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Asta PowerProject Tutorial
Asta PowerProject Tutorial
Asta Development plc Kingston House 5 Goodsons Mews Wellington Street Thame OX9 3BX
T F W E
Trademarks
Asta Powerproject and Asta Powerdraw are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Asta Development plc. Microsoft, Visual Basic and Windows are with registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States or in other countries. Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation. All other trademarks are acknowledged.
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Table of contents
1 2 Introduction.................................................................7 Installing Asta Powerproject .....................................9
2.1 Installing Asta Powerproject as a standalone application..............................................................................9 2.2 2.3 2.4 3 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 Starting Asta Powerproject.........................................10 Licensing Asta Powerproject ......................................10 Getting Help................................................................10 Creating your first project .......................................11 Creating a new project ...............................................11 Creating your first task ...............................................13 Changing the scale of the bar chart ...........................14 Creating a task by drawing on the bar chart ..............15 Copying and pasting bars...........................................16 Editing the duration of tasks .......................................16 Understanding working and elapsed time ..................17 Moving tasks on the bar chart ....................................17 Drawing multiple tasks on a bar .................................18
3.10 Linking tasks...............................................................19 3.11 Rescheduling your project..........................................20 3.12 Undoing and redoing actions......................................20 3.13 Adding a bar in the middle of your project..................20 3.14 Formatting the bar chart .............................................21 3.15 Marking important events as milestones ....................22 3.16 Annotating your project ..............................................23 3.17 Choosing when to display annotations.......................23 3.18 Saving your project.....................................................23 4 4.1 Creating a programme of projects..........................25 Ways of organising projects .......................................25 Asta Powerproject standalone....................................25 Multi-user environment...............................................25 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 5 5.1 5.2 5.3 Asta Development plc Starting the tutorial at this chapter..............................25 Moving your project into a subchart ...........................26 Copying a subchart.....................................................27 Indicating that subcharts represent projects ..............27 Defining users and access rights ...............................28 Categorising your tasks ..........................................35 Ways of using code libraries ......................................35 Starting the tutorial at this chapter..............................35 Creating code libraries ...............................................36 Page 3 of 92
Asta Powerproject Tutorial 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 6 6.1 6.2 6.3 Assigning codes to tasks ............................................37 Displaying different code libraries ..............................38 Filtering information using code libraries....................39 Using filters to automate annotations .........................42 More about views .......................................................44 Creating and assigning resources .........................45 Introduction to resource management........................45 Starting the tutorial at this chapter..............................46 Creating a resource library .........................................46 Creating consumable resources.................................46 Creating permanent resources...................................47 Assigning multiple skills to a permanent resource .....47 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 Assigning demand resources to tasks........................48 Viewing a histogram of resource allocations ..............49 Satisfying demand allocations....................................51 Dealing with over-allocation .......................................52
6.8 Viewing the results of resource allocations in other projects.................................................................................56 7 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 Managing costs ........................................................59 Introduction to costs ...................................................59 Starting the tutorial at this chapter..............................60 Creating a cost centre library .....................................60 Setting up your cost centres.......................................60 Assigning direct costs to tasks ...................................63 Viewing the cost of an allocation ................................63 Assigning costs to permanent resources ...................65 Creating cost and income rates..................................65 Assigning cost and income rates to permanent resources....................................................................66 7.7 7.8 8 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Assigning costs to consumable resources .................68 Viewing cost and income information.........................70 Progressing projects................................................71 Ways of progressing projects .....................................71 Starting the tutorial at this chapter..............................72 Creating progress periods ..........................................72 Baselining your projects .............................................74 Recording progress ....................................................75 Marking progress up to a specific date.......................76 Marking a precise amount of progress .......................78 Progressing a task from its allocations.......................80
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Asta Powerproject Tutorial 8.6 Comparing the progressed project with the original baseline................................................................................81 8.7 8.8 8.9 9 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 10 Completing your project .............................................82 Recording progress remotely .....................................83 Viewing progress remotely .........................................83 Printing project information ....................................85 What Asta Powerproject prints ...................................85 Understanding border files .........................................85 Starting the tutorial at this chapter..............................86 Preparing to print ........................................................86 Previewing and printing ..............................................86 Printing on multiple pages ..........................................87 Other output options ...................................................88 Producing reports ....................................................89
10.1 Introduction to tabular reports ....................................89 10.2 Starting the tutorial at this chapter..............................90 10.3 Creating a tabular report category..............................90 10.4 Creating a tabular report ............................................90 10.5 Executing a tabular report ..........................................91 10.6 Conclusion..................................................................92
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Introduction
Introduction
This guide is intended to help you as you work with Asta Powerproject for the first time. It introduces you to the key features and enables you to get up and running with Asta Powerproject quickly. While completing these lessons, you will learn how to use Asta Powerproject to mirror the complex array of activities, resources and costs that are involved in a programme of projects We recommend that you work through the chapters of this tutorial in order, which should take between 2-3 hours, depending on your level of experience in working with project and programme management software, your familiarity with project management, etc. However, you can also work through individual sections of the tutorial on their own. To enable you to do this, a number of Asta Powerproject project files are located in the \Tutorial Project Files\ folder on the Asta Powerproject CD. To start at a particular section of the tutorial, simply open the appropriate project file from this folder, then work through the section This guide contains the following chapters:
R Creating a programme of projects explains how to R Categorising your tasks explains how to colour-code
the information within your projects so that their appearance represents something relevant to you. create a pool of resources for use within your programme of projects.
