SHAREPOINT AND PROJECT CONFERENCE ADRIATICS 2013

ZAGREB, NOVEMBER 27-28 2013

It’s Not A Bug. It’s A Feature!IGOR SLIŠKOVIĆ, PROTERON CONSULTING

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About The Presentation• Motive: experiencing the same pattern over and over

again – MS Project is used for developing initial schedule and is later forgotten (apart from printed Ghantt chart over PM’s desk)• Diagnose: Key MS Project features are contra intuitive. • Prescription: Show and teach a few basic principles in

schedule development and tracking that represent the best practice• The Goal: give you more time managing your project

and less time managing MS Project• KPI: never to hear from participants of this session the

sentence so common –” MS Project doesn’t calculate correctly when …”• Format: mostly demonstration (8 slides and 4

demonstrations)

Sequence Of Activities

WBS Developme

ntTask Entry Task

SequencingAssigning Resources

Tracking Actuals

Tracking Project Status

Closing Project

BAD HABITS 1 – TASK CONSTRAINTS

Theorem

We will let Project do the scheduling. We will just provide

necessary information.

Flexible Constraints And Deadlines• Three types of constraints:

• Flexible (As Soon As Possible, As Late As Possible)• Semi Flexible (Start No Earlier Than, Finish No …)• Inflexible (Must Start On, Must Finish On)

• USE ONLY FLEXIBLE CONSTRAINTS: setting fixed date on the task in your schedule doesn’t help it to happen in reality. Actually, it makes your schedule static and increases the risk of missing some dates• Deadlines: compromise for the fixed data problem

• Clear indication that we are late • Keeping the schedule dynamic

• [GO BACK TO DEMO AND SHOW HOW IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE]

BAD AND GOOD HABITS - RESOURCES

Resources• Never change start and finish date of a task because of

the resource availability or over allocation• Use• Resource Calendar• Leveling delay (indirectly used with MS Project commands)

• [Semi Best Practice] If possible, use one resource one task rule• Yes, in Project Server environment, resource calendar

exceptions can be integrated with HR or other applications managing resource availability.• Even Exchange Out Of Office can be used as a source of

exception!!

Tracking Progress - Introduction• What are we tracking?• Hours spent by a resource on a task• How close are we to finishing the task

• Do we track when exactly the time was spent on the task?• What “how close to finish means”• How many days will it take?• How much work will it take?

• What are we measuring success against?• Baseline

• What does % Complete field mean?

TRACKING PROGRESS

Tracking progress• Don’t use % Complete as your standard

• Doesn’t set Actual Start other than planned• Cannot show the task is late• Might use it as a shortcut

• Always have at least 2 baselines: initial and current. Saving new baseline is done as a part of the controlled process.• If you use Project Server use Work done per period (timephased)• Keep your schedule neat – no remaining work in the past and

actual work in future.

Reporting On Progress• What if you notice that:• You are under budget?• More resources have been used on your project than planned

by that day?

Is it a good or a bad thing?

Dont’ know – use Earned Value

EARNED VALUE – (IF TIME PERMITS)

questions?

thank you.

SHAREPOINT AND PROJECT CONFERENCE ADRIATICS 2013

ZAGREB, NOVEMBER 27-28 2013