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Everything You Need to Know About Microsoft Project Management Software

 


Microsoft Project is an industry-standard project management software application developed by Microsoft Corporation. It’s been around since 1992, and as you can imagine, it’s seen some major upgrades and changes over the years. 




Microsoft has released more than 20 different versions of the software, but it continues to be one of the most popular project management tools in the world today (especially among large organizations). 



There are many pros and cons associated with using Microsoft Project software, but this article will outline everything you need to know about this platform and how it works within your organization’s projects.






Everything You Need to Know About Microsoft Project Management Software
Microsoft Project Management Software


What Is Microsoft Project?

Microsoft Project is a popular project management software that helps you organize your projects. Project management software is a tool that allows you to keep track of all the tasks that need to be completed in order for a project to be finished. 



Microsoft Project has been around since 1989 and has been used by millions of people worldwide. The software has been featured in over 100 countries, and it's currently used by businesses, universities, and governments alike. 



The pros of using Microsoft Project are that it's easy to use and has many features built in to help you manage your projects more efficiently. The cons are that it can be difficult to learn if you're new to project management software or don't have much experience with computers at all.





The Benefits of Using MS Project



  1. It helps you create a diagram that highlights the relationship between various tasks of a project.
  2. It helps you plan for each task and assign resources to each task.
  3. Once you have identified all the related tasks, you will get a clear picture of your project duration.
  4. When there are lots of tasks involved in your project, it is difficult to figure out and track every task’s status.
  5. MS Project also provides Gantt charts which help you to track how long your tasks are taking and where your project stands as a whole.
  6. The most important benefit of MS Project is its ability to reduce the chance of errors and mistakes.
  7. You can easily realize when your project is going off track and take appropriate measures to fix it.
  8. Another useful feature that MS Project offers is the ability to estimate the cost of each activity. 
  9. You can use it to monitor your costs and make necessary adjustments if required. 
  10. MS Project is available in different types of licenses and it is user-friendly.
  11. It recognises that resources are limited, allowing you to set up cost and budget limits.
  12. It provides a good means of communicating your project plan to stakeholders.
  13. Reports can be created with a few clicks of the mouse!
  14. The baseline feature makes it possible to compare actual progress against planned progress  on all aspects of the project.
  15. It allows for the easy tracking of progress on tasks, including who completed them and when they did so.
  16. There is an option to change the way tasks are displayed through views and filters, to help you focus on one area of the project at a time.
  17. You have complete control over your work schedule - you decide when your working weeks start and finish, what days you work, how many hours you work per day or week etc.




Using MS Project means that you have a powerful tool which allows you to track the progress of your projects closely, make sure they stay within their budget and communicate important information with stakeholders quickly and easily.




How To Create A New MS Project File




  1. Open Microsoft Project.
  2. Click Blank Project under Start Screen.
  3. Fill in the Name, Description and Location fields.
  4. To create a timeline, press G on your keyboard.
  5. Start typing tasks to add them and hit Enter once you are done with the task.
  6. To set dependency between tasks, select the task on which a dependancy is dependent and press Ctrl + D to open Task Dependencies interface.
  7. Select Task ID for task to be added as a dependency in the drop-down menu.
  8. Click OK.
  9. To set start date for tasks, select the time period for which tasks are scheduled, right-click to open shortcut menu and select Link to Project Start option.
  10. To set working hours for Weekdays, go to Schedule options from Project tab and select Set Working Time option.





You can create  project in MS Project without any knowledge of CPM and PERT concepts.




How To Open A Recent File




  1. To create a new MS Project file, first go to the Start button and choose "All Programs."
  2. Once you have the program open, select the File tab in the upper-left corner.
  3. In the File tab, choose New.
  4. In the New dialog box, you will see several project options available.  Click on Blank Project.
  5. A new instance of MS Project will appear showing only a blank Gantt chart.  This way, you can begin to build your project from scratch.




Now that you know how to create an MS Project file from a blank slate, you can better manage your project and it's tasks!





How To Create Milestones And Checklists




Milestones are an important part of project management. They help you track the progress of your project, know when you need to make decisions, and keep everyone on the same page.


You can create milestones from tasks, or vice versa. For example, you may have a task called "Product Launch" that's broken down into smaller tasks such as "Create marketing materials," "Create website," and "Roll out new features." Each one of these smaller tasks would be a milestone in itself, but they're also all part of one bigger task: launching your product!




