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Cynthia Snyder Dionisio
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Published:
March 21, 2016

Project 2016 For Dummies

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Overview

The easy way to take control of project timelines, resources, budgets, and details

Project manager, meet your new assistant! Once you discover Project 2016 you'll be amazed at how efficient and effective the project management process can be. Written by an expert author who knows project management processes backward and forward, this friendly, hands-on guide shows you how to get started, enter tasks and estimate durations, work with resources and costs, fine-tune your schedule, set baselines, collect data, analyze progress, and keep your projects on track.

How many times have you heard people in the office mutter under their breath, 'These projects never run on time?' Well, now they can! Project 2016 For Dummies shows you how to use the latest version of Microsoft Project to create realistic project timelines, make the most of available resources, keep on top of all those pesky details, and, finally, complete your project on time and on budget. Easy!

  • Fully updated to reflect the latest software changes in Microsoft Project 2016
  • All-new case studies and examples highlight the relevance of key features of Microsoft Project 2016
  • Exposes the correlation between what project managers do and how Microsoft Project 2016 supports their work
  • Covers working with calendars, using and sharing resources, budgeting, gathering and tracking data, and more

If you're a time-pressured project manager looking to make your life—and your projects—easier, Project 2016 For Dummies shows you how to get things done!

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About The Author

Cynthia Snyder is a well-known speaker, consultant, and trainer on project management, as well as the project manager of the team that updated PMI's Project Management Body of Knowledge, Sixth Edition. Her other books include PMP Certification All-in-One For Dummies and A User's Manual to the PMBOK.

