Project Planning and Management 3.0

The Excel Project Management Template is a generic and simple to use planning, managing and monitoring projects with automated collaboration features. The financial budget and resource requirements update as tasks are created and modified to enable monitoring of project risk exposure throughout the project. Participant time is allocated efficiently using prioritization of productivity and task dependency factors and scheduled with detailed Gantt charting drill down features. Project management and collaboration is simplified with participant file generation and automatic import for updating status reporting.

Project Resources and Control

Project parameters can be defined for setting up dynamics of the project in centralized control panel. Key parameters flow through to reporting display and automated routine rules for project planning and management tasks. Standardized project phase and task texts can be customized to specific business domains and project types to accelerate the creation of tasks and milestones across projects. Human resource management provides flexibility to apply granular levels of productivity to individual participants to reflect ongoing availability which can subsequently be overridden in task definitions. Financial resources with the definition of relevant unit types can be defined and managed independently as well as updated automatically during the task definition and updating process. The project control panel allows quick access to various process and reports in the project management template. 

Project Task Management

The Excel project management template tasks can be added and updated using an input window that facilitates the definition of task characteristics. Predefined texts can be selected and existing task information can be copied used to speed up task creation. The calculation of timing, unit and financial resources is made automatically as participants are selected and duration specified. Calculated and entered resource information can be optionally specified to update the overall project budget. The auto timing feature can be executed to intelligently allocate timing for the most efficient project plan to tasks by accounting for participant productivity availability, task dependencies and phase priorities. Timing can be recalculated as tasks are updated with revised estimates, progress status or removed from the project plan.

Project Gantt Chart Scheduling

The Gantt chart schedule can be generated at any time as the structure and timing of project tasks are defined and updated. The Gantt chart can be generated as a daily, weekly or monthly schedule depending on the scope of the project timeline and project monitoring requirements. Tasks are categorized by phase with colored cells corresponding to each time period in the project timeline. Detailed information regarding the overall task and time period can be accessed with comment boxes on hover over the task title and colored cells respectively. Cell comments relay task information including participant information, timing productivity and resource consumption. The lower section of the Gantt chart displays the total scheduled versus completed hours as well as operating and capital expenditure costs per time period. 

Project Collaboration Tools

Project task lists for each participant can be generated as Excel workbooks or text based emails. The participant workbooks contain subsets of the tasks list and project Gantt chart for only tasks that have been allocated to the participant. Text emails combine explanatory that has been predefined in the template with task information pertaining to the participant. The benefits of the Excel file generation include the generic spreadsheet format that can be opened and edited in other spreadsheet programs, such as Open Office and iWork Numbers, as well as the ability to batch import progress updates from modified participant files. Information from imported files for task progress and completion automatically updates the overall project task information and resulting progress status reporting.

Project Progress Status Monitoring and Reporting

The status report can be updated at any time to monitor the progress of the project using earned value analysis methodology. The report utilizes the specified start, end and reporting dates in the project control with the detailed task information to provide the corresponding progress analysis. Help icons throughout the report detail the performance metrics used and how they should be interpreted to monitor project progress. The two key metrics that summarize the project status against the project plan are the cost performance index and schedule performance index which track resource and timing risk respectively. Additional reporting sections include break downs of the cost risk analysis, estimated project timing over/under run and unit completion analysis. Cost and schedule performance trend can be tracked over time with a chart plotting snapshots of the cost and schedule performance indices. Project performance snapshots can be taken at regular intervals to easily monitor progress within the Excel template. Performance snapshots can also be selectively removed to customize the historical trend analysis for reporting requirements.

Features

• The project budget evolves automatically as tasks are added and updated and can also be managed independently with unit types and associated costs.
• Task creation can be accelerated through the use of industry specific predefined project phase and task text content as well as other globally defined project planning parameters. Predefined phase and task texts can be modified and standardized across the organization to provide consistency and efficiency in setting up projects.
• Project task dependencies, overall participant productivity allocation and timing constraints can be defined and are reflected in schedule calculation.
• The optimized project schedule is created automatically by taking into account participant availability with other task commitments, dependencies and specified timing preferences.
• The Gantt chart is created based on desired daily, weekly or monthly frequency and displayed with budgeting data and detailed project task information as cell comments.
• The status report utilizes Earned Value Analysis with the ability to view graphical progress of cost and schedule performance index snapshots to track project progress over time.
• Individual participant workbooks with task details and Gantt schedules can be generated automatically and sent to participants. Text based emails can also be automatically created for participants to further facilitate project management and collaboration.
• The project progress status can be automatically updated by batch importing previously generated workbooks that have been updated by participants for task progress and completion. Checks are made when importing progress to ensure data integrity and eliminate errors.