CONTENTS Title Page Copyright Page Preface 1 Introduction 1.1 Time Management 1.1.1 Tracking Tasks, Meetings, and Other Commitments 1.1.2 Breaking Down Work into Smaller Tasks 1.1.3 Setting and Maintaining Priorities 1.1.4 Recording Your Accomplishments 1.2 Project Management 1.2.1 Defining Dependencies 1.2.2 Assigning and Sharing Resources Effectively 1.2.3 Scheduling Work 1.2.4 Controlling Costs 1.2.5 Viewing and Analyzing Project Information 1.2.6 Interactive Time and Project Management 1.3 DECplan Concepts 1.3.1 Planner 1.3.2 Item 1.3.3 Task 1.3.4 Resource 1.3.5 Project 1.3.6 View 2 Getting Started 2.1 Using Online Help 2.2 Using the Online Training 2.3 Using the Mouse and Keyboard 2.4 DECplan Server and Client 2.5 Starting DECplan 2.6 Creating a Sample Planner 2.7 Sample Time Management Operations 2.7.1 Using the Day View 2.7.2 Using the Table View 2.7.3 Reviewing Your Assignments 2.7.4 Reporting Progress 2.7.5 Scheduling Meetings 2.8 Sample Project Management Operations 2.8.1 Creating a Project Planner 2.8.2 Breaking Down Project Work 2.8.3 Storing Predicted Effort 2.8.4 Defining Precedence 2.8.5 Scheduling the Project with the Critical Path Method 2.8.6 Assigning Resources 2.8.7 Scheduling the Project with Constrained Resources 2.8.8 Negotiating Assignments 2.8.9 Specifying Cost Information 2.8.9.1 Specifying a Cost Rate 2.8.9.2 Specifying Cost Accounting Periods 2.8.9.3 Calculating Cost 2.8.10 Tracking Progress with Time Charges 2.8.11 Displaying Information with Charts 2.8.12 Displaying Information with Reports 3 Using Planners and Views 3.1 Planner, View, and Report Operations 3.1.1 Creating Planners 3.1.2 Opening Planners 3.1.3 Setting Planner Access 3.1.4 Setting Planner Security 3.1.5 Customizing Planners 3.1.6 Specifying a Default Planner 3.1.7 View Operations 3.1.7.1 Opening a Selected View 3.1.7.2 Opening the Default View 3.1.7.3 Customizing a Table View 3.1.7.4 Updating View Information 3.1.7.5 Saving and Restoring a View 3.1.7.6 Closing a View 3.1.8 Report Operations 3.1.9 Copying a Planner 3.1.10 Rolling Up Planner Information 3.1.11 Importing and Exporting Planner Information 3.1.11.1 Exporting Planners 3.1.11.2 Importing Planners and Files 3.1.12 Exiting a Planner 3.1.13 Deleting a Planner 3.2 Printing Operations 3.3 Item Operations 3.3.1 Finding Items by Name 3.3.2 Setting Keywords and Goals 4 Customizing DECplan 4.1 Customizing a Planner Profile 4.2 Defining Your User Profile 4.2.1 Defining a Color Palette 4.3 Defining View Options 4.3.1 Selecting a Sort Key 4.3.2 Specifying a Filter 4.3.3 Creating Compound Expressions 4.3.4 Editing a Filter 5 Personal Planning Using Calendar Views 5.1 Using the Month and Year Views 5.2 Moving Around Calendar Views 5.3 Creating an Entry in a Day View 5.3.1 Changing the Size of a Timeslot 5.3.2 Deleting an Entry 5.3.3 Creating Overlapping Entries 5.4 Using the Clock in the Day View 5.5 Entering Day Notes 5.6 Marking Days 5.7 Printing Your Weekly Calendar 5.8 Customizing Calendar Views 5.9 Customizing a Day View 5.9.1 Customizing the Day View 5.9.2 Customizing Day View Icons 5.9.3 Customizing Alarms 5.9.4 Saving Customized Options 5.9.5 Changing the Shape of a View 6 Customizing and Using a Table View 6.1 Table View Structure 6.2 Table View