Ease of Use + Integration with 2 Other Complimentary Products
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use PROJECT to plan and manage projects for ourselves (Container Terminal Automation, Machine Design, Software design) as well as for others (small to medium sized commercial construction).
Pros
- PROJECT is tightly integrated with Diagram and MindMap, the two other tools in the CD Suite. This allows me to do initial scoping in MindMap and then switch to PROJECT and go back and forth as new requirements are exposed and tasks are developed.
- For projects that entail the development of mechanical or electro-mechanical systems it is necessary to develop a topology of the system. By using MindMap I can define the required elements of the system, switch to Diagram to develop an initial layout of the components of the system and then switch to PROJECT to start defining the task to develop the system. Once the system has been defined I use CD Solutions to generate presentations that incorporate the reports and dashboards generated by PROJECT.
- PROJECT is cross platform (Mac and Windows). We are a Mac shop, so the ability to import Microsoft project and Visio charts and export to those formats as well saves a lot of heartburn when so many of our partners and potential customers are Windows users.
Cons
- PERT charts can be generated in PROJECT but only for one task or task group at a time. I would welcome the ability to generate a PERT chart for the entire project.
- As a Mac shop I would like to have the ability to export directly to Keynote.
Likelihood to Recommend
Getting started - using the Gantt chart to enter tasks in any order and then using those tasks to initially define a MindMap to further explore alternative dependencies. The alternative works better when initiating a project with significant unknowns.
