Sponsored by Unisys Federal Systems

PMI Baltimore Chapter’s Virtual Meeting, April 7, 2010

Tips & Tricks for PMs & Advanced Users of MS Project

presented by David Hunsberger

Sponsored by Unisys Federal Systems

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Agenda

• 3:30 pm Call to Order/Housekeeping, Announcements & Introductions

• 3:45 pm Tips & Tricks for PMs & Advanced Users of MS Project, presented by David

Hunsberger• 4:30 pm Q&A• 4:45 pm Information on PDUs and Recorded Session• 4:55 pm Close of Meeting

Housekeeping• To prevent “noise”/feedback, either use microphone on

your laptop or phone speaker (conference bridge), don’t use both

• Do NOT put this call on HOLD• MUTE your phone/laptop unless asking a question

– Use LiveMeeting Q&A, we will monitor throughout meeting and answer questions periodically

• Pre-registration for this meeting is highly encouraged– For those PMPs who did not pre-register you will need to do

the following: • For those attending on LiveMeeting – send an email to

[email protected] with name, email address and phone number

• For those attending in person – sign in on the attendance sheet

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mailto:[email protected]

Announcements• April 9 PMI Baltimore Membership Survey ends

─ www.surveymonkey.com/s/CMDKFP2• May 12 Next Unisys Internal Meeting – Deltek & EVM

PMCE/CMEx Mentoring Program Graduation (after CMEx Mtg)

• May 13 Comments due for PMI Practice Standard for Estimating Exposure Draft─ http://www.pmi.org/Resources/Pages/Exposure-Drafts.aspx

• May 17 One-Day Seminar, Coaching & Inspirational Leadership, presented by Lambert Consulting, Loyola Columbia Campus – Send email by April 22 to [email protected] for chance to win FREE attendance (1 seat)

• June 2 Next PMI Baltimore Virtual Meeting, 3:30 pm EDT, Carl Pritchard’spresentation on Risk Management

• June 3 PMI WDC Golf Tournament, 1:30 pm Start, Westfields, Clifton, VA. Unisys is sponsoring this event and has a foursome. If you are interested in joining the foursome (FREE), send email to [email protected] (Unisys Federal employees only) by April 30 (must include handicap).

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http://www.pmi.org/Resources/Pages/Exposure-Drafts.aspx



4/7/10 David Hunsberger – www.it7.com 5

Part 1 - Navigating in Large Schedules

David HunsbergerMCP – Microsoft Project (1995)


• People Tend to Fear Large Schedules

• This Causes Them to Force Large Projects into Smaller Schedules

• Not Having Enough Detail Reduces Schedule Quality and “Power” (The “Fat Briefcase” Anecdote)

The Problem…


• Overcome Our Fear of Large Schedules

• Navigating Our Way Around Large Schedules is Key to This

• Custom Filters are Great Navigation Aids

The Solution…


• The “Sweet Spot” for Task Durations is Between 1 and 5 Days, Some Would Say

• Shorter and Longer Tasks May Also be Necessary (Key Meetings; “LOE” Tasks)

• Don’t Forget Milestones (Zero Duration)

Background Factors…


Lets Look First at Filters

Some Standard Project Filters Help Here – such as the Date Range and Task Range (ID) Filters

But The Best Navigation Filters Need to Be Custom Made


• Let’s Build a “Name Contains” Filter to find any word we choose


Custom Filters – Go To

“Project” – “Filtered For” – “More Filters”




This pops up a little dialogue box…

Suppose we ask for the word “Requirement” …



Another Navigation Aide:

– Use the Show Button to Display High-Level Summary Tasks, and Drill Down from There


Here are the results for “Outline Level 2:


• Hands-on Demo

• End of Part 1


Part 2 - Creating Networks (without 3rd Party Add-Ins)

–

Some Tips for Using the “Native” Network Functionality within Microsoft Project





Two Key Menu Items to Work With


The Defaults are Shown

~~~

Change Five Settings

Set On

Set On

Set On

Set On

Set Off


This is where you choose which fields go in the network boxes

The default shapes need some tweaking to save space


Edit this to pick which fields go in the template

Notice the strange field names – these are custom composites


Finally – This is where the fields are set

But wait – I need to go even deeper…


One more layer deep to set the general characteristics of the boxes


How do I customize the contents of a field? ID + UID

Codes for:• “Start No

Earlier” Constraint,

• No Pred, • No Succ

Lead + Responsible Organization


One more layer deep to set the general characteristics of the boxes

How do I customize the contents of a field?


• Hands-on Demo

• End of Part 2

Q & A

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PDU Info for Today’s PMI BC Virtual Meeting

• PDU Category = Category 3• Category Type = Report a Component 1-2 PDU Event• PDU Number: C078-100407

– Component ID – C078 (In Step 2, enter ONLY C078 and click on it – it’s a link)

– Activity Meeting Number = 100407• Activity Name = April 2010 PMI Baltimore Chapter Virtual Meeting• Number of PDUs = 1 PDU• POC: Loretta Letke, PMP, PMI Baltimore Chapter VP, Membership• Phone Number: 443-756-9295• Email: [email protected]

• TIP: Take a screen shot of this information

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