Simple PM software?

I'm looking for Project Management software that is VERY simple.

I have Project 2000, but with all its bells & whistles it ends up being too
confusing to use for the much simpler projects that I'm involved with.
Mostly the problem I have with it is that I have to sift through a ton of
things to find the simple things I need, and I don't use it often enough to
remember those things the next time I use it.

I don't need ANY of the "resources" features. The main thing that I do need
is a Gantt chart creator that can deal with S-S, F-S, etc. relationships.

Any recommendations?

Thx
Scott Kelley

Rob
Sat Oct 08 08:54:36 CDT 2005

Scott Kelley wrote:
> I'm looking for Project Management software that is VERY simple.
>
> I have Project 2000, but with all its bells & whistles it ends up being too
> confusing to use for the much simpler projects that I'm involved with.
> Mostly the problem I have with it is that I have to sift through a ton of
> things to find the simple things I need, and I don't use it often enough to
> remember those things the next time I use it.
>
> I don't need ANY of the "resources" features. The main thing that I do need
> is a Gantt chart creator that can deal with S-S, F-S, etc. relationships.
>
> Any recommendations?
>
> Thx
> Scott Kelley
>
>

Sounds like you are just drawing? Visio? PowerPoint? Pen/Paper?

Scott
Sat Oct 08 17:31:44 CDT 2005


The one thing that I DO need is to product Gantt charts which have S-S, F-S,
etc. relationships, so that changes to the project outline do not require
re-doing all of the start/end dates. With a simple drawing, if one date
changes early in the project, ALL dates for the rest of the project would
need to be changed manually.

> Sounds like you are just drawing? Visio? PowerPoint? Pen/Paper?

Rob
Sun Oct 09 01:08:59 CDT 2005

Well, then I'd think Project would do the job. Just name the tasks, give
them durations (no work, no start/end dates), and give them the logic
you want (predecessors and successors). That's a small amount of info
per task. Manually move the task bars around on the Gant chart to
present the Gant chart you want to see.

I think wha tyoua re doing is trying to input start/end dates AND
putting in S-S and F-S logic. For what you are doing, best to not put
any star/end dates in at all (let PRoject do that). Just durations and
logic.

Scott Kelley wrote:
> The one thing that I DO need is to product Gantt charts which have S-S, F-S,
> etc. relationships, so that changes to the project outline do not require
> re-doing all of the start/end dates. With a simple drawing, if one date
> changes early in the project, ALL dates for the rest of the project would
> need to be changed manually.
>
>
>>Sounds like you are just drawing? Visio? PowerPoint? Pen/Paper?
>
>
>

Scott
Sun Oct 09 17:46:50 CDT 2005


> I think wha tyoua re doing is trying to input start/end dates AND
> putting in S-S and F-S logic. For what you are doing, best to not put any
> star/end dates in at all (let PRoject do that). Just durations and logic.

Hey - now that's what I had in mind - Works great.

For a long time I threatened to take a class on MS Project, but didn't do so
because I had concluded that I needed something much simpler. If I had
taken a class, maybe I would have figured out that I was making it more
difficult than necessary. Thanks for the info, and your patience with
someone who is obviously not aware of the basics.

Scott Kelley

Mike
Mon Oct 10 05:32:21 CDT 2005

Hi Scott,

You might like to have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the
TechTrax ezine at this site: http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the articles before leaving the site, :)
Thanks.)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on :)

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

Scott Kelley wrote:
>> I think wha tyoua re doing is trying to input start/end dates AND
>> putting in S-S and F-S logic. For what you are doing, best to not
>> put any star/end dates in at all (let PRoject do that). Just
>> durations and logic.
>
> Hey - now that's what I had in mind - Works great.
>
> For a long time I threatened to take a class on MS Project, but
> didn't do so because I had concluded that I needed something much
> simpler. If I had taken a class, maybe I would have figured out that
> I was making it more difficult than necessary. Thanks for the info,
> and your patience with someone who is obviously not aware of the
> basics.
> Scott Kelley