3rd exam course

7/29/2019 3rd Exam Course

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Instructor: Ms Saima Gul

October 2012


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What is a Project? CHAPTER 1 A Project is a job that has a beginning and an end (time), a specified

outcome ( scope) at a stated level of quality (performance), and abudget (cost).

or

A project is a temporary effort to create a unique product or service.Projects usually include constraints and risks regarding cost, schedule

or performance outcome.

2

Starting MS Project When you open Microsoft Project from the Programs folder of the

Windows Start menu, Project initially displays the main screen for

Project 2007, as shown on next slide. On the left, you see the Project Guide pane. The Project Guide pane

helps users set up and work with a project.

You also can open Project by double-clicking any Project file. Projectfiles are saved with the extension .mpp.


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Starting Project (Contd.)

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Working with the Project Guide

The Project Guide is a goal-based user interface that helps you buildprojects.

In addition to the Project Guide pane on the left side of the screen, youalso can display the Project Guide toolbar, which appears just above theProject Guide pane.

To display the Project Guide toolbar, right-click anywhere in the

toolbar area at the top of the screen and choose Project Guide (or Tools-> Options -> Interface Tab) (see next slide).

Using the buttons on the Project Guide toolbar, you can limit thechoices that appear in the Project Guide pane.

At this point, you can use the Project Guide toolbar and the Project

Guide pane to begin building your project. Click a button on the Project Guide toolbar to start working in the

associated area.

The choices listed in the Project Guide pane change, based on theProject Guide toolbar button that you click.

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T he buttons on the Project Guide toolbar

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Working with the Project Guide (Contd.) When you click a link in the Project Guide, a wizard starts and walks

you through the process thats suggested by the link. For example, if you click the Tasks button on the Project Guide toolbar

and then click the Define the project link, a three-step wizard walksyou through starting a project.

The first step helps you to establish the starting date for your project.

After setting the date, click the right arrow at the top of the pane orclick Save and go to Step 2 at the bottom of the Project Guide pane tocontinue.

In Step 2 of the Define the Project Wizard, you identify whether youintend to use Project Server.

In Step 3, you return to the Project Guide.

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Examining the Gantt Chart view By default, Project opens a new project in the Gantt Chart view.

The Gantt Chart view has two main sections: the Gantt table and theGantt Chart.

After you enter task information, the Gantt table (in the left pane)holds columns of information about your project, such as the taskname, duration, start date, and more.

The Gantt Chart (in the right pane) is a graphic representation thathelps you see the timing and relationships among tasks.

The timescale along the top of the Gantt Chart acts like a horizontalcalendar. Project enables you to display up to three timescales alongthe top of the Gantt Charta top, middle, and bottom timescale(Format->time scale).

On the next slide, you see two timescales. The top timescale showsmonths; the bottom timescale shows weeks.

Multiple timescales help you to see the multiple levels of timingsimultaneously, such as the day and hour or the month, week, and day.

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Gantt Chart view

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Example Showing tasks and subtasks

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CHAPTER 2


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Entering Tasks To begin building a project, enter the major steps to reach your goal in roughly

the same order that you expect them to occur.

For the sample project (organizing a corporate annual meeting), follow thesesteps to create your first taskbooking the meeting space:

1. Click the Task Name column in the first row of the Gantt table.

2. Type Book Meeting Space. The text appears in the cell and in the entry bar thatis above the Gantt table.

3. Press Enter to accept the text.

Information begins to appear in your schedule.

Project lists the task name in the Task Name column and makes acorresponding entry in the Duration column.

The question mark in the Duration column represents an estimated duration.

According to the Start column, the task begins today, and a taskbar reflects theone-day duration of the task graphically. And, as you work, Project highlightsany change you make that affects the schedule.

If you use the scroll bar that is located at the bottom of the Gantt table to moveto the right, you see the Finish Date entry. Because this is a one-day task, it willbe completed by the end of the day.

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Entering Tasks (Contd.)

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Adding Subtasks

After you enter the major tasks in your project, you can begin toflesh out the details by adding subordinate tasks, also referred toas subtasks.

