Microsoft Project

Introduction

What is it? Everyone familiar with it? Used it?

General guidelines -- An excellent tool, but don't overuse it. My experience with overusing. You can waste valuable time managing MS Project, instead of managing the project.

We will create and manipulate a project. Let's use a team project as an example.

Create project

File / Close

File / New / Blank Project

Schedule from: start date or finish date? (Use start date)

Set start (or finish) date

Pick a kind of calendar

File Save, give name.

Tasks, Dates, Resources

Enter tasks, with duration and resources for each one

Define task relationships, some one-to-one, some one-to-many

Zoom to see whole project

Miscellaneous

Show critical path, with chart wizard.

Insert some milestones, and set their dependency. (Task with length of zero.)

Add more resources to a task, to see how task time compresses.

Show kinds of dependencies, by double clicking on a dependency line.

Create and use subtasks. (Create new tasks below the summary task, then indent the subtasks. Show how time estimates roll up to summary task. Show use of +/- button.)

Show how to insert subprojects. (Cautions: There are some complexities about whether changes in master project flow to subproject, and vice versa. Also issues about identical resource names. We will not cover all these details, just be aware of them.)

Resource tracking and leveling

Check resource allocations (Resource Graph, and Resource Usage)

Overbook a resource, by putting it into parallel task

See overbooking on Resource Graph and View / Reports / Assignments / Overallocated.

Fix resource problem. Look at Resource Graph again.

Planned vs. actual tracking

Save baseline for this project (Tools / Tracking / SaveBaseline)

Enter actual performance (Select a task with dependencies after it, then use Tools / Tracking / UpdateTasks to enter a later start date)

Look at progress, (Tracking Gantt)

Copyright 2001, Charles H. Connell Jr.