I recently did a project management presentation and was shocked that no one in the room was familiar with my Project 2010 screenshots. While asking around, I found that a vast majority of project leaders were not even considering the upgrade. And I do believe 2010 is a major upgrade. There are three major reasons users are dragging their feet on this power packed MS project release.

The most common is the shrinking budget. While I understand the need to trim the fat from our projects I would argue that this is probably the leanest release of MS Project for many years. The application is far more stable than any previous version, meaning less down time and data conflicts. Also the application has become more user friendly and intuitive. Because of improved usability you can count on less time in the training room or holding for support. Another improvement is cleaner than ever backward compatibility. In the past backward compatibility meant stripping your information of all formatting. There is far less stripping with 2010. In short, the improved compatibility across many versions of MS project and other project applications and user friendliness alone will more than compensate any cost to upgrade.

Another reason some resist changing is the “it isn’t broke attitude.” MS Project 07 is working fine for them. Added and improved features will improve your project team collaboration. There is nothing more important to any project than clarity. The added features in MS project 10 will bring added clarity to your projects.

As an example, resource management has always been a strength for MS Project. However, the Microsoft team has taken this to another level with Project 10. In past versions you had to change views to see resource overallocations.  The team planner view allows me to see overallocations and tasks with assigned resources. Identifying the allocation issues quickly means better planning.

More flexible scheduling also allows project managers to manually schedule tasks that are independent of the project calendar. This is a user friendly upgrade for the less savvy PM. Dates and tasks can be scheduled without constraints. Making MS Project 10 more suitable for smaller projects that are more task list oriented.

Another reason MS project users seem to drag their feet with upgrades are compatibility concerns.

Of course the enhanced network compatibility and remote access features make collaboration more practical. Project members from around the world can collaborate whether they are Project users or not.

Of course I have to point out that the new timeline view is an easy to use and share snapshot of your project’s progress. The snap shot timeline allows you to select the tasks and milestones that you need to share. This view makes MS Project a powerful presentation resource.

My advice is to check out Microsoft’s website for what’s new, download a trial copy and take MS Project 2010 for a test drive.

Bill “the builder” Carpenter has facilitated projects in over a dozen industries. With an emphasis on clarity and quality Bill has trained and coached top performing project managers from companies like: Ford, Caterpillar, Hershey and more. He is available for keynotes, seminars and web based training programs.