Microsoft project software – the world’s most popular project management assistant
Microsoft project software is the world’s most popular project management software, developed and sold by Microsoft. This program is designed to assist project managers in initiating a project, developing plans, assigning resources to tasks, following activities and tracking progress, managing budgets and analyzing workloads.
With the help of the Microsoft project software you can create budgets according to assignments and resource rates: resources are assigned to tasks, and once the assignment work is estimated, the program calculates the costs based on work and rates. Resources can be organized on a calendar, assigning certain resources to specific days and shifts. According to the resource rates, resource assignment costs can be estimated and summarized. Moreover, you can assign each resource to multiple tasks in multiple plans, and also assign multiple resources to a single task. The Microsoft project software will schedule your project’s task work according to the resource availability, as summarized in the resource calendars. An enterprise resource pool can contain all defined resources.
Microsoft project software programs can be of great help in coordinating single or multiple projects, but you still have to be able to estimate and run you teams effectively in order to reach your goals. Keep in mind that Microsoft project software always assumes that additional raw materials will be available without limit, so it will not be able to estimate how many products can be produced with a given amount of material. Therefore, it will be up to you to solve issues regarding available materials or constrained production.
Resource definitions (information regarding people, equipment or materials) can be shared between all projects using a shared resource pool within the Microsoft project software. The software also creates critical path schedules, even though ProChain and Spherical Angle also provide critical chain third-party add-ons, by means of a Grantt Chart.
Constantly developing and improving, later versions of Microsoft project software were enhanced with Microsoft Office Project Server and Microsoft Project Web Access. The Microsoft Office Project Server is designed to store your project data in a central database, based on a structured query language (SQL); through this SQL-based database, users can display and update their data via the Internet. With the Microsoft Project Web Access, authorized users will be allowed to access the Project Server database over the Internet, and provides time-sheets, graphical analysis of resource workloads, as well as administrative tools.
Microsoft project software is designed to differentiate between several classes of users, therefore you, as project manager, can set different levels of access views and other data, according to each class of users. However, calendars, views, tables, fields and filters are stored in an enterprise global database, shared by all users.
A professional project manager must combine critical thinking with advanced skills in analyzing results, collect data and forecast timelines, in order to be able to initiate a project, plan timelines, execute tasks and control work-teams and processes. Microsoft project software will be of great help in assisting project managers throughout all processes, for a successful completion of certain tasks. It will make your job easier and more organized, so you can focus ore on the goals rather than charts and calculations.