TEAM Zarate Tarrani Notes From the Field

SureTrak is a Sure Thing. In my 16 April entry in Postcards from the Revolution I briefly described the strengths of my favorite project management application, SureTrak Project Manager 3.0. In my opinion it's the best single-user PM software bar none.

SureTrak was designed with features that practicing project managers need, not glitzy fluff. Among its features are:

• Multiple calendars - you can have up to 31 base calanders per project, giving you absolute control that is not possible with other PM applications in this price range. This feature allows you to model different resource baselines, which is powerful. Also, unlike MS Project, SureTrak does not assume it knows better than you and change the project in strange and mysterious ways after you've made an adjustment. This alone makes SureTrak worth using.
• Earned Value project management is built in and works correctly. If you're a PMP you'll not only appreciate the solid implementation of earned value, but should also know that the earned value portions of the PMBOK were developed by members of the Primavera team--Quentin Fleming and Joel Koppelman--who also authored Earned Value Project Management, second edition (see my 18 March 2001 review on Amazon for details). This adds a high level of trust in the way SureTrak works.
• Project resource leveling works (it's somewhat challenged in MS Project), and the ability to automatically forecast resource shortages, trace PERT logic, and use precedence diagramming method if you so choose. It also gives you the ability to jump from WBS, resource, activity or PERT views with a mouse click shows your project from any perspective. Another nice feature is the cosmic view of the PERT view that shows the entire network in one window and details in another.
• The reports, profiling and analysis options are too many to list. Suffice it to say that if there is a view or report that isn't shipped with SureTrak (and I cannot think of any), you can easily create one.

Although it has serious features, it also has glitz: you can publish in HTML, add graphics to your schedule and customize bar legends. It also has team features, such as email management, the ability to manage multiple related projects simultaneously, and the ability to exchange files with MS Project via MPX files. Note that there are some losses when you exchange MPX files because SureTrak has features that Project doesn't have and they will not import correctly into MS Project.

If you make the leap from MS Project to SureTrak I strongly recommend investing in Planning Using Primavera SureTrak Project Manager Version 3.0 by Paul E. Harris, which will get you quickly started.