Last time I introduced the concept of the “leveling hierarchy” and examined the first three hierarchy levels: Priority 1000, Manual and Started Tasks. In this article, we review the remainder of the leveling hierarchy. As a reminder, all of the examples I present look for overallocations on a “Day by Day” level with the scheduling…

When I observe individuals using Microsoft Project, I sometimes see them using techniques that don’t optimize the features available. An example of such a technique is when someone changes the start date of the first task when he or she really wanted to move the entire project. This typically leads to adding a task constraint…

Project Management Institute (PMI)® Professional Development Units (PDUs): This Webinar is eligible for 1 PMI® PDU in the Strategic category of the Talent Triangle. Event Description: There are several scheduling approaches for projects: Agile, Critical Path, Resource-Critical Path, Critical Chain, Earned Value and Earned Work. In his article published in the MPUG-newsletter,  Eric proposed a framework with…

1. Before entering any tasks, you have to specify how many work hours equal a workday by using option Hours per Day on the tab Schedule (ribbon File, item Options). Microsoft Project uses this setting to convert between time units; it is the time unit conversion factor. All durations will be recalculated when you change this…

1. When you schedule electronically, you should not enter start or finish dates for tasks. If you use Microsoft Project to simply capture dates and only dates, you may as well use Microsoft Excel instead. With MS Project, you enter durations and dependencies instead of dates to create a forecast model. The software then calculates start…

I have a confession to make that will surprise many experienced Microsoft Project users – I use Must Finish On (MFO) constraints.  I have found that they are the only way that I can always ensure an accurate Total Slack value in my projects.  Let me explain using a simple example… Here is the scenario…

A short clip from MPUG’s webinar with Microsoft Project MVP Dale Howard. Dale explains task types, their purpose and demonstrates how to set task type values. Join MPUG to watch the remainder of this session and hundreds more on-demand. MPUG Premium Members have access to weekly live webinars and recorded sessions, including all 4 videos…

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 In the second of the four-part “Digging Deeper” series of MPUG webinars, the “Learning More Using Constraints” presentation will help you to gain in-depth knowledge about the purpose of…

As a consultant you come across a lot of different projects/companies/people. I’ve noticed that there are some flaws that keep popping up, regardless of the company, project or person. In this series of articles, I would like to explain 7 of these flaws and subsequently show you how to solve each situation. Flaw #1: Date-Related…

  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: Is one of your New Year’s resolutions to become a more effective user of Microsoft Project?  Join us for this exciting and practical webinar that will help…