When you add subtasks, the upper-level task becomes asummary task. Summary tasks and subtasks provide an easy-to-

apply outline structure for your schedule. By default, summary tasks appear in boldface type and subtasks

appear in normal type.

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Adding Subtasks (Contd.)

When you insert a new task, it appears above the currently selected task. Begin byadding subtasks under the Book meeting space task. Follow these steps to insert a

new task:1. Click the Schedule Speakers task.

2. Choose Insert New Task. Row 2 becomes a blank row, all the other tasks movedown one row, and Project selects the new task row.

3. Type Request purchase order and click the check mark button to accept the new

task.4. Click the Indent button on the Formatting toolbar to indent the subtask, as

shown on next slide.

Notice that the summary task (Book meeting space) now displays a black bar on theGantt Chart, with a down arrow shape marking its beginning and end.

When a task becomes a summary task (that is, when it contains subtasks), the

timing of the summary task reflects the total amount of time that is required tocomplete its subtasks.

If a task has a duration assigned to it and you make it into a summary task, thetiming of the subtasks overrides the assigned duration.

If you change the timing of a subtask, the summary task duration changes to reflectthe change.

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To move the task higher in the outline hierarchy, simply select the newtask and use the Outdent button on the toolbar. You can also use yourmouse to move the task as follows:

1. Move your mouse over the first few letters of a task name until themouse pointer becomes a two-way pointing arrow.

2. Drag the task to the left until a thick, gray line indicates that the taskis lined up with the upper-level tasks in the outline.

3. Release the mouse button to complete the move.

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Displaying and hiding tasks

The outline structure enables you to view your project at different levelsof detail by expanding or collapsing the summary tasks.

You can use the Show button on the Formatting toolbar to quickly hideor display subtasks based on their outline level, as shown on next slide.By using the Show button, you also can quickly display all the detailtasks in your schedule.

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Displaying and hiding tasksUse the Show button on the Formatting toolbar to easily determine the level of detail

that you want to view in a project.

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Looking at Project Calendars

By default, Project uses the Standard calendar, also called the basecalendar because it serves as the basis for the calendar schedulingcalculations Project makes.

You can create a Standard calendar for each group of resources in yourproject.

For example, if the plant employees work a nine-hour day from 6:00a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and the office employees work an eight-hour dayfrom 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., you can create two calendars. When youassign one day of an office employees time, Project understands it to bean eight-hour day.

You can change your calendar, designating whether you want yourproject to use a standard, 24-hour, or night-shift calendar for most ofyour work assignments.

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Setting calendar options

Project makes default assumptions about certain items that form thebasis of the default project calendar.

For example, Project assumes that the default week contains fiveworking days and 40 working hours. Project uses this calendar forresources unless you assign a different calendar to them. You can seethe assumptions that Project uses on the Calendar tab of the Optionsdialog box.

The Calendar tab of the Options dialog box does not affect scheduling.The options that you see in this dialog box show you the defaults thatProject uses to convert durations into corresponding time amounts. Forexample, if you enter 1mo for a tasks duration, Project assumes that

you are allotting one month (which is equal to 20 days) for that task.

To view the default calendar options, choose Tools Options. Clickthe Calendar tab in the Options dialog box.

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Setting calendar options (Contd.)

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Setting calendar options (Contd.)

You can select any day of the week as your start day.

If your company uses a fiscal year other than the calendar year (Januarythrough December), you may want to set the Fiscal Year Starts Inoption. This setting is especially useful when you generate reports thatshow costs per quarter or year.

The final five settings on the Calendar tab of the Options dialog boxenable you to designate specific start and end times for each day, thenumber of hours in a day and in a week, and the number of days in amonth. For example, you can set the work day to start at 9:00 a.m. andend at 6:00 p.m., assign 9 hours to your work day, and end up with a 45-hour week.

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Setting schedule options

You also can modify the way in which Project enters task information.

