Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Part 1: Getting Started with Project 2019 5 Chapter 1: Project Management, Project 2019, and You 7 Introducing Project Management 7 Defining project manager 8 Identifying what a project manager does 9 Introducing Project 2019 10 Getting to Know You 11 Navigating Ribbon tabs and the Ribbon 13 Displaying more tools 17 Tell Me What You Want to Do 18 Chapter 2: Starting the Project 19 Creating the Project Charter 20 Introducing the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) 22 Organizing the Work 23 Starting the Project 24 Entering project information 25 Weighing manual scheduling versus automatic scheduling 27 Entering the WBS 29 Entering tasks 30 Importing tasks from Outlook 32 Inserting hyperlinks 34 Inserting one project into another 35 Promoting and demoting: The outdent-and-indent shuffle 36 Saving the Project 37 Chapter 3: Becoming a Task Master 39 Creating Summary Tasks and Subtasks 39 How many levels can you go? 41 The project summary task 41 Moving Tasks Up, Down, and All Around 43 Moving tasks with the drag-and-drop method 43 Moving tasks with the cut-and-paste method 44 Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Collapsing and Expanding the Task Outline 44 Showing Up Again and Again: Recurring Tasks 47 Setting Milestones 48 Deleting Tasks and Using Inactive Tasks 49 Making a Task Note 50 Chapter 4: The Codependent Nature of Tasks 53 How Tasks Become Dependent 54 Dependent tasks: Which comes first? 54 Dependency types 55 Allowing for Murphy’s Law: Lag and lead time 58 Setting the Dependency Connection 59 Adding the dependency link 59 Words to the wise 61 Understanding that things change: Deleting dependencies 62 Chapter 5: Estimating Task Time 65 You’re in It for the Duration 66 Tasks come in all flavors: Identifying task types 66 Effort-driven tasks: 1 + 1 = ½ 69 Estimating Effort and Duration 70 Estimating techniques 71 Setting the task duration 72 Controlling Timing with Constraints 74 Understanding how constraints work 74 Establishing constraints 75 Setting a deadline 76 Starting and Pausing Tasks 77 Entering the task’s start date 77 Taking a break: Splitting tasks 78 Chapter 6: Check Out This View! 81 A Project with a View 81 Navigating tabs and views 82 Scrolling around 84 Reaching a specific spot in your plan 85 More Detail about Views 86 Home base: Gantt Chart view 86 Resourceful views: Resource Sheet and Team Planner 87 Getting your timing down with the Timeline 88 Going with the flow: Network Diagram view 89 Calling up Calendar view 90 Customizing Views 91 Working with view panes 91 Modifying Network Diagram view 96 Resetting the view 100 Part 2: Managing Resources 101 Chapter 7: Creating Resources 103 Resources: People, Places, and Things 103 Becoming Resource-Full 104 Understanding resources 104 Resource types: Work, material, and cost 105 How resources affect task timing 105 Estimating resource requirements 107 The Birth of a Resource 107 Creating one resource at a time 108 Identifying resources before you know their names 109 Many hands make light work 110 Managing Resource Availability 111 Estimating and setting availability 112 When a resource comes and goes 113 Sharing Resources 114 Skimming from resource pools 114 Importing resources from Outlook 116 Chapter 8: Working with Calendars 119 Mastering Base, Project, Resource, and Task Calendars 120 Setting the base calendar for a project 120 Understanding the four calendar types 120 How calendars work 121 How one calendar relates to another 121 Scheduling with Calendar Options and Working Times 122 Setting calendar options 123 Setting exceptions to working times 124 Working with Task Calendars and Resource Calendars 126 Setting resource calendars 127 Making the change to a resource’s calendar 128 Creating a Custom Calendar Template 130 Sharing Copies of Calendars 132 Chapter 9: Assigning Resources 135 Finding the Right Resource 135 Needed: One good resource willing to work 136 Custom fields: It’s a skill 137 Making a Useful Assignation 138 Determining material and cost-resource units 138 Making assignments 139 Shaping the contour that’s right for you 142 Benefitting from a Helpful Planner 144 Chapter 10: Determining a Project’s Cost 147 How Do Costs Accrue? 148 Adding up the costs 148 When will this hit the bottom line? 149 Specifying Cost Information in the Project 150 You can’t avoid fixed costs 150 Entering hourly, overtime, and cost-per-use rates 152 Assigning material resources 153 How Your Settings Affect Your Costs 155 Part 3: Before You Baseline 157 Chapter 11: Fine-Tuning Your Plan 159 Everything Filters to the Bottom Line 159 Setting predesigned filters 160 Putting AutoFilter to work 161 Creating do-it-yourself filters 163 Gathering Information in Groups 165 Applying predefined groups 166 Devising your own groups 166 Figuring Out What’s Driving the Project 169 Inspecting tasks 169 Handling task warnings and suggestions 170 Chapter 12: Negotiating Project Constraints 173 It’s about Time 174 Applying contingency reserve 174 Completing a task in less time 175 Getting What You Want for Less 178 The Resource Recourse 179 Checking resource availability 179 Deleting or modifying a resource assignment 180 Beating overallocations with quick-and-dirty rescheduling 181 Finding help 182 Leveling resources 182 Rescheduling the Project 186 Chapter 13: Making the Project Look Good 187 Looking Good! 188 Formatting the Gantt Chart 188 Formatting taskbars 188 Zeroing in on critical issues 191 Restyling