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What is a Project?
A Project is a well-defined sequence of events with a beginning and an end, directed
towards achieving a clear goal. These events are conducted by people within the stipulated
constraints of time, cost, resources, and quality. A project is a specific, non-routine activity,
which needs some planning for its successful execution.
Examples of projects:
Software Launch
Launching a new product in the market
Producing a souvenir
Shifting to a new office location

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The Gantt chart. It is one of the most familiar tools for visualizing the progress in a
project. It uses horizontal bars, each representing a single task in a project. The bars are
positioned across a period of time, called a timescale. The relative length of an individual
Gantt bar represents a task's duration, the length of time it takes to complete a task.

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Calendar View: A Project View that displays a project task in the Calendar Format.

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Very useful for large and complex projects, it highlights the relationships of tasks in a
project to one another. A box, called a node that contains basic information about the task
represents each task. It gives you a graphical representation of how tasks are linked to each
other.
Critical Path Method. A critical task is one that, if delayed, will also affect the completion
of the project. Critical tasks are said to be on a critical path in a Network chart. Changes to
tasks which are not on the critical path will not have an effect on the completion date of the
project, within certain limits. The Critical Path method is, thus, used for scheduling the start
and finish dates for individual tasks.

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In the menu bar, choose View, Resource Sheet. can add the details of resources. After
assigning the resources, the Over-allocated resources are highlighted in this view.

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In the menu bar, choose View, Resource Usage. It displays resource usage over time in a
table format. This view can be used to determine the extent to which a resource is overused
or underused. It show day wise breakup of the Resource.

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The Resource Graph view enables you to look at the resource usage information for a
resource in a graphical way. It displays the percentage of day wise overallocation. It
displays what is available and what is required.

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Using Calendar, you can setup Project and resource working time to accurately reflect
resource availability information that uses when scheduling tasks.

Microsoft Project provides three types of calendars:

The Project Calendar: The project calendar defines the working time for the entire project.
The Resource Calendar: Resource calendar define working and nonworking times (such
as vacations) for specific resources.
The Base Calendar: Base calendars define working and nonworking times for groups of
resources.

Updating Calendars
By default, Microsoft Project creates resource calendars based on the Standard calendar.
You can, however, base a resource's calendar on a calendar other than Standard. When you
change days in a base calendar to nonworking time or change the working times for a day,
every resource calendar based on the calendar you changed is also updated. For example, if
Joe's and Jim's calendars are based on the Contractors' calendar and you set October 12 to
be a nonworking day in the Contractors' calendar, October 12 also becomes a nonworking
day in Joe's and Jim's individual resource calendars.

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Recurrence pattern section

Daily Click this option to indicate that the specified working times are to repeat daily.
Weekly Click this option to indicate that the specified working times are to repeat weekly.
Monthly Click this option to indicate that the specified working times are to repeat
monthly.
Yearly Click this option to indicate that the specified working times are to repeat yearly.
Every X days Enter how often, in number of days, that the specified working times are to
repeat.

Range of recurrence section

Start Enter the first date on which the specified working times are to take effect. By
default, this is the date specified in the Start field of the Exceptions tab on the Change
Working Time dialog box. If you change the Start date in this field, the Start date also
changes on the Exceptions tab.
End after X occurrences Enter the number of times the specified working times are to
take effect, based on your specified recurrence pattern.
End by Enter the last date on which the specified working times are to take effect. By
default, this is the date specified in the Finish field of the Exceptions tab on the Change
Working Time dialog box. If you change the Finish date in this field, the Finish date also

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changes on the Exceptions tab.

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Night shift calendar
You can create a night-shift calendar and assign it to a group of resources or set the working
hours for each resource individually.
If you have resources working night shifts that span 2 days (such as 11:00 P.M. to
7:00 A.M.), you need to enter the hours before midnight on one day and the hours after
midnight on the next day. For example, for the hours before midnight, you would type 11
P.M. to 12 A.M.; for the hours after midnight, you would type 12 A.M. to 7 A.M. on the next
day. The first day of the work week has the evening hours only; the last day has the morning
hours only.

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The Default View
The default view in Ms Project is the Gantt Chart View; you can change the default settings for the view. We
will discuss this later, but first let‟s understand the Gantt Chart View

Gantt Chart View

The Gantt chart view displays task information about your project as both text and bar graphics. On the left
side of this view are columns (containing Microsoft Project fields) in which you can enter and modify task
names, durations, start and finish dates, and other information. On the right side of this view, you can use
Gantt bars to graphically display task durations and start and finish dates on a timescale. The relative position
of the Gantt bars shows the sequence in which your project tasks are scheduled to occur.

