Want to know why Microsoft Project is both loved and loathed in our business - aerospace and defense?
Under heavy load, hours of working with large files, and lots of opens, closes, usage of all the fields, all the narratives in Outline Codes, loads on macros, and uploading and downloading from the EV Engine, MSP starts to wobble and eventually drives into the ditch. One our of 42 of the assigned labor categories - yes, we have resource loaded IMS's as any credible schedule does - MSP stops on one of the resources for printing to PDF. The PDFs go in the CAM notebooks for the work.
This is common in MSP at the level we use. It's frustrating, especially on a Sunday before the IBR, where flag officers are attending.
In the end, we use MSP as a word processor, since it can't do Earned Value - no accounting calendar, no real month end close process, no EV types, pretty much lame EV. It's got lots of truly bone headed features - like when you select a column, then do a CONTROL F to find something in that column, it searches on the last column you used, no the !@#$'ing column you're on. Wouldn't you think the Search feature would see that you're on that column. Or another favorite, the comment field in the Outline Code has a 255 character limit. So much for including the WBS dictionary in the IMS. View control, conditional colors (not).
Another bone head feature - the Print function does not allow you to change the printer except in the FILE PRINT pull down, not the preview, or any other place. Clearly not Windows compliant UI.
I'm convinced MSFT does not actually use this tool to run their business. Unlike Larry Ellison's "eating your own dog food," MSFT doesn't. Same for Dynamics and Visio. If they did, they fix this crap in a month. It's still the tool of choice for 98% of the planet, but man is it lame.
I really wish the MSFT developers could come site with us over the last 4 months trying to build a PMB (Performance Measurement Baseline) for ~$300M worth of Army program using MSP, a time keeping system, and ERP system, and an EV engine - all integrated together. Once MSP 2007 swallows a problem, it can't be repaired in the way 2003 could (at least that I can do). This is a major flaw, cause once you've busted it, it's busted.
EAT YOUR OWN DOG FOOD MICROSOFT
