Microsoft Project; The Ultimate Agenda Maker
Watch video HERE
I remember opening MS
Project for the first time, playing around in the tool for a while, then
thinking “I can do all this in Excel”. I put the tool away and never touched it
again. That is until I became an official Project Manager. My thoughts at that
point were “I should probably learn how to use this tool”. Well after many
years and many projects, I realize that MS Project is a powerful tool at
helping me manage my work. I now work with MS Project the way most people work
with Excel. I find various uses for the tool that may be outside the norm.
For example, I
facilitate a number of meetings or training sessions. If you think about it, a
training session (or meeting) is nothing more than a small project involving
Scope, Cost and Time. You have specific information that you need to deliver in
a fixed duration. These training sessions are anywhere from 2 to 12 hours in
duration. So just like a traditional project, if you do not have a plan, you
are likely to get off track and run out of time before the targeted completion.
And also like a project, if you have a baseline plan, you can compare your
current status to the baseline to ensure you stay on track.
The following article
will demonstrate how to leverage MS Project to help you construct an agenda.
Step 1 – Open MS Project
Step 2 – Save file
with meaningful name
Step 3 – Activate
Project Summary Task
Click on >Gantt
Chart Format and place a check in the Show Project Summary Task option
Step 4 – Navigate to
the Task Sheet view
Right click on the
View Bar
Then click >Task
Sheet
Step 5 – Alter Options
Click on >File,
>Options, >Schedule. Change the
following:
-
New tasks
created: ‘Auto Scheduled’
-
Default task type:
‘Fixed Duration’
-
Duration is entered
in: ‘Hours’
-
Autolink inserted or
moved tasks: Check
Click on >OK
Step 6 – Alter the
Date format
Click on >File,
>Options
From General option,
set Date format: 12:33PM
Click on >OK
Step 7 – Change
Project Start Time
Click on >Project,
>Project Information and input the start time for your meeting.
Step 8 – Hide Timeline
Click on the >View
tab, then Uncheck the Timeline option
Step 9 – Input
your agenda items
This step would equate
to PMI’s Schedule Management process of Define Activities.
Step 10 – Link
Topics
This step would equate
to PMI’s Schedule Management process of Sequence Activities. Given that this is
a meeting or training session, all tasks must occur sequentially. In other
words we will use a Finish to Start type relationship between all tasks. We
link these tasks together using the Predecessor field. You could type in the
predecessor for each task, but there is an easier way! To link a series of
tasks together sequentially using MS Project, there is an option to Link Tasks.
Here’s how to use it: first select all the tasks, then click on the ‘Link the
Selected Tasks’ option (chain link) under the Task tab.
Notice that the
Duration of your meeting is now 72 hours.
Step 9 – Input
Durations
This step would equate
to PMI’s Schedule Management process of Estimate Activity Durations. For each
topic or agenda item, simply input the estimated duration it will take to cover
that topic. By default, if we simply enter a number, MS Project will assume we
are inputting hours. But in the case of a meeting, we need to input the
duration in the form of minutes. In order to do that we simply type an “m”
after the duration. For example, if we feel it will take 10 minutes to provide
the Meeting Overview, we click on the Duration field for the Meeting Overview
task and type “10m”. Then hit enter.
Complete this step for
all items.
We can now see that in
order to cover all of these agenda items, it is going to take a little over 2
hours. But if your overall duration is fixed at only two hours, you realize
some tweaks will need to be made to this schedule or plan. There are two
options we can take. Option 1 is to reduce the Duration of at least one item.
Option 2 would be to remove an item from this meeting.
We will select Option
1. Topic Two can probably be covered in only 10 minutes.
Notice that the overall duration is now 2 hours. We have a do-able plan!!
But wait….you just
realize that the coffee and bagels are scheduled to arrive at 9:15am. You must
adjust the Break time so it begins at 9:15AM. No worries!!!! Simply highlight the
entire task for Break and drag it up. MS Project will automatically recalculate
and re-establish the links.
Step 11 – Add
Resource Names
If different people
are responsible for covering the various topics, you can leverage the Resource
Names field to identify these individuals.
Step 11 – Save and
print the plan
Step 12 – Manage to the plan
Distribute copies of
your agenda at the beginning of the meeting. Just like a project, you want your
team to know the objective, timing and assignments. Leverage your agenda just
as you would a project schedule. Watch the time to make sure you stay on track.
If you get off track, you will be able to tell how far off track you are and
assess what needs to occur in order to get back on track.
This approach may seem
like overkill for a short meeting, but if you have a long meeting or training
session with a number of topics that need to be covered, I’m sure you will find
this approach to be very beneficial.
Note: You may find this online training course of value:
