MS Project

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

What is a Project?  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 Time Scope and Quality Resource Project can be defined as a Cost

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

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

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 Mechanical design Design of body

Fields in Gantt chart table FieldsDescription 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 DescriptionRelationship Diagram Finish to StartThe finish of the predecessor determines the start of the successor Finish to FinishThe finish of the predecessor determines the finish of the successor Start to StartThe Start of the predecessor determines the Start of the successor Start to FinishThe Start of the predecessor determines the Finish of the successor 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 (SNET)  Finish no later then (FNLT)  Must start on (MSO)  Must finish on (MFO)

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) 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.

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 calendarIt 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 FieldsDescription Resource IdUnique Id assigned to a resource. Resource IndicatorSymbols indicates Resource overallocation or notes indicator. TypeDescribes the type of Resource i.e. Work /Material. Material LabelA label given to the material resource e.g. Petrol is a material resource and its label is liters. InitialsAbbreviation of resource name e.g. Engineers, Initial -Eng GroupGroup name or department name of the resource e.g Resource A, B are belonging to Finance dept. Max. UnitsDescribes max no. of units that a task can be assigned Std. RateThe cost of work/material Resource Overtime costThe cost of the Work resource if he works more than the max. hrs/day scheduled for the resource Cost/useOne time Cost of the resource. E.g Deposit on renting a Vehicle Accrued AtProrated – 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 ChangeFixed Units Result Fixed Work Result Fixed Duration Result +Duration+Work-Units +Units-Duration +Work +Duration +Units Formulas: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