R Creating and assigning resources explains how to R Managing costs explains how to set up cost centres R Progressing projects explains how to record the
progress of your programme of projects in order to keep your project information up to date.
and work with direct costs and resource costs within your programme of projects.
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R R R R 2.1
Installing Asta Powerproject as a standalone application. Starting Asta Powerproject. Licensing Asta Powerproject. Getting Help.
R At least 50 Mb of free disk space. R VGA display adaptor and monitor capable of 640x480
resolution (SVGA recommended).
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2.2
2.3
2.4
Getting Help
While you work with Asta Powerproject, Help is just a click away. You can access Asta Powerprojects online Help in the following ways:
or then
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R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R 3.1
Creating a new project. Creating your first task. Changing the scale of the bar chart. Creating a task by drawing on the bar chart. Copying and pasting bars. Editing the duration of tasks. Understanding elapsed and working time. Moving tasks on the bar chart. Drawing multiple tasks on a bar. Linking tasks. Rescheduling your project. Undoing and redoing actions. Adding a bar in the middle of your project. Formatting the bar chart. Marking important events as milestones. Annotating your project. Saving your project.
1. Select the New command from the File menu. You see
the New Project Wizard:
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You can use the New Project Wizard to base a new project on an existing project that you have saved as a template. This saves you from having to enter the same information more than once if you are creating a programme of projects that share a similar base of information. In this case, you will base your new project on the Construction Template, so select Construction Template.pp in the Select a template file field.
2. Enter Tutorial.pp in the File location field. 3. Enter Asta Powerproject Tutorial in the Name
field.
spreadsheet
bar chart
The spreadsheet displays information about the tasks and allocations in your projects. Like many aspects of Asta Powerproject, it is fully-customisable. You can choose the information that is displayed in the spreadsheet and display as many columns as you like.
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Creating your first project The bar chart displays tasks and allocations graphically, in a familiar gantt chart view. Like the spreadsheet, you can customise virtually any aspect of the bar chart to display information in a way that suits you. Notice also that Asta Powerprojects menus and toolbars are based on Microsoft Office menus and toolbars. This makes it easier for users to get to grips with Asta Powerproject. As with Microsoft Office, Asta Powerprojects menus and toolbars are fully-customisable and dockable. Another element of the Asta Powerproject window, which is not displayed at the moment, is the project view. The project view provides a way of navigating around your programme of projects and a common resource pool, from which you can apply resources to the tasks in your projects. Display the project view now, by selecting the Project View command from the View menu. It appears to the left of the spreadsheet:
project view
spreadsheet
bar chart
3.2
2. Click the Edit tab. 3. Ensure that the Create task radio button against the
When inserting by spreadsheet field in the Tasks group is selected; if it is not, click it to select it.
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2. Move the cursor over the first bar in the Name column,
then click. A text insertion line appears, indicating where the task name will appear when you start typing.
duration of a task. You can change the default to any other length of time.
You can configure Asta Powerproject so that when you type in the spreadsheet, a task is not created automatically in the bar chart. This enables you to apply names to bars that do not have any tasks and use them as subheadings.
3.3
1. Place the cursor over a tick line (the small red vertical
lines) in the date zone so that the cursor changes to the right. The date zone redraws as you drag, so that you can see the effect of your changes immediately. .
2. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the tick line to
the scroll bars to move along the date zone in between your drags to keep the task in view.
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The date zone is configurable: you can choose the lines that appear in it and reorder their position. Your date zone may contain different lines to the ones that appear in this guide. You will now configure the date zone so that it includes the line that shows the days of the week:
1. Right-click the bottom line of the date zone. 2. Select the Insert Line submenu, then select the Days
(Monday, Tue) command. The new line appears in your date zone above the bottom line. If the new line only displays tick lines and you cannot actually see the days of the week, this is because the scale of the date zone is too small to display the days. If this is the case, click and drag one of the tick lines to the right until abbreviations of the days of the week appear.
1. Left-click in the line that shows the days of the week. 2. Holding down the left mouse button, drag the line to the
bottom of the date zone, then release the mouse button. The line is moved to the bottom of the date zone:
You can hide lines that are currently displayed in the date zone:
3.4
2. Press and hold down the left mouse button, then drag
the cursor to the right. As you drag, a popup box displays the start date, end date and duration of the task you are drawing:
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time unit by default, making it easier to draw tasks. You can change the snapping time unit, or turn off bar chart snapping.
