Microsoft Project 2013: The Missing Manual

Building Templates for Projects

Despite the differences that make every project unique, many projects have a lot in common. Project gives you several ways to reuse work you’ve done before. Here are just a few examples:

• Save time. Past projects make great starting points for new projects. You’ve already figured out many of the tasks you need, so why not use them to jump-start new projects? A project template can contain tasks with task dependencies, typical durations, and even resource assignments. Keep anything that stays the same, and change only what’s different.

• Standardize. Quite often, you learn the hard way what works and what doesn’t. You can improve your results by basing new projects on your previous successes, not your past mistakes. By creating templates that reflect your organization’s project-management knowledge, everyone can benefit from the lessons learned on each and every project. You can use project templates to define the standards your organization follows. (If your organization uses Microsoft Enterprise Project Management software, the enterprise global template described on Understanding the Types of Templates is the repository for your organization’s project-management standards.) A template can act like a checklist, with project-management tasks that are part of every project. Or it can contain the views, reports, and customized performance measures that your organization uses to evaluate project status.

  As you’ve learned, the global template (Understanding ...