Create a Near Critical Filter in Microsoft Project to Monitor Tasks Non-critical tasks can be as important as critical tasks in a schedule. This is because if a non-critical task slips then it can quickly appear on the critical path. This could negatively affect your project finish date and jeopardize the entire project. If an […]
Tasks
Microsoft Project Print To PDF Options Explored
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 […]
5 Ways to Improve Your Project Schedule
The larger the project, the longer the list of tasks on your project schedule. However, even small projects can have schedules running into multiple screens: you find yourself paging down to move through the many activities for the team. Creating a tidy, effective schedule starts with having solid information to go into tools like Primavera […]
Exclude Schedule Visibility Tasks from Metric Analyses in Acumen Fuse
How to Exclude Schedule Visibility Tasks from Metric Analysis Individually excluding numerous activities from metric analysis becomes cumbersome the more activities you have, especially on large projects. Fortunately, metrics in Acumen Fuse can be modified to exclude all activities assigned a respective activity code. A former student asked if Acumen Fuse can exclude Schedule Visibility […]
Microsoft Project and Adverse Weather Day Reserve
Harsh weather can be a huge risk on projects. And it is best to mitigate the effects of adverse weather by including a bad weather day reserve in your Microsoft Project schedule. Adverse weather is both impactful and common on projects. The temperature simply dropping below 32°F can halt concrete installations. And rain or snow […]
Microsoft Project and Effort Driven Tasks
In Microsoft Project you can specify Effort driven tasks. But how exactly does this effect your Microsoft Project schedule? Effort driven calculations only apply after resources are initially assigned to a task. And it effects how the dependent variable in the work equation is calculated. The work equation is as follows: Work = Duration x […]
5 Pre-Requisites for Earned Value On Projects
If you’re considering Earned Value (EV) as a way to develop better project governance, then you’ll know what an undertaking it is to shift the organizational mindset towards that way of working. Even when you have buy-in at the top levels, you still need to embed a different way of managing projects in the teams […]
Sensitivity and Risk Path Analysis
This very interesting article “Sensitivity and Risk Path Analysis” was written and submitted by John Owen at Barbecana. Sensitivity Analysis is a very useful tool albeit, with some shortcomings. Here we explore Sensitivity Analysis and how Risk Path Analysis can overcome some of these shortcomings. Sensitivity Analysis Sensitivity Analysis shows us which tasks are creating […]
Leveling Workloads Manually to Achieve the Tightest Schedule Possible
In resource constrained projects the end date of the schedule is driven by the availability and assignment of resources. Leveling workloads on resource constrained projects manually helps to achieve the tightest schedule possible. Here’s a look at a few different ways to achieve this. Microsoft Project has a ‘level all’ feature that will automatically level […]
Addressing Microsoft Project Elapsed Time Lag Critical Path Issues
Microsoft Project elapsed time lag in days is a useful feature. This works great to model the 24-7 nature of material cure time. However, there are situations when the elapsed time lag causes the critical path to become discontinuous. Let’s explore this further. Lag is a helpful modifier that specifies waiting time between predecessor and […]