PMConnection Launches "The Project Management Search Engine"

Why search the entire internet when you are looking for information related to Project Management or Microsoft Project?  Why not search across only the top project management websites?  “The Project Management Search Engine” does just that!!!

Try “The Project Management Search Engine”

Details:

• Leverages Google technology
• Can be added to your Google Home Page
• Currently searches across nearly 80 top project management websites, including PMI, Microsoft Project Website, Gantthead, PM Forum and many more!!
• Searches across only the list of “Great Websites” listed at PMConnection
• See the full list of websites here
• Add your site to the list here

At PMConnection, our mission is to advance the Project Management profession.(period)  Our vision is to be recognized throughout the world as a leading provider of valuable project management related information.  Our first goal was to develop a central repository that pulls together information on the leading project management processes and tools.  (See About Us)

Since our inception, we have stuck to this mission, and we believe “The Project Management Search Engine” aligns to that mission as well as our first goal.

Also since the beginning, we have hosted the “Research Center”.  Currently this database contains a list of over 2,300 articles.  If you are looking for help with Project Management, Microsoft Project, or the PMP, this is the place to start!!  And even though the Research Center has been the most visited feature of PMConnection to date, we wanted to give you more.  So if you can not find the information that you are looking for within our Research Center, try “The Project Management Search Engine”.

Three Point Estimates, PERT and Microsoft Project

I have managed a project or two in my past. Some completed early, some right on time, and some completed well beyond the target date. But my latest project is different. I wanted to develop a schedule that was as accurate as possible with respect to the projects finish date. I knew that in order to do this right would require gathering effort estimates for each task. However, this organization is not quite ready for that. They are accustomed to giving only duration estimates. I did not have the time, energy or influence to change the culture and request effort estimates for each task.

In the past, I worked with my team of subject matter experts to determine the various activities that must occur. As a group, we would then determine the sequence of those activities. When gathering the duration estimate for each task, I asked the subject matter experts for their estimate. They gave me one number for each task. The question I always had was, “how precise was this one number?” Did the person who gave me the estimated duration “pad” that estimate? In other words did they include extra time to allow for various uncertainties? Were all of the estimates padded? Which ones were padded and which ones were not?

When reading my copy of PMBOK (the third edition) one night in bed, I stumbled into a section in Chapter 6 – Time Management about Activity Duration Estimating. One of the “Tools and Techniques” listed for developing a duration estimate was Three Point Estimates. It states that determining this estimate involves gathering three different estimates; Optimistic, Pessimistic, and Most Likely, and then averaging those three estimates (p. 142). Just before falling asleep, I thought: “This would be a better approach.”

In the shower the next morning, I remembered a gentleman giving a presentation a few years ago at a local PMI meeting around PERT estimating. I ran to the office and pulled out my older version of PMBOK (2000 edition). I skimmed through it and found the section on PERT estimating. I found that PERT stands for Program Evaluation and Review Technique and it uses a weighted average to determine duration. (p. 75). I even found the formula: (Optimistic + 4 x Most Likely + Pessimistic)/6.

I thought about this for a moment and came to the conclusion that the weighted PERT average duration estimate would be an even better approach than a simple average since it is putting more emphasis on the Most Likely outcome.

The day progressed and I decided to load my tasks into Excel then ask the team members to give me their three different duration estimates. I could put those into three different columns and create the formula to derive the PERT estimate. I would then transfer this one number into the Duration for each task within MS Project. As I opened up my Microsoft Project schedule and began to extract the tasks into Excel I paused. I remember thinking; “Wouldn’t it be nice if I could somehow capture the three different estimates right here within Microsoft Project. Perhaps then I could look at an over-all Best Case (Optimistic), Worst Case (Pessimistic) and Most Likely schedule.” So I began to poke around the different options within Microsoft Project. Low and behold there IS an option for PERT Analysis!!

If you click on >View, >Toolbars, >PERT Analysis, a fancy little toolbar will appear.

“So what do I do with it now?” I thought. The first thing I decided to do was click on the “Set PERT Weights” option.

Amazing!! The default values presented here align to the values given within PMBOK!

“Well this is cool” I said to myself. But I wonder how it works. So I decided to test it.

I created “task 1” within MS Project, and then clicked on “PERT Entry Sheet”:

That brought up a view within MS Project that contained the Task, Duration, Optimistic Duration, Expected Duration* and the Pessimistic Duration:

*Note Expected Duration within MS Project is equivalent to Most Likely within PMBOK.

I then input 2 into the Optimistic Duration, 4 into the Expected Duration and 12 into the Pessimistic Duration:

At this point, nothing happened. But then I clicked on “Calculate PERT”:

I received the following dialogue box:

I chose Yes.

Note that the Duration changed from 1 day? to 5 days?

“This is great”, I thought, “but is it accurate?” I decided to test Microsoft Projects calculations by completing the formula manually:

Original Formula:

(Optimistic + 4 X Most Likely + Pessimistic) / 6 =
(2 + 4 X 4 + 12) / 6 =
(2 + 16 + 12) / 6 =
30 / 6 =
5

“Way Cool!!” So the moral of the story thus far is; if I can get my team to give me 3 different duration estimates instead of one, I can use the PERT calculation within MS Project to automatically provide me with more accurate duration estimates.

So I began to work with the various subject matter experts. I told them I wanted to do a better job on estimating the duration of this project and asked them if they could give me three estimates:

Most Likely (Expected Duration) – The duration of the schedule activity, given the resources likely to be assigned, their productivity, realistic expectations of availability for the schedule activity, dependencies on other participants, and interruptions.

Optimistic Duration – The activity duration is based upon a best case scenario of what is described in the Most Likely estimate.

Pessimistic Duration - The activity duration is based upon a worst case scenario of what is described in the Most Likely estimate.

I asked them to use ½ day increments to establish these duration estimates.

Believe it or not, they played along!! When complete, I ended up with something like this:

So now to let MS Project go to work! I clicked on “Calculate PERT” and said Yes.

I switched over to the Gantt View and noticed that the Duration field for each task had in fact been populated by the output of the PERT calculation:

At this point, I felt a little more comfortable in committing to the Project Finish Date of 4/26/05.

In next months article learn on how we built buffers or schedule reserves into this project to account for the unwanted, but anticipated delays (or Risks!).

Background

Within MS Project, it is possible to use the following units for establishing durations:

• Minutes (min)
• Hours (hr)
• Days (day)
• Weeks (wk)
• Months (mon)

Here is the scenario

You have a schedule with multiple tasks. For whatever reason, you have different units for the durations. Some are shown in Hours, some are shown in Days and perhaps one is in Weeks. You would like them all to be displayed in days.

You could go through your entire schedule and manually change them, but there is an easier way!

Within your schedule, click on >Tools, >Macro, >Macros. You will see the following box:

Highlight Format_Duration and click Run.

Another box will appear that allows you to choose the unit.

Select Days, then click on OK.

You will notice that all your Duration Units are now in Days!!!

Mapping the tools to PMI’s Processes

Note: This document was created using MindManger Pro 7 and Microsoft Project Professional 2003. But exporting from MindManager to Microsoft Project is possible in older versions of both tools.

Overview

This document will examine the processes within the Project Management Institutes (PMI) Scope and Time Management Knowledge Area and discuss how Mindjet’s MindManager and Microsoft Project can support these processes.

Background

According to the PMI’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) – 3^rd Edition 2004, the Scope Management Knowledge Area consists of the following processes:

• Scope Planning
• Scope Definition
• Create WBS*
• Scope Verification
• Scope Control

The Time Management Knowledge Area consists of the following processes (page 123):

• Activity Definition*
• Activity Sequencing**
• Activity Resource Estimating**
• Activity Duration Estimating**
• Schedule Development**
• Schedule Control**

*MindManager can help with these processes

**Microsoft Project can help with these processes

The Scenario

You have just been assigned as the project manager of a new project. Based upon information given to you, you have developed a detailed project scope statement (Scope Definition). Your mission is to build a 3 bedroom ranch home. You have been given the blueprints and advised that all materials should be of medium quality.

