Tag Archives: Project

Managing Your Website Development ?eight Easy Steps to Project Management

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Managing your website development need not cause you sleepless nights providing you learn the secrets of successful project management. Perform the best practices in project management and give your project the best chance of success.

Define objectives

Objectives guide everyone on the project to your final goals. Are your objectives to sell your product online, to provide customer support, to promote investor relations? Carefully decide and clearly document your objectives.

Decide the critical success factors ?the things at the end of the project which tell you if you’ve been successful. Make them measurable so you know if you’ve achieved them. For example, the website development should result in an increase in online sales of 25% by year end.

Stakeholder analysis

A stakeholder is someone with an interest in your project’s success (or failure). Decide who they are and whether they support your project. Perform stakeholder analysis by classifying them (high or low) according to how motivated they are in helping (or blocking) your project and how influential (high or low) they are.

Highly influential and supportive people are your allies. Gain their support whenever you can. Aim to reduce the influence of people who are both highly influential and against your project as these people could act to damage your project.

During your stakeholder analysis, draw up strategies for dealing with each group of stakeholders.

Define deliverables

Deliverables are tangible things produced during the project. Talk with key stakeholders to help define deliverables. Will your website design include web page layouts and sitemap for use by the programming team? What is the content for each page? Write all this down.

Key stakeholders must review and agree the deliverables accurately reflect what they expect to be delivered.

Project planning

Define how you will arrive at your objectives. This involves planning how many people, resources and budget are required. If delivering this in house, decide what activities are required to produce each deliverable.

For example, you might decide a web designer will develop page layouts and navigation diagrams. You might decide the marketing team will supply all product details and photographs. You might decide the finance manager will set up merchant and payment gateway accounts to enable e-commerce transactions via your website. If outsourcing work, specify exactly what the sub-contractor should deliver.

Estimate the time and effort required for each activity and decide realistic schedules and budget. Ensure key stakeholders review and agree the plan and budget.

Communication planning

Hold a kick off meeting with the team and explain the plan. Ensure everyone knows exactly what the schedule is, and what is expected of them.

For example, the web designer needs to know that he is to produce page layouts and navigation diagrams based upon the marketing manager’s requirements. He needs to know his expected start and end times.

Share your project communication plan with the team. This should include details of report templates, frequency of reporting and meetings, and details of how conflicts between teams and their members will be resolved.

Project tracking

Constant monitoring of variations between actual and planned cost, schedule and scope is required. Report variations to key stakeholders and take corrective actions if variations occur. To get a project back on track you will need to juggle cost, scope and schedule.

Suppose your programmer hits technical problems which threaten to delay the project. You might recover time by re-organising or shortening remaining tasks. If that’s not possible, you might consider increasing the budget to employ an additional programmer, or consider reducing the scope in other areas.

Be aware that any adjustments you make to the plan might affect the quality of deliverables. If you need to increase the budget, seek approval from the project sponsor.

Change management

Once started, all projects change. Decide a simple change strategy with key stakeholders. This could be a committee which decides to accept or reject changes which comprises of you and one or more key stakeholders.

Assess the impact of each change on scope, cost and schedule. Decide to accept or reject the change. Be aware that the more changes you accept the less chance you have of completing the project on time and within budget unless you reduce scope in other areas.

Suppose the marketing manager wants to add a popup window to display full size photographs of products. Assess the impact of this change. You might need to remove some remaining tasks to include this change and stay within budget. Or, it might be impossible to include the change without increasing the budget or schedule.

Don’t blindly accept changes without assessing the impact or your project will overrun.

Risk management

Risks are events which can adversely affect the success of the project. Identify risks to a project early. Decide if each risk is likely or unlikely to occur. Decide if its impact on the project is high or low.

Risks that are likely to occur and have high impact are the severest risks. High impact but unlikely risks, or low impact but likely risks pose a medium threat. Unlikely and low impact risks pose the least threat.

Create a mitigation plan of the actions necessary to reduce the impact if the risk occurs. Start with the severest risks first, then deal with the medium risks. Regularly review risks. Add new ones if they occur.

Suppose the marketing manager cannot decide what he wants from the website. Without knowing what the marketing manager wants, the team cannot deliver a website to meet his expectations. You assess this risk as highly likely to occur and having high impact. Your mitigation plan might be that the web designer develops page layouts to be reviewed by the manager early in the project.

Summary

Performing best practices in project management will give your website development project the best chance of success.

