Microsoft® Office Project 2007 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies®

Chapter 1. Working with Filters

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✓	Understanding how filters work
✓	Applying a filter
✓	Modifying a filter
✓	Creating a custom filter
✓	Using filters to spot and resolve problems
✓	Working with groups

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After you take your best shot at creating your project plan, creating each task, and assigning all your resources, you might think you’re ready to start your project. However, that’s seldom the case.

Taking the time to review almost any plan reveals some issues that you should resolve before you begin working on your first task. These issues might include a schedule that runs a few weeks past your optimum deadline, a person who is assigned to work on ten tasks on the same day in week 43, or a budget overrun that has no way of making it past your accounting guy.

Even if you don’t see any obvious problems in the areas of time, workload, or money, you should still take the time to make sure that your project is as realistic as possible before you commit to it.

Filtering to Spot Resource and Schedule Problems

One of the most helpful things you can do to be sure there are no gotchas in your plan is to look at it from a few different perspectives. It’s like walking around a house to be sure you’ve spotted the mold in the basement and chipped paint on the siding before you head to the closing. Filters help you get that kind of perspective.

Two major problem areas that filters can help you examine at this stage are

• Overallocated resources: These resources are ...