Microsoft Project Reviews

I was using this solution for project planning and status reports for a work project I was involved in.

Microsoft Project is user-friendly and easy to use to do very complex project plans.

The dashboard could be improved.

I have been using this solution for six months.

The solution is stable.

I have found the solution to be very scalable. 

We had evaluated other solutions before we chose Microsoft Project, such as Clarizen. Based on our discussion with the client, we decided to go with this solution.

I rate Microsoft Project an eight out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for the project management software. I create plans with it. It's a tool like Excel that we use for project planning.

I use all of the features that are there. There are quite a few that are very helpful. 

It makes it easier for me to project manage.

I haven't thought of what are the qualities of the features and how can they be changed or improved. It basically has everything I need.

There are a few bugs that can affect the stability. This is typical of most applications.

The solution does not have a mobile version at this time.

The user interface and how fast you can find tools to make a schedule, to build up a team, to come up with tasks, et cetera, could be improved. The framework of accessibility is a bit complicated. It could be simplified. 

We have come across the occasional bug or glitch. It can affect stability. However, it's pretty typical to come across bugs in applications. Sometimes Microsoft can crash.

The solution is an application. The aspect of scalability doesn't apply in the context of the product.

I'm not sure how many people are using it in our organization at this time.

I'm not sure if there are plans to increase usage in the future. I basically just use it myself for more projects.

I"ve never actually used Microsoft's technical support. I wouldn't be able to speak on how helpful or responsive they are, as I don't have any personal experience to discuss.

I don't have any knowledge of the overall costs of the solution. It's not an aspect that I handle directly.

We're working with the solution's latest version. However, I'm unsure of which version number we're using.

I'm not sure of the deployment model. It's more of an application than anything cloud-based.

Overall, I would rate the solution at a six out of ten overall. It's a cool type of tool, however, there are some improvements that can be made to make it better. It could be simplified.

The best thing before asking these questions is to go through the UI. It helps you to have a picture of what the tool does. 

We used the solution for the waterfall framework model for management.

In my experience, this solution is one of the best for the waterfall management model. You are able to analyze, allocate tasks easily, chart, use different kinds of graphs, and the atmosphere is something similar to other Microsoft Office products. Having similarity to Office is the reason why it is easy to use. The majority of people already know how to use those pieces of software. 

There are plenty of features in this solution.

The solution could be more flexible when it comes to integration.

They added the Agile Framework also to their solution. I think Agile does not work with this kind of spreadsheet platform. Mainly for Agile, it needs something such as Kanban or Scrum board. There is also a need for a tool for brainstorming on a whiteboard online but this solution does not have this feature.

If the solution wants to match the Agile Framework, it would be better to add something similar to Asana, Kanban or Scrum board. This way companies and teams can easily create a sprint and follow up. It will be easier for the Scrum Master coach to facilitate communication between groups and teams. If they let people choose their Agile methodology, such as Jira, it would be better.

I have been using the solution for one year.

I had no problems using the solution, it operated fine.

Since the solution does not have some features to better use other methodologies it is limited. We have approximately 100 employees using the solution.

There are many communities for Microsoft products. I was not in contact with customer support.

You cannot easily do brainstorming in this solution. This is why we have evaluated other solutions and are currently considering a DevOps solution. When companies that want to transform to agility or Agile Frameworks consider going to some tools similar to Asana as a Kanban or Scrum board and for Agile software development, they might go with Microsoft Azure. This solution has been created for the Waterfall framework, and even if Microsoft added some features to use for Agile Framework it will not work because it has not been created for Agile frameworks specifically as Scrum or Kanban has.

The installation for doing the Waterfall methodology is easy. You do not need a lot of training, but if you want to do advance operations, such as Excel, you need to be trained. There are many pieces of training online on platforms such as YouTube and Udemy, people can easily learn. You do not need a special course or to have a certificate.

Our project manager does most of the implementation.

I do not remember the exact cost we paid but usually, they charge per user per month. The price is not that important for enterprise, they prefer to have something useful and works. If it makes your team more productive, then the price does not matter so much.

When choosing this solution understand that is it best for those who want to stay with the Waterfall framework. First-time businesses in some industries such as construction, Waterfall is a better choice. It depends on the industry, but the majority of industries and companies are moving to Agile methodology.

I rate Microsoft Project a six out of ten.

I use it for project management. I use it to check the project and get some reports and KPIs from it. I am using the latest version of this solution.

It is very stable. I haven't had any kind of issues with it. It is also very scalable.

Its user experience can be improved while configuring it. Its reporting can also be better. Reporting is not very easy. Reports do not always work. I was trying to download some reports, and they didn't work. I don't know if it was related to the configuration that I was using. I didn't go too deep to check if something was missing.

