Chapter 5
Microsoft Project Application
• Microsoft Project is a Windows-based project management
software package.
• It provides the flexibility to help manage your project, provides
assistance in every phase of the project, calculates schedules and
other project information.
• It helps to build the project plan and also helps in tracking it to its
completion.
• It is easy to navigate & similar to other MS packages.
• Install MS-Project 2007 in to your laptop
• Pass word: QP8FX-96W78-BPPWK-HVHJP-D2FMJ
Views in MS-Project
• A view is a format in which you enter and display information
• MS- Project comes with 24 predefined views
• You can use View menu to see each of them
1. Calendar
2. Gant Chart
3. Network diagram
4. Task Usage
5. Tracking Gant
6. Resource graph
7. Resource sheet
8. Resource usage
9. More Views (16 views)
1. How To Start A New Project ?
• There are three activities that need to be
completed before you enter individual project
tasks
1. Setting File Properties
File – Properties
2. Setting the Project Properties
Project – Project Information
3. Entering working times and non working time
(Calendar)
Tools – Change Working Times
Calendar
• Calendars define the working and non-working time for the
project and for each resource assigned in the project . There are
two types of calendars,
– Base calendars
– Resource calendars.
• Base calendars define the working day for the project or a set of
resources. There are 3 types of base calendar
– Standard
– Night shift
– 24 Hours
• Resource calendars define the working days and working hours
for a specific resource
2. Entering Task and Duration
• Enter the following types of Task in the Task
column
– Activities
– Summery Task
– Subordinate Task
– Recurring Task
– Milestone
• Enter duration of the task in the duration
Column
3. Assigning Task Relationship
• A task that must be started or finished before
another task can begin is called a predecessor
task.
• A task that can only start or finish after another
task has finished is called the successor task
• Four Types of Task relationships
– Finish to Start (FS)
– Finish to Finish (FF)
– Start to start (SS)
– Start to Finish (SF)
Task Relationship
4.Enetring Resources
• A resource can be any item, place or person necessary to complete
the task. There are three types of Resources
• Work
• Material
• Cost
• A task might require a single resource or multiple resources to be
completed
• Resource sheet can be used for entering information about more
than one resource quickly
View – Resources Sheet
5. Assigning Resources to Tasks
• Assigning Work Resources
• Assigning material Resources
• Assigning Fixed Cost
Procedures:
1. Select the task you want to assign a resource
2. Click on the Assign Resources button and the assign
resources dialog box appear
3. Select the required resource and click assign
6. Resource Over allocation
• Over allocation arises when the number of units or hours assigned to a
resource are greater than the maximum number of hours available
during that time period.
• For example, if you assigned a resource to three tasks at the same
time at 100 percent, that would be an over allocated resource.
• It‘s better to recognize over allocated resources early in the project
rather than after deadlines have been missed
• You can use the Resource Graph view to find the
resource‘s over allocated dates in the graph.
Balancing Resource Over allocations
• There are many ways to balance a resource.
– Change the resource assignment percentage in the
Units field to reduce the over allocation,
– Assign the resource to a different task.
– Splits and delays tasks in order to get rid of resource
over allocation
– Assign additional resources for the task
• When resolving resource over allocation
manually, you have to use your own knowledge
about the project as a whole to find the best way
to balance everything
7. Setting a Baseline and Tracking
• Before the first task begins in a project a baseline should be set.
• Setting the baseline is a critical step in the scheduling process.
• As a project progresses, the start times, finish times and resource
assignments will change
• A baseline is useful for comparing the planned schedule with
later versions of the schedule to see what changes have occurred
Tools - Tracking - Set Baseline
Updating Project Progress
• Tracking is the process of gathering and entering
task information into the schedule.
1. Updating entire project
Tools – Tracking – update project
2. Updating task actual value
Tools – Tracking – update project
3. Updating actual work
Veiw –task usage – format-detail actual work –actual
work
4. Updating actual cost
View – Gant chart- Tools – option – calculation -
8. Comparing actual and Baseline
• The project baseline provides the basis for
comparing costs, work and dates for all tasks
and resources.
• By comparing the project progress to the
baseline, the project can be monitored to
ensure tasks are on schedule, resources are
completing their work and costs are not
exceeding the budget
a) Checking Duration Variance
• Variance is the difference between baseline information
and actual information in a field.
• Project lists variance as positive or negative value.
• Negative variance indicates that tasks are ahead of
schedule, and positive variance indicates that tasks are
behind schedule
View -- Table --Variance
b) Checking Work Variance
• You can check how much total work a resource is
accomplishing by looking at the variance
between a resource‘s baseline work and actual
work.
• This is especially helpful if you schedule tasks
based on the availability of resources
View –Table-- Work
c) Checking Cost Variance
• By checking cost variance, you can see if
there are any tasks that cost more than you
budgeted.
• You can catch cost overruns before they
become serious and adjust your schedule or
budget accordingly.
View –Table-- Cost
9. Opening a Report
• Reports are useful for communicating project information with
others, analyzing potential problem areas in the project, and
for basic project management.
• Microsoft Project comes with over 20 different reports, each
one designed to compile a specific set of information .
– Overview reports
– Current activity reports
– Cost Reports
– Assignment reports
– Workload Reports
– Other Custom Reports
• You can format the report to the style you want before
printing the report
End of Chapter
Five