Operations 6.3 Opening and Customizing a Table View 6.3.1 Opening a Table View 6.3.2 Performing Column Operations 6.3.3 Saving a Table View 6.4 Editing a Table View 6.4.1 Expanding and Contracting the Name List 6.4.2 Creating New Items 6.4.3 Changing the Hierarchy 6.4.4 Entering and Editing Information 6.5 Customizing a Table View 6.6 Printing a Table View 6.7 Creating a Report from a Table View 6.8 Displaying Multiple Planners in a Table View 7 Group Planning and Coordination 7.1 Negotiating Assignments 7.1.1 Sample Assignment Negotiation 7.1.2 Proposing an Assignment 7.1.3 Responding to a Proposed Assignment 7.1.4 Completing an Assignment 7.1.5 Withdrawing an Assignment 7.2 Scheduling Meetings 7.2.1 Scheduling a Meeting 7.2.2 Requesting a Free-Time Scan 7.2.3 Scan Suggested Meeting Times 7.2.4 Proposing a Meeting 7.2.5 Confirming a Meeting 7.3 Reporting Time Charges 7.3.1 Sample Time Charge Use 7.3.2 Creating a Time Charge 7.3.3 Completing a Time Charge 7.3.4 Posting a Time Charge 7.3.5 Correcting a Time Charge 7.3.6 Time Charges Dialog Box 7.3.7 Time Charge Posting Options 8 Overview of Project Management 8.1 Project Management Tasks 8.2 Project Management and Time Management Integration 9 Creating and Using a Work Breakdown Structure 9.1 Work Breakdown Structure Terms 9.2 Work Breakdown Structure View 9.3 Work Breakdown Structure Operations 9.4 Creating and Managing a Work Breakdown Structure 9.4.1 Creating, Connecting, and Editing Tasks 9.4.2 Modifying Tasks 9.4.2.1 Specifying Computed Fields 9.4.3 Copying and Moving Tasks 9.4.4 Creating External Tasks in a WBS 9.4.5 Creating Subprojects in a WBS 9.4.6 Using the Unplaced Node Box 9.4.7 Annotating Tasks 9.4.8 Expand and Contract the WBS 9.4.9 Customizing the WBS View 9.4.9.1 Customize View Layout and Formats 9.4.9.2 Automatically Lay Out the WBS 9.4.9.3 Redraw the WBS 9.4.9.4 Navigate and Resize the WBS 9.4.9.5 Renumber the WBS Hierarchy 9.5 Rollup and Inheritance in a Work Breakdown Structure 9.5.1 Rollup 9.5.2 Inheritance 9.6 Displaying Multiple Planners in a Work Breakdown Structure 10 Determining Task and Milestone Precedence 10.1 Precedence Network Terms 10.2 Types of Precedence Relationships 10.3 Precedence Network Structure 10.4 Precedence Network Operations 10.5 Basic Precedence Network Rules 10.6 Creating and Managing a Precedence Network 10.6.1 Arranging and Connecting Nodes 10.6.2 Adding a Milestone 10.7 Interior Tasks from the Work Breakdown Structure 10.8 Annotating Tasks, Milestones, and Arcs 10.9 Using Supernodes and Subprojects in the Precedence Network 10.9.1 Supernodes 10.9.1.1 Group and Ungroup a Supernode 10.9.1.2 Add and Remove Supernode Members 10.9.1.3 Expand and Contract a Supernode 10.9.2 Subprojects 10.9.2.1 Subproject Operations 10.10 Copying and Moving Tasks 10.11 Creating External Nodes in a Precedence Network 10.12 Customizing the Precedence Network View 10.12.1 Customizing Layout and Scrolling 10.12.2 Automatically Laying Out the PN 10.12.3 Redrawing the PN 10.12.4 Navigating In and Resizing the PN 10.13 Displaying the Critical Path 11 Creating and Assigning Resources 11.1 Resources and Planners 11.2 Creating Local Resources 11.3 Creating External Resources 11.4 Modifying Resources 11.5 Deleting Resources 11.6 Defining