Pete Kolevas, PMP

Let’s assume you are one of many that use MS Project to develop a nice neat plan in order to begin a project.  However, once the work starts you find the tool cumbersome to update the plan.  You promise yourself you will take a class one day on how to update MS Project with actuals, but right now you need to show the progress performed.  Below are some simple ways to do this.  (I still recommend a class when you have the time!)

As you attempt to catch-up with the work performed on the project and reflect it in the plan, the first thing to do is set the Status Date of the project. This is located in the Project Menu>>Project Information option.  Setting this is key to a number of different functions in MS Project, however we are keeping things simple today, so let’s do this.  Assume the status date is the current date.

Next thing I like to do is see the status date visually on the Tracking Gantt Chart.  In order to do this, select the format option from the menu and select Grid lines.  In the lines to change area, select “Status Date” and on the right side of the window choose the type and color of the line you would like to see.

Once you click OK, a vertical line appears on your Tracking Gantt chart to show the status date.  Last but not least, enable the tracking toolbar.

Now you are ready for the easy updates you were looking for.  There are multiple options to perform the tracking depending on how detailed you want to go, but I will explain 2 of the methods I have used most.

Method 1:  The easiest method if all is going well.  Simply select the task/s you would like to update and the click on the option off the tracking toolbar to “Update as Scheduled” this will update the task as complete through the Status Date.

Method 2:  This is a bit more complex, but easier as you get the hang of it.  If some of the work is complete, but not all, update the portion of work that is complete using the % complete buttons on the tracking toolbar.  Now the remainder of the work that is not complete must be rescheduled, so click on the task and then select the reschedule work option.   This will move the incomplete portion of the work after the status date.  This makes sense since you cannot complete the work in the past.  (Caution, if you have setup your network diagram properly the remainder of the schedule could change)

Simple techniques make all the difference in gaining efficiencies for the Project Manager.

Happy tracking!

In my opinion there are 2 key skills that make a rock star project manager; managing and understanding your stakeholders, & project finances.   Due to some of my current time constraints, I am going to first tackle project finances.

A project manager that can speak and understand finance is invaluable to most program managers and companies.  In my experiences, I have used some simple techniques in order to assist me in this task for my projects.  First, a former mentor recommended I review financial terms I did not understand at www.investopedia.com .  What a great site.  It continues to be one of my most used bookmarks.  Second was to develop an understanding of the ways MS project can help a project manager better manage the costs of a project.  The remainder of this entry deals with some simple techniques to assist a Project Manager in differentiating capital and operating expenses within a project.

First you will need to customize a field in MS Project.

1. Go to tools>>Customize>>Fields
2. Select the rename option for any of the text fields.
3. Rename the field to “Expense Type”



4. Select the lookup option and type in 2 values, one for capital and one for operating



5. Click OK to save the custom field.

Now you need to setup the Gantt chart in order to assign an “Expense type” to your tasks.  This will enable you to perform grouping, filtering, and rollups to gain an understanding of the breakout of your finances.

On the Gantt chart add a few fields.  Add the field for “Cost”, and “Expense Type”.  (You can create your own table for this if you would like…)  You can rearrange these fields as you like, however I like to leave them to the far left in order to do the next steps.

Now, load your schedule with your WBS, and on each task in the schedule assign an “Expense type”.  Your schedule might begin to look something like this:

Once you have completed loading the schedule, you need some groupings to sum the expenses.  Setup a custom group for Expense Type (Project>>Group>>Customize Group By).  Once this custom group is setup you can group by expense type on both the Gannt chart table and the task usage table to begin to gain an understanding of how your finances are looking during the planning and execution of your project.  See the screen shots for what you can expect.

You can even begin to track the forecasted expenses over time by using the task usage screen.  Simply insert your custom field for expense type, then group by that custom field.  You can forecast and track actuals on this screen per your expense type.  This can become very powerful.  See my example below:

There are many, many more things you can do in project in order to assist in the financial management of your projects, hopefully this techniques inspires you to customize your own.

I am an advocate of not assigning multiple resources to a task in MS project if possible.  Assigning only one resource to a task simplifies the way in which MS Project calculates the amount of work.  However, I can understand that some people want to use this functionality, especially for very large efforts, so the following post is to provide the fundamentals to assist in this regard.

There would be 2 ways to plan this out in MS Project.

Scenario:  I have 2 leads that are responsible for providing detailed work plans to their teams.  As a project manager I want to manage a task to make sure these work plans are planned and completed on time.  I have a development lead and a QA lead that are responsible for this work.

The first way and my preferred mechanism would be to create 2 tasks called “Create Work Plans” and assign the development lead to one task and the QA lead to the other.  In this scenario, I can deal with them as 2 distinct entities.  Once this is complete you can review my earlier on post on “Basic Scheduling calculation in MS Project” and you will be on your way to a simple schedule.

The second way becomes more complicated.  We can proceed with assigning both resources to one task. This requires some additional knowledge and setup of how MS Project works.

• Performing these  steps to help get you started.
• Setup the Gantt Entry table and view for easy entry. (Add the work column)
• Split the view, and enable any one of the sub views that has the resource work displaying.  I personally like the Resources and Predecessor view

Now what you have done is enabled the screen to show you all the options you need in order to understand what MS Project is trying to do for you.  Look at the screen shot below and you will see all the places you will have to review in order to move forward.

The next items to understand in order to be successful at assigning multiple resources to a task in MS project are the ‘Task Type” and “Effort Driven” flags.  These are important to understand when assigning a single resource, but become must have knowledge when working with multiple resources. Below are the multiple combinations that can be set on a single task.

• Fixed Work with Effort Driven enabled
• Fixed Duration
• Fixed Duration with Effort Driven enabled
• Fixed Unit
• Fixed Unit with Effort Driven enabled

When the effort driven checkbox is enabled, MS Project assumes you are going to split the work evenly on the tasks depending on the number or resources you assign.  Take an example where you have a fixed work task, with 16 hours of effort and 2 days duration.  You assign 2 resources to the task and MS project will place 8 hours of work on each resource.  Give it a try and watch what happens in the lower window.

Fixed work, Fixed Duration, and Fixed unit task types with the effort driven flag enabled will all act in a similar manner.  I recommend practicing with these until you understand what is happening; just remember to set the work and duration numbers back to their original starting points. (Also use the resource dialog box to assign and remove resources from tasks when practicing   ).  You will become an expert in no time.

Once you get good at the above simple scenario, try a fixed duration task using an odd number for work such as 17 or 21 hours over 2 days, something that does not divide by the 2 resources evenly.  Then try assigning these resources one at time to the task as well as at the same time from the resource dialog box.  Observe the calculation performed.  MS project is trying to be helpful.  Fixed duration with effort driven turn on is difficult to work with.  I would recommend turning effort driven off for these types of tasks.

My next post will include more examples and scenarios for turning off the effort driven flag, but now that you know how to practice, feel free to try it for yourself.