1. Project, project management, and you

Practice files

There are no practice tasks in this chapter.

Thank you for adding this book to your Microsoft Project 2016 skills development plan. This book is designed as a learning and reference resource. Most of the chapters that follow include hands-on activities in Project.

This chapter does not involve hands-on work in Project. Instead, read it to better understand how Project and project management fit with your personal skills development goals. This chapter introduces you to Project and the field of project management.

Project is a powerful program that you can use to plan and manage a wide range of projects. From meeting crucial deadlines and budgets to selecting the right resources, you can be more productive and realize better results by using the set of features Project offers. You can use Project to do the following:

Create plans at the level of detail that’s right for your project. Work with summary data initially, and then shift to a more detailed approach when needed.

Control what tasks Project can schedule automatically and which ones you’ll schedule manually.

Manage tasks, resources, work, and costs at whatever level of detail is appropriate for your project’s needs.

Work with your plan’s data in a variety of views and reports.

Track and manage your plan throughout the life of the project.

Collaborate and share data with others in your organization.

Use resource pools, consolidated projects, and cross-project links to extend your project-management focus across multiple projects.

Project 2016 builds on previous versions to provide powerful project-management tools. See “See the new features in Project 2016“ later in this chapter for a list of the major new features from the last several releases of Project, and for cross-references to the related topics in this book.

Project Standard This edition is the entry-level desktop program with which you can create, modify, and track plans.

Project Professional This edition includes all the functionality of Project Standard plus a few additional features, such as the Team Planner view. Project Professional can also work with Project Online and Project Server. (When Project Professional is obtained via a Microsoft Office 365 subscription, you might see it referred to as Project Pro.)

In addition to installing the Project desktop programs on your computer, you have other options for accessing Project and related services:

Project Online Delivered through Office 365, Project Online is the Microsoft Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) solution. (Note that Project Online is not a web-based version of the Project program.)

Project Server This is the Microsoft on-premises PPM solution.

Project Web App (PWA) This is the browser-based interface for the PPM solution.

This book focuses on the features in the Project Standard and Project Professional desktop programs. When a feature that is unique to Project Professional appears, you’ll see instructions for users of both Project Standard and Project Professional.

Timeline view updates Display multiple timeline bars with custom date ranges. For more information, see “Format a timeline view” in Chapter 16, “Format and print views: In-depth techniques.“

Tell Me This is a help and feature search text box on the ribbon. Use it to quickly find a Project feature (or help content about that feature). For more information, see Chapter 2, “Take a guided tour.“

New themes Change the visual style of Project by applying one of the new Office themes. You do so on the General page of the Project Options dialog box (available via the File tab).

If you’re upgrading to Project 2016 from a previous version, you’re probably most interested in the differences between the old and new versions and how they will affect you. The following sections list new features that were introduced in Project 2013 and Project 2010. These features are also present in Project 2016 and, depending on the version of Project from which you are upgrading, might be new to you.

Reports Project 2013 replaced the previous tabular reports feature with an entirely new way of visualizing your Project data. The reports feature includes a dynamic mix of tables, charts, and textual content, and it’s highly customizable. For more information, see, “Customize reports” in Chapter 7, “Format and share your plan,“ and Chapter 17, “Format reports: In-depth techniques.“

Task Path Use this feature to quickly identify the Gantt bars of the selected task’s predecessors and successors. For more information, see “See task relationships by using Task Path” in Chapter 9, “Fine-tune task scheduling.“

Redesigned Backstage and OneDrive integration As with other Office programs, quick access to Microsoft OneDrive storage is integrated into the Project Backstage view. For more information, see “Manage files and set options in the Backstage view” in Chapter 2, “Take a guided tour.“

A much later project finish date The latest possible date Project can work with was moved from December 31, 2049 to December 31, 2149.

Support for touch input As in other Office programs, you can optimize the Project interface (primarily the commands on the ribbon) for either touch or mouse input.

Skype integration (Project Professional only) In Project, you can start a Skype for Business chat or create an email message to a resource directly from Project. To do so, point to the resource name and start an instant messaging session or video chat.

Support for apps for Office Project supports third-party add-ins and apps available from the Office Store, located at store.office.com.