the Resource Calendar 11.7 Defining the Project Calendar 11.8 Assigning Resources 11.8.1 Planner Resource Operations 11.8.2 Task Resource Operations 11.8.3 Reserving Locations or Equipment 11.9 Sharing Resources 11.9.1 Resources, Planner Assignments, and Task Assignments 11.10 Monitoring Resource Loading 12 Determining Costs and Applying Earned Value 12.1 Cost Overview 12.2 Sample Cost Operations 12.3 Defining Contractual Information 12.4 Defining Accounting Periods 12.5 Specifying Cost Milestones for Tasks 12.6 Defining Cost Information for Resources 12.7 Defining Assignments, Precedence, and a Schedule 12.8 Performing Cost Calculations 12.9 Displaying Cost Information 12.9.1 Cost Tables 12.9.2 Cost Charts 12.9.2.1 Earned Value Chart 12.9.2.2 Cost Variance Chart 12.9.2.3 Cost Performance Chart 12.9.3 Cost Reports 12.10 Material, Travel, and Other Costs 12.10.1 Using Person Resources to Model Material Costs 12.10.1.1 Modeling a Single Expense 12.10.1.2 Modeling Recurring Expenses 12.10.2 Using Equipment and Location Resources to Model Nonresource Costs 12.10.2.1 Modeling Equipment and Operator Costs 12.10.2.2 Modeling Travel Costs 13 Scheduling Work 13.1 Scheduling Overview 13.2 Scheduling Terms 13.3 Sample Scheduling Operations 13.4 Providing Required Information 13.4.1 Defining Tasks 13.4.2 Defining Task Size 13.4.3 Defining Task Precedence 13.4.4 Defining a Resource 13.5 Providing Optional Information 13.5.1 External Precedences 13.5.2 Actual Data 13.5.3 Forecast Dates 13.5.4 Constrained Dates 13.5.5 Planner and Task Priority 13.6 Performing Scheduling Operations 13.7 Calculating an Early/Late Schedule 13.8 Scheduling with Constrained Resources 13.9 Setting Committed Dates 13.10 Storing Original Effort 13.11 Rescheduling with Actual Data 13.12 Monitoring the Schedule 13.12.1 Monitoring the Schedule Using Table Views 13.12.2 Monitoring the Schedule Using Reports 13.12.3 Monitoring the Schedule Using Charts 13.13 Calculating What-If Schedules 13.14 Scheduling Multiple Projects 14 Creating and Using Charts 14.1 Standard Charts 14.1.1 Resource Loading Chart 14.1.2 Rate Charts 14.1.2.1 Effort Rate Chart 14.1.2.2 Earned Value Chart 14.1.2.3 Cost Variance Chart 14.1.2.4 Cost Performance Chart 14.2 Creating and Displaying Charts 14.3 Modifying Charts 14.4 Printing Charts 14.5 Saving Charts 14.6 Creating Charts for Multiple Planners 15 Creating and Using Gantt Charts 15.1 Gantt Chart Structure 15.2 Gantt Chart Operations 15.3 Customizing and Using a Gantt Chart 15.4 Editing a Gantt Chart 15.5 Printing a Gantt Chart 15.6 Creating a Report from a Gantt Chart 15.7 Displaying Multiple Planners in a Gantt Chart 16 Reports 16.1 Using Reports 16.2 Standard Reports 16.3 Report Structure 16.4 Designing Reports Using the Report Layout Editor 16.4.1 Analyzing Reporting Needs 16.4.2 Invoking the Report Layout Editor 16.4.3 Defining Sort and Filter 16.4.4 Defining Control Breaks and Computations 16.4.5 Selecting the Report Size and Formatting Tools 16.4.6 Creating a Title Page 16.4.7 Creating a Detail Page 16.4.8 Creating a Trailer Page 16.5 Printing a Report 16.6 Appending a Gantt Chart to a Report 16.7 Printing Reports for Multiple Planners A Number and Date Formats A.1 Number Formats A.2 Date Formats Glossary FIGURES 