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CONTENTS
1
WHAT IS A PROJECT
A project is a well-defined sequence of events with an identifiable beginning
and ending. A project is different from a process in that there is always a point
when the project is complete and the goal has been met.
Managing the Ensuring that the allocated resources complete the defined
project tasks on schedule and within budget
2
THE STEPS INVOLVED IN SETTING UP A PROJECT
3
VIEWS
A view is a format in which you enter and display information. The Gantt Chart
view is the default view. It is made up of the Entry table on the left, used to
enter task information and the Gantt chart on the right.
4
View Name Description
Calendar A monthly calendar showing tasks and their duration's.
Use this view to show the tasks scheduled in a specific
week or range of months.
Gantt Chart A list of tasks and related information and a chart showing
tasks and their duration's over time. This is the most
commonly used view to enter and schedule a list of tasks.
More Views Opens the More Views dialog box which displays a list of
every view available.
5
HOW TO START A NEW PROJECT
There are three activities that need to be completed before you enter individual
project tasks:
1. Setting the Project Properties
2. Entering project working times and non working times
3. Setting the file properties
Tip: If your plans change, you can change your project information at any time
by clicking Project Information on the Project menu.
Project uses the Current Date to calculate variances between baseline data
and scheduled data unless there is a date in the Status Date field.
The Calendar setting is used to change the Base calendar that Project uses to
calculate how long the project will take to complete.
6
Setting File Properties
This is an optional activity but is useful because the options you enter can be
used in header and footer details for printing and reporting
7
These should be in sync with
your Standard Calendar. The
most important calendar options
are those that define a workday,
week and month.
Microsoft Project makes all its
duration and other time
calculations based on minutes
and then uses the values entered
in the calendar options to convert
the minutes into day, week and
month units. It is important that
you tell project how to define
these time intervals.
The Gantt Chart consists of a table on the left and a bar chart on the right.
Type the duration of the task in the Duration column. Tasks are measured in
terms of how long they will take, Project accepts:
m for minutes
h for hours
d for days
w for weeks
mo for months
If you are unsure about the time it will take to complete a task enter a ? after
the duration and Project marks this as an estimated duration. Overtype the
duration again to remove the question mark.
8
Applying Elapsed Duration
Elapsed duration is a type of duration that you can use when the activity or
task continues around the clock, irrespective of the workday hours. For
example, a ship carrying parts to a manufacturing plant doesn’t stop sailing at
the end of the day. If it takes 14 hours for the ship to sail from one port to
another you can enter 14eh, where the e indicates elapsed duration.
The vertical scroll bar can be used to view up and down through the task list.
To go to a specific task or different date press F5 and enter the required date
or task number.
The keyboard direction arrows can also be used to move to specific tasks.
Ctrl+Home will move you to the first task on the list.
9
Recurring Tasks
A recurring task is a task that occurs repeatedly within a project.
This could be a weekly meeting, a status report or regular inspections. Instead
of typing the task repeatedly within a schedule a recurring task needs only be
entered once.
A recurring task can be set to repeat daily, weekly, monthly or yearly
1 Click in the task name for the task that you want the recurring
task to appear above.
OUTLINING/SUMMARY TASKS
When you create your project you will have Phases, known as summary tasks
and the tasks needed to complete those phases, known as subordinate tasks.
Summary tasks are descriptive headings, subordinate tasks are details. A
summary task is completed only when all the subordinate tasks have been
completed.
Icon Description
10
You can have up to 65,000 levels on outline mode. When you use the Edit Cut
or Edit Copy commands to move a summary task, all of its subordinate tasks
are moved with the summary task. If you want to move only the summary task,
promote the subtasks first.
Summary Task
Summarises the cost, work and schedule information of the other tasks
showing the total duration between the starting point of the earliest task and
the finish of the latest task for the five subordinate tasks.
Subtasks
Any tasks that have been demoted below a summary task.
Formatting an Outline
The Tools, Options, View tab allows you to control how the outline is displayed
on the Task sheet.
If a check appears in the box, the option is turned on. Click in the required box
to turn the option on or off.
