Microsoft office project tutorial 2013 free. Ms project tutorial

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Microsoft office project tutorial 2013 free. Microsoft Project

 

Enable all team members to update tasks simultaneously so you can get more done together. Easily plan your projects with the power of dynamic scheduling based on effort needed, project duration, and allotted team members. Build the desktop or mobile experiences you want and easily create automated workflows. Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe. Microsoft Project Meet the simple, powerful, reimagined Project for everyone. See products and pricing. Get Project, starting at ow:[[msrpwithcurrency]] per month.

Learn more. The power to make project management simple. Easy to start, simple to use, and vice versa Work confidently with a powerful project management tool that makes getting started and managing projects both simple and easy.

And it takes 4 days for this to happen. It does not need a resource or a work effort, and all you are doing is waiting for it to dry. You can use 4ed as the time duration, which signifies 4 elapsed days, the paint can dry regardless of whether it is a weekend or if it falls on a holiday.

Here in this example, the drying occurs over 24 hours over the weekend. They are used as major progress points to manage project success and stakeholder expectations. They are primarily used for review, inputs and budgets. Mathematically, a milestone is a task of zero duration. And they can be put where there is a logical conclusion of a phase of work, or at deadlines imposed by the project plan.

There are two ways you can insert a milestone. You can see the milestone appear with a rhombus symbol in the Gantt Chart View on the right. MS Project converts it to a Milestone. But one can also convert a task of non-zero duration into a Milestone. This is rarely used and causes confusion. Double-click a particular Task name. Task Information dialog box opens. Create Summary Task There can be a huge number of tasks in a project schedule, it is therefore a good idea to have a bunch of related tasks rolled up into a Summary Task to help you organize the plan in a better way.

It helps you organize your plan into phases. In MS Project , you can have several number of sub-tasks under any higher level task. These higher level tasks are called Summary Task. At an even higher level, they are called Phases. Remember because summary task is not a separate task entity but a phase of the project with several sub-tasks in it, the duration of the summary task is from the start of the first sub-task to the finish of the last sub-task.

This will be automatically calculated by MS Project. Of course, you can enter a manual duration of the summary task as well which could be different from the automatically calculated duration.

MS Project will keep track of both but this can cause significant confusion. In most cases, you should ensure that there is no manually entered duration for any task you will be using as a Summary Task. If you would like to group Task 4 and Task 5 into a Summary Task 1. You can do it in two ways. Method 1 Select the names of Task 4 and Task 5. Rename it to Summary Task 1. Method 2 You can click Task 4 row. You can rename the Task. Here it is renamed as Summary Task 1. Now select Task 4 and Task 5.

For example, Task 2 can start once Task 1 has finished. These dependencies are called Links. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge PMBOK Guide does not define the term dependency, but refers to it as a logical relationship, which in turn is defined as a dependency between two activities, or between an activity and a milestone. In MS Project, the first task is called a predecessor because it precedes tasks that depend on it. The following task is called the successor because it succeeds, or follows tasks on which it is dependent.

Any task can be a predecessor for one or more successor tasks. Likewise, any task can be a successor to one or more predecessor tasks. There are only four types of task dependencies, here we present them with examples. Most used. One does not have to finish collecting survey response before starting the tabulation. Least used. Method 1 Select the two tasks you want to link. In the following screenshot taken as an example, we have selected names, Task 1 and Task 2.

Task 1 and Task 2 are linked with a Finish-to-Start relationship. A drop down box appears with all Tasks defined in the project. Choose the predecessor task. Click OK. Here I have chosen Task 3. All tasks get linked. To select non-adjacent tasks, hold down Ctrl key and select each task separately. Respect Links If you are in Manually Scheduled mode, any change in duration of the predecessor task will not reflect on Start date of Task 4.

Scheduling is controlled in two ways. Manual Scheduling: This is done to quickly capture some details without actually scheduling the tasks.

It calculates values such as task durations, start dates, and finish dates automatically. It takes into accounts all constraints, links and calendars. For example, at Lucerne Publishing, the new book launch plan has been reviewed by the resources who will carry out the work and by other project stakeholders.

Although you expect the plan to change somewhat as you learn more about the book launch, you now have enough confidence in the overall plan to switch from manual to automatic task scheduling. Converting Task to Automatic Schedule We have three different methods to convert a task to automatic schedule.

