7 Reasons Why A Scheduling Tool Scores Over Excel Spreadsheet
Which tool would you use for project scheduling – a tool specifically designed for managing projects or Excel spreadsheet?
The answer is quite simple – a scheduling software is specifically designed for project management. It has many inherent advantages over spreadsheets like Excel or Google Sheets.
I guess you agree with me. But let me provide my reasons for my preference for a scheduling software like RationalPlan.
Appropriate Tool For Appropriate Jobs
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Which of the above picture suggests the right usage of fork & knife? The first picture. You would agree that fork and knife should be used for eating food and not medicine.
A hammer is no good for fixing screws and a screw-driver is not the right tool cutting wood. Similarly, PMs should use appropriate tools for managing projects.
You would say that this is simplistic example and it does not work in real world. So let me explain it further.
Microsoft Excel Vs. Scheduling Tool
How would a PM assign duties to team members and ensure task completion? How would a Customer keep an eye on work progression? How would a Sponsor track project expenses?
Excel would be a great bet if you want an isolated solution as an answer to the above questions. But project management is not done in isolation. It is a group effort.
There are many things that make a proper scheduling tool stand out from Excel. I can probably think of 100 things but I have made a group of 7 features that Excel just does not provide.
- Task creation, assignment, & tracking
- Resource planning & tracking
- Availability of Gantt charts for presentation & reporting
- Network diagrams for planning analysis
- Project performance dashboards
- Detailed project reports
- Team & stakeholder collaboration
You should also read more about advantages of PM software and why should you upgrade from spreadsheets to PM software. (more…)
Starting with RationalPlan 4.15 the Projects dashboard for the web client is out of beta, the process of adding resources was simplified and the performance of Timesheet view was improved. Additionally it was added the possibility to read Microsoft Project 2016 files and more.
Three men: a project manager, a software engineer, and a hardware engineer are helping out on a project. About midweek they decide to walk up and down the beach during their lunch hour. Halfway up the beach, they stumbled upon a lamp. As they rub the lamp a genie appears and says:
RationalPlan 4.14 – Increased Collaboration Using Comments on Tasks and Support for Polish Language
RationalPlan started as an easy to use and straightforward project management software but it evolved into an embedded and powerful system that is now available even as a project management cloud service both for individuals and for companies that need a distributed solution with concurrent access from multiple users.
Important changes for this version
Adding comments on tasks while managing work within the Cloud is a feature aiming to increase collaboration among users. Instead of using communication solutions like email, phone calls or other external software tools, users will be able to discuss different task related issues directly within RationalPlan by adding comments. Everyone that is interested on a certain task – like the project manager, a responsible or the assigned resources – will get notifications by email whenever a comment is added on that task. (more…)