You can use the Gantt Chart view to:

Create a project by entering tasks and task durations.
Establish sequential relationships between your tasks, which allows you to see how changing a task duration
affects the start and finish dates of other tasks and the project finish date.

Assign resources to tasks.

Track the progress of your project by comparing scheduled dates with the actual start and finish dates and by
checking the percentage of each task that is complete.

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Summary Task: The major phase of the project or a group name to collection of similar
tasks is known as summary task
Sub Task (Normal): Task to which resource is assigned is a sub task
Milestone: Milestone is a decision point, check point or a major phase completion indicator
in project. Milestone is a task which do not have resource assigned and has a 0 day
duration.

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Summary Tasks
Summary tasks are general headings with subordinate tasks (called subtasks), indented below them. You
create a summary task when you indent (or demote) a task below it. Summary tasks summarize a series of
actions in a given timeframe. They usually appear in bold text in the Task Sheet, and use a special summary
Gantt bar.
A summary task is automatically scheduled to start on the earliest start date of its earliest subtask; its finish
date is the latest finish date of its latest subtask.
Note:
Subtasks travel with their summary tasks.
Dragging tasks around can disturb links.
A moved task adopts the outline level of the task above it.
Also, when a summary task has a (+) symbol beside it, its subtasks are hidden. When displayed, a summary
task has a (-) symbol beside it.

View outline numbers

When you outline a schedule, Microsoft Project automatically assigns an outline number to each task. These
outline numbers are updated automatically when you move any task in your schedule.
1 On the View Bar, click Gantt chart.
2 On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the View tab.
3 Under Outline options, select the Show outline number check box.

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Define Lag and Lead Time
Lag time
Delay between tasks that have a dependency. For example, if you need a 2-day delay
between the finish of one task and the start of another, you can establish a finish-to-start
dependency and specify a 2-day lag time. You enter lag time as a positive value.
Lead time
Overlap between tasks that have a dependency. For example, if a task can start when its
predecessor is half finished, you can specify a finish-to-start dependency with a lead time of
50 percent for the successor task. You enter lead-time as a negative lag value.
Specifying Lag Time
A gap or delay between two tasks is called Lag Time. For example, you may want to start
laying carpet only three days after painting is finished.
Using the Task Sheet
For the selected task, enter the predecessor task number with the relationship type in the
Predecessor Column. Type „+‟ followed by the lag time. For example, if the predecessor
task is task number 4, with a Finish-to-Start relationship, and the lag time is 3 days, enter
the data as follows: 4FS+3d.

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Misconception occurs when users don‟t realize a constraint has been placed on a task and do
not understand why a task is being scheduled at an unexpected date.

An indicator will display when a constraint other than As Soon As Possible is on a task.
Below is a picture of the indicator and the tool-tip that appears when you hold your mouse
over it.

With a hard constraint the indicator will be red in color instead of blue. A constraint is
considered “hard” when it restricts tasks to starting or finishing on a specific date

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With a deadline date assigned, an indicator will be displayed if a task‟s finish date is later
than the deadline. No indicator displays if a task finishes before the deadline. This provides
the user with a visible yet unobtrusive notification that the current scheduled Finish is later
than the planned deadline.

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Longest Predecessor Chain is called as Critical task
Longest Predecessor Chain for task T1: T3T6
[so total it takes 11 days to complete the path]
Shortest Predecessor Chain for task T1: T3T4:T5
[so one of the path takes 9 days to complete the task, so it is called
as non critical task and there is a slack of 2 days.

Total slack (total slack: The amount of time that the finish date of a task can be delayed
without delaying the finish date of the project.) is the amount of time a task can be delayed
before the project finish date is delayed. If total slack is a positive number, it indicates the
amount of time that the task can be delayed without delaying the project finish date.

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The above diagram is a Network diagram, there should not be any open node in the project,
the open node shows that there is a predecessor for the task but not successor. Means it
shows that after what it will start but before what it has to complete, so the successor is not
there. In project there should be one Start and one End which reaches a goal. Every task
will have the successor as well as predecessor.
Another way to check the open Node [or no successor] is add a column successor in Gantt
View ,and if the task doesn‟t have successor that task is open.

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In total slack column, 0 days means it is a critical task and with some duration it shows
there is slack of that many days. E.g. if it of two days means I can delay the task maximum
by 2 days.

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Resources are the people, equipment, and supplies used to complete tasks in a project.
Resources need to be assigned when the project goal is to:
•Track the amount of work done by the people and equipment assigned to the tasks.
•Ensure high accountability and understanding of the project. When responsibilities are
clear, there is a decreased risk of tasks being overlooked.
•Have greater flexibility in planning when tasks are completed and how long they take.
•Monitor resources with too little or too much work assigned.
•Keep track of resource costs.
Note: If you don‟t enter resource information, Microsoft Project calculates your schedule
using just task duration and task dependency information.
One of the new features of Project 2007 is a new type of resource called a Cost resource.
Previously there was Work and Material resources. The Cost resource adds the ability
account for costs on tasks that have no relationship to the Work assigned on the task.

