New User/Is Project right for my project

[Kelly]

Hi there - I am new to MS Project and trying to figure out if I can make it
work for my project before I invest too much time into learning the product.

I am working on a 2 year project that has various tasks with various
deadlines, and one ultimate deadline. I want to keep track of the tasks and
be able to generate a timeline/chart to show the plan and progress. However
my tasks are not something that I will be applying a certain number of
resources to and my duration will be fixed. I will be assigning tasks to
people, but the tasks are more of task leaders for that particular task and
you can't assign an effort amount to it. Basically this is more of a process
that we are going through and the various phases that will get us through the
process to our ultimate end result. The people working on this project all
have other duties and this is just one thing they are working on along with
the rest of their job.

I hope that makes sense and any advice anybody can give on if I should give
MS Project a chance or go with a different application. I appreciate your
resposnes.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Project is designed to do what you are looking for but whether or not you
use Project you need to think through the process and management logic a
bit. For example - you say you're not going to apply resources to it. So
just how will the work get done? Things don't happen in a vacuum, the tasks
in a project only progress when someone works on them. So to determine when
things happen and how long it will take to achieve the required results,
some thought needs to be given to the assets, ie resources, you have at your
disposal to accomplish it. Likewise you say your tasks are all fixed
duration but how can that be? True, there may be a certain duration
required in order to meet your deadlines but what happens if no one is there
to be able to do the work or you have fewer qualified people available than
you need to get all the work done in time? Fewer people who can do the work
means that it will take longer for those you have to do it so the duration
of tasks is not almost never fixed but varies depending on the specific
environment surrounding it. (About the only things that really are fixed
duration are things like testing protocols that run for specific time
intervals.) If I'm painting 1000 square feet of wall and a painter can do 10
square feet an hour working at full speed, it will take 100 hours for 1
painter to do the work, 50 hours for 2 people working together, 25 hours for
4 painters, etc. - Almost always the task duration is dependent on how much
work is required to achieve the end objective and how many assets one can
deploy to do the work. If you have all the assets you need, the duration
will be short enough to meet the deadline. If you don't, it will take
longer and you'll miss your deadline. Project helps you figure out what you
need to do proactively in order to get the required assets into the right
place at the right time to meet the objectives.