The Newsletter of the Microsoft Project Users Group–Global Volume 4, Issue 4–2000
In This Issue:2 From the Executive Director
3 Cincinnati Chapter Launches
4 Ask Brian: MSP Questions & Answers
5 Critical Correction
6 Microsoft Project 2000 Certifications
7 Tracking Your Project’s Progress in MSP
8 Finding the Missing Link
10 Where is My Critical Path?
12 MPUG at Project World
13 Setting a Resource Pool as Read-Only
14 Times Sure Have Changed
15 Nationwide Microsoft Project Users Meeting
15 Upcoming MPUG Events Calendar
16 How to Join MPUG-Global
The Washington, D.C. area is one of the nation’s
fastest growing technology areas. In addition to the
technology boom generating new projects, nearly
every major project that involves the U.S. Government
has some part of it managed in the D.C. area. The D.C.
area now also has an MPUG chapter that is focused on
improving the effectiveness of project scheduling and
management in the region.
The D.C. chapter was created to provide regional
Microsoft Project users with a forum for learning, review,
and discussion of the practical application of Microsoft
Project as it is employed for the management and control
of projects. This forum is open to all Project Managers,
Program Managers and practitioners without regard to
industry focus or boundary.
In addition, the Washington D.C. Chapter will provide an
opportunity for sharing and examination of topics close-
Washington, D.C. Chapter LaunchesBy Bill Lynch, Washington D.C. Metro Chapter President
ly related to the application of MS Project including, but
not limited to MS Project Best Practices, interface and
add-on products, user modifications and alternate MS
Project templates.
The founding members of the D.C. MPUG will work to
keep the forums productive by reaching out to the myri-
ad of local and national MS Project experts and project
management professionals. The inaugural chapter meet-
ing was held at Gestalt Systems in the Tysons Corner area
on January 11th, 2001, and featured a presentation on
Project 2000 and Project Central by Kelvin Murray of
Pcubed, Inc. The next meeting is tentatively scheduled
for April 12th. For more details, please check out the
“Events” section of the MPUG website at www.mpug.org.
The D.C. chapter is sponsored locally by ProChain
Solutions, Gestalt Systems, and Pcubed. If you are inter-
ested in supporting the chapter as a local corporate
sponsor, or serving as an officer, e-mail Bill Lynch at
pugThe Project Network
White House South Lawn
▼
CO-SPONSORS
MPUG-Global co-sponsored by:
▼2
From the Executive Director
Greetings,
The momentum I described in the
last issue continued to propel us
through this final quarter – with
several more milestones now secure-
ly under the MPUG-Global belt.
Of most significance, (and relief!)
however, is the addition of a much-
needed third team member to the
MPUG-Globastaff. It is my great pleas-
ure to welcome Bryan Mangum as
the Communications Director for
MPUG-Global who joined us on
October 23. Bryan serves as the chief
liaison between MPUG and its chap-
ters and is responsible for all chapter
launches. Also, as new editor of The
Project Network, Bryan has spent the
last month entrenched in the pro-
duction of this newsletter issue. Feel
free to introduce yourself to Bryan at
Also of note, the Annual Membership Renewal Campaign
has begun. In keeping with the new process that was
launched last January, MPUG-Global membership is on
the calendar year, with those joining in mid-year paying
a pro-rated fee. This helps streamline
MPUG-Global operations by enabling
all members to be invoiced for 2001
renewal at the same time, as well as
helps both individual and corporate
members better incorporate the
MPUG member dues into their annu-
al budgets. In December, all mem-
bers received an invoice to renew for
2001. Please remit a check or renew
through the new online payment sys-
tem at https://www.mpug.org/secure/invoice.asp.
Contact Kirk Vantine at [email protected] for any
membership questions.
As we close out 2000, I would also like to recognize how
far we have come over the last year.
• First, membership has increased 70% since last year
– we now number over 1450 members from around
the world.
• Second, the number of chapter officers and sponsors
has also nearly doubled with more than 100 volun-
teers in the field managing existing chapters. This
does not include the dozen or so individuals who
Christine Buonocore
Bryan Mangum
Kirk Vantine
Continued on next page
MPUG-Global Office3923 Ranchero Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
Phone: 734.741.0841
Fax: 734.741.1343
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.mpug.org
MPUG-Global Board of DirectorsPresident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Jeanne Dorle
Vice President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tim Grenis
Secretary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Joseph Hughes
Executive Director . . . . . .Christine Buonocore
Communications Director . . . . .Bryan Mangum
Information Systems Director . . . . .Kirk Vantine
Consultant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .David Myers
Consultant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gail Stopar
The Project Network NewsletterEditor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bryan Mangum
Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bryan Mangum
Editorial content:
Letters, articles and case studies are welcome!
Please send materials to the Bryan Mangum at
[email protected] or call 734.741.0841.
