There are the two features in Project 2010 that leap out at me as game changers: manual scheduling and the Team Planner.

As Bonnie Biafore explains, manual scheduling allows the user to create and schedule tasks and resources without the interference of Microsoft Project’s scheduling engine. This means that Project won’t be second guessing the starting and ending dates when you enter a task or move a task to a different date.

The Team Planner works with manual scheduling by allowing you to assign tasks to a resource in a timeline and relate that work to the work conducted by other resources. Work is assigned and move by clicking and dragging to the spot in the plan when you’d like it accomplished. There’s even a button that prevents overallocating resources!

The Team Planner is the resource driven tool for scheduling tasks in Project Professional (not Standard).

The Gantt Chart is the task-driven tool that allows the scheduling of resources.

Now you can schedule work YOUR way!