Plan and track costs more effectively

Did you know there is a new resource type in Project 2007 called a Cost resource?

It allows you to plan and track project costs not related to a resource or material.  Here's how to create a cost resource in Project 2007 and Project 2010.

1. Open the Resource Sheet
2. Create a new resource called Travel Cost
3. Change the value in the Type column to Cost

Now assign this resource to any task (or number of tasks) to plan and track actual cost against a particular task, which is totally independent of any resource or material assigned to the task - great huh?

What if there was a way to capture the approved budget cost for a project, which was independant of forcast and and actual cost, just so you know (and it's not a task note) Stay tuned for future blogs to find out more...

What just changed - I wasn't looking!!

Isn't that one of those frustrations when you're teaching yourself how to use Project? You change something hit enter and a whole lot of other stuff changes in the schedule and you have no idea why?

The first thing I'd suggest is to invest the time and money (if you can spare either) in some good MS Project training. If you can't spare either, on your self-guided path to enlightenment you might want to check out Change Highlighting. This is what happens when you change something in your schedule and immediately after the change some cells are automatically highlighted blue. This is called Change Highlighting. Here's how to switch on:

Project 2007
Format -> Text Styles... -> Item to Change: Changed Cells -> OK

Project 2010
Gantt Chart Tools Format tab -> Text Styles button -> Item to Change: Changed Cells -> OK

It's also possible to add the Change Highlighting button to the ribbon in 2010, but that'll be content for a future blog...

Enjoy!

Project 2010 - Setting a Baseline

Baselines provide the basis for comparison of schedule and budget performance as the project is executed. The initial baseline should be set once the plan is realistic, finalised and approved. Only then is a plan ready to track actual progress against it.

To set a baseline:

1. In the ribbon on the Project tab, within the Schedule group of commands, click set baseline -> set baseline. 

The Baseline value (without any number) will always represent the current baseline.


2. Making sure Set Baseline and Entire Project are set, clicking OK sets the Baseline.

3. Notice as the baseline is now set the values of the start, finish, baseline start and baseline finish  columns are now the same.

Exam Prep 70-632 - Configuring Project 2007

Remove information from file properties on save Tools -> Options -> Remove information from file properties removed the author’s, manager’s and company name and last save information. This option is not selected by default and only applies to the project open when this option is selected.

Tracking resources overtime work
Adding the actual overtime work field to the resource usage view allows tracking of the amount of overtime worked by resources in project.

Tracking actual progress
Actual progress is tracked by indicating the percent of completed task (% complete) field. When this field is updated the values for actual duration and remaining duration are automatically updated.

Changing the timescale in current view
Clearing the use fiscal year settings in the timescale box only changes the settings for the current view. To change the settings for all views configure the settings via Options -> Calendar.

The View Table: Schedule
Shows start, finish, late start, late finish, free slack and total slack.

A few Project 2007 Key Terms

...from the MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (70-632) Managing Projects with Microsoft Office Project 2007

Decomposition
Referred to as the process of breaking down the WBS into small work packages. This is considered to be the first step in creating a project, to create work packages. These are considered to be the smallest sets of work a project can be broken down into.

Bottom-up Planning
One way to plan a project, in this method you define all the tasks you want to include in the work breakdown structure first and later group them into larger summary tasks.

Ghost task
A task which act acts as a placeholder in your project plan file and links to tasks outside the project in which it is held.

Import/export map
A group of settings and rules which tell project how to import or export data from or to another application. These rules help map data from on application to another by letting you define what field in one application will map to another field in a second application.

Network diagram
A graphical representation of a project which focuses on task relationships. Each box in the network diagram view displays details about a task, and lines show tasks’ relationships to one another. The Network Diagram most closely represents the PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) view.

Organisational Breakdown structure (OBS)
A project organisation framework for identification of accountability, responsibility, management and approvals of all authorised work scope.

Organizer
Available from the tools menu, a tool which offers tabs including views, groups, fields, reports, and more. You can use organiser to copy custom filters and groups to the global template.

PERT formula
A formula used to calculate the estimated duration of a task based on an optimistic duration, a pessimistic duration and an expected duration. The PERT furmula is:

• Estimated Duration = ((Optimistic + Pessimistic + (4*Expected))/6

Top down planning
One way to plan a project. In this method you define all of the larger, summary tasks you want to include in the work breakdown structure first and later break down the tasks into subtasks.

Free slack
The amount of time a task can fall behind, be delayed, or slip and not affect other tasks in the schedule.

Total slack
The amount of time a task can slip without affecting the project schedule.

Work Breakdown structure (WBS)
An outline of the project using summary tasks and subtasks to help you plan a project. The WBS is organised using the entry table and is a basic project outline that describes all the tasks that must be completed for the project to finish.

Work package
An accountable unit of work listed inside the WBS.

Project Server 2007 & Project 2007 – Some Technical ‘Need to Knows’

• Project Standard 2007 can’t connect to Project Server.
• Only Project Professional 2007 can connect to Project Server 2007.
• Project Professional 2007 is not compatible with Project Professional 2003 or earlier versions.
• Project Server 2007 approval workflows require MOSS to function. 

Basic Project Server 2007 install includes:

• Windows Server
• SQL Server
• SQL Analysis Server
• WSS (Windows SharePoint Services)
• IIS (Internet Information Services)
• .NET Framework.

Great competitive advantage is the expanse of the Microsoft Office platform and the SharePoint collaborative platform. There are a huge range of solutions here to leverage from.

There are 2 primary installation types for Project Server 2007:

• Stand alone – This installation type provides limited functionality and scalability, however it installs onto a single server using default settings and SQL Server express 2005. It does not activate all enterprise capabilities and it does not support analysis services.
• Server Farm – This installation type requires full version of SQL Server 2005, specifically dependant on Microsoft database technologies.

Microsoft does not recommend a single-box deployment. In fact, aim for separation between the application and database environments for better stability and maintenance. 4 servers, load balanced with failover capability will result in a high-availability environment, this is the recommended setup.

Project Server 2007 has 4 databases used to represent and manage project data (instead of 1 previously), these are:

• Draft – where all plans and change to plans are saved until the PM explicitly publishes the project. Information here is not viewable in PWA.
• Published – viewable in PWA contains enterprise resources, global records, global templates, security and timesheet information.
• Archive – Backup plans and other backed up objects.
• Reporting – written to on publish of project data. De-normalised for ease of data mining. Near-real time information provided for reports. 

There are also 2 WSS Databases:

• WSS Configuration – this is required for Project Server 2007 and defines the WSS Farm.
• WSS Content – Holds all SharePoint content for Project Server 2007.

Project Server 2007 – What happens when a Project Plan is saved?

Here’s a brief overview of what happens at various stages through a project plans’ lifecycle on Project Server 2007:

• When a project manager saves a draft plan, the draft plan is saved to the draft Project Server database.
• When the project plan is published it is saved to the publishing Project Server database and is also written to Project Server’s reporting database.
• Members of the project team make updates to the plan and save their changes, these changes are saved in Project Server’s draft database (pending approval from the PM before being published)
• The PM accepts the team’s updates and changes and publishes the plan, the approved changes only are written to the publishing and reporting databases
• The plan is available for view to others via Project Server’s Project Centre.