Entries may be edited for clarity and length.
Advertising:
Advertising is open to any authorized Microsoft
Project Consultant or Service Provider. Rates are
available upon request. For more information,
contact Bryan Mangum at [email protected]
or call 734.741.0841.
The MPUG-Global newsletter is a quarterly
publication dedicated to inform, serve and
entertain its membership. The information
published herein is believed to be reliable;
however, the editor and other individuals
associated with this periodical assume no
responsibility for inaccuracies or omissions.
Publication of advertisements in this newslet-
ter does not necessarily constitute an endorse-
ment by MPUG. Signed columns are the opin-
ion of its writer(s), and not necessarily the
opinion of its publishers.
▼3
have volunteered to spearhead new chapters.
• Five new chapters celebrated inaugurations in 2000
including Western New York, Dallas/Ft. Worth,
Southeast Louisiana, Chicago, and Cincinnati – in
that order. New York City and Washington, DC
received their charters in 4th quarter and are plan-
ning launches for early 2001.
• The new MPUG-Global web site was launched the
first week in October to e-cheers from MPUG mem-
bers, chapters and supporters alike. An “Officers
Only” section was published a month later to help
support our volunteers.
• The new MPUG-Global logo and the redesigned
Project Network newsletter were equally praised.
• Co-sponsor, Microsoft Corporation, and its local dis-
trict officers have stepped up support of MPUG-
Global and its chapters. In 2000, MPUG-Global
sported booths at Project World in Boston and
Anaheim, PMI Connections in Houston, and
Comdex in Las Vegas – courtesy of the Microsoft
Project team in Redmond. We also celebrated the
first-ever nationwide users group meeting in
Houston – also hosted by the MSP team. Moreover,
the Microsoft district offices provided MPUG chap-
ters with speakers, venue, catering, publicity, soft-
ware and other freebies to help support the local
Executive Director (cont.)meetings and networking opportunities.
• Most importantly, co-sponsor and founder Pcubed
continued to provide funding for the staff and oper-
ational expenses to keep MPUG humming, along
with technical support and MSP expertise for mem-
bers. Without this support, MPUG could not operate.
Many thanks again to our co-sponsors and volunteers for
helping MPUG-Global through another tremendously
successful year! With a new look, a new team, and
increased support from our sponsors and chapters,
MPUG-Global is well poised to support our members
and further provide value in the coming year.
Bryan, Kirk, and I are here to serve you. If you have any
comments or suggestions to make MPUG more valuable to
you and fellow members in 2001, please drop us an
e-mail or call the MPUG office. We are in the planning
stages now for 2001 and would love to hear your ideas.
Best regards,
Christine Buonocore
Executive Director
(734) 741.0841
MPUG’s newest chapter got off to a great start on November 9th in Cincinnati. Despite tornado warnings
in the area that evening, turnout was strong. In addition to presentations by chapter president Lynn
Frock and MPUG-Global executive director
Christine Buonocore, attendees were treated to an
overview of Project Central by technology special-
ist Melinda Curtis of Microsoft. The interactive
Q&A session which followed got the audience
involved and was the highlight of the evening.
Cincinnati Chapter Launches
▼
▼
(L to R) Christine Buonocore, executive director, MPUG-
Global; Lynn Frock, chapter president; Chas Eddingfield,
chapter vice president; Bryan Mangum, communications
director, MPUG-Global; Melinda Curtis, Microsoft
Corporation; Bob Mendlein, chapter treasurer
Cincinnati MPUG members
at inaugural meeting
Melinda Curtis of Microsoft presents
on Project Central
▼4
?Q: I know the new num-bering system for Prioritygives me more control . . .but I really liked theHigh, Higher, Highestsystem in MSP 98.
A: An often requested “fix” for
Project 2000 is how to get the old
text-based priority from Project 98 to
show up in Project 2000. In 2000, the
priority field is now a number from 0
to 1000. This new system gives a
much more granular control over rel-
ative task priorities, but many people
grew used to the 98 system. Even
more importantly many executives
grew used to it and now that 2000 is
installed, some project managers are
feeling the pinch from execs that want
to see priority in text rather than a
number.
Luckily, Project 2000’s new custom
field formula feature will let you cre-
ate a “dummy” priority field that will
display the old 98 priorities based on
the value of the real priority field.
Simply insert a custom text field
(Text1, for example). Then right click
on it and select Customize from the
menu. In this next dialog, click on the
Formula button. Then you have a
choice. You can paste in this formula:
IIf([Priority]=1000,”Do Not Level”,
IIf([Priority]=900,”Highest”,
IIf([Priority]=800,”Very High”,
IIf([Priority]=700,”Higher”,
IIf([Priority]=600,”High”,
IIf([Priority]=500,”Medium”,
IIf([Priority]=400,”Low”,
IIf([Priority]=300,”Lower”,
IIf([Priority]=200,”Very Low”,
IIf([Priority]=100,”Lowest”,
“NA”))))))))))
This formula will insert the 98 text-
based priority value, but only if the
Priority field equals exactly the conver-
sion values between the two versions.
