Chapter 4 -- Viewing Project Information

Chapter 1

Consider this scenario: You are a product manager of a small startup company. In addition to handling research, development, material procurement, marketing, and staff development, you have been assigned the responsibility of being the project manager of the launch of your company's newest product next year.

Consider a second scenario: You are a project management professional who manages projects for several departments in your corporation at any given time. You are responsible for managing thousands of tasks, hitting hundreds of deadlines, and assigning scores of resources. You need to plan and monitor each project, work with different managers, and make the best use of team members—some of whom might work on only one project, and others might be shared among several of your projects.

As these two scenarios illustrate, project management is a process and a discipline that can be one of many tasks in your job description or the full focus of your career.

Numerous industries rely on sound project management for their success:

• Construction
• Computer system deployment
• Engineering
• Events planning
• Filmmaking
• Logistics
• Publishing
• Software development

Effective project management is vital at the start of a project when you're determining what needs to be done, when, by whom, and for how much money. Effective project management is also essential after you kick off the project, when you are continually controlling and managing the project details. You frequently analyze the project—tracking the schedule, the budget, resource requirements, and the scope of tasks. In addition, you're managing the level of quality in the project, planning for risks and contingencies, and communicating with the members of the project team as well as upper management or customers.

Throughout this intricate process of planning and tracking your project, Microsoft Project 2002 is a valuable assistant—a software tool that can help you manage the many responsibilities associated with your project. Many software applications can help you work toward producing a specific result that you can print, publish, or post. Although it's true that you use Microsoft Project to set up a project schedule and print reports that reflect that schedule, Microsoft Project goes beyond just the printed outcome. It helps you brainstorm, organize, and assign your tasks as you create your plan in the planning phase. Microsoft Project then helps you track progress and control the schedule, your resources, and your budget during the execution phase. All this so you can achieve your real objective—to successfully achieve the goals of your project on schedule and under budget.