Project Knowledge

Microsoft Project Usage Survey 2009

We're pleased to announce the launch of the 2009 Microsoft Project Usage Survey.

This year as well as providing an analysis of the findings, we will be opening up the anonymised data set to the Microsoft Project community to carry out their own analysis. 

The survey consists of 15 questions and should take no more than 10 minutes to complete, so please take the survey now

Spreading the Word
Any web site, blog or twitter than sends more than 3 visitors who complete the survey will get a thank you in the reports appendix, along with a link to their web site.

Our surveytool SurveyGizmo will try and detect the site that contained the link to the survey, but to make things even easier, you can tell us using a link field as is explained below

The standard link for the survey is 
 http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/217312/79qaj

by adding ?link= to the end of it we can identify which site sent the visitor

For example the link for this blog would be
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/217312/79qaj?link=www.projectknowledge.net

for a twitter feed
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/217312/79qaj?link=www.twitter.com/charlesmeaden

If you are emailing the link, please add the site you would like to link back to

Two things to note

1. Please don't add http:// at the beginning 
2. Please don't put spaces in 

If both these cases we wont be able to track your visits and credit you accordingly

Finally, thank you for spreading the word

How Do You Use Microsoft Project?

Every two years, Project Learning runs an online survey to find out how and why people are using Microsoft Project.

This year we're making two important changes:

1. Once all personal identifiable data has been removed we're making the complete data set available to the Microsoft Project community once the survey is completed
2. We're inviting members of the Microsoft Project community to submit their own questions for inclusion into the survey

The survey will be launched in December, so we're looking for suitable questions now.

We're using Google Moderator to collect your questions and our short video with an audio commentary  below shows you how to add your own question.

To submit a question, you need a Google account such as a Gmail or GoogleMail account. While we understand that this may be inconvenient, it allows us to stop people spamming the system.  

Submit your questions now and vote on other suggested questions

Microsoft Project 2010 - The news is out!

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few months, you may not have known that Microsoft has finally taken the wraps of its forthcoming Project 2010 release.  Announced at the recent Worldwide Project Conference in Phoenix Arizona, Project 2010 is probably the most hotly-awaited release of MS Project in a very long time.  

Chris Capossela, a senior VP at Microsoft is quoted as announcing: “Microsoft Project 2010 is the most significant release of Microsoft Project in over a decade.  The fresh, simple and intuitive features of Microsoft Project 2010 will enable teams and organizations of all sizes to select and deliver the right projects on time and on budget.”  Chris is well-qualified to state this, as he led the Project team at Microsoft several years ago.

Having been held under non-disclosure for the last few months, I can now share information and observations of what's on offer.  So what are the new features that will have experienced users beating their way to an upgrade path, or ones that will entice people away from Excel into using Project 2010 to plan their projects?

First (and probably foremost) is the 'Fluent User Interface', commonly known as the Ribbon Bar.  I've been using Office 2007 since its release and, although the ribbon took some getting used to, it does streamline heaps of day-to-day operations.  Having put the Tech Preview of Project 2010 through its paces, I can confirm that ribbon-based navigation is slicker than its menu-based predecessor; especially for really useful features that in previous versions would have been hard to find (especially for less-familiar users).

Secondly, a whole host of new options are available that allow much more user control over how tasks and resources are scheduled.  Some planning purists may see this as heresy, as critical path analysis is not always in charge.  My take on this is that if Project 2010 can get more people planning tasks and work, this must be a good thing.  What's more, planning resource utilisation (which in previous versions could be tricky to say the least) is now seen as a fundamental part of the planning process.  Another good thing.  As these users become more familiar with planning techniques, they will start to use the more traditional planning methods that the product still supports.  Plus, they will want to tell their friends about what they've accomplished.  Another big plus.

Thirdly, collaboration is now much easier.  For organisations that have invested in Project Server, getting information to and from a project team is now much more seamless.  Plus, the ability to edit a plan (and even plan simple projects) on the web is a big leap into getting organisations planning and managing more effectively.  For organisations not yet ready for Project Server, but wanting to have two-way communication between project owners and team members, SharePoint-based collaboration provides the ability to schedule work to those performing it and catch actuals and work estimates at source.

Finally, managing portfolio-wide obectives has also taken a big leap forward. With the 2007 release, Portfolio Server and Project Server were two distinct applications, necessitating migration of data between the two systems.  Now, with everything integrated, making decisions about which projects to invest in, or how many team members need hiring to make projects and programmes a reality will be a much more effective and rewarding process.