The exact conversion is as follows:
2000 Value 98 Value
1000 Do Not Level
900 Highest
800 Very High
700 Higher
600 High
500 Medium
400 Low
300 Lower
200 Very Low
100 Lowest
The above formula will only insert a
value into the text field if the Priority
exactly equals one of the listed con-
version values. For example, if Priority
was 950, the Text1 field would equal
NA, but if the Priority field was 900,
then the Text1 field would be
“Highest.”
Now this next formula will be a little
more forgiving. It will, for example,
make Text1 equal “Do Not Level” if
the Priority field is greater than 900. If
Priority is greater than 800 but less
than 901 then Text1 will equal
“Highest.” Any Priority less than 101
would get the value “Lowest” in Text1.
This is a more realistic value.
IIf([Priority]>900,”Do Not Level”,
IIf([Priority]>800,”Highest”,
IIf ([Priority] >700,”Very High”,
IIf([Priority]>600,“Higher”,
IIf([Priority]>500,“High”,
IIf ([Priority]>400, “Medium”,
IIf([Priority]>300,“Low”,
IIf([Priority]>200,“Lower”,
IIf([Priority]>100,”Very Low”,
IIf([Priority]>0,”Lowest”,
”NA”))))))))))
Both of these formulas are good
examples of what you can do with the
new custom field functionality in
Project 2000. They can both be cus-
tomized to have your own text insert-
ed instead of the Project 98 standards.
Make the formula your own.
Ask Brian
Continued on next page
Brian Kennemer, the author of Ask
Brian, is an MS Project MVP and
Program Manager for Pacific Edge
Software. Along with penning this
column, Brian is a frequent con-
tributor to MPUG-Global and
Microsoft Project, having volun-
teered his time for presentations at
both the Mid-Atlantic and
Southeast Michigan chapters.
Ask Brian covers topics appearing
in the Microsoft Project Support
Newsgroup, www.mpug.org/news-
groups.htm, which is a location on
the Internet where people with
questions about MSP can interact
and seek solutions.
The MPUG-Global Mission
To provide the installed user base of Microsoft® Project with a forum to exchange ideas,
support and experience, in an effort to better understand and utilize all Microsoft Project-
related products. MPUG-Global is an independent user group formed with the support and
recognition of Microsoft®. We will actively seek out organizations—both nationally and
internationally—and collaborate with them to encourage the appropriate exchange of
information to MPUG membership for all levels of Microsoft Project experience.
▼5
Another great use of the new custom
field functionality is the Graphical
Indicators functionality. I personally
think this is one of the coolest new
features of Project 2000. For example,
you could further customize Text1 to
show a graphic instead of the text-
based values that your formula cre-
ates. From the Customize Fields dia-
log, just click the Graphical Indicators
button. Below is an example of how
you might create the criteria for show-
ing graphics in place of certain values.
In this example, the field will now dis-
play a colored ball rather than a text
value. This can be very valuable for
communicating information quickly.
Ask Brian (cont.)
▼
“Critical” Correction
In the previous issue (Vol. 4, Issue 3), a small sub-routine was inad-
vertently omitted from the macro described in the article “How Critical
Is ‘Critical’?” The InsertField routine follows. The complete macro is
available in the members-only section of the MPUG-Global web site,
www.mpug.org.
Sub InsertField(FieldName As String, Column As Integer,
FieldTitle As String)
‘Inserts a field in the current table...
Dim ThisTable As String
ThisTable = ActiveProject.CurrentTable
TableEdit Name:=ThisTable, TaskTable:=True,
NewFieldName:=FieldName, _
Width:=6, Align:=pjCenter, LockFirstColumn:=True,
ColumnPosition:=Column,
Title:=FieldTitle
TableApply ThisTable
End Sub
▼
updating project information, resource
management, and developing cus-
tomized planning solutions.
Second, identify MOUS certified prepara-
tion material using the on-line search
engine at www.mous.net. MOUS-certi-
fied books, CBT, and courseware are produced and pub-
lished by MOUS-independent vendors and independent-
ly reviewed for coverage of Project 2000 Certification
testing objectives.
Third, locate a “Project-ready” MOUS Authorized Testing
Center using the on-line search engine at
www.mous.net, and contact the center to arrange an
exam time. Finally, bring two forms of identification to
the testing center on the exam day and carefully read the
examination instructions before you begin the exam
(which will have a maximum allowed time of 60 min-
utes). If you require certain accommodations to com-
plete the examination process, please give the testing
center ample notice of your requirements.
For additional information regarding the MOUS program
and Project 2000 Certification, visit www.mous.net, or
contact [email protected].
