Project 2010 For Dummies®

Chapter 17

Getting Better All the Time

In This Chapter

Reviewing your successes and failures

Comparing versions of the same project

Creating a template for future projects

Developing macros to make things easier

Have you ever finished a project and then wondered how the heck everything ended up the way it did? The total budget numbers mystically appear to be several thousand dollars over estimate, you missed your final deadline by three weeks, and somewhere along the line, you lost track of three people who were supposed to be working on tasks. But you delivered your deliverables (somehow), and you can finally stuff your project file in the bottom of your drawer. Or can you?

Don’t think of Microsoft Project as just a giant electronic to-do list; rather, it’s a sophisticated tool that’s used to manage your projects. And the logical by-product of that management is a fantastic treasure trove of information that you can use to become a better Project user — and thus a better project manager.

After you send the last memo on your project and accept your last kudos or criticism from your boss, take a moment to look over your Project plan one more time.

Learning from Your Mistakes

When I teach classes in using project management software, people are often a bit overwhelmed at all that a product such as Project can do. They’re reeling from all the data that they have to input as well as all the information that Project throws back at them. They can’t see straight for all the views, reports, ...