After you create a task list and assign resources to tasks, your plan contains a large number of details. Some of these details will be critical to the success of your plan, but they might not be visible in the view you have displayed. This section illustrates several ways of seeing a plan’s key indicators.
There are many ways you can see key indicators of a plan in Project, which you’ll explore next. These indicators can help answer such questions as the following:
Who is assigned to do what work in the plan?
How long will it take to complete the project?
How much will it cost?
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For many projects, the answers to these questions are likely to change as time passes. For this reason, it’s a good practice to quickly be able to show current project status. This can inform you, as the project manager, of the resources performing the work, as well as the project’s sponsors and other stakeholders.
The scenario: At Lucerne Publishing, you established a weekly status reporting cadence for those directly working on the new book launch project. In addition, you’ve been asked to supply monthly updates on a few key indicators of overall project health more broadly to the organization. You’re ready to explore some of the project status features in Project and evaluate them for your regular status reporting routine.
In this exercise, you explore various project status-reporting features, including views and reports.
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To begin, you will show the Timeline view. On the tab, in the group, select the check box.in the project summary task in the Gantt Chart view. Recall from Chapter 4 that the project summary task is hidden by default, but you previously displayed it. It is
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If necessary, scroll the Gantt Chart view up so that task 0 is visible.Note the duration value of the project summary task: 36 days. You can also see the
At the start of this chapter, the plan’s duration was 41 days. This shorter duration you see now is the result of assignment changes you made earlier.
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Both the Timeline view and the project summary task in the Gantt Chart view are can incorporate these views into your status reporting needs. Next you’ll look at project costs.
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On the tab, in the Data group, click , and then click Cost.The Cost table appears, replacing the Entry table.
The Cost table includes various cost values for each subtask. These subtask cost values roll up to their summary tasks, and ultimately all cost values roll up to the project summary task.
Note the project summary task’s total cost value: $19,740. This cost value is the sum of the work-resource assignments plus the one cost resource assignment you previously made.
Next you will look at some assignment values via a report.
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On the tab, in the group, click and then click.
The Resource Overview report appears.
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In this report, you can see two charts and one table that contain resource-assignment details. You might need to vertically scroll the report down to see all of its content.
In the Resource Stats chart in the upper left, note the assigned work values for each resource. Currently, the chart contains only remaining work values because you have not yet saved a baseline or reported any actual work. You will do so in Chapter 8,
“Tracking progress.”
The Resource Status table at the bottom of the report is an excellent summary of as remaining work.
Later when you begin to track progress in the plan, this report will be an excellent means of sharing resource and work status.
To conclude this exercise, you’ll revisit the project’s overall duration and cost values in the Project Statistics dialog box.
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On the tab, in the group, click , and then click.
Here, again, you see the shorter duration and changed cost and work values.
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Click .CLEAN UP
Key points
In Project, a task normally has work associated with it after a work resource (which can be people or equipment) has been assigned to the task.
You must assign resources to tasks before you can track the progress or cost of resources.
Project follows the scheduling formula Duration × Assignment Units = Work.
Effort-driven scheduling determines whether work remains constant when you assign additional resources to tasks. Effort-driven scheduling is turned off by default.
The easiest way to understand effort-driven scheduling is to ask yourself this
question: If one person can do this task in 10 days, could two people do it in 5 days?
If so, effort-driven scheduling should be applied to the task.
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Actions lists appear after you perform certain actions in Project, such as assigning additional resources to a task. You can use Actions lists to quickly change the effect of your action to something other than the default effect.
costs derived from work or material resources.
Use the Project Statistics dialog box to see key indicators such as a plan’s start and
Chapter at a glance
Customize
Change the appearance of views, page 126.
Modify
Customize the appearance of reports, page 136.
Copy
Take a snapshot copy of views and reports, page 139.
Set print options to get the output you want, page 144.
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IN THIS CHAPTER, YOU WILL LEARN HOW TO
Customize a Gantt chart view.
Customize the Timeline view.
Customize a report.
Copy snapshots of views and reports to another application.
Print views and reports.
Project provides a number of ways to change how your data appears when you need to copy or print a plan.
In some respects, a Microsoft Project 2013 plan is really a database of information, not time. Instead, you focus on the aspect of the plan you’re currently interested in viewing.
Views and reports are the most common ways to observe or print a plan’s data. In both cases, you can substantially format the data to meet your needs.
In previous chapters, you used views to capture and visualize schedule details. Another means of visualizing your schedule is the Reports feature. Project 2013 has greatly en-hanced reports. You can create graphical reports within Project rather than exporting the Project data to another program. You can include colorful charts and images as well as tables in your reports. Project includes many reports you can use as-is or customize, or you can create your own unique report. You can print reports or copy them to other applications.
TIP This chapter introduces you to some of the simpler view and report formatting features in Chapter 13, “Organizing project details,” Chapter 17, “Applying advanced formatting and printing,” Chapter 18, “Advanced report formatting,” and Appendix C, “Collaborating:
Project, SharePoint, and PWA.”