With the scope statement in place, your next step is to develop a WBS, or Work Breakdown Structure. This is the process of subdividing the major project deliverables into smaller, more manageable components. Note that this process should be executed by the project team. (PMBOK 3^rd Edition pg 112)

You have identified the key Subject Matter Experts who will be assisting you on this project and have scheduled a meeting to develop a WBS. You could build this WBS on paper, or a dry erase board, or even use post-it notes. But why not leverage improved technology?? Why not capture things electronically the first time? Well, with Mindjet’s MindManager, you can do that!!

When we open MindManager, we see a screen with one box that says Central Topic:

We can then over-write that text with the title of our project.

Our next step is to create the first level of the WBS. Based upon input from the team and experience in this profession, you elect to create the following six elements; Concrete, Framing, Plumbing, Electrical, Interior and Roofing. To add those to your WBS in MindManager, ensure 3 Bedroom Ranch is selected and then click on Subtopic under Insert.

Note how the new level is added to the diagram. We would prefer to see this level below the main topic. To make this change, click on Format, the Map Style

then choose Assign from Template organizer and finally, select "Layout – Org Chart", then OK.

Now change the name of this Main Topic to Concrete.

With Concrete highlighted, click on Insert Topic from the Home menu. Rename this to Framing

Continue this process until you have added all 6 components of your level 1 WBS.

We would now like to like to break down each of these components a little farther. We will start with Concrete. Given the scope of the project we add the following 3 items under concrete; Foundation, Patio, and Stairs.

To add these items under Concrete within MindManager, ensure that Concrete is selected then click on Insert Subtopic. Overwrite Subtopic with Foundation.

Continue this process for the remaining items.

We now decompose the remaining level 1 components to get something like this:

By definition, the lowest level of the WBS is called the Work Package. We will assume each of these components on level 2 of this WBS are the Work Packages. Work Packages contain activities or tasks.

Let’s now add the tasks for each of these work packages. Ensure Foundation is selected, add Subtopic and input the first task that must occur. Continue this process for all tasks.

Continue adding tasks for all Work Packages:

The next thing we would like to do is number our WBS components. To do this, click on "3 Bedroom Home", then click on: ,

then Numbering Options, click on the Dropdown by Depth and choose 5 Levels:

You will now see WBS codes next to each component:

Save your file. Notice that upon the first save, MindManager will attempt to name your file the same name as your Central Topic. Accept this name.

You have just successfully used MindManager to assist with Creating a WBS and Activity Definition. We can now export all this information out to MS Project.

To Export to Microsoft Project

Click on the MindManager icon, hover over Export and click on Export Task Info to Microsoft Project:

Select the location where you would like the file to be saved, and accept the default save options. Finally, click on Export.

Once the export is complete, a dialogue box will appear saying “Successfully imported document”. Now click on Open.

Be sure to choose >Tools, >Options, >View, Show Project Summary Task.

You will find all components input into the WBS within MindManager have now been moved into Microsoft Project. You will notice that the various levels of the WBS appear as Summary Tasks and the tasks entered into MindManager appear as tasks within Microsoft Project.

You can now use Microsoft Project to assist with:

• Activity Sequencing - establish the sequencing of these tasks by inputting Predecessors
• Activity Resource Estimating - assign resources and their availability
• Activity Duration Estimating - input the amount of Work and Duration required for each task given the resource(s) availability

So you are working with Microsoft Project 2003 and someone sends you a Microsoft Project (.mpp) file that was saved using Microsoft Project 2007. When you attempt to open the file you receive the following message:

“The file was created by a newer version of Microsoft Project and a converter is needed to open it. Do you want to download the converter from the Microsoft Office Website?”

Or:

“Project cannot open this file because the format is not recognized.  The file was probably created using a newer version of Project.”

If you choose Yes from the first message, you will be directed to a website entitled Project 2007 Converter Information. Or here!

On this page, you will see the following information:

“You reached this page because the Microsoft Project Plan (MPP) file that you are trying to open was created in Microsoft Office Project 2007.

Converters for opening Office Project 2007 files will be provided as part of Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 3 (SP3), which will be available during the last quarter of 2007. After upgrading to Office 2003 SP3, you will be able to open a Project 2007 file in Microsoft Office Project 2003 as a read-only file.”

You actually do not need to download the entire Office Service Pack 3. The converter to open Microsoft Project 2007 files using Microsoft Project 2003 is really contained within Microsoft Project Service Pack 3 (sp3). You can download Microsoft Project SP3 here.

Once you download sp3, install and restart, you can now open the MS Project 2007 file using MS Project 2003.

Note that the file will be Read Only. You can save this file in 2003. However, keep in mind that you may loose information that was saved within MS Project 2007. Project will actually recognize that you are about to save what was originally a file from 2007 in 2003 and present you with the following message:

Microsoft Office Project 2003 has detected that the original file was created in Microsoft Office Project 2007 and might contain some information only available in Project 2007.

If you use Project 2003 to save this file in the Project 2000 - 2003 MPP format or an older file format, you can lose data in areas where Project 2007 contains enhanced functionality.

The following types of data or formatting can be lost:

Budget information    Information contained in the new budget fields will be lost.

Deliverables and Dependencies   Information contained in the new, cross-project deliverables and dependencies fields will be lost. Information contained in task links will not be lost.

Cost resources   Information contained in the new cost resource fields might be changed, converting cost resources into material resources. Information contained in other cost fields will not be lost.

Background cell formatting   Sheet cells that have background formatting applied to them will lose their background formatting. Information in these fields will not be lost.

Assignment owner information   Information contained in the new assignment owner fields will be lost.

Calendar exceptions   New exceptions that were added to project and resource calendar functionality (such as monthly exceptions, yearly exceptions, and those with arbitrary dates) will be lost.

New fields and custom fields  Information within new fields, or any formulas relying on new fields, will be lost. New options that are set on custom fields created in Project 2007 will be lost, such as the new roll-down setting for calculation of assignment rows. Task assignment custom field values will also be lost.

Enterprise custom fields  Any enterprise custom fields created within Project 2007 will be lost.

1.  You manually create a Project Summary Task

Wrong:

2.  You "hard code" dates

Wrong:

3.  You don't input the teams estimated Duration on all tasks

Wrong:

4.  Your tasks don't start with a verb

5.  You assign Predecessors to Summary Tasks

Wrong:

6. You assign Resources to Summary Tasks

Wrong:

7.  You never inspect the critical path tasks

8.  You never search for (or eliminate) Resource Over-Allocations

9.  You never Baseline your schedule

10. You never update your schedule to align with reality

For help with Microsoft Project, try this link

1. Know a thing or two about Project Management
Now I’m not saying that you need to go out and become PMP certified, but unlike Word or Excel, knowing the basic principles of project management will help you when working with Microsoft Project.  If you don’t know the difference between the terms Phases and Milestones or Work versus Duration, or if you do not know the definition of the term Critical Path, you are likely to struggle.  Also, if you don’t know the concept behind the triple constraint of Scope, Cost and Time, then you need to do a little homework.

2. Gain access to Microsoft Project
Any version 2000 or later will work.  What?  Why would I not say get 2007?  There are a few reasons:
a. The fundamentals of how to build and maintain a schedule in Microsoft Project have not changed with the 2007 version of the tool.
b. How Microsoft Project “thinks” has not changed either.
c. Older versions of the software are more easily accessed.  You may already have Microsoft Project installed on your machine, or you can easily get it.*
d. At this point, you are simply wanting to learn how to properly build and maintain a project schedule using Microsoft Project throughout the life of a project.

