Microsoft Project 2007: The Missing Manual (Paperback)

Description

Schedules, budgets, communications, resources. Projects big and small include them all, and Microsoft Project 2007 can help you control these variables -- not be controlled by them. But Project is complex software, and learning it is, well, a project in itself. Get up to speed fast with Microsoft Project 2007: The Missing Manual. Written by project management expert Bonnie Biafore, this book teaches you how to do everything from setting budgets and tracking schedules to testing scenarios and recognizing trouble spots before your project breaks down.

Find out what's new in Project 2007 from previous versions, and get help choosing the right edition, whether it's Project Standard, Project Professional, or Enterprise Project Management Solution. With Microsoft Project 2007: The Missing Manual, you get more than a simple software how-to. You also get a rundown on project management basics and plenty of solid advice on how to use Project to:

• Define your project and plan your approach
• Estimate your project, set up a budget, define tasks, and break the work into manageable chunks
• Create a schedule, define the sequence of work, and learn the right way to use date constraints and deadlines
• Build a project team and assign resources to tasks: "who does what"
• Refine the project to satisfy objectives by building reality into the schedule, and learn to keep project costs under control
• Track progress and communicate with team members via reports, information sharing, and meetings that work
• Close out your project and take away valuable lessons for the future

Microsoft Project 2007 is the flagship of all project management programs, and this Missing Manual is the book that should have been in the box. No project manager should be without it.

 

The Missing Credits

Introduction

Part One: Project Management: The Missing Manual

Chapter 1. Projects: In the Beginning

     What's So Special About Projects?

     What Is Project Management?

     Why Manage Projects?

     Picking the Right Projects

               The Importance of Business Objectives

               Common Project Selection Criteria

     Gaining Support for a Project

               Identify Who Has a Stake in the Project

               Documenting Project Stakeholders

     Publicizing a Project and Its Manager

Chapter 2. Planning a Project

     Project Planning in a Nutshell

     Defining the Project

               What's the Problem?

               Giving Meaning to a Project

               How Are You Going to Solve the Problem?

               Defining Project Objectives

               Identifying Project Results

               Gauging Success

               Defining Project Boundaries

               Documenting Project Assumptions

     Documenting How You'll Run the Project

     Laying Out Project Processes

               Communicating

               Managing Change

               Managing Quality

               Managing Risk

Chapter 3. Taking Microsoft Project for a Test Drive

     Creating a Project Schedule

               What Work Must Be Done?

               What Results Must Your Project Produce-and When?

               How Does Each Task Depend on Other Tasks?

               Who's Going to Do the Work?

               How Long Will All These Tasks Take?

     Saving Your Project

Chapter 4. Breaking Work into Task-Sized Chunks

     Identifying the Work to Be Done

               Breaking Down Work

               When Is Enough Enough?

     Building a WBS in Microsoft Project

               Creating a WBS in Project from the Top Down

               Creating and Modifying a WBS on the Fly

     Setting Up Customized WBS Codes

     Documenting a WBS in Another Program

     Importing a WBS into Project

     Documenting Work Package Details

               Building Work Package Documents in Word

               Linking Work Packages to the Project Schedule

Chapter 5. Estimating Work Time

     Understanding Work and Duration

     Getting Good Estimates

               How Accurate Do You Need to Be?

