The Project Map: Your road map to project management

Here is a great article from Microsoft online help….

Applies to: Microsoft Excel 2010, Project 2010, Project Server 2010

The Project Map can help you accomplish your project goals by teaching you how to work with the standards and practices of project management methodology as you use Project 2010.

The Project Map follows the phases of the project life cycle:

• Initiate your project.
• Plan your project with tasks, budgets and resources.
• Track and monitor your project.
• Close your project.

Click the links to go to “project management goals,” which provide you with detailed information on how to accomplish that goal.

Step 1: Initiate a project

The initiation phase of a project plan helps you prepare for creating a schedule in Microsoft Project. Activities that occur at this time include:

• Preparing a charter that outlines the scope of your project at a high level.
• Understanding who your stakeholders are.
• Getting familiar with the communication and scheduling tools you’ll need to manage your project.

GOAL DESCRIPTION

Introduction to project management
Learn the basics of project management to get the most out of Microsoft Project and complete your project successfully.

Microsoft Project basics
New to Microsoft Project? Learn the basics of the program and how to get started using it for simple project management tasks.

Get to know Project 2010
Project 2010 has powerful new scheduling features, a timeline view, and the team planner, as well as the new ribbon interface.

Initiate a project
The best projects exhibit good planning before the schedule is created. Learn what happens before the schedule happens, such as stakeholder needs, project expectation setting, company constraints and portfolio, and charter drafting.

Step 2: Plan and build a schedule

After a project has been approved and initiated, it’s time to put it together using scheduling software. Activities that occur at this time include:

• Adding tasks to a schedule.
• Creating relationships between tasks using outlining and task linking.
• Assigning people and other resources to tasks.

GOAL DESCRIPTION

Set up a project
Once you've finished your initial planning, use Project 2010 to create and set up your project plan.

Add tasks
Most projects begin with a list of the tasks that need to be completed. Once you create or import your task list, you can then define the relationships between them.

View your project
Project managers, stakeholders, and team members need different types of project information. Project 2010 provides many customizable ways to view the critical elements of your project.

Manage resources
Resources are typically people assigned to tasks in your project plan. They can also include anything that is used to complete a project, such as equipment and materials.

Manage risks
The best way to prevent risks to future projects is to learn from the risks that came up in past projects.

Step 3: Track and monitor your project

Once your project is underway, you need to know what’s happening in order to keep it on-track. Activities that occur at this time include:

• Understand which views in Project help you discover problems in your schedule.
• Take corrective action on problem tasks that are affecting the project end date.
• Communicate problems and possible solutions to your team and stakeholders.

GOAL DESCRIPTION

Track progress
Though Project makes tracking easy, there are several steps to take before you can begin tracking your progress.

Manage project costs
Going over budget often causes projects to fail. Project 2010 can help you add and manage resources to make certain your project ends on time and in good shape.

Work with multiple projects
Use Project 2010 collaboration features to communicate across and manage multiple projects.

Communicate project information
Project 2010 can sync a task list to a list on a SharePoint site. Or you can import a SharePoint list into Project. This helps communication and collaboration in organizations that do not use.

Create and print reports
Project allows you to create visual and textual reports in Excel or Visio to help you analyze and present project information to stakeholders.

Manage risks
Identify potential trouble spots by anticipating risks and responding to risk events, and report project progress to stakeholders and team members.

Use Project Server to manage your project
Discover how Microsoft Project Server can be used to track and manage tasks and assignments throughout your organization.

View your project
Project managers, stakeholders, and team members need different types and depths of project information. Project 2010 provides many customizable ways to view the critical elements of your project.

Step 4: Close your project

All projects come to an end, but this doesn’t mean that your work is finished. If you don’t record the successes and challenges of the project, you’re doomed to repeat the problems in the next project. Activities that occur at this time include:

• Reporting your project successes and challenges to team and stakeholders.
• Archiving your project so that it can be used to help ensure the success of future projects.

GOAL DESCRIPTION

Close your project
Not all work on a project ends when the project ends. Archiving a project is also important, especially if you want others in your organization to copy the successes you had.

Capture and archive project information with SharePoint
Project 2010 can sync a project task list to a list on a SharePoint Server 2010 or SharePoint Foundation 2010 site. Or you can import a SharePoint list into. This is an important option for collaboration, especially if your organization does not use Project Server.

Create project reports
When a project has completed, then it’s time to put a stamp on it by creating reports to show everyone the success of the project. .

View your project
Project managers, stakeholders, and resources need different types and depths of project information. Project 2010 provides many customizable ways to view the critical elements of your project.

The Project Map: Your road map to project management - Project - Office.com