MSProject 2007 Tutorial

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Appendix A

Microsoft Project TutorialLearning Objectives

After reading this appendix, you will be able to:

Become familiar with Microsoft Project

Enter tasks, estimate task durations, and sequence tasks in

Microsoft Project.

Enter resources and assign resources.

Track project progress.

Report project status.

Introduction

In keeping with the technological focus of thistextbook, this appendix will provide you with abasic introduction to Microsoft Project, apowerful project management software packagethat can help project staff to manage schedulesand resources and to track project progress.Although several vendors provide project

management software (see Chapter1) across a variety of price points anda variety of specific industries, MicrosoftProject is one of the most widely used projectmanagement software applications available.Considering its widespread use and its familiarMicrosoft Office user interface, we choseMicrosoft Project to illustrate how projectmanagement software in general can supportand facilitate information systems projectmanagement.

While the use of project management softwarecan enhance and support the projectmanagement function, project managementsoftware should not be used in lieu of becomingfamiliar with the project management conceptspresented in this textbook. This appendix iswritten with the expectation that the reader

possesses some basic knowledge of the ISproject management concepts presented inChapters 1 through 12. Please use this appendixalong with the chapters of this book to round outyour project management knowledge and skills.

Microsoft Project Basics

If you do not already have Microsoft Project

2007, a trial version can be downloaded fromMicrosoft at:http://us1.trymicrosoftoffice.com/product.aspx?family=project&culture=en-US. Please followthe directions on the Web site to installMicrosoft Project on your computer. During theinstallation process, you will be asked whetheryou prefer the typical installation, or whetheryou want a complete or custom installation.The typical installation includes the mostcommonly used features of Microsoft Project;

however, if you would prefer some additionalfeatures (e.g., PERT analysis), choose thecomplete installation.

Microsoft Project 2007 is a Microsoft Officeapplication, so it has many elements similar toother Office titles such as Word, Excel, andPowerPoint. To begin using Microsoft Project,

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first start the application by clicking on the Startmenu, All Programs, and select MicrosoftProject, which is located in the Microsoft Officefolder by default. Alternatively, if there is a

program icon for Project on the desktop, double-click the icon to open Microsoft Project. Theapplication will open with the screen shown inFigure A.1).

Figure A.1 Microsoft Project opening screen.

As you can see, elements of the user interfaceshould be familiar to you if youve used Wordor Excel. Specifically, the menu bar, and thetoolbar have been integral in Office 2003 andlater, and the window opens with the task pane

on the right side of the window (see FigureA.2). Depending on settings specific to yourcomputer, your opening screen may not appearexactly as shown, but these differences will beminor.

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Figure A.2 Microsoft Project screen elements.

Before getting started with specific project

management activities, we will first explore thehelp menu and some interface characteristicsthat will help you configure Project to yourpreferences.

Microsoft Project Help

One of the most important (and sometimesunderutilized) features of Microsoft Project isthe Help menu. To get help in Microsoft Project,click on the Help menu in the menu bar, and

click on Microsoft Project Help (see Figure

A.3), or hit the F1 key.

After clicking on Microsoft Project Help, theHelp dialog box will open (see Figure A.4). TheHelp dialog box opens with a field to typekeywords or questions into near the top of thewindow and displays links for a variety of helptopics. In addition to the built in help topics, theMicrosoft Project Help dialog box provideslinks to Microsofts Online help contents,including Downloads, Training, and

Templates.(see Figure A.5).

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Figure A.3 Help menu.

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Figure A.4 Microsoft Project Help Dialog.

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Figure A.5 Online Content settings.

As noted above, the Help menu can be avaluable resource for assistance with common,and not-so-common issues. The Help menushould become the first stop for answers toquestions that may be beyond the scope of thisintroductory appendix.

For the following section, and many othersthroughout this appendix, the project beingshown in the screenshots is adapted from theSoftware Development Template. It can beloaded by clicking on the File menu, thenchoosing New. The Task pane is replaced by

the New Project pane (see Figure A.6). Click onthe On Computer link under the Templatesheading. The Templates dialog box will appear(see Figure A.7), then click on the ProjectTemplate tab to see the templates included inthe Microsoft Project software. Scroll down tofind the Software Development template. Toillustrate how Microsoft Project helps supportproject activities, the Software Developmenttemplate will be used to show some of thefeatures of this software. It may be useful foryou to open the Software Development templateto follow along.

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Figure A.6 New Project pane.

Figure A.7 Project Template dialog box.

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Views in Microsoft Project

When Microsoft Project is opened, it opens bydefault into the Gantt chart view. Other views ofa project also exist, such as a Network Diagram

view. These other views (as well as otheroptions) are available using the View menu (seeFigure A.8).

