Simple PM software?

[Scott Kelley]

I'm looking for Project Management software that is VERY simple.

I have Project 2000, but with all its bells & whistles it ends up being too
confusing to use for the much simpler projects that I'm involved with.
Mostly the problem I have with it is that I have to sift through a ton of
things to find the simple things I need, and I don't use it often enough to
remember those things the next time I use it.

I don't need ANY of the "resources" features. The main thing that I do need
is a Gantt chart creator that can deal with S-S, F-S, etc. relationships.

Any recommendations?

Thx
Scott Kelley

 

[Rob Schneider]

I'm looking for Project Management software that is VERY simple.

I have Project 2000, but with all its bells & whistles it ends up being too
confusing to use for the much simpler projects that I'm involved with.
Mostly the problem I have with it is that I have to sift through a ton of
things to find the simple things I need, and I don't use it often enough to
remember those things the next time I use it.

I don't need ANY of the "resources" features. The main thing that I do need
is a Gantt chart creator that can deal with S-S, F-S, etc. relationships.

Any recommendations?

Thx
Scott Kelley

Sounds like you are just drawing? Visio? PowerPoint? Pen/Paper?

 

[Scott Kelley]

The one thing that I DO need is to product Gantt charts which have S-S, F-S,
etc. relationships, so that changes to the project outline do not require
re-doing all of the start/end dates. With a simple drawing, if one date
changes early in the project, ALL dates for the rest of the project would
need to be changed manually.

 

[Rob Schneider]

Well, then I'd think Project would do the job. Just name the tasks, give
them durations (no work, no start/end dates), and give them the logic
you want (predecessors and successors). That's a small amount of info
per task. Manually move the task bars around on the Gant chart to
present the Gant chart you want to see.

I think wha tyoua re doing is trying to input start/end dates AND
putting in S-S and F-S logic. For what you are doing, best to not put
any star/end dates in at all (let PRoject do that). Just durations and
logic.

 

[Scott Kelley]

I think wha tyoua re doing is trying to input start/end dates AND
putting in S-S and F-S logic. For what you are doing, best to not put any
star/end dates in at all (let PRoject do that). Just durations and logic.

Hey - now that's what I had in mind - Works great.

For a long time I threatened to take a class on MS Project, but didn't do so
because I had concluded that I needed something much simpler. If I had
taken a class, maybe I would have figured out that I was making it more
difficult than necessary. Thanks for the info, and your patience with
someone who is obviously not aware of the basics.

Scott Kelley

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Scott,

You might like to have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the
TechTrax ezine at this site: http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the articles before leaving the site,
Thanks.)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP