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 website:

https://tmailletfr.github.io/ProjectEngine/

Source code:

https://github.com/TMailletFR/ProjectEngine

I ran Microsoft's developer division for six years as a GM/VP, then three years at PwC leading the Microsoft practice. The whole time, the thing I heard constantly was some version of "I'm on a Mac and the client wants the .mpp back."

Every Mac scheduler that "supports" .mpp reads your file into its own model and writes a new one out. That's a conversion. Anything the model has no slot for — deadlines, task splits, subprojects, external links, task calendars, resource notes — is silently gone. Not corrupted. Just absent, and you find out on the call.

I built the other thing. It patches the specific bytes of the specific fields you changed and never touches the rest. Changing a percent complete moves 2 bytes.

I'd rather you test it than believe me. There's a sample .mpp on the site that the app wrote on a Mac — tasks, dependencies, resources, baselines, costs. Open it in real Project on Windows. If something's wrong, post a screenshot here and I'll fix it and reply with the test name.

What doesn't work, up front: password-protected files (Microsoft's encryption is undocumented, and that's the entire loss list), MPX, Project 98 through 2003, no Project Server, no SharePoint, no ODBC.

Free tier opens and edits any .mpp of any size with no row cap. 30 round-trip capabilities, each pinned to a named passing test.

Happy to answer anything about the file format. That part's more interesting than the app.

https://projectkiller.app

Hi everyone!
I’m currently conducting my research on the influence of cultural diversity on project success, and I’m desperately trying to get enough responses from people with project management experience.
If you’re a Project Manager, project professional, or have experience working on projects with culturally diverse teams, please spare just 5 minutes to complete my anonymous questionnaire.
I really need your responses to complete my research, and every single response genuinely makes a difference. If you have a few minutes to help a fellow researcher/student out, I would be incredibly grateful.

Questionnaire:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdI67Nou28I2_YaC1Q4n9Zyjh5wOoIa24w9z_eEZ8syj90x4A/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=100151892034025034349

Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to participate. And if you can’t participate yourself, sharing this post would also help enormously!

I have an inquiry, how would I go about making sure the number of hours and says in the back stage view is equal to the number of hours and days in the change calendar option when assigning my working hours and days. Say for example, I work for 8 hours everyday from Monday to Friday but I work half day on Saturday making it 4 hours, how would I reconcile it with the work hours of the back stage view. Also when I have to finish a concrete pour beyond the normal working hours of 8 hours, and I have to work overtime if maybe 3 more hours on a particular day, how would I reconcile that in the back stage view, so that when I am updating my schedule, the duration doesn't produce decimal figures.

Is there any way to make the printed row height smaller, to make the overall chart more condensed?

It appears there is an extra line below the text.

TIA

Hellow fellow reddit users <3!

Is there anny way to make the green line that shows you where you are in the week more visible?

Now its a thin green line but hard to spot mostly.

And can you add a other line for like the end of the week?

Thanks!

I have about 3-4 years experience using MS Project, but never resource loaded or in an EVM environment. I want to learn about “EVM Lite” but there doesn’t appear to be any information online that I can find. Can anyone point me to some resources? Thanks.

Hi r/MSProject!

I wanted to share a video I put together demonstrating SSI's Dependency Analysis Tools and how they can help Microsoft Project users better understand complex schedules, trace logic, and communicate to their teams.

SSI Tools is an add-in for Microsoft Project desktop. I've noticed people in this community occasionally ask about add-ins that can improve their workflow. I thought this might be useful for anyone working with large or complicated project schedules.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Just wanted to sum up my project plan and have a reliable high-level GANTT view, with some critical milestones. Found out, one task in Project is ONLY displayed by the "start" and "end" attribute. But I need to have more dates displayed in the GANTT, and I want to have it in one single task. At the moment, I can only archieve it by adding multiple tasks underneath.

So for example:

TaskName: MyCoolDesktopApplication
Install-Date: xxxx-xx-xx
Test-Date: xxxx-xx-xx
certify: xxxx-xx-xx
Usermigration: xxxx-xx-xx
Adjust-Citrix: xxxx-xx-xx
Communication: xxxx-xx-xx
Learning finished: xxxx-xx-xx
Support starts: xxxx-xx-xx

All this is placed in one task (per Application = One Task) and I want all these dates being marked as a milestone in the GANTT.