*If you are going to have to purchase the software, go ahead and purchase the 2007 version.  You will need this version for a later step, and it has a couple of good features that make this version worth purchasing.  Not to mention that in a few years, everyone will build schedules using the 2007 version and the software is NOT backwards compatible!
Here is a link to purchase Microsoft Project 2007

3. Learn Microsoft Project
Learn how to properly build a dynamic schedule.  Then learn how to manage that schedule throughout the life of a project.  So how do you do this?
a. Just Do It! – Figure it out through trial and error.  Not the best option, but if you are going to try this approach, you will find tips for using Microsoft Project here.
b. Purchase a book or books
    i. Here is the one we recommend
    ii. Here are other books
c. Take a training class

4. Gain access to Microsoft Project 2007
Now that you understand the basics of Microsoft Project, you need to get a copy of the 2007 version so you can work with the newest features.
Here is a link to download a trial version of 2007

5. Learn the new features of Microsoft Project 2007
Here is a list of the new features within Microsoft Project 2007

a. Multiple Level Undo
b. Background Cell Highlighting
c. Visual Change Highlights
d. Task Drivers
e. Calendar Interface
f. Financial Tracking
g. Cost Resources
h. Visual Reports

6. Learn about the exam itself
This link will provide some insight to the exam

7. Schedule your exam
a. Register with Prometric here
b. You are wanting to take exam: 070-632 TS: Microsoft Office Project 2007, Managing Projects

8. Answer as many practice questions as you can find
Here is a list of 15 Microsoft Project 2007 Certification Exam Prep Questions

9. Sit for and pass the exam
Best of luck!!

Projects, Programs, Portfolios, Oh My!!

How do projects, programs and portfolios relate?

This can be answered by two examples and a few links.

Example 1: A Picture

Example 2: A Table

*Can also be configured to manage multiple independent projects, programs, or portfolios.

If you are new to Project Management, this may be a little over-whelming.  If you are PMP certified and think you have reached the pinnacle of project management, think again.  You may find "You're not in Kansas anymore!!"

Whether you are getting prepared to be interviewed for a project managers position, or if you are the person who will be conducting interviews for open project manager positions, this list of questions should help you prepare.

1. How do you handle non-productive team members?
2. How do you motivate team members who are burned out, or bored?
3. How do you handle team members who come to you with their personal problems?
4. What are your career goals? How do you see this job affecting your goals?
5. Explain how you operate interdepartmentally.
6. Tell me how you would react to a situation where there was more than one way to accomplish the same task, and there were very strong feelings by others on each position.
7. Consider that you are in a diverse environment, out of your comfort zone. How would you rate your situational leadership style?
8. Give me an example of your leadership involvement where teamwork played an important role.
9. Tell me about a situation where your loyalty was challenged. What did you do? Why?
10. In what types of situations is it best to abandon loyalty to your manager?
11. In today’s business environment, when is loyalty to your manager particularly important?
12. Why are you interested in this position?
13. Describe what you think it would be like to do this job every day.
14. What do you believe qualifies you for this position?
15. What have you learned from your failures?
16. Of your previous jobs, which one did you enjoy the most? What did you like the most/least? Why? What was your major accomplishment? What was your biggest frustration?
17. Tell me about special projects or training you have had that would be relevant to this job.
18. What are some things that you would not like your job to include?
19. What are your current work plans? Why are you thinking about leaving your present job?
20. Describe an ideal job for you.
21. What would you do if you found out that a contractor was in a conflict of interest situation?
22. If I were to contact your former employee, what would he say about your decision-making abilities?
23. Give me an example of a win-win situation you have negotiated.
24. Tell me about your verbal and written communication ability. How well do you represent yourself to others? What makes you think so?
25. Give me an example of a stressful situation you have been in. How well did you handle it? If you had to do it over again, would you do it differently? How do you deal with stress, pressure, and unreasonable demands?
26. Tell me about a tough decision you had to make?
27. Describe what you did at your work place yesterday.
28. How would you solve the following technical problem? (Describe a typical scenario that could occur in the new position.)
29. What strengths did you bring to your last position?
30. Describe how those contributions impacted results?
31. What are the necessary steps to successful project management?
32. How do you plan for a project?
33. What is important to consider when planning a (your type of project)?
34. What are things that you have found to be low priority when planning for (your type of project)?
35. What distinguishes a project from routine operations?
36. What are the three constraints on a project?
37. What are the five control components of a project?
38. What qualifications are required to be an effective project manager?
39. What experience have you had in project management?
40. Name five signs that indicate your project may fail.
41. Tell us about a project in which you participated and your role in that project.
42. When you are assigned a project, what steps do you take to complete the project?
43. As you begin your assignment as a project manager, you quickly realise that the corporate sponsor for the project no longer supports the project. What will you do?
44. Your three month project is about to exceed the projected budget after the first month. What steps will you take to address the potential cost overrun?
45. Tell us about a successful project in which you participated and how you contributed to the success of that project.
46. You are given the assignment of project manager and the team members have already been identified. To increase the effectiveness of your project team, what steps will you take?
47. You have been assigned as the project manager for a team comprised of new employees just out of college and "entry-level" consulting staff. What steps can you take to insure that the project is completed against a very tight time deadline?
48. What is a "project milestone"?
49. What is "project float"
50. Your project is beginning to exceed budget and to fall behind schedule due to almost daily user change orders and increasing conflicts in user requirements. How will you address the user issues?
51. You’ve encountered a delay on an early phase of your project. What actions can you take to counter the delay? Which actions will have the most effect on the result?
52. Describe what you did in a difficult project environment to get the job done on time and on budget.
53. What actions are required for successful executive sponsorship of a project?
54. How did you get your last project?
55. What were your specific responsibilities?
56. What did you like about the project and dislike about the project?
57. What did you learn from the project?
58. Tell me about a time when you ran into any difficult situations. How did you handle them?
59. Tell me about the types of interaction you had with other employees.
60. Tell me of an accomplishment you are particularly proud of and what it entailed.
61. Do you have people from your past consulting services who would provide a professional reference?
62. What other similar consulting or independent contractor services have you rendered?
63. Discuss how you would envision working as an independent contractor or consultant for us.
64. What conflicting responsibilities will you have?
65. What would be your specific goals for this new role as a consultant or independent contractor?
66. What experience do you have that you think will be helpful?
67. This assignment will require a lot of [describe]. Will that be a problem for you?
68. This assignment will require interacting with [describe the types of people]. What experience do you have working with such people?
69. What would you like to get from this new assignment?
70. What are two common but major obstacles for a project like this? What would you do in the face of these obstacles to keep your team on schedule?
71. What is project charter? What are the elements in a project charter?
72. Which document will you refere for future decisions?
73. How will you define scope?
74. What is the output of scope definition process?
75. What is quality management?
76. Do you inspect or plan for quality ?
77. What is EVM? how will you use it in managing projects?
78. What is a project? and what is program?
79. What are project selection methods?
80. Which tool would you use to define, manage and control projects?
81. What is risk management and how will you plan risk response?
82. What are outputs of project closure?
83. What are the methods used for project estimation?
84. What methods have you used for estimation?
85. How would you start a project?
86. If you were to deliver a project to a customer, and timely delivery depended upon a sub-supplier, how would you manage the supplier? What contractual agreements would you put in place?
87. In this field (the field you are interviewing for), what are three critically important things you must do well as a project manager in order for the project to succeed?
88. What metrics would you expect to use to determine the on-going success of your project?
89. How are your soft skills? Can you "sell" the project to a team?
90. You have a team member who is not meeting his commitments, what do you do?
91. Companies have historically looked at technical skills, but more and more business managers are realizing that not have "people" skills tend to cripple projects.
92. How many projects you handled in the past? Deadlines met? On time/ within budget? Obstacles you had to overcome?
93. Do you understand milestones, interdependencies? Resource allocation?
94. Do you know what Project Software the new company uses and is there training for it?
95. Tell me about yourself. (To avoid rambling or becoming flustered, plan your answer.)
96. What are your strengths? (Make an exhaustive list and review it exhaustively before the interview.)
97. What are your weaknesses? (What you say here can and will be used against you!)
98. How would your current (or last) boss describe you?
99. What were your boss's responsibilities? (Interviewers sometimes ask this question to prevent you from having the chance to claim that you did your boss's job. Be ready for it!)
100. What's your opinion of them? (Never criticize your past or present boss in an interview. It just makes you look bad!)
101. How would your co-workers or subordinates describe you professionally?* (Remember, now is not the time for modesty! Brag a little bit.)
102. Why do you want to work for us?
103. Why do you want to leave your present employer?
104. Why should we hire you over the other finalists?
105. What qualities or talents would you bring to the job?*
106. Tell me about your accomplishments.
107. What is your most important contribution to your last (or current) employer?
108. How do you perform under deadline pressure? Give me an example.
109. How do you react to criticism? (You try to learn from it, of course!)
110. Describe a conflict or disagreement at work in which you were involved. How was it resolved?
111. What are two of the biggest problems you've encountered at your job and how did you overcome them?
112. Think of a major crisis you've faced at work and explain how you handled it.
113. Give me an example of a risk that you took at your job (past or present) and how it turned out.
114. What's your managerial style like?
115. Have you ever hired employees; and, if so, have they lived up to your expectations?
116. What type of performance problems have you encountered in people who report to you, and how did you motivate them to improve?
117. Describe a typical day at your present (or last) job.
118. What do you see yourself doing five years from now?
Source