In the Options dialog box (Tools Options), click the Schedule tab tochange the default settings for entering tasks, as shown on next slide.On this tab, you determine the default unit of time for entering taskdurations (the default is days), work time (hours), and whether newtasks start on the project start date or the current date.

For example, if you are working on a five-year project in which mosttasks run for monthsnot daysyou may want to change the defaultsetting for the Duration Is Entered In field.

If you prefer to have any new tasks begin no earlier than the current

date, you can adjust the setting for New tasks. When you are satisfied with the settings on the Schedule tab, click OK

to close the Options dialog box

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Setting schedule options (Contd.)

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Creating a new calendar

The Standard calendar may not work for your project under allcircumstances.

To create a new, project-wide calendar, choose Tools ChangeWorking Time to display the Change Working Time dialog box, asshown on next slide.

The Legend panel on the left side of the dialog box identifies Working,Nonworking, Edited working hours, and exception days and non-default work weeks.

If other calendars exist, you see them listed in the For calendar list box.

You can create a custom calendar by clicking the Create New Calendar

button. Project then displays the Create New Base Calendar dialog box. To model your calendar on an existing calendar, select the existing

calendar from the Make a copy of drop-down box. Provide a name forthe new calendar in the Name box. Click OK to create the newcalendar.

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Creating a new calendar (Contd.)

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Creating a new calendar (Contd.)

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Adjusting the calendar

You can create exceptions to the Standard calendar or any othercalendar using the tabs at the bottom of the Change Working Timedialog box.

To accommodate the maintenance time needed for some project, youwould modify the work week by following these steps:

1. Click the Work Weeks tab.2. Click the [Default] work week already defined for the calendar by

Project.

3. Click Details. Project displays the Details dialog box.

4. Select the day you want to change on the left side of the dialog box.

5. Select the Set day(s) to these specific working times option.6. In the Working times section, define the working time for the

selected day.

7. Click OK. Project redisplays the Change Working Time dialog box.

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Adjusting the calendar (Contd.)

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When you change the work week, the change you make is notconsidered an exception; instead, it is considered the normal work

week. So, you wont notice any changes to the calendar in the ChangeWorking Time dialog box. However, you can identify the working timefor any day by clicking that day on the calendar; the working timeappears to the right.

To set up a working time exception, follow these steps:

1. In the Name column on the Exceptions tab, type a name that helpsyou remember the purpose of the exception.

2. In the Start column, select the date on which the exception starts.

3. In the Finish column, select the date on which the exception ends.Project sets every day between the starting and ending dates as anexception on the calendar, and the Details button and the Deletebutton become available.

4. Click the Details button. Project displays the Details for dialog box.

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To set up a working time exception

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Use this dialog box to define the working time exception

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5. In the top section of the dialog box, click the Working Times optionbutton and then set the working times; in this example, I set the

working time from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

6. To repeat this working time pattern every Wednesday, click Weekly inthe Recurrence pattern section and check the Wednesday check box.

7. In the Range of recurrence section, Project set the starting andending dates for the working time exception using the dates yousupplied in Steps 2 and 3. You can change these dates if you want.

8. Click OK. When Project redisplays the Change Working Time dialogbox, every Wednesday between the beginning and ending dates youspecified appears as an exception on the calendar.

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Fixed-unit tasks

With resource-driven scheduling, when you add resources, thetask duration becomes shorter; if you take away resources, thetask takes longer to complete. And, on the flip side, the resourceassignments to a task dont change when the work increases ordecreases. By default, each task that you create in Project is a

resource-driven, fixed-unit task type. U = W/D. In this case increasing the Work will result in

increasing the Duration and visa verse

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TASK TYPES CHAPTER 3


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Fixed-duration tasks

You also can use the fixed-duration task type in Project. Thenumber of resources does not affect the timing of this type oftask.

To allow a week for a committee to review the companys new adcampaignno matter how many people are on the committee

give the task a fixed duration. You cant shorten the tasks duration by adding resources to it. In

fact, adding people to the review process may lengthen the task,because their effort has no impact on getting the work donemore quickly, and coordinating their efforts can add time.

