MS Projects

IT 625 MS Project Exercise II Guidelines and Rubric Overview: When managing information technology projects, it is important to lay out a work breakdown structure (WBS) in a logical format that describes work tasks, durations, resources, dependencies, and planned and actual schedules. The most common tool for creating and managing the WBS is Microsoft Project. In this course, Microsoft Project is used to complete all exercises. Microsoft Project is also required for part of the final project. Like so many software products, there are thousands of features in MS Project. You need to master just a few to be a good project manager. Remember to manage the project, not just the project plan. Keeping MS Project usage to basics is a key success factor, unless you are part of a large project management team that spends all day administering tasks. Most project managers have to do everything, so efficiency and appropriate fit to purpose is essential. Prompt: Using your downloaded version of MS Project 2013, create a new project file (MPP). In the first MS Project exercise, you learned your way around the software and developed the basic WBS. In this exercise, you will expand your use of the tool to turn the initial WBS into a project schedule with assigned resources, updated project calendar, and proper task sequencing. You will create a summary task, rearrange the sub-tasks, add predecessors for tasks, assign resources to tasks, and update the work calendar in the schedule. Submit your MPP file for grading. After completing the assigned reading (Chapter 4, pp. 70–82, of Microsoft Project 2013: The Missing Manual), update the Exercise I project file you submitted in Module One as follows:

 Add a summary task called ERP Project in the beginning of the schedule.

 Rearrange the tasks in the following order: 1. Defining (14 days); 2. Planning (21 days); 3. Executing (40 days); 4. Closing (7 days); 5. Project Completion (0 days).

 Add predecessor for each task (e.g., predecessor for task #2. Planning should be task #1. Defining).

 Add yourself and three others as resources to the schedule.

 Assign yourself to every task in the schedule. Assign each of the other resources to tasks #2, #3, and #4.

 Add the following calendar days as holidays in the file: New Year's Day (January 1); Independence Day (July 4); Thanksgiving Day (November 26); Christmas Day (December 25). If a holiday falls on a Saturday use the preceding Friday. If it falls on a Sunday use the following Monday.

Specifically the following critical elements must be addressed:

 Submitted Project file demonstrates accurate completion of the assigned tutorial from the text  Work tasks, scheduled dates, and visual views are in accordance with the assignments’ requests

Guidelines for Submission: Submit your file in MPP format.

Rubric Critical Elements Proficient (100%) Needs Improvement (75%) Not Evident (0%) Value

Completion of Requested Tasks

Reflects that the student followed each of the steps of the assignment and overcame any challenges in using the software

Followed some of the steps and partially completed the assignment, but it is not complete

Task was not completed 50

Data Matches the Assignment

Final assignment results and project views match the requested tasks in data value and/or appearance

Some of final assignment results and project views match the requested tasks, but some of the results do not match the expectations of the assignment

Final assignment results and project views do not match the requested tasks in data value and/or appearance

50

Total 100%