Project Planning and Control with

Microsoft Project
An Introduction to the Software with a Case Study

Course: IND200 – Praktisk prosjektstyring

Semester: Autumn 2024
Course Responsible: Asmamaw Tadege Shiferaw
Presented By: Mathew Azarian

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Feel Free to Contact Me!
• My Name: Mathew Azarian
• Find me at: REALTEK - TF1-337
• Email: [email protected]
• Subject for Email: IND200 - [Your optional text]

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Main Contents
Project Planning vs. Project Control

Preliminary Phase of Planning

Case Study: Ås Shopping center

• Ås Shopping center: Civil Discipline
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Planning in Microsoft Project
• Software Environment
• Creating the WBS in MSP
• Project Calendar
• Activities Duration
• Specifying the Relationships
• Critical Path
• Gantt Chart Settings

Resource Planning
• Resource Allocation
• Resource Levelling

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1. Project Planning vs. Project Control
Assume a construction contract between a private company, e.g., PEAB, and a public authority,
e.g., Oslo Municipality, to build a shopping center.

Upon the agreed contract, the PEAB must accomplish the project
within X years and given an agreed budget, e.g., NOK XXX million.

• Identify the relevant activities

Planning • List the required resources

• Specify the shortages of
technical designs

• Tracking the progress of the

project

Control • Continuous control of the used

budget
• Forecast the required resources
according to the plan

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2. Preliminary Phase of Planning
i. Identifying the project activities ~ Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
a. Activities are substantially linked to the execution methods and techniques, e.g.,
excavation of a particular section may be accomplished in various ways.
ii. Determining the relationship(s) between activities.
iii. Specifying the required resources to accomplish each activity:
a) Cost
b) Material
c) Work
iv. Identify important milestones:
a) Essential according to the contractual terms
b) Necessary to accomplish the planned activities
v. Planning according to the agreed project duration and cost upon the contract
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3. Case Study: Ås Shopping center

Major activities based on the individual

disciplines:
• Civil → excavation, grading,
reinforcement, concreting, etc.
• Architecture → floor leveling, wall
creation, etc.
• Mechanics → piping, drainage, etc.
• Electrical → cable installation, fuse
box installation, etc.

Photo Link: https://www.tcbtimurinsaat.com/en/portfolios/shopping-mall-construction/

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3. Case Study: Subway Station

3.1. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

• Naming the activities must reflect the action of the associated task. For instance, assume
that the task is completing the foundation with concrete; in this case, we must use the term
‘concreting’ which literally reflects the act of using concrete, while using the word ‘concrete’
refers to the material, and not the action.
• The routine of naming activities must be consistent throughout the whole WBS and planning
files. For instance, for the reinforcement task we ONLY use the term ‘reinforcement’ without
any suffix referring to the section of the job (for example, “Reinforcement of the Foundation”).
Because the WBS, is inherently devised based on the different sections of subway station.
NB! Other disciplines of naming might exist according to the characteristics of each project.
• The degree of elaboration in WBS is strictly important. It MUST be broken to the level that is
measurable, and significant to the progress reporting. The levels that we break the activities
are also known as outline level.

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3. Case Study: Subway Station  3.1. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Ås Shopping Center

Concrete Structure
Outline 1 Equipping the Site
Construction

Outline 2 Foundation Floor One Floor Two

Outline 3 5 Tasks Columns Ceiling Columns Ceiling

Outline 4 3 Tasks 3 Tasks 3 Tasks 3 Tasks

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project
4.1. Software Environment

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.1. Software Environment

Entry Mode
• Access → Right click on the left bar anywhere close to the ‘GANTT
CHART” label.
• Function → You can navigate through possible entry modes in order to
select the desired table and insert respective data.
• Some of the commonly uses entry modes are:
– GANTT chart
– Resource Sheet

– Task Usage
• The default entry mode after opening the software is ‘GANTT chart’

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.1. Software Environment

Task Entry Table

Task entry mode is a primary table that we need to create the plan.
You can specify several elements using this table:
• Activity/task names
• The outline level of tasks according to the WBS
• Relationship between tasks (predecessors and successors)
• Resources required for each task
• Insert the progress of tasks

• Create customized columns

• Plenty of other elements and parameters

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.1. Software Environment

Gantt Chart
The Gantt chart is generated automatically (when the entry mode is on Gantt chart), after
inserting the tasks to the ‘Task Entry’ table.
Task Mode
This property entails 2 options; auto scheduled, manually scheduled. When you open the
software, it is set on the latter while we are interested in auto scheduled mode. Thus, we change
this option before we insert any task.
Timeline Bar

