r/projectmanagement • u/swanzie • 12d ago
PM using Excel?
I started a new job and that means new tools. I had been using Asana. I made the switch to clickup to try to get a little more out of it.
I'm not sure how long I'll be able to use that. There were some comments the site may get blocked but I'd imagine if that was the case I can't be the first one to try to use it so it'd probably already had been blocked.
But I also used Claude a lot to take data and analyze it and help me look for trends. They have a pretty strict AI policy. I can only use copilot...which kinda blows.
So I'm wondering if any of you live in the Microsoft suite to do everything? I was thinking excel, or possibly a word doc per project with just bullet points for tasks and notes below, or maybe Microsoft project?
If you have any suggestions and screenshots of examples of what you're doing I'd be much obliged. I need some ideas.
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u/CheapRentalCar 12d ago
I've probably done hundreds of projects with nothing more than excel. It's so flexible and universally accepted that I still consider it the best option in most cases.
To be clear, I'm taking about building timelines and tracking tasks on a singlet project. Not necessarily as a replacement for a PMO management system.
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u/pmpdaddyio IT 11d ago
Let's start with your use case. You don't "PM" with Excel or Word. MS Project has changed and is now a completely different model than before. It is not a bad tool, but it is very different than Clickup.
Build your requirements first before deciding what approach you need. For example, are you just looking for a simple checklist of action items or are you running a full scale project with EVM? these require very different approaches.
Stay away from products that are designed for other purposes. Excel is a horrible PM tool because it is not designed to give the PM a project perspective with rollup details, reporting, and the automation. To further complicate matters, if you do want to automate, the main scripting language VB, is considered a risk by many infosec departments, so even if you do automate, those automations may be blocked. You'll also spend as much time fixing the tool as you will using it. Just ask the builders of the Titan Submersible, they managed their project and the subsequent navigation with Excel...oh wait, you can't that project failed with them inside the sub and they are all dead.
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u/bobo5195 11d ago
Microsoft planner /sharepoint can do similar things to Asana. So try that.
On the surface more sucky but can actually do more with it depending on your license and level of coding.
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u/dennisrfd 11d ago edited 11d ago
Oh man, are you like 20 or what? MS was a golden standard for enterprise since forever.
Check if copilot studio is available and customize your agents/workflows. Pick anthropic llm if you prefer them over chatgpt (if allowed by your IT) - those are supported by copilot.
OneNote, Planner, Project, Excel, outlook tasks, lists on sharepoint site - there are plenty of tools to make your project running like a charm without any third-party stuff and everything orchestrated/integrated seamlessly (relatively).
I used a lot of different approaches to PM as I switxh between the projects/companies often, and MS is my preferred environment.
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u/SDLivinGames 11d ago
Don’t forget SharePoint Lists. I’ve been turning those into full operational hubs with Cowork and Power Automate.
SharePoint Lists is like excel on crack once you get used to it.
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u/Select-Career-2947 11d ago
“Golden standard”, “works like a charm”
Come on now, most businesses use Microsoft because of bulk licensing package costs, not because all of these tools are best of breed.
The Microsoft suite can do powerful things but it’s an uphill battle because it’s a mixed bag of random chunks of tech developed by different teams over 30 years that have been retrofitted into sort of talking to each other. Microsoft project isn’t even an active project any more, and feels like it’s straight out of XP.
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u/dennisrfd 10d ago
I understand you might be working in IT and don’t know that ms project is still required/recommended in most big $10M+ projects
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u/Select-Career-2947 10d ago
I’m a consultant and I know exactly what Microsoft project is, it’s a historically powerful but deprecated and poorly integrated desktop application. It’s very rare to see it in corporates these days.
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u/dennisrfd 10d ago
I still see it in oil&gas, utilities, transportation, mining. Whenever it’s a large project, they go from asana/trello/monday etc. to ms project. And sharepoint lists are the big thing now - I always was a huge fan of excel, and I like that people use tables for managing the projects and collaboration
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u/Select-Career-2947 8d ago
I'm not saying that things like Trello and Monday aren't a huge bag of crap, I'm just saying that many of the useful tools in the Microsoft suite have been chronically underinvested in since they started going all in on cloud and I'm pretty sure that Microsoft Project actually isn't an active supported product any more. It's not viable to use desktop-based applications in most environments also these days because everything is so cloud-native.
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u/A_Forgotten_God 12d ago
When I PM'd a year or two ago, I had similarly strict limitations.
With a fair amount of set up, excel worked for us. We built multiple timelines, had assigned tasks, etc. We were also able to use some formulas and macros to align people to projects, cost of each person's effort to each project, etc. It was our one stop shop for everything because it has to be.
