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MICROSOFT MICROSOFT MICROSOFT MICROSOFT PROJECTPROJECTPROJECTPROJECT

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INTRODUCTION TO MICROSOFT PROJECT

PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Project Management is the discipline of organizing and managing resources (i.e. people) in such a way that the project is completed within defined scope, quality, time and cost constraints. A project is a temporary and one-time endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service that brings about beneficial change or added value. Project Management in general is divided in five basic steps:

• Planning/Setting Objectives

• Scheduling

• Organizing

• Monitoring

• Controlling

TRIPLE CONSTRAINTS : Like any human undertaking, projects need to be performed and delivered under certain constraints. Traditionally, these constraints have been listed as scope, time, and cost. These are also referred to as the Project Management Triangle, where each side represents a constraint. One side of the triangle cannot be changed without impacting the others. A further refinement of the constraints separates product 'quality' or 'performance' from scope, and turns quality into a fourth constraint.

The time constraint refers to the amount of time available to complete a project. The cost constraint refers to the budgeted amount available for the project. The scope constraint refers to what must be done to produce the project's end result. These three constraints are often competing constraints: increased scope typically means increased time and increased cost, a

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tight time constraint could mean increased costs and reduced scope, and a tight budget could mean increased time and reduced scope. Another approach to project management is to consider the three constraints as finance, time and human resources. If you need to finish a job in a shorter time, you can throw more people at the problem, which in turn will raise the cost of the project, unless by doing this task quicker we will reduce costs elsewhere in the project by an equal amount.

Together, these three constraints (Time, cost, scope) have given rise to the phrase "On Time, On Spec, On Budget". In this case, the term "scope" is substituted with "spec(ification)".

TASKS Division of the work that needs to be completed to accomplish project goals. There are different kinds of tasks, like below.

• CRITICAL TASK: A task that falls in the critical path. Meaning, the project duration will get affected if a critical task’s duration is changed

• MILESTONE TASK: Tasks you use to track or report progress. In MSP, all tasks with zero duration are considered milestone tasks. Think of milestones as interim goals.

• SUMMARY TASKS: Tasks that contain sub tasks

• SUB TASKS: Children tasks that are under the summary tasks.

CHARTS:

• GANTT CHARTS: Tasks are shown as bars across a time scale. Relationships are shown using arrows.

• NETWORK DIAGRAM: Shows the flow of charts. It is useful to find the critical path. However, MSP automatically finds the critical path.

Critical Path:

A critical path is a series of linked tasks that must be done on time for the project to finish on time. Critical Path forms the longest path/longest duration on the project. If any task on a critical path is delayed, it can end up delaying the project's finish date.

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KNOWING MICROSOFT PROJECT: It is one of the most user friendly tool, to plan, schedule, track & control the project. A snapshot is as below:

SETING UP THE PROJECT: To enter the project properties: 1. Click on the File menu and select Properties to enter the properties of the project, eg Title, Author, company(etc) 2. Enter the required information and click on OK

This will come in useful later on when you want to create Headers and Footers on the printout

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TO ENTER THE PROJECT START DATE: 1. Click on the Project menu and select Project Information. 2. Enter the Start Date (or Finish Date) of the project and click on OK.

TO ENTER DEFAULT WORKING HOURS: 1. Click on the Tools menu and select Change Working Time. 2. Click on the Options button. 3. Enter the Calendar Options for the project and click on OK.

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Remember to synchronise the Calendar Options with the Default Working Times using the Change Working Time dialog box. Select the relevant days and enter the required Working Time.

Also enter in any Nonworking Time, eg Bank Holidays.

Click on OK.

SAVING THE PROJECT: 1. If you are saving the project for the first time, use File / Save. 2. If you are saving the project to a different name or location, use File / Save As.

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ENTERING THE TASKS & LINKING To enter tasks: 1. Enter the Task Name and Duration into the Task Sheet. 2. When entering the Duration, remember to specify the unit of time, eg 3h for 3 hours, 8eh for 8 elapsed hours, 1w for 1 week, 0d for milestones etc. 3. Do not allocate duration for Summary Tasks, leave them as 1 day?

To open the Task Information dialog box: 1. For more in depth task information, such as setting Constraints and writing Notes, double click on the relevant task and use the Task Information dialog box. 2. Enter the required information and click on OK.

