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Microsoft Project

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Microsoft Project
Developer(s)Microsoft
Stable release
2010 (14.0) / June 15, 2010
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows
TypeProject management software
LicenseEULA
WebsiteMicrosoft Project Homepage

Microsoft Project (or MSP or WinProj) is a project management software program developed and sold by Microsoft which is designed to assist project managers in developing plans, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing budgets and analyzing workloads.

The application creates critical path schedules, and critical chain and event chain methodology third-party add-ons are also available. Schedules can be resource leveled, and chains are visualized in a Gantt chart. Additionally, Project can recognize different classes of users. These different classes of users can have differing access levels to projects, views, and other data. Custom objects such as calendars, views, tables, filters, and fields are stored in an enterprise global which is shared by all users.

Microsoft Project was the company's third Windows-based application, and within a couple of years of its introduction it became the dominant PC-based project management software.

Although branded as a member of the Microsoft Office family, it has never been included in any of the Office suites (Like Visio). This was also the case with Office 2010. It is available currently in two editions, Standard and Professional. MS Project's proprietary file format is .mpp.

Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server are the cornerstones of the Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) product. Microsoft Project 2010 features the Ribbon user interface.[1]

History

Microsoft Project 2000

Microsoft Project was initially proposed by Microsoft's Manager of Product Development, Alan M. Boyd as an internal tool to help manage the huge number of software projects that were in development at any time inside the company. Boyd wrote the specification and engaged a local Seattle company to develop the prototype.

The first commercial version of Project was released for DOS in 1984. Microsoft bought all rights to the software in 1985 and released version 2. Version 3 for DOS was released in 1986. Version 4 for DOS was the final DOS version, released in 1986. The first Windows version was released in 1990, and was labelled version 1 for Windows.

In 1991 a Macintosh version was released. Development continued until Microsoft Project 4.0 for Mac in 1993. In 1994, Microsoft stopped development of most of its Mac applications and did not offer a new version of Office until 1998, after the creation of the new Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit the year prior. The Mac Business Unit never released an updated version of Project, and the last version does not run natively on Mac OS X.

Microsoft Project 95 was the first to use common Office menus.

Microsoft Project 98 was the first to use Tahoma font in the menu bars and to contain Office Assistant, like all Office 97 applications. Project 98 SR-1 was a major service release addressing several issues in Project 98. [2]

Versions were released in 1992 (v3), 1993 (v4), 1995 (4.1a), 1998 (9.0), 2000 (10.0), 2002 (11.0), 2003 (12.0), 2007 (13.0) and 2010 (14.0).[3] There was no Version 2 on the Windows platform; the original design spec was augmented with the addition of macro capabilities and the extra work required to support a macro language pushed the development schedule out to early 1992 (Version 3).

Features

Microsoft Project 2007 showing a simple Gantt chart

Project creates budgets based on assignment work and resource rates. As resources are assigned to tasks and assignment work estimated, the program calculates the cost, equal to the work times the rate, which rolls up to the task level and then to any summary tasks and finally to the project level. Resource definitions (people, equipment and materials) can be shared between projects using a shared resource pool. Each resource can have its own calendar, which defines what days and shifts a resource is available. Resource rates are used to calculate resource assignment costs which are rolled up and summarized at the resource level. Each resource can be assigned to multiple tasks in multiple plans and each task can be assigned multiple resources, and the application schedules task work based on the resource availability as defined in the resource calendars. All resources can be defined in label without limit. Therefore it cannot determine how many finished products can be produced with a given amount of raw materials. This makes MS Project unsuitable for solving problems of available materials constrained production. Additional software is necessary to manage a complex facility that produces physical goods.

Enhancements

In later versions of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Project's capabilities were extended with the introduction of Microsoft Office Project Server and Microsoft Project Web Access. Project Server stores Project data in a central SQL-based database, allowing users to display and update this data over the Internet. Web Access allows authorized users to access a Project Server database across the Internet, and includes timesheets, graphical analysis of resource workloads, and administrative tools.

Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 is tightly integrated with Windows SharePoint Services, for each project is created in a "Project Workspace" where the team members can share information related to the project.

As the software operates as part of the Microsoft Office suite, the later versions also provide for cross-functionality with products like PowerPoint and Visio.

See also

Competitors

References

  1. ^ Microsoft Office Project Conference 2007
  2. ^ PRJ98: List of Fixes in Microsoft Project 98 SR-1
  3. ^ Previous Versions of Microsoft Project, Microsoft.com[dead link]


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