ms project tutorial (1)

7/30/2019 MS Project Tutorial (1)

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You can enter project goals if you would like. I sometimes do. From the File

menu, click Properties, Summary, and Comments. Enter the goals.


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Enter Tasks

After you decide which tasks you want to include in your project, you can enterthose tasks into your project plan. In the tasks in the Gantt Chart view. On theview menu click Gantt Chart. You may not have to do this if you are already in

Gantt view. In the task name field, just type in the first task name, click the checkmark, or press enter and move on to the second task etc.

To Delete a task, select the task you want to delete. On edit menu, click deletetask.

To add a task in the list, select the task below where you want to insert. Select byclicking the task number column. From the insert menu click new task. Tasks canbe moved later, but try to get them in the logical order. See Action PlanOrganization below.

To Enter Task Duration.

Find the Duration column. You may have to drag the Gantt separator over to seethe next column in the spread sheet section. When you can see the durationcolumn, simply click on the duration box for the task, and type or change thedefault duration. Click the check box or press enter.


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To give Project the flexibility to schedule, you should enter the project start date,and then enter the task duration only. Do not enter the start and finish dates forthe tasks.

Action Plan Organization.

Simply put the action plan is your list of tasks that you just entered. The actionplan lists all the tasks that must be completed in order to finish the project. If atask is not on the action plan, then it will not be done, and is not part of theproject. Note: If you were not using software, just write down the tasks. I like touse a three step process.

Step one, put the tasks in logical order. Your task list should already becomplete. To move any tasks around, use cut and paste. Open a new task field,then cut and paste.


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Step two, Insert a task name which is going to become a Milestone. ThisMilestone name is inserted above the tasks that will make up the completion ofthe milestone.

Step three, Outline your tasks. Use the indent or outdent task arrows located in

the menu. Leave the milestone as outdent, and then indent the tasks that fallunder it. Now your action plan/task list should look like an outline. And, if youhave durations entered, the Gantt chart will begin to appear, with all tasksstarting at the same date.


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MS Project Tutorial #2

Linking and Predecessors

In order to schedule the tasks in the correct order, we Link tasks, or addpredecessors. A task that must finish before another task can begin is called apredecessor task.

Linking

Creating a task link is easy in project. In the task name field, select two or moretasks you want to link. You probably want to link all the task fields. Click Tasklink. There is a chain link icon, or find it in Edit menu, link tasks.


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A line link appears on the Gantt chart. Project defaults to a finish-to-start (FS)

link. There are other links, but they are beyond this course.

Predecessors

If the link does not give an accurate picture of some of the links that you want foryour task sequences and dependencies, then modify the linkages using thepredecessor field. Select the task name field that is the successor task, then click

task information from the project menu. There is an icon that looks like a clipboard. In the predecessor window, type in the id number of the predecessor. Forexample if you wanted task 1 linked to task 2 with the FS link, but task 3 couldalso start after 1, not 2, then in the predecessor box for task 3, type in a 1.


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The Gantt should reflect the predecessor as shown below.

While you have a working Gantt, look at the other views. The Pert View (now

called Network Diagram in MS Project 2000) can be helpful, but on large projectsit can get quite cumbersome. We will work mostly in the Gantt view.


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Assign resources to a task.

To assign a resource to a task, select the task name, click Assign Resourcesicon. This looks like two people. In the name field type in all the names you willuse for resources.


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Select a name and it will be assigned to the selected task name when you click

assign.


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There is also a calendar view and MS Project allows you to customize views oftasks and resources.


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Under Tools... Options, the Calendar tab allows changes, but for now let Projectdefault to a standard 40 hour week.


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Assign resources to a task.

Assigning Costs Tasks.

There many ways that Project can add costs. One of the quick ways is toassign hourly rates to a resource. On the view menu, click resource sheet.

On the resource sheet, type in the rates that apply.


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Assign Fixed Cost to a Task.

This can be found on the Task Sheet. From the view menu, make sure that the selection is set to , then point to and in the More

Views menu, select Task Sheet and click Apply.

In the Task Sheet, update the fixed cost fields as you might on any worksheet.


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Reports, Views and Tables

This can be confusing at times. This is because an MS Project "Report" can beviewed on the screen and MS Project "Views" can be printed like a report. Thenthere are "Tables" which look a lot like some of the views.

MS Project "Views" are the most frequently used ways of displaying projectinformation. These often involve some use of graphics. Although Views can bemodified, they probably won't be edited or tailored as reports would. Instead youmight create "new" Views.

MS Project "Reports" tend to be data in a report-like format organized in a way

that lets you change the look of the report by editing what information is selected,how it is sorted and some customization. You would probably use Reports lessoften than Views.

The "Tables" that you can access are similar to views but are actually therepresentations of the MS Project database data tables, or how the MS Projectdatabase is actually organized. You can modify the standard tables or createyour own, though this is considered fairly advanced by most people. Selection ofvarious Tables changes the data that is shown in many of the "splitscreen" Views, such as Gantt charts.

See the following "tailored" screen shot to get an idea how to navigate to some ofthe selection menus.


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Take a look at some of the more common "Views. These can be found under the

menu or on the View Bar if it is enabled.

Sometimes you will want to change how information is displayed in your Views.With a project opened that you are working on, select the Resource Usage View.Notice that your data on usage in the right panel is displayed by days for eachweek. This timescale can be changed to get more information displayedcovering a longer time period. Assuming that your timescale defaults have notalready been changed, follow the instructions in the following screen image tochange your timescale. Note that in the newer versions of MS Project, the Majorand Minor scale terminology shown in the illustration has evolved to the use ofTabs on the panel that are labeled Top, Middle and Bottom Tiers. The way they

are used is pretty much the same.


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After you complete the change, your Resource Usage view should looksomething like the following:


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The timescale changes can be done to many of the Views, including the Gantt

format Views.

To display a report, look under the menu and click . When thereport selection menu displays, select the group. Then select theResource Usage Report. It should look something like the following:


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Usually it is easy to print the report. After selecting the report and seeing theresults, select print. You can also print views, but be careful, you may get morepages than you might expect.


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Finally, I thought you might want to see a very useful View called the TrackingGantt chart. The following example will appear extremely "busy" but that'sbecause it contains a lot of information. For this chart to be very useful you needto have a project with a baseline (original estimate) established and it should

have updated activity showing performance "actuals". This is what such aproject looks like in the Tracking Gantt View:

Note that the tasks displayed in Red represent the "Critical Path" tasks.

ms project tutorial (1)

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