Buy?

[Rose]

I am a novice computer user. We are building a house and would like to chart
the scheduling on a gant chart. At a web site b4build.com I found a
construction schelule for a house. To use it they say I need to get
Microsoft project 4.1. I was going to buy Microsoft project 2003 the student
version of this software, but I am not sure if this software will be to hard
for me to get around in. Any suggestions. I did download a sample gant
program to try and I was able to input info. But I really need this
construction templete I found above. It had very few options when making
predeccessors and conneting tasks and printing options.

Thanks for any info you can give me.

 

[JackD]

1) There is no guarantee that the schedule template you found will match
your circumstances. In fact, you can practically guarantee that it will not.
Weather, building design, building practices, site conditions etc. are
usually enough to make any particular schedule specific to the project. If
you are hiring a contractor, you can put it in the contract that he must
deliver an acceptable project schedule for the work he is doing. It is then
his responsibility to maintain the schedule and perform to it. Make the
contractor do the work.

2) Unless you are a student or associated with an academic institution you
can't install and run the academic version without being in violation of the
EULA. This is illegal.

3) Project 2003 will not read project 4.1 files. You need project 98 which
will read those files.

4) Project is easy to get started with, but can be difficult to master.

5) You don't require many options when making predecessors. Either a task is
a predecessor or it is not. I use simple Finish to Start dependencies for
95% of my scheduling.

So, from what you have told us it is impossible to make a recommendation.
I'd be suspect of any place that is selling schedules which require project
4.1 which has been obsolete for a number of years. Not that the plans are
bad, but just that if they haven't kept up to date they might not be too
well organized.