Project 2003 Professional

Software Description

Project Professional 2003 is the Microsoft desktop enterprise project management program that is used with Microsoft Office Project Web Access and Microsoft Office Project Server 2003. Project Professional 2003 provides all the core scheduling tools in Project Standard 2003, plus powerful portfolio and resource management capabilities when connected to Project Server 2003. Project Professional is used by project managers who need to schedule projects, assign team members from a central resource pool to project tasks, and save their information centrally to Project Server 2003 to share with others.

Learn Quickly
Get productive quickly with built-in help, wizards, and the familiar Microsoft Office interface.

• Guided planning and management. Quickly master the project management process with the Project Guide, a step-by-step, interactive aide that helps you set up projects, manage tasks and resources, track schedules, and report project information.
• Find help as you need it. Access built-in online help to get the latest training, articles, templates, and other resources to help you use Project Professional 2003 more effectively. Use Spotlights in the Help task pane to access project-related services and features to help you work smarter. Assistance on Office Online provides up-to-date Help resources and references for Project Professional 2003. Easily get the information you need by selecting a pre-defined topic or searching for keywords.
• Get timely and relevant assistance as you work with smart tags that alert you to alternate choices when you make changes to your plan, helping ensure your project plans are scheduled correctly.
• Create project plans efficiently. Save time by quickly converting existing task lists created in Microsoft Office Excel 2003 or Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003 into project plans. Or, use one of the many templates provided with Project Professional 2003 as a starting point for your project.

Track and Evaluate Plans
Create schedules, estimate costs, and track progress with comprehensive project management tools.

• Assign resources. You can assign resources to your tasks and adjust them to resolve conflicts and over-allocations. Add resources from the Active Directory® directory service or Microsoft Exchange Server address book.
• Compare project plan versions. Easily track version changes in project plans by using the Compare Project Versions tool. Graphical indicators clearly identify differences between versions, such as tasks added or deleted.
• Evaluate changes. Keep your project plan on time and within budget by efficiently evaluating the impact of schedule and resources changes on your plan. Project Professional 2003 can update your plans automatically so you can prioritize work effectively and make better decisions.
• Track performance. Track progress, monitor variances between target and actual project goals such as cost, start date, and finish date, and maintain historical records with the ability to store 11 full baselines over the course of any project.

Communicate Effectively
Communicate clearly and present project information in a variety of ways.

• Generate predefined reports. Report your data using a set of predefined reports to print out the task, resource, assignment, or cost information you want to share. Or, use a wizard to generate an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file from project data to create custom reports.
• Format and print custom reports. In the past, creating formatted printed reports of project data was cumbersome. Now you can follow an easy step-by-step guide in Project Professional 2003 to format and print your current view of project information as a report.
• Present project data in other programs. The Copy Picture to Office wizard enables you to present project information in a number of familiar programs.
• Share project plans. Share your project plan with others in your organization by saving it to a central workspace on a Microsoft Windows® SharePoint™ Services site. Windows SharePoint Services is a component of Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003. Use the Shared Workspace task pane to view lists of people who have access to a shared workspace, files stored there, and other useful information.

Adapt Project to Your Needs
Align Project Standard 2003 to meet your project management needs.

• Customize project plans. Customize your plan by choosing the data to display in your project schedule. Incorporate information unique to your project by creating Custom Fields in your project plan. Modify toolbars, formulas, graphical indicators, and reports for further customization.
• Customize Project Guides. Promote project management methodologies and best practices by developing custom Project Guides.