How To Create Milestones And Checklists:




  • Create a new Task view.
  • Name your Task view and select the type of Task view you want to use.
  • Add columns by clicking in the heading row and choosing your column options.
  • Add and change the size of your column groups by dragging the handles on the column group headers.
  • Add, remove or change the fields by clicking in the heading row, clicking Columns and selecting or deselecting the fields that you want to include.
  • In View Settings, select which tasks you want to include in this view.
  • Click Filter and choose your filter settings.
  • In Group By, select how you want to group tasks in this view. You can also add and change groups. You can have as many groups as you like, but only three levels are available by default. If you need more than three levels, you need to install Project Professional 2016 on top of Project Standard 2023 for additional features.




This tutorial is about milestones and checklists in MS Project.







Milestones are used to mark the completion of a phase or goal within a project. They can be used to track important events like deadlines or major deliverables in your project. They're also useful for dividing up large projects into smaller pieces so that you can more easily manage them.





How To View Resource Information MS Project




If you're using MS Project, you can use the Resource Usage view to see where your resources are being used and how much of their time is allocated to tasks. 


This is especially useful when you want to make sure that a resource isn't over-allocated or under-allocated, depending on their availability and how many other projects they're working on.




You can access this view by going to View→Resource Usage (or pressing Ctrl+Alt+M). You'll see a table with a list of all of your resources, along with their assigned tasks and their status (whether they're currently working on a task or not).




If you click on one of these rows, it will expand so that you can see which tasks each resource has been assigned to and how much time it has been allocated for each task. 




This can help you determine if there's any room for improvement in terms of resource allocation. For example, if one person has too many tasks assigned to them and another person doesn't have enough tasks assigned to them.



Then perhaps some tasks could be reassigned from one person to another?

Section: If you've got a lot of team members who will be working on your project, then you should make use of Project's resource management tools. You can create a new resource from the Resource tab of Project's ribbon. Section: This opens a dialog box that you can use to assign contact information, work hours, and other details about the resource to the resource sheet. Section: Here you can determine how much work each resource will do on each task. Section: Note that resources can be assigned in two ways: by units or by hours. Units are added as percentages and represent the amount of an available resource that is devoted to a particular task. The units are averaged together and summed up in the "Total Units" column. Hours represent how much time a particular person should spend on each task per week Section: Note that different task types have different assignment options available. For example, Tasks with variable work times are always assigned using hours, while fixed-unit tasks are only assigned in units—this is because their work time is already set by their duration Takeaway: If you have team members working on your project, you can use Microsoft Project's resource management tools to ensure that those resources are used properly




How To Edit A Task



Microsoft Project is a project management software that helps you manage your projects, tasks and resources.


It allows you to create tasks, assign resources and schedule them for completion. You can also track the progress of your projects.


When you delete a task in Microsoft Project, it will still show up as completed in the Gantt Chart view but when you click on it, it will no longer be visible or accessible. You cannot edit or delete completed tasks from the Task Sheet view.


You can recover deleted tasks in Microsoft Project using either the Undo button or by using the "Recover Deleted Tasks" dialog box. If you want to recover only one task, then click on the Undo button and select "Recover Deleted Tasks." If you want to recover multiple tasks at once then click on File > Options > General > Undo Options and change "Maximum number of consecutive actions that can be undone" to something greater than 1 so that more than one action can be undone at once. Then go back to File > Options > General > Undo Options again and select "Allow multiple undo operations per file."



How To Edit A Task Microsoft Project, follow these steps:



  1. Open Microsoft Project and click the “Task” tab.
  2. Click tasks in the left pane and right click on the task in question.
  3. You can add a predecessor to a Task if you want it to start before another Task begins.
  4. You can also change the Task calendar so that it starts or finishes on a specific day of the week.
  5. Change task names 
  6. You can create a new task name by clicking "Info" at the top of your screen, scrolling down to "Name".
  7. You can change status indicators and percent complete by clicking into the task you want to modify, then selecting it from the drop-down menu that appears.
  8. Go to Tools > Options > View and check the box next to Show Project Summary Task.




Using Microsoft Project is a great way to stay organized and manage your time, but sometimes you need help figuring out how to make all those features work for you.  This blog post will provide information on a few different tasks you might be interested in accomplishing with Microsoft Project so that when something comes up you know exactly what steps need taken for success!





