Microsoft Project Template

Instructional Manual

Version: 1.00
Date: 24 July 09

A Commitment to Excellence in Training and

Education of Health Professionals
Document History

Revision Prepared By Date Comments

1.00 Ighsaan Davids 24 July 2009 First Release

Reference
PMBPK (2008) A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge,
Version 4, Project Management Institute.

License
The MS Project template and this Manual forms part of the People Rich Pty Ltd
(Australia) licensed Project Management Methodology that has been customised for
FSMed. It cannot be distributed beyond the exclusive use of FSMed unless it is in
compliance with the license agreement.

Acronyms & Abbreviations

Acronym Description
FSMed Fiji School of Medicine
HR Human Resources
PM Project Management
PMBOK A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge
PMM Project Management Methodology
PRC Project Resource Centre
PMP Project Management Plan
WBS Work Breakdown Structure

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 Table of Contents

1 ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT ..............................................................................................4

2 WBS NO. ...........................................................................................................................4
3 INFORMATION..................................................................................................................4
4 ACTIVITY/TASK DESCRIPTION ......................................................................................4
5 KEY HUMAN RESOURCES .............................................................................................7
6 TOTAL PERSON EFFORT (HOURS) ............................................................................ 10
7 FSMED STAFF EFFORT (HOURS) ............................................................................... 11
8 EXTERNAL CONTRACTOR EFFORT (HOURS) .......................................................... 11
9 CAPITAL ASSETS ($) AND OTHER OPERATIONAL EXPENSES ($)........................ 12
10 SCHEDULE DURATION (DAYS)................................................................................... 12
11 EARLIEST START DATE .............................................................................................. 12
12 LATEST FINISH DATE .................................................................................................. 12
13 DEPENDENCY ............................................................................................................... 13
14 CALCULATED PROJECT BASE COST (CALCULATED BY LINE)............................ 13
15 ADMINISTRATION FEE................................................................................................. 14
16 ENTERED COST SAVINGS ($N) OR OVER SPENDS (-$N)........................................ 14
17 ENTERED % WORK COMPLETE ................................................................................. 15
18 FURTHER HELP ............................................................................................................ 16

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1 About this Document
People Rich recommends using the Microsoft Project software product (“MS Project”)
to create the Work Breakdown Structure to insert into the Project Management Plan
at Appendix B. This instruction sheet relates to the MS Project ‘Work Breakdown
Structure_V1.0.mpp’ file (this is a MS Project Professional 2003/2007 version file).

This instruction does not explain the more advanced resource management
functionality, and is not designed as an instruction guide for staff who have not used
MS Project before. Rather it shows the meaning of customised columns set up as
part of the People Rich template.

On the MS Project template, text in blue signifies automated fields, and text in
maroon is used during tracking project progress in the implementation phase of the
project.

This MS Project file allows for the calculation of the Project Budget and Schedule for
planning purposes, as well as the Savings/Overspends, % Complete, and Estimated
Actual Expenditure calculation during the implementation phase.

2 WBS No.
This is an automatically inserted reference number that allows tasks to be linked to
Activities. For example, task 1.2.1 belongs to activity 1.2 etc.

The WBS number 1 is a total project summary line.

3 Information
This information column uses symbols that indicate certain information types, for
example:

This symbol represents a milestone or a key reporting event.. This is set by

double clicking on the task, and from the pop up window selecting the
Advanced tab and ticking ‘Mark task as milestone’.

This symbol represents a recurring task. This is inserted by selecting ‘Insert-

Recurring Task’.

4 Activity/Task Description
An activity is a grouping or heading for a number of tasks, and a task is the actual
piece of work to be undertaken. An activity is normally stated as a deliverable or a
noun, whereas a task is a verb (i.e., written as a doing thing). Grouping tasks is
simply a mechanism to ease the management of the work to be done. For example,
if a number of tasks were to be outsourced to a business, then they may be grouped
together to be more easily provided to the outsource firm.

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To enter a new activity or task simply use the ‘Insert – New Task’ function.
You can use the key to indent tasks or the to outdent a task. This also
changes the ‘WBS No’.

The and symbols in front of existing activities/tasks indicate that there is more
information relating to these, and by mouse clicking on the symbol all the related
next level of information will be shown as seen below.

The figure below shows a simple generic WBS comprised of Phase and
deliverables sections.

To create a WBS with Phases and Deliverables, create a series of summary

tasks and subtasks. The purpose of summary tasks is to summarise or “roll
up” the data contained in the Subtasks. To create Summary Task, complete
the following steps:

1. Select the tasks that you want to make subtasks of the summary task.
2. Select the Indent button on the Formatting toolbar.