Show Outline Symbol Shows a + symbol if there are tasks that are not
being displayed below the current outline level.
Shows a – symbol to indicate all levels are
displayed.
11
Reorganising Summary Tasks
When you move a summary task Microsoft Project moves all of its subordinate tasks
• Select the row containing the summary task by clicking on the row number
preceding the name of the task.
• Select Edit, Cut.
• Select the row where you want to move the summary task to.
• Select Edit, Paste
One of the most useful features of outlining is that you can collapse or expand
summary tasks to hide or display their subordinate tasks to control the amount of
detail that displays on the screen or for printing the project.
When collapsed, the tasks still exist in your project. Collapsing and expanding only
affects the tasks you see on your computer screen.
12
ASSIGNING TASK RELATIONSHIPS
Microsoft Project lets you set up task relationships so that you can make one
task’s start or finish date dependant upon another task’s start or finish date.
A task that must be started or finished before another task can begin is called a
predecessor task.
A task that can only start or finish after another task has finished is called the
successor task.
Task Relationships
Task A
FS Finish to Start
Task B
Task A
SS Start to Start
Task B
Task A
FF Finish to Finish
Task B
Select the tasks to be linked and choose Edit, Link Tasks or click on
the Link button on the standard toolbar. This links the tasks with a
finish to start relationship.
You may wish to build in lead and lag times into your plan. In a finish to start
relationship, an overlap between tasks is called a lead-time and a gap or time
delay between two tasks is called a lag. Lead times are entered as negative
numbers.
To display the Task form quickly, double click on the horizontal split bar on the
vertical scroll bar.
Select the task to which you want to assign a predecessor on the Gantt Chart.
Click the Predecessor ID field at the bottom of the Task Form.
Type the predecessor task ID number.
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If you want a task relationship other than finish to start, type the abbreviation in
the Type field.
If you want to add a lead or lag time, enter it in the Lag field. If you want a one
day gap between one task starting and one task finishing enter 1d. If you want
a one day overlap between two tasks enter –1d.
TASK CALENDARS
By default, your tasks are scheduled by the project calendar. Task calendars
define unique or specific exceptions for scheduling individual tasks, such as
machinery that runs during nonworking time.
2 Click New.
5 Click OK
To change the calendar on specific days. Click the Details button and select
the days on which you wish to make the change.
To select nonadjacent days, hold down CTRL and click the days.
To select adjacent days, hold down SHIFT and click the first and last day
for the calendar change.
Under Set selected date(s) to, click Use Default, Nonworking time, or
Nondefault working time.
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To Assign a Calendar to a Task
2 In the Task Name field, double click the task to which you want
to assign a calendar.
4 In the Calendar box, click the calendar you want to use for the
task.
Select the Scheduling ignores resource calendars check box to have the task
calendar override all resource calendars if applicable.
The duration of a task is based on the combination of the standard, resource,
or task calendar assigned.
15
RESOURCES
A resource can be any item, place or person necessary to completing the task.
A task might require a single resource or multiple resources to be completed.
Material Resources
Material resources are materials consumed in the completion of a task as
opposed to equipment used to complete a task.
Entering Resources
You can enter resources in several different locations. The two most common
locations are the Assign Resources dialog box and the Resource Sheet.
16
The Resource Sheet
The Resource sheet can be used for entering information about more than one
resource quickly. This method can be used if you know the names of the
majority of resources you are going to use before you start assigning resources
to tasks.
2 Enter the name of the resource in the name field and then any additional
resource information as required.
Note, the resource sheet can be customised by changing the column headings,
inserting and deleting columns or changing the order of the columns
The default Resource Sheet has the following column headings:
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Assigning Work Resources
2 Click on the Assign Resources button and the assign resources dialog box
appears
3 Select the required resource and click assign. 100% of that resource is
assigned by default. You can change the percentage assignment, if you wish,
in the Units field.
Note you can select more than one resource by clicking and dragging over the
required resource names or by holding down the CTRL key whilst you click on
each required resource to make multiple selections
You can assign one resource to more than one task by selecting all of the
required tasks before you click on the assign button on the Resource
Assignment dialog box.
