In This Issue:

2 From the President.

3 History of Project Management.

4 Doug Thiele’s Tips & Tricks.

6 Just for Fun.

7 The Microsoft Project® Inside Track.

10 Membership Renewals.

12 Questions & Answers.

13 Vanilla Ice Cream.

15 A Layman’s Perspective.

15 Wish List Reminder.

16 MPUG Application.

Mark your Calendars!!!Southwest Chapter: September 14, 1998.Great Lakes Chapter: September 17, 1998.Texas Chapter: Houston–July 20,Irving–August 17, & Austin–September 22, 1998.

Refer to the MPUGWebsite for directions andmeeting details. Be sureto contact the MPUGoffice at (734) 741-0841for your reservation, asthese meetings are sure tofill!

If you don’t have accessto the Website, please feelfree to call for more details.

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Sept 1998

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The Newsletter of the Microsoft Project Users Group—National Volume 2, Issue 3, Summer 1998

The Project NetworkMembership

The MPUG Meeting Surveys have been reviewed... Membership has spoken:Preferred Meeting Times–Morning 23.81%, Afternoon 19.05%, Evening 57.14%with Tuesday and Thursday running 1st and 2nd for the Day of the Week.

Our question to members regarding dinner meetings and the price memberswould be willing to pay came out–19.05% willing to pay $20-25, 56.67%willing to pay $10-15, with 24.28% stating that they would not pay for adinner meeting or did not know for sure. To bolster attendance and to getreliable meeting registration numbers in advance, it has also been suggested tocharge for the meetings in advance (bill for payment with a cancellationdeadline for full refund), or charge a small registration fee (paid in advancewith registration, in order to cover food and beverage service ordered).

Most members also told us that we’re doing a good job in notification ofmeetings–most look to the newsletter for meeting information and 47.62% watch theMPUG Website. The remaining membership responding to the survey look to othersources for reminders (i.e., other organizations websites–PMI and Microsoft).

Attention all full-time students... The National MPUG Board has justapproved a new membership classification for Students. Any full-time studentattending an accredited institution at time of application can be approved for aStudent Membership at $35 per year. Proof of full-time status must be submitted toMPUG with application.

Membership Status... MPUG membership status is determined in one of twoways. For prospective members who pay dues, membership is effective on the date

payment is received in the MPUG national office. For prospectivemembers offered a fee-waived option, membership is effective on thedate the completed membership application is received by the MPUGnational office. For both types of members, full membership benefits,including the issuance of the membership certificates begin on theeffective membership date.

Check the Web at www.mpug.org

Program Planning Professionals, Inc.

President, North American Operations: Project Business Manager:Co-Sponsors

Page 2 The Project Network

Greetings,It’s been a busy time since the last letter.

The Board (along with some volunteer help)put in a lot of hours to get the draftConstitution/By-laws and some surveysbundled with the last newsletter fordistribution to the membership. I hope to hearlots of feedback on all of the material youreceived. The Board needs an ongoing

dialog with the membership to maintain and increase the value ofthe organization.

The most recent Great Lakes Regional Chapter meeting was heldon May 19th. Twenty-seven members and guests gathered at theMicrosoft Regional Offices in Southfield, MI, to hear a couple ofexcellent presentations, and to talk shop. While the attendancefigures were an improvement from the previous meeting, we still hada number of people register but not show up. Maybe it had somethingto do with the Red Wings vs. Blues playoff game that night. It isamazing the factors that can crop up when trying to get people toattend a meeting.

At the Board meetings over the last three months, the Board hasaccomplished a lot of work. We finalized a method for charteringchapters, and developed a procedure for electing officers for the newchapters. One of our near term goals is to hold elections for theexisting chapters in the Great Lakes and the Southwest. If you are apaid member of one of those regions, don’t be surprised if you hearfrom me soon asking you to stand for office. If you would like to see aregion started in your area, contact a Board member and let us know.We will be glad to assist you in the chartering process.

Speaking of new chapters, I would like to thank A.J. Collier forhis tireless efforts in organizing a chapter in Texas. A.J. embodies

the meaningof the term“enthusiasm”when you discussthe Texas chapterwith him. Theprimary goal ofthe Board hasbeen to developthe procedures as

quickly as possible to avoid holding up his progress. I attended theinaugural Texas chapter meeting, and enjoyed meeting a lot of theTexas members. They all seemed enthusiastic about the chapter, andwere making plans to meet frequently, to get the most out of theirmembership. Several of the members came up to meduring the social hour and breaks to discuss policy and organization

Microsoft Project Users Group—From the President

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for the chapter and meetings. It will be exciting to see how the chaptertakes shape!

The meeting included two presentations, in addition to time forchapter business. The first presentation had Jim Spiller of Critical Toolsshowing the features of two Project add-ons:PERT Chart Expert and WBS Chart for Project.Both tools let the user take the information inProject and create striking and useful graphics.PERT Chart Expert builds a more organized PERTchart than what you get from Project, and hasmore features for customizing the appearanceof the chart. WBS Chart for Project does prettymuch what it sounds like: it creates a WBS chartfrom your Project plan. Both tools were easy to use, as evidenced byJim’s demonstrations.

There was a last minute change in the presenters for the secondpresentation. Toya Evans and MichaelZhang provided the presentation on What’sNew with Microsoft Project. Michaelprovided an overview of the changes whileToya provided a demonstration of newfeatures and interface design. Bothpresentations were well received by theattending members.

