Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................. 1
About This Book.............................................................................................1
Foolish Assumptions.......................................................................................2
Icons Used in This Book..................................................................................2
Beyond the Book............................................................................................3
Where to Go from Here..................................................................................3
Part I: Getting Started with Project 2016........................................................ 5
Chapter 1: Project Management, Project 2016, and You ..................................7
Introducing Project Management....................................................................7
Defining project manager..............................................................................8
Identifying what a project manager does.......................................................9
Introducing Project 2016..............................................................................10
Getting to Know You....................................................................................11
Navigating file tabs and the Ribbon...............................................................14
Displaying more tools...................................................................................17
Tell Me What You Want to Do.......................................................................18
Chapter 2: Starting the Project .................................................................... 19
Creating the Project Charter..........................................................................20
Introducing the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)..........................................21
Organizing the Work.....................................................................................22
Starting the Project......................................................................................24
Entering project information.........................................................................24
Weighing manual scheduling versus automatic scheduling..............................26
Entering the WBS........................................................................................28
Entering tasks.............................................................................................30
Importing tasks from Outlook.......................................................................32
Promoting and demoting: The outdent‐and‐indent shuffle..............................35
Saving the Project.......................................................................................36
Chapter 3: Becoming a Task Master .............................................................39
Creating Summary Tasks and Subtasks.........................................................39
How many levels can you go?......................................................................41
The project summary task...........................................................................41
Moving Tasks Up, Down, and All Around......................................................43
Moving tasks with the drag‐and‐drop method..............................................44
Moving tasks with the cut‐and‐paste (or copy‐and‐paste) method.................44
Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Collapsing and Expanding the Task Outline..45
Showing Up Again and Again: Recurring Tasks.............................................48
Setting Milestones......................................................................................49
Deleting Tasks and Using Inactive Tasks.....................................................50
Making a Task Note...................................................................................51
Chapter 4: The Codependent Nature of Tasks ............................................53
How Tasks Become Dependent..................................................................54
Dependent tasks: Which comes first?.........................................................54
Dependency types....................................................................................55
Allowing for Murphy’s Law: Lag and lead time............................................57
Setting the Dependency Connection..........................................................58
Adding the dependency link......................................................................58
Extending your reach with external dependencies.......................................61
Words to the wise.....................................................................................61
Understanding that things change: Deleting dependencies..........................62
Chapter 5: Estimating Task Time ..............................................................65
You’re in It for the Duration......................................................................66
Tasks come in all flavors: Identifying task types.........................................66
Effort‐driven tasks: 1 + 1 = ½.................................................................67
Estimating Effort and Duration..................................................................70
Estimating techniques..............................................................................70
Setting the task duration.........................................................................72
Controlling Timing with Constraints..........................................................73
Understanding how constraints work........................................................73
Establishing constraints...........................................................................74
Setting a deadline...................................................................................75
Starting and Pausing Tasks......................................................................76
Entering the task’s start date....................................................................77
Taking a break: Splitting tasks..................................................................78
Chapter 6: Check Out This View! ..............................................................81
A Project with a View...............................................................................81
Navigating tabs and views........................................................................82
Scrolling around.......................................................................................84
Reaching a specific spot in your plan.........................................................85
More Detail about Views...........................................................................86
Home base: Gantt Chart view....................................................................86
Resourceful views: Resource Sheet and Team Planner................................88
Getting your timing down with the Timeline...............................................88
Going with the flow: Network Diagram view...............................................89
Calling up Calendar view...........................................................................90
Customizing Views....................................................................................91
Working with view panes..........................................................................92
Modifying Network Diagram view..............................................................96
Resetting the view..................................................................................100
Part II: Managing Resources................................................................... 101
Chapter 7: Creating Resources ............................................................... 103
Resources: People, Places, and Things......................................................103
Becoming Resource‐Full...........................................................................104
Understanding resources.........................................................................104
Resource types: Work, material, and cost..................................................105
How resources affect task timing..............................................................105
Estimating resource requirements.............................................................106
The Birth of a Resource...........................................................................107
Creating one resource at a time................................................................108
Identifying resources before you know their names....................................109
Many hands make light work.....................................................................110
Managing Resource Availability..................................................................111
Estimating and setting availability..............................................................111
When a resource comes and goes.............................................................112
Sharing Resources...................................................................................114
Skimming from resource pools..................................................................114
Importing resources from Outlook.............................................................116
Chapter 8: Working with Calendars . ........................................................119
Mastering Base, Project, Resource, and Task Calendars..............................119
How calendars work.................................................................................120
How one calendar relates to another.........................................................121
Scheduling with Calendar Options and Working Times................................122
