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MS Project

How to use MS Project 2003

Table of contents
Introduction
Design of MS Project
3 steps to project
management
Customization
Steps in Planning
Editing tasks
Task scheduling
Critical path method
Pert analysis

Define Resource
Resource scheduling
Resource overallocation
Tracking project
Printing reports
Working with multiple
projects
Importing/exporting of
data
Formatting views
Customizing tables,views
and forms

Introduction to Project management


What is a project?
Features of project
What is project management?
Project management software(PMS)

What is a Project?
Project can be defined as a

st
Co

Tim
e

set of tasks or activities


with a defined start and end date
designed to achieve a unique short term goal
and constrained by time, cost and scope and
quality

Resource

Scope and Quality

Features of Project
Projects are temporary
Project objectives are specific and measurable
Projects are constrained by time, cost and scope
and quality.

Project management
is a process of
planning
tracking
and controlling project

MS Project helps you to


Develop a better plan
Makes calculated projections easy and more
reliable
Detect inconsistencies and problems in the plan
Communicate the plan to others
Track progress and detect potential difficulties

Design of MS Project
Views in MS Project
Gantt chart view
Calendar view
Network diagram view
Task Usage view
Resource sheet view
Resource usage view
Resource graph view
Tracking Gantt

MS Project Window
Title Bar
Menu Bar
Standard
Toolbar

Task
pane

Status
bar

Project
Guide

Gantt chart view

Gantt chart
table

Gantt chart
Timescale

Calendar view

Non working
day

Normal Tasks

Milestone

Network diagram view

Critical
Summary
task

Critical
Normal
task

Non Critical
Normal task

Critical
milestone

Task Usage view

Resource

Assigned
Task

Timescale

Resource sheet view

Overallocated
resource

Resource Usage view

Resource

Assigned
Task

Timescale

Resource graph view

Percent
Overallocation

Resource

3 steps to project management


Planning project
Tracking project
Closing project

Customizing MS Project
Customizing toolbars and menu
Changing the date format
Changing the currency format
Adjusting the Gantt chart view
Formatting the timescale

Customizing Project environment


Click on Tools menu
Click on Options button
Select View tab button
Select the date time format
from date format dropdown
list
Change $ symbol to Rs. in
Symbol text field
Select the Show outline
number check box

Steps in Planning
Enter Project information
Define a calendar for your project
Create a list of major tasks, sub tasks and
milestones (Using WBS)
Edit tasks, indent tasks, link tasks, add constraints
to tasks
Create resource list and assign resources to tasks
Remove resource overallocation
Optimize duration, cost and quality
Distribute the plan to other members in the project
for review.
Create a final plan

Project information
There are 2 types of Project:
Forward scheduled projects
This projects have a fixed start date

Backward scheduled Projects


This projects have a fixed finish date

Entering project information includes:


Define start date/end date of project
Set Priority of a Project

Steps to enter Project Information


Click on Project menu
Select schedule from start
date from schedule from
dropdown list
Enter Start date of the
project in Start date field
Set the priority for the
project

Note: Priority range is 01000

Creating calendar
Project creates the schedule based on the
calendar defined in the project
Types of calendar
Standard
24 hours
Night shift

Objective: Creating a calendar for the project:


To create a calendar you need to:
Set the calendar working time
Add holidays to the calendar
Change hours/day, hours/week, default start time,
default end time etc

Creating a calendar
Click on Tools menu
Click on Change working time
button
Select Standard calendar from
the drop down list
Select the working days in the
week from the calendar box.
Select the nondefault working
option
Enter the working time in the
From and To fields
Select the day which is an
holiday from calendar box
Select non working time option
Click on Options button

Setting Calendar options

Set the week start day.


Set the fiscal year start
Set the default start time
Se the default end time
Set the hours/day
Set the hours/week
Set the days/month

Editing tasks
What is WBS?
Introduction to fields in task table view
Types of task
Summary tasks, Subtasks and milestones

Inserting, copying, moving, deleting tasks


Inserting notes and hyperlinks to tasks
Indenting tasks

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)


Design Of Car

Design of Brakes

Design of Engine

Chemical design

Design of body

Mechanical design

Fields in Gantt chart table


Fields

Description

Task ID

Unique Task number

Task Indicator

Indicates additional information of task

Task Name

Describes information about the task or


action

Duration

Total duration of the task in minutes,


hours, days, weeks, months,

Start date

Start date of the task

Finish date

End date of the task

Predecessor

Task which determines start or finish of


successor task

Resource Name

The resource/s assigned to the task

Types Of tasks
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.

Editing Tasks
Select a cell in the task name field of Gantt chart
table to enter task.
Press tab key to move to the next field
Duration is entered in months, weeks, days, hours
or minutes.
E.g. 1 mo, 2 w, 3 d, 4 h, 45 m

Note: Let project enter the start date and end date
for your project
Insert task: Click on Insert menu Click on insert
task
Delete task: Select the entire row/s to delete
Press delete key

Indenting and linking tasks


Indenting (Outlining) tasks:
Select the sub tasks you want to indent. Click on demote
button on the Standard toolbar.
After performing this operation you can observe that the task
above the indented tasks appears to be bold.

Linking Tasks:
Select the tasks you want to link. E.g. task1 and task2 are to
be linked. Select the 2 tasks.
Click on link button on the Standard toolbar

Unlinking tasks:
Select the tasks you want to unlink.
Click on unlink button on the Standard toolbar.