Method 1 If you want to change the mode for a particular task, say Task 5 in the following example. Click on Task Mode cell in the same row. Then, click the down arrow to open a dropdown box, you can select Auto Scheduled. Method 3 To switch completely to Auto Schedule mode: Toggle the scheduling mode of the plan by clicking the New Tasks status bar at the bottom-left and then selecting Auto scheduling mode. Go to File tab and click Options. They can be people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything except labor required for the completion of a project task.

Optimum Resource Scheduling is the key to successful project management. Travel expenses, food expenses, etc. For example, paint being used while painting a wall.

Note: Be aware of the crucial difference between People and Equipment resources. People resources will have limited work hours, say 6, 8 or 12 hours. Equipment resources have different working capacities of 2, 8 or 24 hours and could have maintenance breaks as well.

Also note, that it is possible multiple people resources might be using one equipment resource, or one equipment might be accomplishing multiple tasks. Enter Work Resource Names You can enter resource names according to your convenience. Click the cell directly below the Resource Name heading column.

Enter Resources as an individual person, job function or group. The resource is available full-time on each workday. If a resource does not represent an individual person but a job function, where a group of people with the same skill set can work on the task, we can enter larger Max Units to represent the number of people in the group. Click the Max. Units field for the Engineers resource. Press Enter. Units would mean you expect the resource capacity to be lower than a full-time resource.

Click the cell directly below Resource Name heading column. Enter Resource as an individual or job function. You can also enter overtime rates for work resources. Standard rates are calculated on per hour basis. Costs per use on the other hand are costs that do not vary with task. Cost per use is a set fee used up to complete a task. There are three types of resources: work, material, and cost. Like paint being used while painting a wall. People resources will have limited work hours say 6, 8 or 12 hours.

Equipment resources can have different working capacities of 2, 8 or 24 hours and could have maintenance breaks as well. Also note that it is possible multiple people resources might be using one equipment resource, or one equipment might be accomplishing multiple tasks. Cost resources do not use pay rates. Remember cost per use and cost resources are two different things. Cost resources are financial cost associated with a task, like travel expenses, food expenses, etc.

The cost value of cost resource is only assigned when you assign cost resource to a task. MS Project will not automatically apply overtime calculations. Click the cell directly below Resource Name heading column to create Resources. Click the Std.

Rate field for each resource to costs in hourly default , daily, weekly, monthly and yearly rates. In the following example, the resource Rasmus is left at zero. Click the Ovt. Rate field to enter overtime rates. Double-click the Resource, a Resource Information dialog box opens. Click on Notes tab. Hovering over it will make the note appear. Set Up Cost Resources You can use a cost resource to represent a financial cost associated with a task in a plan.

Examples of cost resources are travel, food, entertainment and training. So it is obvious that cost resources do no work on a task and do not affect scheduling of a task. Cost value of the cost resource is entered when assigning it to a task. Click the empty cell in the Resource Name column. Type Training and press the Tab Key.

In the Type field, click the down arrow to select Cost. MS Project — Assign Resources to Task MS Project Once the task and resource list are complete, resources need to be assigned to tasks in order to work on them. With MS Project you can track task progress, resource and tasks costs. Click the box below the Resource Name column for the task you need the resource to be assigned. From the dropdown, choose the resource name.

In the following screenshot as an example. You can also select multiple resources to work on a single task. Now click the Assign button. Double-click the Task Name. Click the Resources tab. Click the cell below the Resource Name column. Select the resource from the dropdown list. The window is split in two, Gantt Chart view and Task Form view below it.

In the Task Form view, click under the Resource Name column and select the resource. We can also assign other material resources to the same task. In the Gantt Chart view, you can also look at the project summary task, to note the duration, start and finish dates of the plan. In the following example, Assign Resources is the project summary task identified as Task 0.

MS Project — Track Progress MS Project Once your project plan is ready in MS Project, it becomes essential for a project manager to measure the actuals in terms of work completed, resources used and costs incurred and to revise and change information about tasks and resources due to any changes to the plans.