To link the tasks: 1. Click on the Window menu and select Split. This will display the Task Form. 2. Click on the required task and select the Predecessor(s) and the Type of dependency.

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3. To hide the Task Form, click on the Window menu and select Remove Split.

SECOND OPTION:

To identify the sequence of tasks, double-click on each task in turn, and designate predecessor tasks: those that logically precede the current task. In the Task Information dialog box, choose the Predecessors tab. As shown in the graphic below, first click on a blank cell under Task Name, then click on the drop button indicated, and from the drop list select the predecessor task. As links are created between tasks, the Gantt Chart will change to reflect these links.

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Set the predecessors for each task as shown in the graphic below. (The number refers to the ID number of the predecessor task; for instance, task ID 1 is Project Start.

To change the timescale of the Gantt Chart, choose Format Timescale.... In the resulting Timescale dialog box, set the major and minor scale units as follows:

TASK DEPENDENCIES

Finish to Start (FS)

Predecessor task must finish before the Successor Task can start.

Task B cannot start until Task A finishes

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Start to Start (SS) Predecessor task and Successor task start at the same time.

Task B cannot start until task A starts

Finish to Finish (FF) Predecessor task and Successor task finish at the same time.

Task B cannot finish until Task A finishes

Start to Finish (SF) Predecessor task starts when the Successor task finishes.

Task B cannot finish until Task A starts

Lead (Overlap) Set the Lag to a negative duration.

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Lag (Delay) Set the Lag to a positive duration.

The Gantt Chart should look as follows:

To change the appearance of the Gantt Chart, choose Format / Gantt Chart Wizard... To display critical tasks, for example: in Step 2, choose Critical Path, and click Next. In Step 9, choose Dates, and click Next. Keep clicking Next in the remaining steps, until you get to click on Format It. Click Exit to close the Wizard. The chart should appear as follows:

The red bars indicate that these tasks are critical: they must be completed on time if the project is not to be delayed beyond the target date. (For some reason, in some cases Project does not correctly identify critical tasks, at least those tasks that would intuitively appear to be critical. It pays to visually inspect your Gantt chart.)

The default relationship between a predecessor and a successor task is as follows: when the predecessor Finishes the successor Starts (FS). This may not be what is desired. Instead, for instance, five days after the predecessor Starts, you may wish to Start the successor (SS, with 5 days lag time).

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To change the relationship between two linked tasks, double-click on the successor task in the Task Table. In the Task Information dialog box, choose the Predecessors tab. Click on Type cell of the target predecessor. Click on the button with the downward arrow that appears under Predecessors. From the list that drops down, choose the appropriate relationship. In the Lag cell of the predecessor, type in the desired lag time, and press enter. Lag time is the number of days between the finish or start of the predecessor and the finish or start of the successor task; it can be a positive number or a negative number.

Once the initial project schedule has been determined, it has to be recorded as the baseline plan; future adjustments to the schedule will be compared to this baseline. To do this, choose Tools/Tracking/Save Baseline... In the resulting dialog box, choose Baseline and Entire Project, and click the OK button. (In this dialog box, you can also save up to five different interim project schedules.)

The current view (whatever is on the screen) can be either printed (choose File/Print Preview and then print) or copied and pasted into a Microsoft Word document:

To copy the Chart, first highlight all the tasks that must be included in the picture to be copied.

Then, click on the button in the toolbar. In the resulting dialog box, choose For Printer for high-resolution pictures. You can now switch to the other application and paste the picture.

OUTLINING/SUMMARY TASKS

Use the Summary Tasks to create an Outline so that the project can be expanded and collapsed.

To create an outline: 1. Select each group of tasks, for example Paint Ceiling, Paint Woodwork and Paper Walls, and click on the Indent button on the toolbar.

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RESOURCES: To enter resources: 1. Click on the View menu and select Resources to enter resources into the Resource Sheet. 2. Enter the required information.

To assign resources: 1. Click on the View menu and select Gantt Chart to switch back to the Gantt Chart. 2. Split the screen using Window | Split.

3. Click on the required Task and select the relevant Resource Name(s). 4. Click on OK. Remember, if you want more than one resource to work on a particular task, you must assign them together.

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FORMATING THE GANT CHART: To format the Gantt Chart: 1. Use the Format menu to format the Text Styles, Bar Styles, Timescale, Gridlines and Layout.