The View menu includes the most commonlyused views, such as the Calendar view (seeFigure A.9), or the Network Diagram view (seeFigure A.10). If you cant find the view yourelooking for on the main View menu, click on the

More Views option for a dialog box with allpossible view choices and options for editingviews (see Figure A.11).

Figure A.8 Microsoft Project View menu.

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Figure A.9 Calendar View.

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Figure A.10 Network Diagram View.

Figure A.11 More Views.

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For the remaining sections of this appendix,make sure your Project Guide toolbar is visiblein Microsoft Project. To verify that it is open,click on the View menu, move your mouse

down to the Toolbars option to open the Toolbarmenu, and then verify that the Project Guideoption is checked (see Figure A.12).

Figure A.12 Project Guide Toolbar view.

Microsoft Project Guide

To help you get started using Microsoft Projectto manage your project, the software hasembedded in it a step-by-step guide to define theproject, enter and schedule tasks, identify,

assign, and manage resources, track projectstatus, manage changes, and generate reports.The Microsoft Project Guide (see Figure A.2) isa toolbar that includes the most often used tools

in Microsoft Project. To begin using the projectguide, click on the Tasks button on the ProjectGuide (see Figure A.13). Please note that whilewe will use the Project Guide to help youfamiliarize yourself with the functionality ofMicrosoft Project, in reality all the activities

discussed below may be done outside of theProject Guide and in a different order thanspecified below, dependent upon the specificcontext for a particular project.

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Figure A.13 Opening the Task pane.

The Task Pane

After clicking on the Tasks button in the ProjectGuide, your screen should resemble that inFigure A.3, a new project with the Task Paneopen on the left side of the screen. To getstarted, click on the Set a date to schedulefrom link in the Task pane. Set the estimatedstart date for your project in the dropdown menufor the date. For example, in Figure A.14, theestimated start date is June 20, 2007.

Working Time

After choosing the estimated start date of yourproject, click on the Done link at the bottomof the Task pane. This will return you to the

Task pane. The next step is to define theworking time for the project. Defining theprojects working time is a five-step process thatwalks you through setting up the general projectworking times (specific resources may bescheduled differently later). First, click on theDefine general working times link in the Taskpane to start the five-step process. The firstscreen (see Figure A.15) offers three calendartemplates to choose from for the basic workingtime for the project. Default is the standard 40

hours a week, Monday through Friday schedulewith weekends off. The other options are NightShift, and 24 Hour. To illustrate the next stepsin this example, we will choose the Standardschedule.

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Figure A.14 Set date to schedule from.

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Figure A.15 Project Working Times, Step 1.

After you have made the general working timechoice, click on the Save and go to Step 2 linkat the bottom of the Task pane. Step 2 allowsyou to manipulate the days of the week, and ifrequested, the daily working times (see FigureA.16).

After making any needed changes, click on theSave and go to Step 3 link at the bottom of theTask pane. Step 3 allows you to specify

nonworking time, such as holidays, or to specifyhours during a given day that are not workinghours. For instance, July 4, 2007, is the U.S.national holiday to celebrate US Independence.To specify that day as nonworking time, clickon the Change Working Time link in the Taskpane to bring up the Change Working Timedialog box (see Figure A.17). Next, click onMonday, July 4, to select it. Notice the workingtime is filled in on the right side of the dialogbox (see Figure A.18).

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Figure A.18 Project Working Times, Step 3, continued.

To specify July 4, 2007, as nonworking time,click on the Exception tab and enter July 4 thHoliday to select the entire day as nonworkingtime (see Figure A.19).. If your organizationdoes work on that day but only works a half-day, as an example, click on the Details button,then click on the Working Times radio buttonand then specify the working time for that dayin the fields provided. Figure A.20 shows thedialog box with a morning half-day specified forJuly 4; notice the date is bold and underlined,indicating that the working time for that day hasbeen edited.

After specifying all nonworking time during theestimated time of the project, click theContinue to Step 4 link at the bottom of theTask pane. Step 4 allows you to specify thenumber of hours per day, the number of hoursper week, and the number of days per month(see Figure A.21). Notice the instructions in theTask pane suggest making sure these valuesmatch those specified in earlier steps. This isimportant because Project calculates schedulesbased on hours. So, if you schedule the durationof a task as 2 days and the setting for work daysis 8 hours, then Project will specify 16 hours forthat task.

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You may wish to make changes here if you haveselected the Standard schedule but have madechanges to the working times in Step 2. Forexample, if your organization works oncompressed schedules, 4 days per week at 10hours a day, making changes here will ensurethat if you specify a task to take 2 days, it willbe a 20-hour task rather than a 16-hour task.Once the values in this step are finalized, clickon the Save and go to Step 5 link at thebottom of the Task pane. The final step in the

Project Working Times process is verificationthat the projects calendar has been set and thatresources will be scheduled based on thecalendar that has been specified during thesesteps (see Figure A.22). There is an option atthis step to define a different calendar for adifferent set of resources. This might be usefulif your organization utilizes a pool of part-timeworkers, for example. If you are satisfied withthe calendar, click on the Save and Finish linkat the bottom of the Task pane.

