Intro to Mircosoft Project

Chapter A: Guide to Using Microsoft Project 2013 Basic Features of Project Management Software Book Title: Information Technology Project Management Printed By: Joseph English ([email protected]) © 2016 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning

Basic Features of Project Management Software What makes project management software different from other software tools? Why not just use a spreadsheet or database to help manage projects?

You can do a lot of project management planning and tracking using non-project management software. You could use a simple word processor to list tasks, resources, dates, and so on. If you put that information into a spreadsheet, you can easily sort it, graph it, and perform other functions. A relational database tool could provide even more manipulation of data. You can use e-mail and other tools to collaborate with others.

However, project management software is designed specifically for managing projects, so it normally includes several distinct and important features not found in other software products:

Creating work breakdown structures, Gantt charts, and network diagrams: A fundamental concept of project management is breaking down the scope of the project into a work breakdown structure (WBS). The WBS is the basis for creating the project schedule, normally shown as a Gantt chant. The Gantt chart shows start and end dates of tasks as well as dependencies between tasks, which are more clearly shown in a network diagram. Project management software makes it easy to create a WBS, Gantt chart, and network diagram. These features help the project manager and team visualize the project at various levels of detail.

Integrating scope, time, and cost data: The WBS is a key tool for summarizing the scope of a project, and the Gantt chart summarizes the time or schedule for a project. Project management software allows you to assign cost and other resources to tasks on the WBS, which are tied to the schedule. This allows you to create a cost baseline and use earned value management to track project performance in terms of scope, time, and cost in an integrated fashion.

Setting a baseline and tracking progress: Another important concept of project management is preparing a plan and measuring progress against the plan. Project management software lets you track progress for each task. The tracking Gantt chart is a nice tool for easily seeing the planned and actual schedule, and other views and reports show progress in other areas.

Providing other advanced project management features: Project management software often provides other advanced features, such as setting up different types of scheduling dependencies, determining the critical path and slack for tasks, working with multiple projects, and leveling resources. For example, you can easily set up a task to start when its predecessor is halfway finished. After entering task dependencies, the software should easily show you the critical path and slack for each task. You can also set up multiple projects in a program and perform portfolio management analysis with some products. Many project management software products also allow you to easily adjust resources within their slack allowances to create a smoother resource distribution. These advanced features unique to project management are rarely found in other software tools.

As you can see, there are several important features that are unique to project management software that make them worth using. Next you’ll learn what’s new in Project 2013 and how to use its basic features.

Chapter A: Guide to Using Microsoft Project 2013 Basic Features of Project Management Software Book Title: Information Technology Project Management Printed By: Joseph English ([email protected]) © 2016 Cengage Learning, Cengage Learning

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