Back to Board business, another issue the Board is addressing is thelevel of activity in the SIGs. There has been a turnover in

the SIG Coordinator’s position, and the goal is torevitalize the SIG effort. KimHamilton is the new SIGCoordinator, and he is anotherone that paid members can

expect to hear from regarding participation in the SIGs.I took up a lot of space beyond what was expected with the last

message, and my goal this time is to be brief, so I will sign off for thisquarter. Just one last reminder to stay in touch with the Board. Pleaseuse the surveys we send out to let us know what you think. We want todo everything we can to give you the organization you want to see!Warmest regards, Pat McMurtry

MPUG President

Pat McMurtryMPUG President

Jim Spiller

Toya Evans & Michael Zhang

Ralph Webb, Perry Nolan, A.J. Collier, & Steve English

Volume 2, Issue 3, Summer 1998 Page 3

Feature Article—History of Project Management

The Project Network Newsletter, Summer 1998Editor Gail StoparTechnical Coordinator Doug ThieleCopy Editor Dave Stopar

Microsoft Project Users Group (MPUG) Board MembersPresident Patrick McMurtrySecretary Jeanne DorleCommunication Director Gail StoparSales & Marketing Director Jerry CusterNational SIG Coordinator Kim HamiltonWish List Administrator Doug ThieleMembership Administrator(s) Gail Stopar & Ann McRoberts

Microsoft Project Users Group OfficeTelephone: 734-741-0841Facsimile: 734-741-1343

The History of Project Management By Toney Sisk of Microsoft

Project management, in its modern form, began to take root only a few decades ago. Starting in the early 1960s, businesses and otherorganizations began to see the benefit of organizing work around projects and to understand the critical need to communicate and integrate workacross multiple departments and professions.

The Early Years: Late 19th CenturyWe can travel back further, though, to the latter half of the 19th century and to the rising complexities of the business world to see how project

management evolved from management principles. Large-scale government projects were the impetus for making important decisions thatbecame management decisions. In this country, the first large organization was the transcontinental railroad, which began construction in theearly 1870s. Suddenly, business leaders found themselves faced with the daunting task of organizing the manual labor of thousands of workers andthe manufacturing and assembly of unprecedented quantities of raw material.

Early 20th Century EffortsNear the turn of the century, Frederick Taylor (1856–1915) began his detailed studies of work. He applied scientific reasoning to work by showing

that labor can be analyzed and improved by focusing on its elementary parts. He applied his thinking to tasks found in steel mills, such as shovelingsand and lifting and moving parts. Before then, the only way to improve productivity was to demand harder and longer hours from workers. Theinscription on Taylor’s tomb in Philadelphia attests to his place in the history of management: “the father of scientific management.”

Taylor’s associate, Henry Gantt (1861–1919), studied in great detail the order of operations in work. His studies of management focused on Navyship construction during WWI. His Gantt charts, complete with task bars and milestone markers, outline the sequence and duration of all tasks ina process. Gantt chart diagrams proved to be such a powerful analytical tool for managers that they remained virtually unchanged for nearly ahundred years. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that link lines were added to these task bars depicting more precise dependencies between tasks.

Taylor, Gantt, and others helped evolve management into a distinct business function that requires study and discipline. In the decades leadingup to WWII, marketing approaches, industrial psychology, and human relations began to take hold as integral parts of business management.

Mid-20th Century EffortsAfter WWII, the complexities of projects and a shrinking war-time labor supply demanded new organizational structures. Complex network

diagrams called PERT charts and the critical path method were introduced, giving managers greater control over massively engineered andextremely complex projects (such as military weapon systems with their huge variety of tasks and numerous interactions at many points in time).

Soon these techniques spread to all types of industries as business leaders sought new management strategies and tools to handle their growthin a quickly changing and competitive world. In the early 1960s, general system theories of science began to be applied to business interactions.Richard Johnson, Fremont Kast, and James Rosenzweig described in their book The Theory and Management of Systems how a modernbusiness is like a human organism, with a skeletal system, a muscular system, circulatory system, nervous system, and so on.

TodayThis view of business as a human organism implies that in order for a business to survive and prosper, all of its functional parts must work in

concert toward specific goals, or projects. In the following decades, this approach toward project management began to take root in its modernforms. While various business models evolved during this period, they all shared a common underlying structure (especially for larger businesses):that the project is managed by a project manager, who puts together a team and ensures the integration and communication of the workflowhorizontally across different departments.

Page 4 The Project Network

Project RelationshipsOne of the most interesting features that has been added to Microsoft Project 98 is the ability to add links between

projects. This is an important feature, because it models reality. How often do you have a project that has no links to anyoutside activity? How often do you have a project that has no subprojects? How often do you have a project that hasmeaningful work that is done by someone else? The links between projects mimic this reality and gives theproject manager the ability to see these relationships. In this article, we will see how to create a relationshipbetween projects, as well as take a look at some of the attributes of these inter-project links.

The first thing that we need to do is to create two Microsoft Project plans (Figure 1). This exampleuses a high-levelplan for a new airplane(my apologies to theaerospace industry forthis gross oversimplification!). The first plan, calledProj1.mpp, is the overall project plan. It covers all ofthe high-level tasks necessary to put together the plane,with one crucial exception. It’s missing the plan for thewing! The second plan is the detail for how that wingwill be constructed. This detail needs to be incorporatedinto the master plan so that it can be tracked, and sothat any events that affect the finish of the wing rippleback into the main plan.

How do we get the information from the wing planinto the master schedule? Simple. We choose where wewant to insert the wing plan in the masterschedule (i.e. between which tasks), choose Insert fromthe menu bar, and choose Project from the menu thatappears. We then choose the name of the file to insert.In this case it’s Proj2.mpp, and click OK. Now the wing

detail plan has been incorporated into the master plan for the plane (Figure 2). We can now view the detail tasks of the wing project and roll upthe detail, as appropriate. One thing to notice is that the Information field in the Tasks table shows a Project icon on the Wing Assembly line of themaster project. This is because MicrosoftProject wants the user to know that theinformation here comes from a subproject,as does all information that is indentedunder this line.

