Project - File for each project or File for each person on project

A

Alex Zimmerhaven

Hi everyone. Thank you in advance to the MVP's who answer all the questions.
You guys are truly awesome!

Here's what's going on:

We wanted to use Project to track the status of our projects as well as to
see the progress done by the person. I can't decide if we should take the
approach of a file for each project we work on or a file for each person
working on a project. Do I make sense?

Thanks,
Alex
 
J

John

Alex Zimmerhaven said:
Hi everyone. Thank you in advance to the MVP's who answer all the questions.
You guys are truly awesome!

Here's what's going on:

We wanted to use Project to track the status of our projects as well as to
see the progress done by the person. I can't decide if we should take the
approach of a file for each project we work on or a file for each person
working on a project. Do I make sense?

Thanks,
Alex

Alex,
It's not a black and white answer. Either way may make more sense under
the right circumstances.

Let's say you have a large development project with many different tasks
performed by resources in many different organizations. It probably
makes sense to break down the large project into several separate
project parts broken down along functional or WBS structures. Resources
working on each of the project parts may or may not be constant. Perhaps
there is an engineering staff in the functional group that will utilize
several individuals to perform various tasks within each project part.
This approach tracks individual and/or functional performance on a given
part of the overall project. A master file can be created to pull all
the individual files together for a top level look at the total project.
One advantage of breaking a large project into several smaller projects
is that each small project can be directly managed by a cost account
manager who then has responsibility and ownership of his/her piece of
the total project.

If the overall project is small to medium, and those designations are
very loose, a better approach might be to create one file for the whole
project. You can still track individual or functional performance using
Project's various filtering and grouping functions. This type of file
structure does not lend itself to direct managing by individual cost
account managers - generally a single individual must manage and track
the one large schedule.

But probably the best method is to create a WBS that tracks with your
corporate financial system. Then, whether the overall project is
contained in a single large file or multiple small files, the structure
is in place to track performance consistent with company and contract
needs.

The bottom line, it's at toss-up. It all depends on how you want to
manage/track your projects. My personal choice is that if a project has
more than a couple thousand performance tasks, it should be broken down
into multiple individual projects with a consolidated master as the
overall project file.

Hope this helps.

John
Project MVP
 
A

Alex Zimmerhaven

John,

You are a lifesaver! Thank you, thank you, for your extensive and detailed
response to the question. This is exactly what was needed to answer the
question. I know you MVP's answer questions without receiving pay, so I want
you to know that all of your time and energy is much, much appreciated.
You've made my day!

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to help here. Have a
good rest of the day.

-Alex
 
J

John

Alex Zimmerhaven said:
John,

You are a lifesaver! Thank you, thank you, for your extensive and detailed
response to the question. This is exactly what was needed to answer the
question. I know you MVP's answer questions without receiving pay, so I want
you to know that all of your time and energy is much, much appreciated.
You've made my day!

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to help here. Have a
good rest of the day.

-Alex

Alex,
Wow! You're laying it on kinda thick, but I'll take it as a compliment.
You're welcome and thanks for the feedback.
John
 
A

Alex Zimmerhaven

John,

I don't think I'm laying it on kinda thick at all. These newsgroups have
been my savior many a time. I get MS Office questions all day long from my
users. Without these newsgroups, I would never have been able to answer them.

I don't think you guys know what an awesome, free service you are providing.
With sites like "Experts Exchange" switching to a fee based model, these
newsgroups are invaluable.

When you provide an answer such as you have for me, you impact the job I do.
With these answers I can be more effective with my users. It makes me look
good! You are directly impacting the work I do.

Anyway, I just want you to know that what you do is very important to me
(and many others) and helps me immensely. These groups are essential to what
I do!

Thank you again!

-Alex
 
J

John

Alex Zimmerhaven said:
John,

I don't think I'm laying it on kinda thick at all. These newsgroups have
been my savior many a time. I get MS Office questions all day long from my
users. Without these newsgroups, I would never have been able to answer
them.

I don't think you guys know what an awesome, free service you are providing.
With sites like "Experts Exchange" switching to a fee based model, these
newsgroups are invaluable.

When you provide an answer such as you have for me, you impact the job I do.
With these answers I can be more effective with my users. It makes me look
good! You are directly impacting the work I do.

Anyway, I just want you to know that what you do is very important to me
(and many others) and helps me immensely. These groups are essential to what
I do!

Thank you again!

-Alex
Alex,
Well you're very welcome again - and thanks for the extended feedback.
John
 

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