Free Project Management Tools - Tutorials,Ebooks and Setups

In this tutorial, Let us see and learn how to use the "Name Manager" Feature in Excel, which make it easier to create, use and understand formulas. Naming can be applied to cells, cell ranges, tables, formulas, constants etc. Once the naming is done, these can be referenced anywhere in the Excel spreadsheet. To Name a Cell: 1. Select the cell that you want to name 2. Go to the Name Box on the top left corner 3. Type the Name and press "ENTER" (this is very important, unless you press enter, name would not be created) 4. Start Using the name that you have typed anywhere in the spreadsheet to refer to the cell that you have named 5. An Example has been demonstrated in the video below To Name a Range of Cells: 1.Select the Range 2. Name it in the name box 3. Use the name in your formulas 5 points to remember while using this Naming Feature: 1. No spaces allowed in the name. Use "_" instead 2. Names can't  be repeated 3. You cannot ...

One should update project schedule so as to maintain, record progress and keep on track. Updating schedules can be either done by directly applying actuals or by using the timesheet updates from the project reporter module. Once you are done with the updating of actual progress dates and % progress, you can schedule the project so as to see the impact of the delayed progress. Remember to always update your schedule regularly so as to keep yourself updated. While updating, you will notice that the actual durations vary from the original durations, there may be additional modifications compared to baselines as well. Scheduling Methodology: Firstly, identify the  types of data  to collect relating to activities and resources. Always collect actual dates and remaining durations/resources. Determine how the said data  shall be collected. Standardize the method of collecting the data. Determine how often the data  should be collected and updated Analyze and ...

As the project progresses, many changes occur in project data. Then the original baseline project that you have created may not accurately measure performance against the current project. And you cannot create a new baseline to measure the accurate results as some data Some of the changes may occur like:changed during the life of the project. Drop/Addition of activities Modified dates, costs, resources, steps, documents, relationships, notebooks, documents, codes etc. Modified Details, documents, risks, thresholds, calendars, codes Using the Update Baseline feature, you can update the original baseline plan with new project updated data, while updating you can choose the fields that you want to update or you can apply a filter to update activities that meet the filter’s criteria. How to update a baseline? Open the project whose baseline you would like to update, Go to Menu bar, choose Project, and maintain baselines. In the Maintain baseline dialog box, s...

You can use the assign baselines feature to designate the current project or an existing baseline as the project, primary, secondary, or tertiary baseline. The project baseline or primary baseline can be designated as the project to use when calculating earned value Assigning Baselines: Open the project for which you want to select a project baseline. Go to Menu bar, Choose Project,  Assign Baselines . The primary, secondary, and tertiary baselines are user-defined baselines used to compare projects. In the  Project field : select the project to which you want to assign a project baseline. In the  Project Baseline  field: select the desired baseline or the current project. If no baseline is designated as active, the current project is used as the baseline project. Under  User Baselines , choose an existing baseline or the current project.as the primary, secondary or tertiary baseline for a project from the drop down menu. You can compar...

A baseline is a copy of a project plan that you can compare to the current schedule to evaluate progress. You can create and maintain any number of baselines at various stages of the project. Once, you are done with developing of a schedule for a project and before you update the schedule for the first time, you should create a baseline so that you can compare with the updated schedule with that of the original schedule to observe changes and impacts and for further analysis. Each baseline can be categorized by its purpose, like initial planning baseline, what-if project plan baseline, or mid-project status baseline. You can compare up to three baselines at one time Creating a Baseline: Firstly, open the project for which you want to create and maintain the baseline. Go to Menu bar, choose Project>> Maintain Baselines. Then the maintain baselines dialog box opens up. This dialog box groups the currently opened project with their corresponding baselines already...

In coming chapters, let us learn in detail with examples on the following topics: Maintaining Baselines – Creating copies of projects at various stages for comparison Assigning Baselines – comparing the baselines with the current project Updating of Baselines – how to update baselines in the middle of the project Updating, Scheduling Project – learn how to update the schedule and leveling of resources. Following are the different methods by which one can update the schedule and special features that you can perform as part of the schedule. With Spotlight Feature Updating Project by "Auto Actuals" Method Updating Project by Manual Method Removing Progress from Activities Suspend and Resume Activities Storing Past Period Performance Scheduling Projects Using Work Products and Documents – Tracking of project-related documents and work products Tracking Progress – enabling to create layouts to view and track the progress of projects Comparing Projects – using t...

Cost accounts help you to track activity costs, project expenses and earned value throughout the project life cycle. Cost accounts can be established in a hierarchy available to all projects in the enterprise project structure (EPS). Overview: You can create cost accounts that can be assigned to activities in any project. Further, you can also add expenses, assign expense categories and all the details relating to the expenses. Firstly, create a cost account hierarchy, Go to Menu bar, choose Enterprise, then cost accounts. Click the Cost Account ID column label to display the cost accounts hierarchy. Setting up a cost account: Select the cost account immediately above and at the same level as the cost account you want to add, then click Add. Type the cost account’s ID and name and all other information relating to the cost account. If in case, you wish to use the existing cost accounts, select the project in the top layout, go to project details in the bottom pane...

Activities are the fundamental elements of the project. These are the lowest level of WBS structure. Let us understand about activities in detail in this chapter. Use the activity table or activity network layout to add activities. Activity information can be defined in the activity details at the bottom layout of the activities window. Activities Overview: “General” Tab: Activity Type: Go to General tab of the activity details section and for any selected activity, you can change/modify the information of the activity like you can define or choose the activity type from options Finish Milestone Level of Effort Resource dependent Finish Milestone Task dependent WBS Summary Duration Type: You can then select the Duration type from the below options: Fixed duration & units Fixed duration & units/time Fixed Units Fixed Units/time % Complete Type: This will define how to calculate an activity’s percent complete, to choose among duration, p...