Ok, this is great. Now we can see how theduration of the subproject (the wing project),affects our master plan when we insert it.What about when the subproject is updated?What happens then? Does the plan updateproperly? Let’s go through a couple ofexamples and find out.

Continued on page 14

Figure 1: The two Microsoft Project plans before being incorporated

Figure 2: The master plan withsubproject inserted

Doug Thiele’s Tips & Tricks

Volume 2, Issue 3, Summer 1998 Page 5

Our PMI Affiliates

Connecting with the Project Management Instituteu Earn Project Management Certificationu Associate with fellow project management professionalsu Tap the network of expertise in your community, industry and special interest area

As a member of the Project Management Institute, you’ll benefit from the experience of a talented group of professionals who face the sameproject management concerns and challenges you face.

In fact, this is the one group that believes in sharing the “how to” methods they’ve used to achieve success. You’ll find this evidencedin the Project Management Institute leadership and, even more importantly, right in your community at the local Great Lakes chapter.

Using the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Education Programs and Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification,Project Management Institute members are developing their project management skills and careers. In fact, PMP certification isincreasingly viewed as an indication of valuable knowledge by many industries and recognized worldwide by organizations such as AT&Tand Honeywell.

PMI, a non-profit professional associationlocated at Newton Square, Pennsylvania,represents over 31,000 members worldwidewho are actively advancing the projectmanagement profession.

PMI National: 610-356-4600www.pmi.org

So contact one of these MPUG–PMIAffiliate chapters today!

Phoenix: 602-831-7659Tucson: 520-791-4204Denver: 303-843-0505Albuquerque: 505-858-1636

Great Lakes: 248-988-6802www.pmiglc.org

Midwest: 630-655-7218www.pmi-midwest.org

Minnesota: 612-486-0417www.pmimn.org

Los Angeles: 310-812-0279www.pmi-la.org

San Diego: 619-533-3161www.pmi-sd.org

Orange County: 714-731-0304www.aimsoftware.com/pmioc

Houston: 281-871-6555Austin: 512-838-8210Dallas: 972-260-9502Fort Worth: 817-354-3808

Page 6 The Project Network

Just For Fun!

From the Editor

Management Quotes to Think About – CryptomaniaDecode the phrases provided in each puzzle below. Replace the numbers in each spot with a letter of the

alphabet. Be sure to use the same letter at each spot the number is shown. Punctuation is already there.Consider each puzzle individually. The numbers may represent different letters within each puzzle.

Be sure to check youranswers against those on the

MPUG Website under“Check It Out”

(www.mpug.org)

Quotes taken from http://www.xs4all.nl/~btsmith/HSAY2.htm.Brian’s Sayings and Quotes forProject/People Management.

1 2 4 3 5 6 7 2 8 9

11 2 9 9 10 2 3 12 2 3 6

13 3 9 2 16 2 1 3 12 3 9 3

9 14 15 2

1 2 3 1 4 5 6 4 1 7

7 8 9 10 9 1 2 11 10 9 12 1 4 12

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11 15 11 5 12

Volume 2, Issue 3, Summer 1998 Page 7

Feature Article—Tracking

The Microsoft Project® Inside TrackYou’ve just been assigned to lead a new project, and your manager

wants a work estimate and due date. In today’s complex businessenvironment, it makes sense to use a tool to help you specify all thedetails. Microsoft Project can help you scope out your project and you canprint a nice-looking Gantt Chart showing all the important informationin a professional style. If nothing in your plan could change, then a goodschedule is probably all you need.

But in the real world, lots of things can change, sometimes all atonce. Once you’ve made the effort to create an initial schedule, you’veonly begun to tap into the enormous power of Microsoft Project to helpyou manage your project. You can get a lot more payoff for this initialinvestment of your time if you use the software to help you see how earlywork impacts tasks that come later, keep everyone working on the projectutilized effectively, control your budgets, and manage change sensibly.

Using project management software, you can track task, resource,and cost data. It makes sense to only enter and track information forwhich you or someone you report to are responsible, such as the scope ofwork, a team’s workload, or a budget. For things that are out of yourcontrol, it’s often easier to simply update the project with the effects ofthose changes, and not try to forecast that information. But when you areresponsible for anything that could go wrong, it’s a relief to know thatyour project management tool can help you stay afloat in a sea of change.

Knowing which of your responsibilities is most important when youplan the project is the key to managing it best later on. If it’s absolutelycritical that the project finish on time, then sometimes it’s necessary to goover budget, or work extra hours to meet a deadline. If you can’t do that,you may have to cut scope and simply do less work. Microsoft Projectprovides the muscle to calculate how these changes affect your plan, butyou have to make the appropriate decisions.

Building a plan to make tracking possibleTo be able to analyze and account for change in your project data

along the way, it’s best to create a flexible schedule by entering estimatesof each task’s length and then showing dependencies between tasks. Usingthose duration estimates and task dependencies, Microsoft Project willcalculate what dates tasks should start and finish. This initialinformation is what you will measure the change in your project against.When a task takes longer than expected, the tasks that come after it will beautomatically rescheduled to account for the slip. And you’ll be able tosee just where the slip occurred. If you hard-code a schedule using specificdates, you lose this information when you change the hard-coded dates.

Account for resource availabilityIf you are accountable for scheduling the time of people or

equipment, you should show their availability to work using a project

By Julie Painley of Microsoft®

Continued on page 8

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calendar for the core working hours of your company, and, ifdifferent people or groups work varying hours, resource calendars.You can even create resource calendars to show different shifts. Whenyou assign resources to work on certain tasks, their availabilityaffects when the work is scheduled. It’s helpful to schedule work inthis way because you can see later where either a resource’s availability or productivity affect when a task is actually finished.

