Project management software ideas
 

Have any favorites? A client is looking for a strong project/resource management system that handles simultaneous projects, resource scheduling and hour tracking. Should provide privilege-based views and editing, be very visual, and have flexible reporting. A web engine or export would be good. Something like Microsoft Project merged with a contractor's job costing/management system.

Replicon's WebResource looks good. Other ideas?

They're Windows only.

I use the Replicon Web TimeSheet at work. I like it.

I've heard VersionOne is pretty good, not sure if it's in the same ballpark though.

I'm a big fan of Primavera Project Planner.

I've used it a fair bit in the managment (time, resource, scheduling) end of construction jobs. Took a bit of time to get fluent, but it is pretty simple and powerful. No easy web output though.

What do you need that MS Project will not handle ?

(On a side note, Project Web Access is a god-send, even if the interface is a bit... well... yeah)

Out of the box, project doesn't look like WebResource. That's the justification from this side of their fence, even though they already own Office licenses. Evidently one of the owners had a bad experience with Project some years ago and hates it, hates it, hates it. Ah, the futility of battling an RFP's religion.

I'm not making much on this so will probably just throw together a quick multi-project sample - big picture overviews are their main need - point out a few alternatives, and let them fight it out. Too many cooks in the kitchen.

Primavera looks nice. I hadn't made the time to play with it before.

Look interesting, but it seems targeted toward software development. If I were still in that world...

This all makes me feel old. I'm back in the small pond after years at big companies and startups. None of my current customers have system needs beyond 10-15 users. In a very small way I almost miss the huge, overbudget, overdeadline projects that tied me up for a year at a pop. Waitaminute, no I don't. :)

I can understand if they hated MS Project 97, that was a pain to use. But I bet if you confronted that person who hates Project and asked them specifics of what they hated about it, every last one of their complaints would be solved by Project 2003. I was never a big fan of any Microsoft product before the year 2002, with the exceptions of Windows 98 SR2, and Windows 2000. Everything else before the "XP Era" was rife with poor programming. Since then, however, Microsoft has put out so many amazing products, that most biases people have developed against Microsoft are pretty much unfounded (with the exception if Internet Explorer, which is still pretty much crap). I would urge that hater to give Project 2003 a fresh look.

I agree with you on the progress of Office/MS tools. The lock-ins are my bigget pet peeve but otherwise their tools have come a long way.

As for fighting upstream, I've found it easier to demo than go head-on. A few nice screenshot sequences without indication of the program.

Primavera is looking very good.