Dumbing down MS Project

[Phillip Armitage]

Our office uses MS Project solely for the preparation of presentation GANTT
Charts. That is, once the chart is created, printed out and presented in one
form another it is never refered to in its electronic form again.

When our PM's are putting together a schedule they come up with a list of
tasks, they identify the days they want each task to start and end on, and
that's it. If they feel a particular task should have a duration, they will
refer to a calendar or daytimer to figure out for themselves when the end
date should be.

Is it possible to modify the default settings for MS Project (2002) so that
as I add or modify tasks that I only need enter the start and end dates.
Right now, if I have any task linking going on, I run into situations where
I can't get the end date I desire without playing with a duration value.

Gets really annoying.

Comments? Suggestions?

 

[snetzky]

I would use Visio for this kind of thing instead of Project. Visio
will let you do these things without having to fight with Project
trying to help you "too much".

Just curious, how big are your projects?

 

[davegb]

Our office uses MS Project solely for the preparation of presentation GANTT
Charts. That is, once the chart is created, printed out and presented in one
form another it is never refered to in its electronic form again.

When our PM's are putting together a schedule they come up with a list of
tasks, they identify the days they want each task to start and end on, and
that's it. If they feel a particular task should have a duration, they will
refer to a calendar or daytimer to figure out for themselves when the end
date should be.

Is it possible to modify the default settings for MS Project (2002) so that
as I add or modify tasks that I only need enter the start and end dates.
Right now, if I have any task linking going on, I run into situations where
I can't get the end date I desire without playing with a duration value.

Gets really annoying.

Comments? Suggestions?

Comment: Hammers make lousy screwdrivers. Screwdrivers make lousy
hammers.
Project is intended primarily for Critical Path Method scheduling,
where the estimated duration for each task is entered and the
dependencies between those tasks are entered, and it does the rest.
Dates should only be entered when absolutely necessary. The less the
better for CPM scheduling.
That being said, it can be used for Date driven or event based
scheduling. Just enter start and finish dates for each task. Ignore
dependencies. Of course, every time a task slips, you have to estimate
what the impact would be on other tasks. And none of us is that good!
And it becomes highly subjective, especially in the face of pressure to
meet an end date. Some years ago, a VP of a client company told me he
was tired "of having so many one hundred day projects until day 99". He
didn't like finding out the day before the due date that the project
was going to be late. Date driven scheduling leads directly to this
phenomenon.
The worst of all possible worlds occurs when you mix the two models.
You've lost most of the advantages of both. It's no longer simple and
intuitive, like date driven, and it's not nearly as objective as CPM
forces you to be. It mostly creates unending frustration and late
projects.
My advice is to choose whichever method you think will work best for
your organization, but not to continue with both. You'll just continue
to experience what you're experiencing. You and your colleagues will be
better off if you choose date driven or dependency driven scheduling,
and stick with it. Date driven won't give you much in terms of meeting
end dates, but it won't be so frustrating while you're doing the
project. And it will take a lot less time to implement in Project.
If you choose to do CPM scheduling, learn it! Take a class or read a
book or hire a consultant and start to apply it, a little at a time.
There is definitely a learning curve here. Once you get the hang of it,
you'll wonder how you ever did without it. It's a very powerful tool!
Hope this helps in your world.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

davegb --

Eloquent explanation and good advice, my friend!

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

Our office uses MS Project solely for the preparation of presentation GANTT
Charts. That is, once the chart is created, printed out and presented in
one
form another it is never refered to in its electronic form again.

When our PM's are putting together a schedule they come up with a list of
tasks, they identify the days they want each task to start and end on, and
that's it. If they feel a particular task should have a duration, they will
refer to a calendar or daytimer to figure out for themselves when the end
date should be.

Is it possible to modify the default settings for MS Project (2002) so that
as I add or modify tasks that I only need enter the start and end dates.
Right now, if I have any task linking going on, I run into situations where
I can't get the end date I desire without playing with a duration value.

Gets really annoying.

Comments? Suggestions?

www.kidasa.com maks a tool called Milestones that is basically a Gantt
Charting tool that you might want to look at.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

I have to ask - why are you spending thousands of dollars for software and
hardware plus all the time it takes to circumvent its designed way of
working in order to accomplish what could be done just as well with a wall
calendar and box of Magic Markers costing less than ten bucks??? Why hunt
flies with an elephant gun?

