Software programs are designed to handle specific tasks or sets of tasks. For instance, Microsoft® Office Outlook® 2007 provides tools to perform several tasks, including creating and managing e-mail, setting up to-do lists, and organizing your contacts. You can even use Office Outlook 2007 to assign tasks, manage meetings, and keep track of events. When you need to manage a project, however, you might want to look into a project management program such as Microsoft Office Project 2007.
This chapter focuses on integrating Outlook 2007 and Office Project 2007. For instance, you’ll learn how to set up a resource list in Project 2007 using Outlook 2007 contacts. In addition, you can use the Outlook 2007 reminder feature to send yourself alerts about tasks during a project’s lifetime.
Before you learn how to integrate Outlook 2007 and Project 2007, you first need to look at what Project 2007 is and what you can do with it as a stand-alone program.
Project 2007 is an electronic project management tool. You can use Project 2007 to perform the following tasks:
Create project plans
Track projects from start to finish
Capture important milestones during a project
Use Budget Tracking to define a budget so project managers can allocate funds and track costs
Send announcements to team contacts about the status of a project
Use the Visual Report feature to create drill-down charts, graphs, and diagrams using Microsoft Office Excel® 2007 and Microsoft Office Visio® 2007
Point out potential and actual problems during the course of a project
Schedule meetings with important people
These are just a few examples of how Project 2007 makes it easy to view and manage your projects. Figure 38-1 shows one of the ways Project 2007 displays information related to your projects.
Figure 38-1. Use Project 2007 to organize, manage, and track projects for you, your team, or your entire organization.
Now let’s look at some basic project management considerations as well as Project 2007 tasks and how to perform them.
Almost everyone—worker, homeowner, or organizational leader—works on some type of project. Some common projects include the following:
Depending on the project you manage, you might need to keep track of a few or several hundred details. For example, some projects are small enough that you need to keep track of only two or three employees, a few material resources (such as a load of gravel or a small shipment of computers), and a start and finish date. For larger projects, you might need to monitor not only your own employees but also the schedules of related firms’ employees and project budgets; you also might include milestones to ensure that your schedule stays on track.
Some projects don’t require a robust software tool such as Project 2007. For instance, if you’re put in charge of only one small project that can be finished in less than a day, you can probably track the project more efficiently with a scratch pad and pen. You shouldn’t waste time starting Project 2007, entering new project criteria, mapping a Gantt chart, and then starting the project. Simply get the resources you need and finish the project as quickly as you can.
Suppose that you are assigned multiple small projects, a few medium-sized ones, and a large project that must all be completed over several months, however. A project management tool such as Project 2007 can help ensure that you remember the details and maintain the schedule.
As a project gets under way (and while it’s in progress), you must strive to keep three things in balance: scope, schedule, and resources.
A project’s scope is the set of tasks required to finish the project. If you are remodeling a bathroom in your home or office, for example, you must finish specific tasks before your bathroom is considered complete. Some of these tasks might include designing a new floor plan, ordering bathtub and sink fixtures, setting up a plumbing contractor, and demolishing the existing bathroom. All these tasks make up the scope of the project.
Your project’s schedule is the time required to complete the project’s tasks and the order of those tasks. The schedule includes the obvious: projected start and finish dates. However, you must also consider scheduling other resource items, such as dates for the plumbing and heating personnel, the tile contractor, the electrician, and the inspector. Schedules should also include proposed receipt dates of any materials you need, such as custom faucet fixtures, lighting tracks, and a water filtration unit.
Finally, the resources for a project include the materials, equipment, and people necessary to complete the project. In many instances, you include not only contact information but also wage and benefit information for the people involved. (Benefits can include time off or holidays you must schedule around.) Likewise, materials and equipment connected with your project have related costs, operating expenses, and scheduling dynamics you must consider.
Another resource is where the project will take place. You must know the availability of the space throughout the project. In our example, the project’s location is a bathroom, so you might not want to plan a renovation project to start when you are also hosting a large party. Similarly, if a project involves training employees, you don’t want to schedule the training sessions to coincide with vacations or company-related events when an employee or group of employees will be out of town.
