back to article One Project to rule them all: Microsoft plots end to Project Online while nervous Server looks on

Microsoft has announced a single redesigned service to take on duties from Project Online and Project Server – but not right away. Corporate veep for Office and Windows marketing Joe Spataro trumpeted the arrival this week of the software giant's new service, simply called Project. Unlike its predecessors, Project is built …

  1. bombastic bob Silver badge

    Is it git-based?

    Well, if the new 'Project' is in any way 'git-based' it might be worth doing. (Just don't force me into it if I want to use git)

    I have known a manager or two who swear by 'Microsoft Project', in the past. I don't use it, but they did. I considered writing a simple spreadsheet to do most of what it did, though... [it would require some manual fiddling but would accomplish the same goal].

    It's hard to say whether I'm happy about it or 'meh'. I hope it works, a lot of managers seem to like 'MS Project'. Usually I work in a very small team where it makes no sense to go through the effort to use, though.

    (on an unrelated note, visiting the link from the article to the blog site announcing 'Project' got me that dreaded "Forbidden nginx" 403 error. because, I'm using noscript, and those web developers responsible for this are [insert deadpool-worthy profane description here].)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Project Server

      Place I'm in just now use Project Server to manage everything - it's a pain in the arse

    2. Zippy´s Sausage Factory
      Unhappy

      Re: Is it git-based?

      I think Microsoft's support for git is basically just a way to try and sell TFS licences. This is the old "embrace, extend, extinguish" Microsoft back from the dead - "git, but you pay us for it".

    3. Locky
      Coat

      Re: Is it git-based?

      I find that most PMs are git-based

  2. Lorribot

    Main issue I have is when PMs have to share Project stuff, you need project to interact with it or you get a PDF or they stick stuff in Sharepoint as the biz couldn't afford Project server or to license everything correctly.

    What MS need to do is make Project part of O365 and let everyone have at it and do it properly.

    IT without limits or restrictions...........

    1. bpfh

      I thought was part of Office365...

      Oh, Wait, we use Excel to manage our project times where I work...

      1. P. Lee

        Re: I thought was part of Office365...

        >Oh, Wait, we use Excel to manage our project times where I work...

        Isn't that what MS Project is? Excel with some cut & paste macros?

    2. big_D Silver badge

      Or at least make the viewing tools and time booking part of Office / Office 365. Not everybody needs full project.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

    By forcing change on you, moving things you understand and are used to to distant corners of the universe and removing features you like and find useful.

    I guess that in some way is achieving more by making people work harder for no good reason.

    OK, full disclosure, I've never used Project Online or Project Server, but I felt like sticking the boot in :-)

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Replacing two pieces of software with a third, written from the ground up

    I guess it will be as successful as the migration Lync / Skype for Business => Teams. Or Skype 7 to Skype 8.

    Take a piece of software that has become embedded into people's workflows, and replace it with something new which doesn't have the features they actually use.

  5. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

    ...but after that things are a little hazy.

    Q. Do Microsoft eat their own dog-food?

    ===

    Many years ago (1975) I was involved with the changeover from Hounslow West to Hatton Cross as being the terminus for the Piccadilly Line. The chap that produced the Gantt chart for our side of the project (commissioning the Hatton Cross signalling system) showed us starting at 08:30 and going home at 16:15. It was gone midnight when we finally left the site. Couldn't grumble about the overtime earned though.

    1. Ken 16 Silver badge
      Windows

      That's odd

      MS Projects main feature is to extend end dates by surfacing unwanted dependencies. Usually the process is to do the work item breakdown on a spreadsheet, sketch out the dependencies on paper, work out the critical path, THEN put it all in Project, see it's showing as 3 months later than it should be, take out some dependencies to let loosely coupled tasks run in parallel and then hand it over to a project manager to put in the resournces...but I've never used it on a single day project.

  6. Chairman of the Bored

    Been doing this 30 years...

    ...pencil and paper, viewgraphs, lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets, m$ project in its various incantations of demon speak...

    ...and I've learned many valuable secrets, young grasshopper. Chief among these is, "The very finest way to remain on schedule is to write a new one daily."

    This truth is invariant across all known PM tools and strategic planning fad.

    You're welcome!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hey MS...

    Can we kill Unified Service Desk while we're killing Project please?

    That would make me very happy. USD is a god awful, slow, buggy piece of crap running on Internet Explorer. Its garbage and deserves to be taken out behind Redmond's shed and shot.

    1. Eek

      Re: Hey MS...

      What version of it are you using? USD has improved a lot of the past year....

  8. WibbleMe

    Sooner or later app apps on the web will be merged into ONE annoying PAPERCLIP

    1. Ken 16 Silver badge

      You mean one Machine Learning Natural Language User eXperience?

  9. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

    After Major Major Major...

    We now have Project Project Project.

    Why can't Microsoft into names that are actually names?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just use Smartsheet

    Wave goodbye to MS Project and enjoy a quality cloud based collaboration scheduling tool. Sharing, attachments, comments all in one place via any browser. No faffing around exporting Gantts.

    As a PM I can't imagine using anything else for Waterfall projects.

    I don't work for them; simply recommending a top product.

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