Using resource-driven versus fixed-duration schedulingIf you schedule using resources, you can see the effect when you

assign someone to a task because the duration of the task changesdepending on the number of resources assigned. For example, afour-day task will become a two-day task if you assign two peopleinstead of one. If you prefer to keep the task durations constant whenyou assign resources, you can set the entire project or just the task tofixed-duration scheduling in Microsoft Project 98, and the resource’sassigned work will change based on the task’s duration instead of thenumber of resources driving the length of the task. This is useful forsituations such as manning a telephone hotline, when you knowthat a task’s duration will never change, but there will be less workfor the resources if you assign more of them.

Track resource costs and budgetsIf you will be responsible for an overall budget or the costs

incurred by individual resources, you should enter the cost of eachresource’s time, either as an hourly rate or as a fixed rate for eachtime the resource is used. You can enter multiple rates for eachresource and also apply them to go into effect on certain dates. Youcan also enter overtime rates to apply when the resource worksmore than the usual number of hours. This is useful to see whichresources are most cost-effective and if you go over budget, where. Youcan also enter fixed costs for tasks and resources, for example, toaccount for the costs of an external supplier. Later, when you want tomeasure your overall progress, you can analyze the project based onEarned Value: how much of your budget has been spent bycertain milestones or as a percentage of how much the project iscomplete. These techniques can be useful to forecast your budget forfinishing the project.

Compare alternatives and track changeAfter you have modeled the key ingredients of your project to the

level of detail you want to see, you are ready to move to the next stage.If you want to test hypothetical situations, you can compare differ-ent scenarios to see how changes in certain areas of the project affect

Page 8 The Project Network

Continued from page 7

Feature Article—Tracking, Continued

Continued on page 9

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○others. Once you’re satisfied with your plan and the project begins, youcan manage change as it occurs. To actually compare changes in aproject, you must save a copy of the original schedule, called a Baseline.Then when you enter actual data for tasks, resources, or costs, you havesomething to measure against. In Project 98, you can save a baselineand up to 10 interim plans to compare hypothetical schedules orprogress along the way. (For comparing hypothetical budgets, you shouldenter all your cost data before saving the baseline because interimplans do not save complete cost information.) You can also add newtasks to an existing baseline or interim plan if necessary.

How and where to track actual data, and viewing theproject’s status

After you’ve entered all the data for which you want to track changesand you’ve saved a baseline plan, you can update the schedule with realdata anytime you want. You can do it day-by-day (timescaled resourceand task data), task-per-task as each task is finished, or at selectedintervals, depending on the information you receive and how often youneed to measure the progress of your schedule. You just need to decidewhich level of granularity fits your project best. You should find theeasiest way to enter your data to get the results you want becauseupdating your schedule can be the most time consuming part of projectmanagement. Unless you are getting the results you need with the leastamount of effort, you will be tempted to keep track of everything in yourhead. The major pitfall with trying to remember everything is that the“early warning system” is not always working when you need it most.Microsoft Project can be a valuable ally when you need to quicklyunderstand the impact of change on your schedule.

Tracking on a daily basisIf you are a line manager who needs to track what is done each day,

you can use Microsoft Project to enter the detailed information on whateach resource accomplishes each day and Microsoft Project willcalculate the overall effect to your plan. You can enter actual taskinformation on a daily basis, and Microsoft Project 98 will roll downthat information to the resources assigned to the task. Or you can enteractual resource work on a daily basis, and Microsoft Project 98 willcalculate the effect on the tasks. Using whichever actual information ismost easily available to you, tracking on a daily basis allows you to keepa detailed daily log of progress on the tasks and resources’ work on yourproject and forecast the rest of the schedule.

Entering each task’s statusIf people report to you when they are finished with each task they are

assigned, you can track tasks one by one. If you need to keep detailedrecords of the hours of work spent on each task, you can enter the actual

work of each resource, and Microsoft Project will update theduration and actual start and finish fields of the task by calculatingthe actual work you enter. If you just need to keep track of the datesthe tasks start and finish, you can enter the actual start and actualfinish dates, and Microsoft Project will calculate the actual workand duration for the task. You can also enter actual duration, andMicrosoft Project will calculate the actual start and actual finishdates for the task, as well as actual work.

Entering each resource’s statusLikewise, if you want to track each resource’s work on tasks as

they progress, you can enter the percentage the resource is finishedand Microsoft Project will calculate the work and the task’sremaining work and remaining duration, and actual start, actualfinish, and actual duration when the task is complete. You can alsoenter the actual work completed so far, and Microsoft Project willcalculate the remaining work and remaining duration of the task.

Using a status date to update the entire projectSometimes you just want to show what areas of the project are

finished so you can move on to the next phase. This is the quickestway to show progress, but be careful to check that the plan you madewas actually executed that way because the planned dates, durationand work will be transferred to the actual dates, duration and work.Of course, you can always update the actual values to showindividual changes. In Microsoft Project 98, you can enter any date(including the current date), and update the entire project as 100%complete up to that date. You can also use a status date to calculateearned value and see the percentage of your budget that has beenspent relative to that status date.

Showing Progress Lines on your Gantt ChartFor a graphical representation of whether tasks are ahead of, on

time, or behind schedule, Microsoft Project 98 can show progresslines for task bars on your Gantt Chart. The line connects all taskswith arrows to the left when a task is behind and arrows to the rightwhen a task is ahead of schedule. You can specify a status date or usethe current date, or you can specify daily, weekly, or monthlyintervals to show progress lines. Progress lines help you quickly scanthe task bars in your Gantt Chart to see how tasks are progressing. Youcan also print the Gantt Chart showing progress lines to report yourproject’s status.

