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MGMT404_Martinezt_Lab1/MS_Project_Lesson1A.docx

MS Project - Lesson #1A - Basics of Project Scheduling - Part 1

Objectives - MS Project 2010

· Understanding Project Scheduling

· Introduction to Microsoft Project

· Working with Project Tasks

· Basic views, time scales and reports

Whether you are a project manager or not, project management techniques are extremely helpful in meeting goals and objects. Project management techniques define a path to a specified goal and then supervise the implementation.

MS Project can help you establish your initial plan as well as monitor progress. MS Project can quickly produce reports and other information that will help keep management, customers, and your project team informed. To get the most from MS Project, not only do you need to understand project management terminology, you also need to be familiar with the software itself. Therefore, do not attempt to quickly finish the lab, but take your time and read all instructions carefully.

Understanding Project Scheduling

A typical project is composed of tasks and resources. After tasks are identified, you organize the tasks in a logical hierarchy, also called a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). Eventually, this sequence will show the interdependencies of each task. Then each task is given a duration. In MS Project, this can be in weeks, days, hours or minutes. You can also specify a milestone, which will represent an event that marks the completion of a group of related tasks.

To accomplish any task, you need resources. Resources can include people, equipment, material or special facilities necessary to complete a task. Resource availability and scheduling are important constraints to completing a task.

Once you establish a plan, complete with tasks and resources, you will often need to refine the plan before saving it as a baseline. The baseline is your guideline to help manage the project.

MS Project Basics

When you first start MS Project, a blank project file is displayed in Gantt Chart View. (If you need to open an existing MS Project file, the file extension is . mpp.) Let's take a look at the main window:

Select All

Entry Table

Task ID

Gantt Chart

Divider

View Bar

The above image is the default screen for MS Project 2010. The right side of the screen consists of the area for the Gantt Chart. The left side of the screen is the Entry table where tasks, durations, and other task information is entered. The Entry Table and Gantt Chart are separated by a moveable Divider

Pay particular attention to this layout. The Entry table is where we enter our tasks and durations. The Gantt chart will eventually show our tasks and durations in a graphical bar chart. The other part of significance is the divider. This allows you to show more or less of the Entry table/Gantt chart.

In Project 2010 the menu bar is set up into Ribbons. To access the various ribbons, Tabs are selected across the top of the menu bar. Within the ribbon the various sections are divided into groups:

TABS

GROUPS

The above image displays the Microsoft Ribbon in the top of the window. The ribbon is navigated via Tabs. Within each tab are Groups and within each of the Groups are individual commands.

The first step in creating a project is establishing the project information.

1. Select Project Information from the Project tab and the Properties group

The Project Information is used for information that is critical to the scheduling of tasks and resources. It contains the start date and finish date of the overall project, the current date (taken from the computer), and which calendar you will be using. You must always enter this information when creating a new project.

2. Enter the starting date of this project as October 9, 2013. (Note: you can only enter the start date or the finish date, but not both!).

3. Leave the other information as is and Press OK.

4. Next we are going to define other project information. Select File on the Project Tab. Next select, Info. On the right hand side of the screen select Project Information and then Advanced Properties.

5. The Project Properties screen appears and the Summary tab should be selected.

6. In the Title box, type Maynard Furniture Company Project.

7. In the Subject box, type New System.

8. In the Author's and the Manager's box, type in your name. This information will be displayed on reports. In the Company box, enter MGMT404 followed by your professor’s name. Click OK.

9. Save the project as MyLab1a_XXX.mpp (where XXX are your initials).

Basic Setup

1. Before we start entering data there are a few setup tasks we need to do.

2. The first is to change how MS Project calculates the schedule. (We will explain this in week 5)

3. Go File, then Options. The Project Options window opens.

4. Select Schedule. The Project Options window now should be visible.

5. Under Scheduling options for this project check the box labeled "New tasks are effort driven"

6. Click OK to close the window.

7. Next, select the Gantt Chart Tools Format tab from the ribbon. Click the check box to show the tasks that will be on the Critical Path.

8. Select the Task tab. With these settings we are ready to start entering data

Entering tasks

1. Click in the first field in the Task Name column. Type Inventory current equipment.

2. Press the tab key. The information is entered and the selection moves to the Duration column for task 1. (You may need to slide the divider to the right to see the column). Also notice the task is represented on the Gantt chart.

