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Looks complicated but very useful at the same time....
....would be a big hop up from using my own spreadsheets etc, but I feel current workload would justify it ?
http://www.software4students.co.uk/Microsoft_Project_Professional_2010-details.aspx
Might be cheaper here
Open Project is another option - somewhat cheaper and less complex.
Depends on what you want to achieve though - plenty of heavily customised spreadsheets out there (for minimal cost) that might do the job.
Yes I use it, well the 2003 and 2010 version, depending on what version the client has. If it is only a small project your doing then I'm not sure I'd bother, but anything medium or more, or multiple projects, I'd go for it.
You'll spend more time farting around with it than actually managing a project, from my somewhat cynical experience. 🙂
No, good software & once you get beyond 15-20 lines it is easier. Not used the 2010 version, 2003 I think ours is, might even be 2000. 😕
Open Project is another option - somewhat cheaper and less complex
Good enough to make a start with, although (despite what it says on the box) it's not compatible with MS Project, and saving in non-native formats can corrupt your project. If you've got the choice, use the Microsoft product.
As for whether or not it will be really be useful: depends 😉
It's very good at working out whether you're going to have team members sitting around with nothing to do, calculating plausible dates for when tasks are going to start, but it's also a pain to keep up-to-date once your project starts to get complicated and is overkill in a lot of situations. Without knowing what your current workload is, it's hard to advise one way or the other. As a friend pointed out, a holiday planner and coloured stickers would often be a much better option.
There tends to be a level of complexity/cost/team size etc before software project management tools become effective.
They are also "scheduling" tools as oppose to project "management" tools, all to often people mistake the two.
My ex boss did it all the time thinking if he could write dates on a calendar for deliverables that constituted project management 🙄
We've just switched to this, as it does everything MS Project did that we require.