Microsoft Project or a Simple Task Planning App? - Finding the Right Project Management Solution for your Organization

Project management, time management, resourcing planning these are all things that organizations are struggling with and because there are literally dozens of "favorite best apps" out there these days. Most organizations have 5-10 solutions in use (Smartsheets, Asana, Microsoft Project, Monday.com, ClickUp, Microsoft Planner, NetSuite, Trello, Basecamp, Jira, etc, etc, etc)

The challenge is most of these apps are good at what they do, and with users familiar with them there's nothing particularly "wrong" with the apps, but the 3 factors that drive organizations to look for something else:

• Cross team / Cross organization Planning and Management - While a one-off solution is great for a person or a team, when users from one department or group need to work with users from another department or group, that's when having multiple different tools makes for a challenge as users have to learn multiple tools to work together on different projects or initiatives
• Enterprisewide Resource and Time Management - With multiple project and process management applications throughout the enterprise, if/when the organization needs to assess time and resource availability, costing, and planning, the various tools don't "roll-up" information for org wide visibility
• Licensing Costs and Training - And lastly, when there's cross department or cross team integrations with multiple tools, licensing is duplicated with many organizations paying for enterprise licenses across 4, 5, 7 different tools

One Size Fits All? - No

Unfortunately there really isn't a project, time, and resource management tool that "does it all" that "fits all situations", although many organizations have tried to narrow things down to just ONE tool and have failed in that quest.

Two Distinct Needs - Formal Project Management & Time and Task Management

Organizational time, task, and resource management generally falls into TWO completely different categories, with some organizations needing one, others needing the other, and some needing both. The two separate needs are:

1. Formal Project Management (Microsoft Project): When you're planning a large facility move, preparing all of the documentation needed to take an organization public, when you're about to launch a drug to market there are very clear steps, tasks, and timelines to follow. Certain people are in charge of certain things, that have to be done before other steps can begin. Microsoft Project, that we've all worked with over the years, follows industry standards on tasks, resource allocation, dependency management, etc.
2. Time and Task Management (Microsoft Planner / Microsoft Tasks): If you're organizing the marketing campaign for a product launch, or coordinating an employee training initiative, or brainstorming the look and feel of a new Website, the tasks, sequences, responsible individuals, and timelines can vary by the day or by the hour. The organization needs a tool that allows tasks to be dragged and dropped around based on current thinking, quickly change resource names and timelines based on new ideas, assign tasks but shift the task owner dynamically.

I reference Microsoft's products (Planner, Tasks, Project) because most organizations already own these tools (Planner and Tasks is included in the Microsoft Office 365 E3 and E5 licenses), and most organizations have a few licenses of Microsoft Project lying around. Figure it's always easiest to start with what the organization already owns before going out and buying something "similar" and paying extra.

Microsoft Project Plan 3 and Plan 5 - A Whole New Microsoft Project Than You Think You Know!

If it has been more than 3 months since you've used Microsoft Project and Microsoft's new Plan 3 and Plan 5 cloud offerings, then you don't fully know Microsoft Project.

Microsoft Project used to be this standalone application that you created a project plan (GANTT chart) and you email the MPP file around to share with others. Microsoft put Microsoft Project in the cloud, but the past 5-years or so people started to fiddle with the SharePoint looking "Project Online" and got a really bad experience of this SharePoint looking thing that didn't quite do project management well at all.

But in late-2021, Microsoft completely overhauled Microsoft Project and now has a REALLY nice Project, Project Online, Task and Time Management solution that snaps right into Microsoft Office 365, Teams collaboration, Calendaring, and Tasks!

• Microsoft Project and GANTT Charts - Those most familiar with Microsoft Project of the past can create a full Microsoft Project task sheet, GANTT chart, timeline, and task dependency structure in Project like they've done for years
• Microsoft Project Web App - That Project plan can then by sync'd up to Office 365 so that the Project plan can be shared with others in the organization WITHOUT having to email around the MPP file. It's fully updated to a Web instance of the project plan (that can then be resync'd back to the MPP file for offline access by the project manager)
• Office 365 / Calendaring / Task Assignments - Since the project plan is sync'd to Office 365, any task assignments can be connected to Office 365 users, and a task assignment page is provided to each user to enter in their time/progress on their assigned tasks
• Collaboration in Teams - And since the Project plan is integrated in Office 365, users on a team can use Microsoft Teams for chat, project plan sharing, task reassignment, etc, etc

Here's a short video of me navigating around the Microsoft Project desktop app, synchronizing the content to the Project Web App, and a task participant's view of entering in their completed tasks:

Microsoft Project Plan 1 vs Project Plan 3 vs Project Plan 5

When you buy Microsoft Project these days, organizations usually buy the online license so the user gets the FULL Microsoft Project software (to install on their computer) AND it also provides them the full sync to Office 365 Project Web App functionality, resource scheduling, and task management capabilities in a monthly subscription.

Microsoft Project Plan 3 costs ~$30/user/month and is the most common version of Project for those that create and manage projects, project teams, resources, assign tasks, and manage outcomes. This is the license that the Project Manager gets

Microsoft Project Plan 1 costs ~$10/user/month and is for the project participants. These are the users that get assignments, do tasks, and then go back online to their Task portal to update their work in progress. This is effectively the project participant license

Microsoft Project Plan 5 costs ~$55/user/month and is for enterprises that have 5, 10, 20 major projects going on at the same time, frequently vying for the same resources, that need to run portfolio management in forecasting how many resources they need, the overall cost and utilization of all resources, and can forecast project costs, project overruns, and create visual dashboards for executives to get insight on ALL projects in process.

For more details on these 3 licenses and details on features and functions, see - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/project/compare-microsoft-project-management-software

Microsoft Planner and Tasks - For More Flexible Time and Task Tracking Needs

For organizations that have projects that aren't as rigid, need to do task assignments that might change day to day, might need to pull in or change resources frequently, just an overall more flexible time and task management system, Microsoft includes Microsoft Planner and Microsoft Tasks as part of their Office 365 E3 and E5 licensing.

Microsoft Planner is a drag/drop Web-based application that simply requires 3 bits of information to create a task (what, who, and when). The placement of the task can then be dragged/dropped anywhere in the list of things that needs to be done, so if priorities change, tasks can be easily moved around.

Each task can be expanded to include more information like attachments can be added and linked to the task, bulleted checklists can be easily filled in to provide the task user to have more structured steps to follow, tasks can have deadlines or suggested time allocation (or not). Each user can take control of their assigned tasks and work with others as needed.

Here's a short video of adding tasks into planner, assigning the task, creating checklists within the task, and moving the task around:

Wrap-up

There are plenty of great project, task, time, and resource management tools on the market with all great features and functions. The key is to realize that most organizations cannot fit all needs into a single tool or solution, with some favoring a more rigid formal project management tool like Microsoft Project, while other orgs favoring more flexibility and team collaboration in task management. And in many organizations, having BOTH types of tools satisfies the different needs of users.

But if you already own the Microsoft Office 365 license, you may want to take a look at Microsoft Planner and Tasks as it is included in the E3 and E5 license, tightly integrates with Microsoft Outlook, SharePoint Online, Teams, and all the Office 365 security and compliance components. It's similar to most other apps on the market and requires no 3rd party integration, configuration, or special application licensing and management.

And all of this stuff is constantly updated, so if it has been more than a couple months since you've seen or tried any of these applications, you have to take the time to see what the stuff does "today" as every 3-6 months the things leapfrog in features and functions.