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Task Entry

Now that the calendar has been set and saved,the next step is to enter the tasks to develop aWork Breakdown Structure (WBS). First, clickon the List the tasks in the project link in theTask pane to bring up the List Tasks paneFigure A.23. There are two additional options toconsider here as well. First, there is an Importwizard if there is another file with tasks alreadylisted, such as an Excel spreadsheet. Second,

there is the option to specify a task as amilestone.

Notice that Project suggests in this panespecifying durations for the tasks. You maywish to enter durations at this stage; however, ifyour goal is to develop a WBS (as shown inChapter 6), you may wish to wait until a laterstep to specify durations. Figure A.24 shows thebeginnings of a task list with no durationsspecified, that is, a WBS. Notice at this point,that no durations and no start or finish dateshave been specified for any tasks.

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Figure A.23 Enter Tasks.

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Figure A.24 Starting a WBS.

Once all of the tasks have been entered into theTask entry table, click on the Done link in theList Tasks pane to return to the Task pane. Thenext step is to create summary tasks thatrepresent phases of the project. Click on theOrganize tasks into phases link in the Taskpane to bring up the Organize Tasks pane.Notice in the task list, the first five tasks listedinvolve issues related to scope. Considering that

these tasks are all related, and the fifth task is amilestone referred to as Scope complete, wemay wish to group these five tasks into a largersummary task. To do this, select the first task inthe list, and then click on the button to insert anew row (see Figure A.25). For this example,well enter the summary tasks name as Scope(see Figure A.26).

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Figure A.25 Inserting a row for a summary task.

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Figure A.26 Entering the summary task name.

Now, to set the Scope task as a summary task,select the five following tasks (Determineproject scope through Scope complete), andthen click the button with the arrow pointing to

the right to indent the selected tasks see FigureA.27). Notice that the Scope task is now boldand has a black, rather than blue, durationindicator.

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Figure A.27 Indenting subtasks.

In Figure A.28, a row has been inserted to entera summary task called Testing, but justentering the task into the row makes it appear asthough it is a subtask of the Developmentsummary task (see Figure A.29). To makeTesting a summary task, click on the button

with the arrow pointing to the left. This outdents(moves the indention level to the left) Testing(see Figure A.30). Once subtasks to testing areidentified and indented, Testing will then bedisplayed as a summary task (see Figure A.31).

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Figure A.28 Continuing summary tasks.

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Figure A.29 Indented summary task.

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Figure A.30 Outdented summary task.

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Figure A.31 Indenting Testing subtasks.

Once all of your tasks have been organized,click the Done link in the Organize Taskspane to return to the Task pane. To finalize theWBS, Project can generate WBS numberingcodes to identify the levels of decomposition for

each task level. To generate the WBS codes foryour project, click on the Project menu in themenu bar, mouse over the WBS option, thenclick on Define code (see Figure A.32).

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Figure A.32 WBS Code definition dialog.

Depending on the complexity of your project,and the level of decomposition of the tasks, youcan display different levels of the WBS byclicking on the dropdown menu under theSequence heading and choosing the format of

the numbering for that particular level. In FigureA.33, the formatting for the WBS numberinghas been set to an uppercase letter, followed bya period and a number for subtask levels.

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Figure A.33 Setting the WBS numbering format.

Next, click the OK button. To display the WBSnumbering, select the column you would likethe WBS numbering to be next to; in FigureA.34, this is the Task Name column. Next, clickon the Insert menu in the menu bar, and click onColumn to insert a new column to the left of

the selected column. The Column Definitiondialog box will open; then choose WBS fromthe Field Name dropdown menu. Click the OKbutton to show the WBS column (see FigureA.35)

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Figure A.34 Insert WBS column.

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Figure A.35 WBS with codes showing.

Task Scheduling

At this stage, we have a completed WBS inProject that we can use as we estimate activitydurations and determine task dependencies. Toset the durations of each task, use the menus inthe Duration column, or you can enter anynumber followed by days, hours, ormonths. The default is days, so if you knowthe task will not take a full day, you may wish toenter the time in hours (see Figure A.36). Do

not set start or finish times; Project willcalculate these automatically. If you need toconstrain a task to begin or end at a specifictime, that will be done in a later step. FigureA.37 shows the Tasks with durations set. Noticethat Project will not allow you to set a durationfor the summary tasks because Project willcompute these automatically. Thus, you onlyneed to set the durations for tasks that are notsummary tasks.

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Figure A.36 Setting task durations.

