COIS

20008 / MGMT22166 / PPMP20007 Week 2 Tutorial

and Practical Exercises
Learning objectives
After this workshop exercise, you will be able to create a project schedule in MS Project. In
creating this plan you will learn how to:
Enter project phases, tasks, and milestones
Enter task durations
Enter dependencies between tasks
Enter resources and resource costs
Assign resources to tasks
Show the critical path
Determine the total cost and duration of the project

Scenario: Getting up in the morning

The scenario for this workshop is the process we go through when getting up in the morning.
In the example provided the goal is to get up in the morning and get to work on time (by
9.30), having showered, dressed, and had a good breakfast.
In order to develop a useful project schedule, the following has to be done:
determine the various steps needed to complete the project
determine the duration for each of these steps
determine the sequence in which these steps take place
identify the resources and their costs

Tasks

Duration

Alarm sounds

0 (Milestone)

Get out of bed

15 min

Take a shower

20 min

Get dressed

15 min

Eat breakfast

15 min

Read the newspaper

10 min

Listen to the radio

60 min

Drive to work

30 min

Arrive at work

0 (Milestone)

Sequence/Predecessors
and Resources
Trigger that starts the
project
Do this after alarm
sounds
After getting out of bed
Use hot water which costs
$1 per litre
After showering
Assume clothes are not
part of project resources
After getting dressed
Breakfast costs $5 each
time
While having breakfast
The paper costs $1.20
each morning
You have the radio on for
one hour
The radio starts when the
alarm goes off
After eating breakfast.
We assume petrol costs
$1.50 per kilometre for 4
kilometres
After driving to work

The aim of this exercise is to determine how long it takes to get to work, and how much it will
cost. MS Project will help us do that, but we need to set up all this information accurately in a
project file.

Starting MS Project
To run MS Project, find MS Project in the Start menu. Some introductory dialog boxes may
appear. If this happens, just close these boxes. The standard main screen will look like
similar to the shot shown below.

Effort driven tasks

A task or activity is referred to as effort-driven when adding additional resources reduces the
duration of a task. An example of an effort-driven task is that of painting a fence. If it takes
one person two hours to paint a fence, then adding an additional person will reduce the time
to one hour.
By default MS Project assumes all tasks are effort-driven. This default has just been
removed because, in this project, as in many other projects, adding more resources to a task
should not reduce its duration at the initial planning stage.

Initial settings
1. Select the File Tab and click Options menu item. In the options dialog box that appears,
ensure the Schedule menu item is selected:
1. Select Decimal from the Show assignment units as a combobox.
2. Un-tick New tasks are effort.
3. Select Automatically Scheduled from the New tasks created combobox.
Make sure the settings appear as is shown below.

Adjusting the date and currency format

4. Select the General menu item and in the Date Format combobox select the format with
both a date and a time as shown below.

5. Select the Display tab and ensure that the Currency selected is AUD as shown below.

6. Finally, once all initial settings are adjusted, click OK. Click on the project tab to begin
work on your schedule if necessary.

Entering in project tasks

Now you will enter the required project tasks that make up the schedule. It is similar to
working with a spreadsheet.
7. Click in the top-most cell under the column named Task Name and type in the name of
the first task in our simple project: Alarm sounds.

8. Press the Tab key. The next cell on the right will be selected.
9. Type in the duration 0. This makes the task a milestone.
10. Press the Arrow Down key to go to the next row.
11. Press the Arrow Left key to go to the cell under Task Name.
12. Type in the name of the second task: Get out of bed.
13. Press the Tab key. Type in 15m.
14. Press the Arrow Down key. Notice how the 15m became 15 min.
15. Continue entering the tasks as listed in the earlier table (page 1-2).
As each project task is entered, a blue bar appears in the Bar Chart pane on the right side of
the chart, as shown below. Note that your dates will be different.

16. Select the View Tab and click a number of times on the Zoom>Zoom In button, until the
differences in the length of the bars is more obvious. Take note of the vertical bar
separating tasks and Gannt Chart (or time bar) panes. It can be moved to allow data
entry in Predecessors or Resource Names columns.

