Author: Eric Christoph
Eric Christoph implemented his first small business accounting system during summer break after his junior year of college. Since then he has worked as a federal contractor and consultant supporting major weapons systems acquisitions, IT sustainment programs, software development projects, and many, many proposals. For the last 15 years he has specialized in Earned Value Management Systems, serving as the Corporate EVM lead for a major defense contractor and co-authoring the PMI Practice Standard for Earned Value Management (Second Edition). Today Eric works with clients developing Integrated Master Schedules and PPM solutions using Project Online.
The Benefits of Using Outline Codes
One of the most important considerations when setting up a schedule in MS Project is the architecture. You might ask yourself the question: In how many ways am I going to have to present these tasks? For example, in federal contracting we often need to schedule to both the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and the Integrated Master Plan (IMP). Both of these structures are hierarchical, so how do we manage them? In Microsoft Project, the answer lies in understanding outline codes! Using outline codes properly can make your schedule much easier to navigate. They also look great in presentations and reports. I’ve created a short video, How to Use Outline Codes in Microsoft Project, which I hope will get you started. You may never go back to using Summary Tasks again! My video is less than 15 minutes long and you’ll learn how to: Generate up to ten hierarchical structures in MS Project Easily expand and contract levels of your hierarchies View levels by color and/or summarized data Capture outline code views for presentations and reports Have you used outline codes? What has your experience been? Comment below.