This is an amazing tool to aid in project management, it is useful not only for software, but virtually any project be it a car, an engine, or starting of a business.

MS Project empowers you with all sorts of features that enable you to organize your workforce, create projects & components of each project, assign personnel and other resources to various tasks. Set a timeline & milestones, chart progress (Gantt Chart, my favorite), and tons more. Gantt charts are the perfect, graphical way to show anyone how the project is coming along. It is also a good way to help spot where the problem areas in a project are, so you can allocate more resources. Other useful information is also available, like total costs, projected costs, and schedule predictions (how much on or off schedule).

The real magic happens if you have a Project Server, this requires WinNT 4.0+, IIS 2.0+, and of course MS Project. Once you have that, you can create a centralized location for everyone to login and get/update their task lists, communicate with teammates, and more.

Without a server though, MS Project becomes considerably less useful. Without one, communication is done either through a special website, or by email, which many people will attest is annoying.

MS Project isn't appropriate for very small groups, or groups that rarely do any sort of development. It works great for me on the job, but at home, it crashes all the time to the point of being unusable.

Recommended: Yes