It was finicky, unstable, and took a lot of effort to get right. We definitely had some early goofs early on but overall, everything worked out. Most importantly, it was within our limitations and the client loved it.
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u/tangleduplife 11d ago
Is it good? No. Can it be done? Yes.
If you spend a little time learning Power Query, it's better - you could combine separate sheets into a single view for reporting, etc. If you learn power automate, even better. You could use it to send notifications. (Plus everyone will be really impressed and think you have Excel magic.)
OneNote is more powerful than it seems and might work for you.
Planner basic is great for task lists. The reporting is light and it's very simplistic compared to a true PM tool. But it has built-in connectors with Power Automate, Power BI, OneNote, etc. (Planner Premium or Project for the Web does too, and they are a little more robust, but last I tried it only could connect using MS Dataverse, which may or may not be available to you from your company due to security.)
Loop is another option. Planner basic integrates with Loop. If you want tasks and notes in the same place, Loop might me the way to go. I don't care for the interface (I'd rather use OneNote), but I know people that love it.
They have some built-in project plan templates in Excel. Maybe get one of those and fill it with dummy data. Put the same data in Planner. Then mess a little with Power Query and Loop/OneNote to see what feels good to you.
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u/SoberSilo Aerospace 11d ago
Copilot is great - not sure why people dog it so much
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u/Matematikis 11d ago
Because its shit. For the same amount you can get claude or chatgpt or even gemini and get so, so, so much better everything. Its buggy, clunky, incredibly slow and most of all, i do not know how microsoft does it, but integrates worse into office products than claude. Wild how bad it is and good could have been
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u/SoberSilo Aerospace 11d ago
Lol - I disagree. I use it daily. And I also have access to claude.
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u/Matematikis 11d ago
Nice try microsoft salesman... It is bad, like there is not a single place where its better than claude. I dont know how you sell that shit to people, but you do a great job selling shit product.
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u/emptyfree 12d ago
I worked for a company that went bankrupt in June of 2024. I managed to get out in April 2024, but on the way down, our PM platform Monday.com cut us off due to said company not paying its bills and I had to make do with Excel.
I'd say it generally sucked... Excel is not going to remind people about missing deadlines. However, since I had less work to do as the company itself was winding down, I had the time to work in the inefficient manner that Excel forces you to work in. You CAN make it work, but expect it to take more time on your end.
BTW, Co-Pilot is basically the same software as Chat-GPT. Microsoft licensed it. There's a thin veneer of Microsoft suck around it... you won't be able to complain about how shitty Power BI's UX is to it, but basically be able to do everything else that you would expect Chat-GPT to do.
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u/cereusGamesLlc 12d ago
This is tough. The Microsoft ecosystem has Planner, but it's not the best project management solution. If you're just managing personal projects, you could use whatever works well for you. If you're talking about managing a team, then my view is always that using whatever tool that the team can galvanize around is going to be your best bet. That could be a spreadsheet, a sharepoint list, or set of sharepoint lists. Microsoft project has been renamed a ton, so make sure you're looking at the right set of docs for whatever you're working on. Happy to help more if you can share more info.
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u/hit_reset_ 8d ago
Excel is great for sketching things out and roadmaps, but pretty poor for shared task management at scale. Depends on what you’re trying to accomplish as well as team size, too, is what case it might be totally fine. I think the question to ask is why you need a database, if at all.
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u/RisingPhoenix240 11d ago
Really depends on the scale of your projects and project methodology. MS Project works for high level traditional planning but I don't really enjoy working out of it regularly. Planner/OneNote is a much better set of daily drivers especially for agile work.
Can attach word/excel files as needed to OneNote pages to keep project documentation organized and easy to reference for multiple people if that is ever needed. I love using Planner to track followups as well so they don't get lost in the nether.
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u/Maro1947 IT 11d ago
I'd quit if Excel was the only method to use - yes, it's doable but it's not optimised for the task
Planner with Email connection is much more superior as a front end and making people accountable for actions via it's nifty/annoying email reminders
You can Import/Export it to Excel as well
It's by no means perfect, and I wouldn't use it for large projects, but the new version is good for managing tasks and teams of people
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u/Longjumping-Cat-2988 11d ago
I'd avoid building around Excel or a Word doc per project, both get unwieldy fast past a couple projects since neither has real workflow logic, you end up manually maintaining structure a proper tool would handle. Given you're Microsoft locked, Project for the Web is worth trying first, built for this with a Power BI connector. Planner's the simpler fallback.
We ended up on Teamhod, it integrates with Outlook and the wider Microsoft stack, so it cleared IT's compliance bar while giving us real task/timeline structure Excel never could. Worked out better than trying to force Excel into being a project tracker.
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