Application Of MS Project

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Microsoft Project 2007 Tutorial

Boston University

© Boston University, Dept of Administrative Sciences,

Project Management Programs (2010)   2  3

Microsoft Project 2007 Tutorial

Boston University

Contents

Table of Contents

Microsoft Project 2007 ....................................................................................................... 6

Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 6

Starting Microsoft Project ................................................................................................... 7

Starting Microsoft Office Project ........................................................................................ 7

Exploring the Project Guide ............................................................................................ 9

Add Tasks ..................................................................................................................... 11

Changing Date formats ................................................................................................. 11

Link Tasks ..................................................................................................................... 13

Exploring the Project Information ................................................................................ 14

Summary ........................................................................................................................... 16

Optional:  Exploring Calendar and Schedule ................................................................ 17

Beyond the Basics ............................................................................................................. 19

Goal ................................................................................................................................... 19

Resources .......................................................................................................................... 20

Developing a Work Breakdown Structure ................... 21MSprojectTutorialVersion1.doc -

_Toc254609524

Add Tasks and Sub Tasks ................................................................................................. 22

Creating Summary Tasks .............................................................................................. 22

Hide or display tasks ..................................................................................................... 24

Entering Durations ........................................................................................................ 26

Using Task Information Dialog Box............................................................................. 27

Create Milestone ........................................................................................................... 28

Create Task Dependencies ............................................................................................ 30

Introducing Lag Time and Lead Time .......................................................................... 32

Advanced Topics .............................................................................................................. 34

Using Filters ...................................................................................................................... 34

More Scheduling Capabilities to Tasks ............................................................................ 35

To Split a Task .............................................................................................................. 35

Establish Deadline Dates .............................................................................................. 36

Assign a Calendar to Task ............................................................................................ 37

Create Recurring Tasks ..................................................................................................... 38

Constraints ........................................................................................................................ 41

Critical Path Analysis ....................................................................................................... 42   4

Resources .......................................................................................................................... 42

(1) Creating Resource Pool: .......................................................................................... 43

(2) Assigning Resources to Task .................................................................................. 44

Over Allocated Resources............................................................................................. 46

Updating Project Progress................................................................................................. 47

Setting up a Baseline ..................................................................................................... 47

Updating Project Progress Data .................................................................................... 48

Project Progress Views ..................................................................................................... 49

Working with Reports ....................................................................................................... 51

Optional: Cool Stuff .......................................................................................................... 53

Export Data to Excel Spreadsheet ................................................................................. 53

Exporting Images .......................................................................................................... 53

Linking Projects ............................................................................................................. 53

Summary: Key Points to Remember................................................................................. 53

References: ........................................................................................................................ 54

Appendix: Earned Value Tutorial ..................................................................................... 55

Appendix B: Videos .......................................................................................................... 61

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Figures

Figure 1: Main Project Window ......................................................................................... 8

Figure 2: Project Guide Toolbar ......................................................................................... 8

Figure 3: Inserting the Toolbar for Project Guide. ............................................................. 9

Figure 4: Wizard - Task Activities .................................................................................... 10

Figure 5: Gantt View ........................................................................................................ 11

Figure 6: Date Format Changed ........................................................................................ 12

Figure 7: Activating the View Bar .................................................................................... 13

Figure 8: Project Summary Information ........................................................................... 15

Figure 9: Project Statistics ................................................................................................ 16

Figure 10: Add Tasks for Project Vista ............................................................................ 22

Figure 11: Creating Summary Tasks ................................................................................ 23

Figure 12: Viewing WBS outline Levels .......................................................................... 25

Figure 13: Entering Durations .......................................................................................... 27

Figure 14: Viewing Task Information .............................................................................. 28

Figure 15: Creating a Milestone ....................................................................................... 29

Figure 16: Adding notes and comments for a task ........................................................... 30

Figure 17: Adding Lag or Lead to a task .......................................................................... 33

Figure 18: Filtering Tasks to show Milestones and Summary tasks. ............................... 34

Figure 19: Splitting a Task into two ................................................................................. 36

Figure 20: Setting a Task Deadline for Completion ......................................................... 36

Figure 21: Assigning a calendar to a task ......................................................................... 38

Figure 22: Creating Recurring Tasks ................................................................................ 39

Figure 23: Setting constraints on tasks ............................................................................. 41

Figure 24: Formatting and viewing critical path ............................................................... 42

Figure 25: Activating Resource Sheet .............................................................................. 43

Figure 26: Entering Resource Type for Material .............................................................. 44

Figure 27: Assigning Resources to tasks. ......................................................................... 45

Figure 28: Viewing Over allocated Resources ................................................................. 47

Figure 29: Updating Project Progress ............................................................................... 48

Figure 30: Network Diagram ............................................................................................ 49

Figure 31: Task Usage View............................................................................................. 50

Figure 32: Cost View ........................................................................................................ 50

Figure 33: Printing Reports ............................................................................................... 51   6

Microsoft Project 2007  

Introduction

In this module you will be introduced to Microsoft Project and its various tools and

reports. Practicing the various tasks will facilitate learning and competence building in

the area of project management as it pertains to task scheduling, task execution, assigning

costs and resources, and monitoring cost and schedule. We are using MS Project 2007 as

a tool because it is widely available as part of the MS Office suite, and also because many

readers are familiar with its user interface. Note the latest version that will be

commercially released is MS Project 2010.  