119. What is project management?
120. Is spending in IT projects constant through out the project?
121. Who is a stakeholder?
122. Can you explain project life cycle?
123. Twist :- How many phases are there in software project?
124. Are risk constant through out the project?
125. Can you explain different software development life cycles?
126. What is triple constraint triangle in project management?
127. What is a project baselines?
128. What is effort variance?
129. How is normally a project management plan document organized?
130. How do you estimate a project?
131. What is a fish bone diagram?
132. Twist:- What is Ishikawa diagram?
133. What is pareto principle?
134. Twist:- What is 80/20 principle?
135. How do you handle change request?
136. What is internal change request?
137. What is difference between SITP and UTP in testing?
138. What is the software you have used for project management?
139. What are the metrics followed in project management?
140. Twist: - What metrics will you look at in order to see the project is moving successfully?
141. You have people in your team who do not meet there deadlines or do not perform what are the actions you will take?
142. Twist :- Two of your resources have conflicts between them how would you sort it out?
143. What is black box testing and White box testing?
144. What's the difference between Unit testing, Assembly testing and Regression testing?
145. What is V model in testing?
146. How do you start a project?
147. How did you do resource allocations?
148. How will you do code reviews?
149. What is CMMI?
150. What are the five levels in CMMI?
151. What is continuous and staged representation?
152. Can you explain the process areas?
153. What is SIX sigma?
154. What is DMAIC and DMADV?
155. What are the various roles in Six Sigma implementation?
156. What are function points?
157. Can you explain steps in function points?
158. What is the FP per day in your current company?
159. Twist :- What is your company's productivity factor?
160. Do you know Use Case points?
161. How do you estimate maintenance project and change requests?
Source

162. What are all the skills you will be looking at if you have to hire a project manager?
163. Why are you looking out for a job?
164. What is your current role and responsibilities? What did you like most in your current job?
165. How does your day normal look like? What are some of challenges you face on a daily basis?
166. What makes you exciting about Project management?
167. Why should we hire you as a Project manager?
168. How do you handle pressure and stress?
169. Your team is following agile practices. You have to hire a resource for your team. What are all the skills consider when you hire a new resource.
170. You are starting a new project, which includes offshore/onsite development. How do you manage communications?
171. Your project team does not have hierarchy. You have couple of good techies in your project that has same skills and experience. There is a conflict between two of them. Both are good technically and very important to the project. How do you handle conflict between them?
172. Have you done performance appraisals before? If yes, how do you appraise people? 173. How do you estimate? What kind of estimation practices do you follow?
174. Your customer is asking for an estimate. You do not have time do FP. But you do not want to give a ballpark estimate. What kind of estimation will you give?
175. Your company is expert in providing solutions for a particular domain. You are appointed as a project manager for a new project.   You have to do Risk management. What will be your approach?
176. How do you improve your team's efficiency?
177. You are joining as project manager for a team, which already exists. How do you gain respect and loyalty of your team members?
178. You are going to be the project manager for a web-based application, which is targeted towards Insurance. Your gut feeling is that it would take 5 resources and 8 months to deliver this application.
  a. What kind of resources you will hire for this project?
  b. If you are asked to deliver the project in 6 months. Can you accelerate the development and deliver it in 6 months? What will be your approach?
179. What kind of release management practices do you follow?
180. Your application is in testing for the last 2 weeks and you are supposed to deliver the application at the EOD. Your testing team has found a major flaw in your application in the afternoon. You cannot miss the deadline and your developers cannot fix the bug in couple of hours. How do you handle this situation?
181. You have a resource that who is not happy with his job and complains all the time. You have noticed that because of that the team morale is getting spoiled. How do you handle that resource?
182. Your team is into the 6th Iteration of 8 Iteration project. It's been really hectic for the team for the last couple of months as this project is very important for your customer and to your company. You have started noticing that some of your key resources are getting burnt out. How do you motivate these resources?
183. Yours is a dedicated team for a customer and it's been a dull period for you and your team. You are not actively involved in any development activities. Your team is providing support to the application, which you have delivered earlier. Your team is getting bored as the application stabilized now. Due to budget issues, customer is not going to give you work for another 3 months. How do you motivate the resources?
184. There was a situation where more than one-way to accomplish the same task. Your onsite tech lead and offshore tech lead has different opinions about doing this and the feelings were very strong. Both are very important to you. How do you react to this?
185. What are the practices you follow for project close out? Assume you are into a product customization for a customer and the application has gone live. How do you close this project?
186. Your team is in between iteration. Your customer wants few more items to be delivered in that iteration which you are working now. How do you react to your customer?
187. You are at the customer's place and your application is in UAT/stabilization phase. Your customer comes up with a change request and says that it's a minor one and he wants to see it in the next release. What will be your response/approach to your customer?
188. What is velocity? How do you estimate your team's velocity?
189. What is earned value management? Why do you need it?
190. Describe the type of manager you prefer.
191. What are your team-player qualities? Give examples.
192. How do you prioritize your tasks when there isn't time to complete them all?
193. How do you stay focused when faced with a major deadline?
194. Are you able to cope with more than one job at a time?
195. In your opinion, why do software projects fail?
196. Your customer wants a bug to be delivered at EOD. You have got the BUG/CR information in the morning. It will not be possible to develop, completely regress this issue and deliver it at EOD. How do you approach this issue?
197. You are following Waterfall as your development methodology and you have estimated X days for design phase. Your customer is not ready to accept this. How do you convince your customer to have X number of days for design phase?
198. You have to sell agile practices (XP/Scrum) to your organization. Your management is very reluctant to change. You are sure that if you do not change to agile, it will be very tough to survive. What will be your approach?
199. How do you set and manage expectations (with customers, your managers and your team)?
200. For some reason you've encountered a delay on an early phase of your project. What actions can you take to counter the delay?
201. What is Function point analysis? Why do you need it?
202. What is the difference between EO and EQ? What is FTR?
203. You are estimating using Function point analysis for a distributed n-tier application. How do you factor the complexity for distributed n-tier application? Does FP Provides support for it?
204. You are getting Adjusted Function point count. How do you convert it into Effort?
205. How do you manage difficult people/problem employees?
206. How do you build your teams morale?
207. How do you estimate your SCRUM/XP Projects? How do you define velocity for the first couple of iterations? What is a load factor?
208. What is team building? What are the stages in team building? Do you consider it as an important thing? Why?
209. What are some of your lessons learnt with your previous iteration delivered? How do you use your lessons learnt in your iteration planning?
Source