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Figure A.37 WBS with task durations set.

Once you have set the durations for all of yourtasks (milestones remain with 0 durations), it istime to schedule the tasks by setting theirdependencies. From the main Task pane, clickon the Schedule tasks link to bring up theSchedule Tasks pane see Figure A.38). Threeoptions are available in this pane for setting task

dependenciesfinish to start, start to start, andfinish to finish. To set a dependency betweentwo tasks, select the tasks in the Task entrytable, then click on the dependency you wouldlike to specify. Figure A.38 shows a finish tostart dependency for tasks A.1 and A.2.

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Figure A.38 Setting task dependencies.

If you need to change a dependency after it isset, you may change the relationship by doubleclicking on the dependency arrow on the Ganttchart to bring up the Task Dependency dialog

box see Figure A.39). Click on the dropdownmenu to choose from the four dependency types.Use this dialog to set lag times for tasks as well.

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Figure A.39 More dependencies.

For the purposes of this running example, wewill specify all dependencies as finish to start. Ifseveral tasks are sequential, you can select all ofthe sequential tasks at once and then click thefinish to start dependency button to set thedependencies for those tasks.

Now with all of the task dependencies set,notice that Project has determined the start andfinish dates and times for each task based on theprojects estimated start date, working andnonworking times, and task parameters seeFigure A.40). Additionally, after setting taskdependencies, the Predecessor column in theTask entry table is now completed.

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Figure A.40Task dependencies set.

Finally, in project scheduling, tasks maysometimes have specific deadlines or may notbe able to begin until a certain date. In thesecases, you may wish to set a deadline for (orconstrain) those tasks. To set a deadline click onthe Set deadlines and constrain tasks link in

the Task pane. This will open the Deadlines andConstraints pane. The top half of the pane canbe used to set a deadline for a task. The bottomhalf can be used to set various types ofconstraints on the task. If you need to set a

deadline for a task, select the task you wish toset the deadline for and then click the dropdownmenu in the Set a deadline portion of theDeadlines and Constraints pane to select a datefrom the calendar. Figure A.41 shows a deadlinebeing set for the Scope summary task for

Wednesday, June 27, 2007. It might be useful toset such a deadline if there is slack in theschedule for that task but the task requires someresource that is only available until the deadlinedate.

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Figure A.41 Deadline set for summary task.

Another option is to set a constraint on a task.By default, every task is set to start as soon aspossible. The other options for constraints areshown in Figure A.42. For instance, you may

wish to push back a task as long as possible,particularly one with float or slack, in whichcase you would set the constraint to start Aslate as possible.

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Figure A.42 Constraints.

Displaying the Critical Path

At this stage, you might want to have the criticalpath shown in the Gantt chart. To display thecritical path on your Gantt chart, from theFormat menu choose Gantt Chart Wizard. Thewizard will lead you through several steps thatwill allow you to make a number of changes tothe appearance of the Gantt chart see FigureA.43). Besides showing the critical path, youcan choose to show the baseline, and on

subsequent screens you can specify resourcesand dates to be shown on the Gantt chart aswell.

When you choose to show the critical path,tasks that are on the critical path are shown inred. You may wish to change the font color ofthe critical path tasks in the task entry table aswell. To change the critical path tasks fontcolor, from the Format menu, choose TextStyles to open the Text Styles dialog box seeFigure A.44). From the Item to Changedropdown menu, choose Critical Tasks; thenfrom the color dropdown menu, choose Red.You also may wish to bold and/or underline the

critical tasks, which can be done in this dialogbox as well. After you have made the changesyou wish to make, click the OK button to returnto the Gantt chart view see Figure A.45).

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Figure A.43 Gantt chart wizard, critical path.

Figure A.44 Critical path tasks font color.

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Figure A.45 Critical path.

The Resources Pane

Now that the project has been decomposed andtasks have been identified, their durationsestimated, and scheduled, it is time to identify

and assign resources. To begin working withresources, click on the Resources button on theProject Guide toolbar. The Resources pane willopen on the left side of the Task entry table (seeFigure A.46).

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Figure A.46 Resources pane.

Enter Resources

The first step is to identify the people andequipment that will comprise the resources foryour project. Click on the Specify people andequipment for the project link in the Resourcespane to open the Specify Resources pane seeFigure A.47). The screen now shows theResource entry table and the Specify Resourcespane gives three options for identifyingresources for your project. If your organization

maintains a company-wide address book (e.g.,Outlook Exchange Server), or a company

directory, click on the radio button next to therelevant choice to bring up the dialog box tochoose the resources to assign to the project.For the purposes of this appendix, the followingexamples will be based on manually enteringresources. Click on the radio button next toEnter resources manually and begin enteringyour human resources into the Resource entrytable see Figure A.48). The columns allow youto enter the resources name, e-mail address,hourly rate, and overtime rate of pay. Other

columns, such as material resources, areavailable and will be covered below.