Setting calendar options...........................................................................122
Setting exceptions to working times..........................................................124
Working with Task Calendars and Resource Calendars................................126
Setting resource calendars........................................................................126
Making the change to a resource’s calendar...............................................127
Creating a Custom Calendar Template......................................................129
Sharing Copies of Calendars.....................................................................130
Chapter 9: Assigning Resources . .............................................................133
Finding the Right Resource.......................................................................133
Needed: One good resource willing to work...............................................134
Custom fields: It’s a skill...........................................................................135
Making a Useful Assignation......................................................................136
Determining material and cost‐resource units.............................................137
Making assignments..................................................................................137
Shaping the contour that’s right for you......................................................140
Benefitting from a Helpful Planner..............................................................142
Chapter 10: Determining a Project’s Cost .................................................. 145
How Do Costs Accrue?...............................................................................146
Adding up the costs...................................................................................146
When will this hit the bottom line?..............................................................147
Specifying Cost Information in the Project...................................................148
You can’t avoid fixed costs.........................................................................148
Entering hourly, overtime, and cost‐per‐use rates........................................149
Assigning material resources.......................................................................151
How Your Settings Affect Your Costs............................................................152
Part III: Before You Baseline...................................................................... 155
Chapter 11: Fine‐Tuning Your Plan ............................................................ 157
Everything Filters to the Bottom Line...........................................................157
Setting predesigned filters..........................................................................158
Putting AutoFilter to work...........................................................................159
Creating do‐it‐yourself filters.......................................................................161
Gathering Information in Groups.................................................................163
Applying predefined groups........................................................................163
Devising your own groups..........................................................................164
Figuring Out What’s Driving the Project.......................................................166
Inspecting tasks........................................................................................166
Handling task warnings and suggestions.....................................................167
Chapter 12: Negotiating Project Constraints ...............................................171
It’s about Time.........................................................................................171
Applying contingency reserve....................................................................172
Completing a task in less time...................................................................174
Getting What You Want for Less................................................................176
The Resource Recourse.............................................................................176
Checking resource availability....................................................................177
Deleting or modifying a resource assignment..............................................178
Beating overallocations with quick‐and‐dirty rescheduling............................179
Finding help.............................................................................................179
Leveling resources....................................................................................180
Rescheduling the Project...........................................................................183
Chapter 13: Making the Project Look Good ...............................................185
Looking Good!.........................................................................................185
Formatting the Gantt Chart.......................................................................186
Formatting taskbars.................................................................................186
Zeroing in on critical issues......................................................................189
Restyling the Gantt chart.........................................................................190
Formatting Task Boxes............................................................................191
Adjusting the Layout...............................................................................192
Modifying Gridlines.................................................................................195
Recognizing When a Picture Can Say It All...............................................197
Creating a Custom Text Field..................................................................198
Chapter 14: It All Begins with a Baseline . ...............................................201
All about Baselines.................................................................................201
Saving a baseline...................................................................................202
Saving more than one baseline...............................................................203
Clearing and resetting a baseline............................................................205
In the Interim.......................................................................................206
Saving an interim plan...........................................................................207
Clearing and resetting an interim plan.....................................................208
Part IV: Staying on Track...................................................................... 211
Chapter 15: On the Right Track ............................................................ 213
Developing a Communications Management Plan.....................................213
Gathering data......................................................................................214
Applying a tracking method....................................................................215
Using the tracking tools..........................................................................216
For everything, there’s a view.................................................................217
Tracking Work for the Record.................................................................218
Specifying the status date.......................................................................219
Remaining on track................................................................................220
Determining the percent complete...........................................................220
Recording start and finish information......................................................222
Knowing what to do when John works three hours and Mary works ten......222
Uh‐oh — we’re in overtime......................................................................224
Specifying remaining durations for auto‐scheduled tasks............................225
Entering fixed‐cost updates......................................................................227
Moving a Task.........................................................................................228
Update Project: Sweeping Changes...........................................................229
Tracking Materials....................................................................................231
Tracking More Than One: Consolidated Projects.........................................232
Consolidating projects...............................................................................232
Updating consolidated projects..................................................................234
Changing linking settings..........................................................................235
Chapter 16: Project Views: Observing Progress ..........................................237
Seeing Where Tasks Stand........................................................................238
Baseline versus actual progress.................................................................238
Lines of progress......................................................................................239
Delving into the Detail..............................................................................242
Tracking Progress Using Earned Value Management...................................244
Calculating Behind the Scenes...................................................................246
Earned‐value options................................................................................247
An abundance of critical paths...................................................................248
Chapter 17: You’re Behind — Now What? ................................................. 251
Using Project with Risk and Issue Logs.......................................................251
