Project management goal: Work with multiple projects

Managing multiple projects is a juggling act; managing multiple projects with intertwined dependencies can be a nightmare. Project 2010 provides tools to help you manage cross-project dependencies, even tasks in one project that are dependent on the completion of another project. When things get even more complicated, you can use Project Professional 2010 and tap into Project Server, SharePoint, and Outlook. Follow the links in each step to get detailed information about each process.

This article is one of many project management goals on the Project Road Map.

Example from project management . . .

When you link one project to another by creating dependencies between tasks in those projects, you aren't necessarily combining two projects into one. You are making it possible to manage or monitor two separate projects from one location.

For example, your main project is the construction of an airplane. Your facility cannot attach the wings (a task in the main project) until another facility builds the wings (an entire project). Other tasks in the other project might also be beyond your control.

You can link the "wing building" project to your main project as a task that updates as new information is available. Or you can make "wing building" into a subproject of your master project. The choice depends on whether you simply want updates on the progress of the other project or you need to manage it directly.

Work with multiple projects

Master projects and subprojects	Merge subprojects into a single master project to monitor how individual projects affect a related group of projects.
Communicate project information	Making sure stakeholders and team members have up-to-date project data is a key to successfully juggling multiple projects.
Collaborate without Project 2010	Find out what other applications you can use to share project information.
Use Project 2010 with previous versions	Managing multiple projects may involve reviewing files that were created in an earlier version of Project.
Use SharePoint with Project	SharePoint 2010 can help you share project information without using Project Server.
Embed Excel data in Project	You can insert Excel data into Project as a linked object that is updated dynamically when you change the source file.
Up to speed with Project Web App	The ultimate tools for project collaboration: Project Server 2010 and its companion Project Web App.

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