Author: Sam Huffman

Sam Huffman first gained insight into Microsoft Project while working as a member of the MS Project development and support team. He has maintained his depth of knowledge of MS Project with each release and is a leading authority in the use and features of MS Project, Project Server and Project Online. Since the early 1990's Sam has honed his instruction skills by delivering training programs to thousands every year. Sam is a frequent content contributor to the Microsoft Project User Group (MPUG) and speaks to groups often about MS Project, Enterprise Project Management and the discipline of Project Management. He was awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional from 2010-2017. Check out his blog on MS Project. The softcover version of my newest book Microsoft® Project Do’s and Don’ts is now available for purchase! It is portable, brief and to the point so you can find help when you need it. Through tips, best practices and examples it will help you jumpstart your project!

Microsoft Project Do’s and Don’ts Boot Camp Video

  Project Management Institute (PMI)® Professional Development Units (PDUs): This session is eligible for 3 PMI® PDUs in the Technical talent triangle category. If you are claiming this session for PMI® PDUs or the MPUG certificate, you must click the submit button after the video has completed in its entirety. Training Certificate: Once you have completed the video in its entirety and clicked the submit button to add it to your MPUG training history, you can print/download your certificate of completion by visiting My Account. Description: This session will guide you through exercises in each of the 10 chapters of Microsoft Project Do’s and Don’ts. Table of Contents: Chapter 1: Harness the Interface [00:00] Chapter 2: Set Up for Success [19:53] Chapter 3: Organize the Task List [43:25] Chapter 4: Enter Task Durations [51:47] Chapter 5: Sequence Tasks in the Task List [1:08:31] Chapter 6: Create Resources and Assign them to Tasks [01:25:30] Chapter 7: Baseline Your Project [01:50:12] Chapter 8: Track the Project [02:07:33] Chapter 9: Reporting [02:23:12] Chapter 10: Using Microsoft Project on Agile Based Projects [02:46:39] Chapter 11: Agile Project Management Using Microsoft Project Online Desktop Client [03:03:30]   Presenter Sam Huffman Sam first gained insight into Microsoft Project while working as a member of the MS Project development and support team. He has maintained his depth of knowledge of MS Project with each release and is a leading authority in the use and features of MS Project, Project Server and Project Online. Since the early 1990’s Sam has honed his instruction skills by delivering training programs to thousands every year. Sam is a frequent content contributor to the Microsoft Project User Group (MPUG) and speaks to groups often about MS Project, Enterprise Project Management and the discipline of Project Management. He was awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional from 2010-2017. Check out his blog on MS Project. The softcover version of my newest book Microsoft® Project Do’s and Don’ts is now available for purchase! It is portable, brief and to the point so you can find help when you need it. Through tips, best practices and examples it will help you jumpstart your project! Have you watched this webinar recording? Tell MPUG viewers what you think! [WPCR_INSERT]

Microsoft Project Do’s and Don’ts: Set Up For Success

Project Management Institute (PMI)® Professional Development Units (PDUs): This Webinar is eligible for 1 PMI® PDUs in the Technical category of the Talent Triangle. Event Description: When creating a project for the first time many project managers begin by typing information in the “Task Name” column. Later they find that Microsoft Project is calculating working time incorrectly. Task dates begin to look inaccurate and the Project duration begins to change. Finally, they may even abandon the use of Project in managing their project. The problems began with the first data entry. Project was not set up correctly for data and so errors ensued. Project is like other database applications in that the correct set-up and configuration of the software will drive accuracy. In this webinar, we’ll explore and discuss the basics in setting up and configuring Microsoft Project for data. We will identify the features you need to know such as calendars, calendar hierarchies, scheduling methods and scheduling modes. Presenter Info: Sam Huffman first gained insight into Microsoft Project while working as a member of the MS Project development and support team. He has maintained his depth of knowledge of MS Project with each release and is a leading authority in the use and features of MS Project, Project Server and Project Online. Since the early 1990’s Sam has honed his instruction skills by delivering training programs to thousands every year. Sam is a frequent content contributor to the Microsoft Project User Group (MPUG) and speaks to groups often about MS Project, Enterprise Project Management and the discipline of Project Management. He was awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional from 2010-2017. Check out his blog on MS Project. The softcover version of his newest book Microsoft® Project Do’s and Don’ts is now available for purchase! It is portable, brief and to the point so you can find help when you need it. Through tips, best practices and examples, it will help you jump-start your project! Have you watched this webinar recording? Tell MPUG viewers what you think! [WPCR_INSERT]

Three Questions to Ask Before Entering Data in Microsoft Project

Microsoft® Project for Windows has been available for nearly 30 years. Users still think that it’s like Excel and begin entering data immediately after opening a new file. This action is allowed in Project but I don’t recommend it as a standard practice. Here are three questions you should answer before entering data, and why getting the answer is so important: Do you know the project start date? If not, entering a date earlier will either generate error messages or skew the date calculations. Is your project calendar up to date? Using incorrect calendar dates may show erroneous schedule, work and cost distribution information in the project. It’s vital to understand cash flow! Do you understand the hierarchy of calendars? In your project, which calendar will win in a conflict? Not knowing the answer may affect work and cost distribution. These and other set up questions are discussed in depth in my latest webinar session “Microsoft® Project Do’s and Don’ts: Set Up for Success” now available on-demand. Purchase the book & learn more Microsoft® Project Do’s and Don’ts.  