What’s Ahead

  Starting Microsoft Project

o  Using Project Guide

o  Set up calendar and schedule

  Developing a WBS

o  Add Tasks and Sub Tasks

o  Creating Summary Tasks

o  Editing Tasks

  Using Gantt chart

o  Using Task Information

Dialog Box

  Using Filters, Creating Task

Dependencies, Constraints, and

Critical Path Analysis.

  Resources: Creating a pool,

assigning and leveling.

  Working with Project Costs  

  Updating Project Progress

  Generating and Printing Reports

including Earned Value Reports

  Key Points

In The Real World

What project management tools should I use? There are many project management tools

for planning, organizing and managing activities which are very good. If you are

identifying a tool for the very first time you must identify your needs first—the right type

of tool should be selected only after your needs are clearly identified.  You should answer

questions such as: How large is the project? What is your operating system? What types

of reports are needed? Do you have technical staff that will assist you with using the

project software?  Also what type of software tools is popular for my application area

(industry)?  Then communicate with experts or study survey results such as Project

Management Institute's Project Management Software Survey. It compares over two-

hundred project management software and presents a relative summary of functionality,

support for schedule, resource, cost, reports, migration and integration.  

Who will manage and operate this project management software? With regards to the

second question, a key determining issue is the complexity of the tool. If the project

manager is going to be the person using the project software then it must not be complex.

Some project management software can be very technical and junior staff or specialists

should be used to enter data, and maintain the project.  The project manager could end up

wasting time on the technical and administrative aspects of the software instead of

focusing on project communications and project management. Certainly report generation   7

and basic tasks should not be a problem, but the day to day issues could be managed by

some specialist in the project office.

You may want to visit a product demo dealing with a fictitious case study about

Fabrikant from Microsoft at this point. Click Product Demo from Microsoft.

Starting Microsoft Project

We do not describe steps to install Microsoft project. A free 30 day trial version of this

software is currently available from Microsoft in case you don’t have the software

already installed.  

Starting Microsoft Office Project

Select the Start | Programs | MS Office  option in your computer. You might see the

following programs.

Here we activiate MS Office Project 2007 and we should see the main project window as

displayed in Figure 1 below.

To Get Help press the F1 Key

A lot of questions you have can be answered using Help and then typing the text

in the search box. There are also video tutorials here.   8

Figure 1: Main Project Window

The default set up introduces the Project Guide to create a new project. This is shown in  

Figure 2: Project Guide Toolbar.

Figure 2: Project Guide Toolbar

But if you don’t wish to use the guide (showing the Wizard like steps on the left) to

create a project you can use regular commands to get going with MS Project. This is our

approach to introduce you to MS Project in our tutorial. However, the Wizard is useful as

it covers the complete life-cycle of project planning and tracking using MS Project.

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If you don’t see this Project toolbar you can activate it by clicking View | Toolbars | Project Guide.

This is shown in  

Figure 3: Inserting the Toolbar for Project Guide.  

Figure 3: Inserting the Toolbar for Project Guide.

Exploring the Project Guide

Turn on the Project Guide in case it is not visible. The main Gantt View is displayed to

the right of the Project Guide. This is the default view named after Henry Gantt, it

graphically shows tasks and in a spreadsheet like entry table as well as a calendar display

with bars displaying task start and finish dates.

The Project Guide is a wizard that appears on the left hand side of the Gantt View. The

wizard also displays the following menu options--Tasks, Resources, Track and Report

above the Guide.  Tasks allow you to enter tasks. Resources will let you add resources.

Track allows you to track project progress against your baseline. The report area allows

you to view reports.

The Figure 4: Wizard - Task Activities shows you the task activities, such as, Define the

project, Define general working times or list the tasks, that you can perform for a project.    10

Figure 4: Wizard - Task Activities

1. Open the Project Guide: Click the tasks listed on the Project Guide toolbar. The

Resources, Track, and Report buttons on the Project Guide toolbar are listed. Click them

and read what these options are all about. Let us start with a sample project.  

2. Set the project start date. Click Define the project.

The Project Guide instructions are very useful. The Task pane displays specific

information relation to the selected option. The default project start date is set at the

current date. Click the date list arrow on the popup calendar to select a date. Select the

last day of the month that displays

3. Close the Project Guide: Click the Close button

You will see commonly used buttons, such as the Link tasks, Unlink tasks and Indent

buttons. Below the toolbar is the Entry bar, which displays entries you make in the Entry

table, located right below the Entry text box. The Gantt chart calendar display appears on

the right of the split bar adjacent to the entry table for WBS.   The column to the left of

the Task name column is the Indicators column. The Indicators column displays items

associated with each task, such as task comments.

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Jump Start -- Create a Simple Project

With some basics out of the way, just like swimming, we will learn when we eventually jump into the

water. So let us do that with this quick “Project Management” project. It consists of four activities—

Learn Project Management, Review and Present Case Studies, Do Lab Activities, Celebrate with a

Party – we enter it into the MS Project and our view will be similar to  

Figure 5: Gantt View. Like all Microsoft Office applications you can open a new project

by simply clicking: File New | Blank Project. Save it as “MyFirstProject”.