 

Simon Buehring is a project manager, consultant and trainer. He works for KnowledgeTrain which offers training in project management and PRINCE2 trainingin the UK and overseas. Simon has extensive experience within the IT industry in the UK and Asia. He can be contacted via the KnowledgeTrain PRINCE2 project management training website.

Features of Microsoft Project 2007

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Introduction

Effective tracking and management of projects is necessary to achieve your project goals. Microsoft Office Project 2007 provides enhanced tools to help you track and control project work, schedules, and finances. You can also integrate Project 2007 tools with Microsoft Office applications.
Features of Project 2007

Project 2007 provides various features that help your organization gain better control and visibility across all projects. This leads to an enhanced.

decision-making process and an improved alignment with business strategies. This, in turn, increases operational efficiency. Project 2007 helps you plan work and manage resources effectively. It also enables efficient communication and collaboration. In addition, it helps leverage existing data and provides quick access to information.

Effective Work Planning

Project 2007 helps you efficiently plan work ranging from small projects to large-scale operations. You can use Project 2007 to plan schedules, allocate resources, manage budgets, and set realistic expectations for your team, management, and customers. You can easily track data and estimates such as percent complete, budget versus actual cost, and earned value by using a set of predefined metrics.

Besides tracking data, Project 2007 enables you to track project performance during the entire duration of the project. It also enables you to save project snapshots in baselines and track project progress. For a quick understanding of the project management process, Project 2007 provides an interactive Microsoft Project Guide with step-by-step help. In addition, it provides intuitive toolbars and menus that help you learn project management fundamentals.
Effective Resource Management

You can use Project 2007 to mange your resources, so that the organization can achieve its long-term goals. An inaccurate estimation of long-term workloads and capacity can result in unplanned recruitment and quick lay-off cycles, knowledge loss, higher overhead, and low employee morale. Project 2007 provides visibility in work transactions, timesheets, and resource capabilities. You can build resource plans to coordinate the recruiting and outsourcing strategies with long-term business objectives.

Project 2007 enables you to assign resources to tasks and manage conflicts over allocated assignments easily. You can allocate work to the entire team collectively instead of assigning work to individual resources. Team members can accept their individual assignments and indicate the time taken against the allocated assignment.
Efficient Communication and Collaboration

You can use Project 2007 to efficiently communicate and collaborate with project teams. With the growing geographical and cultural diversity in organizations, it is important to promote teamwork and maintain a common goal. Project 2007 allows knowledge sharing across teams and helps them work in collaboration for achieving project goals. Project 2007 is adaptable and accommodates quick adjustment in activities in case of updates.

Project 2007 also enables you to use different formats for presenting information. In Project 2007, you can format project data and present it in the form of reports, charts, PDF documents, and one-page printable schedules. To create reports, you can use ready-to-use report templates present in Project 2007. You can also create your own templates and share them with other users.
Quick Access to Information

With Project 2007, you can access information easily and quickly. In Project 2007, consolidating data is simple and time saving because you can group data by any predefined or custom fields. This ensures quick information retrieval when required. Moreover, in Project 2007, you can track changes in various versions of a project easily. This helps track the scope and schedule changes.

You can customize Project 2007 according to the specifications of your project. You can also select custom display fields and modify toolbars, formulas, graphical indicators, and reports. In addition, you can efficiently export data from Project 2007 to Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint by using the Copy Picture to Office Wizard.
Effective Leveraging of Existing Data

Project 2007 enables quick leveraging of data across different platforms. With its built-in integration with Office 2007, Project 2007 allows users to work with the Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution when working with Office Outlook or Office SharePoint. In addition, Project 2007 is integrated with other Office applications. This helps convert the existing task lists in Office Excel and Office Outlook into ready-to-use project plans with minimum efforts.

Project 2007 also enables you to add resources to projects from Microsoft Active Directory or from a Microsoft Exchange Server address book.

TeachMeIT.com (www.teachmeit.com) is a leading US-based online IT course provider. It offers over 280 skill-building courses in several technologies, ranging from desktop application essentials and the basics of graphics software, to topics such as Website development, database administration, and object-oriented programming.

Resource Management Using Microsoft Project

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Resource Management using Microsoft Project

Management of resources is a key aspect of project management. Microsoft Project is able to assist in the complex issue of managing resources by tracking their progress, highlighting allocation issues and relating all this information to the overall status of the project.