▼6
T he Microsoft Office User Specialist (MOUS) Program
would like to extend its thanks to MPUG-Global
members for their support and participation as beta-
testers in the development of the Microsoft Project 2000
certification exams. Core-level and expert-level examina-
tions are currently available through MOUS Authorized
Testing Centers.
For those who have thus far resisted the call
of an hour of tooth-pulling fun, consider that
Project 2000 Certification is the definitive
industry credential on Project 2000—indica-
tive of abilities to enhance team productivity,
increase data flow and communication, and extend proj-
ect management for organizations of every size using
Project 2000.
So, how do you certify? The process is simple. First,
determine which certification is right for you. Core-level
Project 2000 certification is appropriate for those who
manage small projects (up to 200 tasks) in the course of
their regular responsibilities as construction engineers,
LAN managers, webmasters, programmers, data analysts,
etc. Expert-level certification is more appropriate for
managers in larger organizations responsible for com-
plex projects involving multi-project management,
Microsoft Project 2000 CertificationsBy Bob Hunt, Exam Development Manager, MOUS Certification Program
▼
▼7
As you go forward on building and optimizing your
project plan in Microsoft Project, you change and
refine your project file on a daily basis. When you may
make changes to reflect work that you complete or to mod-
ify tasks currently in progress, the importance of tracking
your project’s progress is essential. Some ways to do this
include:
• Viewing actual versus baseline information
• Setting an interim project plan
• Reporting your project’s progress
Viewing actual versus baseline informationAfter you finish creating your newly built baseline project
plan, you probably can’t wait to see your handiwork. At such
a relatively early stage in the project, however, you really
don’t have anything to see. Down the road, after you make a
few changes and get past a couple of milestones, what you
can see at that point is probably quite a different story.
To view a comparison of your actual performance with
your baseline, all you need to do is click the Tracking Gantt
view icon at the left of the project window. This view
enables you to see current performance as Project meas-
ures it against your forecasts (your baseline). Microsoft
Project also offers a number of reports that will come in
very handy when you are tracking your project’s progress.
Setting an interim planAs you achieve different milestones in your project, you
may want to save additional snapshots of how the work is
progressing. Project enables you to do so through the use
of what it calls interim plans. Interim plans provide
you with good, periodic benchmarks to measure against
the original baseline plan to determine whether your proj-
ect schedule is staying on track.
You can save an interim plan by following these steps:
1. From the Project menu bar, choose
Tools➠ Tracking➠ Save Baseline. The Save Baseline
dialog box will appear.
2. Select the Save Interim Plan radio button. The
Copy and Into text boxes become accessible in order
to take a snapshot (copy) of your baseline plan to cre-
ate an interim plan. You use these text boxes to speci-
fy what elements of your project you’re copying, as
well as to where you’re copying them.
3. Accept the default Copy and Into drop-down list
box values, or select the desired values. Normally,
you can accept the default settings. If you want to base
the interim plan on the baseline settings, however, you
can select Baseline Start/Finish in the Copy text box.
4. Make sure that the Entire Project radio button is
selected, in order to create an interim (snapshot)
Tracking Your Project’sProgress In Microsoft Project
By Greg Mandanis, eProjectSchedulers.com
plan of the entire project. The other option is
Selected Tasks, which you would use only if you were
not creating an interim plan of the entire project.
5. Click OK. Project saves the interim plan.
By periodically saving interim plans during the various
phases of your project, you obtain a series of snapshots of
all your tasks’ start and finish dates at certain points in
time, which you can then compare with your baseline proj-
ect to see if you are on or off schedule.
Reporting your project’s progressBuilding the baseline is unquestionably a big step toward
managing a successful software project. Tracking actual
project progress against the baseline, however, continues
throughout the life of the project. Sound difficult? Actually,
the process is quite simple. Microsoft Project puts valuable
tracking information on your project’s progress right at
your fingertips.
There are a number of ways to measure your software pro-
ject’s success using Microsoft Project.
To view your project’s progress lines on your Gantt
Chart:
1. Select the Gantt Chart icon from the View Bar.
2. Click Tracking➠ Progress Lines.
3. Click Dates and Intervals tab.
To view your project’s baseline estimates:
1. Select the Tracking Gantt icon from the View Bar.
2. From the View menu, choose Table➠ More Tables.
3. From the Tables list, click Baseline.
4. Click Apply.
To compare your project’s baseline estimates against
actual progress:
1. Select the Tracking Gantt icon from the View Bar.
2. Choose Table➠ Variance from the View menu.
3. You can verify if your project’s actual task start
and finish dates are on schedule by dragging the
divider bar to the right in order to view the vari-
ance fields.
Project also offers too many types of reports to detail here.