Managing Negative Slack: Dos and Don’ts

Much has been written about Critical Path, Slack, Constraints, and the various forms of Duration and Dependencies. But, have you looked for Negative Slack? This is generally defined as the amount of time required to complete a task or project beyond its scheduled finish date. Think of it as the minimum amount of time to be made up in a schedule if it is to finish on time. The causes of Negative Slack are the usual suspects named above: constraints, deadlines, dependencies, duration increases, and any number of errors in schedule assumptions. Unfortunately, these are also common characteristics found in most projects. What tools do we have in Microsoft Project to help identify Negative Slack, so we can manage it? The figures below have been designed to illustrate the Negative Slack concept. In Figure 1, all tasks and a constrained finish milestones are linked with finish-to-start dependencies. The milestone’s Must Finish Date constraint is far enough into the future that it imposes three days of Total Slack (Float) into the schedule. Additionally, the Critical Tasks and Slack check boxes in Format Tab > Bar Styles are checked. This means that Slack will show in the schedule and Critical Tasks will be formatted to red. Since there are three days of Slack, none of the tasks are Critical. Note: there are settings in Project that allow you to format tasks as Critical when the Slack is more than the default days, but this is a complexity not required for this discussion about Negative Slack. Want more Do’s and Don’ts? Check out Sam’s new book: Microsoft® Project Do’s and Don’ts! Now, let’s use the Schedule Table to show Slack calculations (View tab > Tables > Schedule). You will see that the duration of the first task has been increased to seven days in the figure below. This reduces the Total Slack to 0 days, and the Critical Path then emerges. You know what this means. Any more increases in duration and the project finish date will be missed! Now we’ll add an additional duration of 2 days to Task1. Notice in Figure 3 that the values in the Total Slack column are negative. If you examine the relationship of the finishing milestone to Task5, you will see the effect of the constraint. Project honors the sequence of Tasks 1-5, and the relationship between Task5 and the finishing milestone is ignored to allow for the increase in duration of Task1. The result is Negative Slack, and now you can see it in the schedule. You can’t manage what you can’t see. In Project, you can create a Negative Slack bar in your Gantt chart by adding it to Bar Styles. Figure 4 below indicates what to enter into the bottom of the Bar Styles dialog (first blank line). You bring this up for editing by clicking the Format Tab > Format button > Bar Styles. The color and density of the bar is arbitrary. Every other item should be entered as defined in the dialog. Don’t forget to click OK when the entries are complete. So, you understand what caused the problem. Now that you can identify Negative Slack in the schedule, you should be able to manage it. The responses and corrections made by the Project Manager should directly correspond with the amount and severity of the Negative Slack. What possible solutions are available to get back on track? Although not a complete list, here are some ideas to guide course correction: Break long tasks into shorter tasks where possible. Ask for more resources to be assigned on tasks where effort drives duration. This could shorten task duration, which could be effective for Critical and Negative Slack tasks. Examine dependencies. Can sequential tasks have some overlap or run parallel to others? If Lag is in the schedule, can you remove it? What effect does it have? Examine constrained tasks. Can you use partial constraints and not absolute constraints, such as “Must Start On”? Reduce Scope. Are any tasks on the schedule there only arbitrarily? Can you eliminate them? Consider asking for an extension of the project deadline. Obviously, some items on this list may not be possible, but you can use it to build your own course of action to get the project “back in the black.” Related Content Webinars (watch for free now!): Task Planning using Microsoft Project What’s the value of Schedule Risk Analysis? Articles: Levels of Project Scheduling Proficiency Are You Using the Team Planner View Feature in Microsoft Project? Resource Leveling: Scheduling vs. Leveling

