Ms Project 2017 Guide
Need a simple project management software to manage your team? Check-out our valuable and unique. Microsoft Project is known for being a powerful (and sometimes cumbersome) tool that remains a staple of enterprise-level project management. So, why is this legacy project management software also used by 67 percent of small businesses? The project management discipline has rapidly expanded beyond IT in recent years. This once-niche practice has expanded into businesses of all sizes across diverse industries.
LinkedIn currently lists hundreds of open roles for Digital Project Managers in the U.S. Alone; a separate search for U.S.-based “Healthcare Project Manager” jobs yields nearly 4,000 results. GetApp on the project management software industry last month. Based on previous research in this sphere, we guessed that a market gap exists between the software features that users need and what’s currently available on the market. As this report’s researcher, I expected respondents to cite a wide range of industry-specific project management software tools that they use – and was very wrong. Sure, there was a smattering of popular PM tools; for example, 9 percent of respondents use, while an additional 6 percent use and 5 percent more use. But none of them compared to Microsoft Project – two of three respondents use it for project management, despite the fact that three quarters of respondents work in small businesses.
Project management in a global enterprise looks very different than it does in a small business. Had most respondents worked in enterprises, reliance on MS Project might not be so surprising. But the fact that it remains the project management software of choice for so many small businesses? That begs a series of additional questions. The Client’s Always Right (?) Data is no substitute for human insights.
So, I asked two project managers who work in small and midsize businesses (SMBs) why they’re still using Microsoft Project. Despite the fact that I interviewed them separately – and they don’t know each other – there were several similarities between their answers. Both project managers:. Use Microsoft Project to manage projects in the healthcare industry;. Have shopped for alternatives to Microsoft Project;. Are “very likely” to switch project management software in 2017; Which still leaves the question: Why use Microsoft Project at all?
“As the company grew, the size of our projects grew as well,” explains Sarah Meerschaert, PMP – Project Manager at CenTrak. “ What could once be managed in Excel and Trello is now far too complex. Additionally, there’s a sense of seriousness to Project. Our clients feel their project is in good hands when they see a Gantt chart.” Cerila Gailliard, PMP, CSM – a project management consultant and former Project Manager at Xerox – also uses Microsoft Project. Like Meerschaert, her main reason relates to client expectations. “Clients are purchasing and managing their projects through Microsoft Project,” Gailliard told me.
“ In order to be collaborative, we use the same software as our clients.” In short, both project managers use Microsoft Project relative to what their clients want. This answer makes sense, especially since both PMs have used the tool for years. Yet both PMs also shared that they’ve researched alternatives to Microsoft Project and are “very likely” to switch software in 2017. Don’t they worry about their clients’ reactions? “Yes, I would expect my clients to use it,” Gailliard answered when asked if she will expect her clients to use her new software of choice (SmartSheet). “Of course, I would have to explain the benefits of using this project management software compared to what they are using. It will also expose them to other project management software out on the market.
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I see it as a plus.” Meerschaert was less specific about which software her project team will switch to. But, like Gailliard, she emphasized perceived benefits of switching. “We’d love to find a more user-friendly solution for our project manager’s sanity,” she said.
“We’re also always on the lookout that for something that makes it easier for project team members to view the schedule without either (a) having a MS Project licenses, or (b) having to PDF the schedule. “In the R&D tech world, we’re always on the lookout for the newest and best tools.
Ms Project 2016 Guide
Every bit of increased productivity reduces time to market.” The Year Ahead GetApp’s research on the project management software industry yielded some additional insights:. Task management ( 12 percent) and collaboration management ( 11 percent) are the most common project management software features that users believe are currently missing. Two thirds of project managers ( 66 percent) are open to switching project management software within the next year. To recap, project managers who work in SMBs still rely heavily on Microsoft Project – even though data shows that there are stronger alternatives for small businesses. This is, at least in part, due to Microsoft Project’s longevity as a tool and its perceived legacy among project clients. That said, these project managers are also open to switching software in 2017 – regardless of what their clients might think. That leaves the final question: which sort of software are they most likely to choose?
An leaves us several clues. For our purposes, their most relevant prediction is that nontraditional project management tools will gain market share. Instead of the industry-specific project management software that I expected to find, we will see a rise in cloud-based collaboration apps – like and – being used for project management. If GetApp’s project management research reinforced one thing, it’s the fact that familiarity wins. Whether we’re discussing clients who “get” Microsoft Project or small teams for whom Slack is second nature, people use what they’re comfortable with. No software tool will meet every user’s needs, nor should we expect this. The challenge is when project teams are so nervous about investing in new software that they stick with the familiar – even when it’s a poor fit for their needs.