A Project Manager should not assume that everything is progressing according to plan and should always keep track of each task. Resistance to formal tracking of project management data is normal. You can overcome resistance to tracking by explaining your expectations, explaining the benefits of tracking, and training people to track the task themselves. Save a Baseline To evaluate project performance you need to create a baseline against which you will compare the progress. One needs to save the baseline, once a plan is fully developed.

Of course, due to rolling wave planning or progressive elaboration needed to manage projects one can always add new tasks, resources, constraints and costs to the plan. Also note, it makes sense to save the baseline before entering any actual values such as percentage of task completion.

These multiple baselines seem contrary to the definition of baseline. You want to develop separate baseline plans for risk response and recovery. You will see Baseline Gantt bars displayed together with the current Gantt bars. Update the Baseline for the Entire Project This simply replaces the original baseline values with the currently scheduled values.

Update the Baseline for Selected Tasks This does not affect the baseline values for other tasks or resource baseline values in the plan. Save Multiple Baselines You can save up to 11 baselines in a single plan. The first one is called Baseline, and the rest are Baseline 1 through Baseline It can be used as a project marker. It is visually easy to see how off-track or on-track the project progress is. Because it only specifies dates, it is simple, clear and easy information.

But sometimes this approach might be fine when the actual work and cost values generated are close enough to your baseline schedule. Select the current date. Check marks will appear in the indicators column for tasks that have been completed. On the right in the Chart portion, progress bars are generated in the Gantt bars of each task. This table includes Work Scheduled work , Actual, and Remaining columns. Click on Task you want to update.

For this task, initial scheduled Work was 16 hours, because 24 hours is greater. In the example, a Baseline is saved, because the Baseline does not change and is used as a comparison. Note: Actual work is rolled up and also reflects on the summary task. Change Start or Finish field in Actual group. You can fill Actual duration field as well. One does not have to finish collecting survey responses before starting the tabulation.

Click the box under the Type column and choose the relationship according to your requirement. Under Lag heading column, enter the lag in terms of hours, days, weeks, or years. You can also apply lag or lead as a percentage. As Soon As Possible means the task starts as soon as the project starts, if there are no dependencies that would delay it.

So, no fixed start or end dates are imposed by this constraint type, but of course predecessor and successor dependencies are maintained. Default constraint when you schedule from the project finish date. Do not enter a Flexible task start or finish date with this constraint. As Soon As Task is scheduled to begin as early as possible.

Do not enter a start or finish date with this constraint. Start No Earlier Task is scheduled to start on or after a specified date. Must Finish On Task is scheduled to finish on a specified date.

Click dropdown box for Constraint type. Choose the constraint you would like to apply. It is a better idea to use a Deadline Date which has no effect on the scheduling of a task or summary task. MS Project will alert you with a red exclamation symbol in the indicators column, if the scheduled completion of the task exceeds its deadline date.

Enter the cost under the Fixed Cost column for the task of interest. Enter a Recurring Task Status meetings, status reports, inspection dates can recur with a particular frequency. In MS Project , you can specify recurring tasks without having to assign tasks each time separately. You can also assign resources to these task. Enter Task Name and choose Recurrence pattern. You can also choose a specific time for the task to start as well.

You can add time value in the Start box for Recurring Task Information dialog box to change this. In the following figure, start time of AM is entered. While schedule changes are made, it is also likely that the critical path will change from time to time. One needs to always focus on the Critical Path first, when one wants to apply fast-tracking or crashing to shorten the project duration.

Slack or Float are key to understanding Critical path. All task bars in the critical path, in the Gantt Chart View on the right, will turn Red in color. Gantt Chart View displays some limited resource information, as shown in the following screenshot.

It summarizes whether there may be a problem by the red over allocated icon in the indicator column. The Resource Usage view displays resources and all tasks assigned to them underneath the Resource Name.

The left-hand side of the screen lists the Resources and the Task Names together with columns of total information for the resource or assignment. The right-hand side shows a time-phased view.

Click on Resource Name column heading. Resolve Resource Over Allocation One would need to either change the scope reduce the amount of work , assign more resources, or accept a longer schedule to resolve overallocation.

If you add delay that is less than or equal to the amount of slack on the task, you will not affect the finish date of the project. Substitute Resources or Add Additional Resources You can manually allot some other resource to the task. You can also right-click on the Time-phased grid in the right hand side window to display amount of overallocation by switching on overallocation.