How to optimize your schedule?

How to optimize your schedule?
In this post, we would look at the first step of optimizing the schedule - Critical path.

Duration of the project can be reduced by shortening the timeframe of the critical path.

What is critical path?
Critical path shows the tasks to be completed on schedule in order to complete the project to finish on schedule. These tasks are called as 'critical tasks'

How to identify the critical path?
You can view the critical path by turning on the Gantt Chart Wizard.
1. Open View menu and select Gantt Chart
2. Click Gantt Chart Wizard from Formatting toolbar or choose Format > Gantt Chart Wizard
3. Gantt Chart Wizard dialog box is shown
4. Click Next and choose "Critical Path"
5. Choose "Finish"

What do you observe?All the tasks in the project appear, but critical tasks appear in red.

How to change the non-critical or critical tasks color?
To format the bar styles …
1. Choose Format > Bar Styles.
2. Bar Styles dialog box is displayed.
3. Select 'Task' for non-critical task or 'Critical Task' for critical task.
4. Change the color by selecting the 'Bar' tab at the bottom of the dialog box.

Next Post: How to optimize your schedule by crashing activities?

Quote: "Yesterday is a canceled check; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the only cash you have - so spend it wisely" - Kay Lyons

Webinar: How to create tasks in Microsoft Project 2003?

Date: 07 Oct 2007
Time: 7.00pm to 8.00pm IST(GMT+5.30hrs)

Interested? Mail to Sai

Zoho App would be used for presentation.
Gizmo would be used for voip and conference calling.

Conference number would be provided in this blog by 6.30 PM IST.

How to view the dependencies between activities in your schedule?

How to view the dependencies between activities in your schedule?

In this post, you would find an important view provided by Microsoft Project to view dependencies between activities in your schedule.

Network Diagram: To evaluate the execution of tasks in your project and to check their dependencies choose View > Network Diagram.

Observation:

1. Each node in the network diagram represents a task of the project and contains task id, task name, duration and the resources assigned, if any.
2. Thickness and color of each node indicates, whether it is a critical task or not
· Red colored node is a critical task
· Blue colored node is a non-critical task
3. Shape of each node indicates what type of task it is.
· Rectangle shaped node is a normal task
· Parallelogram shaped node is a summary task
· Diamond shaped node is a milestone
4. Lines between nodes represent its dependencies.
· Successor task appears on the right of a task
· Predecessor task appears on the left of a task

Customize:

Change view to Network Diagram and to …

1. Filter tasks
· Choose Project > Filtered for and select the appropriate filter
2. Group tasks
· Choose Project > Group to see the list of groups available
3. Show task dependency type and link arrows
· Choose Format > Layout
· Under Link style, select Show arrows and Show link labels checkboxes
4. Hide summary tasks
· Choose Format > Layout
· Clear "Keep tasks with their summaries" checkbox
5. Change link style
· Choose Format > Layout
· Under Link style, click Rectilinear or Straight

What to know more?
1. Use mouse shortcuts in the Network Diagram view, click here
2. Adjust page breaks in Network diagram view, click here

Next Post: How to optimize your schedule by crashing activities?

Quote: "When your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt." - Henry J. Kaiser

How to share views, tables, forms, reports, calendars across projects?

How to share views, tables, forms, reports, calendars across projects?

In this post, you would find how the following elements can be shared among projects
1. Fields
2. Groups
3. Calendars
4. Toolbars
5. Maps
6. Forms
7. Tables
8. Filters
9. Views
10. Reports
11. Modules

Microsoft Project uses the Organizer to help you share the elements more among projects.

1. To display the Organizer, choose Tools > Organizer (or) choose Views > More Views … Organizer.
2. When a blank project created, its elements are copied from Global template (Global.mpt). So, any custom elements created in your project can be copied to Global template using Organizer.
a. Choose the appropriate tab in Organizer, say "Calendar"
b. Select the element(s) to be copied from the active project on the right hand side
c. Ensure "Global.mpt" is selected under "Calendars available:" on the left hand side.
d. Choose "<< Copy"

3. If element(s) needs to be copied from your active project to another project, then
a. Open the both the projects, say "eShop Application" and "Inventory Management" in Microsoft Project
b. Select the active project, say "eShop Application" by choosing Window > "eShop Application"
c. Open Organizer and choose the elements to be copied on the right hand side
d. Select the target MPP file under "Calendars available:" on the left hand side
e. Choose "<< Copy"

Next Post: How to view the dependencies between activities in your schedule?