210. Can you describe this position to me in detail, why you believe you are qualified for this position, and why you are interested in it? 
211. Can you describe this company to me as if I were an investor?
212. How do you get your team working on the same project goal? 
213. What do you do when a project is initiated and given to you and you have a gut feeling the scope is too large for the budget and the timeline?
214. What formal project management training have you received, where did you attend, and what have you learned from it?
215. We are very siloed, can you explain how you operate interdepartmentally?
216. Consider that you are in a diverse environment, out of your comfort zone.  How would you rate your situational leadership style?  Give me examples.
Source

217. You may also be presented with a couple of case studies. For instance, 'What if a key employee falls sick at a critical time of project delivery?' and etc.
218. My favorite questions are the "Tell me about a time when..." questions. Make sure you have stories about projects you participated in or managed. Especially share stories of those that had a difficulty to overcome (eg: budget or time constraint blown) and how the difficulty was managed in order to bring the project to a successful conclusion, or how the project was closed down before damaging the stakeholders.
Source

219. How stakeholder expectation is managed?
220. How internal and external project risk is managed (quantitatively if possible)
221. How organizational change is managed (involving the stakeholders that will experience change in their lives as a result of the project),
222. How 'scope management' is done, when the project has not been scoped properly - this is not scope creep I am talking about, merely the fact that the user, client and management learns what they really want as the project progresses nine times out of ten - incidentally, glib answers like 'We use RAD, spiral models, prototypes only indicate that the candidate knows of such things, and not that they know how to use them,
223. What needs to be reported to stakeholders, when and how the data is collected - I normally focus on financial management techniques here - does the PM know how to use the GL, does the PM understand signing powers, how is overtime managed and used, etc.
224. How does delegation work - you don't want a PM that does technical work(domain specific work) - the PM should manage the project (not always practical, but it sounds nice anyway),
225. How does the interface between line management and the Project work - Can the PM negotiate with Middle and Senior resource managers when interests conflict,
226. How is project progress measured - Anyone that tells me that the %complete calculation function in MS Project works is ignorant!! - I can prove to anyone who is interested that the algorithm is faulty, and
227. How project team communications, stress and conflict is managed.
228. Describe a time when you had to give bad news on a project to a customer. There are a lot more approaches to this than you would think, and answers can be insightful.
229. What did you learn from your first job (like flipping burgers at McD's)? The idea here is to see if they can glean useful information out of simple situations, can they reflect and learn from any situation. I think this form of continuous learning is key for PMs.
230. How good are you at MS Project (or whatever tool you use)? This is almost a trick question from my perspective. I believe that most of a PM's job is people, so if someone knows a piece of software forwards-and-backwards, they probably don't have the people skills required to do the job.
231. Describe how you motivate and manage a matrixed team--where the people on your team do not work for you. Since this is often the mode, they must be able to do it.
232. How would you go about organizing a project that had enterprise wide implications?
233. What is your approach to managing projects and how does it vary based on the size and complexity or the project?
234. Who should lead projects?
235. Who should be accountable for the project's outcome?
236. What was the budget for the largest project you have managed?
Source

237. What is the project management structure in your project? Is a PL assigned to the project?
238. How do you know that a particular individual is the project leader (or) how do you know that you are the Project Leader?
239. What and where are the policy statements for software project planning?
240. Explain the various activities you do (as a PL) when the project is started up.
241. How do you know what you need to deliver or do in your project?
242. How do you create the Software Project Management Plan (SPMP)?
243. What training have you undergone in project planning?
244. How do you ensure that your project plan is available for others to see? Where will you find the plans of other projects executed (in the past or currently) in the center?
245. How did you choose the appropriate lifecycle for your project?
246. What are the documents that you will refer to create the plan?
247. How do you estimate the effort for your project? Where is the estimation procedure documented?
248. What procedures do you follow to arrive at the project schedule?
249. Where and how are the risks associated with your project identified and documented?
250. When you come in to the office, how do you know what you have to do during the day?
251. How do you report the status of your project?
252. How are team members kept informed about the current status of the project?
253. How do the audits cover planning activities?
254. How does the senior management review your project's progress?
255. How do you track the technical activities in your project? How is the status of the project communicated to the team?
256. How do you track the size or changes to size of the work products in your project?
257. When do revise your project plan? When do you know you have to revise your project plan? Where is the plan revision frequency documented?
258. How do you ensure that you and all the other team members in your project have the required technical skills to execute the project?
259. How do you assign tasks to your team members?
260. What is the document that should be consulted to know about your project, the activities you do, your schedules and milestones?
Source

261. How do you handle disruptive team members?               
262. How do you handle non-productive team members?             
263. How do you motivate team members who are burned out or bored?         
264. How do you motivate people?                                                                    
265. How do you handle team members who come to you with their personal problems?                       
266. How do you start a project?                     
267. If you are teaching the ropes to a new Project Manager, what would you say are the most important things he needs to look for?           
268. What would be the key artifacts needed in a project?             
269. How do you manage change?                   
270. How do you manage conflict in the project team?               
271. How do you deal with a difficult team member?               
272. What qualifications are required to be an effective project manager?   
273. What is the difference between a project plan and a project schedule?
274. What do you include in a project schedule?         
275. How do you track a project?               
276. How do you track risks? Tell me about the risks that your last project had.
277. What is the difference between a risk and an issue?       
278. How do you define quality in project management?       
279. What would you say if a team member asks why project management is needed? Why do we have to do all this documentation ahead of the real work?                   
280. What have you learned in obtaining your PMP that you are using in real-life projects?                   
281. What do you do if a team member presents a work product that you know for a fact is flawed or incomplete, but the team member insists it is completed and sound?               
282. What would you do if a manager whose resources you are using keeps saying that all the documentation required by the project is getting in the way of actual progress?               
283. What was your role in your last project?           
284. What was the most interesting role you played in a project?     
285. What do you do when a team member does not complete his/her assignment and has gone to another project?         
286. Have you used Microsoft Project? How do you like it?       
287. How do you verify that the requirements identified for a project are actually included in the final delivery to the users?           
288. How do you verify that the requirements are correct and that they reflect what the users want?               
289. What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses in the Project Management areas of knowledge?             
290. What are the risks you had in your last project?
Source

291. What are the main objects of a project manager? 
292. How do you perform Function Point Analysis?
293. What are project management tools? Mention some of them? 
294. What are the main attributes to be possessed by a project manager?
295. How must the project manager react under pressured projects?
296. In what percentage or ratio must a project manager possess technical and managerial skills?
297. How often is learning process important for a project manager and why?
298. Explain the managerial features that must be possessed by project manager?
299. Mention some of the steps to be taken by project manager to reduce stress in the project and among.
300. What are the induction processes a project manager must plan for team members?
Source

OK, here is the situation;  you are looking into the future of your project and realize you have an over allocated resource.  What should you do?

Well, before we look at the various options, we must first understand how a resource gets over allocated.

A resource becomes over allocated when we assign more work to that resource the can be achieved within a particular time period, given that resources availability to the project.  For example, lets say we have one person who is assigned to our project 100% of their time (or 40 hours per week).  If we attempt to have that resource complete more than 40 hours worth of work next week (either on one task or a combination of tasks), they are now over allocated.

