Another Target Process Observation
Target Process has got me hooked. I think it's because that make such outlandish statements. The suggestion that MSFT Project is not integrated with the products they list is puzzling. As a planner and project architect (yes there is such a title).
- I'm not sure what I would do with an integration between a bug tracking system and project. Maybe I could attached a name to a task to fix the bug. That's real easy with a VBA script and an Excel worksheet.
- Connecting ReqPro and Project can be done out of the box. Same with DOORS
- Risk management is embedded in Project through Risk+ and @Risk for Project (the two I use daily). This is a moderately complex area, fraught with trap doors. @Risk for Project is probably one of the best tools around for analyzing the risks in the schedule - Programmatic Risks. Technical risks are usually handled by another application. We happen to use ARM but there are others
So here's what a tool needs to do if it is to be "enterprise"
- Provide a repository for project schedules and their related data. This includes resources, accounting calenders, some form of cost accounting, dependencies between projects, and a view of the project at multiple levels.
- Provide a nice desktop application that is well behaved, stable, easy to learn but not too restricting. There are easy to learn tools (RTP) that have restricted behaviors. Once you get over the learning curve you discover how limited they are.
- High performance - or at least enough performance to get the job done. Large projects have large schedules. A project schedule with 5,000 activities is very common in enterprise environments.
- A database paradigm where I can pose questions with ease.
- How many uncompleted tasks are assigned to Joe?
- How may late starts has Joe be involved with?
It may be the Target Process just needs to get a better marketing plan, cause from where I sit MSFT Project and other "big name" project management tools do everything they claim they do. They'll need some other way to differentiate their product.
Hey maybe they can hire me to help them out - I have opinions, I work in project management at the enterprise level, and I have experience with pretty much every PM tool on the planet.
