One of my favorite features in Microsoft Project is the stop light indicator because it can quickly highlight areas in the project plan that are falling behind. The tool is very easy to set up. The following is a step-by-step guide so you can start utilizing this feature.

• First, open Microsoft Project from the Tools menu, select Customize –>Fields
• From the Outline Codes page, enable the tasks button from the “type” drop down box by selecting “Number”.
• With the “Number 1″ field highlighted, click “Rename”, let’s call it “Dashboard Calculation”
• Under Custom Attributes, select “Formula”, then click on the “Formula” button.  Insert the following expression:
  IIf([Baseline Duration]=0,99999,[Finish Variance]/[Baseline Duration]*100)
• Click OK, then in the “Calculations for task and group summary rows” section, select “Use formula”.
• In the field section, highlight “Number 2″ click “Rename”, let’s call it “Dashboard Null Test”
• Under Custom Attributes section, select “Formula” then click the “Formula” button.  Inset the following expression. IsNull([Baseline Duration]).  Click OK.
• From the “Type” drop down menu select “Text”
• With the “Text 1″ field highlighted click “Rename”, title “Dashboard Schedule”
• Under Custom Attributes select “Formula” then click on the “Formula” button.  Inset the following expression.
  Switch([Number1]=99999,”No Baseline”,[Number1]<5,”On Schedule: <5%”,[Number1]<15,”Late: 5-15%”,[Number1]=15,”Late: 5-15%”,[Number1]>15,”Behind Schedule: >15%”). Then click OK.
• In the “Calculations for task and group summary rows” section, select “Use formula”.
• In the values to display section, select “Graphical Indicators” then click the “Graphical Indicators” button. Click on Nonsummary rows, then insert the data like the screen below and click ok.

Now add the field as a column in your favorite view. I like the Tracking Gantt.

• From the insert menu select “Column”
• From the “Field Name” drop down box select “Text 1 (Dashboard Schedule)”
• Click OK, then save this as a template for future projects.

The result is an indicator that is white if no baseline is set, green if the task is <5% behind, yellow for 5-15% behind and red if the task is >15% behind schedule. 

Troy Wheeler, Vice President of Technology, EPM2e, can be reached at 800-878-0385.

During the MS Project Conference, January 17-19, in Seattle, Washington, conference attendees were privy to the new features and functions that will be included in the Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution 2007 release.

Excitement bounded through the general session and the detail demonstrations in the individual breakout sessions. This release is not just an upgrade but a significant development of enhanced functionality and additional features in both Project desktop and Project Server. The list of changes is too numerous to detail in this article, but here are a few of the things to expect in Project desktop (Project Professional / Standard)

• Multi-Level Undo - Microsoft has removed the single undo constraint in Project to be consistent with other Microsoft applications.
• Change Highlighting - any change made to a task will highlight the downstream tasks that are changed or impacted by the upstream task. This will help beginners understand MS Project by revealing the impact of the scheduling engine. Also will highlight all changes from macros and extensions.
• Cell Background Formatting - Project will now allow the user to control the background formatting of cells. This will help users identify tasks of interest. Cell background formatting works in all tables and can be controlled manually, with filters, and via macros.
• Enhanced Reporting - includes custom reporting via Excel and Visio, view enhancements, budget tracking, and visual reports.
• Budgeting - MS Project will have the capability to now have separate budgets for human resources (work), materials, and costs.
• Deliverables - MS Project allows a project manager to define the deliverables for any given task.

Other enhancements include improved performance, unlimited custom fields, and a preview feature prior to accepting task updates.

More than 1,500 business managers, technology professionals and developers gathered in Seattle June 17 - 19 for the sold out Microsoft Office Project and Visio conferences, where Microsoft Corporation CEO Steve Ballmer detailed advances in the upcoming releases of Microsoft Office Project and Microsoft Office Visio.

In addition, Ballmer announced the completion of the acquisition of software and intellectual property assets from UMT, a leading project and portfolio management and consulting firm. The acquisition will provide Microsoft with new technology and talent that will complement and expand upon the existing Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution.

“We’re excited because acquiring UMT will help us meet customers’ needs for deep portfolio management capabilities,” said Ballmer. “By combining our software and expertise, we’ll also create a new range of solution development opportunities for customers and partners.”

Portfolio management software helps organizations strategically create, manage and optimize project, application, product and process portfolios. Although traditionally used in the information technology (IT) industry, portfolio management capabilities are broadly applicable and growing in importance to any company for which work takes the form of individual projects, complex programs or enterprise portfolios.

The UMT acquisition will help Microsoft address these scenarios through an end-to-end, integrated project and portfolio management solution that helps enable both excellence in project execution and better decision-making in prioritizing and funding those projects.

Key members of the UMT executive team and a number of UMT product development employees will join the Microsoft Office Project team.

Well you asked for it and Microsoft is listening. The 2006 Microsoft Project Conference was held in rainy Seattle. However, the rain was not limited to the sky. Microsoft was raining down a flood of new features in the much anticipated Office 12 release of Project Professional and Server.

The conference was packed with content ranging from management techniques, Project Professional tips and tricks, to the star attraction, demonstrations of the Office 12 Project, which will be released as Project 2007.

After the information flood waters receded, the essential improvements to Project are:

• Tighter integration with Sharepoint and Infopath providing improved project collaboration and simplifying process automation from project conception through closing. This integration includes leveraging the new workflow engine in Sharepoint and providing a home for maintenance items that are just too small for the formality of a full project.
• Want to get to your project data? Add Sharepoint Portal and you get even closer to your data by using the embedded SQL 2005 report engine. This provides easy report creation, customization, organization and distribution in Sharepoint.
• For those of you that live in Outlook, Project is getting up close and personal. Tasks can now be displayed and managed along-side Outlook tasks. Another nice feature is the ability to view tasks in the Outlook calendar.
• Project Professional also gets some attention with many new enhancements. The two I like best are multi-level undo; and after changes are made, impacted tasks are highlighted. 

Project 2007 is filling the gaps in Project 2003 in a big way. With all these improvements raining down you better start building that Arc and loading up those projects two-by-two.

Troy Wheeler, Vice President of Technology, EPM2e, can be reached at 800-878-0385.

Microsoft recently acquired software and IP assets from UMT, a company founded in 1989 and headquartered in New York City, which may lead to improvements in MS Project Server.

UMT, a leading project and portfolio management software and consulting firm, connects the Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution with UMT’s Portfolio Management Solution via the UMT Microsoft Project Server Gateway.   This combined technology allows organizations to identify and prioritize the right portfolio of projects within deadline, scope and budget constraints. 

“With UMT’s technology and portfolio framework, we will extend the Office EPM Solution to offer an end-to-end enterprise project and portfolio management solution,” said Chris Capossela, Corporate Vice President of the Information Worker Product Management Group at Microsoft.  “Through the acquisition, we will be able to more quickly deliver on our vision of bringing project and portfolio management capabilities to all levels of an organization.”

“UMT founders Mike Gruia, Yorai Linenberg and I share Microsoft’s vision of bringing enterprise project and portfolio management together, and have built the UMT business on innovating to meet customers’ portfolio management needs,” said Gil Makleff, CEO North America at UMT. “We look forward to working with Microsoft to develop solutions that help customers better manage their project portfolios and accelerate their business success.”