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Figure A.47 Specify Resources screen.

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Figure A.48 Adding resources.

Notice the Entering Material Resources linkin the Specify Resources pane. If you click thatlink, detailed instructions will be shown in thepane on how to enter material resources. Severalsteps should be taken to enter materialresources. First, we need to add two columns tothe Resource entry table. Select the E-mailaddress column by clicking on the columnheading. Next, select Column from the Insertmenu to open the Column Definition dialog box.From the Field name dropdown menu, choose

Type and click OK to insert the Type columnsee Figure A.49).

The next column to add is the Material Labelcolumn. You can follow the steps above or, afterselecting the e-mail address column, right clickon the column heading and select InsertColumn to bring up the Column Definitiondialog box. Select Material Label from theField name dropdown menu and click OK toinsert the Material Label column see Figure

A.50.

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Figure A.49 Adding the Type column.

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Figure A.50 Adding the Material Label column.

Once these columns have been added, enter anymaterial resources needed for the project. Thesemay include software and equipment, eventransportation to and from the job site. Noticethat when you added the Type column to theResource entry table, the column was alreadyfilled in with Work for the human resourcesyou had previously entered. When enteringMaterial resources, click on the dropdown menuin the Type field to select Material for thatresource (see Figure A.51).

The Material Label column allows you tospecify the cost per unit of the materialresource. In the example in Figure A.51, theproject is logging costs of $10 for 100 CD-Rdiscs, $15 per hour of laptop computer use, and$.05 per page printed by the laser printer. Whenyou are done entering all the resources for yourproject, click on the Done link at the bottomof the Specify Resources pane.

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Figure A.51 Changing Resource type.

Define Working Time for Resources

Once the resources have been identified andentered into the Resource entry table, you maywish to identify individual working timesassociated with resourcesparticularly thosethat differ from the projects normal workingtimes. For instance, you may have some peoplewho are working on multiple projects withinyour organization and can be allocated to workon your project only on certain days. Or, you

may have some people who have scheduledvacation time that needs to be accounted for in

their working time. Microsoft Project allowsyou to specify working time for individualresources that are different from the projectsnormal working time. To change the workingtime for a resource, click on the Defineworking times for resources link in theResources pane to open the Resource WorkingTimes pane. This is a five-step process verymuch like the process to set the projectsworking time. First select the resource whoseworking time you would like to change and

click on the Save and go to Step 2 link at thebottom of the pane see Figure A.52).

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Figure A.52 Resource Working Time, Step 1.

The next screen allows you to select a calendartemplate specific to that particular resource seeFigure A.53). For example, if you had a flex-time employee, you might want to choose the 24hours template to be able to schedule thatindividual during different hours than theprojects normal working times. The example inFigure A.53 will keep Anne on the normalworking time schedule, but we will specifyAnnes vacation time in Step 4. After choosing

the template for this resource, click on the Saveand go to Step 3 link at the bottom of the pane.

Step 3 allows you to make changes to specificdays and hours within the template you havechosen see Figure A.54). If you are satisfiedwith the default settings or when you have madechanges that you are satisfied with, click on theSave and go to Step 4 link at the bottom of thepane.

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Step 4 allows you to specify nonworking timefor the resource. In the example in Figure A.55,we have specified Annes vacation time, July1620, by selecting those dates and enteringVacation under the Exceptions tab. Thisautomatically enters that time as nonworkingtime, however, you can make specific changes,like partial days by clicking on the Detailsbutton as in Figure A.21. After you havespecified any nonworking time for this resource,

click on the Save and go to Step 5 link at thebottom of the pane.

Step 5 is a verification screen that the resourcescalendar is now defined and gives you theopportunity to specify the working times ofadditional resources see Figure A.56). You canclick on the specify working hours for anotherresource link to do so, or click on the Saveand Finish link to return to the Resources pane.

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Assign Resources

Now that all the resources have been specifiedand working times have been determined, thenext step is to assign resources to tasks. Fromthe Resources pane, click on the Assign peopleand equipment to tasks link to open the AssignResources pane. The Assign Resources panelists four steps to assign resources to each task.

The first step is to click on the Assignresources link to open the Assign Resourcesdialog box. The second step is to select the taskto assign resources to in the Task entry table.The third step is to assign specific resources tothat task. To assign resources, select theresource to assign and click the Assign button inthe Assign Resources dialog box (see FigureA.57).

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Figure A.57 Assigning resources.

