MS Project vs MS Access 2

My boss is considering using MS Project to track workload of employees and forecast future workload, flag projects that have a due date coming up soon, and do some cost/budget estimates. Also, to use it for sending reports to clients on where we are on a project and what needs to go out soon.
Need to allow employees to update their own task. Is the tast pending, active, finished...

Anyone have any expreience with MS Project? Is it worthwhile to spend money on licences for MS Project or can MS Access accomplish the same thing?

 

[RichG]

I have been a user of MS Project for a number of years and can tell you to tool is capable of doing what you are describing. However, I have no experiences to compare it to MS Access.

You need to understand that MS Project is not an easy tool to learn. There are dozens of variables and terms that your Project Managers must understand to be effective with MS Project. If you plan for several people to use the tool, you should anticipate the need for annual training and on-going support. MS Project is not a tool like MS Word or Excel that you install and forget about.

You mentioned “allowing employees to update their own task”. In our shop we use the web-based tool called ‘Project Central’ to accomplish this task. Team member’s login to their timesheet using Internet Explorer and submit their time to the Project Manager. The Project Manager then applies this to the project automatically. I truly like the Project Central piece; it makes the manager’s job much easier. You can find Info about the tool on Microsoft’s home page. I would recommend this tool if you choose to proceed with MS Project, especially if there are lots of team members and/or located at different sites.

Also if your organization is mature enough to do the task you describe in your message (workload tracking, mile stone dates, cost/budget estimates….) manually, then you may be ready for a tool like MS Project. If you do not have process and procedures in-place, MS Project will be much more difficult to implement.

Good luck

 

[acquinas]

I've found Project's documentation lacking. While there's a lot of documenation available, it seems to be "how to" information, not "this is what this term means" or "why". For example, I tried to find a definition of the term "fixed units" The "Office Assistant" did not bring me directly to a screen definition containing a defintion. 3 screens later I found a listing of the 3 types of tasks (Fixed Duration, Fixed Units, and Fixed Work), with a defintion for "Fixed Units" as that was the default, but *NO* explanation of the other types.

A few screens later, I found a defintion of all 3 types. Unfortunately, the defintion for "Fixed Work" did *not* match the behavior I was seeing. Yes, adding resources reduced the duration, but if I adjusted the percentage for a single resource, the work was not shifted accordingly to other resources so as to finish the task as soon as possible.