3. Change the duration to 3 days by typing 3 and press enter. Notice the duration "days" or the letter "d" is automatically assumed. If different, you would enter m for minutes, h for hours, d for days or w for weeks after the number, such as 3w would be three weeks).

4. By default, MS Project 2010 enters tasks as Manually Scheduled. This allows the user to schedule individual dates for the tasks. We however, want MS Project to schedule the tasks for us.

5. For task 1, In the Task Mode column, select Auto Schedule. This will enable MS Project to automatically assign the start and end dates for each task.

6. To change this as the default mode, at the bottom left of the screen there is a button where you can change this default setting. Click on this and change the setting so all new tasks are set to be Auto Scheduled. You can also do this from the Task tab, Tasks group and selecting the Mode button, or from the Options screen we looked at earlier.

7. Enter the following tasks and durations for this project:

Assess current department needs 2 days

Design and diagram new system 5 days

Proposal to accounting 3 days

Research products and services 7 days

Issue RFPs 7 days

Evaluate bids 5 days

Award contract 1 day

Meet with vendor 1 day

Purchase equipment 4 days

Install wiring 3 days

Install hardware 2 days

Install software 2 days

( Note: it is very important that you make any changes to these durations prior to assigning resources. If you need to change duration after assigning resources, you should unassign all resources, change the duration and then re-assign the resources!)

8. When you enter tasks, note that “1 Day?” is the automatic default for duration. (You may need to slide the divider to the right to see the column). Also notice the task is represented on the Gantt chart. For durations that are only 1 day, make sure to manually type 1 and then the <Enter> key to remove the “?”.

9. Next make sure each task is " Auto Scheduled" when you are finished.

10. Notice as you enter each task and the duration, how the tasks are presented on the Gantt chart.

(Tip: By default MS Project 2010 automatically wraps the text on the task names. Some readers may find this not very clear. To see the entire task name on one line, position your cursor on the vertical line between the Task Name column header and the Duration column header. When the cursor turns to a double arrow, either drag the line to the right to increase the column width or double-click. Another method is to double click on the Task Name column header and select Best Fit. To see the Duration column, move the divider between the tasks and the Gantt chart. When you are done, then also adjust row height).

11. The text wrap can be toggled on and off from the Gantt Chart Tools Format tab, in the Columns group and the Wrap Text icon. Please turn this off now.

12. Change the duration of the task Award contract to 0 days. Notice the symbol on the Gantt chart. This is a milestone task, which has no duration but is used to mark progress in a project.

13. What if you need to insert a task later? Easy. For example, select task #13 Install software and Right click and select click Insert Task. A new task row will now be inserted above the current task.

14. Type Test system as your new task and duration of 1 day. (Remember next to select "Auto Scheduled".

15. Since “Test system” actually should be our last task, we need to move it. Therefore click (but do not hold down the mouse button) the task ID for task #13 - Test system. The entire row should be selected.

Task ID

16. With the pointer still positioned on the task ID, drag down until a horizontal gray bar is displayed after task #14. Then release. Test system should now be your last task.

17. What if you want to delete a task? Click anywhere in the row for the task Meet with vendor. Right click and select click Delete Task.

Another type of task you may want to enter is a recurring task, such as a team meeting, etc. Generally recurring tasks are not included on a project, but it helps in resource scheduling.

18. Below the last task (task #13: Test System), click in the Task Name Column, but do not type anything.

19. From the Task tab in the Insert group, click Select the arrow under Task and choose Recurring Task.

20. The Recurring Task Information Box appears.

21. In the Name box, type Project Meeting.

22. Press the tab key and enter 2h for duration of 2 hours. Select Weekly for "Recurrence pattern" and check the box for Friday. Leave "Recur every" as is. We have scheduled a weekly 2-hour meeting every Friday for the duration of the project. Click OK. (Notice the circular arrows in the indicator column next to the task name).

19. Save the project before continuing.

Displaying Project Information in Views

Before closing out this project, we need to spend a little time with views. A view is a format in which you can enter and/or display information in MS Project. Your default view is known as the Gantt view: it is made up of the Entry table on the left, used to enter task information, and the Gantt chart on the right, which graphically represents the task information on a timescale.

Task and resource views in MS Project fall into three categories : sheet views, chart and graph views, and form views. Each view displays combinations of project information in different ways. Understanding what is your current view and changing views is critical in mastering MS Project.

