Monday, October 03, 2005

Microsoft Project 2006/Vista

My career is and has been centered around project management, both as a PM myself and as a consultant/teacher to other PMs. And since I work for a Microsoft partner, a great deal of my professional life revolves around Microsoft Office Project 2003, both the standard version and the enterprise version known as Microsoft Office Project Server 2003.

Since I am so deeply involved in this product, I am in the process of preparing myself for the sea-change known as the Microsoft product upgrade cycle. Yep, the new version of venerable MS Project is coming out soon - the tentative release to manufacturing date is Nov/Dec 2006. We'll get Beta 1 early next year.

The last upgrade to Project came in 2003, when I was just starting in the consulting business. It was humbling to drop from SME to moron nearly instantaneously, as I tried to ramp up on the new features of the product. It's even more humbling to know that the difference between Project 2002 and 2003 was negligible, esp in comparison to the differences between 2003 and 2006/Vista.

For those of you in the same boat, there is some outstanding info on Project to be found on the blog of one Dieter Zirker, the GPM for the Project group at Microsoft. You can peruse his fine work here, along with my prolific commenting throughout.

I'll be going to the Microsoft Project Conference in Seattle in Jan. Drop me a note if you'll be there.

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