Lessons Learned with Microsoft Project (Part 3)

Dr. Andrew Makar is an IT program manager and is the author of the Microsoft Project Made Easy series. For more project management advice, visit the website TacticalProjectManagement.com.

  Estimating   Lessons Learned  

Lesson Learned #3: Know how to use Fixed Duration, Fixed Work and Fixed Unit Type Estimates.

The previous two lessons learned focused on MS-Project's views and work breakdown. The next lesson learned focuses on the project planning phase and using the different task types to build an accurate work breakdown structure. After the project manager and other stakeholders understand the project scope, the project can be decomposed into manageable chunks and individual tasks with time estimates.

Estimates are predictions of task effort and duration. MS-Project supports different task types including Fixed Duration, Fixed Work and Fixed Unit types. It is important to understand these project types and how they interact with MS-Project. Creating a project plan with a mix of fixed work and fixed duration tasks is recommended. The MS-Project Type field allows the project manager to create a well-defined project plan with status meetings and reviews built into the project schedule. The plan becomes a more accurate representation of project execution.

A typical project includes tasks that are effort driven and duration driven. A project manager may include duration task types such as milestone reviews after each lifecycle phase. Since these milestones are dependent upon the work in each phase, it is helpful to include them in the plan to organize and …

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