Microsoft Project & Portfolio Management Review 2022 -

What is Microsoft Project?

Microsoft Project helps you keep track of everything you need to run successful projects, even when working remotely. Collaborate and work with remote teams anywhere, streamline processes, optimize tasks and resources, engage across different functional teams, keep track of all associated costs, and customize visual reports for actionable insights. Familiar Office tools and pre-built templates allow you to kick off projects quickly to get more done while saving your business time and money.

Microsoft Project is a project management software designed for enterprises of all sizes. The tool includes project scheduling features, which allow management to create a project schedule, define and assign each project task, manage employee scheduling, and track project status. The software provides customizable templates and visual roadmaps for project planning.

Microsoft Project also works as a resource for project budgeting, which can help management estimate costs for a complex project to determine resource allocation. Additionally, this tool offers project portfolio management (Microsoft PPM) features. Project proposals can be analyzed and compared based on strategic business drivers and resource management data.

Microsoft Project provides interactive dashboards and reporting functionalities for managing projects. Management can use this tool to prepare insightful reports and make decisions about project proposals, project timeline, and employee scheduling. Scheduling features like a Gantt chart and pre-populated pulldown menu help maximize project scheduling and simplify the planning process for multiple projects. Vendor onboard timeline

Microsoft Project can be deployed on-premise with a user license or on the cloud with a monthly subscription. The web-based solution allows management to collaborate with a remote project team using Microsoft apps via mobile devices.

What do you like best?

Microsoft Project allows me to organise projects and it also provides me with the tools I need. It’s pretty easy to use especially if you have experience in using other Microsoft products.

This tool has everything that’s needed to manage a project. Right from the very basic constraints of the Iron triangle, like Schedule, Cost & Scope, to additional tools like Resource Management, Risk Management, Procurement, Stakeholders, etc.

It is most helpful in presenting information to executive staff in a manner that is concise but still looks high end and appealing to my audience

There is smooth integration between Procore and Microsoft Project which helps in communication.

Microsoft project is a good planning tool at the baseline timeframe of the schedule. It helps with planning at the beginning stages of a contract. Effective baseline tool Vendor onboarding grid

What do you dislike?

I do not like the lack of intuitive progress updates on schedules. It is not an easy tool when doing schedule delay analysis. It is not a good software to use after the initial project schedule is made

Microsoft Project is still slightly outdated.

How complicated it is to use when you first start a project, it takes a while and a few tutorials to understand how to get the maximum benefits of the software and all its functionalities

Though the tool is packed with a lot of features, it is not easy for a layman to use it. We need proper training to be able to use this tool. Since MPP isn’t restricted to just Project/Program Managers, it’s difficult for folks out of this domain to be able to make the best use of this tool

There are not many negative to be said about Microsoft Project. The software does what I expect it to do, it is a pretty user-friendly software if anything maybe some more customization options can be good.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Microsoft Project helps me to organize and plan my projects, it also allows me to track the progress and the spending on my projects. Planning and tracking especially complex projects can be hard to do manually or even by using Excel, Microsoft Project helps me to solve that problem.

Project Scheduling, Resource Management, Budget allocation, etc

I’ve used this tool extensively for Project management, but since this tool is cumbersome I’ve recently switched to an alternative.

It is saving me time and allowing me to create more content for management to see and understand the pace that our organization is moving in and what projects are in what status

I do not solve many issues using Microsoft project, it is more of a check the box submission requirement for some of the owners we deal with on multiple contracts. Email campaign board

Microsoft Project Features

Pros

“I have been using this software for almost 1 year and the most important aspect of this software is the ability to do more than just project management.”
“Activity and task fullfilment tracking in this software is a great help to me.”
“My experience with Microsoft Project has been an amazing one. It is a great tool for the Project Management.”
“It is a excellent tool for project planning, managing, and tracking of the project progress and life cycle.”

Cons

“Customization is poor and the process of the license is too much.”
“My only negative regarding this software is that it’s costly.”
“The disadvantage that I see with this software is that it requires an additional license to the Office suite. This should be in the general package.”
“Simple error in typing the dates or days of activities can lead to complications if not caught immediately.”

Microsoft Project Pricing

Starting From:

$10.00 /month

Pricing Model: Per User

Yes, has free trial
No free version

PRICING DETAILS (Provided by Vendor):

Project Plan 1: $10.00 user/month Project Plan 3: $30.00 user/month Project Plan 5: $55.00 user/month Project Standard 2019: $620 (one-time license) Project Professional 2019: $1030 (one-time license)