Microsoft Project users have a reason to look forward. In 2010 a new version of the leading software will hit the market. We have tested a beta version for you and present the crucial innovations in the following article.

Starting up

There are two opinions among our colleagues about the newest Office version. Some are enthusiastic about the new user interface in Office. Others are still complaining on a daily basis about the so-called ribbons. I am part of the last group and, from time to time, need minutes at a time to search for a specific function. And now this: Microsoft Project, the last member of the Office family, is converting to ribbons, too. In other words, there are no more classic toolbars. Instead, the toolbar is divided into six smaller parts: File, Task, Resource, Project, View, and Format. Additionally, there are special ribbons that display automatically depending on what is highlighted (e.g. Gantt chart tools or timeline tools). The functions are therefore grouped in a logical manner, and even I can deal with it after a period of acclimatization (including a few minutes for searching).

Microsoft Project Client Variants

The software is offered in two variants: Standard and Professional. According to the most recent information, the following functions are available only in the professional version:

• Resource management / team planner
  Resource allocation via drag and drop
  Highlighting of non-allocated work and work that is not planned
  Highlighting of overcapacities
  
• Interfaces / collaboration

Task mode

One of the substantial innovations in Microsoft Project 2010 is the so-called task mode. MS Project uses generally two variants of the date computation. On the one hand, Microsoft is able to do a resource leveling. Microsoft tries to accommodate all constraints and conditions (e.g. to keep the priority of a task) in the best possible way. This function is usually used by experienced Microsoft Project users. In earlier versions, however, for lack of a deactivation possibility, the date computation according to the relationship between the tasks was always used.

Due to the start-finish relationship and starting with the start date of <task 1>, you therefore get the start and finish dates of the tasks <task 2> and <task 3> automatically in the following example.

From a planner’s point of view, this behavior is desirable. Microsoft also highlights all dates that were adjusted automatically in the tabular view. This date computation can now be deactivated in the new version.

If, for example, the task mode is set to manual planning for (1), (2) can be dragged in front of it using the mouse. The start-finish-relationship is violated in this example. Similar to the spell check in Word, the error in planning is visualized by red underlining in the table and the dashed frame in the Gantt chart (3).

Since the dates are not calculated, an arbitrary text can be entered in the columns "start" and "finish". In this case, there will be no rectangle in the Gantt chart.

What can we do with this? First, it is very easy to “draw” unrealistic plans. The tasks can be moved around until the “plan” shows the desired result. Of course you can no longer call this picture a plan. Rather the tool mutates into a comfortable and powerful (Gantt chart) drawing tool. This way of using the Microsoft Project software is, according to our experience, quite common. Plans in which the resources are used, up to several hundred percent, just to show the desired but unrealistic finish date, are no rarity. This wrong methodology is now supported by the tool and therefore will most likely be perceived as a correct procedure.

On the other hand, all necessary changes can, of course, be carried out manually to get to a plausible plan. The advantage is obvious. If done manually, all the changes are transparent to the planner. However, you pay for this advantage with a higher manual effort.

However, this feature is interesting when using top-down-planning. In this case, grouped phases can be set manually. Within these stabile phases, all tasks are then calculated automatically. If, because of restraints, the phase finish is not met, this error in planning is shown to the project leader. The total plan, however, is not affected.

This kind of procedure comes very close to the two-step planning that is advocated by InTime Management, details of which are discussed in another article

Deactivated tasks

The actual work requirement in a project is only rarely written in stone. In particular, when there is a risk of not being able to meet the finish date, tasks are deleted or moved. This is especially common when using the so-called time-boxing. The impact on the finish date of deleting a task needs to be evaluated ahead of time. To this end, in the past, the project leader either had to delete the task or remove all of the allocated resources, relationships, and constraints. Then, if the planning still did not show the desired result, the project leader sometimes had to undo the changes. These steps are now considerably easier.

With Project 2010 version, Microsoft offers the possibility to temporarily deactivate tasks. Deactivated tasks have no impact on the calculation of dates in Microsoft Project. This way, neither the allocated resources nor the dependence on other tasks is considered.

In the examples above, <task 3> is started directly after <task 1>. This is despite the fact that the resource “Tom” is also allocated to <task 2>, and there is a start finish relationship to <task 3>. This way, deactivated tasks help to simulate different planning scenarios without having to delete information from the plan.

Task Inspector

Errors in planning are visualized in the information column in Microsoft Project. In addition to the mere display of the error, the so-called task inspector also offers different solutions. Functions that used to be activated from the menu bar are now available directly. In the example below, the resource Tom was allocated to and . MS project offers as possible solutions to move the tasks, or to open a new team planner to allocate the task to another resource. This way, the frequently underused feature of resource leveling becomes more accessible to the user and will, most likely, be used with greater regularity.

Team planner

The team planner that was just mentioned is also a new addition in the professional version tested by us. Here, resources can be allocated via drag and drop or the timeline can be changed. Overcapacities will be displayed accordingly and thus can be fixed very easily. We also experienced in our tests that, after changing back to the Gantt chart, we no longer recognized our own plan!

Timeline

Microsoft has given Project 2010 another view – the timeline. This view shows selected tasks along a timeline. This view is popular in status reports and is easily copied. However, we couldn’t find any more important use for this view.

Highlighting

In our opinion, the possibility to highlight certain tasks in the tabular view is a useful addition. There are numerous criteria like “recent tasks” or “incomplete tasks” available. Tasks that fit the criteria will be highlighted in the appropriate color. This feature improves the overview in complex plans.

Conclusions

In addition to these considerable innovations, there will also be smaller optimizations to the product. This makes the step from Project 2007 to 2010 much bigger than the step from the 2003 version to the 2007 version. The huge difference in user interface requires a significant initial effort. The ribbon mechanism has clear advantages in some areas, e.g., the many different views are very good and easily selected. The automatic change to context sensitive ribbons, however, can also be confusing. In general, Microsoft Project is a powerful tool with many functions. This might be the deciding factor to buy for some users. However, for many others users, this should be the reason not to buy this tool. There are some interesting alternatives among the freeware tools. Though these do not have as many functions, they are easy to control after just a few minutes.

In terms of price, Microsoft has always been very confident. So we are in suspense about this last unknown.