project management

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.

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.

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.