Project 2007 helps you with the four main project management steps:
Defining the project
Creating the project plan
Tracking the project
Finishing the project
When you define the project, you outline the goals, define the scope, determine the necessary resources, and estimate how much time is needed to complete the project. You should also add milestones and internal deadlines, such as the date you want a wall demolished.
The project plan is the blueprint for your project. In short, the plan specifies exactly what needs to be accomplished, who will complete each task, how much time is estimated for each task, which tasks are dependent on others to finish before they can start, and any constraints you want applied to a task or a schedule. An example of a task constraint, or dependency, is that you might need to hire an electrician to rough in electrical outlets before your drywall contractor puts up your walls. Completing the drywall is dependent on the completion of the electrical work. Constraints might also include starting a task on a specific date (such as not on a weekend or holiday because of higher contracting costs).
The strength of Project 2007 is that it can track your project’s history from start to finish as long as you enter correct data and keep the information up to date. Project 2007 can compare the actual time to complete a task with the time you estimated (and budgeted for). It also can analyze resource requirements to determine whether a resource is overloaded or whether you have scheduled a resource to complete more than one task at the same time. (Your plumber can work on only one part of the bathroom at a time, for instance.) You can reformulate the plan to include additional resources, extend the project time, or redefine the scope of the project.
Even when a project is complete, your work isn’t finished. For example, you might want to analyze the project so you can figure out how to manage a future project. Or you might have to gather project costs to review them with your manager or spouse. You might want to archive the project file for future reference.
To help you understand how Project 2007 works, this section shows you how to create a simple project plan for publishing a departmental newsletter.
Follow these steps to create the project:
Start Project 2007.
Choose File, Close to close the blank project.
Choose File, New.
In the New Project pane, click the Blank Project link (see Figure 38-2). A blank project window opens, and project tasks are shown in the Tasks pane. If the Tasks pane does not appear, choose View, Toolbars, Task Pane.
Click the Define The Project link; then enter a start or finish date. In this example, choose to start the project today.
Click Continue To Step 2.
Specify whether you want to use the new Microsoft Project Server 2007 to let you collaborate with others on your project. For now, click No.
Click Continue To Step 3.
Click Save And Finish to begin adding details about your project.
The Tasks pane shows several links to wizards that will walk you through adding details to your project. We’ll walk you through two more to help get your project going.
To set up working times for your project, do the following:
Click the Define The Project’s General Working Hours link in the Tasks pane (see Figure 38-3).
Select a calendar template from the Project Working Times drop-down list. Choose Standard, 24 Hours, or Night Shift to specify the type of hours your project will display. Select Standard for now.
Click Continue To Step 2.
In the Define The Work Week page, select the days of the week for your project.
Click I Want To Adjust The Working Hours Shown For One Or More Days Of The Week to change the times that are displayed as working and nonworking times. You can change one day at a time; you can also select new times and then click Apply To All Days to have your changes reflected on all days.
Click Continue To Step 3.
Click Change Working Time to set the holidays and days off you want to recognize during your project (see Figure 38-4).
Click OK when you finish setting up these special times.
Click Continue To Step 4.
Specify the default time units. Project 2007 starts you off by using the standard 8-hour days, 40-hour weeks, and 20-day months. Adjust these numbers as needed for your project.
Click Save And Finish to complete the Project Working Times task.
Choose File, Save to save the project. Enter the project name Issue 1 and click Save.
Now you’re ready to enter your task list. The task list for this example includes the following:
Write Each Article. In this four-page newsletter, each page will include one article named Page One Article, Page Two Article, and so on.
Create The Author List. Each article will have a separate author.
Define The Editor And Editor Dates. The newsletter will be edited by one editor.
Submit Articles To The Desktop Publisher. The newsletter will be desktop published by one person.
Submit The Newsletter To The Printer. The edited and desktop-published newsletter will be shipped to a printer on a specific date for printing.
