Datasheet

Be prepared to revise your plan after everyone has a chance to review it. You may want to create

and save multiple Project files to generate what-if scenarios based on the input that you receive.

Seeing your plans from various perspectives is a great way to take advantage of Project’s power.

Find out more about what-if analysis in Chapter 6.

Finding resolutions to conflicts in timing and resource allocation is another aspect of planning and

revising. Project helps you pinpoint these conflicts, which may include the following:

A team member or resource that is booked on several projects at one time

A task that begins before another task that must precede it

An unusually high use of expensive equipment in one phase that is upsetting your budget

This book contains many tips and techniques for resolving conflicts. In particular,

Chapters 9 and 10 focus on using Microsoft Project features to resolve scheduling and

resource problems.

When your project plan seems solid, you can take a picture of it, called a baseline, against which

you can track actual progress.

Chapter 11 explains how to set (and, if necessary, clear) baselines.

Tracking

You should try to solidify your tracking methods before your project begins. Ask yourself the fol-

lowing questions:

Do you want to track your progress once a week or once a month?

Do project participants track their own work or merely report their progress to you?

Do you want to roll those smaller reports into a single, less-detailed report for

management?

The answers to these questions can also help you determine whether you need to use

Project Standard, Project Professional, or Project Server. See Chapter 2 for more infor-

mation on choosing the Project product that best suits your needs.

Knowing how you are going to track your project’s progress, and who needs to know what and

when, helps your team establish efficient tracking mechanisms from the outset; this reduces

frustration.

The Microsoft Project schedule shown in Figure 1.7 uses the Tracking Gantt view to show the origi-

nal baseline (the bottom bar of each task) tracked against actual progress (the top bar of each task).

TIP

CROSS-REF

The Nature of Projects

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