Category: Brainstorm

Sometimes I have a brainstorm session with friends/coworkers and it sticks with me. When that is the case I will sometimes start writing a post that grows on me as it progresses. These Brainstorm sessions I have with myself mostly will gather information from other sources around the web, and might contain best practices. But I don’t want to categorize the posts as best practices because I’m not sure about what the actual best practice is. Good examples of a Brainstorm posts are called The deal with Project Failure and What are workdays in Microsoft Project.

There is also a special kind of brainstorming I do, these are the About posts. Big, content rich articles about specific items or subjects related to Microsoft Project or Project Management.

But there’s sure to come more brainstorms in the future. I hope you like the content that’s already here. And if you are interested in doing a brainstorming session with me please let me know in one of the comments.

About start dates in Microsoft Project

Hi Readers,

It’s been a busy month but here I am again with a new post. This post will be all about the different start dates Microsoft Project has to offer and what you can expect from them. We all know “start date” and most of you will be familiar with “baseline start date”. However, there are more! Hope you enjoy the post, let me know if I missed anything. I will be using MS Project professional 2013 in examples.

Just a small update, I got connected with Webucator, they created a video based on this post. Have a look here.

Continue reading About start dates in Microsoft Project

About Percent Complete in Microsoft Project

Hello readers,

In this post I will take an extensive look at a set of fields that report progress in the schedule. I will have a close look at the Percentage complete entities within Microsoft Project There are % complete, % work complete fields and then there is also something called Physical % complete. In the field I get asked about the differences between the 3 fields on a regular basis. This post will help clear up some of the confusion, I hope.

March 2016 update ——————
Raphael Santos, Consultant at Sensei Project Solutions, is kind enough to provide a translated version of this post in Portuguese. Here is the link: http://www.raphael-santos.net/2016/03/campos-de-percentual-concluido-do-Microsoft-Project.html.

@Raphael; thanks man!
———————————————

Continue reading About Percent Complete in Microsoft Project

The 80-20 for Microsoft Project

During the two weeks I was taking care of little Wendy I also started reading The Four Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss. And apart from being an excellent guide to rapid fat-loss and perfecting sleep, there is one real interesting concept that got stuck in my mind: The Pareto or 80-20 principle. Tim is a great source for finding the 20% that produces 80% of the desired results. Now, let’s find out that 20% for Microsoft Project use!

Continue reading The 80-20 for Microsoft Project

Must start/finish on constraints with a twist

Hi readers,

A while back I got an interesting reply on one of my blog posts. A top contributor of one of the LinkedIn forums I frequently visit had an interesting view on the Must Start/finish constraints that I was not aware of yet. So here is a post dedicated to Sai Prasad describing this behavior. Continue reading Must start/finish on constraints with a twist

The Project conference 2014 series

Hi readers,

I think I am not done yet with the Project conference 2014. Which was in February 2014. There was so many content that I am still working out the “aftermath weekend posts” and then there are the great meetings I had with TPG, Sensei Project Solutions, Projectum, FluentPro, EPMA, and i2e consulting. Continue reading The Project conference 2014 series

A Microsoft Project quick win post “fixing a task that doesn’t move”

Hi readers,

I would just like to share a quick post with you that is closely related to Flaw 1 in my series on incorrect use of Microsoft Project stand alone version. What I want to do here is a quick win post: One that you can read in 5 minutes, but makes your live a lot easier afterwards.

Continue reading A Microsoft Project quick win post “fixing a task that doesn’t move”

Project conference – aftermath weekend part 1

Hi readers,

I love the “myPC” tool that Microsoft used to evaluate and present the sessions. Attendees can add a session to their calander and share it with other attendees and even schedule meetings (like I did with Cindy Lewis).

Further more,
Continue reading Project conference – aftermath weekend part 1

My view on ProjectOnline (including 2 great new features)

Microsoft launched their new Product Project Server 2013 in two distinct versions. We have a Project Server 2013 option, where the server is running on local application servers or hosted by third party suppliers. This is cheaper than the 2010 version because it now has only 1 dedicated database instead of 4. And the second option, closely linked to Office365, is called ProjectOnline. ProjectOnline is marketed as a completely new way to look at servers and gives the client the option to seriousy downsize their technical maintenance staff because Microsoft itself hosts the servers. Continue reading My view on ProjectOnline (including 2 great new features)