Here are some ways to deal with an over allocated resource:

1. Do Nothing*:  Perhaps the resource is only slightly over allocated.  In this case we may choose to do nothing.  It is anticipated that the resource will be able to give a little more (work harder) and complete the task within the given time period.
2. Add an Additional Resource:  Assigning an additional resource to assist with a task could reduce the amount of Work that resource A is required to complete.
3. Reassign a Task:  Perhaps it is a combination of tasks that is causing the over allocation.  Reassign one task to another person who has the skill set and the availability to perform that task
4. Extend the Duration of the Task(s)**:  Extending the duration of the task or tasks allows the resource to complete the same amount of Work, but over a longer Duration.
5. Delay the Start of a Task**:  If it is a combination of tasks that is causing the over allocation, delaying the Start date of one of the tasks could eliminate the over allocation.
6. Extend the Resources Working Day***:  This involves asking the resource to work longer than 8 hours per day
7. Extend the Resources Working Week***: You are now asking the resource to Work on a weekend day, or more than 40 hours (work longer).
8. Implement Improved Technology****:   This equates to "working smarter, not harder"!  The analogy I will use is that we employ an air nail gun to build a fence instead of using a hammer and nails.  The amount of Work or effort required to complete the task will be reduced.
9. Reduce Scope*****:  The last resort!  So you are constrained...you have no additional resources who can assist, you have no additional budget to purchase improved technology, and you can not extend the duration of any tasks because it will cause the project to be late.  Your last resort is to reduce the amount of Work needed to be completed by reducing the scope of the project.  So instead of building the fancy Flash intro to a website, a standard homepage will be employed.

Here are some possible impacts of these options:

*Doing Nothing:  As you can imagine, this introduces some Risk to your project.  What if they can't or don't get the task complete?  What will be the impact to the project?

**Extending the duration of the task(s) or Delaying the Start of a task:  If any of these tasks are on the critical path of your project, you just extended the Finish date for that project!

***Extending the resources Working Day or Work Week:  Either of these options could result in paying over-time, thus increasing the cost of your project.

****Implement Improved Technology: Undoubtedly this will come at an increased cost!

*****You better make sure you have approval from the customer or project sponsor before making choosing this option!!

Many people realize there are both Tables and Views within MS Project, but they may not fully understand the differences or the relationship between the two.

Let's start off with definitions:

Table - Tables within Microsoft Project are made up of sets of columns containing fields of information describing the tasks or resources within each row of the table.   Tables can be applied to Sheets or Views.  There are separate tables for tasks and for resources (for example, there is an Entry table for tasks and an Entry table for resources).   A table within MS Project would be similar to a sheet within MS Excel that has defined columns.

To see the basic set of Tables within MS Project, click on >View, >Tables.  You should see something like this:

To see the entire list of tables, click on >View, >Tables, >More Tables.  You should see something like this:

From this Table Library, you will find roughly 17 predefined Task Tables.  If you click on the Resource radial button, you will find roughly 10 predefined Resource Tables.  (Note that the Entry table is highlighted in both screenshots)

View - Views within Microsoft Project determine how information is displayed.  A View actually contains a Filter, Group, Table and a Screen.

So every View references a Table.  The View may then manipulate the data within that Table by Grouping it, and / or Filtering it and specifing which screen gets displayed.

To see the basic list of Views, click on View.  You should see something like this:

 The basic Views are highlighted in Red.

To see all of the views that are available, click on >View, >More Views.  You should see something like this:

  You should see that roughly 24 different Views are available.

Here is what most people don't know:

When you modify (Insert or Hide) the columns in a View, you are actually modifying the columns within the Table.  If that Table is used by another View, you just modified the columns in that View as well.

No, you say...Watch this:

Take a look at the Gantt Chart View.  By default, it leverages the Entry Table.

And that Entry table causes the following columns to be displayed in the Gantt Chart View:

Now look at the Tracking Gantt View

Notice that by default, it too calls upon the Entry View.  The following fields are displayed in the Tracking Gantt View (notice that they are exactly the same as the Gantt Chart view...because they are the fields within the Entry Table!)

Let's remove the Duration column from the Tracking Gantt View by right clicking on the column Duration and then click on Hide.

  Notice that the Duration field is no longer displayed in the Tracking Gantt View.

Now let's examine the Gantt Chart.

Notice that the Duration Column is no longer displayed in the Gantt Chart View.  This is because when we removed it from the Tracking Gantt View, we actually removed it from the Entry Table that is being leveraged by the Gantt Chart View also.

The moral of this story:

Use caution when adding or removing columns within a View.  You are ultimately impacting any other View that calls upon the Table that you are modifying!

As a matter of fact, it might be beneficial to learn "How to Create a New Table and a New View".  Watch for this article next month!

Question: Is it possible to have the color of the task bar change on the Gantt Chart based upon input in a cell.

Answer: Yes, here are the steps

1.  Within your project, Insert Flag 1, Flag 2 columns
2. Use the <Tools, <Customize, <Fields, <Options to rename Flag1 to Aqua, Flag 2 to Red

 
3. Ensure Aqua (Flag 1) is highlighted, right click, Customize, then click on Formula
4. Type in the following formula: IIf([Text1]="1",Yes,No)
5. Click on OK
6. Ensure Red (Flag 2) is highlighted, right click, Customize, then click on Formula
7. Type in the following formula: IIf([Text1]="2",Yes,No)
8. Click on OK
9. Right click on the Gantt chart portion of the screen and click on Bar Styles
10.Click on Task (under Name)
11.Click on Cut Row
12.Then Click on Paste Row 3 times

13.Click on second Task and rename to “Aqua Flag”. Rename third Task to “Red Flag”
14.Click on the Show For…Tasks column in the second Name
15.Click on the drop down, remove Name and Insert Flag 1
16.Click on Appearance for Flag1 and change the color to Aqua
17.Click on the next line down and remove Name and insert Flag 2
18.Click on Appearance for Flage2 and change the color to Red - click OK

 
19.As a final step, you may now hide the two Flag fields from your plan
Now when you input a 1 in Text1, the color of the task on the Gant chart will change to Aqua. If you input a 2, it will change to Red. No value, it will remain as the default Blue bar.

These are the basic steps for setting up an MS Project schedule to have the color formatting of the Gantt Chart task bars to change based upon values input in a cell.  Given this basic knowledge, you are now only limited by your own imagination and creativity on how to utilize this function of the tool.

It's official, you can now sign up and take the IT Professional Exam 70-632: TS: Microsoft Office Project 2007, Configuring!!

Microsoft told us the certification exams were coming:

Article 1

Article 2

Here are the skills being measured and the portion of the exam each category covers:

Configuring Tools and Options (13%)

Set up Schedule options.

Set up Calculation options.

Set up Interface options.

Set up View options.

Set up General options.

Set up Calendar options.

Set up Security options.

Setting Up a Project (10%)

Create and modify a template.

Select a template.

Enter project information.

Manage calendars.

Import and export data.

Estimating, Scheduling, and Budgeting Tasks (29%)

Create a WBS.

Create and modify tasks.

Estimate and budget tasks.

Sequence tasks.

Identify and analyze critical tasks and critical path.

Manage multiple projects.

Resourcing Project Plans (24%)

Forecast time-phased generic skill or role requirements.

Create, modify, and use resource pools.

Add, change, substitute, or remove resource assignments.

Predict durations and work calculations.

Optimize resource utilization.

Updating and Reporting on Project Performance (24%)

Save and modify baselines.

Enter task updates.

Reschedule incomplete work.

Track project progress.

Analyze variance.

Create, modify, and delete objects.

Create reports.

Find out more information about the exam here.

Self Paced Training Products here.

More help for MS Project here.

Stay abreast of the latest developments in the project management profession by signing up for PMConnections monthly Newsletter.

Sure enough!!

I started using MS Project 98, and have grown up with the tool over the years.

I never thought about performing spell checking on my project schedules until a student caught a typo in one of the schedules I was demonstrating during class.  This could have been even more embarrasing had this been a member of upper management!!

I have vowed to perform spell checking on all project schedules in the future!