Quote: "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." - Theodore Roosevelt

How to assign codes to tasks that are not tied to the outline structure?

Last post (visit http://onlyaboutprojectmanagement.blogspot.com/), we saw how WBS codes can be used effectively to number the tasks in your project. If you don't want the WBS codes to change, even if you move tasks around then use Outline Codes.  Benefit of Outline codes is, it is customizable and it is not tied to the outline structure of your project.

To define outline code,

1. Choose Tools > Customize > Fields. Project displays the Customize Fields dialog box.
2. Click the Customize Outline Codes tab.
3. Choose an outline code to customize and click "Define Code Mask …" button. This displays the Outline Code Definition dialog box.

4. For each level in outline, do the below steps.
4.1. Sequence: In the Sequence column, select the type of character that you want to use for each level of the outline code. If you choose Characters (unordered), Project inserts an asterisk at that position of the outline code.
4.2. Length of Outline Code part: Select the list box in length column and choose the length of the level of Outline code.
4.3. Separator: In the separator column, use the list box to select period (.), dash (-), plus (+) or slash (/) or any character that is not number or a letter

5. To restrict the use of outline codes to a specific list, click the "Edit Lookup Table …" button. This displays the Edit Lookup Table dialog box
6. Provide the list of values allowed for Level 1, Level 2, till Level N. Use the Indent button (right arrow) at the top of the dialog box to outline the levels provided and click on "Close" button
7. Click OK to finish.

In Gantt chart view,

1. Insert the "Outline Code1" column, to select (or) provide the outline code for each task.
2. You will see a list box arrow; if you asked Microsoft Project to restrict the outline codes provided.

Next post:  How to share views, tables, forms, reports, calendars across projects?

"Power" Quote:  Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power. - Tao Te Ching

How to define WBS Codes in Microsoft Project?

How to define and assign WBS Codes?

1. Choose Project > WBS > Define Code. Project displays the WBS Code Definition dialog box. Code preview box shows you the format of the WBS code that you’re designing as you design it.
2. WBS Code Prefix: Use the Project Code Prefix box to apply a prefix to all WBS codes that you assign. For example, you may want to use the initials of the project name.
3. For each level in WBS, do the below steps.
3.1. Sequence: In the Sequence column, select the type of character that you want to use for each level of the WBS code. If you choose Characters (unordered), Project inserts an asterisk at that position of the WBS code.
3.2. Length of WBS Code part: Select the list box in length column and choose the length of the level of WBS code.
3.3. Separator: In the separator column, use the list box to select period (.), dash (-), plus (+) or slash (/) or any character that is not number or a letter
4. Check Generate WBS Codes for new tasks and Verify uniqueness of new WBS codes checkbox
5. Click OK to finish.
For example, WBS code is defined with a mask of Numbers (Ordered) Length 1, Numbers (Ordered) Length 1, and Characters (Unordered) length 2. While entering the WBS code for a task in second-level, you would initially see a WBS of 1.1.**. This can be later changed to 1.1.ab

By default, the WBS code does not appear in Gantt Chart view; to view it add the WBS column.

Problems with WBS Codes
1. They don't automatically renumber themselves when you change the structure of project outline
For example, AM-04.1 Request Purchase Order task comes under AM-04 Order Food summary task.

When, AM-04.1 Request Purchase Order task is promoted to its parent level its WBS code is regenerated to the next available WBS code (AM-08)

2. If you want to renumber them, then choose Project > WBS > Renumber.

Next post: How to assign codes to tasks that are not tied to the outline structure?

blogger.sai.june.wbs: Yes. It is about Work Breakdown Structure

History:
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) was initially developed by the U.S. defense establishment, and it is described in Military Standard (MIL-STD) 881B (25 Mar 93) as follows: “A work breakdown structure is a product-oriented family tree composed of hardware, software, services, data and facilities …. [it] displays and defines the product(s) to be developed and/or produced and relates the elements of work to be accomplished to each other and to the end product(s).”

