Successful Project Management: Applying Best Practices and Real-World Techniques with Microsoft Project: Applying Best Practices, Proven Methods, and Real-World Techniques with Microsoft Project

✍ Scribed by Bonnie Biafore

• Publisher: Microsoft Press
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 464
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Learn best practices and proven methods from project management professionals—and apply these skills as you work with Microsoft® Project. In this practical guide, project management expert Bonnie Biafore shows you how to manage projects efficiently and effectively, sharing the real-world experiences of project managers in several industries. You'll learn how to put the best practices and hard-won lessons of experts to work on your critical projects.Sharpen the skills you need to manage projects expertly—from start to finishCommunicate effectively with project stakeholders, management, and team members Apply methods to break down the project into small, manageable pieces Define work assignments, choose resources, and build project schedules Accurately estimate project costs and work with a budget Identify project changes and manage risks Track progress and balance priorities without sacrificing quality Document project history and lessons learned to help improve future projects Project files available on the companion website.

✦ Table of Contents

Copyright......Page 3
Acknowledgments......Page 4
About the Author......Page 6
Contents......Page 8
Introduction......Page 20
Getting a Project Started......Page 26
What Is a Project?......Page 28
A Unique Endeavor......Page 29
Clear-Cut Start and Finish Dates......Page 30
Something’s Gotta Give......Page 31
What Is Project Management?......Page 32
Project Management Processes......Page 33
The Benefits of Project Management......Page 36
Benefits for the Project Team......Page 37
Summary......Page 38
Obtaining Approval for a Project......Page 40
Summarizing a Project......Page 41
Identifying the Problem......Page 43
Documenting the Problem......Page 45
Project Goal and Objectives......Page 46
Types of Objectives......Page 47
Characteristics of Good Objectives......Page 48
Project Strategy......Page 49
Identifying Alternatives......Page 50
Choosing the Project Strategy......Page 51
Gathering Requirements......Page 53
Deliverables......Page 55
The Scope Statement......Page 58
Preventing Scope Creep......Page 60
Assumptions and Risks......Page 61
Identifying Stakeholders......Page 64
How Planning Tasks Help Identify Stakeholders......Page 66
Project Customer......Page 67
Project Sponsor......Page 68
Functional Manager......Page 70
Team Member......Page 71
Documenting Project Stakeholders......Page 72
Obtaining and Maintaining Commitment......Page 73
The Project Charter: Publicizing a Project......Page 76
Summary......Page 78
Planning a Project......Page 80
Planning to Achieve Success......Page 82
What Is Project Planning?......Page 83
Tracking Progress......Page 84
Plans Change......Page 85
Project Planning Step by Step......Page 86
The Components of a Project Implementation Plan......Page 87
Summary......Page 91
Building a Work Breakdown Structure......Page 92
What’s a Work Breakdown Structure?......Page 93
The Benefits of a WBS......Page 96
How to Build a WBS from the Top Down......Page 97
When to Stop Building a WBS......Page 102
Recording a WBS......Page 104
Creating the WBS in Project......Page 105
Pasting Tasks into Project......Page 108
Detailing Work Packages......Page 110
Summary......Page 112
Project Resources......Page 114
The Responsibility Matrix......Page 115
Responsibility Levels......Page 116
Creating a Responsibility Matrix......Page 117
The Project Organization Chart......Page 119
Putting a Project Team Together......Page 121
Types of Resources......Page 124
Adding Resources to Project......Page 125
Resource Information......Page 129
Summary......Page 134
Building a Project Schedule......Page 136
Estimating......Page 137
Duration or Effort?......Page 139
Sensible Estimating Practices......Page 140
Top-Down Planning......Page 148
Types of Task Dependencies......Page 150
Identifying the Correct Dependency Type......Page 151
Creating Task Dependencies......Page 152
Keeping Dependencies Flexible......Page 154
Setting Specific Start and Finish Dates......Page 155
Setting Deadlines......Page 157
Types of Milestones......Page 158
Creating Milestones......Page 161
Assigning Resources in the Task Sheet......Page 162
Assigning Resources in the Task Form......Page 164
Using the Assign Resources Dialog Box......Page 167
Building Reality into a Schedule......Page 168
Accounting for Nonproject Time......Page 169
Adjusting Tasks for Resource Productivity......Page 170
Managing Part-Time Workers and Multitaskers......Page 171
Scheduling Around Nonworking Time......Page 172
The Fast-Track to an Early Finish......Page 175
Choosing Tasks to Fast-Track......Page 176
Running Tasks in Parallel......Page 177
A Crash Course on Project Crashing......Page 179
Reducing Scope......Page 182
Summary......Page 183
Working with a Budget......Page 184
Payback Period......Page 186
Net Present Value or Discounted Cash Flow......Page 187
Internal Rate of Return......Page 189
Putting Capital Budgeting into Practice......Page 190
Using a Capital Budgeting Tool......Page 191
Calculating Costs in a Project Schedule......Page 193
Specifying Rates for Work Resources in Project......Page 196
Entering Rates and Quantities for Material Resources......Page 197