Best ways to view task and resource dataMicrosoft Project offers many different ways to see task, resource,

or combined task and resource data, in views. Different views provide

Volume 2, Issue 3, Summer 1998 Page 9

Feature Article—Tracking, Continued

Continued from page 8

different lenses on the data. You can also drill down to more detail using tables and filters. Click to see the most helpful way to track basictask data, the work on tasks, costs of tasks, resources’ work, and resources’ costs.

Task data: Use:

To check the start and finish dates for the project Choose Project Information from the Project menu, and then click Statistics

To update all tasks to the current date or a status dateChoose Tracking from the Tools menu, and then click Update Project. To seta status date, pick a date in the Update work as complete through box.

To show Progress Lines for tasksGantt chart, and choose Tracking from the Tools menu, and then clickProgress Lines.

To update task by taskGantt Chart or Task Sheet, with Entry table applied (drag the dividing barto the right to see all columns)

To update on a daily basisTask Usage view, and format details to show Work, Actual Work, andCumulative Work

Work on tasks: Use:

To check the work on the entire project Choose Project Information from the Project menu, and then click Statistics

To update work on a task at a topmost levelGantt Chart or Task Sheet, with Work table applied (drag the dividing barto the right to see all columns)

To update work on a task by resource assignedTask Usage view, and format details to show Work, Actual Work, andCumulative work

Cost of tasks: Use:

To check the cost on the entire project Choose Project Information from the Project menu, and then click Statistics

To see task costs at a topmost levelGantt Chart or Task Sheet, with Cost table applied (drag the dividing bar tothe right to see all columns)

To check Earned Value on the project

To check Earned Value per taskGantt Chart or Task Sheet, with the Earned Value table applied (chooseTable from the View menu, then click More Tables)

To check Earned Value on a daily basisChoose the Task Usage view, then on the formt menu, click Detail Styles,and then click the Usage Details tab. In the Available fields list hold downCTRL, click the fields you want to display, and then click Show.

Resources' work: Use:

To check a resource's productivity on the entire project Resource Sheet with Work table applied

To check for overallocationsResource Graph (for a graphical view) or Resource Usage view (check forwork formatted in red)

To update on a daily basis Resource Usage view, and format details to show Work and Actual Work

Resources' cost: Use:

To check a resource's cost on the entire project Resource sheet with Cost table applied

To check for how much a resource is over budget andon which tasks

Resource Usage view, with the Cost table applied

To update on a daily basis Resource Usage view, and format details to show Cost and Actual Cost

Page 10 The Project Network

Membership Renewals

Renewing Your MPUG Membership“Right timing is in all things the most important factor.”

Hesiod (c. 700 B.C.)

“Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana.”Yogi Berra (1925 - )

If you’ve been an MPUG member for awhile, and especially if you’ve beenone for a year or more, you may have asked yourself, “When does all this funcome to an end? How do I go about renewing my MPUG membership?”

The answer is: it’s easy, and we’ll help you.MPUG membership runs on an annual basis. From the time it begins, all

of MPUG’s benefits – chapter meetings, quarterly newsletter, access to themembers-only portion of the MPUG website and more – run for twelveconsecutive months.

Then what happens? Well, a month beforebeforebeforebeforebefore your membership is set toexpire, an invoice will be sent to you by the MPUG National Office. To give youplenty of time to respond (since we’re all busy people), this invoice is sentduring the first week of the month before your membership ends.

The due date for renewing your membership is the last working day of themonth it expires. If we don’t get your renewal by that date, your MPUGmembership is technically lapsed.

But even then, all’s not lost! All lapsed members are sent areminder notice during the first week of the month following their renewaldate. If no response is received by the end of that month (i.e., the month afteryour renewal date), then your membership expires.

So, in effect, you have a three-month window to renew MPUGmembership – the month before it expires, the month it runs out, and themonth after as well (see illustration at right).

Of course, the best strategy is to update your calendar now, andkeep receiving all the benefits of MPUG membership withoutinterruption!

If you’re not sure when your membership expires, or if you haven’t receivedyour renewal invoice, please contact the MPUG office bycalling (734)741-0841 or by E-mail at mpug@pcubed.com.

Jerry Custer, MPUG Marketing

Renewal Invoice Sent

1st week of month

membership expires

Renewal Due Date

Last working day of month

membership expires

Follow-Up Sent

1st week of month

membership expires

Membership Ends

Last working day of month

after membership expires

March 1 - 7

April 30

May 1 - 7

May 31

MPUG Renewal Cycle for

Membership Expiring in April

Advertising is open to any member of theMicrosoft Project Users Group—Nationalwho is an authorized Microsoft ProjectConsultant or Service Provider. Costingavailable on request. For further details ofhow to advertise your services in TheProject Network newsletter, send a note tompug@pcubed.com, or contact the Editor,Gail Stopar, through the MPUG office.

Call (734) 741-0841Fax (734) 741-1343

Letters, Case Studies, or Wish List items intended for publication in future issues of The Project Network should be addessed to:Readers Insight, The Project Network

Letters may also be faxed to: 313-741-1343 209 S. Ashley Street or E-mailed to: mpug@pcubed.com Ann Arbor, MI 48104.

Please limit letters to one page and include a name, address, and daytime telephone number. Case Studies, of any length, are alwayswelcome, and Wish List memos will be incorporated into a members list and discussed on the Web before publication. Entries may be editedfor clarity and length. Due to the volume of letters we may receive, we cannot guarantee a response.