Add Tasks

The following tasks are added to the project.  

1. Learn Project Management - 3 days

2. Review & Present Case Studies – 2 days

3. Do Lab Activities – 1 day

4. Review Concepts & Celebrate with a Party – 0.5 day

Figure 5: Gantt View

Changing Date formats

It is possible to change date formats by clicking: Tools, Option, View.  

On Your Own

Practice opening the Project Guide. Look at the various options  

Click all the buttons above and study the menu options.

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Figure 6: Date Format Changed

We will use the above format for our simple project. We will then use the American

Format for date for the second case study.

At this point we are ready to view the Calendar, Gantt Chart and Network Diagram. Open the View

Bar if it is not visible. The procedure for that is displayed in  

Figure 7: Activating the View Bar.  

On Your Own

  View the various options in the view bar such as Calendar and Network

Diagram and return to the Gantt View.  

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Figure 7: Activating the View Bar

Link Tasks

At this point we are ready to link tasks so that it shows the project completing by the end

of the week.

Step 1: Highlight all the tasks:

Step 2: Click the Link Button    or Press [Cntrl] [F2].

This should result in the following Gantt View.   14

Exploring the Project Information  

The entire project information can be explored by selecting Project | Project

Information

On Your Own

  We want to complete the Project by Friday March 12, 2010. Make

changes to the Project so that the lab activities are half day instead of 1

day.

Also add your name in the Resource Name.

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On selecting Project Information you will see  

Figure 8: Project Summary Information. You can schedule a project from the Start Date

or from the Finish Date. The default is the Start Date. If you select Schedule from:

Project Finish Date it will give you a chance to change the Finish dates (at the moment

this is not editable).

Figure 8: Project Summary Information

Also you can specify which base calendar to use for this project. The default is the base

calendar. A base calendar can be used as a project and task calendar and uses default

working and nonworking time for a set of resources. Note: MS Project also has resource

calendars. A resource calendar specifies working and nonworking time for an individual

resource.  You can apply different resource calendars to a project as well. We explore this

in the next section.

Finally you can obtain useful summary information by clicking the project statistics

option. This will give you start and finish dates, duration (schedule), and work (total

labor or effort required to complete the project).  

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Figure 9: Project Statistics

Summary

Congratulations! You have completed your first project. You know how to enter tasks,

link them, add a resource, add an hourly rate to the resource and then view project

information. You also know that projects can be scheduled from a start date or from a

deadline finish date using the Project Information option. In the rest of the tutorial you

will be exploring some more functionality as we add more resources and look at a case

study that is more complex than your first project.

On Your Own

Click the Resource Sheet located in the View Bar (see Figure 7).

Give Maria a standard rate of $50 per hour.

Click Project Information again and view the statistics for cost. What is

the cost of the Project?

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Optional:  Exploring Calendar and Schedule

This module is optional. Please review it if you are comfortable with the basics and have

time. Organizations and projects have their own working hours. Some companies work

on 24x7 schedule and some may have shifts with staggered starting times. To setup

calendar and schedule for a particular project you need to enter start date and finish date

in project information dialog box.

In Options box we can setup Calendar and Schedule.

To change the working time, select Tools and then Change Working Time. In the dialog

box create a New Base Calendar and Name it. For example, our calendar shows default

calendar.

The Legend column determines items such as working days, non-working days and

exception days.

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Click Schedule in the above Options window and you will see the following:

On Your Own

  View the various screens dealing with Calendar and Schedules.  

  Don’t save your project after you play around with various options.

  Note:   For our tutorial purposes we stay with the default calendar which

is 8 hours a day of work and five days a week with Saturday and Sunday

being a holiday. This is achieved by simply starting a new project for the

rest of the tutorial.  

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Beyond the Basics

Goal

In this module you get an overview of project management practices as seen in Microsoft

project.  The theoretical principles you learn can be put to practice as you create, track,

update and report a sample case study “Project Vista” introduced in MBA Fundamentals:

Project Management by Kanabar and Warburton published by Kaplan Publishing in

2008. This case study is briefly reproduced below in the next section.

Subsequently you will see snapshots of Project Vista and its commands to demonstrate

the core feature of Microsoft Project. We don’t give you click by click or step by step

instructions as we strongly encourage you to discover MS Project on your own.

Case Study: Project Vista

Anita Rains works for Boston Universal Group as a project manager. The company

is a leader in Microsoft Office applications consulting. They are known nationally for

providing consulting, training and services involving Microsoft systems especially in

their Office suite. They have about 200 employees and 50 laptops and 160 workstations

at the work center.  

With the introduction of Windows7 (improvement on Vista) in the marketplace in

2008 there is pressure from their customers to support Windows 7 operating system.  

Boston Universal Group subsequently has decided to upgrade the operating system on

their workstations from XP to Vista or Windows7 based on their needs. Anita has been

asked to champion this initiative as a project manager. She has worked in the

organization for over a decade and recalls the chaos during the upgrade to Windows XP

from Windows 98. As a trained professional in project management, she decides to use

the best practices as defined in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®)

and leverage the power of MS Project 2007.

Anita creates a charter and scope statement and now comes up with the following

outline of the WBS. She will subsequently enter the data into MS Project.

