Dynamic Scheduling With Microsoft(r) Project 2000 : The Book By and For Professionals [Paperback]

Eric Uyttewaal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 2001

Many organizations create nice charts with Project 2000. Few, however, create dynamic models to manage their projects. Dynamic models are easy to maintain and will continue to forecast the project until it ends. In this book, author Eric Uyttewaal describes the guidelines for making a dynamic schedule of your project. He makes valuable recommendations, which features to use, and how to use them - the best practices of scheduling. The summary of the book provides a checklist for good schedules. The book comes with a CD-ROM with many examples of schedules for a wide variety of projects.

§Provides the skills and insights to deliver projects successfully using MS Project 2000
§Includes insights from those who have managed projects successfully using MS Project 2000
§Teaches how to build dynamic, easy-to-maintain project models
§Provides a checklist for good models of your project
§Valuable for project offices that create scheduling guidelines
§Based on the cumulative experience of students, instructors and the author
§Learn today and be up to speed tomorrow with Project 2000
§Shows you the inner workings of Project 2000
§Explains why, when and how to use Project 2000 features
§Many helpful illustrations, stories, cartoons, hands-on exercises and recommendations
§Fully aligned with the PMBOK® 2000 edition
§Includes a CD-ROM with exercise files and real-life schedules

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Finally we have a book on MS Project written by a Project Management Professional” – Dr. Harold Kerzner -- Dr. Harold Kerzner, author, consultant, teacher

From the Publisher

This book will convince you that project management can be done more effectively using software. The book is proof that project management can be made simpler using MS Project 2000. A must-have for project management professionals and project team members.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 555 pages
• Publisher: Intl Inst for Learning (June 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970827601
• ISBN-13: 978-0970827609
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,630,011 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you manage projects - GET THIS BOOK!, November 27, 2002

By 

L. Darbonne (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Dynamic Scheduling With Microsoft(r) Project 2000 : The Book By and For Professionals (Paperback)

I was searching through bookstores and Amazon.com for a good book on how to best use Microsoft Project. There are a ton of books out there that teach you Microsoft Project, and I own two of them (Mastering Project 2000 and Project 2000 Step-by-Step). These books are great at describing features, but you can also get that information with the Help files.

For anyone who has used Microsoft Project can tell you, there are several ways to set up the application, some of which is helpful, and some of which can have you very frustrated.

What I wanted was not a description of all the features, but how to best set up Microsoft Project. I stumbled on this book on Amazon.com, and it proclaimed to be the book I needed.

I was not disappointed. The author draws upon his years of experience in developing and managing with Microsoft Project and leading the Microsoft Project department at the International Institue for Learning (IIL), upon the lessons from the many other instructors, and from his students. Being able to learn from others mistakes and tips is worth the price of the book alone.

The author's stated objectives in setting up Microsoft Project are to:
- allow the schedule to be dynamic, so that when reality comes, as it will do several times during a project, then the schedule will dynamically adjust to reflect the future
- need as little care and feeding throughout the life of the project as possible, so you can spend your time managing the project, not in front of a computer trying to update the status and plan the future (when you don't have the time).

The author walks you through step-by-step on how to set up Microsoft Project to achieve those two goals. He discusses:
- the best settings for the project's properties
- how to properly establish a work breakdown structure (WBS) and describe its elements in the project tasks
- what variables need to be visible on the Gantt data entry chart to watch how Microsoft Project will alter variables
- a complete discussion of the Scheduling Formula
- descriptions of Fixed Work, Fixed Duration, and Fixed Resources, and the concept that a task does not remain as one of these, but should be changed to control how Microsoft Project will react to replanning
- when to use constraints, deadlines, and milestones, and how to add constraints so you aren't held responsible for the impact of other organizations not fulfilling their commitments
- assigning responsibilities
- how to title resources
- when resources can be "pooled"
- how to optimize the schedule (whether for time only, time and cost, or for time, cost and resources through the use of a Resource-Critical Path - aka Critical Chain)
- the use of Monte Carlo simulations
- how to handle (and possibly hide) project buffers in a schedule
- the use of one-page reports (always!)
- establishing baselines
- tracking progress (the six basic situations and how to indicate them) and updating projections and assignments (through workgroup features or manually).

The author also describes three "hazards" with Microsoft Project, namely facility and machinery costs, gross work time vs. dedicated work time, and the use of the Effort Driven tag.

Facility and machinery costs are poorly handled by Microsoft Project, and the author describes some workarounds.

The author does describe the difference between gross work time and dedicated work time, and that planning usually is done with dedicated work time, but the difference between the two are often not correctly accounted for. Recent findings suggest that worker efficiency is not better than 65%, so this difference can be enormous. The author describes two ways of handling it when he describes the subject, and then describes a third method much later in the book (and says that method is popular). Unfortunately he does not describe the advantages and disadvantages with the approaches, to include cost implications. I would highly suggest that you only plan in gross work time, knowing the inefficiencies. By the way, Microsoft doesn't make this very easy either as the efficiencies of individual resources against a task is not an included field for the assignments.

The author describes that there are problems with using the Effort Driven tag, and gives great advice on how to deal with it (always turn it off if the task is not Constant Work - but watch it as Microsoft Project can and will change it on you). His description of how Microsoft Project treats the Effort Driven tag, however, was not complete. The Effort Driven tag attempts to hold Work constant in addition to the variable that you declare as fixed. Since the Scheduling Formula only has three variables, trying to hold two of them constant while changing the third obviously causes some confusion. I don't have room to describe how Microsoft Project will react when you set this tag, but it's not always "Effort Driven". Just keep it turned off!

There is some room for improvements in this book:
- Earned Value Management was not mentioned (except in the glossary). The author should either explain that he doesn't find it useful, or explain how he's used it productively
- The Index is weak for the volume of information included in the book
- The advantages and disadvantages of each of the approaches to hide management reserve in the schedule should be described
- There should be graphics showing how to set up constraints, milestones and deadlines, to include un-hidden management reserve
- There should be example one-page reports included
- Update for Microsoft Project 2002

Despite these shortcomings, you will not find another book that comes close to this on how to use Microsoft Project. If you manage projects with Microsoft Project (even if you use Project 2002), you should have this book on your desk (not your shelf).

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dynamic Scheduling, November 4, 2001

By 

L. Williams "laurawms" (Covington, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dynamic Scheduling With Microsoft(r) Project 2000 : The Book By and For Professionals (Paperback)

As a fellow PMP and trainer of MS Project 2000, I must say that I am impressed with this book. It has finally made available in a textbook, good project management principles, and how to execute them using the MS Project 2000 tool. The book explains why certain options are chosen and gives recommendations for handling various scheduling scenarios. I would highly recommend this as a valuable tool for any project manager using MSP2000.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have for your library, December 17, 2001

By 

Charlie Milstead, PMP (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dynamic Scheduling With Microsoft(r) Project 2000 : The Book By and For Professionals (Paperback)

Eric has skillfully combined Project Management methods and practices with a practical approach to using Microsoft Project 2000. He gives an excellent presentation of the PMI Project Life Cycle and how Project 2000 can be used to follow that life cycle. The style of the book is such that anyone from a beginner to the consummate professional will understand project management methods and tool techniques to bring in a successful project. I especially like the use of a single project throughout the book. This gives continuity not seen in other reference books. I highly recommend this book as a must read for anyone in the project management community using Microsoft Project 2000.