Managing a project with contractors: not intrerested in resource allocation

[David Cox]

My sister needs help to choose software to help her instructing
contractors performing different tasks in interior design projects.

Unlike the normal usage of project management software, she does not
have complete control of allocation of resources, and is less able to
know with complete clarity how much resource was allocated to specific
tasks.

Her interest is in knowing which future activities are likely to cause
delays because of dependencies between activities, and also to have an
historical record of what work was carried out when. She can provide
instructions to her suppliers/contractors, and ask them for progress
reports, and time estimates, but does not manage them on a daily
basis, and she does not pay them per hour.

Can MS Project be used with this sort of scenario? How likely is it
that she'll find a tutorial for Project which does not spend much of
the time on resource allocation? Are there cheaper software products
which might be easier to get to using for this scenario without
expensive study? I was thinking of IMSI Turboproject.

I am aware that MS Project is the clear leader, but her uses are not
standard, she is not a project manager, and she cannot afford to spend
a lot of time learning a software tool for what are quite small
projects.

Dave C

 

[davegb]

She has a few options. One would be to buy MSProject and use it as you
suggest. But for what she's doing, it seems to be overkill. She'll pay
for but never use 90% of what's there. And it is primarily intended as
a Critical Path Scheduling tool, which she won't be doing (although it
would certainly be advantageous).
She could do well by just keeping a list of tasks and whatever other
data she needs in a spreadsheet. But she wouldn't have a timeline or
any graphic representation of the project (I've seen a few "Gantt
Charts" done in Excel, but they were more work than they were worth).
Finally, last time I looked (which has been a year or two), there were
scheduling software packages that just did simple Gantt charts and
maybe a few bells and whistles, like being able to link dependent tasks
(without the complexities of Critical Path). If she wants some kind of
timeline, I reccommend this last option.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Project certainly can be used in such a scenario and there is nothing
mandatory about managing resource details. But I suggest she is allocating
resources after all. True, she's not managing individual worker's daily
schedules and payroll but that's not what resource allocation and management
necessarily is anyway. She has a job to paint a room. She hires a
contractor to do the job. The contactor is a resource. He may send 1 guy
or an entire crew but regardless, the contractor as an entity is a resource.
He will charge her $XX to do the job. That's a resource cost. If the
contract is a fixed bid, that is a fixed cost for the task or the summary of
a group of tasks he's responsible for. If it's "time and materials" that
cost is computed from what he's billing her by the hour, in effect no
differently than if he was a painter in her employee being paid by the hour.
The fact that the contractor's billed $XX per hour or $YY per job covers a
crew whose details about size, composition, payrate, and daily work schedule
she doesn't know or care about is irrelevant from a project management
standpoint.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi David,

IMHO she should use Project without indeed using resoruces.
That can be taught in about a day.
Several of my customers (indeed, those who coordinate subcontractors) use it
that way and are very staisfied.
HTH

 

[davegb]

Jan,
I went back and re-read the original message. When I wrote my first
reply, I thought this was a one-time need. After reading your reply and
re-reading the message and noting that she has an on-going need, I
agree that she would probably do best with Project.

 

[David Cox]

Thanks to all who responded.

It looks like Project is a good option in this scenario after all.

Dave