MS Project 2010 Getting Started by Anh Tuấn Phạm

MS Project 2010 – Getting started Instructor: Phạm Tuấn Anh MBA, PMP

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Introduction The MS Project Interface 07 Basic Steps To Create A Project Let's Practice! Recommendations

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Introduction The MS Project Interface 07 Basic Steps To Create A Project Let's Practice! Recommendations

MS Project Overview: Strength  Microsoft Project is a project management software program, developed and sold by Microsoft, which is designed to assist a project manager in developing a plan, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing the budget, and analyzing workloads  The first commercial version of Project was released for DOS in 1984  The most widely used PM program because:  It is fairly generic in its approach  Highly automated once configured. Requires relatively low amount of user manipulation  Scalable – can be used for small to enormous projects  Balances visual approach (charts, graphs, etc..) with logical structured approach (task and resources lists).

MS Project Overview: PM steps

Project Management? “Processes of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing a project”

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Introduction The MS Project Interface 07 Basic Steps To Create A Project Let's Practice! Recommendations

The MS Project 2010 Interface  The QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR: File, Task, Resource, Project, View, Developer, Format  The RIBBON: Tab, Buttons and Drop-Down List  Main Screen COMPONENTS:  Indicators column with message icons  Status bar with messages  Screen divider, to separate spreadsheet from timescale  View buttons  Zoom slider

The MS Project 2010 Interface Standard view

The MS Project 2010 Interface Single view versus combination view (example)

The MS Project 2010 Interface Change the timescale in a view

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Introduction The MS Project Interface 07 Basic Steps To Create A Project Let's Practice! Recommendations

07 Basic Steps To Create A Project

Step 1

• Start a new project from a Start or Finish date

Step 2

• Add tasks, recurring tasks and milestones

Step 3

• Creating WBS with Summary Tasks

Step 4

• Create dependencies

Step 5

• Assign resources

Step 6

• Find critical path

Step 7

• Close Project

07 Basic Steps To Create A Project

Step 1

• Start a new project from a Start or Finish date

Step 2

• Add tasks, recurring tasks and milestones

Step 3

• Creating WBS with Summary Tasks

Step 4

• Create dependencies

Step 5

• Assign resources

Step 6

• Find critical path

Step 7

• Close Project

Start a new project: Start or Finish date  By default, the new project file is scheduled from a Project Start Date  All tasks are scheduled to begin as soon as possible  Project 2010 calculates the project’s Finish date based on Tasks, Durations, Dependencies

 When a project is scheduled from a Finish date, such as a conference, all tasks are scheduled to begin as late as possible  To schedule from a Finish Date, apply this setting as soon as the project is created

Start a new project: Start date

Start a new project: Finish date

Create a project: Customize standard calendar  By default, the entire project, each task, and each resource is scheduled according to the Standard calendar.  The Standard calendar specifies that Monday through Friday are working days with 8 hours of work completed each day. Saturday and Sunday are designated as nonworking days.  The Calendar can be modified to identify holidays or other nonworking days or times in which work should not be scheduled.  You can also create unique calendars for tasks and resources that do not follow the working and nonworking times specified by the Standard calendar.

Create a project: Customize standard calendar To customize the standard calendar click on Change Working Time on the Ribbon Project

07 Basic Steps To Create A Project

Step 1

• Start a new project from a Start or Finish date

Step 2

• Add tasks, recurring tasks and milestones

Step 3

• Creating WBS with Summary Tasks

Step 4

• Create dependencies

Step 5

• Assign resources

Step 6

• Find critical path

Step 7

• Close Project

Create a project: Entering tasks and durations  Entering tasks and durations is probably the single most important effort in developing a useful project file  If tasks are omitted or durations underestimated, the value of the project’s scheduling and cost information is compromised  Often you will need to change an existing task or insert, delete, split or move a task. Project 2010 offers a variety of tools that you can use to accomplish these common tasks

