Thanks for your quick reply. It's true that I can use a template to streamline the process somewhat, but because MS Project is more general than what is needed (e.g. arbitrary number of subtasks associated with a task rather than just development and QA), it will be harder to work with than a custom-built application would be. I'm looking for something that's a little more customized for software development than MS Project is. Maybe it doesn't exist, but if it does it will fit the bill much better than MS Project.

Thanks again,

Jack


Hi,
Use MS Project and setup a skeleton which you can copy and modify to suit the new cycle.
At some point some one (You) have to input both the logic and the resources for the production cycle, if different from the last cycle.

>I'm looking for some software to assist in Project Management. I've looked at MS Project, and it seems rather like using a pencil to do accounting -- it will certainly do the job, but you have to do a lot of repetitive work yourself.
>
>Our environment is both customer-facing and internal, both software and hardware. Most of the work consists of new releases of our primary product, with a code&test cycle by the developer, followed by QA testing and certifying the change; when all features for a given release are finished, a release is generated and QA'ed. This cycle goes on and on, with features being moved around from release to release as need and resources demand. Our goal is to make this process manageable, viewable, and visible to the CIO, product manager, development manager, developers, QA personnel, etc.
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>I've looked at several packages I found on the web, and they all just seem to try to do a better job of what MS Project does. I suspect that what I'm looking for is more specific to software development than generalized project management, but I'm not finding anything like it. And before you ask, I really don't want to build something from scratch -- I'm already overworked (isn't everyone?).
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>Any recommendations would be appreciated.
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>Thanks,
>
>Jack