3.5
3. Select the Copy command from the Edit menu. 4. Select the Paste command from the Edit menu.
The two existing bars are copied and pasted into bars 3 and 4:
3.6
1. Click in bar 4 in the Duration column. 2. Change the duration to 3d (three days), then click the bar
chart to finish editing.
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1. Move the cursor over the task on bar 3 so that the cursor
changes to , then click. The task is selected.
2. Press and hold down the left mouse button, then drag
the cursor to the right. As you drag, a popup box displays the start date, end date and duration of the task you are editing.
3.7
3.8
1. Move the cursor over the task on bar 4 so that the cursor
changes to .
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2. Press and hold down the left mouse button, then drag
the cursor to the right. As you drag, a popup box displays the start date, end date and duration of the task you are moving.
3.9
2. Press and hold down the left mouse button, then drag
the cursor to the right to draw another task on the same bar:
Notice that each task is now displayed on its own line and that a name does not appear for either task in the Name column of the spreadsheet. Task 1 the name you entered earlier is the name of the bar, not the name of the tasks on the bar. Where you have more than one task on a bar, you can name each task individually when in one-task-per-line mode.
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Creating your first project Now that you have seen that the names you have entered relate to bars, not tasks, you will rename the bars in your project. Rename the four bars as follows:
R R R R 3.10
Linking tasks
You specify the order in which tasks take place by drawing links from one task to another. You can draw links starting and ending anywhere along the length of tasks. A common link is a Finish-to-Start link, where one task (the predecessor task) must finish before another task (the successor task) can start. To draw a Finish-to-Start link between two tasks:
2. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor
away. Notice that you now have a line from the end of the task to the cursor. The line is attached to the cursor until you release the mouse button.
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4. Click on a blank area of the bar chart to deselect the link. 5. Complete your linking by drawing a simple Finish-to-Start
link between the Construction and Completion tasks. Your project should now look something like this:
3.11
When the reschedule is complete, your project should look something like this:
R All tasks now have a thick red border, indicating that they
are critical: if any task overruns or is delayed, the end date of the project will be affected.
3.12
than one action at a time, click the down arrow next to the appropriate button and select the actions you want to undo or redo.
3.13
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Creating your first project To add a new bar in the middle of your project:
2. Press INSERT. A blank bar is inserted into the project. 3. Draw a task in the bar with a duration of three days and
name it Inspection.
Now click to reschedule the project again. After the reschedule, the project should look something like this:
3.14
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3. Clear the Free float, Total float and Critical path check
boxes, then click Apply.
Notice that the float and critical path are no longer displayed on the bar chart.
3.15
To create a milestone:
1. Right-click the Completion task. 2. Select Make Into, then select End Milestone.
The project should look something like this:
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3.16
R Including your company logo on the bar chart. R Linking to objects or data stored in other programs using
OLE. In this example, you will add a text annotation to the Completion task in your project:
1. Click
that the annotation will be attached to the right hand side of the task.
away from the box to finish typing. The box resizes itself to fit around the annotation:
3.17
3.18
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It is good practice to get into the habit of saving your work regularly. For example, as you work through this guide, save your work at the end of each chapter. Now that you have created a simple project, you will go on to create a programme of projects.
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R R R R R 4.1
Ways of organising projects. Moving your project into a subchart. Copying a subchart. Indicating that subcharts represent projects. Defining users and access rights.
Multi-user environment
If you use Asta Powerproject in a multi-user environment by connecting to an Enterprise server, you can save a project locally, as with Asta Powerproject standalone, or to a servermounted database. Each database holds one or more group projects, each of which can contain one or more projects. Each project can then be subdivided into subprojects. Objects such as resources, calendars and codes are shared across group projects.
4.2
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4.3
2. Hold down SHIFT and click bar 5 in the Line column. All
the bars in the project are now selected.
5. Enter Site A in the Bar Title and Task Title fields, then
click OK.
The five bars are moved into a subchart, which is displayed underneath the root chart in the project view:
The spreadsheet and bar chart do not look any different, as you are currently looking at the Site A subchart. To view the root chart, click Root chart in the project view. You see the following:
The large shadowed task summarises the tasks in the subchart it leads to its duration is the duration of the tasks in the subchart. This is known as an expanded task. To move back into the subchart, either click Site A in the project view, or double-click the expanded task in the bar chart. Click to move back into the root chart. This is another way of moving between charts.
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4.4
Copying a subchart
In many situations, you will want to maintain a programme of projects that have similarities. For example, if you follow the same methodology for the production of a range of items, you may want to create a single project for each product. A simple way of creating a programme of similar projects is to copy an existing project and edit it. To copy a subchart:
2. Select the Copy command from the Edit menu. 3. Select the Paste command from the Edit menu.
The expanded task is copied and pasted into bar 2:
At the moment, the expanded task on bar 2 has the same name as the one on bar 1. You will now rename it.
Follow the steps above to create another subchart and call it Site C. You now have three subcharts displayed underneath the root chart in the project view. You will now learn how to indicate that each of the subcharts represents a project in its own right.
