Set a Project Start Date The first steps in creating a project plan are to create a new file, designate the project's start date or finish date, and then enter other general project info
Trang 1Introduction
A Define the Project
You can't hit the target if you can't see it So, your first step is to set the project's objective The objective should be measurable, define a definite end to the project; and include any assumptions about and constraints
on the project To prevent problems later, be sure everyone affected agrees to your definition of the objective
B Build the Plan
Once you know where your project is going, you need to figure out the best way to get there To do that, you'll gather project information such as a list of the tasks that need to be done and estimates for how long each task will take Then, you'll enter the information into Microsoft Project As you enter information, Microsoft Project creates a plan for getting your project done
C Track and Manage
Once your project starts, it's up to your team to execute the plan But you'll need to keep close tabs on their progress, because you'll undoubtedly encounter problems you didn't expect By keeping Microsoft Project up to date, you can see the latest status of the project and identify and resolve problems early on that might affect your project's success
D Close the Project
Every project is a learning experience No matter how well you planned at the beginning, by the end of your
Trang 21 Set a Project Start Date
The first steps in creating a project plan are to create a new file, designate the project's start date or finish date, and then enter other general project information If you don't enter a project start date or finish date, Microsoft Project automatically uses the current date as the start date
1 Click New
2 Enter a start date or a finish date
To enter a start date, type the date on which you want to start your project in the Start date box
To enter a finish date, click Project Finish Date in the Schedule from box, and then type a finish date from which to schedule your project in the Finish date box
Tip If your plans change, you can change your
project information at any time by clicking Project Information on the Project menu For example, if the project start date is postponed because you need to hire a new project manager, you can change the start date You indicate when you first expect tasks to begin by setting the project start date As you enter tasks, Microsoft Project schedules them
to start on that date Of course, every task won't start immediately So, as you enter more information about tasks, such as dependencies
or constraints, Microsoft Project sets more realistic start dates If your tasks aren’t starting by default when you want them to, you can change the project start date Microsoft Project will
reschedule the start date of any task that is not dependent on another task or constrained to a specific date
Trang 32 Enter Tasks
A typical project consists of a series of related tasks, which are the building blocks of your schedule Enter all the tasks that are important to your project, in the approximate order that you expect to do them
1 On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart
2 In the Task Name field, type a task name
3 Press ENTER
Tip: It can be difficult to decide how finely to break down your tasks As a general rule, a task should be less
than 2 weeks in length It should be large enough to be a significant chunk of work, but small enough that you can track its progress regularly and identify problems early
Trang 43 Enter Durations
When you enter a task, Microsoft Project automatically assigns it a duration of 1 day You can change this duration to more accurately represent how long the task will take
On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart
1 In the Duration field of the task you want to change, type the duration you want
1 You can enter durations in minutes, hours, days, or weeks
2 Press ENTER
Tip You can schedule your tasks most effectively by entering a duration for each task and letting Microsoft
Project calculate the start and finish dates for you
Trang 54 Assign Resources
Most tasks require a resource to do the work A resource can be a person, piece of equipment, building, or any physical item necessary to complete a task
1 On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart
2 In the Task Name field, select the task to which you want to assign a resource
3 Click the Assign Resources icon from the toolbar
4 In the Name field, select the resource you want to assign to the task
1 If the resource isn't already listed, type the name of the resource in the Name field
5 Click Assign
A check mark to the left of the Name field indicates that the resource is assigned to the selected task
If desired, use the scroll arrows in the Units column to appropriately allocate between resources
Tip You can also assign resources part-time or
overtime and assign more than one resource Note that
a resource's working hours are indicated in the resource's calendar
Trang 65 Link Tasks
Tasks usually happen in sequence: you prepare the walls, then paint them, and then hang pictures To create a sequence, you link dependent tasks and tell Microsoft Project how they are dependent
1 On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart
2 In the Task Name field, select two or more tasks you want to link by highlighting the Task Names
1 To select tasks that are not grouped together:
1 Click on the first task (so that it is highlighted)
2 Hold down the Shift key and click on any other tasks you would like to link with the first
3 Click Link Tasks icon on the toolbar
Microsoft Project creates a finish-to-start task link, where one of the tasks must finish before the next task can start
Note: A simple finish-to-start link may not be appropriate You can create other types of task links, such as
start-to-start or finish-to-finish links
Tip: The Unlink Tasks icon is located next to the Link Tasks icon on the toolbar
Trang 76 Print the Plan
To review your project plan before fine-tuning it, you can print the Gantt Chart view or any view in Microsoft Project You can also customize views and then print them
Click the Print icon on the toolbar
Trang 87 Fine-Tune the Plan
You've created an initial project plan, but it may not meet your goals, yet For example, if you follow the current plan, your project may take too long or cost too much To remedy these and other problems, you'll need to fine-tune your project plan
What do you want to do?
Shorten the project schedule
Reduce the costs of tasks
Reduce the costs of resources
Ensure that the resources can do their work in the time available
Shorten the project schedule
The first step to shortening your schedule is to identify the tasks that are delaying it, called critical path tasks Once you've identified the critical path tasks you can shorten the schedule by adjusting them
1 On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart
2 Click the Gantt Chart Wizard icon from the toolbar
3 Follow the Gantt Chart Wizard instructions to format critical path tasks
Once you've identified the critical path tasks, you can adjust them in a variety of ways to shorten the schedule Adjust those task that have the biggest impact on the schedule and that you have the most flexibility to change
What do you want to do?