You can print any of Project’s tracking information at any
time that you want. Just follow these general steps to print
any report in Project:
1. Choose View➠ Reports from the Project menu bar.
2. Select the category of report by clicking on the
desired icon that you want to print and then click
the Select button. Project displays the reports
available in the category you select.
3. Select the report icon you want to print and then
click Select button.
Project pulls together all the information necessary for the
report and then displays a Print Preview version of the
report. You can then use the controls in the Print Preview
view to examine the report, or you can click Print to actu-
ally print it to your printer.
▼
Finding The Missing LinkBy Bob Collins, Member of the MPUG Denver Chapter
Unlike some other similar applications, MS Project
allows the user to define tasks that do not have a
preceding task, and tasks that do not have a suc-
ceeding task, even tasks that have neither. While this
might allow flexibility in the way we build our project
work breakdown structures, it often means that tasks
that should actually be linked get overlooked when
manually scanning for proper connectivity. As a conse-
quence, the forward and backward passes of the
scheduling algorithm produce erroneous results that
might escape detection.
To be sure, tasks that may legitimately be started at the
beginning of
the project
will be
appropriate-
ly scheduled
if not driven
by preceding
t a s k s .
S i m i l a r l y,
those that
need not be
f i n i s h e d
before the
end of the
project will
also be properly scheduled if there are no links to any
succeeding tasks. The accidental omission of links can,
however, lead to alarming results. For example, if the
task Pour concrete were to be defined without a pre-
ceding link, it would be scheduled to start at the begin-
ning of the project, even before the forms were built.
Or if a succeeding link were to be omitted from the
same task, the concrete might be scheduled to be
poured just before the end of the project – probably
not what is intended. On a project with several hun-
dred tasks, such omissions can easily happen and pos-
sibly go undetected.
An automated procedure is presented here that scans
a work breakdown structure for tasks that are not
appropriately linked. It is based on the premise that
only one task in a project may exist that does not have
a preceding task, that task being a milestone called
Project Start. All tasks that may start coincident with
the project’s start, which might otherwise not have a
preceding link, must be connected to the Project Start
milestone. Similarly, only one task may exist that is not
linked to a succeeding task, that being the Project
Finish milestone.
The illustrations below depict a simple model with three
tasks unlinked at their starts, three unlinked at their finish-
es, and one with no links at all. The procedure presented
here would flag those tasks as needing to be properly con-
nected, a condition that would be remedied by the addi-
tion of Project Start and Project Finish milestones and
appropriate linking.
The linkages that would satisfy the requirements of this
procedure may be made manually or with the assistance of
other VBA procedures which could insert the Project Start
and Project Finish
milestones and
effect the proper
linkages. Once
the linkages are
made, the simple
model shown
above would be
as depicted in the
illustration below.
The procedure
that follows inves-
tigates each task
in a project to see
if linkages are
completed. If there is a link missing (either preceding or
succeeding), a message will be displayed (see the illustra-
tion attached to the VBA coding below) identifying the task
and which link needs to be effected. In a project model
that has been carelessly put together, these messages can
be numerous and somewhat irritating, so an option is pro-
vided to “Don’t tell me about this again”. Once all the tasks
have been investigated, a message is displayed requesting
that the user insert the missing linkages and run the pro-
cedure again or, if there are no missing links, will inform
the user to that effect.
Sub MissingLinks()
‘Checks each task in the project for the presence of atleast‘one preceding link and at least one succeeding link
Dim MissingPPorSS As BooleanDim DontTellMeAgain As BooleanDim InputForm As MissingLinkMsgBoxDim TheseTasks As Tasks, ThisTask As Task
‘Make sure we’re dealing with a real schedule...‘ “WeGotProblems” is a simple utility which
Continued on next page
▼8
▼9
‘ (a) checks to see if there is a project open, and‘ (b) if there is a project open, checks to see if it has‘ valid tasks.
If WeGotProblems Then Exit Sub
‘Switch to Gantt View...
If Not ActiveProject.CurrentView = “Gantt Chart” ThenViewApply Name:=”Gantt Chart”
DontTellMeAgain = FalseSet TheseTasks = ActiveProject.Tasks
For Each ThisTask In TheseTasks‘...for each task in the project...
If Not ThisTask Is Nothing Then‘...that isn’t a blank line...
If Not ThisTask.Recurring Then‘...that isn’t a recurring task
If Not ThisTask.Summary Then‘...that is not a summary task...
If Not ThisTask.Milestone Then‘...that isn’t a milestone...
If ThisTask.Predecessors = vbNullStringThen
‘...that has no preceding link...If Not DontTellMeAgain Then‘...if the user wants to know...
Set InputForm = NewMissingLinkMsgBox
‘...then go ahead - tell him/her...
