A work breakdown structure or WBS is a common term in project management. The concept is used each time a new project is designed — and is created before entering any data into a Microsoft Project file. Yet even though the WBS is an important construct to project managers, creating and using a WBS in…

It seems like every other day we read something new about the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the ultimate demise of post-industrial work as we know it. It used to be that stories about factory workers being replaced by robots dominated the news. Now, in 2017, its driverless vehicles, clerk-less retail outlets and digital…

Communications in business, generally, should be designed for optimal readability by their audience, to cut risk. Miscommunication in business is bad. This means you we need to put some think-time and design-work into your plan-related communications. If you and your organization haven’t circled back around just yet, to make sure you’re doing it right, this…

A baseline, as traditionally defined, is a value or condition against which future measurements can be compared. Within the context of project management, these values and conditions are the project’s scope, cost and schedule. A project baseline can be thought of as a “snapshot” of a project’s initial condition, just before work begins. Baselines are…

MPUG visitors pick their 10 favorite reads for the year… #1: PMP Prep: Decision Tree Analysis in Risk Management By Satya Narayan Dash #2: The Uses of Office 365 Planner for Project Management By Jeremy Cottino #3: 5 Things to Know about Microsoft Project Baselines By Erik van Hurck #4: Mind-Mapping Your Way to Better…

A user posed an interesting question recently in the Microsoft Project Standard and Professional TechCenter forum on the Internet. He asked how to assign resources to a task to generate the shortest Duration possible for the task using the following requirements: The task requires 100 hours of total work for all assigned resources. One resource…

You may snicker to think that Microsoft Project can serve as a tool for producing earned value metrics. After all, there are highly complex, dedicated products that perform this job. In this article I won’t attempt to cover all the necessary aspects and nuances of using Project as an EV tool; but I will discuss…

Want to learn what’s new in Project 2016? Join author Sai Prasad as he explores updates to the latest versions of Microsoft Project in this MPUG webinar. Microsoft Project calculates the task start and task finish based on many factors: calendar, constraints, predecessors, resources, lags. (Tip: If you want to see the factors affecting the…

Last week, I shared the “10 Signs Your PMO is Trying to Fly ‘Alternative Facts’“. This week I provide coping mechanisms for dealing with each of those quandaries. My philosophy is simple: First, follow industry best practices to stay out of trouble. Second, use Microsoft Project Online to track your efforts and keep everybody aligned….

  1. Attend expert-led live training webinars and have your questions answered See a list of upcoming live webinars Sign up for a free session on the Do’s and Don’ts of Microsoft Project   2. Improve your skills as your project and training needs progress with targeted on-demand training videos and searchable MPUG how-to articles See the…