Delete a task
Change a task's duration to reflect a reduction in it's scope
Assign more resources to a task
Assign overtime work to shorten critical path tasks
Check task dependencies to see if the task can start earlier
Reduce the costs of tasks
View the cost per task
If the total project cost does not meet your budget, you may need to examine the total cost of each individual task to see what can be changed
1 On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart
2 On the View menu, point to Table, and then click Cost
3 Drag the divider bar to the right to view the Total Cost field
Trang 9Reduce costs
Once you know where you're spending your money, consider ways to reduce the highest costs Generally, you can reduce costs by either:
Eliminating tasks from the project, thereby reducing the scope of tasks so that they take less time and cost less to complete
Using fewer or cheaper resources
What do you want to do?
Delete a task
Change a task duration to reflect a reduction in its scope
Remove a costly resource from a task
Assign a cheaper resource to a task
Reduce the costs of resources
View the cost per resource
You can view the total cost per resource to see how the standard, overtime, and per-use costs add up
1 On the View Bar, click Resource Sheet
Trang 102 On the View menu, point to Table, and then click Cost.
Tip: To see resource cost totals displayed graphically, click Resource Graph on the View Bar, point to Details on
the Format menu, and then click Cost or Cumulative Cost
Trang 11Reduce costs
Once you know where you're spending your money, consider ways to reduce the highest costs Generally, you can reduce costs by either:
Eliminating tasks from the project, thereby reducing the scope of tasks so that they take less time and cost less to complete
Using fewer or cheaper resources
What do you want to do?
Delete a task
Change a task duration to reflect a reduction in its scope
Remove a costly resource from a task
Assign a cheaper resource to a task
Ensure that the resources can do their work in the time available
Check resource workload
To find out which resources are over allocated or under allocated (not working to capacity), use the Resource Usage view You'll see the total hours each resource is working, the hours each resource is working on each task, and the hours worked per time period Over allocated resources are highlighted and displayed with an icon
in the Indicators field
1 On the View Bar, click Resource Usage
Trang 12Reduce resource over allocations
Keep in mind that minor amounts of over allocation, such as less than 1 hour per day, may not be significant enough for you to resolve and may be unavoidable You can use any of several methods to resolve larger over allocations
What do you want to do?
Resolve resource over allocations automatically
Assign extra resources to a task, thereby reducing the hours that the over allocated resource must work
Set different working hours and days off for a resource
Decrease the amount of work assigned to the resource
Trang 138 Set a Baseline
Once you complete the initial process of creating a plan, entering tasks, establishing dependencies, assigning resources, and fine-tuning your schedule; you're ready to set a baseline plan By comparing the information in your baseline plan to your updated schedule during the course of the project, you can identify and solve
discrepancies After the project ends, you can use the baseline plan to schedule similar, future projects more accurately
1 On the Tools menu, point to Tracking, and then click Save Baseline
2 Click Entire project or Selected tasks to save the portion of the schedule you want
Trang 149 Enter Actuals
You can update your schedule as frequently as you want to monitor progress To update your schedule, evaluate the status of each task and enter the latest, actual information in your schedule You can then determine your progress by using the baseline information you stored to compare your original plan with the current status
What do you want to do?
Update actual start and finish dates for a task
Update progress on a task as a percentage
Determine if tasks are starting and finishing according to plan
Determine if tasks cost more or less than budgeted
Update actual start and finish dates for a task
It's important to track whether tasks start and finish on time Tasks that start or finish late can throw an entire project off schedule by delaying the start or finish dates of related tasks Tasks that start or finish early can free resources to work on other tasks that are behind schedule However, be sure to check the availability of
resources assigned to tasks that can start early because the resources may be assigned to other tasks at that time
1 In the Task Name field, select the task you want to update
2 On the Tools menu, point to Tracking, and then click Update Tasks
3 Under Actual, type the dates in the Start and Finish boxes
Note: Entering an actual start date or actual finish date for a task changes the corresponding scheduled date for
that task Baseline dates, however, are not affected by changes you make to the actual or scheduled dates
Tip: If a number of tasks started and finished on time, you can set the actual start and actual finish information
for all of those tasks at once In the Task Name field, select the tasks that started and finished on time On the Tools menu, point to Tracking, click Update Project, and then click Selected tasks
Update progress on a task as a percentage
You can indicate how much progress has been made on a task by entering the percentage of the task duration that is complete For tasks that are relatively short in duration, it may not be worthwhile to track progress in such detail; but for tasks of an extended duration, indicating the percentage of the task that is complete helps you track actual progress against the baseline plan
A task is zero percent complete when it has not yet begun, and it is 100 percent complete when it is finished By default, Microsoft Project indicates the percentage of the task that is complete on the Gantt Chart as a thin, black line drawn horizontally through the middle of each task bar
1 Select the task for which you want to update progress
2 On the Project menu, click on Task Information, and then click the General tab
3 In the Percent complete box, type a whole number between 0 and 100
Trang 15Notes
Microsoft Project calculates the percentage of a summary task that is complete based on the progress of its subtasks You can also manually enter the percent complete on a summary task
Microsoft Project displays a check mark in the Indicators field for a completed task
When you enter the percent complete on a task, Microsoft Project updates the actual work values for the appropriate assigned resources on the task To prevent this from happening, you can turn off the automatic update of resource status
Tips
To indicate progress on a recurring task, add the % Complete field to your Gantt Chart and type the number in that field On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart, and then click Column on the Insert menu Click % Complete in the Field name box, and then enter the percentage in the % Complete field for the recurring task
You can use the mouse to enter the approximate percentage of a task that is complete on the chart portion of the Gantt Chart view Move the pointer to the left side of the task bar until it changes to a percent sign Drag to the right to reach the percentage complete you want
You can use the buttons on the Tracking toolbar to update progress on a task and to perform other tracking activities On the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Tracking
Determine if tasks are starting and finishing according to plan
To keep your project on schedule, you need to make sure that tasks start and finish on time as much as
possible Of course, there will always be tasks that do not start on time or run behind schedule It is important