Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!microsoft!garye
From: garye@microsoft.UUCP (Gary ERICSON)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Project Planning Software Needed...
Keywords: project management software SuperProject
Message-ID: <55540@microsoft.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jun 90 21:28:32 GMT
References: <7600006@spdyne> <4874@pegasus.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: garye@microsoft.UUCP (Gary ERICSON)
Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA
Lines: 60

I fiddled with TimeLine 2.0 for quite a while, and looked at 3.0, in a 
previous job and was continually frustrated how cheap and awkward it was.
After coming to Microsoft, I started using Project for Windows (surprise)
and I was really startled at seeing someone do a lot of things right.
(This is not a company plug - I just use the thing.)

Being for Windows, it's very mouse and visually oriented, but it also has
very good support for tables and such.  What I mean is, you can approach
the problem from two directions: in a tabular, fill-out-the-form approach
like TimeLine, or in a graphical approach where you grab and pull and
connect things on the Gantt or PERT chart and let the tables take care of 
themselves.  I use the latter most of the time because it's easier for me
to mark two events with the mouse then click on the icon for "connect" than
it is to go to a table entry and write in the correct predecessor item
number.  It's also sometimes easier to grab the edge of an item bar in the
Gantt chart and pull it to where I want the event to end than it is to go 
into a table and guess how many weeks I need to add to the duration to make
the end date right.

I could go on and on about the neat things you can do, like have two
windows open at a time showing different views of the same events, being
able to define your own (or modify default) views and tables, and so on.
But you should really at least take a look at it.  I may have a narrow view
of project management tools to think this is so great, but it's orders of
magnitude better than the TimeLine I was using, so I'm in heaven here.  

One thing: it's a pretty complex, configurable product, so it might be
frustrating to use for quicky, small-scale projects.  I hit that
frustration a few times at the beginning.  But once you learn it, it works
very well.

In article <4874@pegasus.ATT.COM> (Paul S. R. Chisholm) writes:
>
>In article <7600006@spdyne> chert@spdyne.UUCP writes:
>> I'd like a software package that has the following features:

I believe PfW does most of these well, but I don't know enough specifics 
to answer here.  Except:

>>    6) Correctly allocating time..  [My biggest Beef with InstaPlan]
>
>(I.E., allow for part-time work on various projects.)  I can't remember
>if SuperProject can do this or not; it might be tricky.

If this is what I think it is, I don't know think PfW does it well either,
at least I haven't been able to figure it out.  I've always worked around
it, though, by not using automatic levelling.

>>Please resond Via E-Mail, I don't read this group much..
>
>I did; but I also posted.

I'd like to see further postings - I remember how frustrating it was to
find a good project management package.

>>Chert Pellett - chert@spdyne.UUCP || chert@dungeon.lonestar.org
>
>Paul S. R. Chisholm, AT&T Bell Laboratories

Gary Ericson - Microsoft - Work Group Apps