This method assumes that the amount consumed is not related to the duration
of the task. For example, you may have ordered a fixed amount of Topsoil for
a landscaping project which is not dependant upon how long it will take to
distribute the topsoil. When you assign a fixed amount of material to a task
you just enter the number of units that will be consumed on the task.
18
The Resource Information Dialog Box (General)
Double click on any resource name and the Resource Assignment dialog box
appears
You can use this box to enter the following additional resource information:
Email Type in the Email box to specify the e-mail address for the
resource.
Available Click From and then type dates in the From and To boxes to
From and To specify a range of dates that the resource is available for the
dates project. If a resource is assigned to tasks outside of these
dates, then Microsoft Project indicates that the resource is
overallocated.
19
RESOURCE COSTS
There are two types of costs in MS Project, resource costs and fixed costs.
Each resource or task can have a cost associated with it.
Resource costs can be accrued in several ways. They can be prorated by the
hour or accrued at the end or the start of the task and an hourly rate might
change during the duration of the project.
A resource might also have a different hourly rate for different types of work.
The resource sheet can be used to enter basic cost information.
To enter additional resource cost information use the Costs tab in the
Resource Information Dialog box.
You can enter up to 25 different resource rate changes in each of the five cost
rate tables to support increases or decreases to the resource cost rates.
By default, resources are assigned to tasks using the cost rate from table A.
You can change the table in the Assignment Information dialog box.
Rate changes can be entered as either a percentage or a number.
The new rate is calculated by adding the old rate plus the percentage of the old
rate. A negative percentage calculates a decrease from the old rate.
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The Assignment Information Box
CALENDARS
Calendars define the working and non-working time for the project and for each
resource assigned in the project.
As a change is made in the calendar Project automatically reschedules all
tasks affected by the change.
There are two types of calendars, base calendars and resource calendars.
Base calendars define the working day for the project or a set of resources.
Resource calendars define the working days and working hours for a specific
resource.
The default base calendar is called Standard. When a resource is added to a
project a copy of the standard calendar is copied to create a resource calendar
for each resource.
Project comes with two other base calendars; the 24 hour and Nightshift
calendars. You can also create new base calendars for groups of resources.
Project has some default calendar options such as default start time and hours
per day. These options are used to assign dates to tasks when no date or time
is specified.
If changes are made to the default calendar options then the base calendar will
need to be updated with those changes.
If the calendar options and base calendar do not reflect the same basic
information then you might get a conflict between task and resource
assignments.
21
The Calendar Options
To view or change the default settings for the calendar options:
Base calendars specify the basic working days, hours and holidays for the
entire project or for a group of resources. The standard Project calendar is set
as follows:
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Creating a New Base Calendar
2 Click New.
3 The create new base calendar dialog box appears. Type the
name of the calendar in the Name field.
5 Click OK
6 A new calendar appears for the name you specified. Make the
appropriate changes
As resources are added to a task, the total work on the task stays the same.
The amount of work distributed to the resources assigned to the task, however,
will change
Effort-driven scheduling applies only to resources being added to or removed
from a task. It does not apply to Microsoft Project's calculation rules when
changing work, duration, and unit values for resources already assigned to
tasks.
23
The effort-driven calculations will apply only after the first resource is assigned to the
task. Once a resource is applied, the work value will not change as new resources are
assigned to or removed from the same task
The effort-driven calculations will not be applied to multiple resources that are assigned
at the same time and that are the first assignments on a task. After this initial assignment
of multiple resources, however, the work value will not change as new resources are
assigned to or removed from the same task.
If the assigned task type is Fixed Units, then assigning additional resources will shorten
the duration of the task.
If the assigned task type is Fixed Duration, then assigning additional resources will
decrease the individual unit values for resources.
If the assigned task type is Fixed Work, then assigning additional resources will shorten
the duration of the task
Summary tasks and inserted projects cannot have the effort-driven setting turned on.
You may want to change this behaviour to more accurately reflect what
happens on a particular task when resources are added or removed.