Project Tasks  

1.  Initiation

a.  Project Kickoff

b.  Gaining Sr. Management approval

c.  Determining major stake holders

2.  Planning

a.  Gathering the upgrade details from Microsoft and other sources

b.  List of applications running on a PC  

c.  Check H/W compatibility and Space requirements

d.  Mock run on a test PC

e.  Test Vista compatibility  

f.  Upgrade running S/W, if required

g.  Rollback plan for critical machines

3.  Execution

a.  Procurement of OS license keys   20

b.  Ordering the H/W upgrades

c.  Gathering of resources

d.  Installation of the H/W and the OS

e.  Training/Helpdesk

f.  Steps for Upgrading to Windows Vista

i.    Assess Hardware Requirements  

ii.    Backup Important Data  

iii.    Upgrade to Windows Vista

iv.  Migrate user settlings    

4.  Control and Monitoring

a.  Keeping the project on schedule

b.  Keeping the cost on budget

c.  Monitoring the impact on users

d.  Resolving Issues/Concerns

5.  Closing

a.  Project Closure

b.  Lessons learnt

c.  Archiving the Project documents to the Org. Repository

Resources

See Videos based on Kanabar/Warburton Text.

1.  Introduction

2.  Resources & Cost

Important: Project 2007 QUICK Reference Card  

Now that we understand the basics let us review some advanced concepts.    

Creating a new project - Choose File | New from the menus.  Choose either a

Blank Project or a Project Template.   Click OK. You now see a table for data

entry and you may enter your task list. The steps for opening an Existing Project

are pretty straight forward: Choose File | Open from the menus. Locate the project

file on the hard disk or external device. Click on the filename. Click Open. To

Save: Choose File | Save from the menus.  Enter a filename.  Click Save.  

Use an existing project template to study what a good project plan should

look like. There are several templates that are available like construction or

software development. Click File New | Templates on Computer.  

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Developing a Work Breakdown Structure

After you establish the project start date and calendar, you can begin to identify the

specific activities that will need to be completed in order to produce deliverables for the

project.

As you saw in the case study Anita created a work breakdown structure (WBS) for the

project first. Developing a WBS takes time, and it will make entering tasks into the Entry

table easier if you develop the WBS first. It is also a good idea to establish milestones

before entering tasks in Project 2007.

To refine your work breakdown structure before you enter it into MS Project enter

sample data in the table below.  

Process Group  Sub-Task  Duration

Initiation  3 d

Project Kick-off 1d

Determine Stakeholders 1d

Create Project Charter 1d

Planning  

Execution  

Control & Monitoring  

Closing  

On Your Own

Complete the WBS for your tutorial project on a piece of paper or using Post-it

notes.

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Add Tasks and Sub Tasks

Click on Task Name and enter Task description, then press Enter or click the check mark

or simply press the down arrow to enter the next task. You will see default duration of 1

day (with a question mark) and a Gantt bar for it. To simulate a lower level WBS or a

sub-task you will enter Task name in the table entry area and then click the right arrow

key ().Pressing tab is an easy way to move from field to field.

Figure 10: Add Tasks for Project Vista

Creating Summary Tasks

After entering the WBS tasks in to the Entry Table, the next step is to show WBS levels

by creating summary tasks. A summary task is like a big activity under which several

subtasks exist. It can be collapsed or expanded as needed—managers may want to hide

certain tasks before printing a report if they are not relevant to a meeting. Before linking

tasks you may want to indent the non-summary tasks first. This is done by first selecting

the sub-tasks to be indented and then pressing the Indent Button.

  Note you can press Insert key this key inserts a blank row at the point of

insertion. Important you must select the entire row.

  And to delete a task, select the row and press the Delete key.

  Note like all office tools you must use right mouse click in Microsoft Project

and you will see the relevant menu options.   23

The summary tasks in our case study are Task 2 - Initiation, Task 6 - Planning, Task 12-

Execution, Task 23 - Control and monitoring, and Task 27 – Closing. You create

summary tasks by highlighting several rows of subtasks and indenting them.

Figure 11: Creating Summary Tasks

On Your Own

To create the summary tasks:

1. Select lower-level or subtasks:   Highlight the wanted tasks

2. Indent subtasks: Click the Indent button (green arrow highlighted below). Or

use ALT+Shift+Right.

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Hide or display tasks

Once the project gets to large you can hide lower level tasks. They can be displayed as

well with a simple click.    Click Show, Select an outline level to view, Click “All

Subtasks” to display entire project. Important toolbar buttons are illustrated in the

diagram.  

On Your Own

Indent the remaining tasks so that we have the following snapshot.

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Click the Show menu option to display the WBS outline levels as illustrated in the figure.

On the standard toolbar, click the Show button’s list arrow .The black bars on the Gantt

chart represent the summary tasks.

Widen the Task Name Column: Move the cursor over the right –column gridline in the

Task Name column heading until you see the resize pointer and then double-click the left

mouse button to resize the column width automatically to show all the text.

Note: You can move the split bar to reveal a wider Entry table column. Move the split bar

to the right to reveal the entire duration column.  

You can click the (-) sign to create a summary. This becomes (+). Also you can see

various outline levels of your WBS.  