The first time you assign resources to a task,Project calculates the work required to completethe task by multiplying the duration of the taskby the percentage of work units. For example,the Determine project scope task hasoriginally been estimated to take 4 hours, sowhen we assign both Ajay and Anne to this taskat 100%, Project keeps the duration of the taskat 4 hours, but calculates that it takes 8 hours of

actual work to complete the task4 hours 200% assignment units (Ajay at 100% and Anne

at 100%) = 8 hours work (notice the circled areaof Figure A.57). Once resources for a task havebeen finalized, any subsequent resourceadditions or subtractions will cause Project toprompt you to make a decision. In Figure A.58,after assigning Ajay and Anne to the

Determine project scope task, weve decidedto add Erica to that task as well. Notice thewarning diamond that appears next to the TaskName field when Erica is added to the task.Mouse over the warning diamond to get theoption for the dropdown menu. Within thedropdown menu, there are three options forassigning the extra resource to the task. You can1) reduce the duration to keep the work thesame, now across three people instead of two; 2)increase the work required for the task to keep

the duration constant, in this case, all threepeople now assigned 4 hours of work for 12total hours instead of 8; or 3) keep both thehours of work and the duration constant,reducing the number of hours that the resourceswork per day.

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Figure A.58 Adding resources to a task that has already been assigned.

These decisions should not be made lightly.While it might be temptingand in some casesadvisableto assign additional resources to atask to shorten its duration (effort-drivenscheduling), having too many people assignedto a task can sometimes cause more problemsthan it solves, both administratively andfinancially.

Resource Views

After assigning resources to tasks, you maywish to explore different views of the resourcesthat Project provides. From the View menu inthe Menu toolbar, click on Resource Graph toview a graph of the resources and theirpercentage of allocation see Figure A.59).The middle pane of this view indicates whichresource the graph represents. Use the

horizontal scroll bar at the bottom of the pane toview other resources. The graph view shows thepercent of allocation for that resource on thedates shown. Depending on how you haveassigned resources, you can end up withresources being over-allocated. This viewprovides an intuitive, easy-to-understandrepresentation of such overallocation byindicating overallocation with a red bar in thebar graph.

Another valuable resource view is the ResourceUsage view. Open the Resource Usage view bychoosing Resource Usage from the View menu.The middle pane of this view lists each resourceand each task that is assigned to the resourcessee Figure A.60). The usage view shows thenumber of hours each resource is working oneach task on a given day.

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Figure A.59 Resource graph view.

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Figure A.60 Resource usage view.

More Information and Columns

The two remaining options in the Resourcespane allow you to attach notes or hyperlinks tothe resources and add additional columns to theresource entry table. To perform these tasks,click on the appropriate link in the Resourcespane, Link or attach more resourceinformation or Add columns of custominformation. Follow the instructions in thecorresponding panes to perform these steps.

After you have completed identifying,assigning, and managing the projects resources,

it is time to start tracking the progress of theproject.

The Track Pane

Now that tasks have been scheduled andresources have been assigned, it is time toutilize Project to help you manage the progressof your project. First, click on the Track arealink in the paragraph at the bottom of theResources pane or click on the Track button in

the Project Guide toolbar to begin tracking yourproject Figure A.61.

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Figure A.61 The Track pane.

Save the Baseline Plan

The first step in the Track pane is to save abaseline plan to compare with later versions. Ifyou have saved your project at any time up tothis point by clicking on the Save icon in thetoolbar or by choosing Save from the File menu,Project by default saves it normally, not as abaseline plan. This is important because oncethe project is saved as a baseline plan, allsubsequent changes will be shown in relation to

that baseline plan. First, click on the Save abaseline plan to compare with later versionslink in the Track pane to open the Save Baselinepane. If you have not already saved a baselineplan, the screen will resemble the one in FigureA.62. Click on the Save Baseline button to savethe project as a baseline plan. If you havealready saved a baseline plan, when you clickon the Save a baseline plan to compare withlater versions link in the Track pane, the SaveBaseline pane will appear as in Figure A.63.

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Figure A.62 Saving the baseline plan.

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Figure A.63 Other options for saving the baseline plan.

Notice in Figure A.63, that you can save a newbaseline or update the existing baseline, and youcan choose to update specific tasks or the entireproject. Once the baseline plan has been saved,the next step is to specify how progress on the

tasks has been completed. To make thisspecification, click on the Prepare to track theprogress of your project link in the Track paneto open the Setup Tracking pane.

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Figure A.64 Setup Tracking pane.

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Setup TrackingThere are three options for setting up howprogress is tracked throughout the project see

Figure A.64). These three choices relate to thelevel of accuracy for each method. According tothe instructions for each option in the SetupTracking pane, each option should beconsidered understanding its limitations.

Option Level of Accuracy andTime Consumption

Always track byentering the Percentof Work Complete

The least accurate, butfastest, method oftracking. Your

resources will specifythe percentage of workcomplete, between 0(no work has beenperformed on the task)and 100 (all the workhas been completed onthe task).

