Part 4: Microsoft Project Server — the Super Premium Octane Project Management Tool

May 18, 2012 — Bruce McGraw

So finally I get to talk about the large “High Test or Super Octane” projects and tools!  Most organizations will have only a few of these projects or maybe they will have a program that is a collection of many projects being managed under one team or PMO.

Even though there are not a lot of these types of projects or programs in an organization, they tend to be the strategic, highly visible and large staff projects. The need to manage the correctly is driven usually from both a cost and strategic perspective. These projects are often called the “career killer” projects — because if you don’t get them done on time and within budget, you may be looking for a new job.

Here are the characteristics of these types of projects:

  • Large, strategic project
  • 30+ full-time staff
  • Long duration — 12 to 24 months
  • Full time PM (Or perhaps more depending on the size and scope of the program)
  • Needs rigor and Project Management tools to develop and track
    • Charter and budget
    • Project management plan
    • Detailed schedule
    • Assignments
    • Risks and issues
    • Quality plan
    • Cost controls
    • Status reports with metrics
    • Forecasts

So there are many tools and products on the market for this level of project management —many times they are called Enterprise Project Management (EPM) tools.  Companies like Microsoft (Project Server), Computer Associates (Clarity) and Oracle (Primavera) have products exclusively aimed at assisting with these types of projects and programs. I will speak to the use of Microsoft Project Server 2010 for illustration purposes.

As the name implies Microsoft Project Server® is a first a fully capable version of Microsoft Project® residing on a server along with a web based interface (SharePoint) that allows most team members access to the functions they need.  Project Server also works in conjunction with the desktop application, MS Project Professional, to provide a seamless experience for the PM.  The major advantage of this arrangement is the ability to view and organize data across multiple projects for effective portfolio management. Microsoft Project Server is an enterprise and portfolio tool suite that:

  • Works with Project and Office
  • Has a web-based user interface
  • Allows “cradle to grave” tracking for projects
  • Shows status across multiple projects and global resource pool
  • Supports typical project management work products such as:
  • Project sites, libraries, collaboration and schedules
  • Repository for all artifacts
  • Timesheets and assignments
  • Workflows
  • Facilitates portfolio analysis and report generation
  • Provides real-time data for decision making across multiple programs

Choosing an EPM tool, like Microsoft Project Server, requires an organization-level commitment. The utility of Project Server can be realized only when the resource, schedule and document information is updated by all project managers and used to allocate resources and make decisions. An organization’s commitment to Project Server requires a higher upfront cost than Microsoft Project or Excel, and training for PMs, portfolio managers and business analysts in accessing and using the reservoir of available information.

In my experience, the additional cost of Project Server is justified when:

  • Projects are large and of strategic importance to the organization
  • A single project employs 30+ full-time staff, some of whom may be in remote locations
  • Projects last more than 12 months and may extend to two or three years
  • The organization needs to compare status and outcomes across multiple projects in order to make the best resource allocation decisions

Here are a few examples of using Microsoft Project Server:

Individual projects can use Microsoft Project Server to generate status reports using established templates that access current information on key project metrics, such as planned versus actual costs, risk and issues status and resource utilization.

Project Management Offices and senior decision makers can see at a glance, the development stage of all suggested, proposed or ongoing projects.

And, portfolio managers can track the status and issues of all their projects on one page.

Overall I find that Microsoft Project Server meets my needs completely in managing a large project and consulting with companies on creating an effective PMO. Most importantly, I believe that the inherent collaborative nature of Project Server® (because it uses SharePoint® ) helps keep project team members on the same page and provides individuals with a knowledge that ranges from their current task list to how their project fits within the greater organization. To summarize:

Pros of Microsoft Project Server:

  • Uses Web browser for most functions — since employees already know how to navigate and use a browser, this saves on training and orientation time.
  • Central repository for all information — as previously discussed in Finding a Content Management System solution – Part 1
  • Works well with other tools (Office, Project, etc.)
  • Multi-User data — this ties the team together through facilitating communication and creating a common project picture
  • Single Resource pool — helps solve resource management challenges because tasking and capabilities are in one location on the server
  • Process and Workflow enforcement — tracking key metrics across multiple projects

Cons of Microsoft Project Server

  • Cost (Initial setup and on-going administration required)
  • All staff must utilize and update information in order to have complete picture
  • Training is needed initially to maximize the investment in the tools

So do you have thoughts on the tools your organization is using for managing large or “High Octane” level projects?