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CHEAT SHEET

Project 2016, one incarnation of Microsoft’s popular project management software, offers a tremendous wealth of functionality. However, Microsoft Project 2016 probably isn’t like any other software you’ve ever used, so mastering it can seem a daunting process. This Cheat Sheet provides you with tips and tricks for doing what you do every day as a project manager.
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Here, you learn ten cool shortcuts that can help you handle Project 2016 like a pro. You'll become so adept at using Project 2016 that your fingers will seem to fly over the keyboard.Task InformationFrom Gantt Chart view, you can double-click any task in the project to open the Task Information dialog box. You can then use it to enter or modify durations, predecessor information, resources, notes, task types, and constraints.
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As you begin to use Project 2016, the common sayings (or aphorisms, axioms, and precepts) here can help you recall basic project-management principles. Tack them on your office wall so that you can review them throughout the workday. Roll with it Rolling wave planning is an excellent way to simplify the management of a project.
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Managing a project is difficult. Scope, resources, expectations, schedules, and budgets are always changing. Although Project 2016 can help you with the mechanics of organizing, planning, and tracking a project, it can’t help you prevent all the pitfalls in project management. Here’s a look at ten of the most common pitfalls and tips on how to avoid them.
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Microsoft Project 2016 maximizes efficiency as you manage projects — but Project 2016 shortcuts also save you time at the keyboard. Here are some shortcut keys you’ll use all the time when building and working with a Project schedule. Keystroke Result Ctrl+N Opens a new blank Project Alt+Home Moves to the beg
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Project management is all about saving time. But even with management tools like Microsoft Project 2016, your project might run longer than you expected. In that case, try the following methods to tighten the timing: Modify dependencies so that tasks can start sooner, if possible. Create overlapping dependencies using leads and lags, when appropriate.
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Unfortunately, no Project 2016 project exists in isolation. Many times, another project you're managing or another project going on somewhere else in your organization affects your project. Perhaps resources or facilities are shared, or perhaps the timing of tasks in other projects affects the timing of tasks in yours.
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Whether you consider project management an art or skill, Microsoft Project 2016 helps you do it better. Enhance your Microsoft Project expertise by visiting websites that offer templates and third-party add-ins for Microsoft Project and other project management information. Check out the following websites: Project Management Institute ProjectManagement.
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To deal with the variations in schedules that occur in most workplaces, Project 2016 offers various calendar settings. Here's the lowdown on the role of each of the four calendar types in Project 2016 (the next section details how they interact): Base: The template on which all other calendars are built. Three base calendars are available: Standard, Night Shift, and 24 Hours.
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All calendars in a Project 2016 project are controlled, by default, by the project calendar setting. Here's the tricky part, though: When you change a task calendar or resource calendar (known as an exception), you have to understand which setting takes precedence.Here's how the precedence concept works: With no other settings made, the base calendar template you select for the project calendar when you first create the project controls the working times and days of all tasks and resources.
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Contingency reserve is either time or money that is factored into the schedule or the budget to mitigate identified risks. A risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, affects the schedule (or another project objective, such as cost, resources, or performance). The proper way to deal with uncertainty on a project is to conduct a thorough risk analysis.
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Calculating the cost of a material project resource in might take you back to solving problems in your old high school algebra class. Fortunately, Project 2016 makes a straightforward calculation to arrive at the cost of using a material resource.When you assign a work resource to a task, Project multiplies its standard hourly rate by the hours of work for the assignment.
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To resolve problems with resource assignments in your Project 2016 projects, you have to first figure out where the problems lie by taking a look at a few views that focus on resource assignment.Resource Usage view, shown in the first figure below, and Resource Graph view, shown in the second figure, are useful in helping you spot overbooked resources.
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When assigning resources, you often need to consider a person's skills. Project 2016 doesn't include a Skill field, but it does allow you to add fields of your own. You can use these fields for anything, but one useful way is to code resources by skill level.You can use a rating system such as A, B, and C or use terms such as Exp for an experienced worker and Beg for a beginning-level worker.
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You don't have to use predesigned filters in Project 2016: You can get creative and design your own filters. To define a new filter, you specify a field name, a test, and a value.For example, the following line filters for any task on the critical path: Critical (field name) Equals (test) Yes (value) You can also include additional qualifiers to the filter.
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When you look at a project work breakdown structure in Project 2016, also known as WBS, or a project task list, such as the one shown in the following figure, you see that it organizes tasks into levels. The upper levels are from the WBS. The lower level consists of tasks that have been decomposed from the WBS.
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Microsoft Project 2016 makes it easy to set your project schedule. In just ten easy steps, you will be on your way to project management success! Enter the project information, such as the project name and start date. Develop a work breakdown structure to organize your work. Enter the tasks needed to create the WBS deliverables.
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Just like the latest trend in fashion, dependencies in a Project 2016 project can suddenly change. For example, sometimes they're no longer needed because of a shift in priorities or overall project timing. When you need to get rid of a dependency, you can undo what you did in either the Gantt Chart or the Task Information dialog box.
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Custom groups in Project 2016 include three elements: a field name, a field type, and an order. For example, you may create a group that shows the field name (such as Baseline Work) and the field type (such as Task, Resource, or Assignment) in a certain order (descending or ascending).A group that shows Baseline Work for tasks in descending order, for example, would list tasks in order from the greatest number of work hours required to the least number required.
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You've probably used the Find feature in other software to find a word or phrase or number. That's child's play compared with Project 2016's Find feature, which can find you a backhoe, a corporate jet, or even a person! You can use Project's Find feature to look for resources with certain rates or in a certain workgroup.
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Project 2016 allows you to customize the Gantt chart in several ways. Taskbars are the horizontal boxes that represent the timing of tasks in the Chart pane of Gantt Chart view. You can format a bar individually, change the formatting settings on different types of taskbars, or apply a new style that controls bar formatting on the entire chart.
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When you work with auto-scheduled tasks, Project 2016 can reschedule them for you when you establish task dependencies. Because the start and finish dates of manually scheduled tasks are hard-wired (fixed), Project loses the useful ability to move them around when predecessor task schedules change.Even though Project can't automatically move manually scheduled tasks, it performs forecasted calculations for completing each manually scheduled task based on the task's links and other drivers.
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In Project 2016, you can insert hyperlinks in a project outline, which provides a handy way to quickly open another project, another file of any type, or a web page. To insert a hyperlink to a project document, follow these steps: Right-click the cell where you want the hyperlinked task to appear. Choose Hyperlink.
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You can insert tasks from one Project 2016 project into another. You do this by inserting an entire, existing project into another project. The project that's inserted is called a subproject. This method is useful when various project team members manage different phases of a larger project.The capability to assemble subprojects in one place allows you to create a master schedule from which you can view, all in one place, all the pieces of a larger, more complex project.
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Despite the wealth of information that you can enter about a task and its timing in a Project 2016 project, not everything can be said with settings. That's why every task includes an area to enter notes. You may use this feature, for example, to enter background information about constraints, detail a step-by-step process that's summarized by the task duration, change the timing, or list vendor contact information that's relevant to the task.
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Lots of Project 2016 features handle resources — in particular by helping you spot resource overallocation. Overallocation is a calculation, based on the resource's calendar and availability, indicating that too much work has been assigned based on this availability.Consider Monica Mendez, an engineer who works a standard eight-hour day based on her calendar.
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Several views in Project 2016 include gridlines to indicate certain elements, such as a break between weeks or the status date (that is, the date to which progress has been tracked on a project). These lines help someone reading the plan to discern intervals of time or breaks in information; for example, gridlines can be used to indicate major and minor column breaks.
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From time to time, you have to hit the brakes on a project in Project 2016. For example, you may set up an entire project schedule, and just as you're ready to start rolling, the project is put on hold, caused by a budget shortfall, priorities that have changed, resources being pulled to another project, or cold feet on the part of stakeholders.
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Filters in Project 2016 work similarly to the Zoom feature in a word processor: They give you a close-up look at various aspects of your plan and help you spot clues about problems, such as overallocated resources. You can set a filter to highlight tasks or resources that meet certain criteria or to remove from view any tasks or resources that don't meet the criteria.
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When a resource is over-allocated, you can use Microsoft Project 2016 to ensure your project stays on track. With Microsoft Project 2016, you can resolve resource conflicts by modifying assignments, changing scheduling, and more. Consider the following tactics to resolve resource conflicts: Use the task inspector to identify the factors driving the timing of a selected task so you can take whatever steps are needed to address them.
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Project 2016, which is a scheduling tool, helps you organize, manage, and control defined variables, as identified in the following table. Project can also help you manage the undefined variables as well. You can use Project to organize and manage your work, create realistic schedules, and optimize your use of resources.
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Project 2016, one incarnation of Microsoft’s popular project management software, offers a tremendous wealth of functionality. However, Microsoft Project 2016 probably isn’t like any other software you’ve ever used, so mastering it can seem a daunting process. This Cheat Sheet provides you with tips and tricks for doing what you do every day as a project manager.
Read More
Read More
Project managers know that all projects have risk. Too many unknown factors are possible for you to be able to expect your project to go exactly as planned. To account for these unknown elements, take the time to follow these steps: Work with your team to create a list of all possible risks. Analyze the WBS, schedule, budget, technical documentation, and any other documentation you can get your hands on.
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The Project 2016 AutoFilter feature is turned on by default for all new schedule files. Arrows appear in the column headings in the displayed sheet. When you click the arrow in the Resource Names column, for example, the name of every resource assigned to tasks in the project is listed in alphabetical order, along with other filtering and sorting choices.
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