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The Advantages of Planning Using Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project has been around in one type or another since the early '90s, however its usage amongst skilled undertaking managers remains to be not as widespread as you might think. There are a number of causes for this, even though it is thought of by many as being the industry commonplace benchmark for undertaking management software.
One of the important causes for mission managers' apparent reluctance to embrace Microsoft Project is a lack of knowledge in respect of how the software program works. It's notoriously troublesome to efficiently self-educate MS Project, largely due to a lack of awareness in respect of defining and linking undertaking tasks. The issue is that the Process Sheet seems to recommend that one should enter job start and finish dates. This is actually precisely the improper thing to do as amongst other issues, it imposes what MS Project refers to as a 'constraint'. The improper type of constraint reduces flexibility and can prevent MS Project from re-scheduling duties ought to there be a change to the plan.
The correct method to define to tasks is in truth to specify only durations and permit Microsoft Project to set start and finish dates by its system of task linkage. Linkages define a dependent relationship between duties and enable a fluid schedule to be planned. If as an example a activity is delayed, the effect on any dependent tasks can be displayed on the Gantt chart giving the challenge manager forewarning of possible scheduling issues. That is maybe the least understood aspect of Microsoft Project, especially for the inexperienced person and really difficult to teach one's self.
Another excuse for challenge managers' reticence is a lack of awareness of the true scope of the software's capability. In the fitting palms, Microsoft Project is an immensely powerful scheduling tool, enabling the venture supervisor to experiment with various 'what if' scenarios. The Gantt chart is the traditional way of representing the challenge's timeline and have lengthy since been thought-about a extremely helpful visual tool. Traditionally Gantt charts could be drawn out by hand and a fancy challenge could take some appreciable time to plan in this manner.
One drawback with the hand-drawn plan is the difficulty of re-scheduling should it develop into necessary. There is where Microsoft Project scores closely in opposition to traditional methods. With a easy click on of the mouse, tasks may be re-scheduled and the Gantt chart instantly up to date by the software. This can doubtlessly be a big saving in time and leaves the challenge supervisor free to do what they do best.
An additional reason for some undertaking managers' prejudice is maybe a nasty expertise with the software in the past. Project 2010 is a much improved instrument compared with earlier variations and most, if not all the recognized points, have been efficiently addressed by Microsoft. For example, the comparatively poor financial reporting functionality of Microsoft Project was dramatically improved in 2007 with the arrival of 'Visual Stories'. These are graphs which are created from information which Project exports to Microsoft Excel. Excel mechanically creates a PivotTable based mostly on the data and eventually converts it into PivotChart format. All that is performed without the person requiring any detailed data of PivotTables and PivotCharts but the result's a really complete and person-pleasant reporting package.
There are many causes then why venture managers have grown vary of Microsoft Project over time, but I hope we've got shown on this article that maybe it is now time to take another look.