For example, you may want to see the total work increase as you add more
people to a particular task.
2 In the Task Name field, double click the tasks for which you want to
turn off effort-driven scheduling.
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Task Types
The task type Fixed Unit is the default task type in Project.
When resources are added or removed from a fixed unit task the duration of
the task is generally affected. However, designating a task as effort-driven or
adding or removing resources determines the true effect on the tasks duration.
Example
Task X has a duration of 2 weeks, an initial resource assignment of one unit of
Resource A, and total work of 80 Hours.
The following table describes how a Fixed unit task accommodates resource
and scheduling method changes after the initial assignments:
25
Modifying a Fixed Duration Task
If a task has a fixed duration then the duration remains the same when
resources are added or removed.
The resource units or the total hours are affected on a fixed duration task
depending on the scheduling method as illustrated below.
Example
Task X has a duration of 2 weeks, an initial resource assignment of one unit of
Resource A, and total work of 80 Hours.
The following table describes how a Fixed unit task accommodates resource
and scheduling method changes after the initial assignments
If a task has the task type Fixed Work, the total work for the task remains the
same when resources are added or removed.
The duration and the resource units are affected on a Fixed Work task. A
Fixed Work task must be effort driven.
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Example
Task X has a duration of 2 weeks, an initial resource assignment of one unit of
Resource A, and total work of 80 Hours.
The following table describes how a Fixed unit task accommodates resource
and scheduling method changes after the initial assignments:
1 Select View, More View and apply the Task Entry View.
2 The Gantt Chart is displayed in the top pane and the task form in
the bottom pane.
3 Select the task that you want to change and click on the down
arrow beside Task Type on the Task Form.
RESOURCE OVERALLOCATIONS
A resource conflict occurs when a resource is scheduled to perform more work
than the resource can accomplish in the available working time.
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Button Description
Resource Allocation View Displays the Resource Allocation view with the
Resource Usage View in the top pane and the levelling
Gantt in the bottom
Task Entry View Displays the Task Entry view which consists of the
Gantt Chart view in the top pane and the Task Form
view in the bottom pane.
Resource Details Displays the Properties dialog box for the selected
resource.
Using Resource Filters for a resource's task with the Using Resource
filter.
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Leveling Calculations Area
Project can be set to manually or automatically perform leveling and search for
overallocations based on a time period.
Leveling Range
Entire Project - level the entire project range which is the default
Specified Date Range - tasks that occur in the specified date range.
Resolving Overallocations
Leveling Order
Level Only Within Available Slack levels only those tasks that will not affect
the project finish date.
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The Leveling Gantt View
To remove the last leveling operation click go to Tools Menu, Level Resources,
clear Leveling. You can do this for the entire project or just the selected tasks.
• Add overtime
• Adjust dependencies or constraints
• Remove the resource if it isn't important to the task
• Replace the resource with another resource
• Make calendar adjustments to extend the working days and hours
for the project or resource.
• Decrease the amount of work assigned to the resource.
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Flexible Constraints
Start No Earlier Than Starts the task on or after an entered Projects scheduled
date. from a start date.
Inflexible Constraints
Inflexible constraints are tied to a particular date and should be used less often
because they take flexibility away from the schedule. The following table
describes the types of constraints and when they are inflexible:
Start No Earlier Than Starts the task on or after an entered Projects scheduled
date. from a finish date.
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To Apply a Constraint
1 Select the task and double click on the task to display the Task Information
dialog box.
2 Click the Advanced tab.
3 Click the Type down arrow and select the required constraint
4 Click the date down arrow and select the required date.
5 Click OK and a constraint indicator icon is displayed in the Indicator field to
the left of the Task Name.
Note: Project can move the start date beyond its constraint date.
• On the Tools menu, click Options.
• Click the schedule tab and then clear the Tasks will always Honour Their
Constraint Dates check box.
Task links will now take precedence over constraints. This means that if a
constraint is set and there is no way you are going to meet that date then you
can leave the constraint information in the project for documentation.
Setting a Deadline
Rather than setting an inflexible constraint which might have a negative effect
on the scheduling you can apply a Deadline date.