Saving the file

17. Click on the Save button and save the file as GettingToWork.mpp.

Entering task sequence: Predecessors

Adjusting column widths
If the information under the Start or Finish column contains asterisks you will need to widen
the columns for Start and Finish
Entering the task sequence
Predecessors are entered in the column of the same name in MS Project to indicate the
sequence of tasks. Each task has a task number. Task 2 (Get out of bed) needs to happen
after Task 1 (Alarm sounds). That means the predecessor of Task 2 is Task 1.
18. Enter 1 in the Predecessor columns for task 2 and complete the predecessors for tasks 3
to 5 (see overleaf).
The result of these actions is shown overleaf:

Tasks occurring at the same time

The newspaper is read while eating breakfast. That means that Task 6 can occur at the
same time as Task 5. Therefore, Task 6 has what is known as a Start-to-Start relationship
with Task 5.
The Start-to-Start relationship is different from the Finish-to-Start relationship (which is the
default/standard). Task 2 has a Finish-to-Start relationship with predecessor Task 1. That
means the predecessor - Task 1 - has to finish before the successor - Task 2 - starts.
Start-to-Start means the predecessor and successor tasks start at the same time.
19. Enter 5SS as the Predecessor for Task 6. The following link between task 5 and 6 will
appear after entering a Start-to-Start relationship.

Complete the list of predecessors for the tasks as follows (see overleaf):
20. Task 7 The first radio that is being listened to is a clock radio that is used as an alarm
21. Task 8 requires Task 5 to have been finished before it can start
22. Arrive at work occurs after the Drive to work (Task 8)
The resulting Gantt chart looks like this you may need to zoom in further to achieve the
same appearance in your Gannt Chart:

Hanging tasks
There are a couple of hanging tasks, (tasks that have predecessors but no successors). All
tasks must have predecessors (except the first one) and successors (except the last one).
Add the following predecessors to task eight using the entry bar underneath the horizontal
menu:
23. Task 6 (Read the newspaper) should have the successor Task 8 (Drive to work)
24. Task 7 (Listen to the radio) should have the successor Task 8 (Drive to work) That
means that Tasks 5, 6 and 7 all finish before Task 8 begins.
25. Click on the Save button to ensure you have a copy of all of your changes to the
schedule.

Entering resources
The next thing is to enter the list of resources and their costs.

26. To do so you need to open the Resource Sheet. Go to View then select
Resource Sheet.
The Resource Sheet is like a spreadsheet where important information about the project
resources is entered. These are:
Costs either fixed (per use) or variable (depending on amount of resources used)
Time constraints when these resources are available or not available.
These have to be entered first before resources are assigned to tasks. Then MS Project will
compute the total project cost and consider all the constraints in the project schedule.
Resource Name: Enter a descriptive name for the resource.
Type:
This refers to whether the resource is a Material resource or aWork resource
(e.g., manpower). For now, enter all resources as Material resources. Later, a
Work resource will be added to see how it is different.

Initials:

This is just a short name for the resource. Usually, this is the first letter of the
Resource Name. There is no need to change this.
Std. Rate: This means a cost per unit of the material. If the Hot Water costs $1 per litre,
then just put $1 as the rate. Later, when the resource is assigned, it will be
important to state how many litres are needed for taking a shower.
Cost/Use: This is a fixed cost. Any amount entered here will be added to the total cost each
time this resource is assigned. If there is a Std Rate and a Cost/Use for a
resource, this means the usage of this resource will be the Std Rate multiplied
by the number of units plus the Cost/Use.
Accrue at: Determines when the cost of the resource is incurred: at the Start of a task, at
the End, or during the task (Prorated). Leave this at Prorated.
To enter values noted in the table on page 1-2 in the Resource Sheet:
27. Click in the first row under Resource Name. Type in the name of the resource Hot
water
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.

Press Tab to go to the next column

Press the letter m to change the Type to Material
Press Tab to go to the next column
No need to enter anything in the Material column
Press Tab continually until you reach the Std. Rate column
Enter 1 as the standard rate per litre for hot water
Repeat the above procedure for all the other resources. Note that there is a cost per use
for breakfast and the newspaper. Your resource sheet should appear similar to the one
depicted below.

After entering all your resources, you can now assign these to the tasks in the project.

Assigning resources to tasks

35.

