1. Project Tips & Tricks for Beginning, Advanced & Intermediate Users Hosted by Michelle A. Thomas, Microsoft V-TSP

2. Page: 2 Common User Feedback “It never does what I tell it/want it to do.” “When I add more resources, why does it assume I want the duration to decrease?” “I can’t stand looking at the Gantt Chart – is there a way to get rid of it?” “It doesn’t work and I’m tired of fighting with it.” “It’s just like a spreadsheet.”

3. Page: 3 What is an Expert? “An expert is someone who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field,” Niels Bohr, Danish Physicist and Nobel Prize Winner “An expert is someone who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field,” Niels Bohr, Danish Physicist and Nobel Prize Winner

4. Page: 4 What’s New 2007 http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=93713 Multilevel Undo Visual Reports Calendar & Gantt chart view enhancements Change Highlighting Task Drivers Cost resources Budgeting Desktop OLAP cube Multi-value custom fields

5. www.tribridge.com l 877-744-1360 l success@tribridge.com Tip 1 - Beginners

6. Page: 6 Gantt Chart Usage Use Show Menu Use Scroll to Task icon Look at flow of the project and see if it makes sense. Use the Gantt Chart Wizard Change the Gantt to look at the Critical Path and Baseline Use the Leveling Gantt to view Leveling Delays

7. Page: 7 Gantt Chart Usage Show Menu, Scroll to Task, Change highlighting

8. Page: 8 Gantt Chart Usage Gantt Chart Wizard, Critical Path

9. Page: 9 Gantt Chart Usage Leveling View, Gantt Chart Wizard, Baseline

10. www.tribridge.com l 877-744-1360 l success@tribridge.com Tip 2 - Beginner

11. Page: 11 Start with a WBS Don’t create a task list WBS captures all deliverables Easier to define scope Great communication tool with the project team Ensures that nothing is missed

12. www.tribridge.com l 877-744-1360 l success@tribridge.com Tip 3 - Beginner

13. Page: 13 Scheduling Engine Project has a scheduling engine – why not use it? Give project the information on resources and task relationships and let it tell you when tasks should occur Look at flow of the project and see if it makes sense. Change the Gantt to look at the Critical Path and Baseline Use the Leveling Gantt to view Leveling Delays

14. www.tribridge.com l 877-744-1360 l success@tribridge.com Tip 4- Intermediate

15. Page: 15 Avoid Duration-Based Scheduling Need a more accurate depiction of effort Cannot adequately measure or track budget with duration Provides better insight into resource capacity and demand Very few projects that are truly duration-based; most have schedule as a constraint, but not all tasks should be estimated in days

16. www.tribridge.com l 877-744-1360 l success@tribridge.com Tip 5 - Intermediate

17. Page: 17 Monitor both % Complete is based upon duration ONLY % Work Complete shows progress on man hours You should compare overall % Complete vs. % Work complete to see how well you are doing on your project  Example: % Complete = 80 % Work Complete = 20  Our project completion date is approaching, but we only have 20% of the overall work done!

18. Page: 18 Monitor both %Work Complete, %Complete, even Physical % Complete

19. www.tribridge.com l 877-744-1360 l success@tribridge.com Tip 6 - Intermediate

20. Page: 20 Constraints & Dependencies Minimize use of Constraints wherever possible – this places a hard stop in your project plan  Note: Manually selecting dates places constraints on your tasks If you have to use constraints, use the ‘Finish no earlier’/later than and ‘Start no earlier/later than’ types because they are flexible. Dependencies – are all tasks really FS? Could you use SS or FF or SF?

21. www.tribridge.com l 877-744-1360 l success@tribridge.com Tip 7 - Advanced

22. Page: 22 Saving a Baseline Save Baseline 1 first Copy Baseline 1 to Baseline ‘0’ Copy all subsequent Baselines back to Baseline ‘0’ This allows for accurate reports i.e. Project Statistics, Baseline Work, Duration, etc. Can still compare Baselines in different views

23. Page: 23 Saving a Baseline Set Baseline, Interim Plan, Variance Table

24. www.tribridge.com l 877-744-1360 l success@tribridge.com Tip 8 – Advanced

25. Page: 25 Level your Resources Takes Work Demand and balances against Work Capacity Use a Leveling Method – prioritization of projects, tasks, resources, etc. Use the tool to view overallocation Level one resource at-a-time, using Resource Usage View for results Level outside of available slack if over allocation cannot be resolved within Gives you a TRUE perspective of end date

26. Page: 26 Level your Resources Resource Usage, Resource Leveling Tool

27. www.tribridge.com l 877-744-1360 l success@tribridge.com Tip 9 - Advanced

28. Page: 28 Apply Work Contours Use built-in Work Contours on resources Choose the one that best suits your project and resource needs Called ‘manually’ leveling Use Resource Usage to refine these assignments Places constraints on tasks

29. Page: 29 Apply Work Contours Resource Usage View

30. www.tribridge.com l 877-744-1360 l success@tribridge.com Tip 10 - Everyone

31. Page: 31 Snapshot & Project Statistics Use the Project Snapshot to create a.jpeg,.gif,.png or other picture type of your progress Can auto-adjust the Gantt chart in the view Useful for PowerPoint and other presentations Use Project Statistics to view pertinent project information in one screen Very useful for reports

32. Page: 32 Snapshot & Project Statistics Project Information Statistics

33. Page: 33 Conclusion Project is a powerful Project planning and Resource tool Can be used to manage Scope, Schedule and Cost Best practices dictate how the tool should and should not be used Practice these and the tool will become more useful

34. Page: 34 Questions? Please e-mail Tommy.Simon@tribridge.com for sales and service offeringsTommy.Simon@tribridge.com Please e-mail Michelle.Thomas@tribridge.com for questions on this presentation or for MS Project course offerings from TribridgeMichelle.Thomas@

35. Closing and Q&A Hosted by Tribridge