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Why Excel Falls Short in Managing Complex Development Projects
The limits of Excel in resource and project management
Many companies still rely on Excel to plan projects and manage resources. This often works for simple tasks – but Excel quickly becomes a burden when it comes to complex projects.
Especially in mechanical engineering, the automotive industry or aerospace, teams regularly reach their limits with Excel: Too many projects, too many people involved, too many dependencies – and no central, dynamic view of everything.
Why Excel is not made for complex project management
1. Lack of real-time visibility of resources
- Resource bottlenecks as workload fluctuations are not captured immediately.
- Missed deadlines as project dependencies are difficult to track manually.
- Overworked employees, as adjustments take too long.
Example: A delay in the design phase of an automated packaging machine is not immediately reflected in all associated projects in Excel, which leads to chain reactions in production planning. The result: chaos in production planning.
2. No central data hub - silo structure leads to costly errors
Most companies use a variety of software solutions – SAP for finance, MS Project for time planning, JIRA for task management and HR tools for personnel planning. Excel cannot integrate these systems efficiently, which in practice leads to:
- Manual data transfers that cause errors.
- Fragmented information that makes cross-departmental collaboration difficult.
- Budget overruns, as financial transparency is limited to static tables.
Example: The purchasing department sees the available budget in SAP, while the R&D team tracks expenses in Excel. Without integration, unexpected budget overruns occur.
3. Scaling problems - Excel quickly reaches its limits
Excel has difficulty processing the amount of data points generated by parallel development projects. As the number of rows, columns and calculations increases, the following problems occur:
- Slow performance leading to crashes.
- Inefficient collaboration as multiple versions of the same file are in circulation.
- Impossibility of scenario planning as Excel has no integrated forecasting tools.
Example: A company wants to simulate the impact of a 10% reduction in staff on project deadlines. In Excel, this means manually adjusting hundreds of cells, whereas a modern system immediately generates a forecast.
What are better alternatives to Excel?
Today, there is a wide range of specialized tools for modern project management. Here is a brief overview of common categories and solutions:
1. Classic project management tools
These solutions are well suited for task planning and smaller teams:
- MS Project: strong in time management, but complex to use
- Smartsheet: similar to Excel, but with collaboration functions
- Asana, Trello, ClickUp: ideal for agile teams, but limited in resource and budget planning
2. Enterprise solutions with ERP connection
These tools are aimed at larger organizations:
- SAP PPM, Planisware, Clarity: Very powerful, but expensive and cumbersome to implement
- Primavera (Oracle): Popular in construction and infrastructure
3. Specialized tools for development teams
For companies that have to manage many parallel development projects:
- JIRA + plug-ins: good for IT, less suitable for classic industrial projects
- Aha!, Targetprocess: Combine roadmapping with PM functions
Engenion - a solution for highly complex project landscapes
Engenion is a modern, AI-supported project portfolio management tool, developed especially for companies with many parallel development projects. It combines classic PM functionalities with intelligent resource planning, real-time analyses and seamless integration into systems such as SAP, JIRA or SuccessFactors.
1. Real-time resource management
- Engenion connects directly to SAP, MS Project, JIRA and HR tools and provides a unified data source.
- Teams can see and adjust resource availability immediately.
- Automatic alerts prevent bottlenecks before they occur.
2. Scenario-based planning & budget transparency
- Engenion enables project managers to simulate different allocation strategies.
- Budget forecasts are updated dynamically as the project progresses.
- All projects, costs and resources are visible at all times, preventing unexpected budget overruns.
3. AI-supported decision-making
Engenion’s OAV (Object – Activity – Value) logic provides a structured method for prioritizing projects.
Predictive analytics optimize workloads based on historical data.
Intelligent resource suggestions prevent the overloading of important employees.
For example, instead of manually adjusting schedules in Excel, Engenion instantly suggests the optimal team assignments based on current project requirements.
Concrete customer benefits
| Challenges | Excel limits | Engenion solution |
|---|---|---|
| Management of 700 projects | No real-time updates | Live tracking & automated redistribution |
| Resource overload | Static assignments | AI-supported workforce balancing |
| Budget planning | Manual updates, prone to errors | Integrated, real-time cost monitoring |
| Scenario planning | Only possible with complicated formulas | Instant, AI-supported predictions |
| Integration with SAP & JIRA | Requires manual data imports | Seamless bidirectional data integration |
Conclusion: Anyone still planning with Excel today is risking the success of the project
Excel may be sufficient for small projects or teams. But with increasing complexity, tools are needed that think for themselves. Companies should look at alternatives – from traditional tools to specialized solutions such as Engenion.
Because anyone still planning with Excel today risks outdated data, inefficient processes and rising costs. If you want to plan smarter, you need a modern PPM tool.
Engenion is made for modern project teams who:
- want to make decisions faster,
- need to deploy resources in a targeted manner
- and want to keep projects on track.
For companies in industries such as mechanical engineering, automotive or aerospace, switching to a specialized PPM tool like Engenion is the only way to stay competitive, reduce delays and optimize budgets.
Ditch Excel – Plan Smarter. Not Harder.
Interested? Then get to know Engenion live and arrange a non-binding demo appointment!
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