Project Management and its alternatives

Project is a Project management software developed by MS. Since it was developed by MS, the commercial attempt should be carefully reviewed. Although a Project can be used as a software on a single machine, it can complete the overall Project management process only when it works with the Project Server. The Project Server depends on the MS SharePoint Server and SQL Server.In the past, the Project was the "rich client" of MS's complete business online Project management software ".

Project management is a collaborative work of multiple people, which can be divided into research, formulation, design optimization, release, tracking, monitoring, change, statistics and summary. Project can only achieve formulation and design optimization. For the most important Project tracking and change management, it must be supported by the Project Server. Therefore, the functions of a separate Project are limited, and the learning value is not great. If you must use a Project to manage projects, the main focus should be on the background Project Server.

Project is similar to Excel. The focus of Project operations is:While understanding the concept of project management, You can flexibly use views to assist in design and monitoring.. Different Project views can be manipulated to easily display information such as "Excessive allocation", "Key Path", and "Project cost" to provide a basis for decision-making and optimization. From this perspective, the Project is still well designed! One of the difficulties of Project control is in view. Project management is a technical social science. It involves many management concepts, such as Gantt charts, CRM, and PERT. Only by understanding these concepts can we master the Project, otherwise, the Project menu and operations will be confused!

Another difficulty of Project learning lies in the field and formula. The difficulty is similar to that of Excel functions. Fields and formulas (functions) are essential tools for cost statistics and resource calculation. With a certain background in VBA, you can easily master the formulas and fields of projects, and use VBA to automate some common operations.

Practice is the only path to master and improve Project capabilities. It is necessary to have a step-by-step plan for learning, focusing on the Project Server, from the design, to the whole process of management. It must be clear that:Project management is a collaboration among multiple people. The Project application level is determined by the overall level of the team.. As you constantly improve yourself, you must actively share your Project experience to avoid affecting the Project management automation level due to the "short board" in the team.

Because the Project is actually a client software of the Project Server, the Project Server is not only charged, but also occupies a lot of resources. Therefore, we do not recommend that you use a Project in a small team. Google the "alternative to the Project", and the dotProject on SF.net is an option. It is based on the PHP and Mysql platforms and is open-source and has similar functions. If a software development team makes full use of version management systems such as Trac, it can also effectively manage projects.