Create a project: Insert, delete, inactivate tasks To customize the standard calendar click on Change Working Time on the Ribbon Project

Create a project: Entering recurring tasks  A recurring task is a task that repeats at a regular interval (i.e. status meeting)  In Project 2010, you can define a recurring task one time using the Recurring Task Information dialog box from the task menu  Project 2010 then handles the details of scheduling the task at specified interval for the entire project or for the time period you specify

Create a project: Entering recurring tasks

Create a project: Entering milestones  A milestone is a task that marks a significant point in time or a progress checkpoint  It has a zero duration and is therefore a symbolic task that is used mainly to communicate progress or to mark the end of a significant phase of the project  Examples include the signing of a contract or the announcement of a new product  Milestones can also be used to motivate project participants by recognizing accomplishments

Create a project: Entering milestones

Create a project: Attaching documents to a task

Create a project: Display information about tasks Useful information and alerts related to tasks and resources can be displayed showing the Indicators Column

Create a project: Display information about tasks

Create a project: Add a deadline If you know that your task has a deadline, one common mistake is to put inflexible constraint -> “Must finish on”

Why? Because you are telling MS PROJECT that this task MUST finish on that date and NOT BEFORE!

07 Basic Steps To Create A Project

Step 1

• Start a new project from a Start or Finish date

Step 2

• Add tasks, recurring tasks and milestones

Step 3

• Creating WBS with Summary Tasks

Step 4

• Create dependencies

Step 5

• Assign resources

Step 6

• Find critical path

Step 7

• Close Project

Create a project: WBS with Summary Tasks  A very important strategy for managing projects well is to organize the work that needs to be done in a logical manner, a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) can be an example  In order to use a WBS in Project 2010, you must organize tasks into Summary tasks (groups of tasks that logically belong together)

Create a project: WBS with Summary Tasks  When developing a new, large project, some project managers prefer to start with broad groupings of summary tasks and then break them down into smaller tasks. This is called the top-down method of creating a WBS  Other project managers prefer to list all of the individual tasks, and then collect them into logical groupings using the bottom-up method  Once you have identified your summary tasks, you use Outdenting and Indenting in Project 2010 to create the summary tasks

Create a project: WBS with Summary Tasks

07 Basic Steps To Create A Project

Step 1

• Start a new project from a Start or Finish date

Step 2

• Add tasks, recurring tasks and milestones

Step 3

• Creating WBS with Summary Tasks

Step 4

• Create dependencies

Step 5

• Assign resources

Step 6

• Find critical path

Step 7

• Close Project

Create a project: Entering tasks dependencies  How many type of relationships between tasks?  How to define the relationships between tasks in MS Project?

Task Dependencies

Create a project: Entering tasks dependencies

Lag time?

is a delay between two tasks that are linked by a dependency

Create a project: Entering tasks dependencies Create task dependencies using the predecessors column

07 Basic Steps To Create A Project

Step 1

• Start a new project from a Start or Finish date

Step 2

• Add tasks, recurring tasks and milestones

Step 3

• Creating WBS with Summary Tasks

Step 4

• Create dependencies

Step 5

• Assign resources

Step 6

• Find critical path

Step 7

• Close Project

Assign resources to tasks  One of the most important but often overlooked parts of the project management process is allocating resources properly  In 04 steps you can allocate resources in Microsoft Project and keep you in control of your project from start to finish 1. Consider resource availability when estimating task duration. 2. Create and organize a resource pool for the project 3. Assign each work task to a resource 4. Check the resource allocation in the resource graph view

Assign resources to tasks 1. Consider resource availability when estimating task duration  This step is crucial but often overlooked. Resources must be considered during the construction of the schedule, not just afterwards  Pay special attention to concurrent tasks (those that happen at the same time) that use the same resources  Focus on man-hours rather than total workdays, to take into account how many resources will be needed