Volume 2, Issue 3, Summer 1998 Page 11

The MPUG MissionTo provide the installed user base of

Microsoft Project with aforum to exchange

ideas, support, andexperience, to better

understand and utilizeall Microsoft Project

related products. MPUG is anindependent users group formed withthe support and recognition of Microsoft.We will actively seek out relatedorganizations, both nationally andinternationally, and collaborate withthem to encourage the appropriateexchange of information to MPUGmembership for all levels of MicrosoftProject experience.

Project 98 Wins Editor’s Choice AwardPC Magazine recently selected Microsoft Project 98 as the only project

management software program that meets the needs of a wide range ofusers, is easy to use and includes the power features demanded by projectplanning professionals. The June 30, 1998 issue of the magazine (Vol. 17,No. 12) includes a comprehensive review of six project managementprograms including CA-SuperProject 4.0, Microsoft Project 98, ProjectScheduler 7, Sure Trak Project Manager 2.0, TimeLine 6.5, and TurboProjectProfessional 2.0. The title of the article is “Project Management Keeps Youon Track.” It is available on PC Magazine’s web site (www.pcmag.com).Just click on Issue Archive and select June 20, 1998. Check it out!

Provided by Jeanne Dorle of West Group

Page 12 The Project Network

Questions & Answers

Unlock your ProblemsThe following text is a selection of the most commonly asked Questions and Answers addressed to MicrosoftProduct Support and Authorised Microsoft Project Consultants and compiled by Kelvin Kirby, editor ofProject Scope (the Microsoft Project newsletter of the UK).

Post your questions to MPUG@pcubed.com and our U.S. technical staff and wishlist administrator will try their best to get you and the rest of MPUG an answer.

Here is what I am trying toaccomplish: Our work day starts at

7:30 a.m. and ends at 5:00 p.m. We accountfor a one hour lunch. In MS Project, thestart time out of the box is 8:00 a.m. withthe stop time the same at 5:00 p.m. Our dayis 8.5 hours long, MS Project is set for 8.

When I go into Tools, Options and go to theCalander Tab, I change the Default Start to7:30 a.m. and the hours per day and hoursper week accordingly. This changes theproject’s day for things like work andduration, but does not seem to have effecton the standard resource calendar. Hence, ifI assign a resource to a task for a day, theresource can only finish .96 of the task.

When I try to change the Resource Calendardefaults, I get nowhere. How do I create aResource Calendar with different defaultwork times? This is especially importantwhen I have to create shifts. The shifts workstandard rates, but at unusual times.Please help.

The settings in the Options dialogonly affect Work and Duration

conversions, as you’ve noted. To change theworking shifts, use the Change WorkingTime command on the Tools menu.

To change the project calendar:

1) Select Tools, Change Working Time.2) Select the project calendar from the

list.3) Select the entire work week by draging

across the column titles for M - F. Ifyou select only individual days, onlythose days will be affected.

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4) Click on the Working option button.5) Enter two shifts: 7:30 a.m. - 12:30

a.m., and 1:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. (Orwhatever is appropriate for yourlunch hour.)

6) Choose OK.

By default, all resources use the Standardcalendar as their base calendar, so if you editStandard and use it as your project calendaryou should be set. If you’re using a differentcalendar as your project calendar, you shouldset your resources to use that calendar also:

1) Select Resource Sheet from the View menu.2) Select all resources.3) Select Insert, Resource Information.4) Change the Base Cal section to your

project calendar.5) Choose OK.

What is the best way to show “to bearranged” dates? We have tried

using different fonts and hiding the bar onthe Gantt View.

There is no effective way of doing this.By definition a project plan must

contain the earliest start dates for anytask. A Project plan should also containdependencies which govern the logicalsequence of events within the project. TBAdates simply mean the tasks are not currentlyplanned, so the best you will do here is toschedule them from the start of the projectwith no dependencies and change thecolor/font style of these tasks. You couldalways set up a filter to filter these out ifrequired and/or use a flag field to set themas TBA type tasks.

Q

A

Q

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Q

A

The descriptions of some of the tasksin our projects are rather lengthy.

Is it possible to print out a Gantt chartwith word wrapping enabled in the TaskName field?

It’s quite easy to wrap text. Yousimply increase the row height and

the wrapping looks after itself. To increasethe row height move the mouse pointerbetween two row numbers (in the grey area)and drag. You can only set one height for allrows–i.e., increase one and they all increase.Actually, any column will wrap text giventhe following:

1) The column must be left aligned.2) The row height must be greater than 1.3) The column must be too narrow to

display the text on a single line.4) The text includes spaces. (Line breaks

occur at the spaces between words.)

This article reprinted with the kindpermission of Project Scope,

the UK Microsoft Project newsletter.

©Project Scope — Issue 2Autumn1995

Kelvin Kirby

Volume 2, Issue 3, Summer 1998 Page 13

Member Spotlight

Download...Free Trial Version

of MicrosoftProject 98

http://www.microsoft.com/project/download/

trial98.htm

Experience today’s foremostproject managementsoftware program!

Vanilla Ice Cream The following text is from an e-mail that was sent through many channels and many individuals... Enjoy!

A complaint received by the Pontiac Division of General Motors “This is the second time I have written to you, and I don’t blame you for not answering me, because what I have to say sounds kind of crazy...“But it is a fact that we have a tradition in our family of ice cream for dessert after dinner each night. But the kind of ice cream varies. So, every

night, after we’ve eaten, the whole family votes on which kind of ice cream we should have and I drive down to the store to get it...“It’s also a fact that I recently purchased a new Pontiac and since then my trips to the store have created a problem. You see, every time I buy

vanilla ice cream, when I start back from the store my car won’t start. If I get any other kind of ice cream, the car starts just fine...“I want you to know I’m serious about this question, no matter how silly it sounds: ‘What is there about a Pontiac that makes it not start when

I get vanilla ice cream, and easy to start whenever I get any other kind?’”The Pontiac president was understandably skeptical about the letter, but sent an engineer to check it out anyway. The latter was surprised to be

greeted by a successful, obviously well-educated man in a fine neighborhood. He had arranged to meet the man just after dinner time, so the twohopped into the car and drove to the ice cream store. It was vanilla ice cream that night and, sure enough, after they came back to the car, it wouldn’tstart...

