Question

Is Microsoft Project the best tool for managing software development or IT projects or is there an alternative that is better?

Answer 1

Project is not good for managing development at all. I find it marginally useful for scheduling / work breakdown.

If you’re on a Microsoft stack, Team Foundation Server is a good project management solution. It integrates with Project for scheduling and also provides the essentials of source control, work item (task / defect) tracking, and document management (via sharepoint.) The 2008 version has matured nicely, and the 2010 version looks very promising, especially in the area of requirements specification and traceability.

You can replicate the TFS features with a stack of open source and/or less expensive off-the-shelf software, but it is more work to integrate. It’s debatable which is more flexible and easier to maintain once set up.

The following are required, regardless of platform:

• Bug tracking
• Work item / story / progress tracking of some kind (may be managed by above)
• Collective team discussion (may be managed by above – discussion on work items, like FogBugz for example)
• Source control (anything but SourceSafe)
• Continuous build integration that runs unit tests
• Instant messaging (OpenFire works great if your network blocks external services)
• Document library
• Farm of virtualized test machines (especially useful for install/upgrade testing)