Cost resources make it easy to have multiple non-work related costs on a task and keep
track of them easily. Even better they allow you to keep track the amount of each kind of
cost across all the tasks. For example, if you have two Cost Resources, Travel and Hardware
you can assign them to many tasks and then using the Resource Usage view you can see
quickly how much money is scheduled to be spent on Travel and Hardware across all your
tasks .

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Assigning costs to a cost resource is done the same way as Units are set for an assignment. In
the Assign Resources dialog there is a new field called "Cost". It is only active for cost
resources. When you assign a resource to a task you just enter the amount you want to
represent for that cost resource and click 'Assign'.

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The features in this General tab of the dialog box functions as follows:
Resource name. The name entered here can have spaces such as first and last name but will
be treated as one value.
Initials. This field will default to the first letter/s of value in the Resource name field.
E-mail. Optional, e-mail address can be entered. The e-mail address is used with
collaboration commands discussed in the tracking lesson.
Group. Optional, a text value can be entered for grouping and filtering purposes.
Resource Availability. This grid allows dates to be entered for when a resource is available
for working on this project plan and is independent of the resource calendar.

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Generally resource calendars are used to determine how Microsoft Project calculates when
work on a task can occur. If a resource has a day off in the middle of a week long task then
the task duration will adjust to six days to accommodate the resources working time
Resource name. This field is for display only
Base calendar. By default all resources are based on the Standard calendar, which
represents working time for 5 days a week and 8 hours a day. A new calendar to base the
resource working time on can be selected from the drop-down list. Once additional Base
calendars are created they will then display in the drop-down list.
Legend. The legend explains the kinds of edits that were made to the calendar.
Select Date(s). This feature allows exceptions to be made to a Resources calendar, such as
time off or extended working hours and works in conjunction with the next feature.
Set selected Date(s) to. When a date/s is selected to the left, radio buttons can be used to
designate nonworking or non-default working time. If non-default working time is selected
then the From and To fields should be edited to reflect the new working time.

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Items in the Resource Information dialog box are further described below:
Cost tab.
Standard Rate. Enter the standard rate of the resources as per hr/week/ month.
Overtime Rate. The amount of work on an assignment scheduled beyond an assigned
resource's regular working hours, and charged at the resource's overtime rate. Overtime
work is not additional work on the assignment. Rather, it indicates the amount of the
assignment's work which is overtime work. Unavailable in the cost rate table for a
material resource.
Cost per Use. Cost per use is only charged once, regardless of the number of units of the
material resource that are assigned.
Different rates to a resource
To allow for changes in resource rates, such as pay increases or decreases, you can assign
different rate values to be applied at times you specify.

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At the assignment level, we have three fields that we are concerned with for this discussion: Duration, Units,
and Work. Scheduling, these three fields are interdependent and a change in one can affect the others. At the
assignment level, we can summarize the interaction of these three fields via the following equation:
D=U * W [Where D is duration, U is units, and W is work ]
If we assign Resource for the first time it is fine, but after that if you add or remove the resources the duration
of the task changes, to avoid the confusion select the task and make it fixed duration without effort driven
Steps for making fixed duration effort driven
Select all the task ,click on Project menu- select Task information- advance
In Task type –Select Fixed duration and uncheck Effort driven.
Assign proper unit of resources as task
Eg Task A -10 days and Raj is assigned as 1 unit
The duration of the task will be 10 days
The work or effort will be 10days*8hr=80 hrs
The cost will be 100 Rs per hr*80=8000
Suppose Raj will be there only for 2 hrs
then he will assign as 1 unit , so in that
scenario you will assign .25 unit
[i.e. 1 unit- 8hrs and .5 unit is 2hrs]

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The Baseline plan is snapshot of your planned project. And includes all the information
about Tasks, Resources, Cost, and Assignments.

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In 1st review suppose we made from 10 days to 12 days, if you want to check the
base line duration then add a column base line duration
Suppose you need to keep a track of one more review then save this file as
baseline1. In 2nd review suppose we made from 12 days to 15 days, if you want
to check the base line duration then add a column base line1 duration.
Same way you can keep a track of 10 different baseline in a single file
Note: You can compare Duration, Cost, Work, Start Date, Finish date
Project can also compare Actual Start date of the project and End date of project by
clicking on Project menu – Project information – Statistics

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Some of the commonly used filters are as follows
Using Resources
Critical Task
Date Range
In completed task
and many more…

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