Since its beginning in 1990, Microsoft Project software represents a common and powerful project scheduling tool to control project schedules and finances, eliminating surprise when it’s too late to make changes to the process. This ultimately results in better corporate profitability and competitiveness. This proactive project planning tool works like project management around the triple constraint of project scope, time, and resources adding value to software development companies and their clients by enhancing customer satisfaction, using resources effectively, and providing a competitive advantage.
Microsoft Project: An Effective Tool to Manage and Control Projects
Microsoft Project is one of many project planning tools good project managers use in their tool box to accurately and efficiently manage projects, according to Rob Hirschmann, corporate vice president at Projility, a management/technology consulting firm based in the Washington, D.C. area. Microsoft Project software essentially builds a work plan, determines the required tasks, and how they will be carried out at the lowest level of detail to keep IT projects within budget and on schedule.
Dino Bozzo, president of Konverge, a Toronto-based Microsoft Gold certified software development company, considers Microsoft Project as the industry standard. Its integration with the rest of the Office Suite is a big plus, he says. Bozzo’s organization works on a range of projects that are all unique in nature—with timelines from three weeks to three months to two years. Bozzo believes his firm would be completely lost without using Microsoft Project. To get the complete picture of where any software project is going, Bozzo says organizations need the functionality of assignments, resources, and tracking—which Microsoft Project does.
Bozzo says the most difficult part in managing software projects is managing and maintaining the original project management plan. Most project requirements change along the way. As a result, schedules change and timelines change – either up or down. Microsoft Project automatically adjusts project timelines based on accurate time and resources available.
“Unless you use a project management tool like Microsoft Project, you will not realize the impact of a week’s delay in schedule,” Bozzo remarked. “It will not trickle down to every task dependent on that week, and that’s what Project will do.” Using Microsoft Project to stay on track saves the client time as well as money.
Comments