In this article I will cover a few of the major changes of MS Project 2010, for a more in-depth view, and a chance to download the beta version of MS Project 2010 visit the Microsoft site.
Let me start by saying that I have been using MS Project for over 10 years now. It's always been a love hate relationship. Often for smaller projects I would turn to using Excel, its flexibility gave me be ability to quickly organize and change project tasks.
So when I had a chance to talk to the Microsoft Project marketing team, and they remarked that the improvements made were as a result of integrating Excel like flexibility, they had my full attention. In fact did you know that the number one competitor to Project is Excel. The guys at Microsoft finally figured out that they were their own competition, and after more than a decade decided to do something about it.
Project Server 2010, a quick side note.
Collaboration seems to be Microsoft's new favourite word. You cannot talk to one of their PR people without it being mentioned at least a dozen times in 5 minutes. Not having much experience with this product I will leave its review to those more qualified, I will touch on a couple of key points.
Integrating Project Server with SharePoint allows easy publishing and sharing of Project Plans. Equally important is the ability for project staff to update the plans with new tasks as well as their progress. For many this can be a useful feature, especially when dealing with teams that are not all at the same location.
The Review
There are two versions of MS Project 2010: Standard and Professional. Let me start by saying - if you are Project Manager, or work in such a capacity, get the Professional version. Many new innovative and useful features are in the Professional version. The official Microsoft line is that the Standard version is for project managers who don't need collaborative tools. All I can say is that many of the new features are equally useful as standalone features, and while I don't want to accuse Microsoft of a bait and switch, in my eyes they lose a few good will points on this one.
The New Look
The first thing that will strike most users, who have used the previous version of MS Project, is the new Ribbon toolbar, keeping with the UI changes across the MS Office suite, Project 2010 has joined the ranks.
The introduction of the ribbon tool bar has been the subject of many debates, so I feel there is no reason to start another one here. Suffice it to say, lover it or hate it, it's here and it's here to stay.
Excel like Flexibility
When they spoke of more Excel like functionality, what struck me as the closest link is the ability to switch to Manually Schedule mode. You can create tasks without duration or dates, filling in the required fields as the information become available. Microsoft also refers to the top-down approach to creating tasks. Allowing you to create a Parent task first, adding subtask and milestones which may have dates that do not match, but you can adjust at a later time.
This feels more natural to the way most people organize their projects. Allowing for easy shifting of tasks and associated information will give most Project users the ability to work easily with large and small projects, especially if using methodologies such as RUP or Agile.
It should also be noted that the copy and past functionality has been enhanced. Now when you copy and paste your information into a spreadsheet, the formatting such the indentation of sub-tasks will remain. However, when using the Save As - Excel file option, the formatting will not be transferred.
I should add here that I was also hopping Microsoft had found a way to copy the Gantt chart view as well, however this functionality will not be available, and there are no plans in the foreseeable future to do so.
Inactive Tasks
Professional version only, flag tasks as inactive and still keep them in your project plan. Should you have a task that is currently not required, but it or its associated information may
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