               Ways to Estimate Work

               Getting Estimates from the Right People

               Don't Ask for Only One Number

               Don't Pad Estimates

               Give Feedback on Estimates

     Getting Estimates into Project

               Exporting Work Packages to Excel

               Importing Estimates into Project

Chapter 6. Setting Up a Project Schedule

     Creating a New Project File

               Creating a Blank Project File

               Using a Template to Create a Project File

               Fast Access to User Templates

     Saving a New Project

               Saving Projects to Other File Formats

               Protecting Your Project Files

     Setting Up Project Options

               Setting the Project Start Date

               Setting the Standard Workdays

     Adding Tasks to a Project

               Adding Tasks

               Creating Milestones

               Creating Repeating Tasks

     Inserting, Moving, and Deleting Tasks

               Inserting Tasks

               Moving Tasks

               Copying Tasks

               Deleting Tasks

               Modifying a Task's Level in the Outline

Chapter 7. Making a Schedule That's Easy to Maintain

     How Tasks Affect One Another

     Building Relationships Between Tasks

               Creating Finish-to-Start Task Dependencies

               Creating and Modifying All Types of Task Dependencies

               Delaying or Overlapping Tasks

     Scheduling Task Work Time with Calendars

     Keeping a Schedule Flexible

               Types of Constraints

               Setting and Changing Constraints

               Preventing Unwanted Date Constraints

               Setting Deadline Reminders

Part Two: Project Planning:More Than Creating a Schedule

Chapter 8. Building a Team for Your Project

     Identifying Project Resources

               Who's Responsible for What

               Who Reports to Whom

     Understanding Project's Resource Types

     Adding Resources in Microsoft Project

               Adding Resources Manually

               Importing Resources from Other Programs

               Deleting Resources

     Providing Detailed Resource Information

               Filling in General Information

               Defining When Work Resources Work

               Defining Costs for Work and Material Resources

               Setting Up Cost Resources

Chapter 9. Connecting Resources to Tasks

     Assigning Work Resources to Tasks

               Assigning Resources with the Dialog Box

               Assigning Resources in the Task Form

               Assigning Resources in a Gantt Chart Table

     Finding the Right Resources

               Finding Resources by Criteria

     Assigning Material Resources to Tasks

     Understanding Duration, Work, and Units

     Modifying Resource Assignments

     Adding and Removing Resources from Tasks

               When Effort Drives the Schedule

               Controlling Assignment Changes with Task Types

Chapter 10. Does the Schedule Work?

     Making Sure Tasks Are Set Up Correctly

               Reviewing Task Dependencies

               Freeing Tasks from Constraints

     Defining Work Schedules with Calendars

               Creating New Calendars

               Modifying Calendars

               Applying Calendars

     Building Reality into Assignments

               Assigning Part-time Workers

               Modeling Productivity in Project

               Adjusting Tasks for Resource Capability

     Balancing Workloads

               Finding Resource Over- and Under-Allocations

               Adjusting Assignments to Correct Allocations

               Leveling Assignments

               Leveling Resources Basics

               Setting Leveling Options

               Prioritizing Projects and Tasks

Chapter 11. Setting Up a Project Budget

     Putting a Price Tag on Your Project

     Incorporating Resource Costs

     Preparing for Cost Calculations

               Assigning Cost Resources to Tasks

               Entering an Oddball Cost for a Task

     Reviewing Cost Information

               Seeing Overall Project Costs

               Seeing Costs for Tasks, Resources, and Assignments

               Adding Custom Budget Information

     Comparing Costs to Your Budget

               Step 1: Create Budget Resources

               Step 2: Assign Budget Resources to the Project Summary Task

               Step 3: Enter Budget Cost and Work Values

               Step 4: Associate Resources with Their Budget Type

               Step 5: Compare Budget Resource Values

     Reducing Project Costs

               Checking for Cost Errors

               Adjusting the Schedule

               Adjusting Assignments

               Rethinking Your Project Budget

     Setting the Project Fiscal Year

     Assigning Accounting Codes

               Entering Accounting Codes in a Custom Field

               Creating Multilevel Accounting Codes

               Applying Accounting Codes to Your Project

Chapter 12. Refining a Project Schedule

     Evaluating the Project Schedule

               Comparing Finish Dates to Deadlines

               Finding the Best Tasks to Shorten

               Reviewing Project Costs

     New Project Tools for Change

               See Why Tasks Start When They Do

               Seeing What Changes Do

               Playing What-if Games

     Adjusting Resource Assignments

               Increasing Units to Decrease Duration

               Assigning a Different Resource

               Adding Resources

               Using Slack Time to Shorten the Schedule

     Splitting Tasks into Smaller Pieces

     Overlapping Tasks

               Finding Tasks to Fast-track

               Modifying Task Dependencies to Overlap Tasks

     Paying More for Faster Delivery

               Time vs. Money

               Using a Spreadsheet to Choose Tasks to Crash

Chapter 13. Saving the Project Plan

     Obtaining Approval for the Plan

     Storing Project Documents

     Preserving the Original Plan in Project

               Setting a Baseline

               Setting Additional Baselines

               Adding New Tasks to a Baseline

               Saving Sets of Start and Finish Dates

               Clearing a Baseline

               Viewing Baselines

Part Three: Projects in Action

Chapter 14. Tracking Progress

     Picking the Best Way to Track Progress

     Obtaining Progress and Cost Data

               Collecting Task Progress from Your Team Members

               Collecting Progress Data About Other Resources

     Entering Actual Progress in Project

               Updating Task Progress

               Updating the Project Using Resource Assignment Progress

               Globally Updating the Project

               Updating Project Costs

Chapter 15. Evaluating Project Performance

     Scheduled, Baseline, and Actual Values

     Is the Project on Time?

               Checking Status at the Project Level

               Reviewing the Critical Path

               Looking for Delayed Tasks

               Looking for Tasks Heading for Trouble

     Checking on Work

               Looking for Over-allocations

               Checking for Overbudget Work

     Is the Project Within Budget?

