Project

The latest news is that the next version of Microsoft Office Project will be with Office 2010 which will be released, quite coincidentally, in the first half of 2010. According to Microsoft's Chris Capossela:

We’re announcing that Microsoft will begin releasing new versions of Office-related products this year. Exchange 2010 will be the first product in this lineup, entering beta for customers to download today. Exchange 2010 will become available in the second half of 2009. Office 2010 — including Office Web applications, SharePoint Server 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010 — will enter a technical preview in the third quarter of 2009 and will release to manufacturing in the first half of 2010.

The Technical Preview for Project Server is usually restricted to mostly larger customers and Partners, but I'm hopeful that desktop users get some sort of preview as well. I can't say much about it, but I am certain that Project 2010 introduces the most ambitious changes on the desktop since Project 98.

The big unknown with 2010 is how well the move to software as a service will go. Sharepoint 2010 is supposed to be able to be offered as a service, but does this mean that the applications which ride on top of it (Microsoft Project for example) are going to be hosted by Microsoft as well? Are enough people willing to buy it?

Project's prospects are also tied up in the latest Office Service Pack. Word on the streets and the blogs is that Office 2007 Service Pack 2 will be out on April 28th. I'm trying to remember all of what is in SP2, but I am drawing a blank. No doubt some of the things which are still broken will be fixed and some of the things which are still working will be broken... (if history is any guide). Always test before rolling out!.

Update: This post has some vague details to refresh my memory. They are getting better at Service Packs I think...

The scheduling engine, Active Cache, and Gantt charts all have improvements. There is additional reliability with earlier versions of the .mpp format.