Effective Usage of

Microsoft Project 2010

in Managing Projects
Q & A Booklet

Progressive Ventures, 502-B VIJAYA

TOWERS, SHANTI NAGAR, MASAB TANK
HYDERABAD – 500028.
WWW.PROVENTURESINDIA.COM, TEL: 040
23300048
Scheduling Exercise

Sch.1 The Project Kick off task will launch the three tasks listed after it.

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Sch.2 The Customer Sign off will happen once both the design reviews are completed

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Setup the Design related tasks such they will be planned only after the feasibility phase is
Sch.3
completed.

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Three days after the Project Implementation Plan task has started, the Project ID can be created in
Sch.4.1
the ERP system

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Sch.4.2 Two days after submitting the Specification plan, the approval will be received.

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Plastering can start earlier and go in parallel with Brick Work provided Plastering finishes three
Sch.4.3
days after Brick work is complete.

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Sch.4.4 You want to initiate the statutory approvals activity ahead by three days to gain some momentum.

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The replacement equipment will arrive in 6 days from the day you raised the request. The vendor
Sch.5.1
provides 24X7 premium support under warranty.

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Sch.5.2 You need to wait for 5 days for curing to take place before starting Brick work

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As a thumb rule Vendor Identification can begin when the Hardware Specification is 75 %
Sch.6 complete. The Hardware specification task can take few weeks to a month based on the
requirements!

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The load testing task needs to be planned in such a way that the Assessing Engineer will initiate the
Sch.7 test on Saturday and on Thursday will collect and analyze the results. The load test spans 5 days
and 2 man days of effort of the Test Engineer must be captured for the task.

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The equipment installation activity will also be scheduled on the Fridays to recover some lost time
Sch.8.1
on the project.

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Sch.8.2 From the 1st of August, the project team is going to work 7 days a week due to project emergencies

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Plan a risk mitigation procedure where in the event a hardware issue is detected, you will raise a
"request for replacement" (0.5 days), wait for 48 Hours to receive the new part(s), and redo the
Sch.9
hardware testing & benchmarking. Generally the hardware issues surface after 3 days of intensive
testing. After completing the testing and benchmarking, you will publish the results.

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The bottom up estimates show 40 days for the phase to complete. However, the top down budget
Sch.10
provided is only 30 days. How do you capture this in the project plan?

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Basic Resource Assignment & Costing
The "Equipment Erection" task will take 3 days and "OEM Engineer" needs to be assigned to
BA.1.1
it. How do you plan this task?

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The "3 D Modeling" task has been outsourced with an estimated effort of 40 hours and "3D
BA.1.2
Specialist" will be working on it. How do you plan?

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The "Site Auditing" is scheduled for 5 days with an estimate effort of 50 Hours. The "Audit
BA.1.3
Engineer" needs to be assigned to this task. How do you plan?

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The "Technical Writer" will be spending 2 hours per day on the “Develop Documentation" task
BA.2.1
which is estimated for 8 hours total. How do you plan?

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The "Technical Writer" will be spending 2 hours per day on the “Develop Documentation" task
BA.2.2
which is planned for 5 days. How do you plan?

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The "Design Documentation" task was earlier expected to take 10 days-80h by a Design Engineer.
BA.2.3 With a Senior Design Engineer available, he will work 4 hours per day and will require 20 h to
complete the task. How do you plan?

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The "Project Manager" who is deployed on the “Manage Project” task, will be available 100% for
BA.3 the Project in the month of July and from August will be available only 2 hours per day as he will
be leading few other projects.

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BA.4 The design review and rework estimates are on the higher end. Why?

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 The Design task planned for 7 days will require 5 Design Engineers from the Design Team. How do
BA.5
you plan this task when you still don’t have them hard allocated to your project?

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BA.6 You need to buy 3 Hardware Servers for the project. Each Server costs $ 8000.

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You need to buy 1 "High End Hardware Server" for which you need to pay the vendor 40% at
BA.7
Order placement, 40% at delivery and 20 % after Go Live.

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The Security analysis task done by an external agency needs to be setup on a T& M basis with the
BA.8
Security expert working at 100$/h. How do you plan?

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The Develop Design Drawings task is contracted at 20,000 USD with XYZ designers. The task may
BA.9
take 2 to 3 weeks to complete

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The Preparation activities at home location need to be billed at 200$/d while for onsite training
BA.10
delivery it should be billed at 600$/d

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The Audit Agency has been contracted to perform the following tasks at 30,000 USD. The effort is
BA.11 estimated at 120 hours and can shift by +/- 15%. The contractor will not be paid for any variation
in effort. How do you plan it?

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The Central Main Frame server used for your design modeling which was earlier charged to the
BA.12
project at 50$ /h will now be increased to 65$/h from the month of August.

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The Administrators Training expenditure - 3000 $ for Travel, 100$ for Stationery. The End user
BA.13
Training - 4000$ for Travel, 150$ for Stationery

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Task Types & Advanced Assignments

The task "Design Review" needs to be extended to 7 days on HOD’s Request. Accordingly the
TT.1.1
effort on the task must increase. How do you plan?

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The effort on the "Incorporate Design changes" has increased from 40 to 50 hours. However the
TT.1.2
"Design Engineer" must not be asked to work more than 8 hours per day. How do you plan?

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The task "Layout and Misc. Drawings" will be done over an extended period of 8 days however for
TT.1.3
the same billable hours. How do you plan?

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The "Ass. Design Engineer" is no longer available 100% on the task but will now work only 2 hours
TT.1.4
per day on the task. The task however is budgeted for 40 Hours.

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The effort on the task "High Level Design" has increased from 40 hours to 50 Hours. However the
TT.1.5
delivery date has to be met. How do you plan?

