Getting started with MS Project 2010

Getting started with Microsoft Project 2010

Madou, 07th of March 2014

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Commission

Contents

Introduction

The MS Project interface

Basic steps to create a

project

Let's practice!

Recommendations


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MS Project overview: Strengths

Microsoft Project is a project management software program,

developed and sold by Microsoft, which is designed to assist a

project manager in developing a plan, assigning resources to tasks,

tracking progress, managing the budget, and analysing workloads.

The first commercial version of Project was released for DOS in 1984

The most widely used PM program because:

It is fairly generic in its approach

Highly automated once configured. Requires relatively low amount of user manipulation

Scalable – can be used for small to enormous projects

Balances visual approach (charts, graphs, etc) with logical structured approach (task and resources lists)


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Initiating

• Set the project goal

• Identify the necessary start or finish date limitations

• Identify the project manager

• Identify budget and quality considerations

• Enter project tasks, duration and relationships

• Identify project milestones

• Define available resources and costs

• Assign resources to tasks

• Producing work results

• Requesting changes

• Recommending improvements

• Creating project records, reports, and presentations

• Updating project

• Managing resources and tasks

• Meet management timing, resource, and cost objectives

• Identify budget and quality considerations

• Review and analyze performance of the project

• Create a Closure Report

• Archive records

Planning

Executing

Controlling

Closing

Project

Management: process of initiating,

planning, executing,

controlling, and

closing a project

MS Project overview: PM steps


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Contents

Introduction



project

Let's practice!

Recommendations


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The Quick Access Toolbar (File, Task, Resource,

Project, View, Developer, Format)

The Ribbon (tabs, buttons and drop-down list)

Main Screen components Indicators column with message icons

Status bar with messages

Screen divider, to separate spreadsheet from timescale

View buttons

Zoom slider


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Single view versus combination view (example)

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Change the timescale in a view 1. In the View

group select

Timescale

2. In the

Timescale

dialog box,

click the Top

Tier, Middle

Tier, or

Bottom Tier

tab.

3. In the Units box,

select the time unit that

you want to use. (e.g.

Years)

4. In the Label list, select

the label format that

you want to use to

display the time unit.

5. In the Count box,

type or select a

number to specify the

frequency of unit

labels on the

timescale tier.

To focus on a specific time period or group of tasks, use the zoom slider in the

status bar at the bottom of the screen.

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Contents

Introduction



project

Let's practice!

Recommendations


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Create a project: basic steps

Start a new project from a Start or Finish date

Add tasks, recurring tasks and milestones

Creating WBS with Summary Tasks

Create dependencies

Assign resources

Find critical path

Close Project


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Create dependencies

Assign resources

Close Project

Find critical path


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Start a new project: Start or Finish date

By default, the new project file is scheduled from a

Project Start Date

All tasks are scheduled to begin as soon as possible

Project 2010 calculates the project’s Finish date based on Tasks, Durations, Dependencies.

When a project is scheduled from a Finish date, such as

a conference, all tasks are scheduled to begin as late as

possible

To schedule from a Finish Date, apply this setting as soon as the project is created


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Start a new project: from a Start date


1. Click on Project

Information

button

2. Enter the start

date of your

project

This is a description

of the costraint on

this project

This allows you to

choose between

forward scheduling

(Project Start date)

and backward

scheduling (Project

Finish date)

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Start a new project: from a Finish date


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Create a project: Customize standard calendar

By default, the entire project, each task, and each resource is

scheduled according to the Standard calendar.

The Standard calendar specifies that Monday through Friday

are working days with 8 hours of work completed each

day. Saturday and Sunday are designated as nonworking

days.

The Calendar can be modified to identify holidays or other

nonworking days or times in which work should not be

scheduled.

You can also create unique calendars for tasks and resources

that do not follow the working and nonworking times specified

by the Standard calendar.


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Create a project: Customize standard calendar


Select

Exceptions Tab

Add Holiday as

exceptions Nonworking holiday

will be showed on

the Calendar

To customize the standard calendar click on Change

Working Time on the Ribbon Project.

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Create dependencies

Assign resources

Close Project

Find critical path


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Create a project: Entering tasks and durations

Entering tasks and durations is probably the single

most important effort in developing a useful project file.

If tasks are omitted or durations underestimated, the

value of the project’s scheduling and cost information is

compromised.

Often you will need to change an existing task or insert,

delete, split or move a task. Project 2010 offers a

variety of tools that you can use to accomplish these

common tasks.


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Create a project: insert, delete, inactivate tasks


Right‐click

shortcut

menus task

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Create a project: entering recurring tasks

A recurring task is a task that repeats at a regular

interval (i.e. status meeting )

In Project 2010, you can define a recurring task one

time using the Recurring Task Information dialog box

from the task menu.

Project 2010 then handles the details of scheduling

the task at specified interval for the entire project or

for the time period you specify.


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Create a project: entering recurring tasks


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Create a project: entering milestones

A milestone is a task that marks a significant point in

time or a progress checkpoint.

