The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management, 5th Edition

22Microsoft Project: Guidelines for Effective Use

Introduction

Microsoft Project is an enormously popular software package. It has millions of users around the world, and among them are both fierce opponents and ardent proponents. That's to be expected when you consider how central a role Project plays in the actual practice of project management. It's used in every industry and on projects of all sizes, including some worth hundreds of millions of dollars. It can be used as informally as a whiteboard in a meeting room or it can be the official repository of cost data used for paying project vendors.

Whether Project is the best project management software tool is certainly subject to debate—there are many, many excellent competitive offerings. Suffice it to say that Microsoft has successfully leveraged its market share of desktop applications to make Project the most commonly used project management software in the world. This chapter is included for all readers who are trying to get the greatest value from Microsoft Project while minimizing the time spent entering and updating the data. As an adjunct to this chapter, owners of this book are entitled to view several tutorials for using Project, and these may be found at www.VersatileCompany.com/FFMBAinPM.

Project Management Software Supports the Discipline

If you've read the previous chapters of this book, you know that managing ...