Product Management Training - MS Project Training

www.flackventures.com

Project Management Trainingusing MS Project

Product Management Skills Training


Agenda

• MS Project Basics– How to Build a Plan– How to track and manage

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BUILD YOUR PLAN

December 19, 2008 3


Plan your Product

• Goal: Initiate a Product– During the Discovery and Scope phase, it's important to define the

objectives, assumptions, and constraints of the product.

• Planning and defining your Product early directly correlates to the success of the Project Schedule– By doing the up-front work (definition, planning) in the Discovery and

Scope phase, you will have an easier time planning your project schedule.

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Establish Project File

• Goal: Start a project file– After initial planning, you can start your project file, enter your

preliminary project data, and attach your planning documents to the file.

• Enter file properties– You can enter a variety of file properties for your project, including a

descriptive title, the subject, the manager, and comments.

• Set the working time for the project calendar– You can set the working days and hours for your project calendar to

reflect the general working days and hours of the project.

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Defining the Project

• Goal: Define project deliverables– Once you have established the objectives of your product, you

define the actual activities that enable you to meet those objectives.

• Add supporting information about a task – You can store information about tasks in Microsoft Project by typing

notes, attaching files, or creating hyperlinks to related information in your project file or in other locations.

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Plan the Project Activities

• Define phases and create a task list– After you have determined the work involved in your project, you can

organize it into milestones, phases, and tasks and enter it into a Microsoft Project file. If this data is stored in another file, you can copy or import it into Microsoft Project

• Estimate task durations– By entering durations for tasks rather than desired start or finish dates,

you allow Microsoft Project to create a schedule for you.• Set task dependencies and constraints

– After you have entered task durations, it's time to address how those tasks are related to each other and to specific dates.

• Create interrelationships between projects– You can create task dependencies between tasks in different projects.

Creating dependencies between projects accurately models the interrelationships between different projects and helps keep your project up to date.

December 19, 2008 7


Plan for and Procure Resources• Estimate resource needs

– At this point in the project planning process, you have identified the project scope, set up the task list, and estimated task durations. You can now use this information to make preliminary estimates, identify requirements, and start your staffing and procurement processes to acquire the resources that will carry out the project tasks.

• Enter resource information and set working times– At this point in the project planning process, all resources have been identified,

approved, and procured. You know who is to be on your team, and what equipment and materials you are acquiring to accomplish project goals.

• Share resources among projects– Sharing resources is useful for managing resource information and assignments

across multiple projects in which the same people, materials, or equipment will be used.

• Assign resources to tasks– Now that resource information has been entered into the project, you can assign

resources to the specific tasks you've set up as the work of the project.

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Plan Costs

• Estimate costs– Cost estimating is the process of developing the approximate resource

and/or task costs needed to complete the Product activities.

• Define and share cost information– When all costs have been entered, you may want to save them as your

budget before you start tracking and managing the plan. At this point you may want to include important notes about budget decisions, share the budget information with others, or transfer it to other programs, such as a financial system your company may be using.

• Prepare to manage costs– After establishing costs, you can make the necessary preparations for

tracking and managing them to ensure the project stays within budget. You can specify a fiscal year start date, control calculation options, and determine when costs should be payable.

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Plan for Quality and Risks

• Plan for quality– Before a project begins, you should identify the quality standards

you must comply with to meet all of your product requirements. After you identify the quality requirements, you can adjust scope, resources, and schedule as necessary to achieve the desired quality.

• Identify and plan for risks– After a project begins, events that are difficult to anticipate might

create new risks.

December 19, 2008 10


Project Communications

• When you decide to collect project status data manually, remember that you'll have to enter the data into your project plan manually, too. Here are some points to keep in mind:– Decide which project information you want to track and update. For instance, you

might want to update task start and finish dates, task completion percentages, and costs.

– Identify and collect data from the sources of the information. For instance, to update start and finish dates, collect actual dates from the resources who are assigned to tasks.

– Decide on a data collection method. You could actively collect data by phoning your sources or asking them to fill out a form and give it to you.

– Decide on and stick to a realistic collection schedule. How often do you want to or need to collect and update project information? Once a week? Once a month? Picking a frequency that's convenient and fits into your schedule increases the likelihood that you'll collect project status information and incorporate it into the project plan.

– Decide on the time interval at which you want to incorporate actual data into your project plan, for instance, actual work per month, per week, per day, or per hour.



Distribute the Project Plan

• Distribute project information in printed format– After your Product has been scheduled, you will want to distribute

the most current project information to others, such as stakeholders or team members.



TRACK AND MANAGE



Track Progress

• Set up a project for tracking– Though Microsoft Project makes tracking easy, there are several

steps to take before you can begin tracking project progress.

• Record progress and respond to updates– After you've chosen the items you want to track and the tracking

method, you can begin tracking those items. For the most part, you track progress by exchanging task status information with workgroup members and then incorporating the most up-to-date status information into your project plan.



Manage a Schedule

• Identify schedule problems– After your project begins and you are tracking the actual progress of

tasks, you can review your schedule to identify problems or potential problems with task schedules.

• Put tasks, phases, or the project back on schedule– After you have identified problems in your schedule, you can use a

variety of strategies to manage your project schedule.• Distribute project information in printed format

– If you have changed tasks, resources, or assignments, you may want to distribute the most current project information to others, such as stakeholders or team members.

• Distribute project information online– If you have changed tasks, resources, or assignments, you may want to

distribute the most current project information to others, such as stakeholders or team members.



Manage Resources

• Track resource progress– The most effective way to gauge the progress of resources' work on

a project is to balance their workloads and track progress on tasks.

• Identify and Resolve resource allocation problems– To get the best performance and results from resources, you need to

manage their workloads to fix over allocations and under allocations. If you change resource assignments, check the effects of your changes on the overall schedule to be sure the results will meet your project goals.

• Distribute project information in printed format– If you have changed tasks, resources, or assignments, you may

want to distribute the most current project information to others, such as stakeholders or team members.



Manage Costs

• Identify cost problems– To keep costs within budget, you'll want to identify cost problems by

reviewing cost totals and cost variances that occur over time so you can make adjustments where needed.

• Keep costs within budget– To keep costs within budget, you'll want to review cost variances that

occur over time so you can make adjustments where needed. Note that it's always a good idea to make a backup copy of your project plan before incorporating major changes and to check the effects of changes before saving and communicating updated cost information.



Manage Scope

• Respond to changes in scope– After your project begins, you may need to increase scope or cut

scope from your project.

• Distribute project information in printed format– If you have changed tasks, resources, or assignments, you may


• Distribute project information online– If you have changed tasks, resources, or assignments, you may




Manage Risk

• Identify new risks– After a project begins, events that are difficult to anticipate might create

new risks.• Respond to risk events

– If you identify new risks that have arisen during the project, you'll need to respond to those risks. Most likely, you'll have to deal with risks that threaten to delay task, phase, or project end dates; increase the budget; overwhelm resources; or all three.

• Distribute project information in printed format– If you have changed tasks, resources, or assignments, you may want to


• Distribute project information online– If you have changed tasks, resources, or assignments, you may want to




Report on Status

• Report project status in printed format– As your project progresses, you may want to report its current status

to others, such as stakeholders or team members.

• Report project status online– As your project progresses, you may want to report its current status

to others, such as stakeholders or team members, perhaps on a regular basis.


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Product Management Training - MS Project Training