Project Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 2

Project Management - Essay Example Microsoft Project is one of the most widely used tools for Project Management as well as for Work breakdown structure. However, there are other alternate software available as well that could facilitate the project managers in managing the project. This report discusses about the use of alternate Project Management software, Project Libre. Project Libre has been one of the most downloaded project management tools in different countries. The software is used in a number of geographic locations as presented in the image below: (Project Libre a, 2013) With 99,770 downloads of the software, this software was one of the most used project management software (Project Libre a, 2013). Therefore this software has been selected in order to compare against Microsoft Project. Project Libre is alternate software to Microsoft Project. Project Libre can also breakdown the project into smaller tasks just like Microsoft Project. Project Libre has also been awarded "Best of Open Source" or BOSSIE awar d by InfoWorld (Project Libre b, 2013). Thus, this confirms the quality of the software and how helpful the software has been around the world particularly for project managers. This report uses the software Project Libre and then a comparison has been presented using the two tools, Microsoft Project and Project Libre. Evaluation of the techniques used have also been presented in this report for the project Enterprise Rent-A-Car. MICROSOFT PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS USED In order to accomplish the project of ‘Enterprise Rent-A-Car’, the project management team has divided the overall project into following smaller tasks. By dividing the smaller tasks, the project management team can better manage the project and make sure that each of the tasks is handled well. By doing so, it will allow the project management team to make sure that the project is completed within the time. The following table shows the activities that are to be completed for this project of Enterprise Re nt-A-Car along with their duration and their predecessors: No. Task Days Predecessor 1 TM Team Development 1 week 2 E-learning Software Purchase 2 weeks 3 E-learning Courses Design 2 weeks 2 4 Hacks Portal 4 weeks 5 Portal Content Set Up 2 weeks 4 6 Trainer Contract 4 weeks 7 TL Training 16 weeks 6 8 Current Training Evaluation 8 weeks 9 Retraining (Current Staff) 16 weeks 7;8 10 PBL Evaluation 8 weeks 9 11 Training (New Trainees) 26 weeks 7 The above tasks are used on two different software; Microsoft Project and Project Libre. The techniques for both the software are evaluated and discussed. Gantt Chart Using Project Libre and Microsoft Project Gantt chart is used to present the tasks of the project along with the starting date and the ending date of that particular task (Cleland, and Gareis, 2006). Modern Gantt chart has started to include the predecessor as well that shows the dependency of that particular task. This allows the project manager to identify the starting as well as the ending date of each task and thus the project can be analyzed. Both the software Microsoft Project as well as Project Libre allow the users to create the Gantt Chart. Project Libre has a similar style and user experience than Microsoft Project. Both the software when starts show a tabular form along with the space for Gantt Chart. As activities or tasks are added in the tabular form, the Gantt chart starts to fill up. As all the information about the activities are added, the Gantt chart