Is MSP better than MP or P3

Daya,
you’re right
MS Project states they have 2/3 of the french market, Sciforma is granted 1/4, the balance is mainly to Primavera
I am sure the online demo will convince you that PS8 is much better than MS Project or PSNext than MS Project Server
Alexandre

Alexandre,

I’m keen to hear your experience with PS8 and in what areas you feel it is much better than MSP.

Look forward to your posting.

James.

James,
to make it short, simple and sexy
PS8 is quicker, it makes smaller files, it schedules plans and levels resources much quicker and safer, its look and feel is much prettier;
you can go backward (cancel) up to 10000 operations, you can customize and edit by hand the wbs code, the report generator has no equivalent on the market (as far as I know: it is as powerfull as in P3 or PP8, and much easier to use), you can build a full project web site with as many layouts and reports you want, PS8 shares resources amongst projects by default,...
and last but not least the PSx family has been allways been one generation ahead of MSP.
I wrote the reference PSNext User Guide in french, I LIKE it
Alexandre

Richard,
right! at the time of MS Project 4, MS motto was "MS Project is to PM software what MS Excel is to Office automation"
being wrong minded and an early adopter of anything that is 1)not MS, 2)good, I had allways understood "MS project is a compactor"
I like Powerproject too, I have worked 18 months trying to promote the product here in France, but the french market is not curious enough to try something new
regards
Alexandre

Gosh - I’m getting horny already!!!

Seriously though; I’m not going to put a damper on your enthusiasm for the product - and I’m sure that in some areas it’s better than MSP/P3. However, who wants to be able to cancel 10 000 operations. Three or four is perfectly adequate.

With regard to customising and editing the WBS code "by hand", I presume that you mean that you can generate your own WBS Code? If so, you can do exactly the same in MSP.

Where I will agree with you, is with regard to the Reports. I’ve never had much luck using their report generators - but it’s not often that I need to do anything really sophisticated.

On the whole, I’ve found that MSP works suprisingly well, is very flexible and comparatively easy to use. It is not perfect by any means (data stability on networks - but that might be the fault of the network). Obviously before commenting on the detailed operational characteristics, I’d need to spend a lot of time playing with it (the software, that is!!!).

Unfortunately, I am a cynic - and this has been borne out of too many people in the world claiming that their product is better, faster cheaper blah blah. Very rarely do these claims live up to expectations. Often they just do things differently but still retain the "interpretational element" that doesn’t actually make it any easier, just different.

One day, I’ll get round to writing a scientific evaluation of all scheduling software.

Cheers.

James.

Guys

"It is easy when you know how"

So learn to use your software properly

Daya

James,
When your comparison table is finished, please send me a copy, will you?
I fully agree, you are a better advocate when you appreciate working with a product, whatever it is, a scheduling software or a damper or a fork
Once upon a time, there was a Comparison table between MSP 98 and PS7; I still have a paper copy of it, if you want to go through it (it was written by Sciforma by the way)
I agree that it’s useless to cancel 10000 ops, 5 or 10 is fair enough, AND only 1 is a joke, it’s worse than zero
I do not agree, it is not 100% possible to create a wbs code in MSP (I mean MSP Standard, not Pro with Server): the code is dead, I mean you have to enter every line of it; on the contrary PS8 lets you define the code, add a prefix, and is able to design the project outline from the code; can you do that with MSP?
Cheers,
Alexandre

Alexandre,

We have MSP 2000 Professional. I believe that the only difference between Stndard and Professional is that the Pro version lets you use Project Server (the equivalent of PSNext). Apart from that, the in-built functions are exactly the same.

Now, I have just done something that I’ve never before had to do - and it took me less than five minutes to figure it out and implement. I’ve just generated a custom WBS coding structure and it inputs it automatically in accordance with whatever level I choose to indent the activity.

What more can I say.

James.

IT IS EASY WHEN YOU KNOW HOW! EH!

Alexandre,
I like PS8 except its resource leveling that is VERY primitive. I am sure that you know it.
Regards,
Vladimir

Vladimir,
Compared to P3 or PP8, yes, PS8 resource leveling is primitive; compared to MSP, it is efficient and accurate
Alexandre

I think ask your question based on types of projects. in procurement management p3 is better thank Msp.