If you are looking for a way to create a pdf file of your Microsoft Project schedule that clearly displays an outline of your project tasks and corresponding Gantt chart, then you should check out the many great print options available. Let’s say that you’ve created a Gantt chart with tasks and relationships and you […]
Microsoft Project 2013
Why You Should Avoid Mandatory Activity Constraints
If you just cannot get your schedule to match an important finish milestone deadline you may be tempted to go “thermonuclear” by inserting a Mandatory Finish constraint on the milestone. You’ll definitely get your important finish date this way, but there will be collateral damage to your schedule. Let’s explore this. If you want a […]
Microsoft Project 2013 and the Look Ahead Filter
After schedule creation it’s very common to want to filter all tasks occurring in the near future. This near term view can be created as a Microsoft Project look ahead filter. A key concept in David Allen’s acclaimed organizational book “Getting Things Done” is to focus on your project’s next step tasks. This process helps […]
Using Microsoft Project Custom Fields
Why Use Microsoft Project Custom Fields? Once you have all your project schedule tasks defined, management may request reports from you displaying all the tasks associated with a particular phase, construction site location, and/or type of work. Providing these reports is not hard, but requires you to know the basics of using Microsoft Project’s custom […]
Microsoft Project 2013 & Start No Earlier Than Constraints
If the goal is to complete the project in as little time as possible, the question is why would a scheduler want to use a “Start No Earlier Than” (SNET) constraint on a project task? Let’s explore this paradox. Constraints describe external dependencies on the project schedule or tasks along the project schedule. Scheduling guidelines […]
Inserting Gantt Chart Gridlines in Microsoft Project
If you have had difficulty reading Microsoft Project’s Gantt chart, either because you had too little or too many gridlines, than you may want to become familiar with the numerous gridline features available to you. Gridlines are supposed to make your Gantt chart easier to read. For instance they help you spot the day an […]
Scheduling Weekly Events in Microsoft Project
It’s not uncommon that you have weekly status meetings and that the time and cost of those meetings is not immaterial? If this is the case then Microsoft Project has a great feature that allows you to schedule recurring tasks
Top-Down Scheduling In Microsoft Project
Before you start diving in and creating a schedule you should first consider what the major deliverables of your project are. Furthermore, you need to decompose these deliverables into components in order to create what is known as a Work Breakdown Structure
Updating Schedule Progress in Microsoft Project 2013
Knowing how to update your schedule in Microsoft Project is essential to accurately tracking your schedule progress. Here we look at the major steps to updating your Microsoft Project 2013 schedule based upon the progress
Microsoft Project: Displaying the Total Float (Slack) of Tasks on the Gantt Chart
To better understand the total float of tasks in your schedule, it’s often very useful to display these on the Gantt chart. A Gantt chart view of total slack may complement or even provide more insight than a tabulated list of values.