Outlook Sum() Problems

I don't have a decent project management tool so I have frequently resorted to using Outlook to manage the tasks. However it still is only half-decent.

I have created various categories, but I cannot create categories under categories.

I have created tasks, made tentative assignments (finally figured out how to do this!) and have put the estimated effort in the Total Work column. So far so good. Now I need to know the sum Total Work for all tasks grouped by a specific resource. Can someone help? A ready macro or code snippet would be highly appreciated.

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Sorry this doesn't address your question and trashes the work you've done, but...

Have you considered freebies like GanntProject?

Oddly enough I've just finished mentoring a colleague on project management and the single best tool for project planning is...

Excel. No really. Excel. Post-it notes and a whiteboard really help too. Where project planning is concerned the lower tech you can go the better because most tools (MS Project in particular) just get in the way. Project Planning is all abut trying out possible solutions, mucking around and changing them until they fit. You want a tool that's very flexible and there's not much more flexible than excel.

I really recommend you look up a guy called Chris Croft on you tube (I'd link but you tube is blocked for me at work). He did a demo for my previous company a year or so back that was a huge eye opener. We were fudging our way along without any real project managent because we thought it was complicated to do. He completely demystified it in the space of one morning using nothing more than a white-board, marker pen, post-it notes and excel. Producing a project plan complete with Network Diagram, Gaant Chart, Resource chart and a variety of progress charts now takes a day at most - and that would be a big project. A small project can be properly planned in about half an hour.

N.B. I've deliberately used the phrase Project Planning rather than Management because you're only really concerned with setting up the project at the moment but Chris's techniques also lead very nicely on to monitoring and control.

Well, planning was never a difficult task. It's the execution and monitoring part which is a bich with a t.

Tools like MS project are useless to me because a. They don't allow easy sharing and update of tasks at a central location (unless you go for the Project Central which is a bad idea for point b), and b. Updating a project plan and making course corrections is a mystery I haven't been able to figure out yet.

Outlook Tasks do many of these things for me. I have categories to represent phases, modules and whatnot. I can assign resources to tasks and assign efforts to tasks. Most tasks are simple (meaning not many dependencies). I can simply assign the task to a teammate by sending him an email, and he can update the status of the task by sending periodic emails. Wonderful!

Where it lacks is a little bit of polishing here and there so that it serves all my requirements (and no, I don't need critical path management or other complex project management techniques incorporated)

The other option that one of my friends suggested today is the Team Foundation Server. How good is that?

The biggest advantage in using either Outlook or Team Foundation Server would be they would be used by almost everyone in the team through emails or Visual Studio.

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Yeah, I had to do a project management subject at school as part of my diploma. I bought the academic version of Microsoft Project a few years ago and it did the job.