Microsoft Project For Dummies

Introduction 1 About This Book 1 What’s Not in This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 4 Part 1: Getting Started with Project 5 Chapter 1: Project Management, MS Project, and You 7 Project Management Evolution 8 What’s in a Name: Projects, Project Management, and Project Managers 9 Project managers and Scrum masters 10 The role of the project manager 11 The role of the Scrum master 12 Introducing Microsoft Project 13 Getting to Know You 14 Navigating Ribbon tabs and the Ribbon 17 Displaying more tools 20 Tell Me What You Want to Do 22 Chapter 2: Starting the Project 23 Creating the Project Charter 24 Introducing the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) 26 Organizing the Work 27 Starting the Project 28 Entering project information 29 Entering the WBS 31 Indenting and outdenting (a.k.a promoting and demoting) 32 Entering tasks 33 Weighing manual scheduling versus automatic scheduling 35 Inserting one project into another 37 Inserting hyperlinks 38 Chapter 3: Becoming a Task Master 41 Creating Summary Tasks and Subtasks 41 How many levels can you go? 43 The project summary task 43 Moving Tasks Up, Down, and All Around 45 Moving tasks with the drag-and-drop method 45 Moving tasks with the cut-and-paste method 46 Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Collapsing and Expanding the Task Outline 47 Showing Up Again and Again: Recurring Tasks 48 Setting Milestones 50 Deleting Tasks and Using Inactive Tasks 51 Making a Task Note 52 Chapter 4: The Codependent Nature of Tasks 55 How Tasks Become Dependent 56 Dependent tasks: Which comes first? 56 Dependency types 57 Allowing for Murphy’s Law: Lag and lead time 59 Setting the Dependency Connection 60 Adding the dependency link 60 Words to the wise 62 Understanding that things change: Deleting dependencies 64 Chapter 5: Estimating Task Time 67 You’re in It for the Duration 68 Tasks come in all flavors: Identifying task types 68 Effort-driven tasks: 1 + 1 = ½ 71 Estimating Effort and Duration 72 Estimating techniques 72 Setting the task duration 74 Controlling Timing with Constraints 76 Understanding how constraints work 76 Establishing constraints 76 Setting a deadline 78 Starting and Pausing Tasks 79 Entering the task’s start date 80 Taking a break: Splitting tasks 81 Chapter 6: Check Out This View! 83 A Project with a View 83 Navigating tabs and views 84 Scrolling around 86 Reaching a specific spot in your plan 87 More Detail about Views 88 Home base: Gantt Chart view 88 Resourceful views: Resource Sheet and Team Planner 89 Getting your timing down with the Timeline 90 Going with the flow: Network Diagram view 91 Calling up Calendar view 91 Customizing Views 92 Working with view panes 93 Modifying Network Diagram view 98 Resetting the view 100 Part 2: Managing Resources 103 Chapter 7: Creating Resources 105 Resources: People, Places, and Things 105 Becoming Resource-Full 106 Understanding resources 106 Resource types: Work, material, and cost 107 How resources affect task timing 108 Estimating resource requirements 109 The Birth of a Resource 110 Creating one resource at a time 110 Identifying resources before you know their names 112 Many hands make light work 113 Managing Resource Availability 113 Estimating and setting availability 114 When a resource comes and goes 115 Sharing Resources 116 Skimming from resource pools 116 Importing resources from Outlook 119 Chapter 8: Working with Calendars 121 Mastering Base, Project, Resource, and Task Calendars 122 Setting the base calendar for a project 122 Understanding the four calendar types 122 How calendars work 123 How one calendar relates to another 123 Scheduling with Calendar Options and Working Times 124 Setting calendar options 125 Setting exceptions to working times 126 Working with Task Calendars and Resource Calendars 128 Setting resource calendars 129 Making a change to a resource’s calendar 130 Creating a Custom Calendar Template 132 Sharing Copies of Calendars 134 Chapter 9: Assigning Resources 137 Finding the Right Resource 137 Needed: One good resource willing to work 138 Custom fields: It’s a skill 139 Making a Useful Assignation 140 Determining material and cost-resource units 140 Making assignments 141 Shaping the contour that’s right for you 145 Benefitting from a Helpful Planner 147 Chapter 10: Determining a Project’s Cost 149 How Do Costs Accrue? 