Rather than bore you with static screenshots, why not click on the link below.  Here are three demos from Microsoft that introduce the new features and explain how these new features will work:

http://www.microsoft.com/project/2010/en/us/default.aspx

For the official word on Project 2010, here's the Microsoft press release:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/sep09/09-16Project2010PR.mspx

For the thoughts of the Microsoft team that developed Project 2010, take a look at this YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3JGvaJqYBo&feature=related

Lastly, this video shows how users and partners are Project 2010 ready:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oDiZ94LlD4

I can add my voice to this.  We are.

Posted by: Andy Jessop

And now for something completely different...

Don't Project Managers get a bad press as being rather studious, boring perhaps?  Here's a couple of links to prove that there is life beyond the Gantt chart and Earned Value graph.

Firstly, the mad German.  This chap, Bruna Kammerl is slipping and sliding down an alpine hillside as part of a Microsoft Project viral marketing campaign:

Secondly, a crazy Englishman called Geoff Reiss achieving the world speed record for Extreme Ironing:

 Geoff, by the way, is a Fellow of the Association of Project Management in the UK.  He's also an accomplished author, speaker and PM software designer.  Back in 1993 he introduced me to the world of Project Management and petrol (gasoline) heads.

Posted by: Andy Jessop

Tips and Tricks - Back To The Future

Did you know that some of our most downloaded tips and tricks postings are ones we made a few years ago?  Neither did we until we found this out from a recent check of website statistics.  Judging by the number of downloads we've received; these tips and tricks seem to be providing lots of people with valuable information.

All these tips come from Project Mentor, the smart way to learn Microsoft Project. Find out more, download an evaluation copy or see how cost effective it is.

Earned Value Analysis Overview
This document provides an introduction into how earned value calculations are made within Microsoft Project and how this valuable information can be interpreted.

Performing Critical Path Analysis
Very few Microsoft Project users understand how Microsoft Project calculates start and finish dates for a project schedule.  This document explains how these calculations are made and how to use the information provided.

Applying Earned Value Analysis
A detailed explanation showing how the Earned Value measurements generated by Microsoft Project can be used to determine the health and status of in-progress projects.

Displaying a Critical Path
This document shows you how you can get more from your Gantt chart view within Microsoft Project.  It explains how you can use Bar Styles and Task Drivers to get a fuller understanding of how your project's schedule is being driven and how to spot opportunities for speeding up or slowing down project tasks.

Changing Task Dependencies
Ever wondered how and why a project's schedule can change dramatically by altering task dependencies?  This document explains the changes that you can make to dependency relationships and how analyze their effect upon the scheduling of tasks and any free time they may possess.

If you want to see the complete list of postings, take a look at our newsletter archive page:

Posted by: Andy Jessop

A Million Reasons to Have Water - Project Update

Back in January, we explained about the UNICEF "Global Parent" initiative that we contribute to.  This initiative funds a project that aims to improve the day-to-day lives of thousands of people in Tanzania by providing ready access to that most precious commodity - water.

As with all projects, especially ones in the developing world; things don't always go exactly to plan.  We're delighted to report however that the project funding is fully in place and benefits from this project are now being realised.

To find out more about this project, and how lives are being transformed, follow this link:

http://www.unicef.org.nz/page/52/Tanzania.html

Due to the great response we've had from a Project Mentor user survey we conducted earlier this year, we've made even more contributions than planned to this very worthwhile cause.

Posted by: Andy Jessop

Microsoft Project Tips and Tricks #3

Over the last two blog posts, we published the first and second instalments in a series of high-impact Microsoft Project tips and tricks that we delivered in conjunction with Microsoft NZ earlier this year.  We've received really positive feedback as it appears that we cover many pain points that users experience in their day-to-day use of the tool.

As promised, we're now posting the third and final installment.  Following on from sets 1 and 2, this 3rd set of tips and tricks looks to close the loop; helping you to optimise, baseline, track and replan your projects and also get an understanding of how to manage programmes of projects that share common resource pools.

Download Part 3 as a PDF file

In these tips and tricks, we'll cover the following topics:

• Viewing, analysing and reporting (continued from part 2)

• Using visual reports

• Optimising people and plans 

• Resource conflicts: Finding where, how and why 

• What levelling can and can't do

• Progressing and replanning

• Tracking actuals and rescheduling work
  
• Finding slippages using multiple baselines

• Multiple project environments

• Share respurces across projects with Resource Pools 

• Link tasks between projects - with care 

Notes for Project Mentor users

Within the handout, you'll see links to various Lessons and References.  Just lookup a lesson or reference for step-by-step instructions or detailed explanations about each of the tips and tricks listed.

