1. Successfully Presenting Your Microsoft Project Reports

2. Objectives
Translate your project details into a brief summary which clearly conveys the project plan/status
What to include in a project status report
Presenting one or more projects on a single page, at a high level
Reports:
Highlighting milestones and project/phase/task hierarchies
Link ancillary data to your report
Distribution: Web, reader, Word, PowerPoint
Milestones only
Critical path
Finish dates
Budget/Cost
Multi-tier reports
Earned value
Key milestones roll-up
Stoplight at-a-glance status

3. Delivery Mediums What are your options? Printed Gantt chart
Microsoft Project reports
Earned Value Report
Critical Tasks Report

4. Delivery Mediums
Drawing packages: PowerPoint, Visio, Excel

5. Delivery Mediums
3rd Party Tools: Milestones Professional, Milestones Project Companion, PERT Chart Expert, WBS Chart Pro,…
Manually draw from MSP data
Export into another tool
Automate with a custom program

6. What to include in a project status report
Whatever “they” tell you to
Baseline/Current finish dates
Major milestones
Percent complete status
Delivery dates

7. What to include in a project status report
Phase status (drill-down)

8. What to include in a project status report
Phase status (drill-down)
Planned and current costs
Forecasted costs

9. What to include in a project status report
Phase status (drill-down)
Planned and current costs
Forecasted costs
Earned value

10. From Project details to presentation summary
How do you get from here...
Manually draw from MSP data
Export into another tool
Automate with a custom program
...to here?

11. Create presentation reports using Milestones
MS Project-to-Milestones Professional import wizard

12. Critical tasks report
There can’t be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.
--Henry Kissinger
Report status of critical tasks, only, by importing

13. Critical tasks report Highlight critical tasks within all tasks
Filter for critical tasks

14. Finish dates report When will it be finished? Display all finish dates
Finish dates rolled-up
Finish date milestones
Stoplight status:
Not started
In progress
Complete
Percent Complete

15. Finish dates report
Display all finish dates
Finish dates rolled-up

16. Budget status report A budget takes the fun out of money.
— Mason Cooley, U.S. aphorist
Budget, cost, variance
Graph by time period & cumulative

17. Reporting earned value
Earned value for the “detailed numbers person”

18. Reporting earned value
Earned value for the visual (graph), numbers (columns), and spatial (timeline)

19. Baseline and current dates
The best-laid schemes of mice and men
Often go awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
Instead of promised joy!
— Robert Burns
Juxtapose baseline and current dates

20. Baseline and current dates
Juxtapose baseline and current finish dates as dates, milestones, and stoplights

21. Baseline and current dates
Juxtapose baseline and current task bars, start/finish dates and duration

22. Baseline and current dates
Juxtapose baseline and current costs as values, graph, and stoplights

23. At-a-glance stoplight reports
In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower
Shapes and colors to indicate health

24. Highlight milestones and schedule hierarchies
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
—Henry Ford
In a sea of start dates, end dates, rows of activities, and columns of data, how can the major milestones and activity rows stand out?
Move major milestones to summary lines
Enlarge the physical size of the milestone
Use striking colors, like red
Circle major milestones
Use shapes which convey a sense of a major event
Use a column which marks major tasks
Filter to display only the major activities
Shade by outline level

25. Multi-tiered reports from multiple source files
Some people are much more...
oh, ever so much more...
oh, muchly much much more unlucky than you.
—Dr. Theodor Seuss Geisel

26. Multi-tiered reports from multiple source files
Transform lots of project files...
...into mid-management reports...
...and one top level report of key milestones from the mid-level reports...

27. Multi-tiered reports from multiple source files
Keep mid- and top-level reports up-to-date
Filtered Source Files
Mid-Level Project Presentation Schedules
Top-Level Project Presentation Schedule
IMPORT
LINK KEY DATES
REFRESH
REFRESH
Update with changes
Update with changes

28. Detailed Source Schedules Mid-Level Reports of Key Source Data
Top-Level Report of Key Mid-Level Data
Project A
Import filtered data
Project B & C
Import filtered data
Project D
Import filtered data
Project E
Import filtered data

29. Link other data to your report
The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
—Albert Einstein
Challenge: Fit lots of data into a single page
Cost spreadsheets
More detailed schedules
Research reports
PERT charts
AutoCAD drawings
Solution: Link from symbols to documents for quick access

30. Link other data to your report
AutoCAD drawing attached to the Design end date
Link other data to your report
Research Report attached to the Research start date
MS Project schedule with detailed Production data
Financials Report attached to the status milestone

31. Distribute and share your presentation
Web page of high-level report with drill-down

32. Distribute and share your presentation
Open with reader (Adobe, Milestones)
Paste into PowerPoint or Word
Upload to a shared e-room

33. Is your presentation ready for prime-time?
The project report is:
Objective
Clear and concise
Easily interpreted
Able to drill-down to details from the summary
Able to show impact when dates or values change
Separated into distinct areas of focus

34. Questions and Answers