Seeking PM tool recommendation 2

[groston]

This has probably been asked and answer a bazillion times, so my apologies in advance.

I need to manage multiple (probably not more than 25) projects for a small business (i.e., limited funsd available). I would like to assign resources to these project and be able to check my company-wide resource utilization.

I do have MS Project, but it always drives me nuts! One thing I would like to do, that I think should be simple, is this: I have a task with a known starting date and a to-be-finished-by date. I have an estimate of the number of hours that each resource devoted to this task needs to expend. In MSP, I think that this is well nigh impossible to do.

Now, it oculd be that I do not know how to US MSP effectively, that is quite possible. If that is the case, if you would be kind enough to straighten me out, I'll stick with the devil I know.

However, if MSP cannot do this, can you recommend a tool that can? I would welcome responses from vendors as long as they can provide some third-party reviews and/or a 30 day trial.

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Gerry Roston
gerry@pairofdocs.net

 

[johnherman]

Check out Project Management Software Options in this forum. Might be helpful.

 

[PDQBach]

Pay close attention ... I have nothing up my sleeve.

(A) You want to use Fixed Duration tasks.
1. Tools | Options | Schedule Tab: deault task type should be Fixed Duration.

(B) It is easiest if you have already populated the resource sheet with the resources.
1. View | Resource sheet.
2. Enter all of your resources.

(C) Enter all your tasks.
1. View | Gantt Chart
2. Enter all of your tasks. Start, End, any other fields you want. Do not assign resources at this point.

(D) Assign Resources.
1. Window | Split
2. In the lower pane, RightMouseButton and select Resource Work.
3. In the upper pane, click on a task.
4. In the lower pane, make certain "Effort Driven" is checked and make certain "Task Type" is fixed duration.
5. In the lower pane, choose the resource; in the Work column put the number of hours.
6. Repeat step 5 for each resource on the task.
7. In the upper pane, click once on the task to update the display of the resources.

If you want to change the date and keep the work the same then change the task type to "fixed work" and change the date.

If you want to keep the date and change the work then keep the task type as "fixed duration" and change the work for the resource(s).

Magic!

 

[groston]

PDQBach

Thank you for your thoughful reply. I did exactly as you said - with mixed results. MSP seems to have a mind of its own...

I downloaded and am trying our FastTrak. At first blush, it seems to be far easier to use and suited to my purposes.

Thanks for your help!



----

Gerry Roston
gerry@pairofdocs.net

 

[PDQBach]

How mixed?

 

[groston]

In one case, your formula worked perfectly. In another, I couldn't manage to keep the date range fixed.


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Gerry Roston
gerry@pairofdocs.net

 

[PDQBach]

Could you please post step-by-step, click-by-click sequences for the one that worked and the one that didn't.

(Don't email them to me personally. Keep the information in open view to help others.)

 

[groston]

Sorry about the delay. I started from scracth using your algorithm and it worked perfectly.

Thanks! MSP and I are now on better terms than ever before!


----

Gerry Roston
gerry@pairofdocs.net

 

[merry55]

If you are using the MSP planning tool to manage multiple projects, I wish you luck. It is extremely cumbersome to use when trying to combine projects. You need an enterprise wide planning/tracking package. I think this would solve your dilemma. MS does have such a package but it is fairly new and I am not certain how stable it would be. I took a fairly extensive look at a tool that Niku has for enterprise planning. Pretty slick but can be a bit on the pricey side. Check it out.

 

[Gum73]

Hello.

We are just looking into a good project management, resource planner and timereporting tool called:

PromegaSuite. (

http://www.promegasuite.com)

It seems to cover our needs, we are 25 people in e-learning business.

It might help you to.

 

[mdochter]

Check out

http://www.vertabase.com

and w

http://www.tenrox.com.

Regards
Doc

 

[BNPMike]

MSP should be alright. I've used it on multi-million pound projects.

As you say it has a mind if its own. It's very logical but unfortunately doesn't tell you why it's just done something. Therefore sadly the key is tie everything down as PDQBach suggests. This means you have to do more manual adjusting but in the end it's quicker than trying to tame the automatic features of MSP.

Drive it manually and you'll find it's quite friendly.