The ribbon interface The ribbon interface organized all the commands that most people use in a new way, making them quickly accessible from tabs at the top of the program window. For more information, see “Explore the Project user interface” in Chapter 2, “Take a guided tour.“

The Backstage view All the tools you need to work with your files are accessible from one location. For more information, see “Manage files and set options in the Backstage view” in Chapter 2, “Take a guided tour.“

Manually scheduled tasks Begin creating tasks with whatever information you might have, and don’t worry about automatic scheduling of tasks until you’re ready. Manually scheduled tasks are not affected by changes in duration, start or finish dates, dependencies, or other items that otherwise would cause Project to reschedule a task. You can then switch individual tasks or an entire plan from manual to automatic scheduling. For more information, see “Create tasks“ and “Switch task scheduling from manual to automatic“ in Chapter 4, “Build a task list.“

Timeline view Create a “project at a glance” view that includes just the summary tasks, tasks, and milestones that you choose. Easily copy the Timeline view as a graphic image to paste into other programs. For more information, see “Add tasks to a Timeline view” in Chapter 7, “Format and share your plan.“

Improved pasting to Excel and Word Paste Project data into Microsoft Excel or Word and preserve the column headings and outline structure of your Project data. For more information, see “Copy Project data to and from other programs” in Chapter 19, “Share information with other programs.”

Customizable ribbon Create your own tabs and groups to suit the way you work. For more information, see “Customize the ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar” in Chapter 18, “Customize Project.“

Custom fields Just start typing a numeric value, date value, or text string into the rightmost column in a table, and Project will identify the right data type. For more information, see “Create new tables” in Chapter 13, “Organize plan details.“

AutoFilter improvements Use Excel-like column filtering, in addition to sorting and grouping, directly from AutoFilter arrows on column headings. For more information, see “Filter plan details” in Chapter 13, “Organize plan details.“

Save as PDF or XPS Create PDF or XPS-format documents directly from Project. For more information, see “Print and export views” in Chapter 16, “Format and print views: In-depth techniques.“

Team Planner view (Project Professional only) Perform actions like reassigning a task from one resource to another with simple drag-and-drop actions in the Team Planner view. For more information, see “Adjust assignments in the Team Planner view” in Chapter 11, “Fine-tune resource and assignment details.“

Inactivate tasks (Project Professional only) Disable (but don’t delete) tasks from a plan so that they have no effect on the overall schedule but can be reactivated later if you need them. For more information, see “Inactivate tasks” in Chapter 12,“ Fine-tune the Project plan.“

SharePoint Task List integration (Project Professional only) Publish and synchronize tasks between Project and a SharePoint list. For more information, see Appendix C, “Collaborate: Project, SharePoint, and PWA.“

Project is unique among the Office programs in that Project is a specialized tool designed for the specific domain of project management. You might be invested in your professional identity as a project manager, or you might not identify yourself with project management at all. Either way, your success as a user of Project, to a large degree, will be related to your success as a project manager. Let’s take a moment to explore this subject.

At its heart, project management is a combination of skills and tools that help you predict and control the outcomes of endeavors undertaken by your organization. Your organization might be involved in other work apart from projects. Projects (such as developing a new product) are distinct from ongoing operations (such as running payroll services). Projects are defined as temporary endeavors undertaken to create some unique deliverable or result. With a good project-management system in place, you should be able to answer such questions as the following:

What tasks must be performed, and in what order, to produce the deliverable of the project?

When should each task be performed, and what is the final deadline?

Who will complete these tasks?

How much will it cost?

What if some tasks are not completed as scheduled?

What’s the best way to communicate project details to those who have an interest or stake in the project?

Good project management does not guarantee the success of every project, but poor project management often leads to failure.

A core principle of this book’s instructional strategy is that success with Project is built on success with basic project-management practice. Although Project is a feature-rich program, mastery of its features alone is no guarantee of success in project management. For this reason, you will find material about project-management best practices throughout this book. See, for example, the following:

The many “Project management focus” sidebars throughout the chapters

Appendix A, “A short course in project management“

Appendix B, “Develop your project-management skills“

We’ve been working with Project since it debuted for Windows, and each version has offered something that made project planning and management a little easier. Project 2016 continues that tradition for desktop project management, and we look forward to showing you around.