Figure 12: Viewing WBS outline Levels

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Entering Durations

When you enter a task, Microsoft Project automatically assigns to it default duration of

one day. Duration unit symbols include:

d = days (default)

w =weeks

m =minutes

h = hours

mo or mon = months

To change the default duration of 1 day, type a tasks estimated duration in the duration

column. If you are unsure of an estimate and want to review it again later, type a question

mark after it. For example you could enter “10d?” for a task with an estimated duration of

10 days.  In the future you can use the Tasks With Estimated Durations filter to quickly

see the tasks for which you need to review duration estimates. You can now type both a

number and an appropriate duration symbol.  

Don’t enter durations for summary tasks as such durations are calculated automatically

from the subtasks. Note: If you enter duration for a task and then indent it to make it a

summary task, its duration will automatically change to match the durations of its

subtasks.  

You can click the duration column and enter days. Project enters the duration and Gantt

bar stretches to reflect the number of days. Instead of typing the duration, you can also

point the mouse at right edge of the task bar and drag it to reflect the duration you wanted

to assign.

On Your Own

View the WBS outline levels. You can click the (-) sign to create a summary.

This becomes (+). Also see various outline levels of your WBS. See the example

above.

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Figure 13: Entering Durations

Using Task Information Dialog Box

The table entry view does not allow you to enter detailed information about a task. The

task information window allows you to enter information such as: predecessors,

resources, task constraints such as ASAP, and mark a task as milestone. You click Task

Information Button and click advanced option and enter duration.

On Your Own

  Click duration column and enter days. Mimic the above Gantt chart.

  Project enters the duration and Gantt bar grows to reflect it.

  Try the mouse as well. Point the mouse at right edge of task bar and drag

till the duration you wanted to assign.

28

You can quickly open the task information dialog box by double clicking the task you

want to update. You can also select Project | Task Information to display the task

information box.  Alternatively, you can click a task information button--it looks like a

folder or Press Shift+F2.

Figure 14: Viewing Task Information

In the table entry view it is possible to mark a task as a milestone by entering duration of

“0”. For example, you can double-click “Stage Gate Go/No Go” decision” and enter 0

days.  See the diagram for the resulting outcome. However, you also can mark a task with

a longer duration (non-zero) as a milestone.  Double click the task, click Advanced Tab

of Task information dialog box, click the mark Task as milestone check box to it, and

click Ok.  

Create Milestone

To mark a task as a milestone, enter duration as “0”. Note you can mark a task with a

longer duration as a milestone after entering the task duration; just double click the task,

click Advanced Tab of Task information dialog box, click the mark Task as milestone

check box to check it and click Ok.

29

Figure 15: Creating a Milestone

It is possible to enter notes for the WBS task as well. This is helpful because, it provides

more details about the activity as well as data that could not be entered in the columns.

Such as status of Risk or uncertainty. Click the Notes tab as you see below and enter

sample data.   30

Figure 16: Adding notes and comments for a task

Create Task Dependencies

Linking tasks sets up a finish-to-start relationship between tasks. When the tasks are

linked MS Project automatically determines the start and finish date for each task. It also

calculates the project schedule.

Step 1:  Select the tasks you want to link. E.g. You can highlight tasks 1 and 2

using your mouse. You will see two tasks highlighted.

Step 2:  Select the “Link Tasks” button from the tool bar. This icon is part of your

standard toolbar and appears at the top of the screen as a chain. (Alternatively,

simply Press Ctrl + F2 and that links the tasks.) The result is illustrated in the

diagram.  

Before: We show two simple tasks.  

On Your Own

  Enter milestones.

  Enter Durations.

  Enter a couple of Task Information notes.

31

After: We highlight them and press the link icon    or [Control] + [F2] buttons. The

result is:  

Also you may double Click on the Task, a dialog box opens up. Click the Predecessors

Tab. Now you can manually enter the predecessor number. You can change the link to a

type other than the default Finish-to-Start by adding the abbreviation for start-to-start

(SS), finish-to-finish (FF), or start-to-finish (SF) link

To unlink the tasks, select the “Unlink Tasks” button from the tool bar.  

To link or unlink you can select noncontiguous tasks as well. Choose the first task you

want to link, then hold down CTRL and choose each individual noncontiguous task you

want to link. E.g. Select task 4, hold down CTRL, and choose task 6. Then click the link

button.

Important: You will notice that when you link tasks, Project

automatically adjusts your schedule. If instead you enter

specific start and finish dates for tasks, you override that

automatic adjustment. In the future, you’ll have to continue to

make updates manually.

32

Introducing Lag Time and Lead Time

Sometimes you may want to delay the start of the successor task. This is accomplished by

introducing a lag time in the successor task. The diagram illustrates how a lag of 4 days is

introduced after the first task has completed. A good example could be pouring concrete

for a foundation and then waiting for the concrete to cure and settle for 4 days before you

continue working on the project.  

In a finish-to-start relationship, if an overlap between the tasks is desired this is referred

to as Lead-time. Here the start of a successor precedes the finish of its predecessor.

To create an overlap, use lead time. If a task can start four days before the previous one is

finished, a lead time of four days gets that successor task to start early. You can

accomplish this by entering -4d for example.  

On Your Own

  Enter dependencies for a couple of tasks. Or enter all of them as shown

in the table below.  

  Practice Unlinking a few dependencies as well.   33

Figure 17: Adding Lag or Lead to a task

On Your Own

  Click the dependency arrow. You will see the above window. Enter lag

such as 2 d. Press OK.  

