Goal: Start a project plan - Project - Microsoft Office Online

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Goal: Start a project plan

Applies to
Microsoft Office Project 2003 Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Microsoft Project 2000 and 2002

After initial planning, you can start your project, enter your preliminary project data, and attach your planning documents to the project.

Tip This article is part of a series of articles that describe a broad set of project management activities. We call these activities "goals" because they are organized around the project management life cycle: Build a plan, track and manage a project, and close a project. The project life cycle is outlined in The Project Map, where you can find a link to an article about each project management goal. Most of the articles include links to supporting information or procedures that you perform in Project or Project Server. These "goal" articles were designed to help you not only use Project but also better understand project management.

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See all goals on the Project Map

number 1 Decide if you need a project? Before you start a lengthy series of activities, you should ask yourself if what you are doing constitutes a project.

More . . .

From the perspective of project management, a project exhibits most of the following attributes:

A project is temporary and unique It is a one-time program, and not a series of ongoing activities. Designing a truck manufacturing plant is a project because it is a one-time activity. The manufacturing of the cars coming out of the plant, while involving numerous linked steps, is an ongoing series of activities and therefore not a project.
A project has a life-cycle with a beginning and an end In the example above, the design of a car manufacturing has an end date, but the manufacturing of cars is ongoing. When the manufacturing plant is complete, the project ends.
Projects consume resources Resources—people, or material resources like tools and textiles—need to be managed carefully, especially if they are shared across projects.
A project has funding limits as outlined in its budget Project managers are typically concerned with the overall profitability of a project, and whether the activities of the project fall within the costs allocated toward the project.

Examples of projects include:

Developing a new product or service.
Designing a new business procedure or restructuring an organization.
Constructing a house or other structure.
Developing an environmental review policy.
Designing a type of vehicle with low emissions.
Designing a new addition to a house.

Number 2 Create a project You can create a new project, which is the usual way to start. Or, you can base your new file on an existing project or template that contains tasks or resources that are similar to those you'll need for the current project.

Click all of the following that apply:

Create a new project when you want to begin with a clean slate, choose a start or finish date for your project, and add the tasks (task: An activity that has a beginning and an end. Project plans are made up of tasks.) and resources (resources: The people, equipment, and material that are used to complete tasks in a project.) that you need.
Base a new project on an existing project or a template if the two projects are similar. Using an existing project or template (template: A Project file format [*.mpt] that lets you reuse existing schedules as the starting point for creating new schedules. Task and resource information, formatting, macros, and project-specific settings can all become part of a template.) eliminates the need to reenter information.

Number 3 Enter the file properties File properties, such as the project title or the company name, can help you and others in the organization identify and locate project-specific information.

Enter file properties for a project

Number 4 Link or store project-related documents in Project You can attach documents that are related to your project to the project file. For example, you may want to link a scope (scope: The combination of all project goals and tasks, and the work required to accomplish them.) management plan or risk management plan (risk management plan: A document defining how risk will be managed throughout the project. It can include identified risks, probabilities, contingency plans and methods for implementing them, and a strategy for allocating resources if a risk event occurs.) to your project for easy access.

Click all of the following that apply:

Insert a hyperlink to include a link to a Web page.
Add a note to tasks, resources, or assignments to include a small amount of information directly in your project. You can also add a file to a note, which is an easy way to browse the file for information relevant to a task, resource, or project.
View and upload documents by using Project Server (Project Server: A Project companion product that enables collaborative planning and status reporting among workgroup members, project managers, and other stakeholders by working with and exchanging project information on a Web site.).

Number 5 Set the working time for the project calendar You may need to change the working days and hours for your project calendar (project calendar: The base calendar used by a project.). In Project, the default working times are 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. weekdays, with an hour off for lunch. You can change working hours for all working days, specific days (such as every Tuesday), or certain dates such as holidays.

Set the working time for the project calendar

Number 6 Save a project From time to time, you need to save your project to keep changes that you made, create a backup copy of your project, or create a template that you can use for another project. Project provides several ways to save a project.

Click all of the following that apply:

Save a project to the Project database format to work with the project in Microsoft Office Access 2003 or any program that supports the Access file format.
Save a new project to a local or network folder to save the project to your computer or a local network folder to share it with others.
Save a project to work on offline so that you can work on a project when you are not connected to Project Server and can save any changes made offline back to Project Server.
Save a version of a project by using Microsoft Office Project Web Access 2003 (Project Web Access: The Web-based user interface that is used to access information in Project Server.). You can save different versions of a project for archiving or modeling purposes.
Save a project to Project Server if you are saving a newly created or existing enterprise project (enterprise project: A project that is stored in Project Server to ensure information integrity. To make changes to an enterprise project, users with access permissions are required to check it in and out from Project Server.).

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