Send Out The Finished Newsletter. The printed newsletter will be mailed to subscribers by a specific date.
As you can see from the list, a simple four-page newsletter can include many tasks, dates, and resources.
Now add these tasks to your new project using Gantt Chart view:
In Project 2007, on the View menu, click Gantt Chart.
In the Task Name box, type a task name, such as Newsletter Issue 1. Press Enter.
Continue adding tasks and durations. (If you’re following along with the example, see Table 38-1 for the list of tasks and their durations.)
Table 38-1. Tasks for Newsletter Issue 1
Task Name
Duration
Indents
Predecessor
Newsletter Issue 1
22 days
None
N/A
Write Articles
11 days
One
N/A
Write Page One Article
1 day
Two
N/A
Write Page Two Article
7 days
Two
N/A
Write Page Three Article
3 days
Two
N/A
Write Page Four Article
9 days
Two
N/A
Edit Articles
10 days
One
Write Articles
Edit Article One
1 day
Two
Write Page One Article
Edit Article Two
2 days
Two
Write Page Two Article
Edit Article Three
1 day
Two
Write Page Three Article
Edit Article Four
2 days
Two
Write Page Four Article
Desktop Publish Issue 1
3 days
One
Edit Articles
Print Newsletter
8 days
One
Desktop Publish Issue 1
Send Newsletter To Printer
2 days
Two
Desktop Publish Issue 1
Review And Approve Test Prints
1 day
Two
Send Newsletter To Printer
Print Copies Of Newsletter
2 days
Two
Review And Approve Test Prints
Receive Printed Newsletters
2 days
Two
Print Copies Of Newsletter
Mail Newsletter To Recipients
1 day
One
Receive Printed Newsletters
Order the tasks in the outline by indenting them, as shown in Table 38-1. (For instance, indent the Write Page One Article task two times.) To indent a task, click the Indent button on the Formatting toolbar.
Add predecessors, as indicated in Table 38-1. To do this, double-click a task and click the Predecessor tab. Click the Task Name column and select the predecessor in the drop-down list. Click OK to apply the change.
Note
In Project 2007, a predecessor task is a task that must start or finish before another task can begin. For example, before an article can be edited, it first must be written, so all editing tasks have a predecessor task of writing. You can specify predecessor tasks using the Predecessors tab of the Summary Task Information dialog box.
Check to be sure that your entries match those shown in Figure 38-5.
Choose File, Save to save the project.
After you create your project plan, you can edit it for real data. For instance, suppose that the author of the article in Figure 1-1 needs an extra three days to complete it. Because everything that follows the authoring stage—editing, page layout, printing, and mailing—is dependent on the article being written, you must adjust your plan accordingly. To do this, change the duration date from 9 days to 12 days by clicking the Duration item in the Write Page Four Article row, and then use the spinner control to increase the duration. (You also can type the value and then press Enter.) Notice how this affects everything after the authoring stage.
This example, simple as it is, shows you how Project 2007 can manage and keep track of your projects. The next section looks at how you can integrate Project 2007 and Outlook 2007.
Note
For more information on using Project 2007, visit the Microsoft Office Project Web site at www.microsoft.com/office/project/.
Troubleshooting
You’re having trouble viewing and printing tasks and dependencies for projects
If you’re having difficulties working with your projects, part of the problem might be that the project has grown too large, which can happen pretty easily. In this section, you learned how to create a simple project. This small project could easily grow into a large project if you expanded it to include marketing and advertisement tasks. In general, as you’re creating your projects, you might want to consider breaking large tasks into smaller multiple tasks to make them more manageable. To do this, follow these steps:
On the View menu, choose Gantt Chart.
Hold down Ctrl and click the row heading of each task you want to break out as a new project.
Right-click and choose Cut Task.
Choose File, New.
Click Blank Project to display a blank project.
Choose Edit, Paste to paste the tasks into the new project.
Click File, Save and type a file name for the new project. Click Save.