  Also try the following. Double click on Determine Stakeholders. Enter

the following lag: -2.  

You should see the following screen.

34

Advanced Topics

Using Filters

Once your project gets large you will need to use filters to query your project. You can

filter information by clicking the Filter text box list arrow (looks like a funnel) shown in

diagram below.  

For example, milestones in your project can be filtered by selecting the last option in the

diagram above. This will show you a Gantt view with summary tasks and tasks with

duration of zero days.

Figure 18: Filtering Tasks to show Milestones and Summary tasks.

Recap: You can activate filters by clicking View | Gantt Chart (or selecting any other

view that you want to filter). You then click Project | Filtered For: All Tasks | All Tasks |

Milestones.  Note that you can create your own filters if the filters in the menu options

don’t suit your purpose.  

To remove a filter you must follow these steps. Click Project | Filtered For |

All tasks. All tasks will now reappear.  

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If you want to display only those tasks associated with a particular resource, you can

click Project | Filtered For | Using Resource Filter. Note you can view dependencies and

edit or delete them at this point by clicking on the arrows in the chart. A popup box

appears that allows you to edit or delete the dependency.

More Scheduling Capabilities to Tasks

You can add some final details to your project as needed. For example set a deadline for a

task or assign a calendar to a task, or document notes pertaining to a task, or create

recurring tasks such as weekly meetings. These are illustrated below.

To Split a Task

Select the task and click the Split Task button on the Standard toolbar. Place the splitting

cursor on the date you want the interruption to begin, and click and drag the task bar to

the date you want the interruption to end. To Remove a Split merge the split tasks using

the mouse. You can also use right mouse click button when you have the cursor on the

Task Bar to activate split task.

When to use split task? For example the package “Lay Garage Foundation” would

require a week to dry the foundation followed by inspection and some patching. So while

the effort may be five days, there is five days worth of waiting until the concrete dries

out. So the package effort is only 40 hours for one person but spans two weeks. If you

don’t split the task it will show 80 hours of effort. The example below shows how this

package is split into two.

Viewing Details for Task or Resource

Select the task or resource and select View |More Views from the menu. Select Task

Entry or Resource Entry and click Apply. You will see the Task Form will below

the Gantt Chart, with additional details about the task or resource.

Using Zoom

Click the Zoom In button (icon looks like a magnifying glass with plus symbol) on

the toolbar to zoom in. Click the Zoom Out button on the Standard toolbar to zoom

out (similar icon with minus sign).

On Your Own

  Filter for Tasks associated with Resource Sue (or anyone else in the

project).

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Figure 19: Splitting a Task into two

It is easy to undo the mistake. Press [Control] [Z] keys or simply drag the bars back

together.

Establish Deadline Dates

To set a deadline click the selected task for which you want to set a deadline and click

Task information dialog box. Click the Advanced tab and enter the deadline date in the

Deadline box and click OK.

Figure 20: Setting a Task Deadline for Completion

On Your Own

  Create a simple task called Purchase and Install Memory for laptops.

Give it two days duration. Split it into two.

  It should look something like this (with different start and finish dates).

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Assign a Calendar to Task

If you have created different calendars for different resources, it is then desirable to

assign them appropriately via tasks. This module is optional.  

Right Click on the task that needs a calendar  Click Task information then Dialog Box

appears. Click Advanced Tab Click Calendar to assign to the task.

See the view below

On Your Own

Notice the arrow (next to the resource name “Joe”).  Move it around.  

Do you get a warning message? See sample below.

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Figure 21: Assigning a calendar to a task

Create Recurring Tasks

Some tasks in a project are recurring tasks. A good example is weekly team meeting or

meeting with a stakeholder or sponsor at a fixed date. In this module we show you how to

create a recurring task.

 Click the Task in your Gantt Chart

 Click Insert

 Click recurring task

Type Task Name then click to set duration then time setting and select start date.

  View different appearances of timing

  Double Click on Time scale then dialog box appears.

  Select number of tiers on Timescale

  You can click any tier tab to change settings

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  In middle tier Tab select appearance for the label in tier.

  Click non-working time Tab | Click Draw option | can change color and

appearance

Click the Task in your Gantt Chart

Figure 22: Creating Recurring Tasks

Select the day for recurrence pattern. Example Tuesday is our recurring meeting date.

40

If you expand Weekly Report you will see 8 occurrences

41

Constraints  

Constraints are restriction that you place on tasks. This affects how Microsoft Project

calculates the start or finish dates of the tasks in your project. To Set a Task Constraint:

Select the task and click the Task Information button on the toolbar. Click the Advanced

tab, select the Constraint type.  If the constraint requires that you specify a constraint date

(as for all constraints except As Soon As Possible or As late As Possible), use the

Constraint Date drop-down calendar to select the date. Enter the deadline date in the

Constraint date box and click OK.

Let us investigate this: Double Click a task called Create Comprehensive Project Plans

  Select Advanced Tab

  Select Constraint Type

You will see the following view

Figure 23: Setting constraints on tasks   42

Critical Path Analysis

The critical path is used by project managers to monitor and control the project. It is

called the critical path as it depicts a sequence of tasks associated with the path that has

the least amount of slack.  