Return to the Gantt chart view through the menu by selecting View then Gantt chart.
There are a number of ways to assign resources, but the simplest is to use the method
of entering the information in the rows and columns on the left side of the Gantt chart.

Viewing the Resources column in the Gantt Chart

36.
37.

Adjust the view to show the Resource Names column.

Assign a resource to Task 3 (Take a shower) which uses Hot water, and estimate the
number of litres to use for this task. Say, 30 litres of Hot water. Click in the row for
Task 3 (Take a shower) in the Resource Names column. Click on the combobox and
select the resource Hot water. Once Hot water is selected, click the cell again and the
cursor will appear next to the words Hot Water[1]. To specify that we will use 30 litres
overwrite 1 with 30: [30] and then press Enter.

Notice that the resource name Hot Water[30] will appear both in the Resource Names
column and in the Gantt Chart time bar area. If a number is not typed in after the resource
name (i.e. Enter is pressed), the default value is [1].
38.

Continue assigning resources in a similar fashion. It takes four litres of petrol to get
from home to work. After assigning all resources the screen will appear as follows:

Viewing total project cost and duration

How much will this project cost, given our resource costs and amounts? To view the project
cost and duration, use the menu:
39.
40.
41.

Click on Project then select Project Information.

A dialog box will appear showing, among other things, Start Date and Finish Date
(your dates will be different this is fine).
Click the button labelled Statistics.

42.

Total duration is shown, total man-hours, and total cost. During the planning stage, the
values in the Current row are what should be considered and watched. Click Close.

Viewing the Critical Path

The critical path is a path of tasks along the project timeline that need to be completed on
time otherwise any delay in these tasks will cause a delay in the project. Knowing the critical
path helps in risk management. If the project manager is aware of the risks that might delay
these tasks, then he/she is able to set out a risk management plan for these tasks.
To highlight the critical path in the project:
43.
44.

Click on the Format tab in the horizontal menu.

Select Critical tasks in the Bar styles section of the Format menu.

The Gantt chart appears as follows:

The blue time bars represent the non-critical tasks, and the red bars represent the critical
tasks.
45.

46.

To understand how the critical path works, change any of the durations of the critical
tasks. If it takes 20 mins instead of 15 mins to Get Dressed (delay this task by 5
minutes), then the finish time will change by 5 minutes.
If the duration of a non-critical task was extended (up to a certain point) the project will
not be delayed at all. For example if the task Listen to the radio was extended by 5
minutes, it would not extend the finish time. On the other hand, if it took 120 minutes, it
will. Change all the values back to those shown in the figure above.

Changing the project start time

47.

48.

By default, the project starts on the day that the tasks are entered into MS Project. To
change the project start time, select the Project tab and click Project Information.
Click the combobox for Start Date. On the resulting calendar clicking on a date selects
the date in that month. Select the date December 8th, 2014. Change the start time to
10:00am by clicking next to the time 8:00am in the start date box, delete the old time
and type in 10:00am.
Click Ok to change the start date and time on your Gantt Chart.What time does it finish
now?

Scheduling from project finish time

If the date and time that the project should finish on is known and you want to know, given
the tasks, durations, sequence, and resource availability, what date and time should the
project start then this is called scheduling the project from finish time.
49.

To set this, access the Project menu and select Project Information, then select the
Schedule from and then select Project Finish Date. Notice that the Finish date can
be edited but the Start Date cant. Set the project finish date to 8th December, 2014,
9:30am. This means we want to arrive at work at this time. Click Ok to implement this
change.

Notice that the start date and time of the first task now changes to the 5th December, 2014 at
4:55pm. What happened?
What caused this involves Working Time set in the project. By default MS Project
assumes that projects will only take place on Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. Since the
whole project takes more than one hour and a half, and has a finish time of 9.30 am, then it
must be started during the working time on the previous working day.
50.

Save your work.

You have just completed planning a project in MS Project and hopefully learnt how to
manipulate a number of key aspects to using the application.

Acknowledgement
TheGettingupinthemorningprojecthasbeenadaptedbyGinaReyesandAdrianRampfrom
Tatnall,A2008,AguidetoMicrosoftProject,2ndedn,DataPublishing,Melbourne,Australia