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 In the figure below, Task One to Task Four to make the Phase One task a
summary task and make Task One to Task Four subtasks of the Phase One
summary task.

After clicking the Indent button on the Formatting toolbar, MS Project makes
the selected tasks subtasks of the summary task immediately preceding the,
and makes the preceding task a summary task. See the following figure.

Note how MS Project displays summary tasks and subtasks:

 It formats Phase One in bold.
 It shows an outline indicator (+ sign) in front of the Phase One task
name.
 It changes the Gantt bar shape for Phase One.
 It indents Task One to Task Four one level to the right of Phase One.

FSMed’s WBS template is designed to separate the activity tasks for Internal FSmed
resources, External Resource (i.e. Consultants) if required and Material Resources.

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See the example in the following diagram:

 <Activity 1> was changed to ‘Design Phase’.

 <Human Effort Task> was changed to ‘Design Manuals’.
 <Procure Material Task> changed to ‘Purchase Design Covers’.
(Reflecting the material required at this time)
 A task ‘Design Manuals Review Consultants’ was added. (Reflecting
the work to be done by the External Consultants)
 <Milestone A> was changed to ‘Design Phase Milestone’. (Reflecting
the end of this phase or milestone)

The template has included a Project Team and Project Status Reporting as ‘recurring
tasks’. Recurring tasks are simply an easy way to set recurring events. Simply
double click on the template task and a window will pop up (or select ‘Insert-
Recurring Task’ to enter a new one).

From this window you can set the frequency and dates of the recurring event.

5 Key Human Resources

Simply enter all the resources (individual names or organisation name in the event of
a subcontracted activity) involved in doing this task. It is highly recommended to add
a ‘(R)’ after the person‘s name who is responsible for that specific task when more
than one person is specified.

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Resources can also be added by using the split screen facility (preferred).

Note: If the split screen is not visible, it can be activated by selecting

WINDOW/SPLIT.

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The following will be displayed after pressing OK.

From the ‘Select HR Resource Type’ column, select ‘FSMED Staff’ for FSMED
resources. Otherwise, select ‘External Contractor’ for external resources.

If a specific resource name is not appearing in the drop-menu. Additional resource

(persons) can be added as follows:

Select the ‘Resource Sheet View’ from the VIEW Menu.

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The following screen will be displayed.

To enter a new resource simply use the ‘Insert – New Resource’ function.
For any labour or human resource select the type = WORK.

Adjust the ‘Std. Rate’ column to the relevant rate per hour for a WORK (Labour)
related resource.

Return to the GANT CHART view by selecting the GANT CHART from the VIEW
Menu.

6 Total Person Effort (Hours)

The ‘Total Person Effort (Hours)’ column is to be used to record the number of staff
hours (usually based on 7.4 hours for a single day per person) regardless if it is
internal resources or external contract resources.

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For example, if within the ‘Selected Key FSMed Staff Resource’ column an
‘Associate Professor2’ and ‘Associate Proffessor3 was selected and the amount of
effort for the task is 2 person day, then enter ’14.8’ (i.e., 2 x 7.4 hrs per day) or enter
1 days in the Schedule Duration (Days) column.

Another example is within the ‘Selected Key FSMed Staff Resource’ column a
‘Consultant’ is selected and the amount of effort for the task is 2 person day, then
enter ‘7.4’ (i.e., 2 x 14.8 hrs per day) or enter 2 days in the Schedule Duration (Days)
column.

7 FSMed Staff Effort (Hours)

By selecting ‘FSmed Staff’ from ‘Select HR Resources Type’, the ‘FSMed Human
Resources Effort (Hours)’ column is automatically calculated.

8 External Contractor Effort (Hours)

By selecting ‘External Contractor’ from ‘Select HR Resources Type’, the ‘External
Contractor Effort (Hours)’ column is automatically calculated.

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9 Capital Assets ($) and Other Operational Expenses ($)
For any material expenses enter the amounts in the ‘Capital Assets ($)’ and/or ‘Other
Operational Expenses ($)’ columns. For example under in the following figure under
Task Name ‘Purchase Design Covers’”, Capital Assets cost and other operational
expenses are entered under ‘Capital Assets ($)’ and/or ‘Other Operational Expenses
($)’ respectively.