For beginners the best option is to use the Critical Path Wizard. This is easily available

by clicking the following icon on the extreme right of the menu bar.

This can also be activated by clicking Format | Gantt Chart Wizard from the menu bar.  

You will see choices of Standard, Critical path and Baseline.  

Select critical path and click next. Project will ask you what type of information you want

to display with your Gantt bars. Select Resources and click next. You will be asked if you

want to see a link between depended tasks, click “Yes” followed by “Next” and finally

click “Format It” and then exit the wizard. Soon you will see your Gantt chart with

critical path in red. Non critical tasks are blue in color. See snapshot below

Figure 24: Formatting and viewing critical path

Resources

Once you have entered the tasks and duration or effort you can create a resource list.

Resources are the people, equipment and supplies required to complete the project within the

defined constraints.  Three different types of resources can be entered using Microsoft

Project:   43

  Work resources  

  Material resources  

  Cost resource  

Work resources include equipment and people that work on tasks. Allocation of Time

and Percentage of assignment of the resource is important. Material resources are good

used by the work resources and here the units-of-measure is an important gauge.

Example, 20 cans of paint.  Cost resource is a fixed cost task, cost-dependent on work

performed. The most common type of resource you will be using the work resource.

In this module our goal is to:  

1. Create resource pool  

2. Assign resources  

(1) Creating Resource Pool:  

This is a preferred approach. In this option we enter all the resources at once into a Resources

Spreadsheet. The resources from the resource pool can then be assigned to the tasks.

Note: You can directly assign a resource to task inside the Gantt View.  If you assign a

resource to a task in this manner and if it does not exist in the resource pool, MS Project will

automatically add it to the resource pool. But it will be missing certain data like hourly rates

or overtime rates.

By using the resource sheet you can enter all the resources at once on a spreadsheet.   If

you have a list of all the resource you can enter them into a resource sheet by clicking

View | Resource Sheet or by clicking the Resource Sheet in the View Bar.  

or

Figure 25: Activating Resource Sheet   44

A blank sheet appears and you can enter the data as illustrated in the diagram. Note you

can also enter equipment here, e.g., Construction excavation equipment that is rented.

Material resources are the goods needed by work resources to complete tasks example

paint or steel. They help us to track expenses and also determine the rate at which the

resources are used.  You would enter a Material Label here such as Installation Material

as follows: Cost/use = $100.  

Figure 26: Entering Resource Type for Material

MS Project provides three cost accrual methods:

1.  Start: Choose this if the costs accrue as soon as a task using the resource begins.

2.  Prorated: Choose this if costs accrue as the task progresses, based on the work

done. This is the default method.

3.  End: Choose this if costs accrue when the task is finished e.g. Fixed costs.

In our tutorial we use the default values.

(2) Assigning Resources to Task

Once you have completed the resources sheet you can assign resources to tasks in your

project. Double click on the task you want to assign a resource to and the task

information dialog box appears as shown below. Click the Resources tab and you will see

a drop down list of resources as illustrated in the diagram.  

45

Figure 27: Assigning Resources to tasks.

Enter the following Resources:

PROJECT VISTA MIGRATION  

INITIATION  

PROJECT KICKOFF Cathy

DETERMINING STAKE HOLDERS Joe

CREATE PROJECT CHARTER Anita

PLANNING  

CREATE COMPREHENSIVE PROJECT PLANS Cathy

GATHER UPDATE DETAILS FROM MICROSOFT AND

OTHER SOURCES

Joe

TEST VISTA MIGRATION FEASIBILITY Sue

CREATE SCOPE STATEMENT Anita

STAGE GATE GO/NO GO DECISION BY CIO Anita

EXECUTION  

IDENTIFY RESOURCES  FOR CONVERSION Cathy

PRODUCE VISTA LICENSE KEYS Cathy

ORDER HARDWARE UPGRADES Joe

INSTALL HARDWARE AND VISTA "Installation Materials,Joe"

SETUP TRAINING AND HELPDESK Sue

STEPS FOR UPGRADING TO WINDOWS VISTA  

ACCESS HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS "Overhead,Joe"

BACKUP IMPORTANT DATA "Overhead,Joe"

UPGRADE TO WINDOWS VISTA "Overhead,Joe"

MIGRATE USER SETTINGS TO VISTA "Overhead,Joe"

CONTROL AND MONITORING  

MONITOR COST AND SCHEDULE Anita

MONITORING THE IMPACT ON USERS Anita

RESOLVING ISSUES/CONCERNS Anita

CLOSING  

LESSONS LEARNT MEETING  "Anita,Cathy,Joe,Sue"

UPDATE AND ARCHIVE PROJECT DOCUMENTS Anita

46

After you enter resources for various tasks this view will appear:

To make changes in resources for a task you can click on Assign Resources button, which

is the icon with two people (or use Alt+F10). You can replace the existing resource with

the new resource by clicking the Replace button, or to remove the resource of the task by

using the Remove button.  

It is useful to document assumptions about the resource by adding some notes. Click the

resource notes button on the standard toolbar, or right-click the resource and select

resource notes to enter comments about the resource.

Over Allocated Resources

The project manager can easily determine resource over allocation with Microsoft

Project. You can view over allocated resources in Resource Sheet view, Resource Usage

view, Resource Allocation view, and Resource Graph view.

