How to keep Microsoft Project from being the Project

1
How to keep Microsoft Project from being the
Project

• 1/8/2003

2
Who Am I?

• Steve Reynolds
• 10 years of Management Consulting experience
• Over a variety of industries
• Big range of project sizes
• Achieving solid business results

3
Agenda

• Initiate
• Begin with the End in Mind
• Define Your Basic Approach to Project Management
• Plan
• Work Breakdown Structure
• Task Types
• Control
• Milestone Usage
• Manage Actuals

4
Initiate

• Begin with the End in Mind
• Define Your Basic Approach to Project Management

5
Begin with the End in Mind
Initiate

• One month after go-live
• Empty pizza boxes thrown out and pop cans
  recycled
• Executive Sponsors are singing the praises of the
  project
• End-Users are embracing the new product
• Development Team proud of their successes
• PM ready to do it all over again, with only
  slight modifications
• Business processes documented and improved
  knowledge was shared
• Problem solved, opportunity seized, costs saved

6
Basic Approach
Initiate

• Theres more to Project Management than MS
  Project
• Primary focus should be
• Leadership
• Managing Change

7
Plan

• The Work Breakdown Structure
• Task Types

8
Crafting the Plan
Plan

• Quickly Set up your Workplan
• Write down all your tasks and deliverables

• Follow the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• Ultimate product
• General process
• Major deliverables

Super Quick at first, but you will forget Tasks
and deliverables. Final result was either
incomplete or took longer
Took a little longer to plan. However, you are
more certain to have a Complete product.
Bad Process
Good Process
9
Creating the Work Breakdown Structure
Plan
Budget Planning System
1. Ultimate Product
Business Requirements
Design
Build
Project Management
2. General Process

• Process
• Software
• Technology
• People

• Process
• Software
• Technology
• People

• Process
• Software
• Technology
• People

• Initiate
• Plan
• Control
• Execute
• Close

3. Major Deliverables
10
Now What
Plan

• Agreed on the Process
• Understand the High Level Deliverables
• Record all the Tasks
• Whats Next?

11
Task Type
Plan

• Taking control with Task Type
• Understanding Projects default setting
• Setting the right Task Type for your activity
• Knowing when to adjust the Task Type
• Adding resources

12
Work, Duration, and Units
Plan

• Understanding the default settings
• The Work Formula Work Duration x Units
• The Default Setting Fixed Units
• Edit the Work and Duration is Recalculated
• Edit the Duration and the Work is Recalculated
• Edit the Units and the Duration is Recalculated

13
Unexpected Results
Plan

• May expect Project to calculate Resource Units
• Project evaluates the Work Formula and keeps the
  variable named in the Task Type constant
• Units default 100

14
So, How do you deal with this?
Plan

• Before you change an assignment ask yourself this
  question
• I'm entering a new value for work (or units or
  duration), so what do I want Project to change to
  accommodate this new value?
• Decide which field you DON'T want changed and
  make it fixed by changing the selection in the
  Task Type field
• After the calculation is complete you can switch
  the Task Type back to its original value if you
  want to

15
Sounds easy, but
Plan

• Try to add a resource
• Usually quadruples the work
• A second resource may be added to cut the work in
  half or they may be added to perform additional
  work
• A second programmer working on the same code may
  cut development time
• A DBA may add work if they are performing
  distinct tasks
• Use the Effort Driven field to let Project keep
  the total work constant (and therefore shorten
  the duration)

16
Assigning Resources
Plan

• You can double-click (or right-click) on a task
  and use the Resources tab of the Task Information
  dialog box
• You can use the Assign Resources dialog box
  (Toolsgt ResourcesgtAssign Resources)
• The most effective way to assign resources to
  tasks is using the split screen method.
• When you split the Gantt Chart view, the top of
  the screen displays the Gantt Chart view and
  bottom of the screen displays the Task Form view.

17
Control

• Milestone Usage
• Actuals Tracked

18
Milestone Usage
Control

• How to report Status to Stakeholders?
• To external parties Project Website
• Show immediate results Status Meetings
• Focus effort on a long-term project Steering
  Committee Meetings
• How do milestones relate to deliverables?

19
Actuals Tracked
Control

• Two Detailed Methods
• Resource Usage Editing actual hours spent by
  team members
• Task Usage Editing actual hours viewed by the
  outline
• The Plan changes to equal the Actuals
• The Quicker Method
• Task Sheet Tracking
• Tracks Actual Start, Actual Finish, and Percent
  Complete

20
Recap

• Create a standard but unique Work Breakdown
  Structure
• Use a variety of task types and define your
  default
• Use milestones for a variety of different
  purposes
• Track actuals just a little easier

21
QA

• Any questions now?
• Ill be staying after

22
(No Transcript)
23
Project Approach
Initiate

• Classic Waterfall

Define
Design
Develop
Deploy
One Year
Two Years
Two Years

• XP Iterative series