Multi-level Undo in Microsoft Project 2007

Fantastic improvement to Project 2007, very happy thank you Microsoft. The default undo levels is set to 20 and can be changed up to 99. Not sure what effect 99 levels would have on performance, I wouldn't imagine too much at all, however nice to know it can be changed under Tools -> Options... -> Undo levels:

Now I can undo and redo to my heart's content while watching the changes to my schedule, very cool.

PWA now stands for Project Web App – or does it…?

I’ve seen a post from Microsoft on January 15 announcing this, however I’ve seen a few other posts since then where PWA has been referenced as Project Web Access again… I’m a little confused, does anyone know which one is the source of the truth?

Just on this subject, someone mentioned to me technically it could be referred to as a site collection instead of an app. Not that I’m about to lobby for change, but I wonder if anyone else had any thoughts about this…?

Baseline - staying on top of it

Another great habit to get into is to always have the current baseline set to 'Baseline'. There are a couple of good reasons for this:

1. By default, Project's Earned Value options are set to use Baseline for Earned Value calculations.

2. Let's say you have multiple projects on the go, and you are revisiting a project you haven't seen for a couple of days... "which baseline is this one at, baseline 1, 2 or was it 4??? After you've updated your actuals, and about to set a new baseline, first copy the outdated baseline into the next available baseline slot, and save your new baseline into Baseline. This way, through force of habit, you'll always know Baseline is the correct, current Baseline. To do this in Project 2007:

Tools -> Tracking -> Set Baseline...
Select Set interim plan
Change the Copy: drop down menu to Baseline
Change the Into: drop down menu to Baseline 1
Click OK

As pictured here:

Then:

Tools -> Tracking -> Set Baseline...
Select Set baseline
Click OK

The following message will appear, overwriting the old baseline is ok as it's been copied into Baseline 1.

Click Yes

Specify an overtime rate, even if you think you won't use it.

When setting up costs for a work resource, always enter an overtime rate as well as a standard rate, even if it is at the same rate.  What happens if you allocate a work resource some overtime, perhaps in order to fix a scheduling issue, and the resource's overtime rate is $0.00... ? Budget blow-out potential here, but may be avoided if you can get into this habit.