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The effort estimated for the task "Prepare documentation" has reduced from 40 to 20 Hours.
TT.1.6
However, the task must still be performed over a 5 day period. How do you plan?

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The task "Prepare As-Built Drawings" has to be crashed by adding additional Design Engineer. How
TT.1.7
do you plan?

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An additional designer will be joining the "prepare instrumentation loop diagram" activity,
TT.1.8
however for the same agreed Billable effort. How do you plan?

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 The task "Review Meeting" will also be attended by Ass. Designer, Customer, and Sr. Designer.
TT.1.9
How do you add these resources without crashing the activity?

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What will be the total effort of the "Lay Cable Connections" task if 3 more site engineers will be
TT.1.10
provisioned to the task at 8 hours per day for the same duration?

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A Junior Tech writer needs to be assigned to the task "develop documentation” however without
TT.1.11
increasing the effort in the same duration.

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The "Identify Requirements" task performed by the Project Manager is planned for 5 days and
TT.1.12
spread out as 4,4,8,10,4 hours on respective days with a total task effort of 30 hours

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The "Procurement of Computer Accessories" would take 5 days with a total effort of 8 hours by the
TT.1.13
procurement associate spread out as 4 hours on day 1 and 4 hours on day 5

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The task "Review Designs" task will be performed by the Ass. Designer. The Sr. Designer will join
TT.1.14
the task on the last two days

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Constraints
After review, Task A’s duration has been revised to 3 days. What will be the new Project
C.4.1 duration? What is causing the schedule from dynamically re-ordering the start and finish
dates?

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After review, Task B’s duration has been revised to 3 days. What will be the new Project duration?
C.4.2
What is causing the schedule from dynamically re-ordering the start and finish dates?

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The Prepare Spec task needs to be re planned to 6 days instead of 5 days. What will be the new
C.4.3
finish date? What is causing the scheduling conflict?

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Identify the Critical tasks in Scenario 4! Why does the "Identify Messaging Platform Consideration"
C 4.4
phase is shown as critical while it appears to have some "Total Float" available?

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Critical Path Analysis

5.1. Ex_Critical Path - Generally Long.mpp. What is the Critical Path in this Project Plan?

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5.2. Ex_Critical Path - What is Critical.mpp ? Why are all the tasks Appearing Critical?

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5.3. Ex_Critical Path - Fast Tracking & Crashing.mpp. Using Critical Path Analysis, what is the best possible
project duration if Designer 1 – Designer 4 are all resources with equal experience & skill?

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Leveling - Priority
There is only one Business Analyst and Implementation Consultant deployed at customer site
that have to complete the roll out of an ERP solution in three different departments with
varying priorities.

1. The User Training for the Purchase department is of the highest priority and then the
Finance department can be targeted followed by the Projects Department.

2. The data migration in Purchase needs to be completed on higher priority followed by the
Finance Department and then the Projects Department.

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Tracking
The following tasks are to be updated with the status date on the 21st of March.

TM.1 The Task Develop Block Diagram is in progress according to the plan

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The Task "Design" started as planned, after 8 days, SE is requesting 16 additional hours over and
TM.2 above the remaining hours as he believes the remaining hours are not enough to complete the
scope. This is a T&M contract.

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The Task "Design" started as planned and is in progress as planned, however SE is requesting 4
TM.3 additional hours to complete the scope over and above the remaining hours. However, the task
has to be completed without any Finish delay.

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Starting of “Incorporate review comments” is delayed by one day due to lack of clarity on certain
TM.4 aspects. The activity started on Tuesday and the Design Engineer worked on the task during
Tuesday and Wednesday.

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Design Engineer worked on Monday and Tuesday but did not attend office on Wednesday as he
TM.5 had to resolve some critical issues in another project. He is likely to resume the current activity on
Monday and complete the remaining part of the work.

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The Architect started the stage 2 - feasibility exercise and after 3 days has been asked to abandon
TM.6
the task as the project is not viable

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After working 8 days on the review designs activity, the senior design engineer has moved out,
TM.7
the design engineer will complete the remaining task at the same billable effort

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Design Engineer completed the ‘Design block diagram” task in 8 days instead of 5 days with
TM.8
additional 24 hours

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The senior design engineer reviewed all the integrated design documents by Wednesday. The
TM.9
project gained 2 days due to this.

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The Project Manager spent 35 hours in week one, 30 hours in week 2 and managed to work 55
TM.10
hours in week 3 for project oversight activities.

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Work was under estimated on Laying cables for Module B and unless one more additional Site
TM.11 Engineer works dedicatedly with the currently assigned Site Engineer 1 in the next two days it is
difficult to complete the task on schedule.

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1. The Lay Foundation Task was completed.

2. The column Erection work started. After two days of Column Erection Activity, it was
discovered that the column base had minor misalignment with the foundation grooves.
TM.12
3. The column erection had to be halted and the foundation needs to be repaired for proper
alignment.

4. The repair task will need 3 days of effort from the Mason and then the column erection can
resume. How do you plan it?

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1. The cable laying task started as planned and was in progress according to the plan.

2. As work progressed to the eight day of the project, the Cable laying team requested for
additional 5 days.
TM.13
3. The Cable Testing team likewise requested for 3 additional days for the increased work.

4. How do you update the plan?

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How does the constraint behave when actual days exceed the planned days. Update Design
TM.14
dpcument - Instrumemt 5 task with 3 day actual and remaining as 3 days.

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Reporting
How do you plot the S-Curve of the Project plan?

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How do you prepare a report to show the Time phased distribution of work?

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How to prepare Work, Actual and Remaining Work report?

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