Automation of scheduling and tracking using Microsoft project plan TNSD Good practices

Schedule planning process

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Introduction
Understand
Schedule processes Planning and tracking problems What MPP can do and cant.

Key enabler to incorporate

Concepts of project planning, scheduling and tracking Establish responsibilities of stakeholders Organize resource staff Better utilization Manage project data for metrics Plan and Actual Project Budgeting and Costing Reporting Project Status and Progress

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Challenges
Problem areas
Proper planning Up to date tracking and monitoring Realistic expectations Project milestones Lack of proper tool to support planning activities

MPP helps
Project plan, schedule, track and budget Communication tool Metrics collection and managing data

Remember
Its not a solution to all project management challenges and issues Provides road map to implement project management concepts Easy. Easy. Ease your planning problems, if we make an effort to experiment and learn.

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What we know - MPP

Project tasks entry sheet. Only for initial plan and schedule. Not suitable for large and complex project. Too much for me to learn, I have deadlines. Excel will do Messes up with dates, when I revise it No easy way to communicate to team and stake holders Not suitable for software development activities. Manage resources, I have never tried. Obtain project progress data. Never heard of it Need to import data for excel for sr. management reporting. Too cumbersome.
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Road ahead
Effective and Powerful tool, How?
Rethink on what we know MPP Challenge previous points Formulate appropriate solutions Pilot and propagate in teams

Understand best practices in detail

Road map on this Implement and continuously upgrade

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Schedule planning process

Activity definition
Identify activities that must be performed as part of project deliverables

Activity sequencing
Identify interactivity dependencies

Activity duration estimates

Estimating the number of work hours required to complete particular activity

Schedule development
Analyzing the activities, sequencing, estimates and resource requirement to arrive at schedule

Schedule control
Controlling changes to project schedule

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Schedule plan Inputs

Project requirements (Requests/Scope statement) Project methodology Maintenance/Development/Re-engineering Life cycle model waterfall, iterative, RUP etc Work breakdown structure Project estimates Resource list and their skill set Constraints Deliverables, Delivery dates, Resources, Dependencies Any other relevant items??

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How MSP schedules?

Factors to be considered
Task dependencies Constraints Interruptions etc Duration = Work / Resource Effort Key thing in schedule

For example, if:

Two programmers develop code for 5 days on a component, with an effort of 8 hours per day, the work for each resource is 40 hours: (5 days * 8 hours). The total effort of the resources is 16 hours per day: (2 SEs * 8 hours). The total work for component development is 80 hours The duration is 5 days: 80 hours / (2 SEs * 8 hours).

Triple Constraint
Duration Work Resources

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Good Practices
Set-up project information Define task drivers Define schedule constraints Define network logic Level resources Do not enter dates (Start/finish) Attach cost to resource Generate report automatically Other areas??

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Set up project information

Define Options settings
Mention relevant items as applicable to project

Define calendar
Check with holidays list

Define project information

Start date Status date Choose calendar
All these set-up activities are one time and ensures right commitments to some extent initially

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OptionsSetup initially

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Project information

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 Set up project information

Benefits
Accommodating holidays and buffers if any Makes plan easy to monitor with initial set-up Status can be obtained at any time with no efforts. All the more, runs on pre-defined setting and little room for mistakes.

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Define task driver

Identify relevant WBS PRIDE template
Define task type (Lets have fixed work item) Define task as milestone
Significant item in WBS (Major deliverable or phase end). Duration is zero. Define very few milestones (5-6 per medium project). Conduct casual analysis after reaching milestone. Use milestone information as project summary.

Task drivers
Fixed work. Eg. Writing use case documents. Fixed duration. Eg. Training program, Conf Calls. Fixed units. Eg. Write code (LOC) and Test module(10 test cases).

Recommended to use fixed work

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Sample WBS

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Task information

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Define task drivers

Benefits
Control over task variable (Fixed item, fixed work, fixed duration). Focusing on key areas rather entire WBS. Easy to modify and control tasks. Effects of new entry tasks could be judged Ensures for analysis at milestone phase.

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Schedule constraints
Define schedule constraint
Is there any constraint imposed on this task by any means?
Eg. Test data is required for preparation of test cases

Use your best judgment

ALAP As Late As Possible ASAP As Soon As Possible FNET Finish Not Earlier Than Etc

Few constraints, real ones and applicable to particular task Automatically constraint appears when we enter dates manually

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Constraint types

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Define network logic

Relate and link tasks based on project requirements Define dependency b/w tasks
Finish to start Start to start Finish to finish Start to finish

Use best judgment for dependency No task is in isolation Determine critical path and monitor critical tasks Use negative lag for parallel tasks.

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Sample network

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Sample critical path

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Dependencies

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Define network logic

Benefits
Auto determines the critical path Determines critical tasks to project and can be focused on these. Revision of plan and schedule is done without difficulty. Gantt chart tracking done with track grant (Baseline) Provides holistic view of plan

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Level resources
Use resource sheet
People (Infosys/Client) Hardware Software

Assign resources to tasks Level resources

Identifies over-loaded resources. Identifies gaps in resource utilization. Helps in re-assignments and identifying new resources. Do not over load key resources. Over load resources to extent 120-125%. (Not more than 70% of resources) Have buffer to handle unplanned tasks.

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Resource Sheet

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Level resources
Benefits
Helps in resource usage optimum by identifying the gaps in resource pool. Determines the resources usage and task usage, hence better allocation of tasks. Integrates well with resources and tasks. Re-arrangement and impact of resource lack will be determined.

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Integration between MSP and Outlook

Assign tasks to resources Via MSP to outlook Individual can track tasks in outlook and update Automatic update to MSP Effective team collaboration

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Do not enter dates

Let MPP determine start and end date (Key feature of MPP) How to arrive dates
Enter appropriate task driver Enter constraints Enter resources info Enter duration of task Start date and end date are computed by MPP

Revise dates by changing duration and assignments

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Define costs
Attach cost to resources Use resource sheet for cost entry Helps in
Analyze data based on earned value Profitability analysis Metrics data and analysis

Manage project like profit and loss account

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Project Statistics

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Reports
Generate reports
Project overview like project summary, milestones, critical tasks etc. Assignments Who does what and when, To do list etc Workload like resource usage, task usage Costs like earned value, remaining costs

Customize reports
Define specific project reports

Publish various reports for

Team communication Sr Management communication Client communication

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Sample project summary

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costs and reports

Benefits - Costs
Brings cost perspective of project analysis. Provides data for profitability analysis. Acts as corrective measure trigger.

Benefits Reports
Easy and quick in generating reports (Provided plan is up to date) Custom report to suit specific requirements Earn value analysis report helps in project metrics and analysis

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Summary
Introduction of MPP Best practices of MPP
Set-up project information Define task drivers Define schedule constraints Define network logic Level resources Do not enter dates (Start/finish) Attach cost to resource Generate report automatically Other areas??

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Thank you all

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