D = W/U. In this case increasing the Work will result inincreasing the Unit and visa verse

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Fixed-work tasks

When you create a fixed-work task, you set the duration of the task,

and Project assigns a percentage of effort that is sufficient to completethe task in the time that is allotted for each resource that you assign tothe task.

For example, if you assigned three people to work on a one-day task,Project would say that each person should spend 33 percent of his or

her time on the task to complete it in one day. Similarly, a task may take48 hours to complete (its fixed-work value). With one resourceassigned working eight hours a day, the task will require six days tocomplete. With two resources assigned working eight hours a day, thetask will require three days to complete. In either case, the amount of

work thats required remains constant. The tasks duration changes based on the number of resources that are

assigned to the task.

W = D * U. In this case increasing the Duration will result in decreasingthe Unit and visa verse

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Using the Gantt table

To enter a tasks duration in the Entry table portion of the Gantt Chartview, simply click the Duration column and enter the duration.

You may have noticed that Project uses estimated durationsaquestion mark (?)by default when you type a task name but noduration.

Even though Project initially assigns estimated durations to tasks,when you type a duration, Project assumes that you want a plannedrather than an estimated durationunless you enter a question mark(?).

You can enter a duration in a few different ways. For example, Projectrecognizes all the following entries as three weeks: 3 w, 3 wks, 3 weeks.

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Using the Task Information dialog box

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Follow these steps to assign durations from the Task Information dialog

box:1. Display the Gantt Chart view by choosing View Gantt Chart.

2. Double-click a task name to open the Task Information dialog box(see next slide).

3. Click the arrows in the Duration field to increase or decrease the

duration from the default setting of one day. Each click changes theduration by one day.

To enter a duration in increments other than a day, you can click theDuration field, highlight the current entry, and type a new durationusing any of the following abbreviations: m for minutes, h for hours, wfor weeks, and mo for months.

Project uses the Calendar tab of the Options dialog box to determinethe number of days in a month.

4. Click OK to establish the task duration. The tasks Gantt Chart barreflects the new task length.


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Using the Task Information dialog box (Contd.)If you double-click an already-entered task name, that name appears in the Name field

in this dialog box. If you double-click a blank task name cell, you can fill in the name

here.

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Creating milestones

Managers often use milestones to mark key moments in aproject, such as the completion of a phase or the approval of aproduct or activity.

In Project, milestones are tasks that usually have zero duration.The symbol for a milestone on the Gantt Chart is a diamond

shape. A task doesnt have to have a zero duration to be a milestone; you

can mark any task as a milestone.

On the Advanced tab of the Task Information dialog box, place acheck mark in the Mark Task As Milestone check box. In thiscase, the task duration doesnt change to zero. However, theelement that represents the task in the Gantt Chart changes froma bar, reflecting the tasks duration, to a milestone diamondsymbol, representing the task as a moment in time.

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Creating milestones (Contd.)A milestone typically marks a noteworthy point in your project; a milestone is usually a

task of no duration.

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Timing for summary tasks

How do you assign durations for summary tasks? You dont.Remember, summary tasks simply roll up the timing of theirsubtasks. Therefore, summary tasks dont have any timing oftheir own.

If three subtasks occur one right after the other and each is three

days long, the summary task above them takes nine days frombeginning to end.

If you open the Task Information dialog box for a summary task,most timing settings appear grayed out, indicating that theyrenot available.

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Using Recurring Tasks Projects often have tasks that occur on a regular basis. Weekly staff meetings,

quarterly reports, or monthly budget reviews are examples of these recurring

tasks. Rather than create, for example, 20 or so weekly staff-meeting tasks over the

life of a five-month project, you can use Projects Recurring Task feature.

This feature enables you to create the meeting task once and assign a frequencyand timing to it.

Follow these steps to create a recurring task:1. Because Project inserts tasks above the selected task, select the task that you

want to appear below the recurring task and choose Insert Recurring Taskto open the Recurring Task Information dialog box, as shown on next slide.

