Improving Drug Development Schedules in Microsoft ® Project 2003/2007

1. Improving Drug Development Schedules in Microsoft® Project 2003/2007 Erika Flora, MS, PMP, ITSM Certified Black Belt in Microsoft® Project/Project Server Principal Consultant, Creative Enterprise Solutions LLC

2. Objectives • Creating a Great Schedule • Best practices • Things to avoid • Creating a new document • Additional Features • Helpful Resources

3. Creating a Great Schedule

4. Creating a Great Schedule1 • A model of the project: • Deliberate but smart simplification of the complex reality of the project • A valid model of the project: • Reflects the reality of the project and forecasts the project well • A dynamic model of the project: • Updates itself when a change is entered

5. Best Practices

6. Best Practices • Get estimates from people actually doing the work • This will ensure you have a realistic timeline • Strive for consistency and clarity throughout • Acronyms are spelled out • Milestones clearly denote the end of a phase • Task names start with action verbs to provides clear instruction to resources

7. Best Practices (cont.) • Use the right level of detail • Strive to follow the 1-10% rule • Ensure all tasks capture a significant amount of work • Document task details in the notes • Assumptions, changes, updates, etc. • Include date & initials

8. Best Practices (cont2) • Baseline your project

9. Things to Avoid

10. Things to Avoid • Constraints - This makes the schedule static and harder to manage • Entering Start and Finish dates create constraints! Instead, enter dependencies and durations, and the software will calculate your dates • Dangling tasks – Double-check to ensure all tasks are linked together • If you miss one critical dependency, your critical path will be wrong

11. Creating a New Schedule

12. 1 - Set the project start date Project > ProjectInformation

13. 2 - Enter Project Properties File > Properties

14. 3 - Display Row 0 Tools > Options > ShowProjectSummaryTask

15. 4 - Set the project working schedule Tools > Change Working Time

16. 5 – Save document according to naming convention • Save according to company standards, for example: • If…Company Name + Drug Product Name + Department + Program/Project Name • Then…Pfizer Viagra Clinical Development Phase III Program • Document and use consistently

17. Additional Features

18. Additional Features • Resource (D*U=W) and Cost Management • Custom Views, Columns, Toolbars, etc. • Templates • Indicators

19. Project 2007 • Cell highlighting • Multi-level undo • Enhanced Reporting

20. Helpful Resources

21. Helpful Resources • “Dynamic Scheduling with Microsoft® Office Project 2003” by Eric Uyttewaalwww.projectprocorp.com • “Ultimate Learning Guide to Microsoft® Office Project 2007” by Howard & Chefetzwww.msprojectexperts.com • Microsoft® websitewww.microsoft.com/project • Microsoft Project Users Group (MPUG) www.mpug.com

22. Questions? Contact me: erika.flora@ceslearning.com