Microsoft Project is a complex of project and task management tools that help project managers and teams of all sizes conduct their work correctly: assign tasks, plan resources, mitigate risks, etc.
MS Project cloud-based tools
This bunch of products includes the following solutions:
- Project for the web – project management solution based in the cloud that helps you to create, develop and collaborate on various projects freely and easily. This tool is oriented both toward project managers and their teammates.
- Project Online – is a web-based application that can work for small, medium, and large businesses. PMs use it to plan their projects by creating schedules and assigning tasks to resources (teammates or premises).
Either coworker can see their tasks and react to them – report time on tasks.
The main difference between Project for the web and Project Online is the complexity of the second one. The first is more simple and more unified.
MS Project on-premises platforms
- Microsoft Project Desktop application is an on-premises solution. It can be excellent for creating a project schedule to separate work into phases and build dependencies between tasks and projects. It lacks collaboration features but can be solved by PPM software like PPM Express.
- Microsoft Project Server – is a flexible on-premises solution for project portfolio management (PPM) and complex project management activities. The main difference from MS Project Desktop is where this solution is deployed – on PC or the server (cloud on physical).
Microsoft task management apps
Also, we need to mention junior versions of software, like:
- Microsoft Planner is a lightweight, desktop, and mobile web-based application with most Office 365 for business subscriptions. Can help project managers and small teams control their scale and progress via Kanban Boards and a simple but handy report system.
- Microsoft To-Do is the most straightforward tool from the Microsoft PM solutions family, aimed to list all your tasks and sort them so you can focus on what’s important.
How to choose a suitable PM app?
Need to know which app is suitable for your project? The different Microsoft task management apps are designed for different project situations. So, you must indicate your requirements and constraints according to the team size and project complexity.
- If this is a solo or a team project, you should choose a management app like To-Do or Microsoft Planner.
You can also see tasks from To-Do in the Tasks app in Teams and Outlook Tasks.
- If you want to build a project management system on a scale, you should look for Microsoft Project (either Desktop or Online) and MS Planner, which are for middle and big team projects.
Microsoft Project works best if you need to track dependencies, costs, or more complexity.