This is a means of representing tasks in a compact view, useful to magnify some tasks for
reporting. (we are not going to use it and hide it through the following path: View [Tab] > Split
View [Group] > Timeline

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.1. Software Environment

Entry Bar
This is a useful small bar that helps to
better view the task names in a more
consistent way (it is useful to edit the
name of a task when the task’s name is
too long, or there is a long list of
activities that makes their view too
compact).
It is not activated by default, and we
activate it through the following path:
File [Tab] > Options > Display > Show
these elements: > Entry bar

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project

4.2. Creating the WBS in MSP

A. Insert the Tasks Name

– Typing directly in the ‘Task Name’ column

– Copy and paste from a text resource file, e.g.,

Word, Excel, etc.

We use MSP Workshop.xlsx to copy and paste

activities; pay attention to the followings:

• We only select the task name (not WBS Code).

• We DO NOT select the first task which is in fact

the project name (Ås Shopping Center).

• Paste → Select the first row (cell) of the ‘Task

Name’ column: Right click > Paste Special > Text
Data > Ok

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.2. Creating the WBS in MSP

B. Create an outline level for the entire project [Outline 0]

This is equivalent to the project name, similarly to the project name in the excel file (to access this
option ‘Entry Mode’ must be ‘Gantt Chart’):
Gantt Chart Format [Tab] > Show/Hide [Group] > Project Summary Task
Then, we rename the project summary task using either the entry bar or by selecting the
associated cell and type the project name.

NB! “Project 1” is the default name after checking the ‘Project Summary Task’ option. This is, in fact the file’s name (in this case, the file
has not been saved yet, and its name is not modified).

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.2. Creating the WBS in MSP

C. Create the outline level for all activities (cont.)

We must complete the WBS by specify the outline level of activities according to the devised
WBS. To avoid mistakes, it is highly recommended to insert the WBS column which shows the
WBS code of each task. If we select the ‘Task Name’ column the new column will be added to the
left side.

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.2. Creating the WBS in MSP

C. Create the outline level for all activities (cont.)

It is recommended to accomplish this step by specifying the outlines from upper level to the
lower levels. We select the range of tasks whose outline are supposed to change. Then we
select the ‘Indent Task’ option, available through the following path:
Task [Tab] > Schedule [Group] > Increase/Decrease Indent (Icon only shown)

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.2. Creating the WBS in MSP

C. Create the outline level for all activities (cont.)

Outline 1 includes three main components including a
milestone (Project Start), a single task (Equipping the
Site), and a work package (Concrete Structure
Construction). To achieve the ultimate and correct
outline of activities in this case, we must breakdown
the activities associated with each work package.
Therefor, we initially select row 4 to row 27 and indent
the entire rows under ‘Concrete Structure
Construction’.
Then we create the next outline by indenting the tasks corresponding to the following work
packages: Foundation, Floor One, and Floor Two.

We follow the same principle to achieve the ultimate outline of tasks.

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project

4.3. Project Calendar

Before planning phase gets started, it is
critical to adjust the project calendar to:
A. Determine the calendar settings from
the file options
B. Create a calendar for the project (this
is optional, and one may use the pre-
generated calendar).
C. Specify the working days, working
hours, special holidays.
D. Specify the project start date.
Etc.

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.3. Project Calendar

B. Create a calendar for the project (this is optional, and one may use the pre-generated
calendar).
Project [Tab] > Properties [Group] > Change Working Time

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.3. Project Calendar

C. Specify the working days, working

hours, special holidays.
The following settings are desired.
• The contractor is supposed to work
on Saturdays, following the same
working hours during the week.
(08:00 to 12:00 plus 13:00 to 17:00)

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.3. Project Calendar

C. Specify the working days, working hours and working

shifts.
The following settings are desired.
• The contractor is supposed to work on Saturdays,
according to the same working hours during the week.
(08:00 to 12:00 plus 13:00 to 17:00)
• Christmas Holidays 2024 → 25.12.2024 to 01.01.2025
• Easter Holidays 2025 → 01.04.2025 to 14.04.2025

