The creation of project road maps and/or flight plans for Management Board and Steering Committee Meetings are time consuming activities. Most people start with a blank slide in PowerPoint and then systematically build their flight plans based on existing project schedules. Today I would like to show you an easy 18 step process of creating a project flight plan in Microsoft Project and then copying the results into PowerPoint.
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How to build a Project Flight Plan in Microsoft Project
1. Hillrich
TM
Creation of a Project Flight Plan
in Microsoft Project
for Microsoft PowerPoint
in 18 easy steps
This is a simple tutorial of how to create a project or programme
flight plan in Microsoft Project, and how to enhance the plan until it is
ready to be copied to Microsoft PowerPoint.
2. Stage 1
04 Jan '04 11 Jan '04 18 Jan '04 25 Jan '04 01 Feb '04 08 Feb '04 15 Feb '04 22 Feb '04 29 Feb '04
Five to Eight Weeks Before Moving
Planning the Move
Household Administration
Moving
Three to Five Weeks Before Moving
Household Administration
Moving
One to Two Weeks Before Moving
Household
Administration
Moving
One to Two Weeks After
the Move
Household
Administration
Start of
Project
Start of
Stage 2 End of
Stage 1
End of
Stage 2
Start of
Stage 3
End of
Stage 3
Day of
Move
Enjoy your new
home
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Stage 5
2019
Day of the Move
Old Residence
New Residence
House Move Flight Plan EXAMPLE
3. Hillrich
TM
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2
3
Step 3
Go to the View Menu Tab / Outline menu item and decide what level of detail makes
most sense to present to your senior stakeholders. This is to help you organize your
thoughts and plan before setting out to build the flight plan. Make some notes.
Steps 1 - 2
This tutorial is based on an existing
schedule so start by building your
schedule in Microsoft Project, and clean
it up as far as possible before attempting
to build your flight plan.
4. Hillrich
TM
4
Step 4
Once your plan has been built and you are satisfied that it is of sufficient quality,
go to the View Menu Tab and click on the Timeline item.
Step 5
You will be presented with a very basic timeline that shows the total duration of
your project. There will be no detail on the timeline.
5
5. Hillrich
TM
6 7
Step 6
Now you have to add more detail to your
timeline by right clicking on the white
portion of your timeline display, and
going to Insert Task / Existing Tasks
menu item.
Step 7
You will be presented with a breakdown
structure of your project schedule, and
will be given the opportunity to select
some high-level tasks and group names
to be added to your timeline. Start
simple by selecting only a few of the
high-level group names and clicking on
‘OK’.
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TM
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9
Step 8
Your timeline will now look something like this with your selected tasks and group
names overlapping and not spaced out properly.
Step 9
Right click on the white portion of your timeline and click on Zoom
to Screen. This will fit your timeline to your screen size so that you
can see the whole thing and not have to scroll left and right.
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10
Step 10
Start at the top and drag and drop your task timelines vertically
one by one so that they follow in a logical sequence as they
appear in your schedule. Be patient and make sure that each one
appears on a separate line. Sometimes some of them will jump
back to the top. Repeat Steps 6, 7 & 10 to add more tasks until
you are satisfied that all of the high level group and task names
are clearly visible and properly organized.
8. Hillrich
TM
11
Step 11
Go to the Format Menu Tab, click on Date Format and unclick Task Dates. This will
remove the task start and end dates on the displayed timelines, which will make it easier
to fit everything into the allocated space. You can add it back later if you need to do so.
9. Hillrich
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13
Step 12
Now let’s go and add some colour to your flight
plan. Select the timelines that you want to colour by
clicking on them. For multiple selections press your
ctrl button and click. Once done go and select your
colour in the paint bucket tool.
Step 13
Select a darker colour for your group level tasks, and lighter colours for the lower level tasks. This is
also an opportunity to change your font type and size to something acceptable in your organization.
12
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Step 14
Add some milestones by clicking on the Milestones menu item. Type in
the milestone description and date, and drag and drop it to either the
top or bottom of your flight plan.
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15
Step 15
You can widen your timeline bars by clicking on Text Lines and playing around
with the number of lines that you would like to display. Two lines are normally
sufficient but depends entirely on how you want to fit your plan into one
PowerPoint slide.
12. Hillrich
TM
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Step 16
Now your work is done in Microsoft Project and you are ready to copy and paste your
flight plan into PowerPoint. First save your work. The next time you open your MSP
schedule your flight plan will appear as is, and the beauty of this plan is once you go
back to your Gantt Chart View and start changing your dates, it will reflect in your flight
plan view as well.
Right click on the white portion of your flight plan and select Copy Timeline / Full Size.
Now go to your PowerPoint slide.
13. Start
Thu
01/01/04
Finish
Mon
01/03/04
04 Jan
'04
11 Jan
'04
18 Jan
'04
25 Jan
'04
01 Feb
'04
08 Feb
'04
15 Feb
'04
22 Feb
'04
29 Feb
'04Five to Eight Weeks Before Moving
Planning the
Move
Household Administration
Moving
Three to Five Weeks Before Moving
Household
Administration
Moving
One to Two Weeks Before Moving
Household
Administration
Moving
Da
y
of
the
M
ov
e
Ol
d
Re
sid
en
ce
Ne
w
Re
sid
en
ce
One to Two Weeks
After the Move
Household
Administration
Start of
Project
Start of
Stage 2
End of
Stage 1
End of
Stage 2
Start of
Stage 3
End of
Stage 3
Day of
Move
Enjoy your new
home
17
Step 17
Right click on your PowerPoint slide and paste your flight plan with
the option “Keep Source Formatting (K)” into the slide. Your
flight plan will need to be resized to a smaller size in order to fit
into your slide. Now the sky is the limit. Use your PowerPoint skills
to beautify your flight plan for the intended audience. Resize, add,
change font and size, add arrows and change colours, etc. If you
find that your text does not fit into your timeline, copy and paste it
to an inserted text box next to the timeline, see red arrow.
14. Stage 1
04 Jan '04 11 Jan '04 18 Jan '04 25 Jan '04 01 Feb '04 08 Feb '04 15 Feb '04 22 Feb '04 29 Feb '04
Five to Eight Weeks Before Moving
Planning the Move
Household Administration
Moving
Three to Five Weeks Before Moving
Household Administration
Moving
One to Two Weeks Before Moving
Household
Administration
Moving
One to Two Weeks After
the Move
Household
Administration
Start of
Project
Start of
Stage 2 End of
Stage 1
End of
Stage 2
Start of
Stage 3
End of
Stage 3
Day of
Move
Enjoy your new
home
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Stage 5
2019
Day of the Move
Old Residence
New Residence
House Move Flight Plan DRAFT
18
Step 18
Keep on going until you end up with something like this, or better.
Hi everyone, this is Richard from Hillrich Business Consulting Service.
Most of you are probably familiar with the creation of project roadmaps or flight plans in PowerPoint, and are therefore also familiar with the time that it takes to build a proper slide. Well let me tell you that there is an easier and faster way of doing so.
Today I would like to show you an easy 18 step way of creating a project flight plan by using Microsoft Project, and then copying the results into PowerPoint.
This is an example of the end result of this process. As you can see it is a high-level flight plan for moving house, and detailed enough for presentation to senior stakeholders.