4.5
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1. Click the Site A expanded task to select it. 2. Hold down SHIFT and click the Site C expanded task. All
three expanded tasks are now selected.
Note also that the icon of the root chart has changed to . This indicates that the chart contains one or more projects. You have now created a simple programme of projects. Having more than one project within the same file enables you to manage your projects as a portfolio. All the projects share common items such as the resource pool, codes and calendars. You can also report on the projects individually, or together as a portfolio. In addition, for each individual project, you can record the likelihood, in percentage terms, of the project actually going ahead, and reflect this likelihood in histograms. This is useful during the early stages of project and resource planning.
4.6
1. Click
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Library Explorer displays the library objects in the tree view in the left-hand pane. Asta Powerproject may not display all library objects by default. If User is not visible in the left-hand pane, you must display it: Right-click the right-hand pane and select Show Libraries. The Show Libraries dialog appears. Select User in the Available types field and click Add. Click OK to close the dialog. User is now visible in the left-hand pane.
2. Select User from the tree view. You see the default user
folder, Admin, that is defined initially in the list view in the right-hand pane. This is the top-level user, with full access rights to the entire programme. You will turn this user into a folder, so that it can contain subusers.
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Now that you have created the users, you can define their access rights. By default, users have full access rights to the entire programme, from the root chart downwards. As this level of access is appropriate for the Admin user, you do not need to edit this user's access rights. To define access rights:
You use this tab to specify the rights that the user has to each subchart in your programme of projects. The project hierarchy is displayed in an expandable tree on the left.
10. With Root chart selected, click Select All, then click
None. All access rights are removed from the root chart and from all its subcharts. Page 30 of 92 Asta Development plc
11. Select the check boxes in the Read column to give the
Admin Assistant read-only access to the programme of projects.
12. Click OK. 13. Select the View submenu from the View menu, then
select Close to close Library Explorer. You must now define a password for each user:
5. Re-enter the password in the Confirm new password 6. Click OK. 7. Select the Passwords command from the Tools menu
to display the Passwords dialog again.
9. Select the Project Manager user. 10. Enter Progman in the Current password for Admin
field. You must enter this as it is the administrator's password and it is required to change another user's password.
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11. Enter Projman in the New password for user field. The
password does not appear on the screen as you type it, for security reasons. for user field.
12. Re-enter the password in the Confirm new password 13. Click OK. 14. Repeat steps 7 to 13, this time selecting the Admin
Assistant user in the Change password for field and setting their password to Admin. You can assign the usernames and passwords that you define to different people to give them different levels of access. Now that you have created users within the programme, people will be asked to enter a username and password when they open the programme. Try this now by closing the project and opening it as each user in turn:
as New User to open the project using a different username and password.
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However, the Admin Assistant can only view the information: if you try to edit the programme (for example by drawing a task on the bar chart), you cannot.
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R R R R R R R 5.1
Ways of using code libraries. Creating code libraries. Assigning codes to tasks. Displaying different code libraries. Filtering information using code libraries. Using filters to automate annotations. More about views.
R The different locations at which a task takes place. R The risk factor of a task, for example high, medium or
low. You create the code libraries you want in Library Explorer, then assign them to the bars, tasks and allocations in your projects. Once you have assigned codes, you can filter for bars, tasks and allocations with specific codes. For example, you could filter out all the tasks that have been identified as low risk, or all tasks that are carried out at a specific location. As each item on the bar chart may have a code from more than one code library assigned to it, you can choose which code library you want to display on the bar chart at any one time. You can also choose whether to display the codes that are assigned to whole bars, or the codes that are assigned to individual tasks. In this example, you will create a code library to represent the risk factor of a task and a code library to represent the location at which a task is carried out.
5.2
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5.3
1. Click
Notice that each code currently has the same colour and pattern. You will now change the foreground colours to differentiate between the codes:
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1. Click
5.4
1. Click the Site A project in the project view to open it. 2. Click the + symbol next to Code Libraries in the project
view to view the code libraries you have created.
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5. Click and drag the Medium risk factor code from the
project view and drop it onto one of the selected tasks. You may see a dialog asking if you want to display the Risk Factor code library in the current view. If you do see the dialog, select the Do not show this alert again check box and click No.
6. Click and drag the Low risk factor code from the project
view and drop it onto the Inspection task.
5.5
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Notice also that a red tick appears against the Location code library in the project view, indicating that this is the code library that is currently displayed on the bar chart:
You can also choose which code library to display on the bar chart using the Format Bar Chart dialog.
5.6
4. Select the Display on menu check box. This places the 5. Click the Filter Criteria tab:
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10. This screen lists the available code libraries. You want to
filter by the Preston location code, so click the + symbol next to the Location code library to view the location codes, then select the check box next to the Preston code:
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Notice that the Site Planning and Completion tasks have disappeared from the view, as they do not match the filter criteria: they are not carried out in Preston. Notice also that a Site A' subheading has appeared above the first line in the view. Filter subheadings show the chart path of the filtered objects. This makes it easier to identify the summary group or subchart in which the filtered objects are located. To turn the filter off and return to your normal view, select the Filter submenu from the View menu, then select the No Filter command. The Site Planning and Completion tasks reappear. Once you have created a filter, you can apply it at any time by selecting it from the View - Filter menu. In this example you set up a very simple filter. You can set up more complex filters using SQL to define your criteria in order to filter information however you want.
