Microsoft Project Keeps the Project on Track

A project in business and science can be defined as a collaborative enterprise of frequently involving research, which is carefully planned to achieve a goal. A project can be initiated on a business goal or also it can be initiated in other industries as well. Any company initiating a project, divide the project into many steps and assign it to different people who perform their part in the project. When assigned to many people, chances of losing the way in between, gets increased. It is really important for a project manager or a team leader to keep an eye on it. He require to monitor all the steps being performed as well as he has to make it sure that all the steps should be completed within the pre-decided time frame as well as it should be of the expected quality.

But it gets really difficult for a project manager to keep monitoring the activities of the team members as well as analyzing whether the project is progressing with the pre-defined speed or not. On papers it gets really difficult when task is going on at different locations where collaboration of data and targets achieved are required to be aligned to get the accurate position of the project. PERT and CPM methods again are traditional methods and on papers it all gets messed up. Again thanks to IT, many IT companies have figured out this problem and came up with project software which can make life of a project leader easier and convenient. The main of a project leader is to improve the productivity of his team members so that the timeline can be reached by which project should get completed.

Big IT giant, Microsoft Corporation has come up with MS project software which takes care of all the issues a project manager faces while handling the project. Microsoft Project software helps organization in many ways due to the advanced features. Some feature which makes it attractive are following:-

1. Unified Portfolio and Project Management:- With the help of this software, a project manager can streamline and centralize the project effectively. He can capture the project progress and initiate new steps with new demand management module. It also provides him a customizable workflow which ensure that projects are directed by appropriate control throughout the life cycle of the project. Apart from that it also select projects according to the business priorities as well as one can run what if analysis to check the situation under different budget crisis. It also possess capacity planning module which helps the project analyst to manage project resources effectively. One can identify surplus and put them at those areas where he find deficits proactively as well as can reschedule the project to maximize the resource utilization.

2. Simple and Intuitive experience:- Microsoft project helps a project manager to analyze the results quickly as well as work more efficiently. All tools which are required for planning and managing a project are easily available. Apart from that one can do scheduling very easily with the help of project scheduling engine. Not only scheduling but it does communicate the schedule using the intuitive timeline view by quickly publishing important tasks and milestones in a concise timeline view which can be copied to other ms office tools. With the help of visual team planner, one can drag the assignments and can remove under allocation and over allocation of the assignments within the team members.


3. Enhanced collaboration and reporting:- MS Project server can sync with Microsoft SharePoint foundation which enables the team members to receive and update project tasks. This also provides flexible work management solutions for all the team from small size to big size as this is built up on Microsoft SharePoint server 2010. One can also create good reports and significant dashboards using Microsoft Excel Services, PerformancePoint Services, Visio Services, SQL Server Reporting Services. With single entry mode, it enables manager to unify tasks status updates and timesheet submissions and hence can save a lot of time.


4. Scalable and Connected Platform:- MS Project 2010 can easily get connected to different Microsoft platforms like Office 2010, Exchange Server, and SharePoint Products and Technologies by which one can use familiar tool. Apart from that it offers 64 bit compatibility to ensure that the solution continues to meet and exceed the team performance requirements.


5. Compatibility with cloud environment:- Just like other Microsoft Technologies one can go for Cloud Hosting of Microsoft Project hosting which will make it accessible from anywhere to any of the authenticated team members so that one can update the projects task status and other team member and the project team leader will be updated about it. This improves business productivity but also saves business cost which can take place due to lack of data update and information when a project gets initiated involving multiple locations and branches of the company. Apart from that increases the scalability so that team of size will not be a concern.

Ultimately MS Project can reduce project cost and improve efficiency. A project Manager can expect improved productivity through its user friendly interface. As it comes from the brand, one can trust on us and get the projects completed within the stipulated time.