InputForm.MissingLinkMessage.Caption = _“The task: “”” & ThisTask.Name &
“””” & vbCrLf & _“(ID # “ & ThisTask.UniqueID & “)”
& vbCrLf & “ has no preceding links”InputForm.ShowDontTellMeAgain =
InputForm.DontTellMeCheckBoxMissingPPorSS = True
End IfEnd If
‘...and for each task...
If ThisTask.Successors= vbNullString Then ‘...that has nosucceeding link...
If Not DontTellMeAgainThen ‘...if the user wants to know...
Set InputForm =New MissingLinkMsgBox ‘...then goahead - tell him/her...
InputForm.MissingLinkMessage.Caption = _“The task: “”” & ThisTask.Name &
“””” & vbCrLf & _“(ID # “ & ThisTask.UniqueID & “)”
& vbCrLf & “ has no succeeding links”InputForm.ShowDontTellMeAgain =
InputForm.DontTellMeCheckBoxMissingPPorSS = True
End IfEnd If
End IfEnd If
End IfEnd If
Next ThisTask
‘If there are missing links, tell the user to fix the model...If MissingPPorSS Then
MsgBox “Link all tasks, then test again...”, _buttons:=vbCritical, Title:=”Fix Connections”End
ElseMsgBox “All tasks seem to be appropriately linked”, _buttons:=vbInformation, Title:=”no Disconnects”
End IfEnd Sub
The following code pertains to theMissingLinkMessageBox:
Private Sub MissingLinkMessage_Click()‘The caption of this message is generated at run time‘in the MissingLinks procedureEnd Sub
Private SubDontTellMeCheckBox_Click()End Sub
Private SubOKButton_ClickUnload MeEnd Sub
▼
▼10
Where Is My Critical Path?By Eric Uyttewaal, International Institute for Learning, Inc.
T he Critical Path Method (CPM) is a beautiful prod-
uct of human logic. By highlighting tasks that are
most likely to affect the project end date, CPM
helps project managers meet deadlines. But often the
enthusiasm for CPM wanes when the theory is applied
in practice.
Put simply, the CPM works by making a forward pass
through the entire schedule determining the early
start and finish dates. The earliest finish date for the
last task or milestone in the network establishes the
earliest project end date. The CPM then uses a back-
ward pass to calculate the late start and finish dates.
The difference between the late date and the early date
of a task is the amount of total slack (total float) on a
task. Critical tasks have zero slack. Typically you see
that one of the chains of tasks in the network drives
the project end date, this is the Critical Path.
CPM with Project 2000MS Project calculates the Critical Path continuously and
can even highlight it in red if you run the
GanttChartWizard. By default the wizard highlights those
tasks red that have no slack, and it colors the bars of
those critical tasks red. Many times the result has been
disappointing for me when the Critical Path showed up
as a partial and fragmented path. MS Project did not
seem to find a path that started at the project start date
and ran all the way to the project finish date. CPM has
run its course, is what I first thought, but then I realized
that without CPM there is not much else! So I went
searching for the path and here are my findings. So far I
have found four reasons why your critical path may show
up fragmented and as a partial path.
The path will be fragmented if any of the following sit-
uations occur in your schedule:
Special Resource Availability
Consider the task to Move an office, that must take
place during a weekend. If the resources for the task
Move are entered to work only on the weekend, then
the task Move is delayed until the next weekend caus-
ing slack to appear on its predecessors. The result is
that tasks prior to the move are not viewed as “critical”
and the critical path becomes disjointed.
Constraint Dates
Schedule constraints can break the Critical Path. For
example, typically business meetings, presentations,
and other gatherings, which are to occur on a specific
date, are entered with schedule constraints. But as
fixed dates are entered into the schedule, slack is often
created on the predecessors of tasks with schedule
constraints. The Critical Path can start to look disjoint-
ed. In the illustration only the task Meeting will be
indicated as critical.
Elapsed Duration Tasks
An elapsed duration is measured in calendar-days, not
business-days. An elapsed duration task can end during
non-working time. For example, carpet cannot be laid
until after the paint is dry. If Drying of Paint’s elapsed
duration finishes on a Saturday, the task Lay Carpet is
Continued on next page
▼11
scheduled to start on the following Monday. This cre-
ates one day of slack on Drying of Paint and its prede-
cessors, because the paint also dries on Sunday; the
Critical Path is broken. Elapsed duration tasks have
slack if its successors are tasks that start on the next
regular business-day.
Resource Leveling
In this situation some resources are overloaded.
Logically, we then level the workloads to make the
schedule feasible. In some instances, however, the
over-allocations cannot be solved in any other way
than by delaying some tasks. But as soon as a task is
delayed, slack can be created on the tasks that com-
peted for the same resource and the Critical Path
evaporates before your eyes. You can easily check if
this is the case by displaying the task field “Leveling
Delay”. All tasks that were resource leveled have a
non-zero number in this field.If you have encoun-
tered fragmented critical paths and did not under-
stand why they were fragmented, you can check if
your Critical Path is jeopardized by one of the previ-
ous four causes. Realize that each situation may be in
your schedule more than once!