5.7
4. Click the Filter Criteria tab and click Edit. The first
screen of the Filter Wizard appears.
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5. Click Close.
The annotation disappears, as the milestone to which it is attached is not yet complete, so does not match the filter criteria. Later on, you will progress your project. When you progress the final task in the project (the Completion milestone), the annotation will appear automatically.
5.8
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R R R R R R R 6.1
Introduction to resource management. Creating a resource library. Assigning demand resources to tasks. Viewing a histogram of resource allocations. Satisfying demand allocations. Dealing with over-allocation. Viewing the results of resource allocations in other projects.
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6.2
6.3
1. Click
2. Select Consumable Resource from the tree view. 3. Right-click a blank area of the list view and select New
Folder. A new resource folder is created, with the cursor flashing in the Name column.
5. Double-click the Materials folder in the list view. The 6. Right-click a blank area of the list view and select New
Consumable Resource. A new consumable resource is created, with the cursor flashing in the Name column.
7. Enter Steel as the name of this resource. 8. Create two more consumable resources in the folder,
called Wood and Glass. You will now create another consumable resource folder:
1. Click
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1. Select Permanent Resource from the tree view. 2. Right-click a blank area of the list view and select New
Folder. A new resource folder is created, with the cursor flashing in the Name column.
4. Double-click the Builder folder in the list view. The folder 5. Right-click a blank area of the list view and select New
Permanent Resource. A new permanent resource is created, with the cursor flashing in the Name column.
6. Enter Mark Smith as the name of this resource. 7. Create two more permanent resources in the folder,
called John Peters and Martin Webb. You will now create another permanent resource folder:
1. Click
2. Click the
resource.
3. Hold down CTRL and SHIFT, then click and drag the
icon over the Approver permanent resource folder in the tree view:
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Notice that the Martin Webb permanent resource now has a shortcut icon. This identifies it as a multi-skilled resource. Martin Webb is now also available in the Approver permanent resource folder. You can define a number of properties for each permanent resource. When a permanent resource has two or more skills, some properties are common to all skills, such as the calendar and availability, while other properties are specific to individual skills, such as the work rate, cost and skill appearance.
6.4
2. Click the Allocations tab. 3. Select all three of the check boxes in the Show group,
then click Close. There are a number of ways in which you can assign demand resources to tasks; the easiest way is to drag the resource folders from the project view onto the tasks.
Notice that two new rows are inserted into the spreadsheet and bar chart under the Construction and Completion tasks, indicating the permanent resources that are assigned to them:
6.5
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5. Enter Allocation of Builders in the Name field. 6. Select Days in the Period field and Bar Maximum in the
Type field to specify that you want to graph the maximum allocation of builders each day.
You use this tab to define the graphs you want to include in the histogram. The Allocation graph appears by default. In this lesson you will change this to Capped Allocation and add the Over Allocation graph.
9. Click Add. A graph is added to the histogram. 10. Click the new graph in the Name column and select Over
Allocation from the list that appears.
12. Click the Row tab. 13. Check that the Draw through non-working check box is
selected (indicating that you want the histogram values to span across non-working periods such as weekends) and select Stack All in the Stacking field to indicate that you do not want the selected graphs to obscure each other.
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Notice that the area of the histogram, which is displayed in green to indicate allocation, matches the duration of the Construction task: the task that has a demand allocation of builders.
6.6
Notice also that the histogram has changed: as well as showing the demand allocation, it shows a corresponding scheduled allocation too the total allocation now adds up to 2:
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6.7
1. Create a new task on the first spare row of the bar chart
called Electrics. Give it a duration approximately half that of the Construction task.
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Although the source of the over allocation is obvious in this simple example (Mark Smith is allocated to two tasks that occur at the same time), in larger programmes the source may not be so obvious. You can use Asta Powerprojects histograms to identify the source by drilling down and displaying individual graphs for the resources in the resource folder:
It is now immediately apparent that the source of the over allocation is Mark Smith's over allocation. As John Peters and Martin Webb have not been allocated, their histograms are blank.
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Asta Powerproject Tutorial You can deal with over allocation in a number of ways, including allocating tasks to another resource or delaying tasks that contribute to the over allocation. Alternatively, you can level the resources in a project automatically using Asta Powerproject. Resource levelling flattens out any overallocation, using one or more of the following techniques:
R R R R
Delaying tasks. Delaying resource allocations on tasks. Splitting resource allocations. Stretching tasks to increase their duration and decrease their resource allocation.
You use this dialog to specify the way in which the resource levelling is carried out. However, in this example you are going to perform a simple resource level, so you do not need to edit most of the controls.