2-1 Help on DECplan Window 3-1 Planners Dialog Box 3-2 Show/Modify Person Resource Dialog Box 3-3 Security Dialog Box 3-4 Views Dialog Box 3-5 Update Notification Dialog Box 3-6 Reports Dialog Box 3-7 Export Planner Dialog Box 3-8 Import Planner Dialog Box 3-9 Import Data Dialog Box 3-10 Print Dialog Box 4-1 Show/Modify Planner Dialog Box 4-2 Profile Dialog Box 4-3 Sort Dialog Box 4-4 Filter Dialog Box 5-1 View Options Dialog Box 5-2 Time Slot Options Dialog Box 5-3 Icon Box Dialog Box 6-1 Sample Table View 6-2 Insert Column Dialog Box 6-3 Show/Modify Column Dialog Box 6-4 Create Report From Table Dialog Box 7-1 Sample Negotiate Dialog Box 7-2 Sample Negotiable Item Table View 7-3 Show/Modify Meeting Dialog Box 7-4 Sample Show/Modify Time Charge Dialog Box 9-1 Work Breakdown Structure 9-2 Customize Annotation Dialog Box 9-3 View Options Dialog Box 9-4 Work Breakdown Structure with Navigate Window 9-5 Connection Between Root Node and Task 9-6 Connection Between Root Nodes 10-1 Sample Precedence Network 10-2 Simple Replacement Option 10-3 Bounding Milestone Replacement Option 10-4 Supernode in Precedence Network 10-5 Subproject in Precedence Network 10-6 Precedence Network with Critical Path 11-1 Create Resource Dialog Boxes 11-2 Create External Resource Dialog Box 11-3 Resource Calendar Dialog Box 11-4 Calendar Exceptions Dialog Box 11-5 Calendar Exception Dialog Box 11-6 Project Calendar Exceptions Dialog Boxes 11-7 Assign Resource to Planner Dialog Box 11-8 Assignments Dialog Box 12-1 Task List for Test 12-2 Cost Rate for Olga 12-3 Assignments for Test 12-4 Accounting Periods for Test 12-5 Precedence Network for CPM 12-6 Task Cost Information by Period 12-7 Cost Milestones Dialog Box 12-8 Cost Rate Dialog Box 12-9 Budgeted Cost for Work Scheduled Dialog Box 12-10 Budgeted Cost of Work Performed Dialog Box 12-11 Earned Value Chart 12-12 Cost Variance Chart 12-13 Cost Performance Chart 13-1 Task Effort and Status Table for Test 13-2 Precedence Network for Test 13-3 Precedence Network for Test with Early/Late Dates 13-4 Resource Loading Chart 13-5 Show/Modify Scheduling Options Dialog Box 13-6 Precedence Network for Test with Estimated Dates 13-7 Sample Hammock Task 13-8 Set Committed Dates Dialog Box 13-9 Effort Rate Chart 14-1 Resource Loading Chart 14-2 Effort Rate Chart 14-3 Earned Value Chart 14-4 Cost Variance Chart 14-5 Cost Performance Chart 14-6 Charts Dialog Box 14-7 Resource Loading Chart Dialog Box 15-1 Sample Gantt Chart 15-2 Sample Gantt Chart for Resources 15-3 Gantt Chart Options Dialog Box 15-4 Create Report from Table Dialog Box 16-1 Report Layout Editor 16-2 Detail Page Report Format 16-3 Printed Detail Page 16-4 Control Breaks Dialog Box TABLES 2-1 Mouse Button and Keyboard Syntax for Items 2-2 Mouse Button and Keyboard Syntax for Text Fields 3-1 Sample Imported Table 3-2 Common Import Table Headers 6-1 Table View Mouse Button Syntax 6-2 Table View Keyboard Syntax 9-1 Work Breakdown Structure Item Mouse Button Syntax 9-2 Work Breakdown Structure Text Mouse Button Syntax 10-1 Precedence Network Item Mouse Button Syntax 10-2 Precedence Network Text Mouse Button Syntax 12-1 Resource Availability for Test 15-1 Gantt Chart Mouse Button Syntax 16-1 Report Layout Editor Mouse Button Syntax