Still Can’t Find It?If you still cannot find your Critical Path, I offer to
find it for you. You will have to send me your sched-
ule (.MPP-file), and I will highlight your (most)
Critical Path and send it back. The reason that I make
this offer is that I am not totally convinced that this
list of four causes is complete, and therefore I would
like to do more research. Please e-mail me at eric.uyt-
[email protected], and be sure to mention that you
send this file to me after reading this article (men-
tion something like “MPUG - The Project Network”),
because I receive many other schedules for certifica-
tion purposes in our certification curriculum. If I
find new causes, I promise to follow up with anoth-
er article on this topic.
Where Is My Critical Path?(continued from page 10)
▼
▼12
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Call us today! 800.642.9259 1409 Foulk Road, Suite 200, Wilmington, DE 198031409 Foulk Road, Suite 200, Wilmington, DE 19803
MPUG-Global participated in the Exhibition Hall at Project
World in Anaheim, California, from December 6-7
thanks to the generous support of our co-sponsor
Microsoft Corp. who covered all expenses and arrangements.
MPUG-Global was part of the Microsoft booth, along with the
Microsoft Project theatre, demo stations, and the MOUS
(Microsoft Office User Specialist) station.
Approximately 200 people collected informa-
tion about MPUG-Global membership and
surfed the MPUG web site. MPUG members
from coast-to-coast including California, Texas,
Georgia, Ohio, and New York stopped by to
say hello and show their support. About 10
new folks volunteered to serve on a chapter
board, sponsor a chapter or support MPUG-
Global through advertising or publicity.
MPUG at Project World
(L to R) The eLabor team sponsors a
number of MPUG chapters. Jim
Patterson on the left is the organizer
of the San Diego Chapter.▼
(L to R) Jerome Mendell, member; NYC
Chapter; Greg Kratochwill, Program Director;
DFW Chapter; Christine Buonocore, Executive
Director, MPUG-Global.
(L to R) Corinne Barr, MOUS; Ying Wang, Jim Fong, Rich
Murphy, Jorg Bott, Microsoft Project Team from Redmond, WA.
Jim Fong, with Microsoft Project
Team in Redmond, delivering
demo at Project World.
Pcubed, founder and co-sponsor of MPUG-Global, shows its sup-
port in force with 5 members of the LA Metro Chapter. (L to R)
Steve Kerler, Christine Buonocore, Beverly Barnett, Jerome
Chemit, David Burke, Biron Crusenberry, Kirk Vantine.
▼13
Setting a Project 2000 Resource Pool as Read-OnlyBy Oliver Mahnes, Pcubed
The default setting with Project 2000 assumes
that Project Managers have read-write access
to a Resource Pool. Indeed, without such priv-
ilege a Project Manager wouldn’t be able to
update new assignments to a Resource Pool.
However, in a large Project 2000 group using a
centralized Project Plan Repository (i.e. SQL
Server/Oracle database) and a Resource Pool
shared among cross-functional areas, this setting
lacks security. Any Project Manager can add, mod-
ify, and delete resources, or worse can delete the
pool itself.
An alternative is to grant Project Managers read-
only rights to the pool, while a Project
Management Office (PMO) is given read-write.
One way to implement this solution is to save the
pool on a network share and set-up rights
through file/folder permissions. The pool is then
administered by the PMO, which is responsible for
linking projects to the pool, updating the pool on
a regular basis (e.g., weekly), and managing the
resource allocation process.
Updating the pool itself is a three-step process.
1. Open the Resource Pool.
2. Select option 3 in the Open Dialog Box (Open
resource pool read-write and all other sharer files
into a new master project file).
3. Save and close the Resource Pool. Updates will be
copied from Project 2000 plans to the pool.
▼
▼14
Times Sure Have ChangedThe following poem was received by MPUG-Global
in an e-mail. The author is unknown.
A computer was something you saw on tv
In science fiction shows of note.
A window was something you hated to clean
And RAM was the male of a goat.
Meg was the name of my favorite girl,
And gig was a job for the nights.
Now, they all mean totally different things -
And that really mega bytes
An application was filled out when you got a job
A program was a tv show.
A cursor was one using profanity
A keyboard was a piano.
A token ring was your friends on a Saturday night,
Compile was in the back of your car.
PALs were the buddies you counted on most
All your streaming was behind the bar.
Memory was something you lost in old age
A CD was a bank account
If you had a 3 1/2 inch floppy, my friend
You hoped no one ever found out!!!
Compress was just something you did to the trash,
Not something you did to a file.
And if you unzipped in a public place
Why, you’d be in jail awhile!!
Log on was just adding wood to the fire
Hard drive was a trip on the road.
