Best Project Management book "THE GOAL"

Just completed reading "THE GOAL". It is a management-oriented novel by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt, a business consultant whose Theory of Constraints has become a model for systems management.

The book explains how we complicate things in our life unnecessarily. I really liked the passion with which the main character Alex turn things around in 3 months.

I highly recommend this book to anybody who is into project management. Some of the theories (constrain, bottlenecks, Socratic method) presented in the book are really amazing.

Microsoft Project 2007: Using Lag and Lead

In addition to using task relationship, you can modify when a relationship goes into effect using Lag and Lead options. As you create relationships, you will see the Lag box in both the Task Dependency dialog box and the Task Information dialog box. Lag and Lead time are both entered in the Lag box.

Lag Time is the amount of time you want to delay the start of the successor task.

Lead Time is the amount of time you want to give head start to the successor task. Successor task will begin partway through the work of predecessor task.

Let's see an example of using Lag and Lead. We have two tasks.
Screen 1: Shows these tasks with simple Finish to Start relationship.

Now we want to delay Task 2 by two days

Screen 2: Shows steps to add two days Lag

Screen 3: Shows the effect of adding Lag on Task 2

Similarly if you want to start task 2 partially when task 1 is complete then you add Lead time.
Lead is also known as Negative Lag.


Add -2 (negative two) in the Lag column of Task details screen (i.e. screen 2 above).

Screen 4: Shows the effect of adding Lead on task 2

Powerpoint 2007 Use Presenter View to your benefits

During presentation, everyone must have faced problem of remembering slide sequence or which slide is going to come next or keeping printed notes to help us out. This can be a big problem sometime since it will reduce the overall effectiveness of the presentation. Microsoft powerpoint 2007 has answer to this problem.

Presenter View

You can run your Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 presentation from your laptop while your audience views it on a second monitor or most of the time projector screen. By using two display units, you can run other programs that your audience will not see, and you can access Presenter view. Presenter view offers the following tools to make it easier for you to present information:

1. You can use thumbnails to select slides out of sequence and create a customized presentation for your audience.
2. Preview text shows you what your next click will add to the screen, such as a new slide or the next bullet in a list.
3. Speaker's notes are shown in large, clear type so that you can use them as a script for your presentation.
4. You can black out the screen during your presentation and then resume where you left off. For example, you might not want to display the slide content during a break or a question and answer (Q and A) period.

In Presenter view, icons and buttons are large enough to navigate easily, even when you are using an unfamiliar keyboard or mouse. The following illustration shows the various tools that are available to you from Presenter view.

To use Presenter view, do the following:

1. Make sure that the computer that you are using for the presentation has multiple monitor capability. Most desktop computers require two video cards for multiple monitor capability, and many laptop computers have multiple monitor capability built in.

2. Turn on multiple monitor support.

3. Turn on Presenter view.

Turn on multiple monitor support
1. On the Slide Show tab, in the Monitors group, click Show Presenter View.
2. In the Display Properties dialog box, on the Settings tab, click the monitor icon for the presenter's monitor, and then select the Use this device as the primary monitor check box.
3. If the Use this device as the primary monitor check box is selected and unavailable, the monitor is already designated as the primary monitor. You can select only one primary monitor at a time. If you click a different monitor icon, the Use this device as the primary monitor check box is cleared and made available again.
4. Click the monitor icon for the audience's monitor, and then select the Extend my Windows Desktop onto this monitor check box.

Deliver a presentation on two monitors by using Presenter view
1. After you set up your monitors, open the presentation that you want to deliver, and then do the following: On the Slide Show tab, in the Set Up group, click Set Up Slide Show.
2. In the Set Up Show dialog box, choose the options that you want, and then click OK.
3. To begin delivering your presentation, on the View tab, in the Presentation Views group, click Slide Show.

Microsoft Project 2007 Task Relationships

Only entering tasks in Project is not sufficient. You need to set the dependencies (or relationships) between them. Not setting the relationship means you are not using the power of Project and you are using this software as normal Excel sheet.



Following different types of relations exists Project:st
1. Finish to Start
2. Finish to Finish
3. Start to Start
4. Start to Finish

When you create relationship between two tasks then both predecessor and successor are defined. Predecessor is the task that must begin or reach completion before another task (successor) can begin or finish. Successor always depends on the start or finish of the predecessor.

Finish to Start is the default task relationship and most widely used. Finish to Finish and Start to Start are moderately used. The last relation type Start to Finish is rarely used however comes in very handy in a complex tasks scheduling.

What a Sunday

Formula 1 at Silverstone in the afternoon, the first real mountain stage of the Tour de France with the arrival at 1700 metres on the plateau of Alpe-Duez in the evening and later at night, the World Cup final at Johannesburg in South Africa. My eyes are in bad shape today. However I thoroughly enjoyed all the three sporting events.

British GP: McLaren scored 2-4 in the race which I think is quite commendable after their aero upgrade failed to deliver in the qualifying. Hamilton's 4th on the grid was a real surprise and 2nd place finish even better. He gave quite a good challenge to Webber. Button's could manage dismal 14th on grid. However his pace was ok during the race and earned himself 4th position also helped by faulty race of Ferrari. McLarens are still leading both championship.

Tour de France: What a thrilling race. Bad luck struck Armstrong twice where he was involved in 2 crashes thus ending his dream of winning the tour a record 8th time. However I believe that he will go into team player role and support his Radioshak team mates who has real go at the tour. Salutes to Lance Armstrong.

Football worldcup final: I was very excited to watch the final match since it comes every 4 years. Talking about the match quality, it was average and didn't like the overall finish by both the teams. May be playing at such a huge stage was taking a toll on the player's mind. Spain conquered world event in the end. It was wonderful to watch Casillas lift the world cup trophy. Africa hosted the event with full heart. Congrats.

Hoping to get some good sleep now ;)

Using change highlighting in Project 2007

Project provides a very good feature of viewing change highlighting. This feature is very handy during the initial planning phase as well as during execution.
With this feature enabled, you can visually see how any change you make affects other project tasks.

Even though this feature presents nice way to see the effect of changes on other project tasks, it is temporary. As soon as you save the project file or make another change, the original change highlighting is removed and replaced with new set of changes.

Use View -> Hide/Show Change Highlighting option to turn this feature off/on.

Using project Templates

Project 2007 has hundreds of ready made project templates. You can use these templates off the shelf. Whenever you are creating new project plan always take a quick look if there's a template which can solve your purpose.

In Project you can also save your existing/old project plans and save it as a template (.mpt) file. You or other project managers can reuse these templates in similar projects.

To create a new project from template, follow these steps:

1. On file menu choose New
2. In New Project task pane, under Templates, click On Computer
3. Click the Project Template tab
4. Select a template and click OK

You can also search online for templates.

Project Teamplate is a handy tool which is very useful for project manager.

Microsoft Project 2007 Project Guide Toolbar

Project Guide toolbar is one of the features available in MS project 2007. The project guide comes very handy when you are creating new project. It helps you in adding project information in a logical flow. Though you can jump on any step following the sequence is always better. There are multiple ways to turn on project guide.
1. Go to Tools menu -> Options -> Interface Tab -> Display Project Guide
2. Go to View menu -> Turn on Project Guide
Believe me this project guide takes up lot of screen space so you may find it irritating.
Project guide also provides a handy toolbar.

It has a shortcut key to Hide/Show project guide quickly. Click on any button to see list of related help items. Two of the best features found on Project Guide task pane are the Hint and More Information links located near the end.