Muir N.C. Project 2010 For Dummies

Willey Publishing, Inc., 2010. - 432 p.A friendly reference guide to MS Project, the leading enterprise project management software .As project management software, MS Project allows you to oversee your business activities effectively. You can manage resources, share project info, perform modeling and scenario analysis, and standardize reporting processes. This easy-to-understand guide is completely updated to cover the latest changes and newest enhancements to Project 2010 and shows you how to get Project 2010 to work for you.After an introduction to basic project management concepts, you’ll discover the mechanics of using Project software to create and manage projects. Other topics covered include working with calendars, using and sharing resources, budgeting, formatting taskbars, gathering and tracking data, working with reports, and creating templates.
MS Project allows you to manage resources, share project information, perform scenario analysis, and standardize reporting processes
Offers completely updated coverage of the new Project 2010, which is expected to implement the Office Ribbon
Reviews formatting taskbars, gathering and tracking data, and working with reports
Addresses using and sharing resources, creating templates, and managing projectsLet the friendly For Dummies writing style guide you through maximizing the new features of Project 2010.About This BookFoolish Assumptions.
Conventions Used in This Book.
How This Book Is Organized.
Part I: Setting the Stage for Project.
Part II: People Who Need People.
Part III: Well, It Looks Good on Paper.
Part IV: Avoiding Disaster: Staying on Track.
Part V: Working with Enterprise Projects.
Part VI: The Part of Tens.
What You’re Not to Read.
Icons Used in This Book.
Where to Go from Here.Setting the Stage for Project.
Chapter 1: Project Management: What It Is, and Why You Should Care.
The ABCs of Project Management.
The three Ts: Tasks, timing, and dependencies (well, two Ts and a D).
Lining up your resources.
Spreading the news.
Planning to keep things on track.
The Role of the Project Manager.
What exactly does a project manager do?
Understanding the dreaded triple constraint.
Applying tried-and-true methodologies.
From To-Do List to Hard Drive.
Getting up to speed with Project.
Collaborating with your project team online.
Getting Started.
Starting from scratch.
Starting with templates.
Saving a Project for Posterity.
Getting Help from Project.The Best-Laid Plans.
Project 2010’s New Interface.
Using the Ribbon.
The Backstage view.
Finding commonly used commands.
Navigating Project.
Changing views.
Scrolling around.
Getting to a specific spot in your plan.
A Project with a View.
Home base: Gantt Chart view.
The resourceful views: Resource Sheet and Team Planner.
Getting your timing down with the Timeline.
Going with the flow: Network Diagram view.
Calling up Calendar view.
Customizing Views.
Working with view panes.
Modifying the contents of the Network Diagram boxes.
Resetting the view.Mark It on Your Calendar.
Mastering Base, Project, Resource, and Task Calendars.
How calendars work.
How one calendar relates to another.
Calendar Options and Working Times.
Setting calendar options.
Setting exceptions to working times.
Setting the Project Calendar and Other Essential Project Information.
Modifying Task Calendars.
Making Resource Calendar Settings.
Which resources get calendars?
Making the change to a resource’s calendar.
Do It Yourself: Creating a Custom Calendar Template.
Sharing Copies of Calendars.A Tisket, a Task Kit.
User-Controlled Scheduling: Manual versus Automatic.
Tackling Your First Task.
Identifying what makes up a task.
Creating a task.
You’re in It for the Duration.
Tasks come in all flavors: Identifying task types.
Setting task duration.
Setting tasks with no duration: Milestones.
Showing up again and again: Recurring tasks.
Starting and Pausing Tasks.
Entering the task start date.
Taking a break: Splitting tasks.
1 + 1 = 1/2: Effort-Driven Tasks.
Controlling Timing with Constraints.
Understanding how constraints work.
Establishing constraints.
Setting a deadline.
Deleting Tasks and Using Inactive Tasks.
Making a Task Note.
Saving Your Project — and Your Tasks.
Task Information in Action: Planning Your Next Space Launch.Getting Your Outline in Line.
Summary Tasks and Subtasks.
Project phases.
How many levels can you go?
The One-and-Only Project Summary Task.
Structuring the Project’s Outline.
Everything but the kitchen sink: What to include.
Building the outline.
Moving Tasks All around Your Outline.
The outdent-and-indent shuffle.
Moving tasks up and down.
Using a Manually Scheduled Summary Task to Plan from the Top Down.
Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Collapsing and Expanding Tasks.
Cracking the WBS Code.
Displaying a WBS code.
Customizing the code.Timing Is Everything.
How Tasks Become Codependent.
Dependent tasks: Which comes 㞚 rst?
Dependency types.
Allowing for Murphy’s Law: Lag and lead time.
Making the Dependency Connection.
Adding the missing (dependency) link.
Extending your reach with external dependencies.
Understanding that things change: Deleting dependencies.
Taking a Look at the Task Dependencies.People Who Need People.
Optimizing Your Resources.
Resources: People, Places, and Things.
Becoming Resource-Full.
Understanding resources.
Resource types: Work, material, and cost.
How resources affect task timing.
Estimating resource requirements.
Committed versus proposed resources.
The Birth of a Resource.
Creating one at a time.
Identifying resources before you know their names.
Throwing more warm bodies at a task.
Sharing Resources.
In the swim: Drawing on resource pools.
Importing resources from Outlook.
Say, When Do These Guys Work?
Now That I’ve Got ’Em, How Do I Manage ’Em?
Acquiring the right resources.
Balancing workload.
Managing conflict gracefully.What’s All This Gonna Cost?
Mary, Mary, How Do Your Costs Accrue?
It all adds up.
When will this hit the bottom line?
It All Adds Up: Specifying Cost Info in Your Project.
You can’t avoid fixed costs.
When resources get paid per hour and tack on fees.
If you use ten gallons at $2 per gallon.
Making allowances for overtime.
It’s an Availability Thing.
Setting availability.
When a resource comes and goes.
Adding It Up: How Your Settings Affect Your Budget.
Creating a Custom Text Field.
Working with Budgets.Assigning Resources to Get Things Done.
You’d Be Surprised What Assignments Can Do to Your Timing.
Pinning down your type.
When effort is in the driver’s seat.
Suppose Task calendars prevail?
Finding the Right Resource.
Needed: One good resource willing to work.
Custom fields: It’s a skill.
A Useful Assignation.
Determining work material and cost-resource assignment units.
Making your assignments.
Getting the contour that’s right for you.
A Helpful Planner.
Communicating an Assignment to Your Team.
It’s in the e-mail.
Report your findings.Well, It Looks Good on Paper.
Fine-Tuning Your Plan.
Everything Filters to the Bottom Line.
Predesigned filters.
Putting AutoFilter to work.
Do-it-yourself filters.
Gathering Info in Groups.
Applying predefined groups.
Devising your own groups.
Figuring Out What’s Driving Your Project.
Inspecting tasks.
Handling task warnings and suggestions.
Undo, undo, undo.
Highlighting changes.
It’s About Time.
Giving yourself some slack.
Doing it in less time.
Getting It for Less.
Your Resource Recourse.
Checking resource availability.
Deleting or modifying a resource assignment.
Quick and dirty rescheduling to beat overallocations.
Getting some help.
Getting your resources level.
Rescheduling the Project.
Mixing Solutions Up.Making Your Project Look Good.
Putting Your Best Foot Forward.
Getting to the Critical Stuff.
Formatting Task Bars.
Restyling Your Gantt Chart.
Formatting Task Boxes.
Adjusting the Layout.
Modifying Gridlines.
When a Picture Can Say It All.Avoiding Disaster: Staying on Track.
It All Begins with a Baseline.
All about Baselines.
What does a baseline look like?