I have been using this solution for more than ten years.

It has good stability.

It has good scalability. It is being used only by project managers. In terms of increasing its usage in the future, I don't have any projects going on right now, so I don't know if I will use it in the near future.

I haven't used their technical support. Its documentation and community support are very good because Microsoft has a big database.

I've always been using Microsoft solutions. I haven't tried other solutions, but I believe they are very similar. I've seen other solutions, such as Jira, being used more for agile environments.

Being a SaaS solution, it comes ready to be used. The deployment took a few minutes.

It probably was $30 per license on a monthly basis. There is no additional fee.

We didn't evaluate any other solutions.

I would recommend this solution. I would rate Microsoft Project an eight out of ten.

Our use cases are all related to project management and I've actually developed project schedule templates that support both the standard waterfall and all different aspects of project lifecycle management including Agile and Scrum.

Microsoft Project is used as the basis for all the tracking and monitoring that we do for the projects. Everything from staffing resource plan to estimates for work completion and estimates for the project completion. It's all integrated in that way. We also have developed a capability to have interlock tasks that work across schedules. We can look at one schedule and determine whether or not we're being impacted by another project. From those standpoints, integration coordination is key.

The reporting features are quite strong. Being able to do team reports and find out what work is pending, what work needs to be done are key in my day-to-day management of the team. The earned value analysis capabilities and critical path capabilities inside the tool help me make sure that I'm keeping the projects on track.

When you start getting into the more advanced features, it can become unstable. The more you use the advanced features, the more exposure you have to an unanticipated result. I think we need to add the Kanban Board capability to the product that would help them advance that board into the project management methodology that's being used in the industry today. Being able to depend on Scrum management is key. I actually developed a template that allows me to do that, but if they actually productized that, that would help.

I have been using Microsoft Project for 20 years. 

When using the standard features, it's fairly innocuous at that point, it works as intended.

We used shared resource pools and we have multiple project schedules linked into the shared resource pool using Project Server. At that point, if you have a project schedule that is open and you are using a resource pool but you haven't properly baselined that that project schedule, the cascade of change can span across multiple project schedules. That's actually dangerous. What Microsoft may want to do is put an alert in the application that tells you that you're linked to an active, shared resource pool. You are making a change inside your schedule that could impact other project schedules. Similarly, they need to do that based on updates. Then if you were linking into that same resource pool with a schedule, it should come up with an alert that says that changes have taken place. It doesn't do that.

Scalability is like anything. If you're doing fine tasks inside the tool, you can get into a multi-thousand line schedule. When you start dealing with schedules at that level, it's inherently complex. 

Mostly project managers use it. We also have business analysts and other team members who in several instances may be able to go in. I don't do this with my teams because I want to be accountable to the team and make sure that the schedule is up to date and that it's accurately representing the work that's being performed. I use a timesheet entry approach and actually collect data from the team and enter that data into the project schedule. I've got one point of entry and one point of failure. I do know there are other project managers that are out there that allow their teams to go in and update their time in their tasks. I've seen that both work successfully and I've seen it cause significant issues so I prefer to hold onto the control myself that way.

They used to have a very robust help capability and I found that to be quite useful. They cut back on that now. I find that some of the support that was in the product before has not been kept up to the same level. Then we find ourselves having to reach out to the internet and looking for help texts out there from other users. That becomes then less professional. I'd recommend that they continue to upgrade and maintain the in-product help capabilities.

I've had very good support and I've had the support that's been frustrating. I would rate them a seven out of ten. 

I've had exposure to Clarity and several of the other products that are out there. TFS itself as a squiggle management tool.

In terms of the initial setup, if you're using it as a fairly basic tool, it's fairly straightforward. When you start getting into the more complex tools and the features of the product, it becomes harder to use. That's to be expected. You have to have knowledge of the tool to be able to use it properly.

It is a mainstay product. A lot of people use that as their first introduction and it's not meant to be a project management ERP solution, like Life Clarity or the others but it is a capable product that establishes a framework and a basis that can be used across the industry.

I would rate Microsoft Project a seven out of ten because you'd have to have in-depth knowledge of the tool for it to really be beneficial to you. It also allows the new developers and new project managers to come in and be proficient and be able to develop schedules fairly readily. From that standpoint, it's fairly strong. From the overall usability of the product, it can be cumbersome.

We basically use the solution to get a clear sense of the project and break down everything into a schedule. If there are overlapping schedules, we plan everything out and add in all the information so the roadmap is clear. We often have different teams coming in at different times, so we need to ensure that our critical path is clear and that we are able to execute on the project from an agile perspective.