Sheet views display task or resource information in a row and column format (similar to MS Excel). Chart and graph views provide a graphical representation of task or resource information. Form views display task or resource information in a format that displays a single task or single resource at a time. You use a form view when you want to focus on detailed information about a specific task or resource.

MS Project comes with 27 (MS Project 2010) predefined views.

1. From the Task tab and the View group, click Calendar. What do you see?

2. Now click on Task Usage. How is this different?

3. Finally, click on Network Diagram. Graphical view of tasks…

4. Return to the Gantt Chart view.

5. Another item to explore is the timescale for the Gantt chart.

On longer projects, you may not be able to see all the tasks on the Gantt chart. You can use the scroll bars to the right and on the bottom of the Gantt chart or you can adjust the timescale of the chart (shown above). The top line of the timescale is referred to as the Major timescale ( Oct 6, ‘13, etc.) and the bottom line as the Minor timescale (SMTWTFS). To adjust the timescale, you can use the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons on the View toolbar under Zoom:

6. Click the Zoom In button (the one with the + sign). Notice the Major timescale changes to a day and the Minor timescale changes to 6-hour increments.

7. Now click on the Zoom Out button (the one with the - sign). The Major timescale returns to a week and the Minor timescale changes to day increments.

8. Click on the Zoom Out button again. Notice the Major timescale changes to a month and the Minor timescale changes to 3-day increments.

9. Click the Zoom In button again to return to the default of a week and one-day increments.

You can also specify your own timescale by selecting the Timescale dialog box on the View tab, Zoom group and the down arrow under "Timescale:" or by right clicking on the time scale on the Gantt chart.

Printing Project Schedules and Reports

To manage a project effectively, you will need to communicate project information to a variety of people, therefore it is important the reports printed are understandable by the readers.

You can print views and reports that meet the needs of a specific person or group. MS Project comes with 27 predefined views and 22 Visual reports and 29 standard reports. Before you print a view or report, it should be previewed to determine the number of pages that will be printed and if any additional information needs to be added.

Using the Page Setup dialog box, you can select page orientation, adjust scaling, change margins, and add or change the headers and footers. You can also add page breaks to control the flow of information. You can also create a legend at the bottom of the Gantt chart to explain the symbols used in the chart. (With the exception of the Project Summary report, you must do this for each report/printout; it is NOT a universal page setup!)

1. On the File tab, Print, then Page Setup.

The Page Setup dialog box appears:

2. Click the Header tag. The top box is the Preview box and the bottom box is the Text box.

3. Select the Left tab next to Alignment. In the Text box, type Lesson #1A on the first line. ( The left corner will always be the lab number, so make sure you change it in future labs!)

4. Select the Center tab. Next to the General box displaying the text, "Page Number", click the down arrow and select Project Title. Click Add.

Note: the project title is displayed in the Preview box (based upon the information you entered in the Project Information earlier). The text box shows the “&” sign or the "place marker" for this information. The nice thing here is that if you ever change the Project Information, the changes will automatically appear on any reports that contain this information in the header.

5. Press Enter. (The cursor should now be on the second line for your center header information). From the same drop-down tab, add Manager Name. Press Enter and add File name as your third line and add Report Name as your fourth and final line.

6. Select the Right tab. Notice the seven icons below the text box. Select the middle (or fourth icon) to insert the current date in this section of your header.

7. On your own, make sure Page Number is in your footer and it is center aligned and then press OK. Review the Print Preview to view the changes. What is missing? Notice that there is nothing displayed in the fourth line of the header for report name? Why??? This is a view and not a defined report so there is nothing to display in this field. In order to see the view name, the parameter in the fourth line of the header would have to be changed to View Name – we will NOT do this at this time. The fourth line will display as a blank line when we are in a view format and not a report format.

8. Click the File tab to return to the Gantt chart view.

Previewing and Printing Views and Reports

When submitting required printouts, if you are not bringing them to class, from the Print Preview Page, take a screen shot (in Windows <ALT><Prt Scr>) of the report and paste the screen shot to a MS Word Document. Make sure to crop the screen to show only the report. After cropping, resize the image appropriately. If the printout is on more than 1 page, paste each page individually.

Save the Word document containing printouts as Week_1_Printouts_XXX.docx. Remember to replace "XXX" in the file names with your initials and ensure that all of your files are all clearly labeled and include your initials in the file name. In the second part of this lesson, there will be more printouts to add to the Week_1_Printout_XXX.docx file.