Posted by: Andy Jessop

Microsoft Project Tips and Tricks #2

Back in April, we published the first installment in a series of high-impact Microsoft Project tips and tricks that we delivered in conjunction with Microsoft NZ.  Since then, we've delivered these tips in other Microsoft venues in NZ.  We've received really positive feedback as it appears that we cover many pain points that users experience in their day-to-day use of the tool.

As promised, we're now posting the second installment.  Whereas the first set of tips focused on getting started with planning, these tips focus on making the project map to the real world by adding resources, constraints and reporting the project to its various stakeholders. 

In these tips and tricks, we'll cover the following topics:

• Reviewing the schedule (continued from part 1)

• Don’t just rely on the default Gantt chart view

• Assigning people and costs

• Get to grips with Effort-Driven tasks

• Use Task Types to accurately schedule work

• Managing external influences

• Choosing and using constraints

• Constraining resource supply

• Viewing, analysing and reporting

• Creating lookup tables for data analysis

• Creatively using filters and groups

Part 3 will be published in the next blog post.  Just click on this link to download the part 2 handout in PDF format.

Notes for Project Mentor users

Within the handout, you'll see links to various Lessons and References.  Just lookup a lesson or reference for step-by-step instructions or detailed explanations about each of the tips and tricks listed.

Posted by: Andy Jessop

Microsoft Project Tips and Tricks #1

In conjunction with Microsoft, we recently delivered a collection of high-impact tips and tricks to a wide and varied audience of Microsoft Project users in Wellington, NZ. 

We received some excellent feedback from the attendees, so we'd like to share these tips and tricks with you.  We've broken down the delegate handouts into three parts; following a typical project's lifecycle.

• Project preliminaries
  • Harmonise your times and dates
  • Categorise your costs
• Planning the work
  • Manage the project’s structure
  • Understand task durations
  • Link it all together
• Reviewing the schedule
  •  Use more than one table
  • Let Microsoft Project highlight schedule changes

Parts 2 and 3 will be published in successive blog posts.  Just click on this link to download the part 1 handout in PDF format.

Notes for Project Mentor users

Within the handout, you'll see links to various Lessons and References.  Just lookup a lesson or reference for step-by-step instructions or detailed explanations about each of the tips and tricks listed.

Posted by: Andy Jessop

Creating custom Groups in Microsoft Project

This quick question comes from Maurice Iyalla of Intelliglobal Resources based in Houston, TX, USA:

How do you "custom group" on Ms Project?

As Maurice will have probably noticed, the number of pre-defined Groups available within Microsoft Project is pretty limited. Grouping on Critical Tasks, Task Durations or Milestone Y/N is not that exciting. Creating your own Custom Group is a straightforward process, especially as Custom Groups can be saved and reused. If you are using custom fields that contain Lookup Tables, then grouping becomes even more powerful.

This is all you need to do to create a custom group and save it for reuse:

Preparation:

1. First and foremost, know the Field (Task or Resource) that you wish to group upon.

2. Ensure that you are in a Task-based view to group by task field, or a Resource-based view to group by resource field. Note that if you don’t want to see Gantt bars, the Task Sheet is an ideal view to use.

3. If you are looking to subtotal work or cost values by Group, apply the Work or Cost table (customized as appropriate).

To apply the grouping:

1. From the Project menu, select Group, and then select Customize Group By.

2. Within the Customize Group By dialog, select the field you wish to group against, together with an ascending or descending order. Optionally, you can select additional sub-groupings and format the font and cell appearance for each group.

3. Next, click on the SAVE button, giving your new group an appropriate name.

4. Click OK to then group your information.

To revert back to no grouping, just select No Group from the Group By drop down. To re-group, just choose your new group from the list.

Project Plan notes

Download Using_Groups

The attached Microsoft Project data file displays the Task Sheet view. The Work table has been added to this view, with a custom field "Responsibility" added. This field is a simple Lookup Table containing two values "Scott" and "Sue". It could of course contain many values or it could be an Outline Code containing hierarchical values.

As one of the key purposes of grouping is to subtotal work and cost values, or rollup custom field values, Gantt bars can detract from the message. That is why a Task Sheet has been chosen as it just contains words and numbers. If you wanted to group against resource attributes, just use the Resource Sheet view.

Notes for Project Mentor users

See "Reference F1.4 Intelligently using sort criteria" for a comprehensive explanation about this topic.

Posted by: Andy Jessop