A mouse pad was someplace a small rodent lived
And backup was in your commode.
Cut? You did that with your old pocket knife
And paste was what you did with glue.
A web was a spider’s flimsy home.
And a virus was merely the flu .
I think that I’ll stick to my pad and my paper
And the memory here in my head.
I hear no one’s been killed in a computer crash
But when it happens they wish they were dead.
▼15
Nationwide Microsoft ProjectUsers Meeting
The Redmond-
based Microsoft
Project Team host-
ed a Nationwide User
Group Meeting and
10th Anniversary
Celebration of Micro-
soft Project on
September 13 in
Houston, TX. About
60 attendees partici-
pated in the business
meeting and celebrat-
ed at the reception afterwards. MPUG-Global had an
exhibit table and generated interest from prospective
members across the country.
The business meeting included presentations by Steve
Balmer, president of Microsoft Corp. (video welcome);
Todd Warren, general manager of Microsoft Project;
Charlie Schloff, Ford Motor Company; Jerry Cripe,
OnSemiconductor Corp.; Brent Mason, Nivo; and Kris
Tibbetts, product manager with the MS Project Team.
Matt Piazza, founder of the Dallas/Fort
Worth Chapter, and Gary Smith, chief
liaison for the Houston Chapter, help
staff the MPUG-Global booth.
▼
Upcoming MPUG Events CalendarJANUARY
10 SE Michigan Chapter Meeting
11 Washington DC Metro Chapter Launch
18 SE Louisiana Chapter Meeting
23 Atlanta Chapter Meeting
24 Western New York Chapter Meeting
31 New York City Chapter Launch
FEBRUARY
1 Cincinnati Chapter Meeting
15 Houston Chapter Meeting
19 Sydney, Australia Chapter Meeting
20 Chicago Chapter Meeting
MARCH
1 Los Angeles Metro Chapter Meeting
Meeting dates are subject to change. Please refer tothe MPUG-Global website, www.mpug.org, for moredetails or to make a reservation. Additionally, you maycontact the MPUG-Global office at (734) 741-0841.
PRSRT STD
U.S Postage
PAIDNaples, FL
Permit #293
MPUG - Global
3923 Ranchero Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
1. Apply on-line: Select the "Join MPUG" (a
secure link) from the Table of Contents
of our Web site at www.mpug.org. Fill
out the application as requested and
select "Submit Form".
2. Request an MPUG membership appli-
cation via e-mail: [email protected].
3. Request an MPUG membership appli-
cation via phone (734) 741-0841, or
fax (734) 741-1343
How to JoinThere are three easy ways for you to apply
for Individual, Corporate or Student
membership.
pug
MPUG-Global is a member of:
MPUG-GlobalMembership Categories
INDIVIDUAL – For a single named user of
Microsoft Project. Member will receive
regular copies of The Project Network
and be able to attend user group meet-
ings ($75 U.S./year).
CORPORATE – Membership allows up to
10 named people from your company to
attend user meetings and receive The
Project Network ($295 U.S./year).
STUDENT – For a single named individ-
ual who is currently a full-time student
at an accredited institution. Proof of cur-
rent enrollment must be provided ($35
U.S./year).
“Microsoft ProjectPremier Partner”
PcubedEvery Project Successful!
We are a 300 person International program management firm with offices in the UK, US,Europe, Asia, Pacific Rim, and South America. We are growing at 100% per year and mov-ing rapidly towards IPO. We specialize in delivering client programs and projects with qual-ity results on time and on budget. Companies are turning to us for help with scoping, defin-ing and implementing complex programs and projects. Our experience includes businesschange, product/service development, and IT development programs in the e-commerce,IT, telecommunications, automotive, pharmaceutical and financial service sectors.
Our continued expansion requires highly motivated Program/Project Analysts andLeaders from a wide variety of educational and professional backgrounds with vary-ing years of experience. We are looking for creative professionals who thrive on imple-menting business change and enjoy working in a dynamic, informal and fun environment.
Requirements:• Excellent interpersonal and presentation (oral and written) skills.• 1-10+ years experience in Project Management or related field with a proven
track record of successfully delivering projects on time in a team environment.• Familiarity with project planning/scheduling with a working knowledge of high-
end PM tools desirable.• Bachelor or Master’s degree in Engineering, Business, Project/Program
Management, Computer Science or equivalent experience preferred.• Flexible with respect to business-related travel or potential relocation.
We put enthusiasm, teamwork, initiative, knowledge sharing, support, training and person-al development at the heart of our success. Visit our web-site at ww.pcubed.com.
Qualified candidates should e-mail their resume to the following: For opportunities in theUS or Canada, contact [email protected], in the UK, [email protected], for Germany or France, contact [email protected], and forAsia [email protected]. Please reference: MPUG2001.
PROGRAM/PROJECT MANAGEMENT OPPORTUNITIES