It has a zero duration and is therefore a symbolic task

that is used mainly to communicate progress or to

mark the end of a significant phase of the project.

Examples include the signing of a contract or the

announcement of a new product.

Milestones can also be used to motivate project

participants by recognizing accomplishments.


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Create a project: entering milestones


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Create a project: attaching documents to tasks


1. Double click on the

task name to open the

Task Information

Dialog Box

2. In the Notes tab, click

on Insert Object

button

3. Select Create from

File, then Browse and

locate your file and

Insert

4. Turn on Link check box, if you want

that the icon will be linked to the file. In

this way changes to the attached file

will be reflected in your project.

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Create a project: display information about tasks


2. Select

Indicators

1. Click on Add

New Column

3. Drag the

column to a

new location

Useful information and alerts related to tasks and resources can be displayed

showing the Indicators Column.

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Create a project: display information about tasks


4. Indicators column displays:

• Miscellaneous indicators

• Constraint indicators

• Task type indicators

• Dependency indicators

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Create a project: add a deadline




Task Information

Dialog Box

2. In the Advanced tab,

click on Deadline

Menu and define date

If you know that your task has a deadline one common mistake is to put inflexible

constraint -> must finish on Why? Because you are telling MS PROJECT that this

task MUST finish on that date and NOT BEFORE!

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Create dependencies

Assign resources

Close Project

Find critical path


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Create a project: WBS with Summary Tasks

A very important strategy for managing projects well is

to organize the work that needs to be done in a logical

manner, a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) can be

an example.

In order to use a WBS in Project 2010, you must

organize tasks into Summary tasks (groups of tasks

that logically belong together).


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When developing a new, large project, some project

managers prefer to start with broad groupings of summary

tasks and then break them down into smaller tasks. This is

called the top‐down method of creating a WBS.

Other project managers prefer to list all of the individual

tasks, and then collect them into logical groupings using

the bottom‐up method.

Once you have identified your summary tasks, you use

Outdenting and Indenting in Project 2010 to create the

summary tasks.


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Create dependencies

Assign resources

Close Project

Find critical path


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Create a project: entering tasks dependencies

Create relationships between tasks: task dependencies.

Four task dependencies define the relationships

between tasks in MS Project.


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Task Information

Dialog Box

2. Click on the

Predecessors tab

3. Chose the

Predecessor and the

Constrain type

4. In the Lag field, type

the Lag time (positive

or negative)

Lag time is a delay between two tasks that are linked by a dependency.

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Create task dependencies using the predecessors column.

2. Select

Predecessors

1. Click on Add

New Column

3. Digit the ID of the

task you want to

link.

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Create dependencies

Assign resources

Close Project

Find critical path


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Assign resources to tasks

One of the most important but often overlooked parts of the

project management process is allocating resources properly.

In 4 steps you can allocate resources in Microsoft Project and

keep you in control of your project from start to finish.

1. Consider resource availability when estimating task

duration.

2. Create and organize a resource pool for the project

3. Assign each work task to a resource

4. Check the resource allocation in the resource graph view


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1. Consider resource availability when estimating task duration

This step is crucial but often overlooked. Resources

must be considered during the construction of the

schedule, not just afterwards.

Pay special attention to concurrent tasks (those that

happen at the same time) that use the same

resources

Focus on man-hours rather than total workdays, to

take into account how many resources will be needed


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2. Create and organize a resource pool for the project

On the View menu, click Resource

Sheet

On the Resource menu, click Add

Resources

Define which kind of resource you

need:

• "Work" resources are the most

useful, and should be used to

categorize

• "Material" resources should refer

to materials that get used up

during work,

• "Cost" resources are time

independent resources (like

Airplane tickets)


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3. Assign a resource to each work task

Find the task's line in the left panel, and click the cell in the

"Resource" column. A drop-down menu will appear listing all the

resources you have created. Select the appropriate resource.


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After creating your schedule and assigning resources, you

can check for over-allocation (click on "View" and select

"Resource Graph")

Any point at which a resource exceeds 100 percent usage

represents an over-allocation (meaning the resource can't

possibly perform all the tasks assigned to it in the given

time). Over-allocation is represented in red.

To remedy this, increase the task durations, assign more

resources to the tasks, or shift concurrent tasks to create

less overlap.


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On the contrary, any point at which the resource is being used

very little may point to inefficient under-allocation. Consider

decreasing the task durations or using fewer total resources.

The Resource Graph shows

allocation over time, resource

by resource.

When the vertical bar is higher

than the horizontal line and

part of the bar is bright red, the

resource is overallocated.


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Create dependencies

Assign resources

Close Project

Find critical path


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Find critical path

Critical path: the series of critical tasks that dictates the

calculated finish date of the project in Project path.

Critical tasks: the tasks that cannot be delayed without

affecting the project finish date. A task becomes critical

when it meets any one of the following conditions:

It has no slack.