We need to be sure that we have all the backlogs and scheduling and can pull in the customer on the deliverable as necessary. We'll check with them and fine-tune everything so that we can run the sprints successfully and match them up with the project plan using Microsoft Project.

There are some valuable tools on the solution that are actually free.

The tasks are quite detailed on the solution.

You are able to easily manage other software, and, for a particular task item, you can schedule it however you like. It's quite flexible in terms of managing everything.

The solution is very complete. It makes it a great option for project managers and they can use it extensively in almost any organizational setup.

The mapping is pretty good and that's our primary requirement. Sometimes the customers and stakeholders have their own reports, but that's okay and it works for us. Most of our reporting is based on sprints and Microsoft Tool can help us map this. Most of our reporting is a combination of JIRA and Microsoft.

We can code it to JIRA and can see the total movement there as well. 

We can easily integrate it into Confluence. It's pretty seamless.

We need to know what third party solutions we want to integrate.  Microsoft by itself is a project management tool, however, if someone says they want to integrate with something else, there may be issues. Since we work on JIRA, most of the time that can satisfy our needs, as everyone has JIRA. They just update their task there and we can have full visibility.

Microsoft's solution isn't really a collaboration tool, however. If you need a collaboration tool, you can use Slack, which can be integrated with your JIRA. Any ticketing in JIRA can be integrated to Slack and you can get the messages there. 

I personally still need to compare the solution to other solutions. It would give me a better sense of if they are missing any features. Right now, without the comparison, it's hard to tell. They may need more security features, or better communication features. It's hard for me to say with my limited knowledge base.

We've probably used the solution for more than three years at this point.

The stability seems to be good. I don't recall facing issues. There aren't bugs or glitches. It's been good.

The solution is quite scalable, as far as I can see.

I've never reached out to technical support. We never reach to Microsoft support because we haven't had any problems as of yet.  Therefore, I can't speak to their level of support or responsiveness.

We also use JIRA and Confluence as part of our project management work. We usually practice agile.

The pricing is pretty reasonable. They don't seem to overcharge for their services.

We're just customers. We don't have a business relationship with the company.

I'm not sure which version of the solution we are using, or if it's the most up to date. 

We are using an on-prem desktop version. We are not using Ofiice 365. We use JIRA for project management, tasking and creating sprints. Most of the time, initially, we just create the Microsoft Project plan and then all those tasks and the PPS. We still try to deposit using Sprint. We plan it out and then run it as an agile sprint.

It's a good tool. Microsoft is quite a stable company and offers good solutions. Microsoft Project is a good solution overall. However, they can keep pushing it and offering even more features and functions in the future. It will help them stay competitive. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten. It's my understanding that in their roadmap they may have a plan to bring in more collaboration capabilities. If they do, it will make a great solution even better. However, they may just end up buying a project management suite and keep everything in-house under the Microsoft umbrella. It's hard to predict.

We primarily use the solution for planning projects.

The running time on the user interface is very good. We love, in general, the usability and the user interface. It's quite intuitive and easy to use.

The pricing is pretty good on the enterprise agreement we have.

I can't think of any features that are lacking. I don't know of any issues with the solution that can be updated.

The technical support could be improved. They are okay, however, they could be much better.

I believe I've been using the solution for about a year now

We've found the solution to be quite stable. There aren't bugs or glitches. It's not crashing on us or freezing. We enjoy working with the solution.

The scalability of the solution is good. If you need to expand it, you can do so.

We've contacted technical support a number of times in the past. We're mostly satisfied with their level of service. If I had to rate it, I'd give it 3.5 out of 5. Support could be a bit better.

The initial setup isn't complex. The implementation is easy due to the fact that the user interface is so good.

The pricing is pretty good. We don't have any complaints with regards to the cost of the solution. It's not overly expensive in comparison to others.

I would recommend the solution to other companies. It's worked fairly well for us overall and we've been satisfied with the experience we've had using it.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. There are still some items that could be better. It's not a perfect solution, although it's pretty good.

The primary use case of this solution is to maintain projects within our enterprise.

The most valuable features of this solution are the scheduling, managing the resources, budgeting, tracking the progress, viewing the progress, reporting, and it is very easy to use.

This solution needs more customization.

I have been using this solution for approximately five years.

This solution is stable.

We have not had any performance issues within our enterprise with any of the scaling we have done.

We have more than 50 users and a team of six to maintain it.

At this time, we don't have the need to increase usage.

We have not had the need to contact technical support, as we have not experienced any down-time.

Previously, it was all manual work and wanted it to be on a digital platform and went with Microsoft.

The initial setup is straightforward.

This is a good product and I can recommend it to others.

I would rate this solution an eight out ten.