Originally Posted by
Simon r
Here is what microsoft project does for me
Microsoft Project Standard
Microsoft Project Standard includes the essential features to support project management at the workgroup level: task scheduling, resource management, tracking, reporting, team collaboration, customization, and flexibility. With this substantial set of features, you can start planning, managing, and reporting your project information immediately upon installation.
Step-by-step instructions and controls
Instructions in the Project Guide Wizard-like instructions and controls are always at hand in the left pane to help you build a new project, manage tasks and resources, specify and change working time, track your project, and report project information.
SmartTags Receive feedback and advice on alternative actions as you delete task or resource names and change resource assignments; start and finish dates; and work, units, or durations.
Collaboration menu Easily access Microsoft Project Server pages and features directly within Microsoft Project.
Schedule and track tasks
Assign resources In the Assign Resources dialog box search and filter for appropriate resources and graph their availability.
Track actuals Use the status date to view progress more efficiently. Reduce the number of steps when entering actuals, especially when entering percent complete or percent work complete.
Reschedule uncompleted work Constraints remain as you originally set them when you reschedule uncompleted work. Choose any reschedule date you want.
Multiple baselines Set up to 11 baselines on a single project.
Baseline data rollup Control how your baseline data is rolled up to summary tasks.
Earned value improvements The earned value set now includes the schedule performance index (SPI), to complete performance index (TCPI), cost performance index (CPI), cost variance percent (CV%), and schedule variance percent (SV%). Choose from 11 baselines used to calculate earned value data.
View project information
Network Diagram view Group tasks and display graphical indicators.
Usage views Group assignments, roll up grouped timephased information in usage views, and include totals when printing usage views.
Tmescales Display three timescales in the Gantt Chart and other graph and usage views.
Integrate with other products
Import and export with Microsoft Excel Easily import data from Microsoft Excel and export data back to Excel, as well as other supported file types.
Excel Task List template Project managers can use the new Excel Task List template to start their task lists. They can then import this Excel file into Microsoft Project smoothly, without having to map any fields.
Microsoft Outlook Easily import a task list from Microsoft Outlook into Microsoft Project.
Manage a collaborative project
Simplified Timesheet Standardize the format of the new, streamlined timesheet in Microsoft Project Web Access to choose the way you prefer time to be reported and to simplify reporting for team members.
Manager Transactions page Review, group, and filter summarized updates and task requests with Microsoft Project Server through the Manager Transaction page in Microsoft Project Web Access.
Multiple managers Allow multiple project managers to track tasks and resources in a single project.
Task lists Create and manage a simple task list with Microsoft Project Server through the Tasks page in Microsoft Project Web Access, and open this list in Microsoft Project.
Resource comments Collect a comprehensive history of resource comments, compiled from task notes in Microsoft Project.
Collaborate as a team member
Commands Use the wizard-like instructions and controls in the left pane to assist with managing task lists, delegating tasks, reporting, and viewing project information.
Transactions page Manage notifications and reminders with Microsoft Project Server through the Access Transaction page in Microsoft Project Web Access.
View improvements Team members and other stakeholders using Microsoft Project Web Access can save a view with grouping or filtering. They can also group on multiple hierarchies, apply colors to groups, display splits in the Gantt views, and employ additional AutoFilters.
Change indicators Indicators appear when data in a field has changed since the last update.
Update managers When working on multiple projects, team members can send separate task updates for each project.
Task delegation Use delegation improvements for task selection and notification.
Outlook integration Update Microsoft Project Server views and status reports from Outlook. Include Web Parts on the Outlook Digital Dashboard.
Manage documents and issues
Document management Implemented with Microsoft SharePoint Team Services, the document library serves as a valuable repository in Microsoft Project Server for documents generated throughout the project life cycle. You can access the document library through the Documents page in Microsoft Project Web Access.
Issue tracker Enter issues, assign ownership, track progress, record resolutions, and create related reports and store it all in Microsoft Project Server. You can access issue tracking through the Issues page in Microsoft Project Web Access.
Administer a collaborative project
Administration Administration of Microsoft Project Server is more flexible, with additional views, functionality, roles, and permissions.
Load balancing A sophisticated server configuration spanning multiple servers is provided for.
Customize Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server
Microsoft ActiveX controls for Microsoft Project Server The ActiveX controls for Microsoft Project Server provide improved programmable interfaces and more opportunities for extending and customizing Microsoft Project Web Access.
OLE DB provider The Microsoft Project OLE DB provider is enhanced, with timephased data, additional tables, and extended properties for data access pages.
XML format XML is now available as a file format for importing, exporting, and saving your files.
Microsoft Project Professional
With Microsoft Project Professional, project management is now scalable across multiple departments and groups in a corporation or other enterprise, with powerful reporting, analysis, and resource management capabilities. Adding to the features of Microsoft Project Standard, with Microsoft Project Professional, you can:
Standardize and customize the use of Microsoft Project for the way your enterprise specifically does business. All information is gathered, organized, and reported consistently across the organization, to provide an accurate picture of all projects.
Analyze project performance and resource utilization through standardized data from all projects. With clear visibility of enterprise projects, informed decisions can be made for enterprise priorities and initiatives.
Access, assign, and manage resources to leverage the many resources and skill sets available throughout the enterprise. Up-to-date information is provided on the availability and utilization of thousands of resources in an enterprise.
Take full advantage of the information resources in the enterprise through the choice of multiple Microsoft Project servers, for different sets of enterprise projects and resources.
Enterprise resource management
Enterprise resources All resource assignments throughout the enterprise are visible to project managers, resource managers, and other authorized stakeholders. This provides accurate information regarding resource availability. Resources can be checked out, edited, and checked in again.
Resource Substitution Wizard This feature analyzes the skills needed by a project, including generic resources, matches them with skills possessed by resources in the enterprise, and determines their availability. This builds an optimized team for a project's assignments.
Build Team from Enterprise Find resources throughout the enterprise who have the right skills and availability to work on your project. Filter and query the enterprise resource database to fine-tune your project for the right resources.
Availability graphs Resource availability graphs allow project managers to quickly identify when and why resources might be underallocated or overallocated.
Enterprise customization
Enterprise global template Tailored fields, calendars, views, modules, and other consistent Microsoft Project elements are applied throughout all projects in the enterprise through the enterprise global template. Individual project templates are also available in the enterprise database.
Enterprise custom fields Your organization's project administrator can use enterprise custom fields to create formulas, outlines, and pick lists (for skill codes, for example). Project management efforts can therefore be tailored to the specific processes of the organization.
Model what-if scenarios Use Portfolio Modeler to create multiple versions of the same plan, so you can compare, analyze, and experiment with different versions.
Microsoft Project editions at a glance
The following table shows the content of the two editions of Microsoft Project.
Area Feature Microsoft Project Standard Microsoft Project Professional
Resource management Resource pooling x x
Resource leveling x x
Collaboration Microsoft Project Server access x x
SharePoint Team Services document library and issue tracking x x
Customization Visual Basic for Applications x x
Storage Database save and load x x
XML save and load x x
OLE DB provider x x
Resource management Enterprise resources x
Generic resources x
Resource Substitution Wizard x
Customization Enterprise custom fields x
Enterprise global template x
Storage Enterprise portfolio x
Microsoft Project Server Accounts x
Enterprise templates x
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