Microsoft Previews Next MS Project Release
During the MS Project Conference, January 17-19, in Seattle, Washington, conference attendees were privy to the new features and functions that will be included in the Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution 2007 release.
Excitement bounded through the general session and the detail demonstrations in the individual breakout sessions. This release is not just an upgrade but a significant development of enhanced functionality and additional features in both Project desktop and Project Server. The list of changes is too numerous to detail in this article, but here are a few of the things to expect in Project desktop (Project Professional / Standard)
- Multi-Level Undo - Microsoft has removed the single undo constraint in Project to be consistent with other Microsoft applications.
- Change Highlighting - any change made to a task will highlight the downstream tasks that are changed or impacted by the upstream task. This will help beginners understand MS Project by revealing the impact of the scheduling engine. Also will highlight all changes from macros and extensions.
- Cell Background Formatting - Project will now allow the user to control the background formatting of cells. This will help users identify tasks of interest. Cell background formatting works in all tables and can be controlled manually, with filters, and via macros.
- Enhanced Reporting - includes custom reporting via Excel and Visio, view enhancements, budget tracking, and visual reports.
- Budgeting - MS Project will have the capability to now have separate budgets for human resources (work), materials, and costs.
- Deliverables - MS Project allows a project manager to define the deliverables for any given task.
Other enhancements include improved performance, unlimited custom fields, and a preview feature prior to accepting task updates.