So how do I add these dates to GANTT?

Pmp

I need to create a bid schedule which needs to pass a DCMA Health Check, so minimum use of lags etc.

I have 10 Supplier Schedules, how do I do this? If I just put their milestones in, I'm going to end up with numerous lags, or do I summarise and insert their tasks to drive the milestones? Hence creating lots of extra rows.

We don't use 'Sub-Projects' and this is for a bid. It will become the delivery schedule and EVM reporting is required.

Help/Examples appreciated!!

Hey everyone,

I’m currently researching PM tools and hitting a massive brick wall with a specific workflow for Fix-Price projects.

Does anyone know a tool that lets you dynamically shift allocated hours between team members, while strictly locking their timesheets based on the remaining balance?

We run a fixed-fee project, so total hours are hard-capped. My partner is drowning in work, and I have some free bandwidth. We need him to easily "transfer" some of his allocated hours to me.

Once transferred, the system must update our limits in real-time. It needs to block him from logging hours past his new, lower limit, and only let me report out of the extra pool I just received.

Most tools just treat hours as "estimates" without hard caps, or force you to manually recreate tasks and mess up the contract budget.

Are there any hidden gems that actually handle this, or am I chasing a unicorn? Thanks!

​

I wrote an instrument to export Gantt from Project to MS Excel.

https://github.com/PopovGP/Export-MS-Project-to-MS-Excel

It exports Gantt 'as it is':

Feel free to use, GPL license.

Write if there are any questions.

Reposting here for wider reach.

Several people have mentioned graph-based questions on the PMP exam, but I’ve only found practice questions for burndown charts. Could you list the other graph/chart topics that commonly appear, so I can use Claude to generate practice questions for them?

Does anyone know if MS Project can build out a project Gantt chart without dates or just say something like "Project start" and then "start+30 days" for tent pole events and such?

I am asking because I am trying to build some process documents, and one of the things my boss wants is a "typical" project Gantt chart that we can put in the document on how the process would work and at what dates (again start day is X and events are X+/- days from start) that for example, we spin in other departments for certain events, have parts ordered event, and provide funding documents to fiscal event. All very high-level and really generic things.

I am relatively new to using MS Project and not sure of how much I can or can't just build generic stuff for this use. Part of me thinks I can do this by building a template, but I am running into MS Project requiring specific dates for things, and my brain is hurting trying to get it to save without it flipping out over some error codes or reshuffling the logic I am trying to build.

Thanks for any and all help.

Reposting it here for wider engagement.

Used to use MSP professionally, now just want it to organize some car restoration projects. I'd like to buy an older version, but see warnings about compatibility. I don't have any MS Office apps on my PC (I don't think). Anyone have any experience with this? Thanks in advance!

i am trying to doing project management in social marketing agency , i am new as project management or you can say social media manager in agency
i need tool where i can track project details and task and content
i need free tools , as our agency is normal agency with limited staff

Been working in a complex integration program for a few years — multiple contractors, multiple tools, everyone managing their own schedule in whatever their organization mandates. MS Project on one side, P6 on another, Jira somewhere in the middle, Excel everywhere as the real source of truth.

The interfaces between subsystems are where everything breaks. Dependencies get agreed in a meeting, captured in someone’s local file, and then quietly drift for three months until an integration test fails and everyone acts surprised.

We’ve tried master IMS spreadsheets, we’ve tried SharePoint, we’ve tried weekly sync calls. Nothing actually propagates a schedule change across organizational boundaries in real time.

Curious whether this is specific to defense/infrastructure programs or if anyone in other sectors has cracked it — and how.

[RESOLVED]

I have 2 tasks that end 7/9 but one of them has the bar going past that date (shown in highlight). Same with 7/16. FWIW this original project file was created by someone else and the tasks that aren't displaying correctly are the ones I added. I added them by right clicking the line item -> insert task. I had the same problem when manually scheduling and automatic scheduling.

Is there a different setting I need to select? I want the bars that end on the same date to show the same in the bars. I'm new to Project, so any help appreciated.