10 Schedule Duration (Days)

This column is automatically filled when the ‘Earliest Start Date’ and the ‘Final
Completion Date’ is set on tasks. This column represents the total duration available
to do the work (not the effort it takes). You can alternatively alter this field, which then
automatically changes the ‘Final End Date’ field.

Please note that this is ‘available time’. For example, the person effort may be 3
days, but there may be 5 days scheduled, allowing a two day float flexibility in the
schedule. If the scheduled time was only 3 days, then there is no float, and the task
may be on the critical path.

This means that the template allows for the showing of actual effort and schedule
duration allocation.

11 Earliest Start Date

This is the earliest schedule time the task may start. You cannot set the date of the
bolded activities, as they represent summary information, which is automatically
calculated, based on the first date of the associated information below this level.

12 Latest Finish Date

This is the latest schedule time the task may finish. You cannot set the date of the
bolded activities, as they represent summary information, which is automatically
calculated, based on the last date of the associated information below this level.

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13 Dependency
The ‘Dependency’ column is the dependency or predecessor task reference. When
tasks are dependent on other tasks (i.e., there exists a specific order tasks need to
be completed in), the dates are automatically updated based on the initial task date.

Where possible, dependencies should be set before dates are finalised, as they
automatically change the dates according to the ‘Schedule Duration’ column
information.

The ‘Depend’ column requires information from the left-most column that shows a
sequential number. By entering the number of a task into that field it makes an
automatic dependency link. For example, the screen shot above shows:

 Item 3 (WBS No. 1.2) is dependent on item 2 (WBS 1.1)

 Item 4 (WBS No. 1.3) is dependent on item 3 (WBS 1.2)

You will notice that the dates also now follow the WBS dependencies set: WBS task
1.2 starts after task 1.1 is finished; and task 1.3 starts after task 1.2 finishes.
Effectively you would only have to change the dates on task 1.1 (and any schedule
duration) and the dates will start automatically updating.

14 Calculated Project Base Cost (Calculated By Line)

The ‘Calculated Project Base Cost (Calculated By Line)’ is an automatically
calculated value of all the summed costs for the specified activity/task. At line item 0
(WBS No 0) it shows the total Project Budget.

In the above example, it shows that the total project budget is calculated as
$2349.75.

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15 Administration Fee
Administration Fee is another overhead e.g. building, offices and general computing
facilities. Currently the tool automatically calculates the administration fee at a default
value of 15% of the budgeted cost. The total will be reflected in the “Calculated Total
Project Budget (Includes Admin)” column.

If you need to change the rate, simply right click on the header (Administration Fee)
in that column and select ‘customised field’. The following window will appear:

Click on the ‘Formula’ button.

Change the ‘0.15’ value in the formula to the new rate, and click ‘Ok’ twice.

16 Entered Cost Savings ($n) or Over Spends (-$n)

The ‘Entered Cost Savings ($n) or Over Spends (-$n)’ column is used primarily
during project execution to keep track of known savings or over spends, which
impacts the ‘Calculated Actual Cost’ or Project Budget amount. When you have a
saving, enter the saving amount as a ‘+‘ value, whereas if you have an over spend,
enter the value as a ‘-’ amount.

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For example, if you save $50.00 on buying a piece of equipment, then you enter ‘50’
into this column and it records a saving, which decreases the Project Budget
summary amount by $50. The total of this column allows the Project Manager to
keep track of any budget overrun or savings they have.

If you over spent $100.00 you enter ‘-100’ into this column and it records a over
spent, which increases the Project Budget summary amount by $100.

The total of this column allows the Project Manager to keep track of any budget
overrun or savings they have.

In the example above, the ‘-$50’ indicates that the Project Manager has a total $50
over spent on the original budget allocation.

17 Entered % Work Complete

The template reflects earned value management tracking by requiring the project
manager to record the ‘Tracking % Work Complete’ as a percentage of the work
done at any particular date (for progress reporting purposes). This value needs to be
manually inserted during the implementation or execution phase of the project to
keep track of the project’s performance.

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In the above example both tasks has been completed (100%).
In the following example, the task has been 50% completed at progress report
period. This shows that half of the allocated budget of the task.

For example, if I had a 50 day task that started on the 4 January and finishes on the
30 march, and my progress report period end date is the 1 February, I would report
only 50% of the job is done. This would show that I have spent half the allocated
budget to this task.

18 Further Help
MS Project has a build in help guide. You can write a question in the help window in
the top right corner of the screen.

For further assistance, contact the Project Resources Centre by visiting the Project
Resources Centre Intranet or send an email to prc@fsm.ac.fj.

-End of Document-

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