Ron:
Most people are frustrated because of an unrealistic expectation that
enterprise software is as easy to deploy as a desktop application like Word.
Microsoft did an excellent job warning folks about the complexities of
deploying the software in the Enterprise Implementation Framework, that is
readily available for download and substantially promoted as the official
deployment guide from Microsoft. Despite the fact that there's even a link
to it from the Admin page in Project Web Access, very few people take the
time to review the EIF or even the installation guide before popping the CD
into the drive and double clicking setup. Many folks, particularly IT
resources, simply don't think that reading directions and documentation
apply to them.
If 14 support calls is all it takes you to deploy the software in your
organization, I'd say you "got off cheap." Those who choose not to accept
Microsoft's very strongly emphasized recommendation to obtain expert
assistance with their deployment are simply choosing to pay the price in
frustration rather than currency. Microsoft at least gives you the choice;
some of Microsoft's competitors don't offer the software license without the
professional services engagement.
RonSo said:
I think Joe's frustration is due to the tremendous gap between what
Microsoft advertises as a solution, and what it takes to implement the
solution. The marketing materials surrounding Project 2003 and Project 2003
Server all indicate that this is the easiest, cheapest, and most feature
rich solution to your project management challenges. They even emphasise
"enterprise connectivity".
It may all eventually work, and work well, but at day 14 and having used
up all of my MSCD support calls, and still no easy way to simply associate
some accounting codes with tasks and corresponding resource work hours, I
also wonder. And I am a PMP and was a certified Project 98 professional,
and have been in the business of software development for 25 years, and my
company was the 1999 Microsoft Fusion Award 1st place winner for best
business operations solution.
I am here on Saturday testing all combinations of settings, permissions,
views, and logging in under different levels of permissions, all to try and
understand why sometimes fields are editable, sometimes not, timescales get
changed unpredictably, week ending periods don't correspond...goes on and
on. Just for starters, when every PM manual tells you to NEVER EVER use
%complete to establish remaining work hours does Microsoft make that the
default behavior of their %complete calculations? Simple things like that
are what drive us project managers nuts. BTW, I told them about the
%complete back in 1998.