the Gantt chart 192 Formatting Task Boxes 193 Adjusting the Layout 195 Modifying Gridlines 197 Recognizing When a Picture Can Say It All 199 Creating a Custom Text Field 200 Chapter 14: It All Begins with a Baseline 205 All about Baselines 205 Saving a baseline 206 Saving more than one baseline 207 Clearing and resetting a baseline 209 In the Interim 210 Saving an interim plan 211 Clearing and resetting an interim plan 212 Part 4: Staying on Track 213 Chapter 15: On the Right Track 215 Developing a Communications Management Plan 216 Gathering data 216 Applying a tracking method 217 Using the tracking tools 218 For everything, there’s a view 219 Tracking Work for the Record 220 Specifying the status date 221 Remaining on track 222 Determining the percent complete 222 Recording start and finish information 223 Knowing what to do when John works three hours and Mary works ten 224 Uh-oh — we’re in overtime 226 Specifying remaining durations for auto-scheduled tasks 227 Entering fixed-cost updates 228 Moving a Task 229 Update Project: Sweeping Changes 230 Tracking Materials 232 Tracking More Than One: Consolidated Projects 233 Consolidating projects 233 Updating consolidated projects 235 Chapter 16: Project Views: Observing Progress 237 Seeing Where Tasks Stand 238 Baseline versus actual progress 238 Lines of progress 238 Delving into the Detail 241 Tracking Progress Using Earned Value Management 244 Calculating Behind the Scenes 246 Earned-value options 246 An abundance of critical paths 247 Chapter 17: You’re Behind — Now What? 249 Using Project with Risk and Issue Logs 250 Printing interim plans and baselines 250 Printing task notes 251 What-If Scenarios 253 Sorting tasks 253 Filtering 254 Examining the critical path 255 Using resource leveling (again) 257 Determining which factors are driving the timing of a task 258 How Adding People or Time Affects the Project 259 Hurrying up and making modifications 259 Throwing resources at the problem 259 Shifting dependencies and task timing 261 When All Else Fails 262 Taking the time you need 263 Finding ways to cut corners 263 Chapter 18: Spreading the News: Reporting 265 Generating Standard Reports 266 What’s available 266 Overviewing the dashboard reports 267 Creating New Reports 268 Gaining a new perspective on data with visual reports 270 Creating a visual report 270 Fine-Tuning a Report 271 Dragging, dropping, and sizing 272 Looking good! 273 Spiffing Things Up 274 Call the Printer! 277 Working with Page Setup 277 Getting a preview 282 Printing, at last! 283 Working on the Timeline 283 Adding tasks to the Timeline 284 Customizing the Timeline 285 Copying the Timeline 286 Chapter 19: Getting Better All the Time 287 Reviewing the Project 288 Learning from your mistakes 288 Debriefing the team 290 Comparing Versions of a Project 291 Building on Success 293 Creating a template 293 Mastering the Organizer 294 Part 5: The Part of Tens 297 Chapter 20: Ten Golden Rules of Project Management 299 Roll with It 299 Put Your Ducks in a Row 300 Expect the Unexpected 301 Don’t Put Off until Tomorrow 302 Delegate, Delegate, Delegate 302 Document It 303 Keep the Team in the Loop 303 Measure Success 304 Maintain a Flexible Strategy 305 Learn from Your Mistakes 305 Chapter 21: Ten Cool Shortcuts in Project 2019 307 Task Information 307 Resource Information 308 Frequently Used Functions 309 Subtasks 310 Quick Selections 310 Fill Down 310 Navigation 310 Hours to Years 311 Timeline Shortcuts 311 Quick Undo and Repeat 312 Appendix: glossary 313 Index 321

Manage project resources, calendars, and budgetsCreate a dynamic schedule that keeps a project movingGet the "golden rules" that keep projects on track Manage your projects like a pro! Whether project management is in your job title or just one of many tasks on your plate, Microsoft Project 2019 is the secret weapon you've been looking for. Even if you already know a little about managing projects, this book shows you how to use the valuable features of Microsoft Project 2019 to make your process run like a well-oiled machine. Learn how to enter tasks, estimate durations, work with resources and calendars, set baselines, fine-tune schedules, stay on track, analyze your progress, and report results. Inside... Launch a projectEnter tasks and estimate durationsChange project viewsCreate a resource calendarDevelop a budgetTrack project progressDeal with delaysUse time-saving shortcuts

Introduction 1 Part 1: Getting Started with Project 2019 5 Chapter 1: Project Management, Project 2019, and You 7 Chapter 2: Starting the Project 19 Chapter 3: Becoming a Task Master 39 Chapter 4: The Codependent Nature of Tasks 53 Chapter 5: Estimating Task Time 65 Chapter 6: Check Out This View! 81 Part 2: Managing Resources 101 Chapter 7: Creating Resources 103 Chapter 8: Working with Calendars 119 Chapter 9: Assigning Resources 135 Chapter 10: Determining a Project’s Cost 147 Part 3: Before You Baseline 157 Chapter 11: Fine-Tuning Your Plan 159 Chapter 12: Negotiating Project Constraints 173 Chapter 13: Making the Project Look Good 187 Chapter 14: It All Begins with a Baseline 205 Part 4: Staying on Track 213 Chapter 15: On the Right Track 215 Chapter 16: Project Views: Observing Progress 237 Chapter 17: You’re Behind — Now What? 249 Chapter 18: Spreading the News: Reporting 265 Chapter 19: Getting Better All the Time 287 Part 5: The Part of Tens 297 Chapter 20: Ten Golden Rules of Project Management 299 Chapter 21: Ten Cool Shortcuts in Project 2019 307 Appendix: Glossary 313 Index 321