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.3. Project Calendar

D. Specify the project start

date.
Project [Tab] > Properties
[Group] > Project Information
The following assumptions are
desirable:
• Project starts at 01.12.2024
• Contract duration is 1 year
(until 30.11.2025).
NB! 30.11.2025 is Sunday and
according to the project
calendar it is a non-working
day. Thus, the scheduling is
affected, and the project will
be finished on the next
working day, 01.12.2025.
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4. Planning in Microsoft Project

4.4. Activities Duration

Microsoft Project is a tool that incorporates the
critical path method (CPM), in which the duration
of activities is a single and determined (non-
stochastic) number.
It is noted that specifying the duration, is ONLY
AND ONLY accomplished for the utmost outline of
tasks (subtasks) and NOT for the summary tasks.
Because the duration of summary tasks, is
calculated by the duration of its associated
subtasks and their relationships.
Activities with duration equals 0, are milestone.

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.4. Activities Duration

We use MSP Workshop.xlsx to enter the task durations manually.

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.4. Activities Duration

For better view of the dates, it is possible to

change the format of start/finish dates. This is
optional and depends on one’s needs or
preference.
File [Tab] > Options > General > Project view
[Group]

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project

4.5. Specifying the Relationships

We use two columns in order to specify the relationships between each pair of activities:
Predecessors, and Successors. If any of these columns are not shown, use the same name
to insert the respective column.
Some important items to pay strict attention to:
• All activities must have at least one predecessor and one successor, except for the project
start milestone [no predecessor] and the project finish milestone [no successors].
• Relationships are usually (not always) defined for subtasks, and not the summary tasks.
• It is critical to consider technical aspects of the project in specifying the relationships. For
instance, you cannot eat a cake immediately after taken out from the oven. You must wait for
some minutes at minimum.

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.5. Specifying the Relationships

• We use the row number of an activity for referral in specifying the relationships. For instance,
for a Finish to Start (FS) relationship between ‘Project Start’ and ‘Equipping the Site’, we only
write the number 1 in the predecessor of activity in the row number 2.

This is, however, not the case in defining other types of relationships.

During the planning stage and after specifying the relationship between activities, it is
highly probable that the overall duration of the project (according to the contract
duration), exceeds the desired limit. One common remedy to this issue, is that planners
reduce the duration of some activities in cooperation with the project manager, by
allocating more resources to some activities. This, indeed, occurs at extra expenses.

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.5. Specifying the Relationships

We can copy and paste the predecessors specified in MSP Workshop.xlsx.

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project

4.6. Critical Path

Demonstrating the critical path is one of the primary objectives of planning, and particularly,
MS Project. In fact, project planners must have an extra attention to activities aligned on the
critical path, so-called critical activities. To view the critical path the follow the below path:
Gantt Chart Format [Tab] > Bar Styles [Group] > Critical Tasks 

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.6. Critical Path

Observed that the entire activities in the

project are critical and has turned into red.

Such issue arises in 2 scenarios:

• Activities are majorly connected with FS
relationship.

• Project with low number of activities.

Because parallel working becomes less
possible.

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project

4.7. Gantt Chart Settings

Customization is one of the most important features
that one would desire in using tools and software,
and this is no exception with regards to Gantt chart
demonstration. To access such menu, follow the
following path:

Hover the mouse pointer in the Gantt chart area >

Right Click > Bar Styles

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.7. Gantt Chart Settings

For example, we can change the color of

critical tasks from ‘red’ to ‘dark orange’

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.7. Gantt Chart Settings

We can also add informative texts to the

bar charts associated with certain group of
activities. For instance, we add the name
of a summary task to the right side of its
bar.

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4. Planning in Microsoft Project  4.7. Gantt Chart Settings

It is also possible to customize the linker

arrows between activities.
Hover the mouse pointer in the Gantt chart
area > Right Click > Layout

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5. Resource Planning
5.1. Resource Allocation

Resource allocation is a critical step that must be accomplished after time planning. In practice, the
contractor is responsible to prepare the resources accordingly in order to complete the project at
the agreed date. In general, and particularly in MSP, there are three categories of resources:
1. Work → human worker, machine and equipment
2. Material → raw materials for construction
3. Cost → fixed and variable payments; insurance, salaries, overhead costs, etc.
Material resource is identified based on the initial technical designs and the measurements that
the contractor does during the project. Thus, it varies during the project and the measurements
must be updated on a regular basis.