Always track byentering the ActualWork Done and Work

Remaining

A moderately accurateand moderately timeconsuming method of

tracking. Yourresources will specifyhow much work hasbeen on each task, andhow much work is leftto do.

Always track byentering the hours ofwork done per timeperiod

The most accuratethough time-consumingmethod of tracking.Your resources willspecify the hours

worked on each taskduring each timeperiod.

Now that Project is set up to track your projectsprogress, it is time to incorporate the progressthat has been made on the project into theproject plan.

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Figure A.65 Tracking progress by percentage of work complete.

If you have chosen to track the progress of yourproject by entering the actual work done andwork remaining, you will then enter the amountof work done and/or the amount of work left tocomplete each task. Project provides two newcolumnsActual Work and RemainingWorkin the task entry table to enter this typeof progress. If you enter the amount of actualwork done, Project will compute the amount ofremaining work to be done based on the taskduration you have specified for that task. You

can also enter the amount of work remaining,and Project will compute the amount of workcompleted in the same manner. However, youmay wish to enter the amount of actual workdone and the amount of work remaining. Thiscan cause the tasks duration to change but maybe necessary depending on the circumstances.Notice that in Figure A.66 12 hours have been

completed for the Define preliminaryresources task, but we have determined that itwill take 6 more hours to complete the task.This brings the total work for the task to 18hours, where before it was 10 hours (5 hours

duration 2 resources = 10 hours work).Because two people are assigned to this task(Lee and Tamika), Project makes changes to thework needed to complete the task (18 hours) andchanges to the duration of the task (9 hoursshown as 1.13 days) based on the progress

information entered and the number of resourcesassigned to the task.

If you have chosen to track the progress of yourproject by entering the hours of work done pertime period, the task entry pane will be replacedwith a calendar view listing each task and eachresource under each task see Figure A.67). In

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the calendar pane at the right, each resource willhave the estimated work to be done entered ineach Work row for each task. To incorporateprogress information, enter actual hours workedfor each resource in the Act. W row of each

resource for each task. In the example in Figure

A.67, on Wednesday and Thursday, each taskhas been completed in the number of hoursestimated. Notice, however, that on Friday Leeand Tamika have only completed 2 hours eachon the Define preliminary resources task.

Figure A.66 Tracking progress by entering actual work done.

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Figure A.67 Tracking progress by entering number of hours worked.

Checking Progress

Now that you have begun entering progressinformation, Project can indicate which tasksare on schedule, which are not, and which havebeen completed. To check the progress of yourproject, click on the Check the progress of theproject link from the Track pane to open theCheck Progress pane (see Figure A.68). Select a

status date for which to check the progress ofthe project. Depending on the trackinginformation you entered in the previous stepsand the status date you have chosen, Project willindicate which tasks have been completed,which are on schedule, and which are behindschedule, or late, with icons in the StatusIndicator column.

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Figure A.68 Checking progress.

Making Changes

Once you have begun tracking the progress ofyour project, you may find situations where youneed to make changes to the project plan.Microsoft Project allows you to make taskduration, work, and resource assignmentchanges in one central place. To make anychanges, click on the Make changes to the

project link in the Track pane to open theChange Project pane see Figure A.69). Becausetask duration, work and resource assignmentsare all interrelated, changes made to one mayimpact the others, so be aware of the possibleimpacts that any change you make can have onother aspects of the project (see the ControllingChanges instructions in Figure A.69).

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Figure A.69 Making changes.

Now that you have begun to enter in projectprogress information and have begun to trackthe status of your project, you might find thatthe Tracking Gantt Chart view allows you to seeat a glance how your project is progressing. InFigure A.69 we can easily see that the Scopesummary task is almost complete by noticingthe hash marks beneath the summary taskindicator. We can also easily see which taskshave been completed by the check markslocated in the first column of the task entry

table. Notice that the bar for each task is splithorizontally with the black bar on the bottomand a colored bar on top. The black bar indicatesthe baseline plan, and the colored bar indicatesthe actual progress made for the project. In theexample in Figure A.70, no changes have beenmade yet to the project plan relative to thebaseline plan. Also notice that once a task hasbeen completed, it is no longer considered acritical path task and reverts to a blue bar on theGantt chart.

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Figure A.70 Tracking Gantt chart view.

The Report Pane.

With the incorporation of tracking informationinto your Project file, you are now in a positionto begin reporting your projects progress tostakeholders regarding a number of projectcriteria. To begin analyzing and reportingproject information using the Project Guide,click on the Report button in the Project Guidetoolbar to open the Report pane. Many of thechoices in the Report pane we have addressed

above, such as Change the look or content ofthe Gantt chart link. If you click on this link,you will be prompted to use the Gantt chartwizard, which we used to show the critical path.Clicking on the Print current view as a reportlink allows you to print the view that you have

active on the screen. The options in the PrintCurrent View pane allow you to shrink yourentire project to fit onto one page or to changethe settings to allow it to print across multiplepages. The Compare progress against baselinework link changes the current view to theTracking Gantt chart view, and the See theprojects critical tasks link changes the Ganttchart to show the critical path.