9. On the File tab, click the Print button. Place the mouse pointer over the preview page. The pointer changes to a magnifying glass.

10. Click the lower-left corner of the preview page. The view is zoomed in so you can see the legend to the Gantt chart. If you ever want to change the contents of this legend, you can go to the same Page Setup in our previous steps and select Legend.

11. Click on the magnifying glass again to return to normal view. Make sure the task names column and the duration column can be seen in their entirety and the Gantt chart also appears in your window.

12. Click Print and print this view. We have just printed the Gantt chart view.

13. To view and print reports: From the Project tab, click Reports in the Reports group.

14. The Reports box opens. Each icon represents a category of reports. The first five (Overview, Current Activities, Costs, Assignments and Workload) represent 22 predefined reports. The last category, Custom, allows you to create your own report.

15. Select Overview and then select Project Summary. The Project Summary report now opens in Print Preview.

16. Select Page Setup for this report. Notice something interesting? The header and footer (and legend and view) tabs are grayed out. For some reason, only known to Microsoft, this is the only report that you cannot change the header and footer. To that end, it is imperative that you enter all appropriate project information and project properties as discussed in the lab!

17. Print the Project Summary. This is a very important report. It lists all relevant summary information as to project progress and achievement of your project objective.

18. On your own, find the report, Unstarted Tasks. Before you print this report, make sure your header and footer contain the appropriate information! Print the report when all is well.

19. Save your file and exit MS Project.

Save the Word document containing printouts as Week_1_Printouts_XXX.docx and submit this file to the Week 1 iLab Dropbox, along with the MyLab1B_XXX.mpp file and the completed Review Questions at the end of Lesson 1B. Remember to replace "XXX" in the file names with your initials and ensure that all of your files are all clearly labeled and include your initials in the file name.

In part 2 of this lesson we will continue working with task information by outline and linking these tasks and discussing interdependencies and constraints.

1. On the Project tab, click Project Information. In the Project Information dialog box, click Statistics. The following screen should appear. Use this to check your progress…

MS Project Lesson #1, Part A Page 7

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MGMT404_Martinezt_Lab1/MS_Project_Lesson1B.docx

MS Project - Lesson #1B - Basics of Project Scheduling - Part 2

Objectives - MS Project 2010

· Creating a summary task

· Working with subtasks

· Establishing task dependencies

· Specify lead and lag times

A project task list can be as few as 10 or as many as several hundred tasks. With a large project, it can become difficult to locate a specific task. Using MS Project, you can organize the task list by creating a hierarchical structure. This process of structuring a task list is known as outlining. Outlining is used to organize common tasks into groups within the task list. The groups can represent phases of the project.

In this lab, we will first use outlining to group the tasks of our project into phases. We will create a main summary task to represent the entire project and then several levels of summary tasks below the main summary task to represent the phases of the project.

Creating an Outline

1. Log onto Windows. Open MS Project.

2. Open your project file that you created in Lesson 1, Part A (MyLab1a_XXX.mpp, where XXX are your initials.)

3. Save this file, using Save As, as MyLab1b_XXX.mpp, where XXX are your initials.

Creating a hierarchical outline organizes the project tasks list into groups of tasks. Each group of tasks is preceded by a summary task, which describes the tasks within each group.

The outline of a project generally begins with a main summary task. The main summary task is a brief description of the project and all tasks are subordinate to the main summary task. This main summary task is also helpful in generation of summary reports and cumulative totals in budgeting and resource management.

4. Click in the task name field for task 1, Inventory current equipment.

5. Right click and select Insert Task. A new blank task row is inserted above and the task list is renumbered.

6. Type in (Student's Name) New System, where you enter your first and last name for student name. For example, if you are John Smith, your task will read John Smith's New System. Got it?

7. Do not worry about duration.

8. Since this is our main summary task, we need to indent all the other tasks to indicate that they are subtasks or subordinate tasks.

9. We need to select all the tasks below our summary task (from Inventory Equipment up to and including Project Meeting). One way to do this is to click in the task name field for task 2, Inventory Equipment. Click and drag so that all the task names are selected. (Similar to Excel). (You can also click in task 2 name field, hold down the shift key and then click in the last task name field.)

10. On the Task tab, you should see the following icons:

This is the Schedule Ribbon. The left arrow outdents a task to a higher level; the right arrow indents a task lower level task, thus creating a summary task above.

