The right choice for online project management is Microsoft Project Server
Rating: 8 out of 10
IncentivizedUse Cases and Deployment Scope
We use Microsoft Project Server for project planning: tasks assignment, project team management, resources allocation, project cost and tracking. In our organization it is used by the software development team. It provides us a unique place to manage all the software development projects and also enables the team members to update the progress of their tasks which reflects in the project plan.
Pros
- Project planning: tasks assignments, resources allocation, progress and cost tracking. The Server version is the natural extension of the Microsoft Project standalone.
- Provides one place to manage all projects, accessible by everyone in the team. This opens the plan updates to team members as well(on their tasks), as opposed to being done only by the project manager.
- Reporting and visualization - resources utilization, timeline etc
- The integration with the Microsoft Project standalone: if you don't like the web version, you can download the latest and work locally. When done just sync it back to the server.
Cons
- In many cases the server or cloud version of any tool will have some limitations compared to the standalone version. It is the same here, however the existing integration between the two will help you work locally and upload changes to the server if you don't feel comfortable working on the web version.
- The learning curve for both Microsoft Project and the server version tends to be steep for some users
- Needs an Outlook integration
- The cost for implementation and licensing needs improvement, it can be very expensive for some smaller companies.
Likelihood to Recommend
You will be able to do the project management (scheduling, tasks assignment, resources allocation, cost tracking) for all your projects in one place, where the team members can contribute and keep the plans up to date. The web version does the main job right but if you find it more difficult to use you just use the standalone Microsoft Project and upload the changes back to the server.