2. Type a name for the recurring task.

3. Set the task duration in the Duration field. For example, does the meeting runfor two hours, or does a report take a day to write?

4. Set the occurrence of the task by selecting one of the Recurrence Patternoption buttons: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly. Depending on therecurrence that you select, the timing settings to the right of the controlbuttons change.

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Using Recurring Tasks (Contd.)

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5. Select the appropriate settings for the recurrence frequency. For aWeekly setting, place a check mark next to the day(s) of the week onwhich you want the task to occur. For the Monthly or Yearly setting,select the day of the month on which you want the task to occur.

6. Set the Range of recurrencethe period during which the taskshould recurby entering Start and End after or End by dates. If you

need to repeat a test weekly for only one month of your ten-monthproject, you can set Start and End after or End by dates that designatea month of time.

7. Click OK to create the task. Project creates the appropriate number oftasks and displays them as subtasks under a summary task with the

name that you supplied in Step 2.

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Understanding constraints

By default, Project sets all tasks that you create to start with an As SoonAs Possible constraint. Barring any dependency relationships withother tasks, the task would start on the first day of the project.

You can set other constraints as follows:

As Late As Possible: This constraint forces a task to start on a datesuch that its end occurs no later than the end of the project.

Finish No Earlier Than/Finish No Later Than: This constraint setsthe completion of a task to fall no sooner or later than a specific date.

Must Finish On/Must Start On: This constraint forces a task to finishor start on a specific date.

Start No Earlier Than/Start No Later Than: This constraint sets thestart of a task to fall no sooner or later than a specific date.

Only the Must Finish On/Must Start On settings constrain a task tostart or end on a particular date. All the other settings constrain thetask to occur within a certain time frame.

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Using deadline dates You also can establish a deadline date for a task (from Advanced tab of

Task Information Box). The deadline date differs from a constraint in

that Project doesnt use the deadline date when calculating a projectsschedule. Instead, the deadline date behaves as a visual clue to notify

you that a deadline date exists.

If you place your mouse over the deadline indicator, Project displays thedeadline information.

If the task finishes after the deadline date, you also see a symbol in theIndicators column.

Be aware that you wont see an indicator if you complete the task priorto the deadline date.

You can assign both a deadline date and a constraint to a task.

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Setting constraints and deadline dates

You set constraints on tasks in your project by using the Advanced tabof the Task Information dialog box.

Select a constraint type from the Constraint type drop-down list. For allsettings in the type list other than As Late As Possible and As Soon AsPossible, designate a date by typing in a date or by clicking the arrownext to the Constraint Date field and choosing a date from the drop-

down calendar that appears.

Set a deadline date by clicking the arrow next to the Deadline field andchoosing a date from the drop-down calendar that appears.

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Manipulating the Gantt Chart to View Timing

Use any of the following methods to modify the appearance of items in

your Gantt Chart:

Adjust the amount of the window that the Gantt table and the Gantt Chartuse by moving your mouse pointer over the divider line and then dragging.

Modify the width of columns in the Gantt table so that you can see morecolumns on-screen by moving your mouse pointer over a column headings

right edge and dragging. Double-click the column heading, and change the column width in the

Column Definition dialog box that appears. You can also use this dialogbox to change the column title and the alignment of the column title.

Modify the increments of time displayed in the timescale itself either by

double-clicking the timescale or by choosing Format Timescale. TheTimescale dialog box appears. You can change the units for the top tier, themiddle tier, and the bottom tier. The Count field controls how manyinstances of the unit Project marks off on your Gantt Chart.

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Manipulating the Gantt Chart to View TimingIn the Timescale dialog box, adjust the units to display and set the heading labels and

alignment.

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Establishing Dependencies Among Tasks

Whereas constraints tie tasks to the project start or end or to particular

dates, dependencies tie tasks to the timing of other tasks in the project.

Dependencies are central to visualizing the true length of a project.

Dependencies exist because all tasks in a project rarely can happensimultaneously; usually, some tasks must start or finish before otherscan begin.

