Project Management Assignment 1 Comments

Here are some comments that may be useful to you in all assignments of if you need to manage a project or a department.

Project Management Issues

Predecessors

You are asked to specify Predecessors in Microsoft Project. In order to do this correctly, you must figure out which tasks MUST be completed before other tasks can start. For example, you should not start construction before you have a building permit and you should not install desks and filing cabinets before you have laid down the flooring. On the other had, you do not want to constrain your project schedule by doing only one task at a time. You can be selecting and ordering desks, filing cabinets, and telephone equipment all at the same time. There is no reason to delay evaluating phone equipment until you are done deciding which filing cabinets to order. There is usually pressure on a project to "get done sooner". To do that, you need to figure out how to overlap tasks without starting any task before you have everything that you need to do that task. Predecessors in Microsoft Project help you with the clerical work of keeping track of what tasks are ready to start but it is up to you to plan the project and decide which tasks can be overlapped and which ones cannot be overlapped.

Project Costs vs. Department Budgets

When you are asked "how much will a project cost", you are being asked to estimate how much the people will cost (estimated hours times billing rate per hour) plus other project epxenses such as hardware, software, office rental. Reports from Microsoft Project can get you the information on the people cost. If a person works only part-time on the project, only that part of the person's salary is counted in the project cost.

In a department budget, you are asked how much will it cost to run your department for a year. In this case, you count the salary and benefits for all the people in the department as well as other department costs such as office space and computer software. All of a person's salary and benefits count in the department budget no matter on which (if any) project that person works.

 

Microsoft Project Mechanics

Project Calendars

If you put something on the Standard Calendar in Microsoft Project, it applies to the entire project including all people on the project. Standard project working hours and holidays belong on this calendar. If something applies to only one person such as attending a conference or going on vacation, that information belongs on the personal calendar for that person. If you say on the standard calendar that Jim Miller has a vacation from April 15 - April 30 and that these are not working days, Microsoft Project will not schedule any work to be done on the project during that time and the project schedule will be pushed back two weeks. If you put the vacation time on Jim Miller's personal calendar, Microsoft Project will defer tasks assigned to Miller but will allow the rest of the project to continue as scheduled between April 15 and April 30.