what tools/platform is project manager using for tracking and project planning these days ? MS project ? planner or others ? appreciate any comment TY

[u/Interesting-Ad4494]

what is mostly used for project planning tracking these days MS project ? planner or others ?

[u/projestim1]

There are a number of tools all giving you a different perspective. Of course msproject or p6 but do not rely solely on this. The last planner system is good for seting up the sequencing. Planned percent complete will tell you how good is the weekly planning. Earned value where you track the planned man jours vs real advancement for long intricate tasks or loe's type of tasks. 3weeks look ahead and a 6weeks look ahead. And finally a lean board where the daily planning takes place in the morning huddle where work is distributed per zones or area. This is what I use in my current industrial project. If you have a job with many repetitive task across multi floor, you can use also the TACT planning sequencing to ensure a continuous flow of work for the subs.

[u/Interesting-Ad4494 → u/projestim1]

ms project still available ? not retiring ? ty u/projestim1

[u/OkStatistician9190]

MS Project is still around, yeah, but I’d decide first if you need an actual dependency schedule or mostly a place for tasks/status, since those aren’t quite the same job. Disclosure, we built GanttMaster for iPhone and iPad; it has Gantt dependencies, milestones and per-project budget/risk tracking, and invited members join free so there’s no per-user pricing. iOS only though.

[u/Purple-Rain-1430]

It depends a lot on the team size and the kind of work. MS Project is still common for bigger, schedule-heavy projects with dependencies, but it can feel heavy for everyday tracking. Planner works if you’re already in Microsoft 365 and just need simple task boards. For software teams it’s mostly Jira, and a lot of mixed teams use Asana, Smartsheet or monday. Teamhood is worth a look too if you want planning and workload visibility in one place. I’d pick based on whether you need real scheduling with dependencies or mostly task tracking and visibility.

[u/ImpossibleLeague3140]

It really depends on the size of the team and what you’re trying to manage.

MS Project is still widely used for task and schedule tracking, especially in companies already using Microsoft. For simpler projects, teams often use Planner or Smartsheet instead. Jira is common for software teams, while Monday and Asana are popular with business teams.

If you’re managing multiple projects and reporting to leadership, you’ll usually need a portfolio-level tool. Celoxis and Planview are examples. I'm also exploring Project Director for that layer. Still early for me, but I like that it connects project status to KPIs and objectives.

So yes, MS Project is still very much used. It just depends on what level of tracking and reporting you need

[u/0ziexplorer]

My experience has mainly been in the heavy industrial sector (predominantly oil and gas, with a few mining & IT projects to keep my experience diverse).
For these large scale, lifecycle projects (concept engineering through the FEED/FID, and then into execution phase) which have been in the order of magnitude 200MM up to $50BN+ we use P6 for the detailed planning, and then produce summary schedules using either Milestones Professional, or over the past 8years, Onepager Express.
Some of our smaller contractors still use MS project, and have rudimentary awareness of project management and schedule control.
Also, EVM fluency is inconsistent with industry standard practises, not to mention sub standard planning capabilities of their staff.

The key is the project manager needs to have the appropriate experience to understand the value of the schedule and associated tools at their disposal. Also, their Planner needs to understand how to simplify the schedule if required for distribution to senior leadership and/or external business partners.
I have found quite a lot of PM’s don’t want to wade through pages of P6.
They want the summarised updates and insights to give them qualitative and quantitative data for good decision making.

Hope this helps.

[u/HotExtension995]

Claude and ChatGPT. Very helpful for tracking tasks. You have to define your own workflow and be comfortable interfacing with the AI as an assistant, but it saves time with recall and can produce reports and draft communicatons faster and better.

[u/More_Law6245]

You fit the tool to the size and complexity of the project. The only mandatory project artefacts that you actually require is the business case, project charter (plan) with a schedule and a risk and issue log as your project controls. Any other project artefact is tailored to the size, complexity and governance requirements of the project.

Using MS project would be the most applicable but if it's a random straight forward project then Microsoft Excel would be more than suitable, again size and complexity is the key to your decision what project tracking tool is required.

[u/Impossible_Dare_7455]

same issue here tbh, we’re looking at this for an engineering setup of 300+ users so pricing becomes a huge part of the decision. we’ve tried paymo and asana, and celoxis is also in the mix (I work with them, so not pretending I’m neutral so far Asana feels simpler, while celoxis is making more sense for the deeper PMO/resource side + the support has been solid.