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5. Resource Planning  5.1. Resource Allocation

Work resource refers to the required resources to accomplish a task. To calculate the number
of required resources for a particular job the following principle applies:

𝑅𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 [𝐿]

𝑁𝑟. 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑗𝑜𝑏 𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 1 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒 [𝐷] =
𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 1 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒 [𝑇]

𝑁𝑟. 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑗𝑜𝑏 𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 1 𝑢𝑛𝑖𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒 [𝐷]

𝑅𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝐴𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑠 [𝑅] =
𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑗𝑜𝑏 [𝑑]

For instance, the estimation is that ‘Concreting Group’ can perform the concreting task for 60 m3 per
day. It means that 40 days is required to accomplish 2,400 m3 concreting. Hence, if the contractor seeks
to perform the job in 10 days, it must allocate 4 concreting groups to the job.

2,400 𝑚3
𝐷= = 40 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠
𝑚3
60
𝑑𝑎𝑦
40 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠
𝑅= = 4 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑠
10 𝑑𝑎𝑦𝑠

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5. Resource Planning  5.1. Resource Allocation

The primary step in resource allocation, is defining the required resources in MSP (It is advised to
have calculated the resource requirements in an excel file in advance). For this purpose, we should
navigate to ‘resource sheet’:

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5. Resource Planning  5.1. Resource Allocation

We use the information provided in the MSP Workshop.xlsx to complete the resource sheet table,
as follows;
You can change the currency → File [Tab] > Options > Display > Currency options for this project

Important entries at this

stage are highlighted in the
picture.

The price figures are

completely arbitrary and
have no basis of reality.

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5. Resource Planning  5.1. Resource Allocation

After defining the resources in the resource sheet table, we will allocate the required number of resources of each type, to the
respective tasks.
To assign resources to each activity, we select the activity and: Resource [Tab] > Assignments [Group] > Assign Resources
We then navigate through the tasks to assign resources, without the need to open and close the assign resource window
frequently.

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5. Resource Planning  5.1. Resource Allocation

“Equipping the Site” is accomplished at a fixed price according to the contract. Thus, we open a
column called “Fixed Cost” and write down the 500,000 NOK in the cell associated this task. We
also open another column called “Cost” to observe the project cost after assigning the required
resources to each task.

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5. Resource Planning  5.1. Resource Allocation

The red indicator next to the activities (after assigning the resources) implies that the available
resources (defined during the completion of the resource table) does not fulfil the required number
of resources to accomplish the tasks.

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5. Resource Planning

5.2. Resource Levelling

The aim of resource levelling, is to ensure that sufficient required resources are available at the
proper time.
The first step, however, is to resolve the occurred issue pertaining to resource allocation.
The problem is simply interpreted as the lack of resource which implies that the maximum capacity
of the contractor to allocate the respective resource is lower than the required amount [according to
the calculations we discussed earlier]. The primary remedy to this issue is to find out the
maximum required amount of each resource among the activities that it is allocated to;
otherwise, the contractor must compromise the project duration which comes at penalty
costs.
For instance, the maximum required number of ‘Reinforcement Group’ among the activities that
this resource is allocated to, is 10 (or 1,000%). Thus, we adjust the ‘Max.’ of this resource to
1,000% in the resource sheet. We repeat the same process for other resources as well.

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5. Resource Planning  5.2. Resource Levelling

To visually observe the overallocation of resources we can also use Resource Graph view.

It shows that while the Max. capacity of ‘Reinforcement Group’ is 100%, some activities in Feb
2025, Mar 2024, May-Nov 2025 requires more than this amount.

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5. Resource Planning  5.2. Resource Levelling

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5. Resource Planning  5.2. Resource Levelling

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5. Resource Planning  5.2. Resource Levelling

In this particular project, most of the activities are connected to one another through FS
relationship. However, this is not always the case. For instance, the company has the capacity of
preparing ‘Concreting Group’ at Max. of 200%. Then two concreting activities at two different points
of the project are scheduled to start at the same time and each one requires only 200% of
‘Concreting Group’. Although the required number of resources for each task does not exceed the
Max. capacity, the contractor has scheduled to accomplish both tasks at the same time, and in this
case, the capacity of ‘Concreting Group’ must be adjusted to 400%.
One remedy in this scenario is rescheduling. It means that if one, or both of activities, are not
critical, they will be rescheduled (according to their available floating time) such that the contractor
does not need to accomplish both tasks at the same time.
For this purpose, we use the following option to perform Resource Levelling:
Resource [Tab] > Level [Group] > Level Resource

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