(Simple) Definition:
A project can be made more manageable by breaking it down into individual components that together are known as WBS. Thus, it is a result-oriented family structure that captures all the work of a project in an organized way. It answers “what” of the project rather than the “who”, “how” or “when” part of the project. That is, it is a clear description of the project deliverables and scope, and not a description of the process or the schedule of the project.
It facilitates other project management processes such as estimation, scheduling, resource allocation and even risk analysis of the project.

Is WBS process-oriented or product-oriented?
Though the initial definition of WBS was to create a product-oriented family structure, subsequently it was made flexible to support process-oriented family structure. WBS can be built using verbs or nouns. If the results of the project are more of verbs then a verb-based (or process-based) WBS is recommended.

WBS Design Principles
100% Rule: Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures (Second Edition), published by the Project Management Institute (PMI) defines the 100% Rule as follows:
The 100% Rule…states that the WBS includes 100% of the work defined by the project scope and captures ALL deliverables – internal, external, interim – in terms of the work to be completed, including project management. … The rule applies at all levels within the hierarchy: the sum of the work at the “child” level must equal 100% of the work represented by the “parent” and the WBS should not include any work that falls outside the actual scope of the project, that is, it cannot include more than 100% of the work… It is important to remember that the 100% rule also applies to the activity level. The work represented by the activities in each work package must add up to 100% of the work necessary to complete the work package.

Focus on planned outcomes and not planned actions
Best approach to adhere to 100% rule is to define the WBS elements in terms of outcomes or results, rather than in actions. In product development, the hierarchy is made up of components that make up an item and hence called product breakdown structure. When the work is divided by phases, it must be ensured each phase is clearly separated by deliverables with entry and exit criteria defined.

Mutually exclusive elements
In addition to 100% rule, it is important there is no overlap between in “what” needs to be achieved by two elements in WBS. If there is an ambiguity, it may result in duplicated work or miscommunication. This can be avoided, by mantaining a WBS dictionary. The dictionary describes each WBS element with scope, deliverables, activities, resources and even dates.

WBS Coding Scheme
WBS elements are numbered sequentially to reveal the hierarchy structure. For example blogger.sai.june.wbs, indicates this post is for the month of June submitted by sai in blogger. WBS codes can be letters and numbers (or even combination) that helps to identify the relationship among the tasks and organizes the project.

Baseline your schedule

What is a baseline schedule?
It is the target to aim for! It is recommended to have the baseline unchanged through out the project, unless an approved change request demands a change.

What does the scheduler do when I do a baseline?
Once baselined, baseline version of a schedule contains only five task-related fields - baseline start, baseline end, baseline duration, baseline work and baseline cost. Apart from this resource and assignment related fields are also baselined.

How many baselines are supported in MS Project 2003?
You can have a maximum of 11 baselines and 10 interim plans.

What is an interim plan? It sounds like, only some fields are copied but it is not a baseline.
Certainly yes. Interim plans (Start1/Finish1 through Start10/Finish10) can contain only start and finish date fields. You can copy a set into any other set ant any time. Warning! don’t copy to your current schedule, as it affects duration and work fields.

How to baseline my current schedule?
1. Choose Tools, Tracking, Save Baseline. The Save Baseline dialog appears.
2. If this is your first baseline, then choose Save Baseline and click OK button 3. If you have changed your schedule due to an approved change, then
3a. Select Save Interim Plan and select under Copy the current Baseline and under Into the next available set of baseline fields. If this is your first revision, then it would be Baseline1.
3b. Click OK button; now the current date on which you copied the baseline is captured in the name of the baseline.
3c. Now select the tasks affected by the change request in Gantt table. These can be:
> Newly inserted tasks
> Dependency change on existing tasks
> Change in duration, work, start date and end date of existing tasks
3d. Repeat step 1.
3e. Select the option For: Selected tasks
3f. Under Roll up baselines, check the two options To all summary tasks and From subtasks into selected summary tasks.
3g. Click OK button.

