Walter CromerFounder and Chief Idea Officer| Eden Concepts LLCKnoxville, Tn, United States
I demonstrated to a colleague today how they could customize a field to display a graphical indicator instead of the data they had entered. They were amazed they could do that. So I'm going to write an internal company blog post about features like this. I find a lot of people try MS Project and go back to Excel but Project can't do this or that. In reality, I think they just don't know about the features that will give them what they want.
So what are some not widely known valuable features you're using in Project? Here are some thought starters
Custom fields
Grouping
Highlighting
Bar styles
Simply changing font and point size! Saving Changes...
Calendar - 24 Hour/Night Shift/ Standard
Time Dimensions
Task to Milestone conversion
Task constraints
Status reporting
Variance table Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Built in reporting and dashboards
Customization existing reports
Create new reports or dashboards
Show Lync/Skype indicators for resources
timeline view
mulitple timelines - Project 2016
Sync with SharePoint - timeline too!
.... Saving Changes...
Paul OpgrandMaster Scheduler| Northrop GrummanChesapeake, Va, United States
Task Inspector is a great feature that is very useful in finding that constraint or circular logic that is driving your tasks dates to something unexpected. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
Task types are not well understood and can make your life difficult unless you know how to use them properly. Saving Changes...
Apart from the list mentioned by others, you can add the below features not understood well
Task related features:
1. Task Mode (available in Project 2010 and later versions)
2. Constraints versus Deadlines
3. Impact of inactivate versus deleting tasks
4. Difference between current plan and baseline (Entry versus Baseline table)
5. Including multiple bars in Timeline view (available only in Project 2016)
6. Text Styles versus Filters and Highlight
7. Difference between Fixed Cost and Cost resource
8. Difference between task start/finish and assignment start/finish
9. If tasks are interrupted, rather than moving the incomplete work (Stop and Resume fields), new tasks are inserted
10. Confusing %Complete with %Work complete
11. Tracking Gantt view allows to visually compare current plan with the baseline
Resource related features
1. Confusing resource calendar settings with resource availability
2. Confusing resource calendar settings with File, Options, calendar settings
3. Defining the total materials cost instead of per unit cost of materials in Resource Sheet view
4. Rather than using variable costs using cost rate tables, they use cost resource or fixed cost
5. Leveling options settings not set optimally (Resource, Leveling options)
6. Based on the needs, the resource should either be a group resource or individual
7. Not mapping the work resource to correct base calendar
8. Difference between resource availability units, assignment units and peak units
9. Resource graph can indicate the work availability and work assigned. This is useful when assigning resources
10. Team planner view, Task Usage views, Resource Usage views provides the assigned work timephased Saving Changes...
