Microsoft Project Why Filter Data

Why filter data?

You have set up your project plan, had it agreed by the sponsor and saved a baseline. But what do you do with all that data?

•      Do you always want to deal with the whole project?

•      If the project is three or four years long do you always want to print the whole thing?

•      You are going into a meeting to discuss a particular phase of the project, does everyone need to see the other one hundred and fifty tasks that have nothing to do with the subject to be talked about?

The advantage of planning a project on Microsoft Project is that you can then analyse the data and extract information that you need. Rather than dealing with the whole project you can select whatever information you need:

•      See the tasks being done by a particular resource

•      Which tasks have been completed

•      Where the project is falling behind schedule

•      Where is the project going over budget

A project plan can be filtered to extract data against a particular criterion by:

•      Making selections against particular column heading options

•      There are standard filters that have already been set up

•      New filters can be designed against the standard data that has been entered in the project plan or customised data that you need to store.