Note: Always indent the tasks before linking. Do not link


summary task to subtask or another summary task.

Task scheduling
Predecessors and successors
Predecessor is a task whose completion (wholly or
partly) determines the start of the successor
Successor is a task which is dependent on the
completion (wholly or partly) of the predecessor.
There are 4 types of relationship (links) or dependencies
between Predecessor an successor. They are as
follows:
Task Dependencies
Finish to start
Finish to finish
Start to start
Start to finish

Task dependencies
Task
Dependency

Description

Finish to Start

The finish of the predecessor


determines the start of the
successor

Finish to Finish

Start to Start

Start to Finish

The finish of the predecessor


determines the finish of the
successor
The Start of the predecessor
determines the Start of the
successor
The Start of the predecessor
determines the Finish of the
successor

Relationship
Diagram
A
B
A
B
A
B
A
B

Task Constraints
Flexible constraints
As soon as possible (ASAP)
As late as possible (ALAP)
Start no earlier then (SNET)
Finish no earlier then (FNET)

Inflexible constraints
Start no later then (SNLT)
Finish no later then (FNLT)
Must start on (MSO)
Must finish on (MFO)

Task Constraints
There are 2 types of constraints: 1) Flexible 2) Inflexible
Flexible constraints are date constraints on tasks which allows to
increase the end date of the project
Inflexible constraints are date constraints which does not allow to
increase the end date of the project.

Flexible constraints
As soon as possible (ASAP)
As late as possible (ALAP)
Start no earlier then (SNET)
Finish no earlier then (FNET)

Inflexible constraints
Start no later then (SNLT)
Finish no later then (FNLT)
Must start on (MSO)
Must finish on (MFO)

Critical Path Method (CPM)


What are critical tasks?
The tasks on the longest sequence in a project whose
delay expands the project schedule are called critical tasks

What are non-critical task?


The tasks whose delay does not delay the project end date
are called non-critical tasks.

What is a Critical Path?


The series of tasks that must be completed on time for the
project to be satisfactorily completed

What is a CPM?
Critical Path Method is a technique of scheduling tasks in
a project

PERT Analysis
What is PERT?
Project Evaluation and Review Technique; a variant of CPM
where the task duration time is assigned a probability of
completion

Optimistic duration
Pessimistic duration
Expected duration

Resources
What is a Resource?
Types of resources
Work and Material Resource

Difference between Work resource and Material


resource
Creating a resource sheet

Resources
Definition: A resource is an entity which performs effort or
work on the task.
There are 2 types of resources
Work Resource e.g. Man, Equipments and facilities
Material Resource e.g. Cement, Petrol, Diesel, paper etc

Work Resource (WR)

Material Resource (MR)

WR is reusable. It can be
assigned to several tasks.

MR is non reusable. Once


consumed it cannot be used
in other tasks.

It requires a calendar

It does not require a


calendar

Resource Cost = (Cost of


resource/hr) * (work hours)

Resource cost = (Cost/ unit


of the Material resource) *
(no. of units consumed.)

Fields in Resource Sheet Table


Fields

Description

Resource Id

Unique Id assigned to a resource.

Resource Indicator

Symbols indicates Resource overallocation or notes indicator.

Type

Describes the type of Resource i.e. Work /Material.

Material Label

A label given to the material resource e.g. Petrol is a material resource and its label is
liters.

Initials

Abbreviation of resource name e.g. Engineers, Initial -Eng

Group

Group name or department name of the resource e.g Resource A, B are belonging to
Finance dept.

Max. Units

Describes max no. of units that a task can be assigned

Std. Rate

The cost of work/material Resource

Overtime cost

The cost of the Work resource if he works more than the max. hrs/day scheduled for the
resource

Cost/use

One time Cost of the resource. E.g Deposit on renting a Vehicle

Accrued At

Prorated Cost calculated with work


Start- Cost calculated as soon as the work starts
End Cost is calculated at the end

Resource scheduling
Work formula
Work= Duration * Units

Assigning resources to tasks


Task types
Fixed units effort driven
Fixed units without effort driven
Fixed duration effort driven
Fixed duration without effort driven
Fixed work

Task types and work formula calculations


Initial Change

Fixed Units
Result

Fixed Work
Result

Fixed Duration
Result

+Duration

+Work

-Units

-Units

+Units

-Duration

-Duration

+Work

+Work

+Duration

+Duration

+Units

Formulas:

D*U=W

D*U=W

D*U=W

Resource Overallocation
What is resource overallocation?
Example of resource overallocation
Identifying resource overallocation
Viewing and filtering overallocation
Strategies to remove resource overallocation

Resource Overallocation
A resource is overallocated when it is assigned to
work more hours during a given time period than it
has available for work on the project.
Identifying Resource overallocation
The resource sheet, Resource Usage, and Resource
allocation views all highlight overallocated resource names
by using red text.

Strategies for eliminating Resource overallocations


Increase the availability of the resource during the time
period in question.
Reduce the total work assigned to the resource in that time
period.

Tracking
Save a baseline
Select a tracking method and prepare a custom view for
tracking
Incorporate actual progress information into the project
Check the status of tasks
Modify the project in light of tracking information
Track issues related to the project
Request periodic text-based assessments of general
status from key resources
Publish new and changed assignments to Project Server

Tracking View

Act. Start
date

Act.
Finish
date

% Duration
Complete

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