Defining resources

In simple terms, resources can be separated into three groups: work, material and cost. A work resource is anyone or anything that works on a task and is tracked according to time spent. A material resource refers to things that are consumed by a task. Microsoft Project assumes that material resources are available in unlimited supplies. Cost resources refer to ancillary costs that are not directly associated with work and materials, such as expenses. When inputting resource data into Microsoft Project, there are several other resource categories to consider. Enterprise resources refer to those resources at the disposal of an organisation and can therefore be used in multiple projects. Non-enterprise resources, or local resources, are only available for use within a specific project. Generic resources are used to identify specific skills that are required for a project when the specific details of the resource are as yet unknown.

Assigning Resources

Microsoft Project offers two methods for entering resource data directly: the Resource Sheet or the Resource Information dialog box. The next step is to assign resources to a specific task. The benefit of this step is that it is possible to see how long it will take to complete a task, how much it will cost and who is responsible for completing that task. One resource can be assigned to several different tasks and one task can be assigned several different resources. Microsoft Project is able to estimate the duration of a task based on the availability of each resource. If additional resources are assigned to a particular task, Microsoft Project can calculate how much less time is required for task completion. This is referred to as effort-driven scheduling and is the default option. There are occasions where it is not appropriate to use effort-driven scheduling for a task. For example, a meeting will take the same amount of time to complete (as long as it stays focussed) regardless of the number of individuals attending.

Resource Allocation Problems

It is important to ensure that all resources have been appropriately assigned to tasks to ensure a successful outcome. Microsoft Project provides several ways of doing this. By looking at the Resource Sheet it is possible to identify whether resources have been under allocated or over allocated for a specific time period. An alternative way of seeing the same information but in a graphical format is to select the Resource Graph option.

By attending Microsoft Project training it is possible to gain a deeper understanding of the complexities of resource allocation and how best to use this software to achieve successful outcomes.

Suzanne Mullet is a freelance copywriter. For more information on ms-project-training, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net

Valleyspeak Project Server as a Microsoft Project Viewer

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Introduction

Sharing Microsoft Project schedules with team members is a huge challenge for Project Managers. Since Microsoft Project licenses are costly and most team members use only a small subset of the functionality of Microsoft Project, using an Microsoft Project MPP file viewer is a possible cost saving measure.

ValleySpeak Project Server can be used as a Microsoft Project viewer and more. Not only can the team members see Microsoft Project schedules, but also they can submit updates for their tasks on the schedules. This allows the Project Manager to get real-time feedback about task status from their teams while still allowing the Project Managers 100% control to approve or disapprove the changes submitted by the team.

Most Microsoft Project viewers only allow the team members to read the project schedule, but not to give real time updates back to the Project Manager. In most cases where such read-only viewers are used, the Project Managers and Team Members have to rely on unstructured emails to communicate status to the Project Manager.


Microsoft Project Viewers Versus ValleySpeak Project Server


Microsoft Project Viewers

  • Read-Only view for Team Members with no real-time status reporting from the team members back to the Project Managers.

  • Generally require setup since each team member must install a separate instance. Creating associated headaches of maintenance and upgrades.

  • Customers are locked into the Vendor once a perpetual software licenses are purchased

  • Usually charge extra for upgrades and software maintenance

  • Generally support single projects which can only be viewed one at a time

ValleySpeak Project Server


  • Project Managers and Team Members can have structured two-way interaction in real-time

  • Provides comprehensive features like Issue Tracking, Risk Management, Document Management which are essential professionally manage a project.

  • Free and automatic upgrades so that you are always using the latest and greatest features

  • Hassle free Pay as you grow model, free of large upfront costs

  • View and operate on unlimited projects at the same time.

  • Option to migrate out with your data anytime, your data on resides on your desktop and is under your control at all times

  • Web Based with support for all major browsers for team members

Conclusion


Although Microsoft Project Viewers do help in one-way communication between Project Managers and Team Members, such viewers do not provide the essential tools for two-way structured communication. Customers using such viewers quickly come to realize the limitations of one-way communication.

ValleySpeak Project Server on the other hand provides two-way communication in real-time between Project Managers and Team Members with powerful additional tools to track project issues and risks, all the while keeping the hassle of managing software away from the users.

Anna Smith is a Project management Expert and a leading thought leader in Project Management Industry. She has 10+ years of experience of implementing Project Management Office and advising strategies for small and medium businesses.