150 Adding up the costs 150 When will these costs hit the bottom line? 151 Specifying Cost Information in the Project 152 You can’t avoid fixed costs 153 Entering hourly, overtime, and cost-per-use rates 154 Assigning material resources 156 Part 3: Before You Baseline 159 Chapter 11: Fine-Tuning Your Plan 161 Everything Filters to the Bottom Line 161 Setting predesigned filters 162 Putting AutoFilter to work 163 Creating do-it-yourself filters 166 Gathering Information in Groups 167 Applying predefined groups 169 Devising your own groups 169 Figuring Out What’s Driving the Project 171 Inspecting tasks 172 Handling task warnings, suggestions, and problems 173 Chapter 12: Negotiating Project Constraints 175 It’s about Time 176 Applying contingency reserve 176 Completing a task in less time 177 Getting What You Want for Less 180 The Resource Recourse 181 Checking resource availability 181 Deleting or modifying a resource assignment 183 Beating overallocations with quick-and-dirty rescheduling 184 Finding help 184 Leveling resources 185 Rescheduling the Project 188 Chapter 13: Making the Project Look Good 189 Looking Good! 190 Formatting the Gantt Chart 190 Formatting taskbars 190 Zeroing in on critical issues 194 Restyling the Gantt chart 194 Formatting Network Diagram Boxes 195 Adjusting the Layout 197 Modifying Gridlines 199 Recognizing When a Picture Can Say It All 201 Creating a Custom Text Field 202 Chapter 14: It All Begins with a Baseline 207 All about Baselines 208 Saving a baseline 208 Saving more than one baseline 210 Clearing and resetting a baseline 211 In the Interim 212 Saving an interim plan 213 Clearing and resetting an interim plan 214 Part 4: Staying on Track 217 Chapter 15: On the Right Track 219 Tracking Views 220 Setting the status date 220 Tracking status with the Task sheet 221 Using the Tracking table 221 Tracking buttons 222 Determining the percent complete 223 Tracking status with Task Usage view 224 Tracking status with Resource Usage view 224 Uh-oh — you’re in overtime 225 Specifying remaining durations for auto-scheduled tasks 226 Entering fixed-cost updates 227 Moving a Task 228 Update Project: Sweeping Changes 230 Tracking Materials 232 Tracking More than One Project 233 Chapter 16: Project Views: Observing Progress 235 Seeing Where Tasks Stand 236 Baseline versus actual progress 236 Lines of progress 236 Delving into the Detail 240 Tracking Progress Using Earned Value Management 242 Viewing the Earned Value table 244 Earned value options 244 Calculating behind the Scenes 246 An abundance of critical paths 246 Chapter 17: You’re Behind — Now What? 249 Using Project with Risk and Issue Logs 249 Documenting issues 250 Printing interim plans and baselines 250 What-If Scenarios 251 Sorting tasks 252 Filtering 253 Examining the critical path 254 Using resource leveling (again) 255 Determining which factors are driving the timing of a task 256 How Adding People or Time Affects the Project 257 Hurrying up and making modifications 257 Throwing resources at the problem 258 Shifting dependencies and task timing 259 When All Else Fails 261 Taking the time you need 261 Finding ways to cut corners 262 Chapter 18: Spreading the News: Reporting 265 Generating Standard Reports 266 What’s available on the Report tab 266 Dashboard reports 267 Creating New Reports 268 Gaining a new perspective on data with visual reports 270 Creating a visual report 270 Fine-Tuning a Report 271 Dragging, dropping, and sizing 272 Looking good! 273 Spiffing Things Up 274 Calling the Printer! 276 Working with Page Setup 277 Getting a preview 279 Finalizing your print options 280 Working on the Timeline 281 Adding tasks to the Timeline 281 Customizing the Timeline 283 Copying the Timeline 283 Part 5: Working with Sprints Projects 285 Chapter 19: Setting Up a Sprints Project 287 Creating a Sprints Project 287 Enjoying a Whole New View 290 The Task Board and Task Board sheet 291 The Sprint Planning Board and Sprint Planning sheet 292 The Current Sprint Board and Current Sprint sheet 293 The Backlog Board and the Backlog sheet 293 Adding Information to Tasks 294 Prioritizing Tasks 296 Inserting a Sprints Project into a Plan-Driven Project 296 Chapter 20: Tracking a Sprints Project 299 Viewing Your Sprints Project Data 299 Using filters to focus 300 Using tables to arrange data 300 Being a groupie 302 Sorting tasks 302 Creating Sprints Reports 303 Chapter 21: Getting Better All the Time 307 Reviewing the Project 308 Learning from your mistakes 308 Fine-tuning communication 309 Comparing Versions of a Project 310 Building on Success 312 Creating a template 312 Mastering the Organizer 314 Part 6: The Part of Tens 317 Chapter 22: Ten Golden Rules of Project Management 319 Roll with It 319 Put Your Ducks in a Row 320 Expect the Unexpected 321 Don’t Put Off until Tomorrow 322 Delegate, Delegate, Delegate 322 Document It 323 Keep the Team in the Loop 323 Measure Success 324 Maintain a Flexible Strategy 325 Learn from Your Mistakes 325 Chapter 23: Ten Cool Shortcuts in Project 327 Task Information 327 Resource Information 328 Frequently Used Functions 329 Subtasks 330 Quick Selections 330 Fill Down 331 Navigation 331 Hours to Years 331 Timeline Shortcuts 331 Quick Undo 332 Glossary 333 Index 341