Microsoft Project Best Practices
A
Acquire Project Team Workflow
Get in the practice of thinking about the skills required for resource assignments. Then work to acquire a team that represents those skills.
Assigning Resources
Without making any resource assignments, you could enter all three estimates (duration, cost, and work). You can associate resource names with tasks by using a custom field to make no calculations. But, if you want to work with resources, take the time to learn how to manage resource assignments well. The additional benefit will be that you will be able to manage resource workloads using Microsoft Project too.
The best practice is to use the entire scheduling engine in Microsoft Project.
Automatic Resource Leveling
If you consider using automatic Resource Leveling, consider a hybrid approach, which involves manual adjustment to workloads and automatic Resource Leveling.
B
Baseline
Consider saving several aspects of a project plan as part of a baseline, not just setting the baseline in Microsoft Project. Baseline things such as:
Project objectives
Risk management plan
Archive the project *.mpp file at the time the baseline is saved to use for project comparisons with the current project
Baseline Backup
Because the end-user can overwrite baseline field information, Keep a backup of your baseline. One way to do this is to Copy the Baseline into one of the other Baselines1-10.
C
Calendars
Keep it simple.
In most cases, make sure the Project Calendar definition matches the Calendar Options for a project in Options.
I do not recommend that you attempt to continuously update resource calendars with vacation and other non-work days without first evaluating the value vs. effort involved.
Most project managers in the U.S. use a standard 8 to 5, Monday through Friday, defined work holidays type of project calendar. They still realize it is common for professionals to work on weekends or evenings. For many, scheduling to the workday or workweek is good enough. In manufacturing, that is seldom the case, so often, the organization and context determine how precisely calendars are used.
On long-duration projects, neglecting to schedule around holidays can significantly skew the duration of a project.
Seldom do we finish a project with time to spare, so defining holidays should always be a consideration when calculating the duration of a project.
Having a good sense of a resource’s availability is a cornerstone of good scheduling. Avoiding resource bottlenecks and the inverse, underutilized resources, are critical skills associated with good planning and execution.
Use the Standard Calendar for the Project Calendar. If the calendar is different, make the changes.
Copy / Paste
In general, it is best practice not to copy and paste with Office products. Even between *.mpp files and within a project because you never know what you are copying that might cause problems like formatting code or the history of those tasks in the case of Microsoft Project tasks.
If you are using Project Server and would like to create all kinds of havoc for yourself, copy and paste tasks that have been published.
E
Estimates Objective
The real skill in project management is juggling three balls at the same time when managing a project:
Scope (this includes WBS with well-defined performance for each detail task.
Time (schedule and the resource management related to that schedule).
Cost (this includes resource work and availability).
G
Global.MPT (Organizer)
Whatever is in the Global.MPT file is available to all projects. Don’t let Microsoft Project determine what is in the file. Turn off “Automatically add new views, tables, filters and groups to the global” in Options.
Know the location of the Global.MPT and make sure it is routinely backed up.
Don't let strangers throw stuff in the back seat of your car, and don't let Microsoft Project automatically save new custom elements to the Global.MPT file. Keep this file clean and organized.
Feel free to rename, using the Organizer, any custom Elements you create. Do not rename any view or table elements that come standard with Microsoft Project, such as the Gantt Chart view or Entry table.
Take the time to learn the basic functionality of the Organizer even though it has nothing to do with planning or executing a project. The time spent learning will reward you with greater productivity and ease of use.
H
How far do you break down a project?
Until you are confident in your estimates and you are able to use the project to communicate effectively with all stakeholders.
A project should be broken down to a level so that: 1) you are confident with your estimates, and 2) you can communicate effectively about the project
M
Major Phases
Level 1 of the Outline should be the phases of the project.
Milestones
There are no rules governing the use of milestones. In general, milestones are used for communication purposes. Don’t stuff your WBS with needless milestones unless required for milestone reporting.
P
Project Summary Task
Don’t create redundancy by adding your own Project Summary Task. Instead, turn on the display for the one that Microsoft Project calculates regardless of whether you display it or not.
Q
Qualitative Risk Evaluation
Qualitative Risk Evaluation on the project level (row zero) is a best practice.
Qualitative Risk Questions
These qualitative risk questions are considered a best practice in project management:
For this project or activity, what is a risk?
What is the cause for this risk? Is the cause controllable?
How likely is this risk to occur?
What is the impact of this risk on this activity?
What is the early warning for the contingency action?
What is the management action to mitigate the risk?