11. Press the Indent button (the right arrow). The selected tasks are indented one level within the outline. Also notice the duration for your main summary task. How did it come up with 7 days? In addition, notice the change in the Gantt chart in representation of the summary task!

12. Press Crtl+Home. The cursor moves to the first task, your main summary task, and is bold indicating that it is a summary task. Your screen should like Figure 1.

Figure 1

The image above is of the Workbreakdown Structure as currently designed. There are 15 total tasks. The main summary task is task 1, and the recurring Project Meeting task is task 15.

Note: You can also automatically create a top level summary task, from the Gantt Chart Tools, Format tab. In the Show/Hide group, select the Project Summary task check box. The project title is inserted from the title box on the summary tab of the Project Properties dialog box. Since we are entering different information for our project main summary task name, we will not be practicing this procedure. Also, when this method is used, the automatic outline numbering format is changed, which we will get to in a few more steps.

We now want to create additional summary tasks below our main summary task, perhaps to represent logical phases of the project.

1. Select the task name field for task 2, Inventory Current Equipment.

2. Right click and select Insert Task.

3. In the new Task 2 row, type Proposal Creation. (Again leave the default 1-day duration).

4. Select tasks 3 through 7 (Inventory Equipment to Research Products and Services).

5. Indent the tasks. These tasks are now subtasks to the summary task of Proposal Creation. When you insert tasks, you will also need to widen the Task Name Column.

Your project should now look like figure 2.

Figure 2

In the image above, the new summary task, "Proposal Creation" is indented one time beneath, the main summary task. The next five tasks are indented one time under "Proposal Creation".

Hint: You can also indent tasks using the mouse. Position the mouse over the task name. The pointer changes to a two-way arrow. Drag the task one level to the right.

6. On your own create three more summary tasks or phases subordinate to the main summary task:

· Vendor Selection, which will include the subtasks of Issue RFP's, Evaluate Bids and Award Contract.

· Implement System, which will include the subtasks of Purchase Equipment, Install Wiring, Install Hardware, Install Software and Test System.

· Leave Project Meeting where it is. We will treat this as subtask to the entire project.

You will have to make use of the Outdent (Left Arrow) button to move your new summary tasks to the left. Make sure, however, you do not outdent too much! Compare your result with figure 3 and make any necessary correction before continuing the lab!

Figure 3

In the image above, the WBS is now created with one main summary task, four summary tasks and then the work packages beneath each of the summaries.

7. If all looks good, save your file.

Hiding and Showing the Outline

By hiding and showing subtasks in the outline, you can display only the information needed. Not only does this cut down on the printing, but allows you to focus on any specific area of the project.

The outline structure can be hidden or displayed using the outline buttons on the Formatting toolbar (as previously discussed) or by using the symbols next to each summary task. The ( +) symbol indicates all the subtasks of the summary task are hidden and the ( -) symbol indicates that all subtasks are shown.

8. Select your main summary task ((Your name) New System). Press the (-) symbol on the outlining toolbar to show only the main summary task. The main summary task should be the only task now listed.

9. Press the (+) symbol. Notice all the summary tasks and their subtasks now reappear.

10. Click on the - symbol next to the summary task, Proposal Creation. All the subtasks below Proposal Creation should now disappear. Click the + symbol next to the summary task, Proposal Creation. The subtasks for this summary task should now reappear.

Viewing Outline Numbers

MS Project automatically assigns an outline number to each task when you outline the schedule. (Do not confuse this with the task number, which appears in the first column of your entry table). The outline numbers are similar to a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

11. Click in main summary task name ("Your Name New Project). Select the Gantt Chart Tools Format Tab.

12. On the Show/Hide group, select the Outline Number check box

13. The outline numbers are now displayed in each task name field. (Once again, you may need to widen the Task Name column.

14. Leave the numbers displayed for now.

Note: if you ever move a task (previously discussed in prior lab), MS Project will automatically renumber the outline for you. At this point, your screen should look like figure 4.

Figure 4

In the image above, the outline numbers are added to the task name column. Task 1 is "1". The summary tasks beneath are Proposal creation, "1.1", Vendor Selection "1.2", Implement System, "1.3" and Project Meeting, "1.4". The work packages beneath each summary task continues the numbering. For example, Under Vendor Selection (1.1) the individual tasks are numbered 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, etc.