The engineer returned for three more nights. The first night, the man got chocolate. The car started. The second night, he got strawberry. Thecar started. The third night he ordered vanilla. The car failed to start.

Now the engineer, being a logical man, refused to believe that this man’s car was allergic to vanilla ice cream. He arranged, therefore, tocontinue his visits for as long as it took to solve the problem. And toward this end he began to take notes: he jotted down all sorts of data, time ofday, type of gas used, time to drive back and forth, etc..

In a short time, he had a clue: the man took less time to buy vanilla than any other flavor. Why? The answer was in the layout of the store.Vanilla, being the most popular flavor, was in a separate case at the front of the store for quick pickup. All the other flavors were kept in the back ofthe store at a different counter where it took considerably longer to find the flavor and get checked out. Now the question for the engineer was whythe car wouldn’t start when it took less time.

Once time became the problem — not the vanilla ice cream — the engineer quickly came up with the answer: vapor lock. It was happeningevery night, but the extra time taken to get the other flavors allowed the engine to cool down sufficiently to start. When the man got vanilla, theengine was still too hot for the vapor lock to dissipate.

Often, we must look deeper than the obvious to find the real problem...

.*REF 98070!!!0011 Netdata N:WINMAIL.DAT I:0107C610 << WINMAIL.DAT : 0 in 98070!!!0011 >> OVVM-MSMail-MailClass: IPM.NoteRegards, Robert A. Dubois, 33-72970, Fax: 39-00905 STA-L&LC VC Bldg. 1

MD 1143 Rm. 2D107 Administrative Assistant Julie Bazner (JBazner3)

Page 14 The Project Network

Doug Thiele’s Tips & Tricks, Continued

By Doug ThieleMPUG Wish List Administrator

Figure 3: Links between Projectsdialog box

The most important, and most common event that occurs inproject management is task updates. For example, the bidconsiderations for the wing component could take longer than ex-pected. What effect does this have on the project if the bids aredelayed by two weeks (10 working days)? Well, Microsoft Project 98handles it like a champ. When the subproject and project are bothopen, it automatically updates the tasks in both projects and altersthe subproject’s summary task duration. Even when only the detailedproject is open the change in duration is recorded. As soon as themaster project is opened, it automatically records the change to thesubproject.

Why is this? Well, it’s because the wing information in the masterproject really isn’t a part of the master project. It is only LINKED intothe project. It really exists in the Proj2.mpp file. When the masterproject is opened, and it has subprojects embedded, it tries to find thesubprojects. If it finds them successfully, then it pulls the updateddata and adjusts to any changes. This is important, because it meansthat users can farm out detail schedules to contractors or componentmanufacturers, and collect these schedules into one master schedule.Then, the project manager just receives the updated schedule andreopens the master schedule to see what effect the changes have had(making backups of old subprojects for documentation and asinsurance, of course).

The other major type of change thatcan occur is at the master project level.For example, it may take less than 90 daysto hire the personnel necessary to buildthe plane. If this is the case, we wouldexpect that this will automatically shiftthe dates in the subproject for us. If itonly takes 75 days to hire the people tobuild the plane, then Microsoft Project98 automatically shifts the start date ofthe task in the subproject, justas was expected.

One interesting thing to note appears.In Proj2.mpp there are gray bars in theproject plan now. What are they? Theyare ghost tasks. They are there to showthat tasks in this project are linked to tasksin other Microsoft Project files. This is away to bring these inter-projectdependencies to the user’s attention.They aren’t able to be changed, but bydouble-clicking on them, they open upthe file in which they reside, which then can be edited by the user.

Continued from page 4

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One final, interesting source of information on these inter-projectdependencies. The Tools menu has a special dialog that givesinformation on cross-project predecessors and successors (Figure 3).

This is an important dialog box, because it can helpdetermine the existence of these special relationships (which can helpusers understand why they get error messages when they open projectsthat contain subprojects, since they may not be in possession of thesubproject files). It also helps users determine importantinformation about the type of link that exists between the two tasks.

In this article we’ve spent a lot of time looking at just how and whyProject 98 uses cross-project links. It’s useful, and helps projectmanagers more closely model reality. In addition, it gives projectmanagers more flexibility in planning, since they can delegateresponsibility for specific subprojects where appropriate, while theyfocus on managing the master project. It’s an important step forwardfor Microsoft Project, and it mirrors the improvements that havebeen made to the whole Microsoft Project product.

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Volume 2, Issue 3, Summer 1998 Page 15

Member Spotlight—A Layman’s Perspective

Wish List Reminder

MPUG Wish List – What is it?OK. Microsoft Project 98 is out in stores, and many users have either upgraded or are evaluating the product. These users have realized just how

much better the program is in its latest incarnation. The purpose of the Wish List feature of the Microsoft Project Users Group is to help users tellMicrosoft what improvements we would like to see in future versions of Microsoft Project.

Microsoft takes these wishes seriously. They often incorporate the most frequently requested items into new versions, and have special toll-freenumbers and Web sites available for the requests. Microsoft is also motivated to listen especially closely to recommendations made by MPUGmembers, because of the close relationship MPUG has with Microsoft, as well as because of the size and makeup of the MPUG membership.