It has a Must Start On (MSO) or Must Finish On (MFO) date

constraint.

It has an As Late As Possible (ALAP) constraint in a project

scheduled from a start date.

It has an As Soon As Possible (ASAP) constraint in a project

scheduled from a finish date.


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Find critical path: viewing the slack

Inserting the columns Total Slack, Free Slack and Critical you'll be able to see the

reason why a task is considered critical or not.

The critical path calculation is also being influenced by relationships, constraints,

deadlines, resource assignments, and task, resource and project calendars.

Only you can determine if the critical path is correct!!

Total Slack

The amount of time a task's finish

date can be delayed without

delaying the project's finish date.

Free Slack

The amount of time than a task

can be delayed without delaying

any successor tasks.

If the task has no successors Free

Slack is the amount of time a task

can be delayed without delaying

the entire project's finish date.

Critical

When you apply the Critical

filter this column shows tasks

on critical path.


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Find critical path: crash your project

If you want to bring in the project finish date, you need to bring in the

dates of your critical path tasks. This is also known as crashing a

project.

Crash: To decrease a project's overall duration without changing

task relationships. Crashing a project typically requires assigning

additional resources to tasks.

To crash a project you can:

Shorten the duration or work on a task on the critical path.

Change a task constraint to allow for more scheduling flexibility.

Break a critical task into smaller tasks that can be worked on simultaneously by different

resources.

Revise task dependencies to allow more scheduling flexibility.

Set lead time between dependent tasks where applicable.

Schedule overtime.

Assign additional resources to work on critical path tasks.


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Create dependencies

Assign resources

Close Project

Find critical path


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Close a project: key elements

Identify Lesson learnt

• The end of a project is a great time to sit back and reflect on achievements and identify and prepare to share what’s been learnt. Adopting an aura of constructive feedback, this can be done in a ‘lessons learnt session’ with resources, stakeholders and management involved.

Review the project

• There are several elements of the project that can be reviewed, but at least a Project Closure Report should be created. This report will provide confirmation that the project has met success criteria and can be used to request a sign-off from the sponsor to close the project.

Archive project records

• At least the following records should be archived:

Project Plan

Management Control Documents (Correspondence, Relevant meeting notes, Status reports)

Technical documents

Project Closure Report


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Close a project: Print a view


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Contents

Introduction



project

Let's practise!

Recommendations


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Excercise 1/2

1. DRAFTING NEW REGULATION

1. 1 Assess new regulation

1.1.1 Create questionnaires

1.1.2 Send questionnaires (task starts when 1.1.1 finish)

1.1.3 Receive feedbacks (task starts when 1.1.2 finish)

1.1.4 Analyse questionnaires (task starts when 1.1.3 finish)

1.2 Verify impacts of new regulation (task starts when 1.1 finish)

1.3 Analyse impacts (task starts when 1.2 finish)

1.4 Create Report (task starts when 1.3 finish)

1.5 Propose Report to Parliament and Council (Task starts when 1.4

finish, and finishes 1/04/2016. Set as a deadline!)


Create a project starting the 1st of February 2014 and ending on

the 1st of April 2016

Add "Commission Easter holidays" to the Calendar (17th and 18th

of April)

Create the following tasks and subtasks. Add dependencies.

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Add a "Weekly Team meeting"

recurring every Wednesday

until the end of the project

Attach a document to the first

meeting

Create a resource pool with

your names

Assign resources to tasks

Set the timescale to view the

entire project in the Gantt

Chart

Excercise 2/2


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Contents

Introduction



project

Let's practice!

Recommendations


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Recommendations

Know the project goal before beginning

Know the required tasks before beginning

Identify resources before beginning

Identify task relationships before beginning

Refer to the tutorial as often as needed

Refer to help section as often as needed

Keep the configuration as simple as possible

Avoid losing touch with the project


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Recommendations

MS Project is only a tool – it does not create or

“own” the project – it reflects the data provided

The simpler the configuration, the easier the

data will be to understand, for all involved

If the plan doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t!

Check resource and task assignments/relationships

Check constraints and dependencies

Look for what has changed in the plan and follow the clues -

a small unintentional change can compromise the entire

project


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Useful links

Getting started with Project 2010

(Microsoft Office online training

video)

Support on Project 2010

(Microsoft Office Support page)

Finding answers, sharing ideas

and solving problems related to

Project 2010 (Microsoft

Community)

Microsoft Project 2010 – 1

(Course material from Georgia

Technology Authority)


http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-help/getting-started-with-project-2010-RZ101831071.aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA104039046

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-help/results.aspx?qu=project%202010&av=zpj140&avg=zpj&queryid=99c313d0%2D74c3%2D438b%2Db9b4%2D2577b9f99522

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/search/search?SearchTerm=project&page=1&tab=answers



http://gta.georgia.gov/egap/sites/gta.georgia.gov.egap/files/MS Project I - Course Material.pdf

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Getting started with MS Project 2010

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