What does To all summary tasks and From subtasks into selected summary tasks indicated in step 3f mean?
To all summary tasks: Check this option to update baseline information on all the higher-level summary tasks of the detail tasks selected.

From subtasks into selected summary tasks: Check this option to update only the summary tasks that you selected.

If Review Design document detailed task end date is changed due to approved change request which inturn affects its Design summary task end date, then select the Review Design document task and check To all summary tasks to ask MS Project to recalculate the start date and end date of all summary tasks containing this detailed tasks.

If you have not checked both the options, then the selected Review Design document detailed task will only be baselined without affecting its summary task. After baselinining, you can correct it by selecting the affected summary task, say Design, and baselining again with From subtasks into selected summary tasks checked.

Divide and Rule! The WBS Mantra

The scope of a project is to deliver the product, service or result that satisfies the real needs of the Client and ONLY the real needs of the Client.

How do you do that!

First step in scheduling is to break the project product into (measurable, verifiable and assignable) deliverables, which defines the scope of the project.

You can achieve this by creating a work breakdown structure (WBS). As per PMBOK®, a WBS should be deliverable oriented logical break down structure and also a WBS with only phases and activities without deliverables is NOT a WBS.

So, first identify the deliverables in your project. If your project is small, then it is easier to identify the deliverables. Otherwise, you can break the project into time-phased phases (first-level) - also called as stages - and then further break down the phases into deliverables.

Now, the next step is to identify the tasks to accomplish the deliverables. In top-down approach, you should identify the deliverables first and then determine all the tasks and only those tasks to accomplish the deliverables. In bottom-up approach, you should brainstorm to identify the tasks first and then group them under their deliverables.

Which approach is best?

Both are successful. If you are new to WBS, use the bottom-up approach otherwise use the top-down approach. If you have used top-down approach to create the WBS, then use bottom-up to validate the completeness.

A good WBS should satisfy the below rules

1. Your WBS should be have more than one level

2. There should not be any overlap between the phases, between the deliverables or between the activities

3. Each element in the hierarchy should relate and only relate to its higher level element

Remember, a WBS specifies explicitly what should be done and implicitly what should NOT be done.

PMBOK® - A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, published by PMI® .

How to name a task?

It is a well written fact that identifying the tasks of work break down structure (WBS) is a key activity in project itself. Though we need to agree most of the project managers pay a lot of efforts in creating the WBS, some of them oversight the names given to the tasks.

So, I am starting my first post with how to name a task.

Looks simple, isn’t it?

Name of task communicates a lot to stakeholders – client, sponsor, management, team members, quality groups, and more.

Follow the below FIVE point rule for effective work breakdown structure

1. Task should be focused enough to provide a tangible verifiable deliverable.
2. Task should be executable by set of resource(s) without any interruption. This improves their productivity.
3. Each summary task should have at least one milestone. As, each summary task maps to major deliverable or phase and we need to have activities to track its interim and final deliverables.
4. Effort of a task is recommended to be between 8 hours to 80 hours. As if it is below 8 hours or above 80 hours, is difficult to manage and track progress.
5. Task should follow the standard naming convention governed by the performing organization quality policies

Summary Task: Should start with a noun. An example, Construction
Normal Task: Should start with a verb. An example, Prepare high level design
Milestone: Should indicate a point in time. An example, User Acceptance Testing Sign off

My Blogs Aim

World -

I am starting this blog about project management in an attempt to understand how successful projects succeded and how failed projects falied. These projects could be from any industry, as we more look at the lessons learnt for delivering solutions or products within budget and within schedule.

I am software professional with a mere 3 years of project management experience. So, the approach or the solutions shared in this blog may not be mature enough or could be done in a better way.

I request you all to share your experiences, feedbacks, new ideas so that we could together (make an attempt to) change the project management from 'fair' to 'best'.