Overview of Microsoft Project Server

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What is Microsoft Project Server 2003?

Microsoft Project Server 2003 can be used as a tool to facilitate collaboration between the project manager, the team and the system administrator. In combination with Web Access which supports electronic communication via the internet, Microsoft Project Server 2003 extends the applications of Microsoft Project. It stores all project information in a secure, central database; access to which is controlled by a system administrator.

How can it assist project managers?

Good communication is a key aspect of project management. Microsoft Project Server 2003 enables important information to be communicated and shared, easily and efficiently between all members of the team. As a result, the project management team can make decisions based on up-to-date information. Furthermore, information can be shared in a secure way because of the security controls incorporated into the software. It is particularly useful for organizations which operate on a global scale and have centralized resource management or require standardization between projects. It has the potential to encourage more efficient use of resources by enabling analysis of resource workloads to take place.

What are the benefits of using Microsoft Project Server?

By supporting communication between project team members, Microsoft Project Server facilitates the decision making process and is thereby able to increase the likelihood of a successful outcome. As many issues can be handled via on-line communication, the need for face to face meetings is reduced thereby saving precious time. Regardless of where different members of the project team are based, communication is facilitated by Microsoft Project Server as long as all parties have access to the internet. Individuals can therefore respond quickly to changes and are more likely to complete their tasks on time.

Microsoft Project Server can also assist in the management of resources. As all data is contained in one location, it is possible to assess the efficiency of resource allocation and keep track of the current workload more easily. This is particularly important for organisations which have a central resource pool and need to forecast the short-term and long-term requirements of various projects.

Implementation requirements

For successful implementation of Microsoft Project Server 2003 to take place, it is important that the system administrator has a clear understanding of the system. Once the system has been installed, it must be managed appropriately to ensure that the flow of information can proceed smoothly. The project team as a whole will require training to ensure that they are able to use the software effectively. Microsoft Project Server 2003 training is available in a variety of formats and can be arranged in a way that best suits the structure of your organisation.

Suzanne Mullet is a freelance copywriter. For more information on 2003 microsoft project server, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net

Microsoft Project Accessibility

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Over 8 million people in the UK are registered as disabled. Many of these people find using a computer to be a challenge. Microsoft have added a range of accessibility features to Office 2007, including Microsoft Project, that enable disabled people to use their applications easily.


However these features are not only of use to the disabled. Many users that don’t have a disability also find some of these features useful, as they can make using Microsoft Project more comfortable to use. Attending a Project training course can help you get the most out of Microsoft Projects accessibility options.


Many accessibility features are built in to Microsoft Project and they do not require any special accessibility aids to use but unless you’ve been on one of the Microsoft Project training courses that are out there it is likely that you may miss some of the features available. This article aims to provide a little guidance to improving accessibility in Microsoft Project for those that have not been on a Project course.


One of the simplest ways to improve accessibility in Microsoft Project is to increase the magnification of a project to make information on the screen easier to read. This can be done by scaling views and reports, zooming the screen display or adjusting the timescale. The size of the toolbar and toolbar buttons can also be adjusted so that they are easier to see and use.


Another way to make reading text in Microsoft Project easier is to change text and background colours. You may find that higher contrast between text and background improves legibility.


It is also possible to change the appearance of views. The appearance of bars, boxes, link lines and text can all be changed in a view, you may apply formatting directly to any selection to make your Gantt chart view appear exactly how you want it to. The formatting toolbar allows you to enlarge field text and also to make it bold, italic, or underlined. You can change the appearance of a Gantt bar simply by double-clicking on it and then selecting the desired look. Additionally you can easily format the Gantt chart by using Microsoft Projects Gantt chart wizard.


Even those that have been on Microsoft Project training may not be aware of the additional accessibility features that are native to windows. These can also be useful in improving usability of Microsoft Project for those who have difficulty typing or using a mouse, that are blind or have poor vision, or who are deaf or hard of hearing. Windows accessibility features are installed during Windows set up and can be changed at any time via the windows control panel, these options are found under accessibility options.

Author is a freelance copywriter, wiring on behalf of Best Software Training London.


Best Software Training London specialise in training Microsoft Project 2003 and 2007 as well as 2002, 2000 and 98. For more information on Microsoft Projects training please visit the Microsoft Projects courses section of our website.

Microsoft Project Training – where do I start?