5 Things You Must Do to Manage Projects with Microsoft Project

5 things you must DO to manage projects successfully with Microsoft Project. From the expert that helped build it and wrote the book. 1. Do organize the project logically. Use summary tasks to outline your project for logical reporting. 1 Letters 1.1 A 1.2 B 2 Numbers 2.1 One 2.2 Two 2.3 C 1.1 and 1.2 roll their letter information up to 1. 2.1 through 2.3 roll their information up to 2, but the data is mixed numbers and letters. Reporting will therefore be incorrect. 2.3 should be a sub component of 1 as it is a letter. 2. Do not include summary tasks in sequencing. Doing so can artificially extend the project schedule. 3. Do not assign resources to summary tasks. If assigned to summary and other tasks in the same time period, the work can’t be rescheduled in Project’s leveling engine. 4. Do not use elapsed durations for team schedules. Duration is in Working Time; Elapsed duration is in sequential or calendar time. By default, one work day is 8 hours. One elapsed day is 24 hours. In the example below Carly is assigned to 2 tasks. One is a normal task, the other uses elapsed duration. Note the difference in the amount of work assigned. Elapsed duration tasks are not designed for humans. 5. Do remember that Constraints are honored before other schedule calculations, so they should be the exception and not the rule. Constraints such as “Must Start On” can undermine a schedule to the point of unrealistic to impossible finish dates. Do get the Microsoft Project Do’s and Don’ts to quickly and easily have success with Microsoft Project! Not sure? Try before you buy, download a free preview of Chapter 4: Enter Task Durations.

Microsoft Project Do’s and Don’ts: Enter Task Durations

The following in an excerpt from chapter 4 of Microsoft® Project Do’s and Don’ts by Sam Huffman. Part of the MPUG Essentials Training. Download full version of chapter 4. Once the outline is entered in Microsoft® Project, you are ready to estimate and enter task durations. This is accomplished by typing the estimated duration in minutes, hours, days, weeks or months into the Duration field: 1m = 1 minute; 1h = 1 hour; 1d = 1 day; 1w = 1 week; and 1mo = 1 month In Project, duration is a measure of working time, not sequential or calendar time. This means a week is five days. If a task is started on a Friday, it is concluded on the following Thursday since weekends are not working time by default. The default duration is set for days. Figure 4.1: The Duration column is a field. It indicates the span of working time for a task. On a summary task it is the span of working time from the start of the earliest sub-task to the finish of the latest. Milestones are zero duration tasks that point out a date in the schedule. No resources are assigned to this type of task in Project. In the schedule, they have the appearance of a diamond, not a bar. One use of a milestone is to denote the end of a phase. Another example is to denote a time in the schedule when a report is due. Figure 4.2: Milestones have no duration. Before assigning durations to tasks, you need to understand the relationship of all the task schedule variables and how they inter-relate.     Do This: At this point, carefully consider changing your scheduling mode to Automatically Schedule. Let Project figure out the finish dates dynamically.   Don’t Do This: Don’t enter a start or finish date for a task in the early stages of creating the project file. Project understands this to be a manual override to calculations and will constrain the task. This hinders dynamic scheduling.   Want more? Download a free preview of Chapter 4: Enter Task Durations or buy the book. Visit mpug.com/do for more information.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Project

Project Management Institute (PMI)® Professional Development Units (PDUs): This Webinar is eligible for 1 PMI® PDU in the Technical category of the Talent Triangle. Event Description: Sam Huffman delivers a presentation on more of his famous Do’s and Dont’s, focusing on the top things NOT to do in your project, and why! Presenter Info: Sam Huffman first gained insight into Microsoft Project while working as a member of the MS Project development and support team. He has maintained his depth of knowledge of MS Project with each release and is a leading authority in the use and features of MS Project, Project Server and Project Online. Since the early 1990’s Sam has honed his instruction skills by delivering training programs to thousands every year. Sam is a frequent content contributor to the Microsoft Project User Group (MPUG) and speaks to groups often about MS Project, Enterprise Project Management and the discipline of Project Management. He was awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in 2010 and currently still holds this prestigious title and award. Check out his blog on MS Project. Have you watched this webinar recording? Tell MPUG viewers what you think! [WPCR_INSERT]

Reporting Your Way!

Project Management Institute (PMI)® Professional Development Units (PDUs): This Webinar is eligible for 1 PMI® PDU in the Technical category of the Talent Triangle. Event Description: Learn how to “tweak” Project’s cool reporting tool so your reports are more informative! This one hour webinar illustrates the built-in and custom reporting capabilities of Project 2013 and 2016. You will learn first how to create a custom filter and group. You will then “push” them onto an existing or custom reports created in the webinar. Last, you will walk through what’s required to ensure the customized components are available for use in creating and reporting in new files in MS Project. Presenter Info: Sam Huffman first gained insight into Microsoft Project while working as a member of the MS Project development and support team. He has maintained his depth of knowledge of MS Project with each release and is a leading authority in the use and features of MS Project, Project Server and Project Online. Since the early 1990’s Sam has honed his instruction skills by delivering training programs to thousands every year. Sam is a frequent content contributor to the Microsoft Project User Group (MPUG) and speaks to groups often about MS Project, Enterprise Project Management and the discipline of Project Management. He was awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in 2010 and currently still holds this prestigious title and award. Check out his blog on MS Project. Have you watched this webinar recording? Tell MPUG viewers what you think! [WPCR_INSERT]