VIDEO: Microsoft Project Features

Welcome, today we’ll be looking at Microsoft Project Pro, a PM tool that offers powerful control and monitoring capabilities at all stages of project development and fulfillment. This video is brought to you by TechnologyAdvice. Our mission is to educate, advise and connect buyers of business technology and one of the ways we do so is by providing unbiased reviews of software. This video review is for Microsoft Project, a solution that looks to make projects management easy and engaging by enabling teams to analyze resources, budgets and timelines.

The Challenge for Microsoft Project is to retain its status as the defacto standard for Project Management software and continue to find customers already using Microsoft clients that are looking for integration for all their systems. This enterprise project management software solution, is subscription-based and allows businesses to get up and running with no up-front infrastructure costs. New users, teams and projects can be added instantly via a web-based portal, allowing companies to scale use as they grow.

The interface should be very familiar for most users of windows products with the tabs at the top and ancillary information in the row below. The majority of the software is geared toward displaying various charts and spreadsheets in the main window that helps users more easily control their projects. Projects are broken up into two main areas, resources and tasks. Resources are typically people included in the project, and can include anything that is used to complete a project such as equipment.

Tasks are what it takes to complete a project and are typically broken up into phases. One of the best features of Microsoft Projects is the way in which users can interact with this information. There are multiple view modes that are available in the team planner tab of projects. Perhaps the most traditional view, the gantt chart, displays a tasks’ basic information alongside it’s duration and assigned resource. Projects has the ability to auto-schedule based on where tasks are dragged throughout the timeline.

From there, the allocated time is automatically updated. Users can get into resource usage to see when and where deadlines need to be hit in order to complete projects. It’s also possible to take a peek at cost as well as whether projects have started and are running as planned. This view mode is nice because it shows how much time should be devoted to each project for each resource. Task usage is another helpful way of looking at the project breakdown and to more easily see the breakdown of resource and task allocation.

One of the many available methods to display your information is the network diagram which offers the user a more visual display of what needs to be completed to finish projects on time. The calendar is also a different way of visually looking at data and resources. Microsoft Projects also has several helpful features for creating actionable data within the reports tab. Made for medium-sized companies to enterprises, Microsoft Project is available at a high price point.

One of the limitations we noticed and confirmed from online reviews was that learning how to properly use the software is quite time-consuming. It’s also meant for those already familiar with the PM process, and can be frustrating for those still learning. In summary, Microsoft Project: Allows Team Members to manage tasks, collaborate & more. Make PM easy by enabling them to analyze resources, budgets and timelines. Measure progress and anticipate resource needs with out-of-the box reports To find out more about Microsoft Project or other project management software, check out our website where we can help you find software that will fit the needs of your work. Thanks for watching!