2. Use File / Page Setup to format the Page, Margins, Headers and Footers, Legend and View.

FORMATS If you wish to display information about your project in a printable format, you can use one of the built in reports. To create a Report: 1. Click on the View menu and select Reports.

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ADJUSTMENTS FOR COST SHEET

To change salaries during the project: 1. Display the Resource Sheet by selecting View / Resource Sheet. 2. Double click on the required resource. 3. Select the Costs tab.

4. Enter the Effective Date and the Rates and click on OK. To change working times for resources: 1. Display the Resource Sheet by selecting View | Resource Sheet. 2. Double click on the required resource. 3. Select the Working Time tab. 4. Make the necessary adjustments, for example, a day off and click on OK.

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OVERALOCATION OF RESOURCES:

Sometimes resources become over allocated. An over allocated resource will display in red on the Resource Sheet.

One method of solving the problem of over allocation is to use Levelling. Levelling will automatically adjust the project in order to eliminate over allocation, for example, it might move a particular task.

To level a resource: 1. From the Resource Sheet, select the over allocated resource. 2. Click on the Tools menu and select Resource Levelling.

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3. Click on Level Now.

4. Choose Selected Resources. 5. Click on OK. The resource is no longer over allocated.

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TRACKING THE PROJECT

Once you have finished planning the project, it is a good idea to save a Baseline so that you can compare what actually happens to what you thought was going to happen.

To save a baseline: 1. Click on the Tools menu and select Tracking and Save Baseline.

2. To compare the Baseline with what actually happens, use the Tracking Gantt (View | Tracking Gantt).

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3. Split the screen using Window | Split. 4. The Grey bars represent the Baseline and the Blue and Red bars represent the current situation (the red bars represent the critical tasks). 4. You can continue to make adjustments to the project. When a task is complete, enter 100% into the % complete field.

For better understanding, since tracking the project forms an important part of our weekly reports & making presentations to the client have further broken it down:

To track projects in Microsoft Project, a distinction is drawn between planned, actual, and scheduled information about tasks. Planned task dates (start, finish and duration) are those that are assigned in the initial schedule that is created. As the project progresses, actual dates are recorded; these may or may not be different from the planned dates. In response to changing circumstances, the project may have to be rescheduled; this new information is recorded as scheduled dates. The three different types of information make it possible to keep track of how a project is progressing vis-à-vis the initial plan.

The first step is to set the current date. Choose the File/Summary Info... menu item. Next to the Current Date, type in the date when the tracking is taking place.

Next, enter the actual completion data for tasks that are already complete or under way. To do this, click on each task that is complete, and selects Tools/Tracking/Update Tasks... In the Update Task dialog box, type the percentage of work completed or the actual finish date.

• For this exercise, first activity finished on XYZ date; activity 2 and activity 3 are 100% complete; Activity 4 is only 60% complete.

• Note that there is a bar through each task showing how much is complete. If the project is on schedule, then all tasks finishing before today's date should have a bar extending their whole length. Tasks currently under way should have a bar extending till the current date. Clearly there is a problem with Activity 4; it is behind schedule.

We must adjust our schedule to allow for the slippage (assuming we do not have additional people to work on this task). Here is how it can be done: Increase the time allotted to the task so that 60% of the task represents the number of days till today's date. Click on the task 4, and choose the Tools/Tracking/Update Tasks... menu item. In the Update Task dialog box, increase the Remaining Duration to 10, and click OK. The task is now going to take longer, but the completion bar is still short of today's date. Choose the Tools/Tracking/Update Tasks... menu item again, and in the Update Task dialog box, change the % Complete back to 60%. Now, the schedule is approximately as we want it:

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Choose a different view to get a better sense of how the project has changed. Choose View/More Views... In the More Views dialog box, choose Tracking Gantt Chart (this is the last in the list), and click on Apply. (You will have to change the Timescale as described earlier.) The Gantt Chart now looks as follows:

The gray bars are the baseline schedule; the upper bars are the current schedule. The impact of the work slippage is now clearly visible.

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PROJECT STASTICS:

To view the project statistics: 1. Click on the Project menu and select Project Information. 2. Click on the Statistics button.

3. To view this information in a printable format, use the Project Summary report which is found in View / Reports / Overview. These reports can be printed & forwarded to the clients in case they are being asked for.

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Prepared by: Aditya Desai