What contingent action will be taken if the risk were to occur?
The best place to store the answers to these questions is in Task Notes.
R
Reporting Cycle
A formal reporting cycle, as an organizational business practice, will go a long way in helping project managers work more successfully with their teams.
Resolving Resource Over Allocations
Master the different types of views in Microsoft Project so that you can quickly switch from view to view to manage resources.
Resource Assignment Calculations
Change the way tasks are calculated when resources are assigned whenever you want. The data does not change, but when you change assignments, the calculation is different.
At one point in planning, you may want assignments calculated one way, later in planning, another way.
Fixed Duration is most like the project management idea of Fixed Duration estimating and scheduling, this idea that a task takes a certain amount of time no matter who is assigned. Human pregnancy is 40 weeks, no matter how many people are involved.
Fixed Work is most like the project management idea of Effort-Driven estimating and scheduling, this idea that a task should take less time when more people are assigned. The duration of licking 10,000 envelopes should go down with more people assigned, take people off the assignment and duration goes up.
Resource Assignments Routine
#1 Define Resources
#2 Determine Assignment Calculation
#3 Assign Resources
Cycle through these three steps until the light bulb goes on
Resource Leveling
A primary skill in project management is quickly leveling the cityscape of resource assignments. Resource workloads often look like a cityscape. The idea of resource leveling is to smooth that cityscape, eliminating the peaks and valleys.
Think of resource leveling as playing a strategic game like chess. There are many moves you can make to accomplish your goal. Some sequences of moves are certainly better than others. In games like chess, you need to see the board in your head, and you need to be able to think ahead. It is the same in Microsoft Project. You have to see what is happening in the schedule as you make your moves, even though all of the data may not be available in the current view. The more you practice leveling resources, the better you will get.
Make notes of each move with a pen and pad as you make your moves to adjust the project to resolve resource workload issues.
As you make your moves to adjust the project to resolve resource workload issues, make notes of each move with a pen and pad.
S
Scheduling from a Finish Date
Scheduling from a finish date is a scheduling technique available in the software and used by a few project managers. Most people schedule from a project start date. If they have a hard finish date, for the last task in the project they enter a Must Finish On timing constraint for that task or a Deadline date.
Suppose you schedule from the Finish Date; once you are far enough along with planning to determine when the project should start, schedule from the Start Date. When you are ready for execution, you should be scheduling from a start date.
Scheduling from a Start Date
Scheduling from a finish date is a scheduling technique available in the software and used by a few project managers. Most people schedule from a project start date. If they have a hard finish date, as most of us typically do, enter a Must Finish On timing constraint a Deadline date for the project finish milestone task.
S
Scope
You should be able to say with confidence, “If we complete all of the Activities and reach all of the Milestones in the Work Breakdown Structure, within the triple constraints of the project, the project will be successful.”
Scope for an Activity
When defining the scope of detail tasks or activities, use the same structure or answer the same questions. For instance, for each task, you could list out:
Assumptions
Requirements
Tasks that need to be performed
References
Location of additional documentation
Sharing Resources
Sharing resources and combining projects in a master project has some practical limitations. This feature is not an enterprise-type functionality and has a practical upper limit of a few dozen projects with a few hundred tasks each. But, on a small scale, an invaluable feature.
Status Date
ALWAYS enter a Status Date before updating a project.
Summary Tasks
Except for notes, do not add additional detail such as links and resources at the summary level.
T
Task Type
Find your preference. As Yoda said, “Choose you have to, be wise you must.”
The selections you make do not have to reflect theoretical reality. They need to calculate the way you need them to.
Templates
Start a new project from a project template (*.mpt).
There are few things better than starting fast with an expert plan. In a project group or larger organization, templates help drive standards and consistency. If they are fully developed they can significantly cut the time and effort involved in planning.
U
Updating
Create an Updating tab on the ribbon with all of the updating commands, the updating views typically used for updating, status views for analysis, and reporting.
Update Calculation Selections
Always check your update calculation selections in Project Options before updating.
Regard the update calculation selections in the Project Options Advanced page as more static than those on the Schedule page. Make selections before updating a task, and then stick with those selections. If the task is not calculating correctly based on a selection, update the task manually, such as clicking and dragging a taskbar. One unattractive option is to delete the task and start over. This solution to a poorly behaving task is used more than most of us want to admit.
Updating Process
Establish an Updating Process. Having a process or series of steps will both increase your efficiency, better updating accuracy, and satisfaction with using Microsoft Project.
W
Work Breakdown Structure