Notice that Asta Powerproject has solved the over allocation by increasing the duration of the Electrics task, so that Mark Smith can carry out both tasks without a time conflict. Notice also that this has delayed the end date of the project:
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Click
to undo the resource levelling operation you have to reschedule the view.
Another way to solve the over allocation is to allocate another available resource to one of the tasks. The histogram showed you that John Peters and Martin Webb are both available to carry out the either task. You could delete the Mark Smith allocation from one of the tasks and satisfy the demand with either of these Builder permanent resources. Alternatively, you could change the allocation of Mark Smith to each task. At the moment he is allocated 100% to both tasks; if he was allocated 50% to each task, he could perform both tasks concurrently. To change the allocation of Mark Smith:
The Allocation field currently shows 1.00, indicating that Mark Smith is scheduled to spend all his available time on the task.
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6.8
This means that Project Managers who have access to individual projects, but not to the whole programme of projects, are able to avoid over allocating resources, even if the resources are allocated in projects to which they do not have access.
3. Undo the resource allocation you have just made. 4. Click the Site A project in the project view to return to it.
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Managing costs
Managing costs
This chapter explains how to set up cost centres and work with direct costs and resource costs within your programme of projects. This chapter includes the following information:
R R R R R R R 7.1
Introduction to costs. Creating a cost centre library. Setting up your cost centres. Assigning direct costs to tasks. Assigning costs to permanent resources. Assigning costs to consumable resources. Viewing cost information.
Introduction to costs
Asta Powerproject deals with two kinds of costs:
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7.2
7.3
1. Click
2. Select Cost Centre from the tree view. 3. Right-click a blank area of the list view and select New
Folder. A new cost centre folder is created, with the cursor flashing in the Name column.
5. Double-click the London folder in the list view. The folder 6. Right-click a blank area of the list view and select New
Cost Centre. A new cost centre is created, with the cursor flashing in the Name column.
7. Enter Planning costs as the name of this cost centre. 8. Create another cost centre in the folder, called
Completion costs. You will now create another cost centre folder:
1. Click
7.4
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Managing costs
R Fixed costs these are for costs that you know will not
change, regardless of the time taken or the amount of work undertaken.
R Fixed date the start or end date of the cost bar is set to
a specific date, which does not change even if the task date changes.
1. Double-click the
icon next to the Inspection costs cost centre. The Cost Centre Properties dialog appears. Click the Default Assignment tab:
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5. Click Close.
Now set up the other cost centres you have created, entering the following information into the Default Assignment tab for each cost centre: Construction costs Field Calculation type Start type Start delay End type End delay Cost Completion costs Field Calculation type Start type Start delay Point spend Cost Planning costs Field Calculation type Start type Start delay End type End delay Cost Enter/Select Time Based Relative To Task Start 0h Relative To Task End 0h 500.00 per Elapsed Month Enter/Select Fixed Relative To Task Start 1w Selected 500.00 Enter/Select Time Based Relative To Task Start 1d Relative To Task End 1d 200.00 per Day
When you have set up the cost centres, select the View submenu from the View menu, then select Close to close Library Explorer.
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Managing costs
7.5
4. Click and drag the Planning costs cost centre from the
project view and drop it onto the second task on the Site Planning bar. Notice that a new row is inserted into the spreadsheet and bar chart under the Site Planning bar, indicating the cost centre that is assigned to the second task:
This cost is time-based, with its start and end directly related to the start and end of the second Site Planning task. Therefore the duration of the task mirrors that of the task precisely. If you were to move the second Site Planning task to a later date, or increase its duration, the associated cost changes accordingly. Try this now to see the effect on the cost, then click to return the second Site Planning task to its original dates and duration.
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This dialog lists the columns that are currently displayed in the spreadsheet.
2. Click Add. A new column entry appears in the list. 3. Click the new entry in the Token field. A hierarchical list
of attributes that you can display in the column appears:
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Managing costs
You can edit the spreadsheet to display a wide range of information relating to tasks and allocations.
7.6
time unit specified is a fixed cost rate and is only charged once per allocation.
R Cost per time unit, for example 50.00 per hour. R Type of time, for example whether the rate applies to
normal working time, overtime or public holidays.
1. Click
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5. Double-click the
icon next to the Approver Rate cost and income rate. The Cost And Income Rate Properties dialog appears:
cost rate apply to a particular type of working, for example overtime, by selecting one in the Calendar exception category field.
8. Click Close. 9. Follow the steps above to create a new cost rate called
Builder Rate, with a rate of 30.00 per hour and associated with the Construction costs cost centre.
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Managing costs
8. Click Close. 9. Select the View submenu from the View menu, then
select Close to close Library Explorer. Now that you have assigned cost rates to Martin Webb, you will assign him to a number of tasks:
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Notice that the cost of each allocation is displayed in the Cost column of the spreadsheet:
7.7
1. Click
2. Select Consumable Resource from the tree view. 3. Navigate through your consumable resources so that
you can see the consumable resources in the Materials folder in the list view.
