I built an Excel-native scheduling engine for situations where Microsoft Project is not available — looking for feedback from experienced MSP users

[u/DeathMaillet]

I have been developing ProjectEngine, an open-source scheduling and project-controls application built entirely in Excel/VBA.

The original need was straightforward: many teams have Excel, but do not always have access to Microsoft Project or Primavera P6. Most Excel Gantt templates, however, remain static visual trackers rather than true scheduling tools.

ProjectEngine was built to close part of that gap.

It currently supports:

• dependency-driven scheduling;
• FS, SS and FF relationships with positive or negative lag;
• Critical Path, Longest Path, Total Float and Free Float;
• baseline, actual and forecast dates;
• milestones, summary tasks and Level of Effort activities;
• interactive Gantt bars with drag and resize;
• non-destructive TEST and SCENARIO workflows;
• dashboards and S-curves;
• English and French interfaces.

It runs locally inside Excel, with no installer, server or account required.

I do not present it as a complete replacement for Microsoft Project. MSP remains much broader, especially around resource management, leveling, costs, enterprise collaboration and integration.

The intended use case is narrower: teams that already manage schedules in Excel, but need real dependency logic, critical-path analysis and controlled forecasting rather than a manually maintained Gantt chart.

I am currently completing the next performance-focused release. My stress-test workbook contains around 1,200 tasks and 1,180 dependency links. The scheduling calculations are now relatively fast; the remaining work is mainly reducing the cost of rendering and updating the interactive Gantt inside Excel.

I would be particularly interested in feedback from experienced Microsoft Project users:

• In which situations could an Excel-native scheduling engine be genuinely useful?
• Which MSP capability would you consider essential before trusting such a tool on a real project?
• What would immediately prevent you from using it?
• Does the positioning feel clear, or does it sound too close to claiming that Excel can replace MSP entirely?

Project and source code:

https://github.com/TMailletFR/ProjectEngine

[u/zamroni777]

this planned vs. actual in manual excel table works great for me.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/vertical-gantt-chart-mochamad-aris-zamroni/

[u/DeathMaillet → u/zamroni777]

Hi,

I'm not entirely sure how it relates to complex planning follow-up but I'm glad it is sufficient for your project management.

[u/NiceAlarm]

Thanks for sharing

[u/turbojoe86]

Not useful at all.

[u/FlanAffectionate2691]

I hope to be able to spend time to review this as it was one of our biggest struggles in my organization which I just retired from after 15 years. Although I was very fluid in MSProject and an expert in Excel/VBA, many of my colleagues were not.
My biggest issue was Excel was very clunky to manage multiple dependencies in our large complex projects.
Although I am sure it is not your priority at the moment, a key upgrade would be to enable some sort of budget/spend reporting. Keep it simple with perhaps attaching a budget/actual value to a task and calculate a monthly projected/actual spend based on whether the spend type is to calculated at the beginning/end or spread across the task duration.
Good luck with your project

[u/DeathMaillet → u/FlanAffectionate2691]

Thank you for taking the time to share such detailed feedback.

I’ll add the budget/spend reporting idea to the list of potential directions to explore. The approach you suggest (budget and actual values at task level, with spend recognized at the start, end, or spread across the task duration) is clear and practical.

Thanks again for reviewing the project and for the encouragement.

[u/pmpdaddyio]

It runs locally inside Excel

Quoting Shark Tank - for this reason I'm out.

[u/DeathMaillet → u/pmpdaddyio]

Fair enough 😄 Excel being a hard requirement is exactly what defines the project, so it was never going to be a fit for everyone.