Establishing Task Dependencies

When a task list is first developed, the tasks are listed one after another, and the only consideration is the approximate logical order or sequence in which they should occur. Right now, our project looks like several isolated tasks that all start at the same time and finish according to each task's duration. In reality, a project is a series of related tasks and these relationships are called dependencies. There are four types of dependencies:

Finish-to-Start (FS)	The finish of one task marks the start of another. This will be the default when we link since it is the most common.
Start-to-Start (SS)	The start of one task marks the start of another. In other words, both tasks may start at the same time. This is what our Gantt Chart is currently showing.
Finish-to-Finish (FF)	The finish of one task marks the finish of another. In other words, both tasks may finish at the same time.
Start-to-Finish (SF)	The start of one task marks the finish of another task. This is the most uncommon dependency.

When a task is initially entered into MS Project, it is scheduled to begin on the project start date. By linking tasks, you establish a dependency that determines the sequence of tasks. MS Project then schedules the tasks by setting the start and finish dates of each task. The Gantt bars in the Gantt chart view are then moved to the appropriate date on the timescale and link lines are drawn to display the dependency.

1. Select all the tasks in your project by clicking on the task name for the first task (Task #1) your main summary task, and then dragging the cursor down to the last task, Project Meeting.

2. On the Task toolbar, in the Schedule ribbon press the Link Tasks button.

3. Each task is now linked in a finish-to-start dependency. Your screen should look similar to figure 5.

Link Line

Figure 5

In the image above, arrows link the connected tasks.

You need to notice several things at this point:

· The duration of your main summary task and your summary tasks has now changed. Do you know why?

· The duration of your main summary task may read ####. This means the number is too big for the size of the column, similar to an Excel spreadsheet. Widen the column so the number will appear by positioning your cursor to the right edge of the column header for Duration. The cursor will turn to a double horizontal arrow. Double click. You should see 44.25 days.

· On the Gantt chart, scroll to the end of the project and notice how the summary tasks are linked.

· Also notice there is no link to the recurring task of Project Meeting.

· Finally every task link is a Finish-to-Start dependency.

4. Now, select all the tasks of your project again.

5. Press the Unlink Tasks button Task toolbar, in the Schedule ribbon.

6. All dependencies and links should be gone and your entry table should look similar to figure 4 again.

7. Another way to link tasks, and perhaps better, is to select two or more tasks before linking.

8. Click in task name 3, Inventory Current Equipment. Drag to select all the tasks under the summary task of Proposal Creation (see figure 6).

Figure 6

9. Click on the Link Tasks Button. Only these tasks should now show link lines on the Gantt chart.

10. On your own , link the subtasks under Vendor Selection.

11. On your own, link the subtasks under Implement System.

12. Compare your results to figure 7.

Figure 7

In the image above, the project duration is 20 days. Proposal Creation equals 20 days, Vendor Selection, 12 days, Implement System, 12 days and Project Meeting 0.25 days.

If you are paying attention, you will notice one possible problem with this dependency list: each phase or summary task starts at the same time. Might be hard to implement system before awarding the contract!

13. We need to show the dependencies between the work under the summary tasks. However, we cannot use the previous method because these tasks are non-contiguous.

14. To link non-contiguous tasks; follow the next steps very carefully because it is extremely important that you select tasks in the proper order!

15. Click in the summary task name for Proposal Creation.

16. Hold down the Control key on your keyboard while you do the next two instructions.

17. Click in the summary task name for Vendor Selection.

18. Click in the summary task name for Implement System.

19. Release the Control key and press the Link Tasks button on the main toolbar.

20. Check your Gantt chart to see if the summary tasks were linked properly and in the right order. Also check the main summary task duration. It should read 44 days. If not, unlink all tasks and begin this section again.

21. One last thing…. It is NOT a good idea to link summary tasks to summary tasks. Why? When doing project work it is the LAST task in a group that will initiate the NEXT task – not the summary tasks to each other. So, on your own, unlink summary tasks and relink them using the appropriate task. (Task 7 is the predecessor task to Task 9, and Task 11 is the predecessor to Task 13.) When you are done, your table should look like:

The image above shows the entire project linked and a total duration of 44 days.

Changing Task Dependencies

Because not all tasks need to be in a Finish-to-Start dependency, you can change the dependency type. Currently all of our tasks, except the main summary task (which is rarely linked to any other task except to another project) and our recurring task of Project Meeting, are defaulting to a Finish-to-Start dependency. However, we want to make it clear that the tasks of installing wire, hardware, and equipment must finish at the same time before we begin testing the system. So how do we do that?

