are divided into tasks and sub tasks and are organized with the help of a Gantt chart. Gant chart helps project managers and other participants see in depth what is going on during the project life cycle and when. This helps different project participants know about their duties and time schedules. MS Project is also a handy tool in resource allocation for different part of the project.

Q2.

The main challenges that are encountered while utilizing MS Project software the generic nature of the software application and its working without a collaboration. They are further explained in the following.

Generic Application

The utilization of a Gantt chart makes MS Project attractive but it also adds to its generic nature. Gantt Charts may not be enough to plan according to the needs of the project managers. Different factors that are utilized in Gantt chart in respect to recourse allocation and time scheduling of the activities may not be exactly according to the present and future needs and demands of the project managers.

Work without collaboration

MS Project is an application that considers itself a fully equipped solution. That is why it cannot be linked with other software to collaborate with other teams working at a distance and enhance the efficiency of the project. What we get in MS Project inbuilt is in fact all we have. You cannot enhance the capacity of the different inbuilt functions of MS Project by linking it to another application online. Being compatible with other software is what the need of the day is as we cannot expect everyone to be an MS Project user.

When we are using MS Project, we have to be extra cautious as any error in the schedule of the projects and its resource allocation may not trigger any alarm in the application and may result in the wastage of financial and/or other resources.

Q3.

When we want to make a comparison between MS Project and other applications like MS Word and MS Excel, we must be cautious about what actually each of these application is for. When we look at Excel and Word, we do see these application developing graphs from the date that we feed into it but does it serve the same purpose of project planning as MS Project can? I don’t think so. MS Project graphs/Gant charts provide us with a facility of planning each and every activity to the lowest possible time allocation. On the other hand, Excel and Word would draw a graphs but it would be hard to differentiate different activities. You might be able to do that but it has to be manually done for each activity. On the other hand, in MS Project, you define different activities, sub activities and their allocated time and the Gantt chart would give you a beautiful chart with different activities colored differently to differentiate between them.

MS Project can communicate with Excel though. You can import data into MS Project from Excel that has already been put by someone else. When this data is imported to MS Project, dependencies can then be set. With MS Project, we can see how a certain change in a specific resource would affect the whole life of the project and its costs. It would let us know a critical path that is more meaningful and effective compared to what we can get with the help of Excel.

Conclusion

There may be different perspectives about the utilization of MS Project. Some people/managers may be in favor of it while others may be not. Having said that, I would suggest that we cannot deny the importance of MS Project and the way it can help us in planning and executing our projects. We need to be vigilant and look for professional training while learning to use MS Project and then applying it in real life situations. Also, making it work in collaboration with other application is one of the utility that I would strongly suggest Microsoft add to MS Project.