Next week I will talk about a Hybrid tool approach to managing projects.

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Part 3: If projects are like gasoline – Project Management Tools for Medium-Sized Projects

May 11, 2012 — Bruce McGraw

Managing medium-sized development projects requires project management tools that are more specialized and capable than the Microsoft Office tools recommended for use on small projects, as discussed last week. These are the regular octane or plus tools. Because more people are involved in execution of standard or medium-sized projects, and because they often have a duration of a year (or longer), project managers need tools that can handle resource management and task dependencies with greater sophistication than Microsoft Excel or office tools alone can provide — mainly due to the number of people and sharing of information that is needed.  The characteristics of a medium-sized project are:

  1. 10-50 staff
  2. 4-18 months duration
  3. Part  or Full Time PM
  4. Formal documentation and planning support required, such as
    1. Charter
    2. Project Plan
    3. Schedule
    4. Assignments
    5. Risks/ Issues
    6. Status reports

The most commonly used, special purpose project management tool for medium-sized, octane-plus efforts is Microsoft Project®. In fact, many professional and experienced PMs successfully use MS Project on small, medium and large sized efforts. In addition to project scheduling, for which it is the number one choice, Microsoft Project supports:

  1. Detailed view of  tasks, assignments, and resources
  2. Integration with Excel, Word and PowerPoint to manage more complex or interrelated projects
  3. Supports the creation of timelines, status reports, and metrics

Microsoft Project has been around for a long time and many people are still using versions 2007 and 2003, however the current version, Microsoft Project 2010, will be used in the following examples and discussion. Most managers begin by creating a project schedule, which creates a high-level task list and can drill down to detailed tasks for each high-level task. It automatically creates a Gantt chart and supports establishing task dependencies. Microsoft Project uses the standard Microsoft ribbon to control formatting, navigation and frequently used activities. The ability to link tasks allows project managers to perform predictive scheduling, which I believe is an essential skill of professional PMs. (Why your project needs a predictive project schedule).

The second Microsoft Project capability that I believe is important to successful project management is effective resource allocation. Understanding the level of effort required for each task and seeing the commitment of personnel across tasks ensures that individuals are not over or under tasked. In the resource management survey conducted by Cognitive Technologies, we found that across the board there is the perception that key project resources were consistently over allocated. (Project Management Resource Survey 2009–Challenges)

A project timeline is helpful for seeing the project big picture and for inclusion into management status briefings. Here’s a sample:

Microsoft Project Pros:

  1. Well known tool by PMs and the industry standard for project schedule tools — and classes are readily available for individuals needing to learn the tool
  2. Powerfully scheduling engine — I think it has one of the most mature schedule engines around.  And with 2010 you can actually turn this off and do manual scheduling if needed.
  3. Detailed task and resource data
  4. Works well with other Microsoft tools (Excel, Visio, Power Point etc.)
  5. Resource assignment capability – can view schedule by resource or assignment views
  6. Task linkage capability allows for predictive schedules – can link tasks inside one project to tasks in another project

Microsoft Project Cons

  1. More complex tool — requires staff skill level higher than the Microsoft Office tools suggested for small projects
  2. Each project is a standalone resource pool — hard to get complete organizational resource demand
  3. Updates must be done by one person (Not multi-user) — so it doesn’t solve the multi-user issues

For other tips and tricks in utilizing Microsoft Project, checkout Tips and Tricks. Next week, I will talk about the power-house project management tool — the super unleaded one, Microsoft Project Server. I will close this series by talking about a Hybrid octane tool set available through Microsoft SharePoint.

