Effective project management is a key factor for business success. Microsoft Project 2021 offers numerous capabilities for planning, tracking, and controlling projects. Let’s examine the best practices for using this tool, which will help novice project managers increase their productivity.
Setting Up Microsoft Project 2021
First, download Microsoft Project 2021 and configure the basic project parameters:
- Set the project currency, working hours, and calendar. Specify the project start date.
- Customize views and the quick-access toolbar to your preference. Add frequently used commands and views.
- Don’t forget to include non-working days and holidays in the project calendar. This will help calculate task completion dates more accurately.
Investing time in setup will save time later. Additionally, immediately set appropriate duration units (minutes, hours, days, or weeks) and task scheduling mode (manual or automatic).
Other important settings include:
- Method for calculating the project’s earned value.
- Parameters for calculating project costs and return on investment.
- Settings for saving baseline and interim plans.
- Rules for identifying critical tasks and the criticality threshold.
Invest time in studying and fine-tuning Project options. This will pay off with more efficient work on the project.
Take the time to explore and adjust Project’s settings in detail. The investment will result in more effective project management.
Defining Project Tasks and Work
The next step is entering all project tasks and subtasks into the plan. It’s important to structure them correctly using hierarchy levels. For each task, specify the duration and type (task, milestone, summary task).
Microsoft Project allows you to establish links between tasks so they are performed in the necessary sequence. If needed, you can set lag and lead times between linked tasks. Here are four types of relationships:
- Finish-to-Start (FS): Task B starts after Task A finishes.
- Start-to-Start (SS): Task B starts simultaneously with Task A.
- Finish-to-Finish (FF): Task B finishes simultaneously with Task A.
- Start-to-Finish (SF): Task B finishes when Task A starts.
Establish only justified connections. Don’t forget about milestones — tasks with zero duration indicating key project events.
It’s also useful to configure task fields:
- Add numeric and text fields for additional information (priority, category, responsible person).
- Set up formulas for calculated fields.
- Define graphical indicators for tracking task progress.
A well-structured task list with clear relationships is the foundation of an effective project plan.
Configuring and Optimizing the Project Schedule
To ensure the project finishes on time, you need to monitor its critical path — the sequence of tasks with zero time reserve. Microsoft Project highlights critical tasks in red. Any delay on the critical path leads to project deadline slippage.
Analyze the schedule and optimize it:
- Level the resource workload. The Task Inspector will suggest how to do this.
- Optimize task order, considering their priority and dependencies.
- Shorten the critical path to accelerate the project. This can be done by compressing or splitting critical tasks, changing their sequence, or adding resources.
- Eliminate excessive time buffers between tasks.
- Schedule reserve time for unforeseen delays.
The goal of optimization is to obtain a realistic and efficient project schedule. For more complex projects, use the following analysis tools:
- Monte Carlo analysis — calculates the probability of project completion by a specific date.
- “What if” scenario analysis — models different project variants.
- Risk analysis — considers the probability and impact of risks on project duration.
Tracking Project Progress
Once the project plan is ready, save its baseline version. As the project progresses, enter the actual data:
- Task completion percentage.
- Actual labor and costs.
- Actual start and finish dates of work.
Compare the current project progress with the baseline plan to notice deviations in time. Microsoft Project will help forecast the future course of the project and take measures. Here’s what can be done:
- Identify reasons for delays and eliminate them.
- Increase productivity by assigning additional resources.
- Reduce project scope or lower requirements for results.
- Reschedule the remainder of the project, considering new realities.
Monitor key project indicators:
- Earned Value (BCWP) and its deviation from the baseline plan (BCWS).
- Actual Costs (ACWP) and their deviation from the budget (BCWP).
- Schedule Performance Index (SPI) and Cost Performance Index (CPI).
Regular monitoring increases the chances of completing the project on time and within budget.
Preparing Project Reports
Microsoft Project contains many standard reports:
- Project overview report.
- Reports on costs, resources, and risks.
These can be customized to your needs. For example:
- Add charts and graphs for clarity.
- Configure a time breakdown of data (days, weeks, months).
- Include only the necessary columns and fields.
- Set convenient filters and data groupings.
- Apply conditional formatting to highlight problem areas.
Regularly export reports and send them to stakeholders — this will help keep everyone informed about project progress. Set up automatic distribution and publication of key reports.
Optimize report preparation:
- Create custom reports to avoid spending time on their configuration each time.
- Use macros and add-ins to automate routine actions.
- Integrate Project with Power BI for interactive reports and dashboards.
- Configure key performance indicators and monitor them.
Spend minimal time preparing reports, but ensure everyone has the necessary information.
Closing the Project
Upon project completion, ensure all tasks are finished and update their status. Don’t forget to document lessons learned — they will be useful in future projects. Archive the project file so it doesn’t get lost.
By applying these practices, novice project managers will be able to effectively use Microsoft Project and achieve their goals. Now it’s time to reinforce this knowledge on a real project. Good luck!