Project 2013 For Dummies

Chapter 20

Ten Golden Rules of Project Management

In This Chapter

Following good project-management practices

Scheduling projects efficiently

Benefitting from mistakes

As you begin to use Project 2013, the common sayings (or aphorisms, axioms, and precepts) in this chapter can help you recall basic project-management principles. Tack them on your office wall so that you can review them throughout the workday.

Roll with It

Rolling wave planning is an excellent way to simplify the management of a project. Plan no further into the future than you can reasonably see — and don’t plan in more detail than makes sense. When a project is first chartered, you only have milestone dates. As you begin to understand more about the project, you can define the project life cycle and the key deliverables to be created in each of its phases.

Build the project in phases. Start with the initial phases, and fill in detailed tasks, sequences, resources, and durations. Leave the later phases at a high level of detail; that way, you’ll have less work to redo on later tasks that simply can’t be anticipated at the beginning of the project. You’ll also have less need to manipulate the baseline of those later ...