Spreading the news

I’m one of those people who need instant gratification. One of the first things I ask about learning to use any new software product is, “What’s in it for me?” Until now, I’ve told you about the type of information you have to put into Project: information about tasks, task dependencies, and resources. But isn’t it about time you got something back from Project? Of course it is.

You finally reached one of the big payoffs for entering all that information: reporting. After you enter your information, Project offers a wealth of report- ing options to help you view your project and communicate your  progress to your project team, clients, and management

You can generate predesigned reports based on information in your schedule or simply print any of the views you can display in Project. Project 2007 offers a set of Basic Reports and Visual Reports. (You must have the Microsoft .NET Framework installed in order to use Visual Reports, which is free and down- loadable from www.microsoft.com/downloads.) Figures 1-5 and 1-6 show
you just two of the reporting options available in Project.

Planning to keep things on track

Projects aren’t frozen in amber like some organizational mosquito: They go through more changes than a politician’s platform in a campaign year. That’s where Project’s capability to make changes to your project data comes in handy.

After you build all your tasks, give them durations and dependencies, and assign all your resources and costs, you set a baseline. A baseline is a snap- shot of your project at the moment you feel your plan is final and you’re ready to proceed with the project. After you set a baseline, you record some
activity on your tasks. Then you can compare that actual activity with your baseline because Project saves both sets of data in your schedule.

Tracking activity in your project involves recording the actual timing of tasks and recording the time that your resources have spent on those tasks, as well as entering any actual costs that accrue. You can then display Project views that show you how far off you are at any time (compared with your baseline) in terms of the actual timing of tasks and cost of your project.

Whether you have good news or bad, you can use reports to show your boss how things are going compared with how you thought they would go. Then, after you peel your boss off the ceiling, you can use many more Project tools to make adjustments to get everything back on track.