Project 2010 For Dummies®

Chapter 10

Fine-Tuning Your Plan

In This Chapter

Using filters to view timing and resource issues

Determining what’s driving your tasks

Using the Task Inspector pane

Utilizing warnings and suggestions to fix task schedules

Using Multiple Undo to try solutions

Controlling change highlighting

Adding slack to your tasks to plan for change

Making adjustments to shorten your schedule

Reigning in your costs

Resolving resource conflicts

Rescheduling the project

As they say, the best-laid schemes of mice and project managers go oft awry (or is that “gang aft agley?”), and your plans are no different. After you take your best shot at laying out your project plan, creating every task, and assigning every resource — and you think you’re ready to start your project — think again.

A close look at almost any plan will reveal some issues that you should resolve before you begin working on your first task. These may include a schedule that ends a month after your desired finish date, human resources who are assigned to work 36-hour days, or a budget that exceeds the national debt. (Details, details . . .)

But even if you don’t see any glaring problems in the areas of time, workload, or money, you should do a few things to make sure that your project is as realistic as possible before you commit to it. So take a moment to give your project the once-over.

Everything Filters to the Bottom Line

A first step in making sure that your plan is solid is simply looking at it from a few different perspectives. ...