Five incorrect way’s to use Microsoft Project stand alone version

Hi there,

As a consultant you come across a lot of different projects/companies/people. I’ve been doing this for 5+ years and there are some flaws that keep popping up, regardless of the company, project or person.

In this post I would like to announce 5 of these flaws, the next couple of blogs will be dedicated to explaining and subsequently solving the situation.

Here we go:

Flaw 1: Date related planning

Flaw 2: Capacity as activity

Flaw 3:Lack of structure (Work Breakdown Structure)

Flaw 4: To much detail in the schedule

Flaw 5: No way back! Not using the baseline functionality

Edit: 12 November 2013

I got some really great responses on the flaws mentioned above. And some people have suggested new flaws. I will post about these flaws as well and ad the links to this post to give you a complete overview.

Flaw 6: using predecessors in summary tasks

Flaw 7: What’s your status? Forgetting to set a status date

If you are done reading all the articles above here are two suggestions for more:

  • The TPC newsletter: a periodic newsletter with information about PPM and Project (management).
  • The TPC OneDrive: a place with valuable project content such as whitepapers and reports.

22 thoughts on “Five incorrect way’s to use Microsoft Project stand alone version”

  1. Hi Erik,
    I agree with you, but I suggest you to add a #6 way: lack of project management fundamentals. I found in my experience that several problems that impact also on MS Project are caused by the use of the software without solid knowledge of processes to manage a project.
    My #7 reason to failing (or troubled projets) is to think to manage a project with MS Project without a minumum of training on it. I find that MS Project is used in this way:
    1-Install it and 2-Begin to use it 😉
    You agree with me?
    Rosario

    1. Hello Rosario,

      2 very nice additions. Thanks for the interaction!

      I do believe #7 will solve all but #6, because a good trainer will make an effort to clear up these flaws in planning during his/her course.

      #6 will be a structural change in the organization, MS Project will never solve that issue 🙂 it could only make it painfully clear that there is something lacking.

      Thanks again for your addition, please keep reading. I’m curiouse to hear your views on my next blogs. These will give more insight in the flaws.

      1. Hi Dave, thank you for your comment.
        I am not sure if you are referring to a good or bad thing. If people “plug and play” and know what they are doing that’s a good thing I guess.
        But if they think that MS Project is just another Excelsheet, they might be missing alot of additional functionality.
        I hope you’ll take the time to elaborate on your comment 🙂

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