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Microsoft Project is not like Microsoft Excel and Word, even though it is marketed in the same Office "family" as these other tools. Project has a lot of in built though processes which you need to understand; otherwise it appears to do really "wacky" things (and sometimes even if you think you finally have understood one little bit of it .. something else will happen which will appear - at first (sometimes, second, third or fourth) look wacky).

If you already know any Microsoft Office applications you're most of the way to understanding how to work the software but that just barely scratches the surface of knowing how to use it correctly to create project schedules that have any bearing on reality whatsoever.

Microsoft Project is a tool for people knowledgeable, involved, and trained in Project Management. To use Microsoft Word, you do not need to be a professional writer to know and use everything there is in Word. This is absolutely not the case with Project. Just because Project is in the “Office” family of products, it is not easy to use when one does not know how to use it.

To use Project successfully (or even at all) you must have a clear understanding of the principles and discipline of formal project management practices, especially CPM (critical path method) and PERT (programme evaluation and review technique) methodologies, lest you rapidly paint yourself into a corner.

You will find that a good training course will prove the most economical approach both in terms of time and cost. Take time and budge to get the right training; or bulk up your library with materials and take the time for self study on project management.

The very first reference to add to your library whether you enrol in classes or not doesn't even mention Microsoft Project except in a footnote and that's the Guide to the Project Management Body Of Knowledge, also known as the PMBOK.

See http://www.microsoft.com/technet
/prodtechnol/project/project2002/training
/prj02trn.mspx#XSLTsection122121120120 for free training modules available from Microsoft
Read the Microsoft Project MVP Frequently asked questions at http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm
Read Mike Glenn's series of lessons on Microsoft Project at http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009
/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
See the Recommended Books (below).

Recommended Books

	Project Management Institute Book of Knowledge
	Provides complete and detailed information about Microsoft Project 2003. (Click on Picture at left to see more information about this book at Amazon.co.uk).
	Tim Pyron covers all aspects of Microsoft Project.

Click here to see other books at Amazon on Microsoft Project.

The 10 things MS Project (Or any PM software) will not do for you...

By Mark Durrenberger, PMP Principal, Oak Associates, Inc, www.oakinc.com "Advancing the Theory and Practice of Project Management"

10. It will not make your team members plan,
9. It will not improve the estimates you get from your people,
8. It will not force people into meeting unreasonable deadlines,
7. It will not provide you with additional resources
6. It will not remove the bugs from your product
5. It will not discover the scope you missed
4. It will not de-scope your project to meet budget
3. It will not negotiate with management for a new date
2. It will not always tell you good news and

and...

1. It will not turn you into a project manager.

If you use this, please reference me and my company.

Return on Investment Cost Savings

Time saved by automating reports currently being created manually by the project manager.
Accuracy of the data versus scrubbed data by Project Manager's being presented as actual data to Executive sponsors
Justification of new resources based on the ability to see enterprise views of project costs and resource allocations
Everyone across the enterprise seeing the same data
Reduction of time tracking into fewer (one?) system

Creating Your Plan

When you are building your first plan:

Enter all task names. If you plan to assign several people to one task, you can do this but, initially it is best to enter one task for every person assigned to it. So, if you have five people doing documentation, create five tasks and assign one person to task1, a different person to task2, and so on. You will find this easier to track later on.
Enter all Work -- work is the number of hours of WORK.
Enter all durations -- duration is the number of hours (or days) during which the WORK will be done. many people confuse Work and Duration.

Example: I can ask you to build a plan (24 hours of work) and give you two weeks to do it (2 weeks duration) because I know you are going to be doing other things.
Enter the dependencies.
Create your resources (View | Resource Sheet) and then go back to the Gantt view and assign your resources.
Review the plan and change resource assignments (to remove over-allocations), dependencies and durations until you feel you have optimized your plan.

Please note: I never told you to enter dates. Entering dates creates constraints. You want as few of these as possible.

