It goes without saying that Microsoft Project is THE program to use if you need to manage large projects. But what if you manage smaller projects? Can you do that in Excel? Sure, but life will be easier if you start with a template that is specifically designed to facilitate project management. With that in mind, PowerPoint expert Glenna Shaw created a free project plan template for tracking projects in Excel. You can use this template to estimate time and costs, create a project schedule, manage risks and resources, document lessons learned, and create charts for presentations and reports. Check it out!
It goes without saying that Microsoft Project is THE program to use if you need to manage large projects. But what if you need to track and manage smaller projects? Can you do that in Excel? Sure, but life will be easier if you start with a template.
With that in mind, PowerPoint expert Glenna Shaw created a free project plan template that you can use to track projects in Excel. In addition to being a Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for PowerPoint, Glenna is a Project Management Professional (PMP).
To get started, go to the project plan template on Glenna’s SkyDrive. The template is designed for use in the Excel desktop application, so you can ignore the message about unsupported features in the browser. In the message, just click Open in Excel and follow the prompts to save a copy of the template to your own computer.
Once you open the template in Excel, you can use it to:
- Estimate time and costs
- Create a project schedule
- Monitor schedule and budget
- Manage resources and risks
- Document lessons learned
- Create charts for use in presentations and reports
— Anneliese
