How To Create A Project Plan in Microsoft Project
How To Create A Project Plan in Microsoft Project
How To Create A Project Plan in Microsoft Project
Project
You know, Microsoft Project is one of THE best tools for project management. If you intend to
be a project manager, you'd better get acquainted with Microsoft Project. In fact, it's considered
the industry standard in terms of project management software.
When I started out in project management, one of the first things I had to learn was to create a
project plan in Microsoft Project. Now, as with any software program, you can spend months or
even years trying to navigate every nook and cranny inside.
I decided I wanted to learn the basics of Microsoft Project quickly and pick up just the skills I
need to deliver a simple, functional project plan.
The truth is, you really don't need all the bells and whistles (e.g. resource optimization, complex
reports and scripts) in order to make a project plan. It's just like Microsoft Word - do you need to
know every single function in it to produce a good document? No.
So till this day, I can run large projects and create solid project plans knowing only about 40% of
the functionality in Microsoft Project.
In this article, I want to show you the minimal steps you need to create a project plan in
Microsoft Project.
Project Preparation
Project Kick-Off
Functional Specifications
Development
Testing
Deployment
As you can see, there are six stages in the project (with underlying tasks which I've not shown)
and each of these need to be keyed into Microsoft Project.
6. Assign Durations
Next up, you should assign durations to each task you've entered. Think about how many days
that task would take if one person did it (in project management parlance, these are termed "mandays") did it. Key that into the duration column in Microsoft Project.
Tip: If the Duration column cannot be seen, right click on the column headers and choose to
include the Duration column.
7. Assign Resources
We next have to assign resources for each of the tasks.
Key in the name of the resource (i.e. person) doing each task under the Resources column as
shown below.
Now, there's a whole lot to be said about task durations and resource allocation (e.g. a task
lasting 10 man-days would last only 5 man-days if done by 2 persons instead of one). But that's
the topic of another article. For now let's assume, we have only one person doing it.
You can also use syntax like "SF + 5m" to mean a task starts only after its predecessor's end date
PLUS 5 working MONTHS.
One of the C-level guys made a snide remark "Hey, an old man like me can't read the small fonts
on your project plan".
That taught me a lesson. When placing your Gantt Chart on Powerpoint slides, always
aggregate things up. DON'T show the lowest level of task details to your audience, especially if
they are senior executives.
In fact, the best thing to do is to draw up a few bars in Powerpoint summarizing the high-level
durations and milestones in your plan. That's all the senior executives really need.
Wrapping Up ...
Alrighty then! I hope the above has given you some great insight into creating a simple,
functional project plan in Microsoft Project. I suggest you start with simple project plans and
learn advanced functionalities later.
In fact, my opinion is that most of the time, all you need is a simple plan. If you rely too much on
advanced functionalities, you're probably overcooking or over analyzing things.
So until next time, good luck with your project plan!