Project schedules can't just be plucked out of thin air with dates set based
on wishful thinking - project management is not a simple exercise of
will-power, grit, and determination. Do-able schedules have to be computed
based on real-world factors such as the amount of work that is must be done
in order to produce the project's deliverables, the number of resources
available to do that work, and the rate at which those resources can finish
the work. If a painter can do 100 square feet a day with an acceptable
level of quality and you have to paint 1000 square feet, it will take 10
days and it just doesn't matter that you might want or even desperately NEED
it to be done in 5 - with one painter it will take 10, period, engraved in
granite, end of story. That's why "identify(ing) the days they want each
task to start and end" and "playing with duration to get the dates I want"
is a recipe for total disaster. A projject plan is not a list of the dates
you want, it's a schedule of the dates you can reasonably expect to get,
totally different from your desires or needs.

Project isn't a drawing tool, it's a scheduling tool. You don't tell it the
schedule you want or you think you can achieve. You tell it what you need
to do and what resources you have to do it with and it tell YOU the optimum
schedule you can have. It's a reality check telling you whether you can
achieve the schedule you want with what you have or have to figure out how
to acquire more resources, etc, in order to meet your deadlines.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Drawings on a wall are not as handy and by far not as convincing as MS
Project charts.
That doesn't mean I support the idea of calculating everything manually and
then enter it (still, many people "good users" do that in terms of resource
leveling) but to say that Project has no value in that case I don't support.
And some companies have such wide overall licences that one Project user
costs as good as nothing.

 

[davegb]

Drawings on a wall are not as handy and by far not as convincing as MS
Project charts.
That doesn't mean I support the idea of calculating everything manually and
then enter it (still, many people "good users" do that in terms of resource
leveling) but to say that Project has no value in that case I don't support.
And some companies have such wide overall licences that one Project user
costs as good as nothing.

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/
+32-495-300 620

I think Project is often used to "legitimize" fantasy schedules. In my
personal experience, there are a lot of managers out there who want to
be able to determine deadlines by edict, and don't want to be told that
those deadlines may not be realistic. One way to convince themselves
and others that their schedules are legitimate is to put them in
Project. A neatly printed Gantt seems more legitimate to the
uninitiated than one done with $10 worth of marking pens.
Of course, these managers are irate when their fantasy schedules aren't
met, over and over and over. Makes you wonder, maybe they like being
irate as much as they like setting schedules by edict?
These types of managers are not usually given to converting over to a
more objective method of scheduling. I don't waste much time with them.

 

[davegb]

Drawings on a wall are not as handy and by far not as convincing as MS
Project charts.
That doesn't mean I support the idea of calculating everything manually and
then enter it (still, many people "good users" do that in terms of resource
leveling) but to say that Project has no value in that case I don't support.
And some companies have such wide overall licences that one Project user
costs as good as nothing.

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/
+32-495-300 620

I think Project is often used to "legitimize" fantasy schedules. In my
personal experience, there are a lot of managers out there who want to
be able to determine deadlines by edict, and don't want to be told that
those deadlines may not be realistic. One way to convince themselves
and others that their schedules are legitimate is to put them in
Project. A neatly printed Gantt seems more legitimate to the
uninitiated than one done with $10 worth of marking pens.
Of course, these managers are irate when their fantasy schedules aren't
met, over and over and over. Makes you wonder, maybe they like being
irate as much as they like setting schedules by edict?
These types of managers are not usually given to converting over to a
more objective method of scheduling. I don't waste much time with them.

 

[snetzky]

This has been my experience as well. I worked as the scheduling
support resource for a large ERM project at a former employer. We
brought in some fairly high priced talent to set up the schedule. All
of them were Project users, except they didn't bother to use the
scheduling piece, but did everything manually, just like I suspect most
people do when starting with Project.

We were using a different tool, but a large part of my time was spent
explaining to them why their schedule was showing that they wouldn't be
done when they thought they would, because the schedule tool was
working correctly.

Which leads me to the basic problem with Project (and Access, for that
matter) Both tools make it too darn easy to think you're actually
accomplishing useful work when what you are really doing is generating
the equivelant of a congregation in a nunnery. ( a cloister flock)

Oh well, we can't require people to take IQ tests before using software
just like we can't make them take IQ tests before voting. Both are
relatively easy, but the results can wreak a great deal of havoc. Look
what's happened in the last 8 years here in the States.

Larry

 

[davegb]

Sorry about the double post, I accidentally hit the Post button twice!

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Exactly! And then the PMs with those fantasy Gantt charts try to use them
to track progress on the project and the whole thing goes down the toilet.