Click View, View Bar and select Resource Graph. This allows you to quickly see a graph

of over allocated resources.

You can level resources over allocation using the following commands: Click View |

Resource Usage from the menu, and then select Project Filtered For |Over allocated

Resources from the menu. Select the over allocated resource and select Tools | Level

Resources from the menu. Click the Manual option and the Level Entire Project option,

and then click the Level Now button. Next you click the Selected Resources option or the

Entire Pool option and click OK to complete the leveling.     47

50%

100%

Peak Units:

Joe Overallocated: Allocated:

T W T F S S M T

Jan 27, '08

100% 100% 100%

Figure 28: Viewing Over allocated Resources

Updating Project Progress

Soon your project will start and you will need to update the project plan. Tracking allows

you to look up specific information, such as how much you spent on resources during a

particular phase. If you keep your tracking information current, you will have an up-to-

date snapshot of your project.

Setting up a Baseline

When you have completed scheduling tasks, resources, and costs you should save a

baseline for your project. A baseline is a benchmark of your project's status before work

on the project begins. When you save a baseline, Project copies the information from the

Start and Finish fields into the Baseline Start and Baseline Finish fields. The baseline is

used evaluate your project progress. To Save a Baseline Plan: Select Tools |Tracking |

Save Baseline from the menu bar.  Ensure Entire Project option is selected—this is the

default. Click OK.

Important: If you don’t set up a baseline a lot of your reports will not view

correctly. Since MS Project wants to compare variance against a baseline.

On Your Own

  For two tasks in your WBS that occur on the same date assign the same

resource. This will result in over allocation.  

  Click View | Resource Usage from the menu, and then select Project

Filtered For |Over allocated Resources from the menu.

  Attempt to level the resource over allocation.

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Updating Project Progress Data

The focus of this tutorial is on updating the schedule, tracking progress, and

communicating project information to team members and stakeholders.  

You can update a task or groups of tasks.  

Click Tools, Tracking, Update Project. This will show the following screen.

Figure 29: Updating Project Progress

Once the data has been updated it is exciting to see various variance reports. This is

covered in the next section.

On Your Own

Save the baseline plan

  The Project Plan for Vista has been submitted and approved. On the

Tools menu, point to Tracking and then click Set Baseline.

View baseline data in a Gantt Chart view

  On the View menu, click Tracking Gantt. In the chart area, the baseline

information is shown as the lower of the two Gantt bars for each task.

View baseline and variance data  

  On the View menu, point to Table, and then select Variance. This table

includes fields for baseline and variance start and finish.

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Project Progress Views

The View menu lists several views by default, Calendar, Gantt Chart, Network Diagram,

Task Usage, and Tracking Gantt.  The Resource related views are: Resource Graph, Sheet

and Usage.  You can click More Views to see additional Views.  

Network Diagram

Let us look at the Network Diagram view. By selecting it we see the following:

Figure 30: Network Diagram

Task Usage

The task usage view displays information about the tasks in a project.   The Task Usage

view can be modified to display a number of different data pertaining to your project, for

example work effort or cost. We show you these two views below for Project Vista

If you select View Task Usage: Table Usage, you will see a view such as:

On Your Own

Updating a Range of Dates: To Update Project Progress: Select Tools |

Tracking | Update Project from the menu. Select the date through which you

want to update the project. Click OK.  

Updating Task Completion Percentage: To Update Task Completion Percentage:

Identify the task and then select Tools | Tracking | Update Tasks from the menu.

Enter the %.  

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Figure 31: Task Usage View

If you select View Task Usage: Table Cost, you will see a view such as:

Figure 32: Cost View

Play with the following interesting views and see how they can help you to track project

progress:  

Project Statistics: You can view project statistics at any time by clicking the following on

the menu bar:  Project | Project Information | Statistics button.

Project Costs: Select View | More Views from the menu, select Task Sheet, and click

Apply. Select Tools | Options from the menu and click the View tab. Check the Show

Project summary task checkbox and click OK. Select View | Table: Cost from the menu.

Duration Variance:  Select View | More Views from the menu, select Task Sheet, and

click Apply. Select View | Table: Variance from the menu, and then look at the Start Var.

and Finish Var. fields to see the amounts of variance calculated for the start and finish of

the task.

Cost Variance: Select View | Task Sheet from the menu, and then select View | Table:

Cost from the menu. Check the Variance field to view variance in cost.

51

Determining Delayed Tasks: Select View | Tracking Gantt from the menu, and then select

View | Table: Variance from the menu. Here you can compare the current project status

with the baseline.

Note the calendar view is possibly the most popular view after the Gantt Chart. When

you right-click the chart portion of any view, short cut menu appears with commands that

can let you format a particular chart. Also don’t forget that you can sort and filter data in

a sheet as well as adjust time scales. Printing is covered in the next topic. However it is

worthwhile indicating here that printing the Current View as a Report is pretty

straightforward.  Click the Report button list arrow on the Project Guide toolbar and

select Print current view as a report from the list. The wizard walks you through several

steps; click the Print button when finished.

Working with Reports

Reports are used throughout the project to communicate project status and information to

the project team and to project stakeholders. In this section you will get an overview of

various reports that Project offers and how to print them. There are several excellent

visual reports that you can display