Despite its wide use, very few people who use Microsoft Project can say that they are especially satisfied with it. The problem isn't so much its capabilities or interface as its lack of consideration for how it will be used. Here are three core issues with Microsoft Project that can conflict with successful adoption.

1. It Doesn't Get Used

For a tool to be successful it must, first and foremost, actually be used. Unfortunately, Microsoft Project was built specifically for professional project managers and technical experts. This is fine for giant bureaucratic companies that are run almost entirely from the top down, but that's not the way most companies work, and it's becoming increasingly obvious that it's not the most efficient option in most cases.

Modern project management isn't necessarily a “bottom-up” process, but it's clear that it is the result of an interaction between management and the workforce. We no longer live in an assembly-line economy. The majority of our workforce exists in either the service sector or the knowledge work sector. It no longer makes sense to isolate the workforce from the management process.

As a result, for management software to work effectively, it needs to be used not only by project managers, but by the workforce at large. Microsoft Project is not designed to do that.

2. It's Not Team-Oriented

Designed specifically for project management specialists, MS Project isn't really built to be used by more than one person. We could go on at length about the week-long training programs that still leave users confused and aimless, but the real issue is that it was never built for team-building and collaboration.

What MS Project lacks, more than anything else, is a synergistic approach. It's not built to let multiple people check their schedules, and it's certainly not built for individuals throughout your company to update their own schedules.

Similarly, MS Project is really built for individual projects, not company-wide project management. Since most businesses are working on a huge number of projects at once, this is less than ideal. What's really missing from the program is a cross-project, cross-workspace approach.

As an offline piece of software, it doesn't take a proactive role in keeping your team up to date. Employees don't receive automated notifications to keep them on track, and managers aren't notified when projects reach completion. Unfortunately, the end result is typically the same: MS Project becomes little more than a time bookkeeping tool, rather than a part of your strategy for getting things done.

3. It Tries to Be a Swiss Army Knife

One of the biggest issues with Microsoft Project is that it tries to tackle too many different kinds of businesses with a huge list of features that are each only useful to a small part of the market. As time has passed, Microsoft has felt the competing pressures to be simpler as well as serve a larger and more specific list of demands.

Microsoft has allowed itself to be pulled in multiple directions at once, and the end result is a product that lacks focus. Some users complain that it has lost useful features and that it has been “dumbed down,” while others rightfully complain that it is still far too complicated for most people to use without training.

Thankfully, users do have options, and the space is no longer limited to big players like Microsoft. Web-based project management software has created a new market for agile businesses and team-based management.