A Deadline date is a date that you want or need the task completed by.
Setting a Deadline does not affect the task scheduling in any way but Project
places a downward pointing arrow on the Gantt Chart to indicate the Deadline
and an indicator when the deadline is exceeded
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To Set a Deadline
Troubleshooting
If a project is being scheduled from a start date then entering a start date for a
task or dragging the Gantt bar automatically sets a Start No Earlier Than
constraint.
If a finish date is entered, a Finish No Earlier Than constraint is automatically
set.
If a project is being scheduled from a fish date, entering a s start date for a task
or dragging the Gantt bar automatically sets a Start No Later Than constraint.
If a finish date is entered, a Finish No Later Than constraint is automatically set
SETTING A BASELINE
Once a project schedule has been created and the resource and task conflicts
have been resolved the current schedule represents the best estimate of how
the project should proceed and what resources it will take.
Before the first task begins a baseline should be set.
Setting the baseline is a critical step in the scheduling process.
As a project progresses, the start times, finish times and resource assignments
will change.
A baseline is useful for comparing the planned schedule with later versions of
the schedule to see what changes have occurred.
To save a baseline
When a baseline is set the data in the scheduled fields is copied over to the
baseline fields.
If a baseline is saved before the schedule planning is finished, a new baseline
can be saved over the existing baseline.
• Select Tools, Tracking, Set Baseline
Click OK.
33
Creating Interim Plans
An interim plan is generally saved at certain stages in the project.
These plans can then be compared to the baseline plan and the current
schedule.
The data saved in an interim plan includes the start and finish dates and any
split dates but resource or assignment data is saved.
34
Clearing the Baseline
Select Tools, Tracking, Clear Baseline.
Select the appropriate Baseline to clear.
TRACKING
Tracking is the process of gathering and entering task information into the
schedule.
Before the first task in the project can begin the project schedule should be
fully developed and a baseline should be set.
When actual task progress is entered, the project is automatically recalculated
and subsequent tasks are rescheduled based on the actual data, task
dependencies, resources and constraints.
Task progress should be entered chronologically so that the remainder of the
project can be evaluated and both positive and negative impacts can be dealt
with on a proactive basis rather than a reactive basis.
35
The Task Usage View
Splitting Tasks
A task can be split or rescheduled to interrupt the work and then resume the
remainder of the work at a later point in the schedule.
36
Tool Type Description
Slipping Tasks Task Filter Displays all tasks that are behind schedule.
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1 Select Tools, Tracking, and click Progress lines.
2. Select the appropriate progress line options and click OK.
You can also click on the Add progress Line button on the Tracking Toolbar to
set progress lines with default settings.
To View Project Data in Tables
The Task Usage view and the Resource Usage view can be used to track
project progress on a day to day basis.
Sorting Data
1 Select Project, Sort and select Sort By
2 The Sort By dialog Box appears.
3 Click on the Sort By down arrow and select the required option.
4 Select Ascending or Descending.
5 Click Sort.
38
Sorting can be applied in any view but when sorting tasks in a chart view the
dependency lines are no longer useful for indicating link lines
Grouping Data
39
Creating a Header or Footer.
You can type your own text in the header or footer for left, centre and/or right
alignment or you can use the following preset items:
The header and footer information is only visible when previewing or printing.
40
PREVIEWING AND PRINTING REPORTS
Previewing Views
Previewing a Report
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G E N E R A T IN G A PR O J E C T W IT H M ICR O S O F T PR O J E C T
Y
N
Y F ile,
E nter D ocum ent P roperties
P rope rties
Y P roject
S tart D ate other than today? P roject In form ation
(C h eck C alend ar N am e)
N
E nter Tasks into the
E ntry T able in G antt
C hart V iew
S chedule T asks
(P redecessors)
D efine R esources
V iew, R esource S he et
N A ssig n R esource s
C hange R esou rce C alendar? (bu tton on standard
toolb ar)
Y
R e source S heet C he ck for V iable P lan
view , M ore V iews
R esource A llo cation
42