Re: Project Management tool?

[Hillary Russak <hrussak -at- SLAC -dot- STANFORD -dot- EDU>]

Beth wrote:
>We're currently using MS Outlook -- no better than MS Project, in some
>ways, but it captures different information. Using it in conjunction with
>Team Manager helps us manage our tasks better, so for us it's working.
>
>What were your beefs about MS Project? That will dictate the kind of pm
>tool you should be looking for. I have used ON Target in the past (haven't
>checked lately to see if they're still in business, though) and it was
>quite satisfactory. What kind of data do you need to track?

I'm a lone writer in a department of Environmental Engineers.  Most of the
documents I create and revise are internal to our department.  Some are
documents controlled by other departments and some are controlled by the
division.  My goal is to track my work, and the work of my departmental
collegues on our internal documents.  Additionally, I'd like to establish a
cue to review external documents as they come to us (through the intiative
of other groups or as our regulatory requirements change and *we* feel a
need to initiate changes by notifying the controlling-authors of the
document.

I want to be able to generate reports for my personal montly accomplishment
report and generate reminder notices for my collaborators.

My initial view of MS Project reveals it to be VERY complex (to me,
anyhow).  The whole gantt chart thing seems very difficult to learn and
understand.  In addition, altering a date in a project has catastrophic
effect on other dates I don't want altered.  The whole thing seems more
suited to rigid construction projects than to writing projects.

I just want a simple database for document revision and writing tracking.
It's looking more and more like I'll need to create the darn thing myself.
I've already had three people from this group gripe privately that they
have no suggestions, but would like to see my result posted.... oy vey!
-hil
>
>Cheers,
>--Beth
>
>Beth Agnew
>Senior Technical Writer, InSystems Technologies Inc.
>65 Allstate Parkway, Suite 100
>Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 9X1

Hillary M. Russak, Technical Writer
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
ES&H Division, Waste Management Department
hrussak -at- slac -dot- stanford -dot- edu
Office: (650) 926-3193
Pager:  (650) 940-0741

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