Although similar to Spell Checking within the other Office applications, Spell Checking within MS Project is slightly different.  (Please note that I am working with MS Project 2003)

Here is how it works:  Click on >Tools, >Spelling

Spell checking then begins.  If a word is located within the project schedule that is not recognized, the following dialogue box will appear:

Like the other Office applications (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), the wizard finds words that it believes are misspelled and then offers Suggestions.  You can select the proper suggestion and then choose Change on the right side.

If the proper spelling is not in the list of Suggestions, like other Office applications, you can type it in and select Change.

However, unlike the other Office products, the wizard does not take you directly to the misspelled word.  But note that it does display the "Found in" box.  If you would like to see how and where you are using this word, you will need to take note of the location where the misspelling was found, then cancel out of the wizard and inspect that location.

Once Spell Checking is complete, you will see the following dialogue box:

For more tips on MS Project, try this link

Below are the top 5 most visited articles from each category within our Research Center for 2006.

If you missed any previous newsletters, this is a great way to catch up!!

Click on the category heading to review any of these articles.

Project Management

1.  Quick Guide to Project Management - Free ebook
2.  25 Project Management Tips
3.  Free Project Management Guidebook
4.  10 best practices for successful project management
5.  Management's Guide to Project Success - Free ebook

MS Project

1. 25 Microsoft Project Tips and Tricks
2. 18 page MS Project crib sheet
3. Absolute MUST SEE presentation for beginners
4. 10 steps you should follow to successfully manage your workplan
5. Excel to MS Project

PMP Certification

Prepare

1.  FREE PMP Study Guide
2.  All About the PMP Certification

Questions

3.  100 Free PMP Exam Prep Questions
4.  200 Free PMP Exam Prep Questions

Other

5.  How many PMP's are there? Where are they located?

Program Management and PMO

1. Program Manager Cheat Sheet
2. Creating A PMO
3. Five Principles Of Program Management
4. Beneath the Buzz: Project Management Office
5. PMI's new Program Manager Certification

MS Project Server

1.  MS Project Server 2007 Demo
2.  Portfolio Management with Project Server 2003
3.  10 Things To Ponder When Implementing An Integrated Portfolio Management Application
4.  MS Project Server 2002 vs 2003 vs 2007
5.  Free Sharepoint 2007 Training Course

Portfolio Management

1.  Portfolio Server: A Tool to Support the Process
2.  Portfolio Management Software Evaluation Tool
3.  Case Studies in Portfolio Management
4.  5 Stages Towards Portfolio Management
5.  Effective Benchmarking for Project Management - from Microsoft and PMI

Other

1.  How To Speak In Public To A Group
2.  PM Humor
3.  10 Dumbest Things You Can Do To Your Computer
4.  25 qualities that will get you promoted
5.  11 Qualities of Successful IT Managers

Great Websites

1.  FREE MS Project Templates
2.  amakar.com
3.  MSProject Reporter
4.  PMProducts
5.  PM Tools

See our current Newsletter here.

Sign up for future Newsletters delivered via email here.

I remember opening MS Project for the first time, playing around in the tool for a while, then thinking “I can do all this in Excel”. I put the tool away and never touched it again. That is until I became an official Project Manager. My thoughts at that point were “I should probably learn how to use this tool”. Well after many years and many projects, I realize that MS Project is a powerful tool at helping me manage my work. I now work with MS Project the way most people work with Excel. I find various uses for the tool that may be outside the norm.

For example, I facilitate a number of meetings or training sessions. If you think about it, a training session (or meeting) is nothing more than a small project involving Scope, Cost and Time. You have specific information that you need to deliver in a fixed duration. These training sessions are anywhere from 2 to 12 hours in duration. So just like a traditional project, if you do not have a plan, you are likely to get off track and run out of time before the targeted completion. And also like a project, if you have a baseline plan, you can compare your current status to the baseline to ensure you stary on track.

The following article will demonstrate how to leverage MS Project to help you construct an agenda.

Step 1 – Open MS Project

Step 2 – Save file with meaningful name

Step 3 – Activate Project Summary Task

Click on >Tools, >Options, >View and place a check in the Show Project Summary Task option

Step 4 – Alter the Date format

Click on >Tools, >Options, >View and select the dropdown for the Date Format. Change this to 12:33PM

Step 5 – Change Duration format

Click on >Tools, >Options, >Schedule and change the option “Duration is entered in” to Hours

Step 6 – Change Project Start Time

Click on >Project, >Project Information and input the start time for your meeting.

Step 7 – Input your agenda items

This step would equate to PMI’s Time Management Process of Activity Definition.

Step 8 – Link Topics

This step would equate to PMI’s Time Management process of Activity Sequencing. Given that this is a meeting or training session, all tasks must occur sequentially. In other words we will use a Finish to Start type relationship between all tasks. We link these tasks together using the predecessor field. You could type in the predecessor for each task, but there is an easier way! To link a series of tasks together sequentially using MS Project, there is an option to Link Tasks. Here’s how to use it: first select all the tasks, then click on the Link Tasks option (chain link). Notice how all selected tasks are now joined together sequentially (Finish to Start).

Step 9 – Input Durations

AKA: Activity Duration Estimating. For each topic or agenda item, simply input the estimated duration it will take to cover that topic. By default, if we simply enter a number, MS Project will assume we are inputting hours. But in the case of a meeting, we need to input the duration in the form of minutes. In order to do that we simply type an “m” after the duration. For example, if we feel it will take 10 minutes to provide the Meeting Overview, we click on the Duration field for the Meeting Overview task and type “10m”. Then hit enter.

Complete this step for all items.

We can now see that in order to cover all of these agenda items, it is going to take a little over 2 hours. But if your overall duration is fixed at only two hours, you realize some tweaks will need to be made to this schedule or plan. There are two options we can take. Option 1 is to reduce the duration of at least one item. Option 2 would be to remove an item from this meeting.

We will select Option 1. Topic Two can probably be covered in only 10 minutes.

Notice that the overall duration is now 2 hours. We have a do-able plan!!

But wait….you just realize that the coffee and bagels are not scheduled to arrive until 9:30am. You must adjust the Break time so it begins at 9:30AM. No worries!!!! Simply highlight the entire task for Break and drag it down. MS Project will automatically recalculate and re-establish the links.

Step 10 – Add Resource Names

If different people are responsible for covering the various topics, you can leverage the Resource Names field to identify these individuals.

Step 11 – Save and print the plan

Step 12 – Manage to the plan

Distribute copies of your agenda at the beginning of the meeting. Just like a project, you want your team to know the objective, timing and assignments. Leverage your agenda just as you would a project schedule. Watch the time to make sure you stay on track. If you get off track, you will be able to tell how far off track you are and assess what needs to occur in order to get back on track.

This approach may seem like overkill for a short meeting, but if you have a long meeting or training session with a number of topics that need to be covered, I’m sure you will find this approach to be very beneficial.

5 Tasks + 3 Years = 60 PDU’s

So you passed the PMP exam and have been applying all those fundamental principles on your projects. Perhaps you’ve gotten a new job, promotion or even received an increase in salary as a result of the additional knowledge. In a nutshell, you realize the PMP is of value and you would like to remain PMP certified.

You know that in order to maintain your PMP certification you must acquire 60 PDU’s over the course of 3 years. You’ve ventured to PMI’s CCR site and perhaps even logged a few PDU’s. But you realize that you are still far from having 60. How will you ever get there?

Well, if money is not an object, then acquiring 60 PDU’s is easy. All you have to do is find a find a few project management related seminars or training classes, pay your money and attend. 60 PDU’s will come quickly.

But if you are searching for a more economical approach to acquiring your PDU’s, all you have to do is follow the 5 following steps. This approach will not be easy, as it may require considerable time and effort. But the there are two major benefits. One is that there will be very little direct costs to you. The second benefit is this economical approach will place you in great networking situations. You will have the opportunity to interact with others in the project management field. These contacts can help you resolve your difficult project issues or provide you an inside track to those un-advertised open project management positions.

