MS Project or P6

Hi Marc,

With your experience, (Construction / Railway) I’d look at scheduling tools by Asta (Powerproject / Teamplan) or Primavera. Although MS Project is widely used, it will probably be a bit lightweight for those industry sectors.

Take a look at the Planning Engineers Organisation website, they’ve currently got a survey running at the moment which may be of interest to you.

Software Survey

Regards,

Darren

Many thanks darren

I wouldn’t put much stock in that survey ... it’s not clear what happens when four people from one company respond -- is that 1 vote? or 4?

As for which software you should learn, I’d go to a local Project Management interest group or chapter meeting and ask people there -- they will have knowledge of local "tastes" and can guide you about local industry norms, too.

Given that MS Project outsells (according to some data I’ve been shown) all other products combined, I’d consider learning that package first. Go to Amazon, find some MS Project books and you can be almost certain that they will come with a trial version of the software (good for 60 days).

At the end of the day, it’s not going to matter a whole heck-of-a-lot about which software package ... that’s just a tool. It’s going to matter more about the man who is using the tool (do not put a saw in my hands!).

Many thanks for your comments

If you are serious about railway planning you should consider something like Tilos from Asta.

Paul E Harris
Eastwood Harris Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia
Planning and Scheduling Training Manual & Book Publishers, Consulting and Training
www.eh.com.au

Marc

In my experience at Network Rail. Primavera P3 was the predominate tool of use. This was latterly superceded by P5 I think. You need to contact someone in the projects groups and talk to them to find out what they are now using.

MS Project was used by some of the smaller contractors and by the Track / Signalling Renewals teams and they could plan track possession activities to minutes and hours which was not possible in P3

Regards

Mal

Thanks guys for your comments and advice

Hi Paul,
I agree with your proposal. Russian Railways selected Spider Project because it includes Line of Balance project presentation. Other considerations worked too but this one was mostly appreciated.
Tilos or other softwares that support what we call Linear Diagrams are most helpful in linear projects.
Besty Regards,
Vladimir