Other Programs? "Schedule Lite"

[DBD]

I am evaluating MS Project's Trial Version for possible purchase for our
office. In previous posts I've gotten great info to help me decide which
version to buy, how to make schedules look like I want, etc.

Now, the Ultimate question for me is this;

Is there a program out there for simple scheduling that does not have the
resourses tied in and the "smart" features of the scheduling program so to
speak.

We are an architectural firm mainly interested in the use of schedules to
have a graphic display of the intended design and construction schedule to
clients, we don't track resources, we don't assign tasks from the schedule,
because quite honestly we are large enough to have many projects ongoing at
any one time but not large enough to devote one person to maintain our
schedules as that woud be purely overhead. Neither can we train all our
project managers on the software to scheduling the program effectively due to
the complexity of most software, and the fact that the project managers are
also the lead architectural designers in our office, and don't have time to
learn complicated software other than keeping up with our CAD programs.

So in essence I want a bare bones schedule program that is easy to input
scheduled tasks, updates easily, tracks projected and actual dates, has no
resource funtions, and doesn't require intense training as time spent
learning this software is time spent away from our money making business of
designing buildings.

Kind of a "Schedule Lite" program.

I feel dumb by writing this as it apears that I don't want to learn the
advanced features of Project or any other programs, but it's really not the
case, it just isn't profitable for our company to do so when we make our
money by providing design and drawings to clients who want to build buildings
and time spent off of the main task is profit loss. I mean schedules are
important but the quicker we can make them, the better so we can spend more
time making buildings.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[JulieS]

Hi DBD,

You might like to check out Project Kickstart -- I have heard good things
about it but have not personally tried it.

http://www.projectkickstart.com/

Primavera also makes a product called SureTrak:

http://www.primavera.com/customer/products/suretrak.asp

Again, I haven't tried it but they also have a free trial version.

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

 

[JackD]

Suretrak is not so different from project.
Project can be used to do what you want.
It is perfectly usable even if you do not assign resources to tasks.

 

[DBD]

Hi Julie,

Thanks for the reply, I am going to look at projectkickstart and make a
decision based on the ease of use, features etc. I really appreciate your
response. I'll post a update when i make my decision.

David (DBD)

 

[DBD]

Jack... you are correct it is usable, however it is still chock full of
things we will probably never use, I'm not ruling out Project yet, I like it
so far, but with so many options one of our emplyees is bound to get
confused, so the simpler the better in our case. I've had experience with
SureTrack and you are correct it is similar. I'm going to look at Project
Kickstart and make my call from there. Thanks.

 

[JulieS]

Hi David,

You are most welcome. Do let us know how things progress.

Julie

 

[DBD]

Julie,

After downloading and starting a schedule with Project Kickstart, I have
made up my mind to stay with MS Project. It only took about 5 minutes to see
Kickstart was not for us. It was no comparison, if there was something in
between the two, I might be willing to look at that software, but after
seeing how limited Kickstart is, it makes me believe that the features that
MS Project has that we will not use will not hinder us, it will just make it
possible for us to explore more sophisticated scheduling later. Kickstart
was very user-friendly, but its limitations were severe.

Thanks again for the tip though.

David (DBD)

 

[John Sitka]

http://www.kever.com/

Julie,

After downloading and starting a schedule with Project Kickstart, I have
made up my mind to stay with MS Project. It only took about 5 minutes to see
Kickstart was not for us. It was no comparison, if there was something in
between the two, I might be willing to look at that software, but after
seeing how limited Kickstart is, it makes me believe that the features that
MS Project has that we will not use will not hinder us, it will just make it
possible for us to explore more sophisticated scheduling later. Kickstart
was very user-friendly, but its limitations were severe.

Thanks again for the tip though.

David (DBD)

 

[John Sitka]

-> as that woud be purely overhead.

This is a conclusion derived from a broken thought process, a cost accounting
approach to local optimization which does not take the stategic needs of
your firm into consideration. You ability to make money designing buildings is
more closely related to the speed at which you can deliver that product than it is to
actually cost of doing the work of the project. Ignoring a need to syncronize to a fine level of detail
the handoffs between many complex tasks, keeping the flow through critical parts of the design as quick as
possible and reducing multitasking on your skilled people are far more expensive than
anything else.

 

[JulieS]

Hi David,

I think that is a great decision. You don't have to use all of the features
of Project first time through, but it does give you the option to "grow"
much more than Project Kickstart does.

Thanks for the update and please post here if you have questions about
Project.

Julie

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

A question that comes to mind is -- when you actually begin building the
structure you have designed, how do you come up with such instructions to
the construction crew or contractors as "the site will be acquired before 1
Sep so the site prep crew should plan on moving on-site on that date,
they'll take about 2 weeks to do the site prep so the crew that will be
digging the foundations should be ready to come on-site 15 Sept, etc etc
etc?" That's where Project, or indeed any PM software, comes into play. It
will take your breakdown of what needs to be done, couple it to the sequence
in which the physical processes mandate that they be done (ie, you can't
place the rafters in position until the walls are up to hold them), and the
estimates of how long it will take to do each little thing, and tell you the
most efficient schedule you can expect to obtain. It doesn't exist to
illustrate a schedule you have already determined. It's there to create the
schedule for you given your inputs on what needs to be done and the assets
you have to do it with. If seat of the pants scheduling methods are working
adequately for you, why change? If you only need something to illustrate a
schedule, perhaps a graphics tool like Visio would be a better choice.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Jack... you are correct it is usable, however it is still chock full of
things we will probably never use, I'm not ruling out Project yet, I like
it
so far, but with so many options one of our emplyees is bound to get
confused, so the simpler the better in our case. I've had experience with
SureTrack and you are correct it is similar. I'm going to look at Project
Kickstart and make my call from there. Thanks.