How To Delete Or Move A Task




To move a task in Microsoft Project, simply drag it to its new location.


To move a summary task in Microsoft Project, right-click on the summary task you want to move and choose Move Summary Task.


To arrange tasks in Microsoft Project, click the Arrange Tasks button on the menu bar at the top of the screen. This will open up a dialog box that allows you to rearrange your tasks however you please.


To indent tasks in Microsoft Project, click on the Indent Task button on the menu bar at the top of your screen. This will open up another dialog box that allows you to indent or outdent a task as needed.


To remove indent from a task in Microsoft Project, click on the Outdent Task button on the menu bar at the top of your screen. This will open up another dialog box that allows you to indent or outdent a task as needed.


To delete completed tasks in Microsoft To Do, click on the Completed Tasks tab at the bottom left corner of your screen and select all completed tasks by pressing Ctrl + A (Windows) or Command + A (Mac). Press Delete on your keyboard to delete those completed tasks permanently from your list!




On the Tasks tab, in the Hierarchy group, click Move Up or Move Down to move the task within the list:

 



  1. On the Tasks tab, in the Hierarchy group, click Move Up or Move Down to move the task within the list.
  2. You can also drag tasks up or down on the list.
  3. You can also drag tasks up, down, or to the left or right in the sheet area of most views.
  4. Indent a task to make it a subtask.
  5. Summary tasks don't appear on Gantt charts by default; they appear only in hierarchical views and as summary bars on other views. If you want to see summary tasks as summary bar elements on Gantt charts and other views, add the Summary Task field to those views.
  6. Microsoft To Do uses Office 365 settings to determine if a task is completed or not. If you delete a task from Microsoft To Do that's been marked as completed in Microsoft Project, it may appear again when your lists refresh.
  7. To indent multiple selected tasks at once, press [Tab]. To outdent multiple selected tasks at once, press [Shift]+[Tab].


What Is Resources Tracking?

A Resources tracking is a process that helps you to identify your project's resources and their availability, so you can plan your projects and allocate time and cost. Resources tracking involves the use of tools to track the availability of all resources (people, equipment, materials) on your project. 


The tools are usually integrated into the Microsoft Project software application, which allows you to monitor resource availability in real-time. You can also use these tools to schedule your projects and allocate resources. This will help you determine how much time each resource needs to complete their work, as well as how much money should be spent on that work.

How Do I Use The Resource Availability?

The Resource Availability tool in MS Project is a feature that helps you manage your project's resources. 


It helps you determine whether your project needs more or less of a certain resource, and it also allows you to make sure that your resources are allocated in the most efficient way possible. 


Creating an effective resource plan can be tricky, because there are many factors that go into making up an allocation percentage: how much time each person has available to spend on the project, what other projects they're working on at any given time, and so forth. But with the Resource Availability tool, you can quickly see where there may be over- or under-allocation issues within the team. 


If there's too much overlap in who is doing what tasks and when (which could mean someone is taking over another person's work), this can lead to delays and increased costs—which is why it's important to have a clear picture of how much time each person has available to spend on each task.

How Do I Add Additional Team Members?

You can add additional team members to your Microsoft Project schedule in two ways. First, you can manually add them by clicking on the “Assign Resources” tab and selecting “Team Member” from the drop-down menu. 


You will then have the option to type in the name of your new employee or search for them using their email address or other identifying information. Second, if you have an Excel spreadsheet with employee information already entered, you can import it into Microsoft Project by clicking on the “Assign Resources” tab and then selecting “Import from Excel.” Once you have imported your spreadsheet, you can edit any existing assignments or add new ones as needed.

How Do I Add Additional Team Members?

If you want to add additional team members, you can do so through the Microsoft Teams app. 


To do this: 


  • Open the Microsoft Teams app. 
  • Select the team from which you want to add a member. 
  • Select the “People” tab on the left side of your screen.  
  • Select either “Add People” or “Invite People” depending on whether or not you already have members in your organization who are not part of this particular team yet but whom you would like to invite into it instead.
  • Enter their email address and hit “Send Invitation” when done adding each person individually if needed!





Unfortunately, Project has also developed a negative connotation in recent years as a result of overuse and misuse. In many cases, companies are forced to use MS Project due to a corporate standard that already exists. And, despite being indispensable for project managers, other people outside of project management teams (like marketing, accounting, or human resources) tend not to use it at all.

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