Every business and project has unique needs, and tracking them can be challenging. Many companies use software to track milestones, critical paths, and more. They do this to keep things organised and streamline workflows.
When managing any project, you need to keep track of important dates and milestones. This will tell you how far along you are in the process. This is especially important when working with a team on the same project structure. This way, everyone knows what tasks need to be completed and when.
This article will explain how to manage a project efficiently using Microsoft Project. It will also show how it can help increase visibility and keep everyone on the same page.
As a project owner, you’ll learn about how to use Microsoft Project for your projects. You’ll also learn best practices for assigning responsibilities, setting up accounts, creating tasks, and more.
What is Microsoft Project?
Microsoft Project is a software application that helps you organise and manage project timelines. It also helps create budgets, assign tasks, track progress, and more.
It offers a variety of features and options to best suit your project management needs. These include simple to advanced and customisable features.
You can access Microsoft Project from almost any device, as it’s available as a web-based platform. It’s also available on PCs, Mac computers, and mobile devices like tablets.
There are two versions of Microsoft Project available: Microsoft Project Standard and Microsoft Project Professional.
The main difference between the two is that Professional offers additional features. These include an integrated business intelligence reporting tool, visual timelines, and other project requirements.
You can use Microsoft Project to track project milestones and critical paths for free. However, it is limited in certain aspects. For example, you may only be able to save one project at a time and use two calendars.
If you’re using the free version, you can still enter data, invite team members, and view your timeline. However, you’ll just only be able to save one project at a time and only be able to use two calendars.
Why Use Microsoft Project For Your Projects?
There are many advantages to using Microsoft Project for your project management needs.
- It gives you visibility into the entire project, as well as into each team member’s role and responsibilities. This way, you can be reassured that everyone is on the same page. This increases accountability and makes it easier to spot any potential roadblocks or issues that may arise.
- Additionally, it can help you forecast project completion, track expenses, and create a more efficient workflow.
- Organisations use project management to ensure that their teams are focused on meeting their goals and objectives. With a project management system in place, teams can more easily collaborate. You can also track progress and spot potential issues before they become major problems.
- Project management software makes it easier to keep everyone informed about project milestones. It also helps with status updates and enables teams to work more efficiently together.
How to Use Microsoft in Projects
1. Create a New Project
The first thing you’ll want to do when creating a new project is to name it appropriately. You should also give it a description so that everyone knows what the project is about. Next, add additional information, such as the project goal. In addition, you can add any unique constraints or considerations that might apply to that project.
2. Assign Responsibilities
Next, you’ll want to assign project managers and team members to the project. You can assign one person as the primary project manager. Or you can have multiple people share the role. Once you’ve assigned project managers, you can invite team members to the project.
3. Setting Up Calendar Details
You can set up calendars for your project based on the client or the team members you’re working with. You can also set some for other events that may apply to the project, like holidays. This will help you stay organised and make sure everyone is following a certain schedule.
4. Defining Task Details
You can create tasks and subtasks within your project, detailing the work that needs to be done. You can also detail the resources and dependencies that may apply.
5. Reviewing Progress
You can view project progress at any time. Check on team members’ progress, their workload, their dependencies, due dates, and more.
What is a Project Milestone?
A milestone is a significant event or achievement that takes place during the project timeline. This can be something like a specific date the project is expected to be delivered.
It can also be a state that needs to be reached. For example, securing funding or completing a certain phase of the process.
You can create milestones within your project timeline and assign a due date. You can also indicate whether it’s required or optional and what level of effort it requires.
Within your timeline, you can add milestones at any point in the project. It also gives you the opportunity to create sub-milestones within one main milestone. This can be helpful if you want to break up a large milestone into smaller, more manageable parts.
For example, you may have one milestone that represents the completion of a project. You can then break that into smaller milestones that represent each part of the project. These include conducting research, data collection, etc.
What is a Critical Path?
The critical path is the sequence of tasks that must be completed on time in order for the project to be completed successfully. It’s important to note that the critical path doesn’t necessarily represent the longest path. Instead, it’s the path that must be completed first.
The critical path is often used to refer to the critical path method (CPM). That is a type of project management method that uses specific dates and resource availability. They help determine the sequence of tasks that need to be completed first.
When to Use the Critical Path in Microsoft Project?
The critical path method is primarily used for large-scale projects, like building a new home. It could also be for building large-scale infrastructures, like a new airport or bridge.
Here, the path requires specific dates and the availability of resources. Therefore, the critical path won’t change unless a task is delayed. It can also change if something is added to the project that affects the sequence.
This means that you want to be careful when deciding which tasks should be included on the critical path. Generally, you want tasks that are essential to the completion of the project to be included on the critical path.
Tasks that are needed later in the project, but aren’t essential to its completion, should be placed lower on the path. This allows you to account for any issues that may arise and still finish the project on time.
Conclusion
To conclude, Microsoft Project is an excellent way to keep track of your projects and make sure that everyone is on the same page.
It offers many benefits and can help increase visibility and keep everyone informed. It will also help you forecast project completion, track expenses, and create a more efficient workflow.
Maybe you’ve never used Microsoft Project before. Or you feel like you could use a refresher on best practices for using it with your team or clients. If so, this article will be a helpful resource.
From creating a new project to adding milestones, and more, you’ll learn how to use Microsoft Project to manage your projects more efficiently.
