Project 2013 in easy steps

John Carroll

• Publisher: In Easy Steps Limited
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781840785753
• eBook ISBN: 9781840786705
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Desktop Applications
• Index: Computer Science

Project 2013 in easy steps will quickly get you making use of the powerful features of Microsoft’s latest version of this popular project management software.Beginning with first principles, this book sets out the right way to start a project and develop the project plan. It shows you how to break a project down into tasks that can then be scheduled and allocated to resources. These can then be tracked and controlled to completion. It explains the different types of task dependencies and how to use them to make sure things happen when they are needed. For medium to larger projects it shows you how to structure your project for success.Projects are carried out by people and other resources and Project 2013 in easy steps shows you how to allocate and control the human resources on a project, tracking vacations and other staff absences. It also shows how to track other resources and costs so that you can stay in full financial control of your project.Finally, viewing and communicating information about projects in a timely way to the project stakeholders is also critical to success and this book shows you how to do it in the most effective way.

1

The Basics

This chapter introduces Microsoft Project 2013 and explains how it can help you manage your projects.

Introduction

Project Management

What’s New?

Version Comparison

The Gantt Chart

Getting Help

Summary

Introduction

Microsoft Project 2013 is the latest release of this popular project management tool. Managing projects can be a complex activity but, with the help of Project, you can plan, schedule, track and communicate on the progress of your project. Whether it is a simple, short-term project (like arranging a company event) or a more complex project (such as launching a new business), Project can help you stay in control of it.

The illustrations in this book are from Project 2013. Project 2010 is very similar but earlier versions can look very different. You’ll find Project 2010 in easy steps more helpful if you have Project 2010.

This book covers both the Standard and Professional versions of Project. The main difference between them is that Project Professional allows you to collaborate and share information with other Project users in your organization. The detailed differences are noted throughout the book and summarized under Version Comparison (here).

Project Features

Project can produce some great-looking charts and diagrams to help you plan your project, but it can do a lot more besides:

•It can help you to understand, develop and manage project plans and schedules

•It can produce a critical path analysis to identify the areas where you will need to keep a close track on progress

•It can identify if you have too much work allocated to any one person

•It can schedule facilities, such as meeting rooms and equipment for you

•It can help you to understand and control project budgets and costs

•It can keep track of public holidays and team members’ vacations and other commitments

•It can help you build professional-looking reports to communicate and present project information in an effective and understandable way

The New icon pictured above indicates a new or enhanced feature introduced with the latest version of Project.

Project Enhancements

Project 2013 has introduced a number of new and enhanced features. These are indicated wherever they occur throughout the book. They are also summarized under What’s New (here).

Project Management

Successful project management is about completing a project on time, within budget, and with the needs of the business fully met. While this is easy to say, a large percentage of projects fail. The most commonly quoted figure is around half of all projects, although, depending on how you define failure, it could be as little as 25% (total failure) or as much as 75% (failed or seriously challenged).

Whichever way you look at it, only around one quarter of projects end up as fully successful (i.e. completed on time, within budget, and with the required scope). In order to get most projects completed, corners have to be cut, but things still seem to take longer than expected. As a further result, costs inevitably seem to increase.

Successful Projects

It doesn’t have to be that way. We know how to ensure projects are successful – it’s not rocket science; it’s just plain common sense. Throughout this book, you will find some basic project management concepts that have been proved in practice. Follow these concepts and advice to ensure that your project will be successful.

Effective Project Management in easy steps is a companion book and covers project management in more detail.

Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is a great product that will help you plan, organize and control your project. It won’t carry it out for you (you still have to do that yourself), but what it will do is help you to control and complete it successfully.

What’s New?

With each new release of Project, Microsoft typically addresses some issues and introduce a number of enhancements. With the previous release (Project 2010), Microsoft introduced some significant changes. These included the fluent user interface (ribbon) in place of the traditional toolbars and buttons, enhanced table features (similar to Excel), user-controlled scheduling and a new timeline view.

While the changes in this release of Project 2013 are not quite so radical they do represent some enhancements and new features. These are noted, where relevant, throughout the book. But in summary the key new features and functionality are:

Updated Visuals

Along with the rest of the Microsoft Office suite of programs, Project 2013 has a new cleaner look that is designed to be simpler ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• 1 The Basics
• 2 User Interface
• 3 Managing your Project
• 4 Working with Tasks
• 5 Adding Structure
• 6 More About Tasks
• 7 Resources
• 8 Project Costs
• 9 Project Calendars
• 10 Project Scheduling
• 11 Conflicts and Constraints
• 12 Viewing Data
• 13 Reports
• 14 Tracking Progress
• Back Cover