Ways to avoid the Biggest Mistake in MS Project

Ms Project is actually used widely by project managers right across the Globe, but many are not aware the traps they can be dropping into when training theirselves.

The most typical of these is the practice of entering start as well as times for tasks. It is easy to understand why PMs fall into this specific trap as just one glance at the 'Task Sheet' appears to suggest that this is exactly must be done. There is a column for both start and finish dates and usually the assumption would be that seeing that tasks have to be scheduled, these would have to be manually keyed in. The reality is, entering dates into these fields results in what Microsoft Project refers to as a 'constraint'. A constraint prevents a task from automatically rescheduling should it be impacted by another task and whilst on occasion this could be desirable, it's going to take away a great deal of the applications flexibility.

The correct way to define start and finish dates is by setting up 'dependencies' in between tasks. Dependencies permit us to schedule tasks dependent upon the relationships w between them within the project. For instance, if we have got a task which will be to lay down foundations for a building and the another which is to build the walls, the walls have to be constructed when the foundations have been finished. The connection between the two of these tasks specifically what MS Project describes as 'Finish to Start'. Put simply, the second task cannot start until the first task has finished. Organizing tasks in this specific way would make sure that the program remains adaptable and it is totally free to move should we experience a deviation from our original project.

You are able to 4 dependency choices: Finish to Start, Start to Start, Finish to Finish & Start to Finish. Using these sorts of linkages in combination within the project you can easily schedule tasks to start and end precisely on time and leave us with the choice to reschedule should the need arise. To create task dependencies, double click a task name to open the information window. Pick the 'Predecessors' tab after which type the ID of the task you wish to link back to (be aware that we always link back to a earlier task). The dependency type can now be chosen by clicking within the 'Type' field and selecting within the menu.

Microsoft Project is a very adaptive scheduling program if it's used in the right way. By taking care to link your tasks through the proper choice of dependency, you will definitely ensure that you get the best from what the application can give.

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