Printing interim plans and baselines............................................................252
Printing task notes.....................................................................................253
What‐If Scenarios......................................................................................254
Sorting tasks.............................................................................................255
Filtering....................................................................................................256
Examining the critical path..........................................................................257
Using resource leveling (again)...................................................................259
Determining which factors are driving the timing of a task............................259
How Adding People or Time Affects the Project...........................................260
Hurrying up and making modifications........................................................260
Throwing people at the problem.................................................................261
Shifting dependencies and task timing........................................................262
When All Else Fails....................................................................................264
Taking the time you need..........................................................................264
Finding ways to cut corners.......................................................................265
Chapter 18: Spreading the News: Reporting ..............................................267
Generating Standard Reports....................................................................268
What’s available.......................................................................................268
Overviewing the dashboard reports............................................................269
Creating New Reports...............................................................................270
Gaining a new perspective on data with visual reports................................271
Creating a visual report............................................................................272
Fine‐Tuning a Report...............................................................................273
Dragging, dropping, and sizing..................................................................273
Looking good!...........................................................................................274
Spiffing Things Up.....................................................................................276
Call the Printer!.........................................................................................278
Working with Page Setup............................................................................279
Getting a preview.......................................................................................283
Printing, at last!..........................................................................................284
Working on the Timeline.............................................................................285
Adding tasks to the Timeline........................................................................285
Customizing the Timeline.............................................................................287
Copying the Timeline...................................................................................288
Enhanced Copy and Paste...........................................................................288
Chapter 19: Getting Better All the Time ...................................................... 289
Reviewing the Project.................................................................................289
Learning from your mistakes.......................................................................290
Debriefing the team....................................................................................291
Comparing Versions of a Project..................................................................292
Building on Success....................................................................................294
Creating a template....................................................................................294
Mastering the Organizer.............................................................................296
Part V: The Part of Tens............................................................................ 299
Chapter 20: Ten Golden Rules of Project Management ................................ 301
Roll with It.................................................................................................301
Put Your Ducks in a Row.............................................................................302
Expect the Unexpected...............................................................................303
Don’t Put Off until Tomorrow . . .................................................................303
Delegate, Delegate, Delegate......................................................................304
Document It...............................................................................................305
Keep the Team in the Loop..........................................................................305
Measure Success.........................................................................................306
Maintain a Flexible Strategy.........................................................................306
Learn from Your Mistakes............................................................................307
Chapter 21: Ten Cool Shortcuts in Project 2016 ........................................... 309
Task Information.........................................................................................309
Resource Information..................................................................................310
Frequently Used Functions...........................................................................310
Subtasks.....................................................................................................311
Indenting and Outdenting............................................................................312
Fill Down.....................................................................................................312
Navigation...................................................................................................312
Hours to Years.............................................................................................312
Timeline Shortcuts........................................................................................313
Quick Find....................................................................................................313
Appendix: Glossary.......................................................................................315
Index........................................................................................................... 325
Introduction
Over the years, project management has evolved from a discipline that began with index cards and yarn to one that now uses sophisticated analyses, techniques, projections, reporting, and time and money tracking. Project management software brings functionality to project management that makes planning and tracking the complex projects we undertake a little more manageable.
About This Book
Microsoft Office Project 2016, the most recent incarnation of the world’s most popular project management software, offers a tremendous wealth of functionality to users. In the beginning, however, as with most software, mastering it can seem like a daunting process. It helps to understand how Project’s features relate to what you do every day as a project manager.
In Project 2016 For Dummies, my goal is to help you explore Project 2016, providing information on relevant project management concepts while also offering specific procedures to build and track a Project schedule. More important, I offer advice on how to make all these features and procedures mesh with what you already know as a project manager to ease the transition to using Project 2016. Here are some broad topics that I help you explore in this book. You can
✓✓Start out in Project 2016 by entering tasks and dependencies, estimating durations, and working with views
✓✓Work with resources, calendars, and costs
✓✓Negotiate constraints, fine‐tune the schedule, and set a baseline
✓✓Gather data, analyze progress, take corrective actions, and report project status
Within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If you’re reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, simply key in the web address exactly as it’s noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist. If you’re reading this as an e‐book, you’ve got it easy — just click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.
Foolish Assumptions
I’ve made some assumptions about you, gentle reader. I figure that you’re computer‐literate and that you know how to use the mouse, the keyboard, software menus, and toolbars. I assume that you know how to use most common Windows functions (such as the Clipboard), as well as many basic software functions, such as selecting text and dragging and dropping items with the mouse.
I also assume that you have experience in managing projects. Whether you manage very large projects that are several years long or you have been a team lead on a project, the information in this book is more accessible if you have a background in project management.
I do not assume that you’ve used Project or any other project management software. If you’re new to Project, you’ll find what you need to get up to speed, including information on how Project works, finding your way around the Project interface, and building your first Project plan. If you’ve used an earlier version of Project, you’ll find out about Project 2016 and all the new features it provides.
