Sunday, October 24, 2010

Get To Your Control Documents Easily!

Have you ever had a problem finding a project control document on your computer,network or intranet? Did you know that you can open a control document such as a Statement of Work from within MS Project? You can do this easily and quickly - avoiding wasted time searching. Interested? Here’s how to do it:

1. Open the project and navigate to the Hyperlinks table. In Project 2010 you get there by selecting the View tab, then select Tables from the Data group.

2. When the table is shown, make sure you turn the Project Summary Task on so you can type the file location and file name into Hyperlink and/or Address fields as shown in the figure below. Turn on the Project Summary Task by selecting the Format tab, and then check the Project Summary Task box in the Show/Hide group.

(Click on the image to expand it.)

Hyperlink Table

 

3. Test the link out by right clicking on the Project Summary Task name in the Hyperlink Table and then choose Open Hyperlink from the Hyperlink dropdown. See the figure below for details.

Open Hyperlink from Project

When the document opens, you’ve successfully linked to your control document! If the document doesn’t open make sure the address and hyperlink correctly identify the document location, name and extension, like the .docx in the figures above.

Here’s an example: my Statement of Work referenced in the Hyperlink Table above:

SOW Opened

Don’t forget to check out Help in Project. The Hyperlink and Address fields are explained nicely in the Fields reference. Give this simple technique a try and save yourself some time for other things – like managing your project!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

A New Way of “What If” Scenario Planning

How many times have you heard your manager ask this question: “What happens to the schedule, resource needs and costs if we don’t do a specific task?”.

In previous versions of Project you could delete the task and try to compare the schedule and costs before and after, but you’d have to re-enter all of the task and resource data again. In Project 2010 Professional, all you have to do is Inactivate the task. The purpose of this feature is to help answer the “What If” question with the least pain possible.

The “Inactivate” button is found in the Schedule group on the Task tab. When a task is inactivated, it is excluded from the schedule and its resource assignments are excluded as well. You can still see the inactive task so that it can be reactivated later if you change your mind.

In the figures below I have a model for a remote training project that includes a little sightseeing. Since the work schedule after the trip dictates whether the sightseeing can occur, the task “Sightseeing Activities” is expendable. It isn’t a requirement for the training. The top figure illustrates that the trip will take 8 days if sightseeing is included.  In the bottom figure, sightseeing has been Inactivated which shortens the trip to 4 days. The cost is also cut, so you can see the effect of inactivation on both schedule and cost!

ACTIVATE TASK

Active Task 

INACTIVATED TASK

Inactive Task

In this example, I have used Auto Scheduled activities, modified the Project Calendar, and used sequencing techniques to illustrate the concept. I’ve not answered other questions you may have on this subject like “What happens to the project schedule if the tasks are Manually Scheduled?”. Or “Do Projects’ Options come into play here?

Well, those are deeper and more complex questions – more suitable for a Webinar. Stay tuned!