"I am Spartacus" <spartacus@home.aafp.org> writes:
> okay, so the higher-ups have warned me that in an effort to better track our
> projects at the office, they are thinking of implementing Microsoft Project
> and requiring that we manage and update our programming projects through
> this software.

I would stop right here and try to figure out what's really going on.  What
does "track" mean?  The executives feel that the programming staff is goofing
off?

I've seen and worked on a few projects managed by Microsoft Project and
they're invariably train wrecks.  Not because Project is a bad piece of
software (though that may be), but rather because it is generally superfluous
and counterproductive paper-shuffling, as applied in reality.  That your
higher-ups doesn't understand this is a bad sign.

Ideally, find out what they *really* want and have someone skilled in software
development liaise with them to get it, if it's reasonable/possible.

As for tools, I'd start with a simple task list (with minimal due date and
priority information) and wait until you outgrow that.

Mike