PMI Baltimore Chapter’s Virtual Meeting, April 7, 2010
Tips & Tricks for PMs & Advanced Users of MS Project
presented by David Hunsberger
Sponsored by Unisys Federal Systems
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Agenda
• 3:30 pm Call to Order/Housekeeping, Announcements & Introductions
• 3:45 pm Tips & Tricks for PMs & Advanced Users of MS Project, presented by David
Hunsberger• 4:30 pm Q&A• 4:45 pm Information on PDUs and Recorded Session• 4:55 pm Close of Meeting
Housekeeping• To prevent “noise”/feedback, either use microphone on
your laptop or phone speaker (conference bridge), don’t use both
• Do NOT put this call on HOLD• MUTE your phone/laptop unless asking a question
– Use LiveMeeting Q&A, we will monitor throughout meeting and answer questions periodically
• Pre-registration for this meeting is highly encouraged– For those PMPs who did not pre-register you will need to do
the following: • For those attending on LiveMeeting – send an email to
[email protected] with name, email address and phone number
• For those attending in person – sign in on the attendance sheet
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Announcements• April 9 PMI Baltimore Membership Survey ends
─ www.surveymonkey.com/s/CMDKFP2• May 12 Next Unisys Internal Meeting – Deltek & EVM
PMCE/CMEx Mentoring Program Graduation (after CMEx Mtg)
• May 13 Comments due for PMI Practice Standard for Estimating Exposure Draft─ http://www.pmi.org/Resources/Pages/Exposure-Drafts.aspx
• May 17 One-Day Seminar, Coaching & Inspirational Leadership, presented by Lambert Consulting, Loyola Columbia Campus – Send email by April 22 to [email protected] for chance to win FREE attendance (1 seat)
• June 2 Next PMI Baltimore Virtual Meeting, 3:30 pm EDT, Carl Pritchard’spresentation on Risk Management
• June 3 PMI WDC Golf Tournament, 1:30 pm Start, Westfields, Clifton, VA. Unisys is sponsoring this event and has a foursome. If you are interested in joining the foursome (FREE), send email to [email protected] (Unisys Federal employees only) by April 30 (must include handicap).
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Part 1 - Navigating in Large Schedules
David HunsbergerMCP – Microsoft Project (1995)
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• People Tend to Fear Large Schedules
• This Causes Them to Force Large Projects into Smaller Schedules
• Not Having Enough Detail Reduces Schedule Quality and “Power” (The “Fat Briefcase” Anecdote)
The Problem…
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• Overcome Our Fear of Large Schedules
• Navigating Our Way Around Large Schedules is Key to This
• Custom Filters are Great Navigation Aids
The Solution…
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• The “Sweet Spot” for Task Durations is Between 1 and 5 Days, Some Would Say
• Shorter and Longer Tasks May Also be Necessary (Key Meetings; “LOE” Tasks)
• Don’t Forget Milestones (Zero Duration)
Background Factors…
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Lets Look First at Filters
Some Standard Project Filters Help Here – such as the Date Range and Task Range (ID) Filters
But The Best Navigation Filters Need to Be Custom Made
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• Let’s Build a “Name Contains” Filter to find any word we choose
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Custom Filters – Go To
“Project” – “Filtered For” – “More Filters”
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This pops up a little dialogue box…
Suppose we ask for the word “Requirement” …
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Another Navigation Aide:
– Use the Show Button to Display High-Level Summary Tasks, and Drill Down from There
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Here are the results for “Outline Level 2:
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• Hands-on Demo
• End of Part 1
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Part 2 - Creating Networks (without 3rd Party Add-Ins)
–
Some Tips for Using the “Native” Network Functionality within Microsoft Project
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Two Key Menu Items to Work With
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The Defaults are Shown
~~~
Change Five Settings
Set On
Set On
Set On
Set On
Set Off
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This is where you choose which fields go in the network boxes
The default shapes need some tweaking to save space
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Edit this to pick which fields go in the template
Notice the strange field names – these are custom composites
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Finally – This is where the fields are set
But wait – I need to go even deeper…
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One more layer deep to set the general characteristics of the boxes
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How do I customize the contents of a field? ID + UID
Codes for:• “Start No
Earlier” Constraint,
• No Pred, • No Succ
Lead + Responsible Organization
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One more layer deep to set the general characteristics of the boxes
How do I customize the contents of a field?
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• Hands-on Demo
• End of Part 2
Q & A
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PDU Info for Today’s PMI BC Virtual Meeting
• PDU Category = Category 3• Category Type = Report a Component 1-2 PDU Event• PDU Number: C078-100407
– Component ID – C078 (In Step 2, enter ONLY C078 and click on it – it’s a link)
– Activity Meeting Number = 100407• Activity Name = April 2010 PMI Baltimore Chapter Virtual Meeting• Number of PDUs = 1 PDU• POC: Loretta Letke, PMP, PMI Baltimore Chapter VP, Membership• Phone Number: 443-756-9295• Email: [email protected]
• TIP: Take a screen shot of this information
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