Assign resources to tasks 2. Create and organize a resource pool for the project  On the View menu, click Resource Sheet  On the Resource menu, click Add Resources  Define which kind of resource you need:  "Work" resources are the most useful, and should be used to categorize  "Material" resources should refer to materials that get used up during work  "Cost" resources are time independent resources (i.e. Airplane tickets) All Rights Reserved © Professional Management Academy - 2013

Assign resources to tasks 3. Assign a resource to each work task  Find the task's line in the left panel, and click the cell in the "Resource" column  A drop-down menu will appear listing all the resources you have created  Select the appropriate resource

Assign resources to tasks 4. Check the resource allocation in the resource graph view  After creating your schedule and assigning resources, you can check for over-allocation (click on "View" and select "Resource Graph")  Any point at which a resource exceeds 100 percent usage represents an over-allocation (meaning the resource can't possibly perform all the tasks assigned to it in the given time). Over-allocation is represented in red  To remedy this, increase the task durations, assign more resources to the tasks, or shift concurrent tasks to create less overlap

Assign resources to tasks 4. Check the resource allocation in the resource graph view  The Resource Graph shows allocation over time, resource by resource  When the vertical bar is higher than the horizontal line and  part of the bar is bright red, the resource is over allocated.  On the contrary, any point at which the resource is being used very little may point to inefficient underallocation. Consider decreasing the task durations or using fewer total resources All Rights Reserved © Professional Management Academy - 2013

07 Basic Steps To Create A Project

Find Critical Path: The definition  Critical path

The series of critical tasks that dictates the calculated finish date of the project in Project path.

 Critical tasks

The tasks that cannot be delayed without affecting the project finish date

 A task becomes critical when it meets any of following conditions  It has no slack  It has a Must Start On (MSO) or Must Finish On (MFO) date constraint.  It has an As Late As Possible (ALAP) constraint in a project scheduled from a start date  It has an As Soon As Possible (ASAP) constraint in a project scheduled from a finish date.

Find Critical Path: Viewing the slack  Inserting the columns Total Slack, Free Slack and Critical you'll be able to see the reason why a task is considered critical or not  The critical path calculation is also being influenced by relationships, constraints, deadlines, resource assignments, and task, resource and project calendars Only you can determine if the critical path is correct!!

Find Critical Path: Crashing your project

 When using To bring in the project finish date, you need to bring in the dates of your critical path tasks. This is also known as CRASHING a project.

How using CRASH is to decrease a project's overall duration without changing task relationships. Crashing a project typically requires assigning additional resources to tasks. All Rights Reserved © Professional Management Academy - 2013

Find Critical Path: Crashing your project  To crash a project you can:  Shorten the duration or work on a task on the critical path  Change a task constraint to allow for more scheduling flexibility  Break a critical task into smaller tasks that can be worked on simultaneously by different resources  Revise task dependencies to allow more scheduling flexibility  Set lead time between dependent tasks where applicable  Schedule overtime  Assign additional resources to work on critical path tasks

07 Basic Steps To Create A Project

Close Project: Key elements

Close Project: Print a view

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Exercise 1) Create a project starting on 1 Feb 2014, ending on the 1 Apr 2016 2) Add "Commission Easter holidays" to the Calendar (17 - 18 April) 3) Create the following tasks and subtasks. Add dependencies.

Exercise 4) Add a "Weekly Team meeting" recurring every Wednesday until the end of the project 5) Attach a document to the first meeting 6) Create a resource pool with your names 7) Assign resources to tasks 8) Set the timescale to view the entire project in the Gantt Chart.

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Management Recommendations

Management Recommendations MS Project does not create or “own” the project The simpler configuration, the easier data will be understood If the plan doesn’t look right, it probably isn’t!!!

Look for what has changed in the plan and follow the clues - a small unintentional change can compromise the entire project Check constraints and dependencies Check resource and task assignments /relationships

Questions and Answers…  Questions: 1. …