In this article, I will cover some of the major changes in MS Project 2010, for a more detailed view and the ability 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. It has always been a love-hate relationship. Often for smaller projects I would resort to using Excel, its flexibility gave me the ability to quickly organize and change project tasks.
So when I had a chance to speak with the Microsoft Project marketing team and they commented that improvements made were due to Excel integration like flexibility, they had my full attention. In fact, did you know that Project’s number one competitor is Excel? The guys at Microsoft finally realized they were their own competition, and after more than a decade, they decided to do something about it.
Project Server 2010, a quick side note.
Collaboration seems to be Microsoft’s new favorite word. You can’t talk to one of their PR people without being mentioned at least a dozen times in 5 minutes. Not having much experience with this product, I will leave your review to the most qualified, I will touch on a couple of key points.
Project Server’s integration with SharePoint makes it easy to publish and share Project Plans. Equally important is the ability of project staff to update plans with new tasks, as well as their progress. For many, this can be a useful feature, especially when dealing with computers that are not all in the same location.
The revision
There are two versions of MS Project 2010: Standard and Professional. Let me start by saying: if you are a Project Manager, or work in such a capacity, get the Professional version. Many new innovative and useful features are in the Professional version. Microsoft’s official line is that the Standard version is for project managers who don’t need collaboration tools. All I can say is that many of the new features are just as useful as stand-alone features, and while I don’t want to accuse Microsoft of bait-and-switch, they lose some points of goodwill on this one in my opinion.
the new look
The first thing that will catch the eyes of most of the users, who have used the previous version of MS Project, is the new Ribbon toolbar, which adds to the changes in the user interface of the MS Office suite, Project 2010. has joined the ranks.
The introduction of the ribbon toolbar has been the subject of many discussions, so I think there’s no reason to start another one here. Suffice to say, love it or hate it, it’s here and it’s here to stay.
Excel as Flexibility
When they talked about more Excel-like functionality, what struck me as the closest link is the ability to switch to Schedule manually Fashion. You can create tasks without duration or dates, filling in the required fields as the information becomes available. Microsoft also refers to the top down approach to task creation. Allowing you to create a parent task first, adding subtasks and milestones that may have mismatched dates, but that you can adjust at a later time.
This feels more natural in the way most people organize their projects. Enabling easy switching of tasks and associated information will give most Project users the ability to easily work with projects large and small, especially if methodologies such as RUP or Agile are used.
It should also be noted that the copy and paste functionality has been improved. Now when you copy and paste your information into a spreadsheet, formatting, such as subtask indentation, will be preserved. However, when using the Save As – Excel file option, the format will not be transferred.
I should add here that I was also hoping that Microsoft would have found a way to copy the Gantt chart view, however this functionality will not be available and there are no plans in the foreseeable future to do so.
idle tasks
In the professional version only, mark tasks as inactive and keep them in your project plan. If you have a task that you don’t currently need, but it or its associated information may be useful at a later time, marking a task as inactive gives you the best of both worlds. Project will ignore the inactive task, until you decide to reactivate it.
team planner
Pro version only, it’s just a manual resource lever. Unlike the automated resource lever (which still exists) in previous versions, you can drag and drop tasks to different resources as needed and make sure no one is over or under allocated as you see fit.
timeline view
(Correction: I had previously said that the TimeLine view was only in the professional version. However, one of Microsoft’s insiders pointed out to me that this feature is available in the standard edition. After double checking the information, this article now shows information updated to: April 16, 2010)
Probably one of the most striking features of the new MS Project. It’s certainly one of the first things the Microsoft marketing team is always quick to point out. The other useful feature of the timeline is the View Slider. A part of the timeline view is highlighted; as you move the highlighted section, your Gantt chart will move with it. You can also expand or collapse the Gantt chart as you expand or collapse the view slider in the timeline view.
It’s easy to export, or cut and paste, into your email, presentation, or whatever you need. And the format, like the color palette or the size, can be modified even after pasting it into another application. I’ve heard many project managers comment that this option alone is worth upgrading, and yes, the next time you need to display a quick project timeline, it will come in handy.
that was removed
Some items were removed, Microsoft’s reasoning being that these features were outdated and rarely used, making the software unnecessarily large and slow.
- Custom Forms – The ability to create and use custom forms through the user interface.
- OWC Resource Availability Charts
- Some: plugins, sample macros and project guide >
- loss analysis
- Copy Image (no longer automatically creates an Office document and cannot export to JPG format)
- format duration
- ResMgmt Task Entry
- abstract format
- toggle read only
- update file
I have no doubt that someone resourceful will create a third-party plugin to bring this functionality back, so if you are one of the few who have relied on these features in the past, don’t lose hope.
The last word
Most of the old features work as before, the new ribbon bar may make it easier to find, but the nuts and bolts remain the same. Tea Automated leveling resources The option, which we all love to hate, will keep pushing the task to infinity. And sharing resources from a group still requires creating a separate project file with resources to link to.
It should be noted that any program you create with MS Project 2010 can be opened with Project 2007, some formatting may be lost, but most of the information will be there.
A word to Microsoft. Thanks, just one thing, I don’t know many pros who switched to Project 2007. It didn’t really have significant updates, most project managers I know stuck with 2003 which is not supported.
An internal source says that MS Project 2010 is ready to go now, however it won’t be released until Office 2010 is ready to ship. So expect it in the third quarter of 2010.
Unconfirmed reports tell me that the price for the standard version will be around $250.00, while the professional version could cost as much as $750.00 per copy.
Finally, despite some of my reservations, as someone who relies on MS Project as part of their daily work, I’m looking forward to the new version and will probably get it as soon as it’s out.