Assigning a Cost Resource to a Task......Page 198
Creating Budget Resources......Page 199
Assigning Budget Resources to the Project Summary Task......Page 200
Filling in Budgeted Values......Page 201
Flagging Resources by Budget Type......Page 203
Comparing Budget Resource Values......Page 204
Exporting Costs from a Project Schedule......Page 205
Exporting Costs to an Excel File......Page 206
Summary......Page 209
Carrying Out a Project......Page 210
Executing the Project Plan......Page 212
Procuring Resources......Page 213
Soliciting Vendors......Page 214
Contracting......Page 215
Kicking Off a Project......Page 216
Approvals and Commitments......Page 217
The Project Notebook......Page 218
Project Baselines......Page 219
Summary......Page 221
Evaluating Project Performance......Page 222
The Data You Need......Page 223
Obtaining Time and Status......Page 226
Setting the Status Date......Page 228
Setting Up Project to Reschedule Incomplete Tasks......Page 229
Quickly Updating Tasks......Page 230
Recording Progress......Page 231
Recording Actual Costs......Page 234
Tracking Schedule Progress......Page 235
Reviewing Schedule Progress......Page 237
Tables with Schedule-Related Fields......Page 239
Filters for Checking Schedule Progress......Page 240
Reviewing Cost and Cost Variance......Page 241
Viewing Cost and Cost Variance......Page 242
Reporting on Project Performance......Page 244
Looking at High-Level Status......Page 245
Evaluating Cost and Work......Page 246
Earned Value Analysis: Schedule and Cost Performance......Page 248
Analyzing an Earned Value Graph......Page 249
Earned Value Performance......Page 251
Earned Value in Microsoft Project......Page 253
Modifying Excel-Based Visual Reports......Page 258
Modifying Visio-Based Visual Reports......Page 265
Summary......Page 267
Managing Project Resources......Page 268
Motivating Project Resources......Page 269
Developing a Team......Page 275
Watching for People’s Performance......Page 278
What to Do with Problem People......Page 279
Reviewing People’s Performance Compared to the Plan......Page 280
Summary......Page 282
Communicating Information......Page 284
Knowledge Is Power......Page 285
The Communication Plan......Page 286
Who Needs to Know?......Page 287
What Do You Communicate to Audiences?......Page 289
What Communication Method Should You Use?......Page 294
Building a Communication Plan......Page 297
Creating Communication Reminders......Page 298
What Is Communication?......Page 300
How to Get Messages Through......Page 302
Learning to Listen......Page 305
Guidelines for Good Meetings......Page 308
Kickoff Meetings......Page 313
Project Status Meetings......Page 314
Management Meetings......Page 315
Project Status Reports......Page 316
Taming Email......Page 318
Summary......Page 320
Controlling Projects......Page 322
Managing Project Changes......Page 324
An Overview of the Change Management Process......Page 325
The Change Request Form......Page 327
The Change Request Impact Statement......Page 329
Managing Change Requests......Page 330
Summary......Page 333
Modifying the Project Schedule......Page 334
Simplifying Solution Hunting......Page 335
Shortening a Project Schedule......Page 336
Splitting Long Tasks into Short Ones......Page 338
Adjusting Resource Allocation......Page 339
Changing Units......Page 340
Adjusting Work Contours......Page 343
Assigning Overtime......Page 344
Substituting Resources......Page 346
Saving Additional Baselines......Page 348
Viewing Multiple Baselines......Page 349
Summary......Page 350
Balancing the Budget and Other Project Variables......Page 352
Cost, Scope, Quality, and Schedule......Page 353
Balancing Acts......Page 354
Reassigning Resources......Page 355
Optimizing the Schedule......Page 357
Business Decisions......Page 359
Summary......Page 360
Managing Risk......Page 362
The Benefits of Managing Risk......Page 363
The Risk-Management Plan......Page 364
Identifying and Describing Risks......Page 367
Assessing Risks......Page 370
Choosing the Risks You’ll Manage......Page 371
Responding to Risks......Page 374
Setting Up Contingency Funds......Page 376
Tracking Risks......Page 378
Summary......Page 379
Closing Projects......Page 380
Learning Lessons......Page 382
The Importance of Lessons Learned......Page 383
Collecting Lessons Learned......Page 385
Meeting Participants and What They Do......Page 386
Ground Rules......Page 389
Documenting Lessons Learned......Page 394
Summary......Page 396
Closing a Project......Page 398
Obtaining Customer Acceptance......Page 399
Documenting the Project......Page 401
Project Closeout Reports......Page 403
Closing Out Contracts......Page 406
Transitioning Resources......Page 407
Handing Off Information......Page 408
Summary......Page 409
Archiving Historical Information......Page 410
Information to Store about Projects......Page 411
Ways to Build a Project Archive......Page 413
Summary......Page 415
Beyond Projects......Page 416
Selecting and Prioritizing Projects......Page 418
Project Selection and the Project Manager......Page 419
Criteria You Can’t Ignore......Page 420
Linking Projects to Objectives......Page 421
Risks and Opportunities......Page 422
How a Project Review Board Works......Page 423
Summary......Page 424
Other Project Management Approaches......Page 426
Defining the Critical Chain......Page 427
Using Time Buffers Effectively......Page 429
Agile Project Management......Page 431
Summary......Page 432
Glossary......Page 434
Index......Page 440