Step 1 – Do Your Job

That’s right, simply performing your job as a project manager for 1500 hours per year is worth 5 PDU’s. 5 PDU’s per year for 3 years is 15 PDU’s. Do the math. Already, you are 25% there!! These PDU’s should be logged into sub-category 2H.

Step 2 – Do A Little Research

Sub-category 2SDL grants us 1 PDU for each hour of “Self Directed Learning”. There is a limit of 15 PDU’s, but why not claim them all. Pick a topic that you would like to learn about and begin your research project. For example, perhaps you would like to know more about Program Management, Portfolio Management, or Using MS Project to help you better manage your projects. The Research Center at PMConnection provides a great online source for your research.

There is no formal tracking form that PMI requires one to fill out, but it is advised to keep a personal record of all books or articles read. It might even be a good idea to produce powerpoint presentation summarizing your research or perhaps a nice article. Your tracking form and summary report may prove beneficial if PMI would ever audit your PDU records. Producing an article can actually help you with step 3.

Step 3 – Get Published

So if you elected to produce an article from your 15 hours of research, most of your work is complete. All you have to do now is get it published. Try submitting your article to MPA for publication in “The Project Network” or PMI for publication in “PM Network”. If they elect to publish your article, you have just earned another 15 PDU’s!! These get recorded into sub-category 2B, which is getting published in a non-refereed journal.

Step 4 – Become a Committee Member

Find your local PMI Chapter and volunteer a little time. Being a committee member of a project management organization for a year is worth 5 PDU’s. If your closest chapter is too far for a convenient commute, you might want to check out this page of PMI’s website as they are always performing some type of research and rely upon volunteer committee members. These PDU’s get logged into sub-category 5B.

Step 5 – Become an Officer

One notch above a committee member is becoming an officer of a project management organization. Again, your local PMI or MPA chapter provide this opportunity. Being an officer for one year is worth 10 PDU’s. These get logged into sub-category 5A.

If you’ve been keeping a running total, you’ll realize we have now accumulated 60 PDU’s. Below is a nice little scorecard that summarizes our 5 steps.

Summary

Remember that these 5 steps are merely suggestions for earning PDU's economically. Visit PMI’s CCR site for a comprehensive list of categories for earning PDU’s. Here are a few more suggestions:

• Regardless of how you plan to earn PDU’s, get started now! The longer you wait, the greater pressure you put on yourself and the more likely you are to have to attend an expensive event to meet your PDU requirements.
• Log your PDU’s on PMI’s site as you acquire them
• Keep a hard copy of all records in case of a PMI audit

With the release of MS Project 2003, Microsoft thought they were doing us a favor by introducing a new option to the tool.  This option by default is set to "only show the full menus after a short delay".   This may have sounded like a good idea, but in reality, it limits our learning of all the other features the tool can do.  Here is an example;  say when I am working with the tool, I frequently need to change the working time on my projects.  Using the default options, when I click on Tools, here is what I see:

Only a few options!  To see all the options under the Tools menu, I either need to wait a few seconds for them to be displayed, or I must click on the double down arrows.  In my opinion, not showing the full menu immediately, limits our ability to learn other things that the tool can do.

With the option turned on to "Always show full menus", this is what we would see:

Notice how many more options are now displayed.  I may have only clicked on the Tools menu to change working time, but now I get to see that there is also an option to Import Outlook Tasks.  I may not need to do that today, tomorrow, or any time soon, but if the need arises in the future, I will now that is possible using the product.

How to "Always show full menus"

To turn on the option to "Always show full menus", click on >View, >Toolbars, >Customize

A dialogue box will be displayed.  Now click on the >Options tab and enable "Always show full menus"

I'm sure this title gets all the PMI^® big wigs a little edgy!  And for all of those PMBOK toters, you can now pick up your book (as I'm sure it just hit the floor!) and read the following article about real world project management.

What is a WBS?

WBS stands for Work Breakdown Structure.  Examining PMBOK^®, we see that the WBS should be created after the scope of the project has been defined.   Creating a WBS involves subdividing the major project deliverables and project work into smaller more manageable components. (PMBOK pg 49)

The planned work contained in the lowest-level WBS components are called Work Packages (PMOK^® pg 112)

We can all agree with this, right?

But here's the piece that most people miss, or don't fully realize when talking about developing a WBS; the Work Packages should be decomposed one level farther to determine the Activities. (PMOK^® pg 127)  This step is like "the missing link"; connecting the WBS to your Schedule Network Diagram (or MS Project).  This is formally called Activity Definition.

What is Activity Definition?

Activity Definition is the process of identifying and documenting the work that is planned to be performed. (PMOK^® pg 127)  And once we know the scope of our project, isn't this the next biggest question; "What do we have to do to complete this project?"

So why is the WBS Over-Rated?

Well, if you are studying for the PMP exam or about to undertake a large project, it is not.  It is very important.

But the WBS is nothing more than a tool.  A tool to help you determine the activities that need to occur to complete the project.

So now lets examine this scenario;  You have been assigned as the project manager for some project.  The scope is well defined and the project sponsor as well as management believe this project could be completed in 3-6 months.  Your team of 6 Subject Matter Experts has been determined.  You have transferred the vision (scope) of this project to your team and are now about to hold your first planning session.  All SME's will participate in this meeting.  Given this scenario, a formal WBS may be over-kill.  A simple brainstorming session with the team could allow you to determine all the project activities.  In short, you will be performing Activity Definition without the need for a formal WBS.

You may even be able to perform Activity Sequencing during the same session!  This is the process of putting all of the activities in sequential order by establishing the logical relationship between the various activities.  And inevitably, this process of Activity Sequencing (especially when completed with the team), will uncover more activities that need to occur.

Closing

In closing, I'd just like to state that I'm not advocating eliminating the development of a WBS, I'm merely stating that in many real world projects, a formal WBS may not be needed.  I believe project management tools and processes should be scaled to fit the project.  And if the detailed activities of the project can be determined without the need for additional work, then why do it?

What is a Contingency Reserve

According to PMBOK^® (page 166 of the Third Edition), "Contingency Reserves are estimated costs to be used at the discretion of the project manager to deal with anticipated, but not certain, events. These events are "known unknowns" and are part of the project scope and cost baselines."

PMBOK goes on to say "One option to manage cost contingency reserves is to aggregate each schedule activity's cost contingency reserve for a group of related actities into a single contingency reserve that is assigned to a schedule activity."

What would this look like in MS Project?

In this example, we will establish a contingency reserve for the entire project.  Note that this could also be performed at the work package level.

1.  You must have already completed the steps of Activity Definition, Activity Sequencing, Activity Resource Estimating, Activity Duration Estimating (which includes effort estimating for the individual tasks) and loaded all this information into MS Project.  You would have a schedule that looks something like this:

2.  Insert the Cost field

3. Insert the Contingency Reserve activity.  Make the duration of this activity .5 days less than the overall duration of the project (making it equal to the duration of the project will not allow MS Project to calculate the true critical path tasks within your schedule)

4.  Input the Contingency Reserve amount in the cost field.  Note that a detailed risk analysis would be preferred to help establish the true cost contingency reserve needed. But for our example we are going to assume the organization mandates a 10% Contingency Reserve be established for all projects.

  Note: Making the Contingency Reserve duration nearly equal the Duration of the project spreads the reserve amount out over the life of the project

5.  The schedule can now be baselined.

Managing Costs

6.  So now reality sets in.  We find it cost $1,000 more to perform a series of tasks than we had anticipated.  By inserting our Baseline Cost and Cost Variance fields we can easily see this variance.

7.  All we have to do to get the project back on budget is to deduct $1,000 from our Contingency Reserve cost amount.