Tasks overlap for many reasons, for example, the inability of resourcesto do more than one task at a time, the lack of availability ofequipment, or the nature of the tasks themselves.

You cant know the total time that you will need to complete a project

until you establish durations and dependencies. For example, a projectthat comprises five 10-day-long tasks with no dependencies among thetasks takes 10 days to complete. But if the tasks must happen one afterthe other, the project requires 50 days.

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Understanding dependencies

A task that must occur before another task is a predecessor task.

The task that occurs later in the relationship is a successor task.

A task can have multiple predecessors and successors.

Tasks with dependency relationships are linked. Gantt Chartsshow these links as lines running between task bars; an arrow at

one end points to the successor task.

Some dependency relationships are as simple as one task endingbefore another can begin. However, some relationships are muchmore complex.

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Understanding the interactions between constraints anddependencies

Both constraints and dependencies drive the timing of a task. Consider

for a moment how constraints and dependencies may interact whenyou apply one of each to a task.

Say that you have a taskto open a new facilitythat has a constraintset so that it must start on June 6. You then set up a dependency thatindicates that the task should begin after a taskfire inspectionthat

is scheduled for completion on June 10. When you try to set up such a dependency, Project displays a Planning

Wizard dialog box, as shown on next slide. This dialog box indicates ascheduling conflict. Project displays this dialog box when a conflictexists among dependencies or between constraints and dependencies.

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Multiple dependencies or a combination of dependencies and constraints can cause

conflicts in timing.

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Understanding the interactions between constraints and

dependencies (Contd.)

You can create dependencies in one of the following three ways:

You can select two tasks and choose Edit Link Tasks or use theLink Tasks button on the Standard toolbar. The first task that

you select becomes the predecessor in the relationship.

You can open the successor tasks Task Information dialog box

and enter predecessor information on the Predecessors tab.You can use your mouse button to click the Gantt bar of a

predecessor and drag it to the Gantt bar of a successor to create alink to a successor task.

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Dependency Types

This taskrelationship

means Looks like this inthe Gantt chart

Example

Finish-to-start(FS)

The finish date ofthe predecessortask determinesthe start date ofthe successor task.

A book chaptermust be writtenbefore it can beedited.

Start-to-finish (SF) The start date ofthe predecessortask determinesthe finish date ofthe successor task.

Employees canstart using a newprocedure onlywhen they havefinished trainingfor it. If the use of

the new procedureis delayed, you alsowant to delay thetraining so that itoccurs as late aspossible before the

implementation.

D d T (C td )


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Dependency Types (Contd.)

This task

relationship

means Looks like this in

the Gantt chart

Example

Finish-to-finish(FF)

The finish date ofthe predecessortask determinesthe finish date ofthe successor task.

You finishinstallingcomputers at thesame time that youfinish moving

employees into thebuilding so thatthe employees canbegin using thecomputers rightaway.

Start-to-start (SS) The start date ofthe predecessortask determinesthe start date of

the successor task.

When you startgetting results inan election, youcan begin to

compile them.


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Establishing dependencies

You can set dependencies in several different ways.

If you use the tasks on the Gantt Chart to set dependencies, youmust establish finish-to-start relationships.

To establish more complex relationships, use the TaskInformation dialog box.

You can set dependencies between two summary tasks orbetween a summary task and a subtask in another task group byusing a finish-to-start or a start-to-start dependency.

You cannot use any other type of dependency, and you cannot set

dependencies between a summary task and any of its ownsubtasks.

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Deleting Dependencies

You can delete dependencies in several ways:

Open the Task Information dialog box for the successor task,select the Predecessors tab, click the task name for the link that

you want to break, and press Delete.

Display the Predecessors column in the Gantt table, click the

Predecessors cell for the successor task, and press Delete todelete all relationships.

Select the tasks that are involved in the dependency that youwant to delete and click the Unlink Tasks tool, or choose EditUnlink Tasks.

Double-click the dependency line, and click the Delete button inthe Task Dependency dialog box.

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The End

3rd exam course

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