 

Posted in Project Management, Tools. Tags: , , , , . 3 Comments »

Part 2: If projects are like gasoline – Project Management Tools for Small Projects

May 4, 2012 — Bruce McGraw

Last week I talked about gasoline octane ratings as a metaphor for the relative performance and capability required of project management tools. According to Wikipedia, the octane rating is a standard measure of the performance of motor or aviation fuel. The higher the octane number –the higher the performance. Or, in the case of PM tools, large complex projects need high-octane, specialized tools, while small projects get by just fine exploiting the capabilities of the tools you commonly have around the work site.

Small projects (or Unleaded projects!) usually have characteristics of short time frames and minimal staff.  They occur within a short time frame — often less than six months and do not require nor have a full-time project manager. Several people may work on the project, but few if any, are assigned full-time. However, even small projects need to document their charter and scope, organize a task list and schedule and report on their status or accomplishments/issues.

In my experience, Microsoft Office applications, including Excel, PowerPoint, Word and Outlook, provide enough of the octane that a small project needs. Here are some examples of project management using Microsoft Office applications:

Task detail and scheduling
The workhorse tool for managing small projects is Microsoft Excel – in surveys that my company has conducted, MS Excel was the number 1 project management tool used by organizations. In fact many medium or large projects use Excel for some of their PM duties. I like the ability of Excel to quickly generate a task list, which can include a brief description, start and stop times and assignments. The tasks and time frame can then help build a simple Gantt chart. All of the charts produced in Excel, as well as the task detail, can be copied into Microsoft PowerPoint for presentations or Microsoft Word for reports.  The team can use email to distribute the excel sheet for updates.

Here is an example of an Excel project tool:
Status Reports

Here is another example of using Excel as a status report:

Cost Analysis

Spreadsheets, like Excel, had their roots as an accounting or number management tool (for some of us we remember using a program called VisiCalc!). So, it is no surprise that it provides a great deal of capability to manipulate cost figures, such as creating planned versus actual cost comparison.

And here are some ideas for a One Page

Summary Report using MS PowerPoint:

Project managers are not limited to simple things either, they can create a complete project workbook in Excel using the tab feature for various project documents, such as the charter, budget, risks and issues, action items, WBS and decision logs.

Also email, such as Microsoft Outlook and Exchange Server, serves as the primary formal communication tool for setting up meetings and sharing information both inside and outside the team. Within the team, Outlook can also be used to share information. However, the team will also benefit from communication using sticky notes, task boards and face-to-face discussions using other tools like GotoMeeting, WebEX or Live Meeting.

OK- so let’s look at the pros and cons of using Office tools for managing projects:

Pros of Using Microsoft Office for Project Management

  1. Most users already know how to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint – not much training needed
  2. Low initial cost – in fact most organizations already have these tools
  3. Tools and work products can be easily modified – the work products can be branded and modified to fit the project
  4. Many project management templates are available – if you look online, you will find hundreds of templates for these office tools

Cons of Microsoft Office for Project Management

  1. Staff/users have varying levels of skill and proficiency – even though everyone may have these tools, many people have never had to use them for advanced functions like making a project schedule or status report
  2. Data is not real time – have to send the file around and wait for distribution
  3. Version control is problematic – I hate the game of multiple people editing a file at the same time and then figuring out which one is the most recent
  4. Updates are more labor intensive – if you try to control changes to the project with one person (eliminating the version control issue) then you create a bottleneck

So, in summary, if you are on a team tradition project or agile, you can utilize standard office tools to help the teams manage the project without having to invest in expensive tools and technology.

If you have comments or thoughts about using Microsoft Office or other tools for small projects, please share.

Part 3 of our series will cover the “Standard” or regular projects and tools.

Posted in General Project Management, Project Management, Tools. Tags: , , , , . 5 Comments »
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