The key feature in the Report pane is the Select

a view or report link. Click on that link to openthe Views and Reports pane. Two options areavailable, either to change the view (which wascovered with the View Menu discussion earlier),or to create a report (see Figure A.71).

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Figure A.71 Options in the Views and Reports pane.

To select a report to print out, click on the radiobutton next to the Create a project reportoption in the Views and Reports pane. Furtherinstructions will appear in the Views andReports pane that include Display VisualReports, which provides several reporttemplates, and Display Reports, whichprovides an intuitive interface to choose various

reports in the form of a Reports dialog box seeFigure A.72).

From the Reports dialog box, you can choosefrom 22 or more types of reports to print. Eachchoice in the Reports dialog box opens anotherdialog box with up to 6 reports to choose from(see Figure A.73).

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Figure A.72 Reports dialog box.

Figure A.73 Reports to choose from.

The Custom reports option gives you the

opportunity to make minor changes to any of thereport options in the five previous choices. Forexample, if you wanted to show the resourcesassociated with each task in the Earned Valuereport, you could make those changes in the

Custom reports dialog box. To see the Earned

Value report as Project prints it, from the Costsoption in the Reports dialog box click on theEarned Value choice and then click on theSelect button to open the Print Preview dialogbox see Figure A.74).

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Figure A.74 Earned Value report.

Notice that Microsoft Project uses labels for thekey values in an Earned Value report that mightbe slightly different than those sometimesemployed in other project documentation. Thefollowing table gives their equivalents.

CommonlyUsed Notations

MicrosoftProject Label

PV = BCWS

EV = BCWPAC = ACWP

CV = CV

SV = SV

EAC = EAC

BAC = BAC

BAC EAC = VAC

Also notice that the report spans several pages.The bar at the bottom of the window notes,Page 1 of 4; Size: 2 rows by 2 columns. Alsonotice the arrow buttons at the top left of thewindow. These buttons allow you to switch toadjacent pages in the report.

We have presented the Earned Value report hereas an example of the many reports available in

Microsoft Project. Please explore and becomefamiliar with the many other available reports.

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Appendix Summary

Become familiar with Microsoft Project.

Microsoft Project shares some common

elements with other Microsoft Office titles, so itshould be somewhat familiar. Major screenelements were noted and explained. The variousHelp options were discussed, along withadditional Online content settings. Project alsoprovides several view options with which to seevarious aspects of the project.

Enter tasks, estimate task durations, and

sequence tasks in Microsoft Project. TheProject Guide feature of Microsoft Project

makes entering tasks to develop a WBS simple.Once some of the projects parameters, such asthe estimated start date and project workingtimes, are set, you can enter tasks directly intothe task entry pane. After entering the tasks, youcan have Project number each of the tasks basedon your organizations WBS numberingconvention. Once your WBS is set, you canbegin entering the estimated durations of thetasks and you can schedule the tasks relative toeach other by setting their dependencies. Afterthe tasks have been scheduled, you can also setconstraints on the tasks and change the Ganttchart view to show the critical path.

Enter resources and assign resources. Nowthat the tasks have been scheduled, it is time tospecify the resources for the project. Thisinvolves identifying each resource, and forhuman resources, specifying their working ratesand working times. Material resources are alsoidentified and entered with two additionalcolumns; the Type column that identifies themas Work or Material resources and the

percentage of work assigned to the task. Afterthe first assignment of resources to the tasks, ifany subsequent resource assignments occur,

Project prompts you to decide whether toshorten the duration of the task, increase theamount of work to complete the task, or keepboth the duration and work constant bydecreasing the number of hours worked by theresources assigned. Microsoft Project providesseveral views with which to see and manageresources during a project.

Track project progress. Microsoft Projectprovides many options for tracking the progress

of your project. Once your plan is entered (tasksscheduled and resources assigned), you can savethe plan as a baseline plan against which allprogress is compared. You must decide how toenter progress, and then progress can beincorporated into the plan. If changes need to bemade, Project provides a central place formaking them to the schedule and/or resources.

Report project status. Microsoft Projectcontains a wide variety of reporting options tofacilitate communication with stakeholders. Thevarious reports are grouped into six mainoptionsOverview, Current Activities, Costs,Assignments, Workload, and Custom. Eachmain grouping contains a variety of reports tochoose from that can easily be printed directlyfrom Project.

Documents

MSProject 2007 Tutorial