 

[DBD]

I’m not familiar with Visio, but I plan on reviewing it also as in searching
for a scheduling program I saw Visio on the MS website and the features look
like they may help in some aspects of our business. Our architectural office
does use our current scheduling software (Project Scheduler – by Scitor
Corpwhich we feel is very difficult to use) to create schedules that model
the design and construction; however the construction sequencing is not
broken down into tasks as your e-mail suggests, as we do not build the
buildings, only design, so the General Contractor's Schedule would then take
over after bidding is complete and a contract awarded. But your point is
taken; the way a schedule is created has everything to do with producing the
desired results.

Our firm is beginning to understand the complexities of any scheduling
software, and will become more efficient as we use it more, but the first
goal is to create visually appealing schedules that are easy to create, easy
to follow thus keeping our design team on schedule, and when delays occur
induced by outside forces beyond our control we want to be able to make our
clients aware that those decision or lack of decisions impact the overall
schedule, our fees, and ultimately their bottom line too, as extending any
project almost always ends up costing everyone more.

Thanks for your reply.

A question that comes to mind is -- when you actually begin building the
structure you have designed, how do you come up with such instructions to
the construction crew or contractors as "the site will be acquired before 1
Sep so the site prep crew should plan on moving on-site on that date,
they'll take about 2 weeks to do the site prep so the crew that will be
digging the foundations should be ready to come on-site 15 Sept, etc etc
etc?" That's where Project, or indeed any PM software, comes into play. It
will take your breakdown of what needs to be done, couple it to the sequence
in which the physical processes mandate that they be done (ie, you can't
place the rafters in position until the walls are up to hold them), and the
estimates of how long it will take to do each little thing, and tell you the
most efficient schedule you can expect to obtain. It doesn't exist to
illustrate a schedule you have already determined. It's there to create the
schedule for you given your inputs on what needs to be done and the assets
you have to do it with. If seat of the pants scheduling methods are working
adequately for you, why change? If you only need something to illustrate a
schedule, perhaps a graphics tool like Visio would be a better choice.

 

[DBD]

Thanks for the additional website for Kever IT, I’ve already ordered MS
Project Standard though.

Your commentary about my thought process being broken may be true with
traditional project delivery methods, not every business can be grouped
together and the lessons learned in “Business 101†applied to make it
successful.

Customer service is our main goal as satisfied customers create many more
repeat and new future projects than delivering the project in the least
amount of time possible. Faster is not always better in our case.

We don’t use scheduling software to identify the quickest way to an end
result, we use it to illustrate that changes made by clients after design
acceptance, or non-decisions on design issues early in the design of a
project will impact the schedule adversely usually resulting in higher design
fees, construction costs, and financing costs.

Believe me, we can make more money proving to a client that their changes
after they have already signed off or accepted the design caused us
additional redesign time that was not in the original contract for services
that we could if we cranked out designs based on a schedule a program told us
is the most optimum, or profitable.

 

[JackD]

Most projects can be broken down into component steps.
Architectural Design could be broken into a number of phases:
Program
Schematics
Design Development
Construction Drawings
Construction Administration

Within each of these phases there are several important activities and
milestones/deadlines.
If you think about the sequence of work in a typical project you can
construct a schedule.
It is wise to model any external dependencies so that changes to your plan
can be documented and accounted for in fees etc.
For example if your plan requires that the client sign off on the schematics
by a certain date so that the rest of the work can be completed and they
fail to do so (or go back and make wide ranging changes) the schedule can
clearly and unambiguously record this and also give an idea of the results
of that failure.

 

[DBD]

That is exactly how we used Project Scheduler, and it worked, but was
cumbersome to many, so we looked for an easier answer and decided Project was
the one for us. Thanks again.

 

[JackD]

DBD,

Project is never going to tell you what the most profitable schedule is. It
just crunches the numbers. You provide the input and tell it how the work
should be sequenced. You can please the customer and have a reasonable
plan.

 

[John Sitka]

Believe what you want.

Thanks for the additional website for Kever IT, I've already ordered MS
Project Standard though.

Your commentary about my thought process being broken may be true with
traditional project delivery methods, not every business can be grouped
together and the lessons learned in "Business 101" applied to make it
successful.

Customer service is our main goal as satisfied customers create many more
repeat and new future projects than delivering the project in the least
amount of time possible. Faster is not always better in our case.

We don't use scheduling software to identify the quickest way to an end
result, we use it to illustrate that changes made by clients after design
acceptance, or non-decisions on design issues early in the design of a
project will impact the schedule adversely usually resulting in higher design
fees, construction costs, and financing costs.

Believe me, we can make more money proving to a client that their changes
after they have already signed off or accepted the design caused us
additional redesign time that was not in the original contract for services
that we could if we cranked out designs based on a schedule a program told us
is the most optimum, or profitable.