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Non users know it might be handy for drawing project schedules – but make do with an Excel imitation and fail to appreciate the powerful planning and tracking functionality.

As project management becomes a core methodology underpinning most modern organisations it is time for companies and individuals to learn just how much more effective they could be by using Microsoft Project, alongside other everyday tools such as Word and PowerPoint.

This Guide explains the range of training options that are available.

1. Microsoft Project Training – Where do I Start?

There is no simple answer! It depends very much on your current familiarity with projects and project management software tools. You also need to take into account the skill sets that you are looking to achieve. Visit the MS Project Training Page on the Focus website for more information.

Basic Awareness – You want to be able to set up project timelines using Microsoft Project and understand the basic tracking and reporting functionality – If you are starting from scratch we would recommend a 2 day Introductory (Level 1) course. – If you already have some familiarity with the software (perhaps from an earlier release) then a 1 day course would be appropriate – If you are totally new to a project environment then introductory project management training may be a useful start point. This will help you to understand project organisation and timelines

Advanced User

 Certified Professional

The content of these courses is explained in the following sections.

 2. Introductory Courses – Level 1

If you need to understand how to build and manage project plans, an Introduction, or “Level 1″, course in Microsoft Project will get you started. Courses cover the essential skills necessary to create and modify a project plan including tasks and resources. The emphasis will be on creating the initial plan. There are versions of these training courses tailored to align with both 2003 and 2007 releases of Microsoft Project. • Build and edit a project plan • Create and assign resources • Manage project costs • Track progress • Filter and print project plans • Communicate your plans • Produce reports

There are options of one or two day courses depending upon your previous knowledge and experience. The one day course assumes basic awareness of projects and project planning – perhaps from an earlier version of Microsoft Project.

If you are completely new to project management you will find it beneficial to attend a general project management introduction course first.

Please check the different training course outlines which may have a slightly different content. The Level 1 training is not accredited by Microsoft or associated with an exam. However, all Focus courses are developed and delivered by Microsoft partner companies with a deep knowledge of the subject.

 3. Advanced Courses – Level 2

Advanced or “Level 2″ Microsoft Project training courses are designed for existing MS Project users who want to add to their basic skills. They will also benefit Project Managers wishing to learn how to customise Microsoft Project to their own specific requirements. You will learn to use advanced features to plan, track and analyse variances from plan. The emphasis is on how you work with a plan in the implementation phase.

• Resolve resource over-allocations • Manage multiple projects • Integrate MS Project with other Office applications • Customise the MS Project interface (fields, tables, views, filters and reports) • Record and run simple macros • Exchange project plan data with other applications including Excel & Word • Create and print custom reports • Import data • Track project progress

There are versions of these training courses tailored to align with both 2003 and 2007 releases of Microsoft Project. There are also options of one or two day courses depending upon your previous knowledge and experience.

Please check the different training course outlines which may have slightly different course content.

The Level 2 training is not accredited by Microsoft or associated with an exam. However, all Focus courses are developed and delivered by Microsoft partner companies with a deep knowledge of the subject.

 4. Microsoft Certified Training & Qualifications

Microsoft operates a comprehensive structure of internationally recognised certifications. Project 2007 skills have recently been incorporated into the MCTS (Certified Technology Specialist) and MCITP (Certified IT Professional) framework.

The MS5927 “Managing Projects” course is a 3 day course which provides the entry point for the other Project 2007 training. A basic knowledge of project management and experience of using MS Project to create project schedules are pre-requisites.

5. Specialist Courses

For those looking to apply Microsoft Project to specific environments there are other specialist courses available. Amongst them is one which relates specially to use of Microsoft Project to manage PRINCE2TM projects. This covers similar topics to the Level 1 course but includes guidance on how to model PRINCE2 TM processes within MS Project.

– If you need certification or you require the expertise to deploy Microsoft Project in an enterprise environment then follow the official Microsoft courses – These will prepare you to take the relevant Microsoft exam – You already know how to set up a project but you want to be confident in using Microsoft Project to update plans, produce custom reports and interface effectively with other programmes – You have probably already been on a Level 1 course and should now choose an Advanced (Level 2) course – Depending on your level of existing knowledge choose a 1 or 2 day course

Steve Twine is founder and Managing Director of Focus on Project Management. Focus is a fast growing training organisation that specialises in project management. Focus works in association with most of the leading accredited providers of ITIL, PRINCE2, APM and PMI training.Find Microsoft Project training at Focus on Training