We’ll be sure to track the rise (or not) of collaboration apps for project management. Slack’s initial goal was to get users out of email. Is 2017 the year it will get users out of Project?
98% of desktop planning software use worldwide is Microsoft Project. It is the defaqto standard project scheduling tool yet so many people receive limited or no. It has a familiar Microsoft Office look and feel, although it is not formally part of the Office suite. The majority of users make limited inroads into the true functionality of Microsoft Project and I would strongly encourage anyone to go on a formal course to really understand how powerful the tool can be. In my experience the biggest weakness for so many project professionals is the ability to build and use a useful, practical and helpful project schedule. Most people use Microsoft Project to build a schedule of tasks, some attempt to assign resources and a very limited number of users take the final step to track costs.
I can’t summarise a full Microsoft Project training course in this short guide, but here are my practical top tips:. Plan Structure Build a high-level plan using post-it notes with team members, then translate this into a Microsoft Project schedule. Use a hierarchical structure with phases and stages broken down into tasks.
Add milestones for the start and end of each phase or stage. Keep it simple!. Plan Detail Do you need to track what Bob is doing next Tuesday afternoon at 3pm? If your project is a one-week shutdown then probably yes, otherwise no. Don’t try and mirror every individual task team members will perform.
For example; a six-month project should be made up of tasks lasting 1 to 10 work days, not a few hours or a few weeks. Elapsed Time Agree how long a task will take in elapsed time (duration). The hours worked on that task is a different thing to consider. Agree deadlines with team members. For example ‘We will finish this task by the 10th of June and complete it over a 2 week period.’ The elapsed time of the task should mirror this. How many hours are exerted on this task is a different thing.
It could be Bob doing on average 1 hour a day or a team of 8 working full-time. The point is that the Project Manager and the task owner have agreed the elapsed period of time over which the task will take place and can therefore work together towards achieving the finish date. Auto Scheduling The majority of users should stick with auto scheduling. Manual scheduling is more useful if tasks are not yet finalised, agreed or still being scoped out and you want to have some sort of placeholder. For a real project with approved scope, stick with auto scheduling. Link Tasks and Milestones Where possible do not use constraints. Link tasks and milestones together and avoid linking between items that are different levels of hierarchy, for example, do not link a summary task to a detailed task.
Links should happen at the lowest level of your task hierarchy (or WBS). Deadline Feature This is a nice little feature. Double click on a task name to open the ‘ Task Information‘ window. Click on the ‘Advanced’ tab. Here there is the option to enter a ‘Deadline’. This date then appears as a small green arrow on the Gantt chart (there is nothing significant about it being coloured green) hopefully at a date after your task is scheduled to complete. If tasks get pushed out beyond the agreed deadline then a red warning appears in the first ‘Indicators’ column to highlight this problem.
This helps you to track any dates you may have committed to, as well as the actual dates you are working towards. Assigning Resources Resources (people) can be assigned using three methods. It’s confusing. Fixed duration, fixed work or fixed units. Then there is the option for the effort driven check box so in total there are five different ways to setup how Microsoft Project deals with your resource assignments. Why does this matter? As some of you will have experienced, if you edit the duration it impacts work hours, if you add more people it can shorten the duration and then we get confused and you end up with tasks having a duration of 3.18 days and you can’t understand why.OK – my suggestion.
Once you have assigned people and edited their work hours you often find the elapsed time of a task may vary but the total work hours don’t. For example, Sue needs 10 hours to complete a task but she might finish it sooner or later. It’s this finish date that’s the most important – people work towards deadlines.
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Maybe you need to update the plan with this revised date, but you don’t want this to automatically mess with the total work hours Sue undertakes. If this sounds sensible then in the ‘Advanced’ tab of the ‘Task Information’ window select ‘Fixed Work’. Here is a summary of the key options:table “62” not found / The approach you should take does depend on your project but in many cases I would suggest people want to edit elapsed time (duration) without editing total work hours for that task once they have been setup. It’s the same amount of work, but we are taking longer to do it. If this sounds like your situation then go with FIXED WORK.
You are then free to edit the task duration without impacting hours. Just be aware though, if you change the total hours or number of people then the task duration with change. BaselineAt the end of the planning phase, you will have a plan.
This plan will not be perfect but it’s a benchmark to compare actual progress against. You need to save this benchmark – this is the Baseline feature. Save the baseline. In our recent The State of Project Management annual survey, over 1/3rd of all project schedules are not baselined. This is poor project schedule management. Progress the Plan Enter task progress in the schedule.
You can do this simply as 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% complete, but this should be part of a weekly or maybe fortnightly review of progress. The schedule should drive the agenda for the next progress cycle, not be an afterthought for the PM to update every now and again to try and keep up with the project. The schedule should drive the progress meeting discussions.