I have experience working in the industry and my company uses Microsoft Project. Based on my past experiences, and in talking with others who work for my company, Microsoft Project is definitely one of the most popular softwares that is used in any industry where project management is needed (which is practically every industry). Microsoft Project, as it has been shown in some of this week’s lectures, has the ability to plan/manage milestones, tasks, resources, critical paths, slack, etc. One feature of the software that I have seen used at my company that I believe has a lot of benefit for bigger cross-functional projects is the ability to have separate individual Microsoft Project plans feed into one master plan. For example in the medical device industry there are multiple functions (R&D, QA, Regulatory, Marketing, Operations, etc.) working on the same project. Each function will have their own project plans if not multiple project plans, and the completion of each function’s task feed the overall “Master” project plan which dictates the completion of the entire project. Microsoft Project has the ability to have all of the cross-functional sub plans feed the master plan and update the master plan in real time. This is extremely beneficial in situations where all of the functions are not located in the same location / building. For the project I am currently working on the Operations Team is located in Spain, so this feature definitely helps the project leader manage the overall project timeline and progression with so many moving parts in different locations.