MS Project Weakness?

In a recent interview I was asked what I thought the biggest weakness of MS
Project is. I'm curious to know what the experts think. Thank you for your
input.

Jack
Thu May 08 08:54:07 CDT 2008

Lack of a complete set of scheduling objects and methods to use on them.
This is common to most scheduling tools though.

--
Jack Dahlgren
Project Blog: http://zo-d.com/blog
Macros: http://masamiki.com/project/macros.htm



"JennL" <JennL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:24F37D24-876B-4D24-B439-02B3C1FD71AA@microsoft.com...
> In a recent interview I was asked what I thought the biggest weakness of
> MS
> Project is. I'm curious to know what the experts think. Thank you for
> your
> input.

salgud
Thu May 08 11:52:42 CDT 2008

On Thu, 8 May 2008 06:34:03 -0700, JennL wrote:

> In a recent interview I was asked what I thought the biggest weakness of MS
> Project is. I'm curious to know what the experts think. Thank you for your
> input.

Depends on what you consider "weakness", and whether you mean on a macro or
micro scale.
On a micro scale, the "Autolink tasks" feature is a major flaw in Project.
It inserts false links into a schedule in many cases, unless it is turned
off. To make matters worse, it is on by default.
On a macro scale, the Network Diagram is not well thought out, cumbersome
to modify and use, and it's real purpose is to some degree defeated by the
difficulty in applying it. I don't think many users venture there because
of this problem, and it's a key scheduling tool.
Resource Leveling is also rather cumbersome. I think there need to be
considerably more options in controlling how it functions for it to be
truly useful.
Overall, it's a much more useful tool than it was in the early days,
versions 1.0, 3.0, 4.0, etc. Still, it has a ways to go to be fully
functional.
Hope this helps in your world.

Dale
Thu May 08 15:32:48 CDT 2008

JennL --

I've always thought there needs to be an Equipment type of resource to go
along with the Work, Material, and Cost resources. If there WAS an
Equipment type of resource, there also needs to be a way to tie an Equipment
resource's schedule to a Work resource's schedule on a task so that the
Equipment resource and Work resource are always scheduled to work together.
Hope this helps.

--
Dale A. Howard [MVP]
VP of Educational Services
msProjectExperts
http://www.msprojectexperts.com
http://www.projectserverexperts.com
"We write the books on Project Server"


"JennL" <JennL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:24F37D24-876B-4D24-B439-02B3C1FD71AA@microsoft.com...
> In a recent interview I was asked what I thought the biggest weakness of
> MS
> Project is. I'm curious to know what the experts think. Thank you for
> your
> input.

Trevor
Thu May 08 20:38:18 CDT 2008

The ALAP Date constraint does what it says it does and is needed (as it is)
in rare cases but it is too strong for what most people think it is when
they use it.
The ALAP Date constraint sucks all of the float out of its non-critical
successors as well as the Task that it is applied to.
What's needed is a zero free float constraint as in P3/P6.

Trevor Rabey 0407213955 61 8 92727485 PERFECT PROJECT PLANNING
www.perfectproject.com.au
"JennL" <JennL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:24F37D24-876B-4D24-B439-02B3C1FD71AA@microsoft.com...
> In a recent interview I was asked what I thought the biggest weakness of
> MS
> Project is. I'm curious to know what the experts think. Thank you for
> your
> input.

Trevor
Thu May 08 20:48:22 CDT 2008

The zig-zag progress lines are useless and meaningless and should be taken
out so people don't waste their time trying to use them.

Trevor Rabey 0407213955 61 8 92727485 PERFECT PROJECT PLANNING
www.perfectproject.com.au
"JennL" <JennL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:24F37D24-876B-4D24-B439-02B3C1FD71AA@microsoft.com...
> In a recent interview I was asked what I thought the biggest weakness of
> MS
> Project is. I'm curious to know what the experts think. Thank you for
> your
> input.

Trevor
Thu May 08 20:48:23 CDT 2008

The project Summary Task (Task 0) should be turned on by default.

Trevor RabeyTrevor Rabey 0407213955 61 8 92727485 PERFECT PROJECT PLANNING
www.perfectproject.com.au
"JennL" <JennL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:24F37D24-876B-4D24-B439-02B3C1FD71AA@microsoft.com...
> In a recent interview I was asked what I thought the biggest weakness of
> MS
> Project is. I'm curious to know what the experts think. Thank you for
> your
> input.

Trevor
Wed May 14 05:28:36 CDT 2008

I think your question could be re-phrased.
It obviously isn't popular.
Every tool has limitations and room for improvement.
This does not nrecessarily mean they are "weaknesses".
What about strengths?
Everyone has a wish list, things that would be nice to have, and MS will
probably get around to most of them eventually.
For example, the Gantt Chart can stack rows up to 4 high. It would be nice
to have more stack levels but it is not a weakness.

Trevor Rabey 0407213955 61 8 92727485 PERFECT PROJECT PLANNING
www.perfectproject.com.au
"JennL" <JennL@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:24F37D24-876B-4D24-B439-02B3C1FD71AA@microsoft.com...
> In a recent interview I was asked what I thought the biggest weakness of
> MS
> Project is. I'm curious to know what the experts think. Thank you for
> your
> input.

RLRivera
Mon Jun 09 17:37:01 CDT 2008

1. A major weakness is that it allows forecast dates in the past... And it's
workaround is by using a start constraint. It gives a false sence of
security because if you don't show other columns of information you might led
to believe those tasks are complete.

2. Cant' copy sections of another schedule into your schedule without losing
the relationships woithin the group of tasks.

3. Can't replace a generic resource with multiple named resources. Cant
have multiple cost accounts againts a task...

4. Not having a Timephased Network Diagram



"JennL" wrote:

> In a recent interview I was asked what I thought the biggest weakness of MS
> Project is. I'm curious to know what the experts think. Thank you for your
> input.