Order of Information Enter

Project Information (do before first task)

Project Information dialogue box
Tools, Options, Calendar
Tools, Working Time, Standard Calendar

Tasks

Durations (if you can, if not see below about work)
Constraints
Links

Percent Complete

Project computes [Percent Complete] when you enter data such as Actual Work or Remaining Work; in other words, when you change the completed part of a task, it is updated.

Tip: Never enter %complete (except 0 or 100), i.e. to let Project calculate it.

Percent complete for a summary task is a calculated value and is subjective at best depending on how the subtasks under the summary are laid out (i.e. sequential, overlapping, lag, etc.).

However the basic method Project uses to calculate % complete at a summary line is as follows: Take the % complete for each subtask and multiply by that subtask duration. Add those values up (A). Next add up the durations of all subtasks (B). Percent complete at the summary line is the ratio (expressed as a percent) of the two summed values (A/B x 100%)

How to make a Hammock Task

A "hammock" task is dependent on external dates for both its start and finish dates and, ultimately, its duration. The name, hammock task, is derived from the way a hammock's shape is determined by the distance between the points to which it is attached.

As scheduled dates in other tasks change, the duration and start and/or finish dates of the hammock task change as well. In other words, given three tasks A, B, and C, task B must start on some date from task A (date A) and task B must finish on some date from task C (date C).

To build a hammock task between two other tasks, follow these steps:

Create or determine three tasks that correspond to A, B, and C in the example above.
Highlight the cell that contains date A (the date that will determine when task B starts).
On the Edit menu, click Copy (Cell).
Highlight the cell that contains the Start date for task B (the hammock task).
On the Edit menu, click Paste Special, and click Paste Link.
Highlight the cell that contains Date C (the date that will determine when task B finishes).
On the Edit menu, click Copy (Cell).
Click the cell that contains the Finish date for task B (the hammock task).
click Edit, click Paste Special, and click Paste Link.

See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;141733

Resources

Resource Calendars
Assignments with their Units
If you have not set durations, now enter work

Report Customisation

Don't waste time trying to customize a report. When you're in a rush, the easiest thing to do is use filter, group and sort functions to get the information you want. Then you can export the information to another application (Visio, Word, Excel, etc.) and create a report from there.

Or you can simply print out the filtered, grouped or sorted info. To get the information you need, try this - go to an assignment view (task usage or resource usage) and Filter For, Date Range. Specify the dates you want and get to your meeting on time.

Troubleshooting

MPP File is Corrupted

PRJ: How to Troubleshoot Corrupted .MPP Project Files

Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 318438

Leveling Not Resolving Resource Over-allocations

1. There are a few instances where Project's leveling will not, and cannot, resolve over-allocations. Leveling only resolves over-allocations originating from the simultaneity of several task. If one task has a resource assigned to it for more than the resource's max units, leveling does not act;

2. Leveling does not move actual work nor tasks with a constraint "MUST... " or "Finish No later than";

3. Leveling does not move tasks with a priority of 1000;

4. Leveling's action may be restricted by checking the box for "Level only within available slack"

Microsoft Project Articles on Microsoft TechNet - Updated Articles

Using or researching Microsoft Project? Microsoft TechNet is a clearinghouse of resources to help you deploy, maintain, and support Project 2000 and Project 2002.

Some of the articles recently posted include:

Microsoft Project Internet Sites

Microsoft Newsgroups

Microsoft Corporation sponsors publicly available newsgroups focusing on Microsoft Project. These newsgroups area available as of December 2003 on any newsgroup server that chooses to takes the "feed". You can also use Microsoft's publicly available newsgroup server msnews.microsoft.com for these particular newsgroups.

microsoft.public.project

Miscellaneous Microsoft Project concerns including project management discussion and posts previously posted to microsoft.public.project2000, microsoft.public.project2000.projectcentral, and microsoft.public.project.standard_and_server.

microsoft.public.project.server

Microsoft Project Server concerns including posts previously posted to microsoft.public.project.pro_and_server and microsoft.public.project.standard_and_server.

microsoft.public.project.developer

Microsoft Project Developer concerns including posts previously posted to microsoft.public.project.vba.