Most project Managers in the world have a love hate relationship with Microsoft Project (MSP). There are plenty of other systems out there to look at, a good number I have used in my time and they all have niches and in the main I always end up back at MSP, for a reasonable list of what is available and an overview see this post https://www.scoro.com/blog/best-project-management-software-list/
One of MSP’s biggest failings is the inability to actually share the plan with people in your team without giving them project (expensive) and teaching them how to use it (difficult). It transfers really badly to powerpoint (although the timelines can be beautiful and really help Managers understand the key points of project delivery) and task distribution is difficult even with the email of tasks to people which in my experience just clogs up peoples inboxes and gets them really annoyed with the PM who then spends no less time than before running checkpoints and updating the plan based on the conversations, all sounds familiar? Read on.
It is something I have worked on over many, many years and for anyone with this issue I would like to give you my current best solution. I have a flexible excel spreadsheet tool which gives a great approximation of the Microsoft gantt chart and if you are using MSP then then the chances are you are in the Microsoft ecosystem and on 365 so your organisation already uses excel. I am also aware that for simple projects you many not even need MSP and do your planning in excel as well. Again this spreadsheet will give you the ability to create nice gantt charts and share with your team.
I do update it every few months. And create variations for different organisations I am working with so if you take this I would love to see your improvements and share with the community. If you have a specific problem to solve I would love to here from you through the contact me forms.
It is my intention to share my strategic journey using this tool set so you will find lots of examples appearing on the website over time.