Wish list recommendations collection is a key area in which MPUG wants to improve its operations. MPUG is committed to collecting andcataloging the recommendations made by MPUG members. We want to do this by adding a new choice to our Members Only section, allowingMPUG to catalog the information in a database so that the recommendations can be summarized and reported to Microsoft for maximum effect.

Let us know what you think! While we get the Wish List available on the Web, send the ideas that you have for improving the next version ofMicrosoft Project to mpug@pcubed.com.

A Layman’s Perspective by Dave Schultz

I don’t claim an extensive background in project management. I haven’t got a PMP certification. I haven’t been a project manager for aFortune 500 company. I’m just a lowly PM analyst, working under contract to an un-named, major automotive concern in southeastern Michigan.In other terms, I’m a working stiff, I’m a ditch digger, I’m an infantryman. I’m the one who does the dirty work of project management: I enterall the tasks and do the linking of the activities and implement the WBS into the structure of the project file; I call the task owners every week and(often painfully) extract status from them on their area of responsibility; when 120 days of negative float magically appears in the work plan, I’mthe one who spends three days finding what happened; as the project manager stands up in front of the vice-president to show what great work isgoing on, he shows a picture I made (a picture that must support the story he wants to tell, a story that is sometimes reflective of the actual stateof the project). In a word, my profile in PM circles is: LOW.

When I attend a meeting of any kind, I look for two things. First, I want to know what’s to eat. It shouldn’t be too messy, because I don’t havevery many good clothes and can’t afford to stain what I wear to work. Variety is important, certainly, and it must be something I can recognize bysight. Beverages are critical as well, since they generally are carried throughout the meeting. Here again, a reasonable range of refreshment seemsto me the way to go. Having only tea and coffee (or even caffeinated soft-drinks) sends a message: “Hey! The next two hours are going to be extremelyboring! Get your buzz now.”

Once the food is taken care of, I can then move up Maslow’s hierarchy to the presentation itself. This question is broken down into two sectionsas well: 1) who is this guy (woman, person, etc.)? and 2) can I use what he’s giving me? People in the trenches are very practical. We’re not muchinterested in degrees or awards or position. We want to know what the presenter does and how many ditches he/she has dug before reaching wherehe/she is now. After I’ve decided that the speaker is someone with credibility, I need the answer to question two. If the answer is “yes”, I listen; if “no”,I’ll wish I had poured more coffee. Snoring loudly in a meeting can be quite embarrassing.

Happily, I can report that this month’s MPUG meeting was, in my humble opinion, veryworthwhile. The only drawback was the restricted drink list (tea and coffee only). Don Schwab andLisa Carroll followed up a previous presentation with an informative look at implementation ofproject management at STATPROBE, a company that analyzes research results for pharmaceuticalgroups. Rapid growth in their client base has made consistent PM practices a priority for them, andtheir use of MS Project has been key to succeeding. Microsoft rep. Rick Miller showed how Outlookcan be used in conjunction with MS Project to streamline collecting and entering status with Webtechnology. I stayed awake the whole time, with no caffeine! Scores for this MPUG meeting:

Food... Drink...STATPROBE Presentation: Microsoft Presentation: Overall Meeting Rating...

Don Schwab... Rick Miller...Lisa Carroll... (+extra points for a great tan)

Lisa Carroll, Rick Miller, & Don Schwab

Page 16 The Project Network

Microsoft Project Users Group209 South Ashley StreetAnn Arbor, MI 48104

Bulk RateU.S. Postage PAID

Permit #87Ann Arbor, MI

Mail To: Microsoft Project Users Group, 209 S. Ashley, Ann Arbor, MI 48104Telephone: 313-741-0841 Facsimile: 313-741-1343E-Mail: mpug@pcubed.com or Gail.Stopar@pcubed.com

Please enroll me/my company in the Microsoft Project Users Group for one year. (Please print)

Name of Member/Company Contact: ________________________________________________

Job Title: ________________________ Nature/Type of Business: _____________________

Company Name & Address: ________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Telephone Number: ____________________ Facsimile Number: _____________________

E-Mail/CompuServe Address: _______________________________________________________

I enclose a check* (please submit invoice quoting order number if nec.): __________________ for either Individual, Student, or Corporate Membership as stated on this application.

Credit Card Information** Number: _____________________________ Exp Date: ___________

Card Holder Name (if different than applicant): __________________________________

Signed: ______________________________________ Date: ________________

** If choosing Corporate Membership, please name all members, their job titles, and E-Mails here (or attach a listing):

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Application to Join TheMicrosoft Project Users Group (MPUG)

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*Make checks payable to“Microsoft Project Users

Group” or “MPUG”

**Payment by credit card(VISA, Master Card orAmerican Express) can bedone by faxing or phoningdetails to the MPUG office.

Categories of Membership

Individual - For a single named user ofMicrosoft Project. Member willreceive regular copies of The ProjectNetwork and be able to attend UserGroup meetings. ($75 U.S.)

Corporate - Corporate membership allowsup to ten named people from yourcompany to attend user meetings andthe receipt of that many copies of TheProject Network. ($295 U.S.)

Student - Student membership is for asingle named individual who iscurrently a full-time student at anaccredited institution. Proof ofcurrent enrollment must be providedat time of application. ($35 U.S.)

Note - All memberships will benefit fromfuture newsletter publications,quarterly professional meetings,specific interest group discussions, anda viable and informative Web site.

Payment must accompany applications!

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

I agree to have my name, address, and work phone number included in the MPUG AnnualMembership Directory available to all MPUG members (circle one). Yes No

The Newsletter of the Microsoft Project Users Group—National

The Project Network