               Comparing Costs with Views and Filters

               Evaluating Costs with Reports

               Comparing Project Costs to a Budget

     Earned Value Analysis

               Gauging Performance with Earned Value Measures

               Analyzing an Earned Value Graph

               Using Additional Earned Value Measures

               Viewing Earned Value in Project

               Controlling How Project Calculates Earned Value

     Getting Back on Track

               A Review of Project Tuning Techniques

               Assigning Overtime

Chapter 16. Managing Change

     Setting Up a Change Management System

               Managing Change Requests

               The Change Review Board: Deciding on Changes

               Tracking Change Requests

     Managing Changes in Project

               Finding the Effects of a Proposed Change

               Updating Project with Approved Change Requests

               Flagging Change Requests in Project

Chapter 17. Reporting on Projects

     An Overview of Project's Reports

               Overall Status

               Financial Performance

               Task Management

               Resource Management

     Text-Based Reports

               Generating Text-Based Reports

               Customizing Text-Based Reports

     Working with Visual Reports

               Generating a Visual Report

               Rearranging and Formatting an Excel Visual Report

               Rearranging and Formatting a Visio Visual Report

               Customizing Visual Report Templates

               Saving Report Data

Chapter 18. Closing a Project

     Obtaining Project Acceptance

     Tying Up Loose Ends

     Producing Project Closeout Reports

               Summarizing a Project

               Reporting Performance

               Documenting What You Learned

     What to Do with Project Information

Part Four: Project Power Tools

Chapter 19. Working on Multiple Projects

     Managing Multiple Projects

               Creating a Master Project

               Removing a Project from a Master Project

               Linking Tasks in Different Projects

     Sharing Resources Among Projects

               Creating a Resource Pool

               Connecting a Project to a Resource Pool

               Opening and Saving Sharer Projects

               Detaching a Sharer Project from the Resource Pool

               Editing Resource Pool Information

Chapter 20. Exchanging Data Between Programs

     Copying Information

               Copying Project Data to Other Programs

               Copying Data from Other Programs into Project

               Creating Pictures of Project Information

     Importing and Exporting Data

               Importing Data into Project

               Exporting Data from Project

               Using an Existing Map

               Exchanging Data with Excel

               Working with Project and Visio

Chapter 21. Linking and Embedding

               Linking and Embedding Project Data in Other Programs

               Linking and Embedding Data into Project

               Working with Linked and Embedded Objects

Chapter 22. Project on the Internet

     Hyperlinking to Information

               Creating a Hyperlink to a File or Web Page

               Modifying Hyperlinks

               Creating a Hyperlink to a Location in the Project File

     Integrating Project and Outlook

               Adding Project Tasks to Outlook

               Importing Tasks from Outlook

               Building a Resource List from an Outlook Address Book

               Sending Project Information to Others

Part Five: Customizing Project

Chapter 23. Viewing What You Want

     Creating Your Own View

               Modifying Basic View Contents

               Creating a New View

               Changing the Looks of a Gantt Chart View

               Customizing the Timescale

               Changing a Usage View's Appearance

               Customizing the Resource Graph

               Modifying a Network Diagram

               Customizing the Calendar View

     Changing Tables

               Switching the Table in a View

               Changing Table Contents

               Modifying a Table Definition

               Creating a New Table

     Changing the Way Text Looks

               Changing Categories of Text

               Changing Selected Text

     Filtering Through Information

               Creating and Editing Filters

               Defining Filters

               Quick and Dirty Filtering with AutoFilter

     Grouping Project Elements

               Working with Groups

               Creating a Group

               Changing Group Intervals

Chapter 24. Defining Your Own Fields and Forms

     Defining Your Own Fields

               Customizing a Field

               Coding Tasks and Resources

     Building Your Own Forms

               Creating a Form

Chapter 25. Customizing Toolbars and Menus

     Customizing Menus and Toolbars

               Before You Customize a Menu or Toolbar

               Adding a Command to a Menu or Toolbar

               Adding a Menu to Another Menu or a Toolbar

               Modifying a Menu or Toolbar Entry

     Creating New Toolbars and Menus

               Creating a New Toolbar

               Copying a Toolbar to Create a New One

     Editing Toolbars and Menus

               Renaming Toolbars and Menus

               Deleting Toolbars and Menus

     Creating Keyboard Shortcuts

Chapter 26. Reusable Project: Templates

     Sharing Custom Elements

     Storing Project Settings and Elements

               Copying Elements Between Files

               Removing Customized Elements from Files

               Renaming Customized Elements

     Building Templates for Projects

               Creating a Project Template

               Making Your Templates Easy to Find

               Editing a Template

               Creating a Project File from a Template

Chapter 27. Saving Time With Macros

     What You Can Do with Macros

     Recording Macros

     Running Macros

               Running Macros in the Macros Dialog Box

               Running a Macro from a Toolbar or Menu

               Using Keyboard Shortcuts to Run Macros

     Viewing and Editing Macro Code

     Learning More About Programming Project

Part Six: Appendixes

Appendix A. Installing Project

Appendix B. Getting Help for Project

Appendix C. Keyboard Shortcuts

Index