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Managing costs
9. Click Close.
Follow the steps above to specify default costs for the Steel and Wood consumable resources as follows: Steel Field Cost per use Cost per unit Expenditure cost centre Wood Field Cost per use Cost per unit Expenditure cost centre Enter/Select 15.00 1.00 Construction costs Enter/Select 10.00 0.50 Construction costs
When you have set up the default costs, select the View submenu from the View menu, then select Close to close Library Explorer. You will now assign the three consumable resources to the Fabrication task in the Site A project:
2. Click and drag each resource in turn and drop them onto
the Fabrication task. Notice that the cost of each allocation is displayed in the Cost column of the spreadsheet:
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7.8
one allocation, the dialog displays the total cost or income for the selected allocations.
R View the cost of a direct cost allocation using the Cost R View the cost of a bar or task using the Bar and Task
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Progressing projects
Progressing projects
This chapter explains how to record the progress of your programme of projects in Asta Powerproject. Progressing projects on a regular basis is essential in order to keep your project information up to date. This chapter includes the following information:
R R R R R
Ways of progressing projects. Creating progress periods. Baselining your projects. Recording progress. Comparing the progressed project with the original baseline.
R Completing your project. R Recording progress remotely. R Viewing projects remotely. 8.1 Ways of progressing projects
You record the progress of a project by assigning progress to tasks or allocations to show the amount of work that has been completed and the amount of work that remains to be done. Once a project is underway, you will probably want to record its progress at regular intervals. Recording progress ensures that your project is kept up to date and lets you see if work is progressing as planned or if delays are creeping in. It also ensures that you know how much work remains to be done to reach the project end date. When you update a project, you record the amount of progress that has been made to tasks and allocations within a certain period, called a progress period. For example, you could show that two days work were completed on a task in one week and three days in a second week. You can use a single progress period if you prefer, but this does not allow you to use a different appearance for progress that occurs within different periods. After you have marked progress on a project, you should reschedule it to see whether the progress has affected the critical path and the project end date. If the end date has changed, you may want to make some adjustments to the plan to get it back on track. You can baseline your projects in order to record all or part of a project at a particular point in time. Baselines are useful for tracking the progress of a project and experimenting with 'what if' scenarios.
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8.2
8.3
1. Click
2. Select Progress Period from the tree view. You see the
default progress period displayed in the list view. The report date of this progress period is the date on which you started to create your programme of projects. You will edit this progress period and create some more.
3. Double-click the
icon next to the default progress period. The Progress Period Properties dialog appears:
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Progressing projects
5. Click Close.
You will now create six more progress periods:
finish editing. Notice that the new progress period is dated a week later than the first period and is assigned a different line style and colour. periods called Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6 and Week 7:
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5. Click Close.
Notice that coloured lines are displayed on the bar chart, indicating the report date of each progress period:
8.4
individual objects within a project by selecting them before you create the baseline.
If you create a baseline while viewing a particular project, the baseline only contains that project.
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Progressing projects
8.5
Recording progress
There are two methods of working when assigning progress: you can report progress using estimates of the completed duration or percentage complete of a task, or using estimates of the amount of a resource or cost allocation that has been completed:
duration has been completed, you can assign that progress to the task and the progress is reflected across any allocations on the task. This is known as 'top-down' progress.
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allocation or 2,000 of a cost allocation has been completed, you can assign progress to the allocations and determine the task's progress from the progress of its allocations. This is known as 'bottom-up' progress. Using 'bottom-up' progress, the progress is only shown on tasks when you choose to progress tasks from their allocations.
In this example, you will record progress using both methods. Within the 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' methods, there are a number of ways in which you can record the progress of a task or allocation. You will use a variety of these methods to record progress on the tasks within the Site A project. Before you begin, click the Site A project in the project view to open it.
The progress is displayed along the entire length of the task, indicating that the task is complete. This is because the first task on the Site Planning bar is contained completely within the selected progress period. Let us now assume that you have reached the end of the Week 2 progress period. At the end of each progress period, it is good practice to reschedule your project, straightening the progress line of the progress period you have just completed. You will do this now:
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Progressing projects
4. Click OK.
The project is rescheduled. As the progress line of the Week 2 progress period was already straight ie progress was exactly on track there is no change to the project. You can also assign a progress period to a task or allocation by dragging the progress period from Library Explorer onto the task:
1. Click
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progress period to more than one task at a time by selecting multiple tasks.
3. Enter 50% in the first row of the Current column and click
outside the field. The progress information is updated to show the 50% of the task remains to be completed.
4. Click Close.
Notice that the task is now split into two. Progress is displayed on the first portion of the task in green, the colour of the Week 3 progress period and no progress is shown on the second half of the task:
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Progressing projects Let us now assume that you have reached the end of the Week 3 progress period. Reschedule your project as described above, but this time select Week 3 in the Straighten progress line to period field, to indicate that you want to straighten the progress line of the Week 3 progress period, pushing all uncompleted tasks to the right of it. After the project is rescheduled, note how all uncompleted tasks are pushed to the right of the Week 3 progress line, indicating that the tasks have yet to be completed and that the project is starting to run behind schedule:
You can also enter a precise amount of progress using the Object Edit toolbar:
1. Select the Inspection task. 2. Right-click the % progress control on the Object Edit
toolbar:
1. Click
Mode.
