• Featured Author 
    Frank P. Saladis, PMP is an accomplished leader in project management. He is the author of several published books and the founder of International Project Management Day. He was PMI®’s Person of the Year in 2006 and past president of PMI® New York City Chapter. Mr. Saladis has over 30 years of experience in the telecommunications and project management training environment and is a senior trainer with IIL.

    He lives in New York. 

    Buy Positive Leadership in Project Management » 

  • View Our Blogs!

    Stay in the know about all things IIL. Join us on various social media and be the first to hear about promotions and discounts, exciting initiatives, and multimedia, and more.
    Learn More  »

  • Meet Our Interviewer
    George Bridges is a Director of Business Analysis with more than 25 years of experience in business systems analysis, business process modeling, operations research and Information Technology. George teaches business analysis and project management to hundreds of seminar and class participants every year.  He has participated in the analysis and development of business systems for major corporations, such as Ford Motor Company, Unisys Corporations, and for a large church in the Metropolitan Detroit.

  • Poem Contest
    Use the right side of your brain for a change, and follow the example of many Project Managers who submitted PM Poems. Check these out HERE, and then submit your entry to the allPM.com PM Poetry contest! You may be the winner of a Kindle that is fully loaded with IIL Publishing books. Try it – you will love it!
    Submit your poem »

LinkedinFacebookTwitterYoutubeFeed
› ‹

Efficiencies in Scheduling with Microsoft® Project 2010, by Ed Lively, PMP, MCITP

Print
Category: Project Management Tips & Techniques
Published Date
Written by By Ed Lively, PMP Hits: 657
Share

Tip #4: Speeding up development of your WBS and Estimating chores

A fast way to build the WBS, estimate the length of the task and secure buy-in on these elements from your team members… is to have them do it! Begin by building a template in Excel. The table in Excel should have two columns: Deliverable/Task Name and Duration (or Work if you prefer). Below this table, provide precise instructions for how to complete the table and give examples. For example, Enter the Deliverable name in all capital letters and use the noun/name form. Example: Hydraulic Pump.

Have your team members send you this Excel .xlsx file. Open it from Project 2010. When you attempt to open a file with this extension, Microsoft® Project will launch a wizard whose job is to map the Excel fields to the Project fields. When you finish with this, the WBS and estimates will already be in your schedule and you didn’t even have to hold a meeting. Your team members were able to do this on their own time. As a final step, I would have all team members review the final product.

Ed Lively (PMP, APMC, MCTS, MCITP, MCSE) is a highly skilled IIL trainer and consultant with extensive project management experience across several industries. His broad level of experience includes operations, information technology, corporate finance, and process improvement.