Datasheet

25
Chapter 1: Project Management: What It Is, and Why You Should Care
Figure 1-10:
Use the
Project
Information
dialog box
for some
basic proj-
ect settings.
✓ Set the finish date for the project. Especially if you have a drop-dead
date (an attention-getting term!) beyond which the project cannot
wander and still reach on-time completion, you can set the finish date. In
such a case, be sure to look at the next setting in this list — and change
it accordingly.
✓ Schedule from the start or finish of the project. Most projects work
forward from the start date. However, if you have an absolute drop-
dead date for the end of your project (for example, if you’re organizing
a sports event that must occur on New Year’s Day next year), you may
want to set the finish date and then work backward to fit all your tasks
into the allotted length of time. (Because under certain circumstances
this method schedules tasks as late as possible, it can be tricky to use
it and get an accurate schedule.) If you change this setting to Project
Finish Date, the Finish Date field becomes available.
✓ Set the current date. Project can fill in the current date according to
your computer calendar. Or, you can choose another date if you like,
but that usually doesn’t make much sense unless you’re in a different
time zone from where the project will occur.
✓ Set a status date. By default, no status date is set for the project. You
use a status date when you’re tracking the progress of your project at
regular intervals. If you set a status date, your computer assumes that
any activity you record in your project is being tracked as of this date.
(This is particularly important to ensure Project accurately calculates
some values, such as the ultra-wonky earned value, a statistic I explain
to you in Chapter 14.) You can find out more about this feature in
Chapters 12, 13, and 14.
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