3. Click and drag the Progress Entry Mode cursor over the
task from left to right. Notice that a popup window displays the amount of progress you are entering as you drag:
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R Record the progress of allocations. R Progress the task from its allocations.
Progressing allocations rather than tasks can be useful in situations where a task is being worked on by more than one resource, all working at different rates. Recording the resources' progress then gives you a more accurate reflection of progress than progressing the task directly. You can record progress on allocations using any of the methods described above. In this example, you will record progress on the permanent resources allocated to the Construction task:
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Progressing projects
5. Let us now assume that you have reached the end of the
Week 5 progress period. Reschedule your project again, but this time straighten the progress line to Week 5. The Construction task is split, progress is recorded on the first portion of it, and the second portion of it is moved beyond the Week 5 progress line:
8.6
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more than one baseline, you could choose which ones to display on the bar chart.
It is now obvious that the project has not progressed to plan as had been anticipated, resulting in a later project end date.
5. Clear the two check boxes that you had selected in the
Format Bar Chart dialog and click Close to remove the baseline from the bar chart. As well as comparing projects with baselines, you can use baselines to experiment with 'what if' scenarios: baseline a project and try out your ideas by editing the baseline. If you are happy with the result, you can revert to your baseline, meaning that the baseline becomes the actual project.
8.7
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Progressing projects You will now record that the final task in the project, the Completion milestone, is complete. Once the milestone is complete, the Project Complete annotation will be displayed:
8.8
8.9
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R R R R R R 9.1
What Asta Powerproject prints. Understanding border files. Preparing to print. Previewing and printing. Printing on multiple pages. Other output options.
9.2
R R R R R
Coloured and patterned background rectangles. Coloured borders around the edge of the page. Text notations. Line and shape graphics. Imported graphics, such as your company logo.
Within each border is a chart area, in which the view that you print from Asta Powerproject is placed. In this tutorial you will use one of the default borders that is supplied with Asta Powerproject.
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9.3
9.4
Preparing to print
Before you print, you must ensure that the active view displays the information that you want. For example, you could print the spreadsheet without the bar chart by turning off the bar chart, or turn off some display features to avoid including too much information in the printout. In this example, prepare the Site A project for printing by selecting the Histogram View command from the View menu to display the histogram that you defined earlier. The view should look something like this:
9.5
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2. When you move the cursor over the preview, the cursor
shape changes to . Click and drag the cursor over a section of the previewed page to zoom in and view the selection in more detail. The cursor shape then changes to . Click to zoom out.
3. Click
Asta Powerproject has a wide range of printing settings. If you need to change any settings before you print, or you to view the Print want to print to a different printer, click dialog, where you can specify your settings before you print.
9.6
. A pictogram
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3. Click
9.7
R Output the spreadsheet and bar chart to the Clipboard, R Use report writers to work directly with databases saved
as Microsoft Access MDB files.
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Producing reports
10
Producing reports
This chapter explains how to produce reports from within Asta Powerproject. This chapter includes the following information:
R R R R R 10.1
Introduction to tabular reports. Creating a tabular report category. Creating a tabular report. Executing a tabular report. Conclusion.
permanent resources are the main focus. This type of tabular report lists permanent resources in turn, displaying information about the tasks to which they are assigned. consumable resources are the main focus. This type of tabular report lists consumable resources in turn, displaying information about the tasks to which they are assigned. the main focus. This type of tabular report lists cost centres in turn, displaying information about the tasks and allocations to which they are assigned.
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Asta Powerproject Tutorial You can save tabular reports as templates, and use them as a basis for the creation of further tabular reports. You can also store your tabular reports within Library Explorer in categories, making it easy to locate the report you want. In this tutorial, you will create a report showing a weekly breakdown of which tasks the permanent resources in the Builder folder are working on.
10.2
10.3
1. Click
2. Select Tabular Report from the tree view. 3. Right-click a blank area of the list view in the right pane
and select New Tabular Report Category. A new tabular report category appears in the list, with the cursor flashing in the Name column.
10.4
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Producing reports
4. When you have entered all the report settings, the wizard
displays a screen that enables you to review the settings you have selected. click Finish to create the report once you have reviewed your selections. The report appears within the tabular report category in Library Explorer:
10.5
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You can use the Print Preview toolbar to configure the way in which the report will be printed, then click report. to print the
10.6
Conclusion
This completes the Asta Powerproject tutorial. You now have the knowledge you need to create and maintain programmes of projects within Asta Powerproject. This tutorial has taught you the basics. For more detailed information on how to make the most of Asta Powerprojects powerful features, refer to Asta Powerprojects comprehensive online Help.
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