How do I save a baseline?
What if I want more than one baseline?
How do I clear and reset a baseline?
In the Interim.
Saving an interim plan.
Clearing and resetting a plan.On the Right Track.
Gathering Your Data.
A method to your tracking madness.
Going door to door.
Where Does All This Information Go?
Doing things with the tracking tools.
For everything there is a view.
Tracking Your Work for the Record.
Progress as of when?
It’s totally on track.
Percentage complete: How to tell?
When did you start? When did you stnetnoC fo elbaT xiiiA Project with a View: Observing Progress.
Seeing Where Tasks Stand.
Getting an indication.
Lines of progress.
When worlds collide: Baseline versus actual.
Studying by the Numbers.
Acronym Soup: BCWP, ACWP, EAC, and CV.
Calculations behind the Scenes.
Going automatic or manual.
Earned-value options.
How many critical paths are enough?You’re Behind: Now What?
Justifying Yourself: Notes, Baselines, and Interim Plans.
What If?
Sorting things out.
Filtering.
Examining the critical path.
Use resource leveling one more time.
What’s driving the timing of this task?
How Adding People or Time Affects Your Project.
Hurry up!
Throwing people at the problem.
Shifting dependencies and task timing.
When All Else Fails.
All the time in the world.
And now for something completely different.
What Does Project Have to Say about This?Spreading the News: Reporting.
Off the Rack: Standard Reports.
What’s available.
Going with the standard.
A standard report, with a twist.
Crosstabs: A different animal.
A Custom Job.
Get a New Perspective on Data with Visual Reports.
Getting an overview of what’s available.
Creating a Visual Report.
SpifvixProject 2010 For Dummies
Call the Printer!
Working with Page Setup.
Get a preview.
So Let’s Print!
A Project Overview: The Timeline.
Hiding and redisplaying the Timeline.
Adding tasks.
Copying the Timeline.
Dressing Up Your Input and Output with Enhanced Copy and Paste.Getting Better All the Time.
Learning from Your Mistakes.
It was only an estimate.
Debrief your team.
Comparing Versions of a Project.
Building on Your Success.
Create a template.
Master the Organizer.
Handy little timesavers: Macros.Working with Enterprise Projects.
Project Web App for the Project Manager.
Figuring Out Whether Project Server Is for You.
Getting a Handle on What You Can Do with Project Server and Project Web App.
Planning to Use Project Server and Project Web App.
Get a team together.
Gather information.
Standardize processes.
Coordinate with IT.
Planning for problems.
Looking Over the Project Web App Tools.
Getting set up.
Make assignments.
Track your progress.
Figure out what’s going on with status reports.
Working with the Gang Online.
Check resource availability and assignments and add resources.
Request a status report.
Share documents.Project Web App for the Team Member.
Seeing Project Web App from the User’s Perspective.
Viewing Your Assignments.
Reporting Work Completed.
Viewing Project Information.
Sending Task Work Updates.
Sending Status Reports.The Part of Tens.
Ten Golden Rules of Project Management.
Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Manage.
Get Your Ducks in a Row.
Plan for Murphy.
Don’t Put Off until Tomorrow.
Delegate, Delegate, Delegate!
CYA (Document!).
Keep Your Team in the Loop.
Measure Success.
Have a Flexible Strategy.
Learn from Your Mistakes.Ten Project Management Software Products to Explore.
DecisionEdge Chart and Report Products Enhance
Project’s Own Tools.
Cobra Squeezes the Most from Cost/Earned Value.
MindManuals Helps You Visualize Project Information.
Innate Integrates Projects Large and Small.
PlanView Models Your Workforce Capacity.
Tenrox Streamlines Business Processes.
Project KickStart Gives Your Project a Head Start.
Project Manager’s Assistant Organizes Drawings for Construction Projects.
TeamTrack Solves Mission-Critical Issues.
EPK-Suite Eases Portfolio Mangement Chores.