MS Project Tutorial

MS Project 2003 is a family of products designed to address the work and people management needs of any organization. Project 2003 suit of products include MS-Office Project Standard, MS-Office Project Professional, MS-Office Project Server, and MSOffice Project Web Access. Project Professional is the desktop project management program that can be used with Project Server and Project Web Access to form the Enterprise Project Management (EPM) olution. Project Server is the fle!ible platform that supports the portfolio management, resource management, and collaboration capabilities in the EPM olution. Project er"er enables organizations to store project and resource information centrally and consistently. Project Web Access is the #eb portal that enables you to connect to the project and resource information that is stored in Project er"er and collaborate on projects. $eam members who need access to Project er"er information but do not re%uire the scheduling capabilities of Project Professional&can use Project #eb 'ccess through a #eb browser to "iew and analyze information. (n this lab we would be learning to use only the )Project Professional*. )Project er"er* and )Project web access* are not installed in the +( ser"ers. Things that you should do/think about before ,efore embarking on the project you need to put down a few key points "ery clearly .. /. 1. 3. 4. 5. 6. +onceptualize and identify the purpose of the project 0efine its objecti"es 2inalize its scope (dentify its acti"ities 'ssign resources to acti"ities +reate an estimate of time and costs Make honest assumptions about "arious rele"ant factors that can affect the duration of a project and its costs 7. 0iscuss alternati"e scenarios and build contingency plans M Project cannot help you with (.), (/), (6) and (7) but it can carry the remaining on its shoulders and sail you smoothly to your goals.

Terms that you need to know Tasks8 $hey are a di"ision of all the work that needs to be completed in order to accomplish the project goals. $here are 3 major types of tasks8 .. Summar tas!s- $hey contain subtasks and their related properties. /. Subtas!s- they are smaller tasks that are part of a summary task. 1. "ecurring tas!s-are tasks that occur at regular inter"als. 3. Milestones-are like interim goals in the project. $hey are tasks that are set to zero duration. Scope: of any project is a combination of all indi"idual tasks and their goals. Resources: can be people, e%uipment, materials or ser"ices that are needed to complete "arious tasks. $he amount of resources affects the scope and time of any project.

Todays lab
$hings to do8 #$ %reate Project 2$ Add &as!s and subtas!s to a project 3$ Assign tas! duration '$ S(o) progress of tas! *(o) muc( (as been accomplis(ed+, 9o to tart-: 'll Programs -:Microsoft ;ffice Project /<<1 ! "reate a Project =ou should be able to see a >tasks? list on the left as shown here. +lick on )0efine the project* link. .. 9i"e the start date of your project. /. +lick on ) a"e and go to tep/* 1. 2or +ollaborate on your project, select )@o* and go to tep 1. 3. a"e and finish. (f you want to specify which days and hours you want the team to work, or which days are offAholidays then click on )0efine general working time* and follow the 4 steps. (n our case we might not want to do that. +lick on )Bist the tasks in the project*.

(()

#dd Tasks/Sub$Tasks to your project - +lick on the >$ask @ame? +olumn and type out the task that you want to perform as part of the project. - (n the )0uration* column you should be able to specify the time taken in minutes. o, enter the number of minutes followed by )m*. =ou can enter task duration as and when you decide upon the suitable estimate. (f you are not sure about how much time you need for a task, you can put a )C* for duration. - $asks that are milestones are marked )<* duration. Adding Sub-&as! $o add a sub-task, insert a row below the task for which you are adding a subtask. 2or e.g. - if )Meeting* is a task, its sub task could be ) etting the agenda* for the meeting. $hen insert a row below )Meeting*. 'dd all the sub-tasks for the concerned task. $hen select all the sub-task (you can select multiple sub tasks by holding down the >ctrl? key).

+lick on the right arrow icon as shown abo"e. $his would indent the sub-tasks under the $ask. ! #dding Resources 0ouble click on any tasksAsub-tasks and the >task information? window pops up. +heck on the >Desources? tab and gi"e the resource names (the name of the person who is assigned the task) and +lick ;E.

%inking tasks: ometimes, e"en after designing a schedule many unforeseen changes can affect the completion of tasks midway. $his could lead to disruption to completion of other related tasks. $o sol"e this problem, M Project allows you to link tasks in "arious ways. ,y linking tasks Project adjusts the schedule whene"er there are changes that affect duration of other tasks. ' task that needs to be completed before are called predecessor task and the linked tasks is its successors. $asks can be linked in four ways8 .. 2inish-to- tart8 Predecessor finishes and the other starts /. tart-to-2inish8 $ask begins at the same time as its predecessor finishes.

1. 2inish-to-2inish8 ,oth tasks finish at the same time. 3. tart-to- tart8 tart of the predecessor determines when the other starts. $his is the default setting for any pair of tasks. -0ouble click on any task to bring up the )task information* window. elect the )Predecessors* tab and select the predecessor for the task from the drop down list. -+lick on ) chedule $asks* on the )$asks* list in the left. - elect the predecessor and the current task (multiple tasks are selected using >ctrl?) and click on the appropriate type of link that you want to pro"ide, on the left.

&!

'ow much has been accomplished( 0ouble click on any task and bring up the )task information* window. (n the )general* tab, you can specify the amount of work that has been completed. 'lso check out how the 9antt chart reflects the amount of work that has been completed.

Some )*tra +otes

.. =ou can add notes to each of your task. #hen you bring up the )task information* window for each task, you can click on the )notes* tab and add appropriate notes for the task. (f you feel like gi"ing a hyper link for each task, that would take you to the web-page that lists out more information, you can do that by-right click the mouse on each selected task and select )Fyperlink*. 'dd the hyperlink (GDB), which you want to pro"ide. /. =ou can set deadlines and constraints in the )task information* window. elect the )ad"anced* tab and select the constraints that you want to specify. 1. (f you want to "iew the 9antt chart more clearly, you can zoom on it. Dight click on the calendar o"er the 9antt chart and click on zoom. =ou can specify the units in which the 9antt chart would display.