First, we need to clarify two important terms, predecessor and successor. A task that must start or finish before another task can begin is called a predecessor (or independent) task. A task that depends on the start or finish of a preceding task is called a successor (or dependent) task.

In our example project, we will make the assumption that we cannot begin any installation process until purchasing has been completed. However, we make the assumption that installing the wiring, hardware and the software can begin any time after the purchasing, but all tasks must finish at the same time before we begin testing.

1. Click in the subtask name field for Install Wiring.

2. Right-click and select Information from the pop-up menu.

3. The Task Information dialog box should now appear. Select the Predecessor tab.

Figure 8

The Task Information dialog box details information about a particular task, including notes. This information is important when troubleshooting problems with scheduling, etc.

4. The predecessor information states that the subtask, Purchase Equipment, is the only predecessor task to the Install Wiring successor task. Under Type is listed Finish-to-Start (FS). This is what we want, so press OK to close the Task Information box.

5. Select the task name for Install Hardware and open the Task Information for this task. Select the predecessor tab.

6. The predecessor task for Install Hardware is Install Wiring. We want to indicate that the dependency of these two tasks is a Finish-to-Finish, since we need these tasks to finish at the same time.

7. Click the Finish-to-Start (FS) type drop-down box for the predecessor task of Install Wiring and select Finish-to-Finish.

Figure 9

8. Press Ok. Scroll out on the Gantt chart to view how the dependencies look (Figure 10).

Figure 10

9. On your own, change the dependency between Install Software (successor) and Install Hardware (predecessor) to a Finish-to-Finish (FF). Remember, the successor task is the one you want to click on! Your Gantt chart should now look like figure 11.

Figure 11

In the image above, arrows for Finish to Finish tasks link from the end of one Gantt bar to the end of its successor.

10. While the chart clearly shows the three tasks finishing at the same time (also reducing the number of days to complete this phase to 8 days), the chart gives the indication that once Install Software and only Install Software is finished, can Test System begin. In reality, all three tasks, Install Wiring, Install Hardware and Install Software must finish before Test System. We need to clearly indicate that Test System has more than one predecessor task.

11. To add another predecessor task to a successor task, we can use the Task Information.

12. Select the task name, Test System, and open the Task Information for this task.

13. Click in the next row under Task Name to open a drop-down menu and select Install Hardware.

Figure 12

14. Leave the type as Finish-to-Start.

15. Add Install Wiring in the next row and leave as Finish-to-Start.

16. Press OK. While the duration of the summary task does not change, notice the change in your Gantt chart. We are now clearly indicating that all three tasks are predecessors to the Test System task.

Figure 13

There is one other detail missing from this arrangement or flow. Remember that a successor task can have more than one predecessor task. In the case of Install Hardware and Install Software, they also are dependent on the Purchase Equipment task. Therefore, we need to add that information to them.

17. Add Purchase Equipment as a predecessor task to Install Hardware, with a Finish-to-Start dependency.

18. Add Purchase Equipment as a predecessor task to Install Software, with a Finish-to-Start dependency.

Look at your Gantt chart to see the difference. Can you detect it?

There are many ways to accomplish what we just did. However, the task information properties dialog box is the best way to troubleshoot. If you ever make a mistake in linking tasks or dependencies, I have found the best way is to select the task or tasks you want to correct and unlink the tasks and start over again. Trust me…

(Note: another way to link tasks and set dependencies is to enter the information directly in the Predecessors Column of your Table: Entry. To see this column, just move the divider to see the column or use the scroll bar at the bottom of the table. Notice the syntax of setting dependencies other than Finish-to-Start. This is another handy way to quickly set up dependencies; yet because it only gives the number of the task, it is harder to ensure that you have the right task(s) without the actual name of the task).

19. Check your work and if you feel everything looks right ( 40 days total for the total project, 20 days for Project Creation phase, 12 days for Vendor Selection phase, and 8 days total for Implement System phase), save the file; if not, unlink all tasks and start again at the section on dependencies and linking.

Understanding Lag and Lead Time

In addition to dependency type, you can further define the true impact of task relationships using lead time and lag time.

Lead time creates an overlap in a dependency that can shorten the project duration. For example, if you specify a lead time of one day on a Finish-to-Start dependency, the two tasks overlap in time by one day. The last day of the first task takes place while the first day of the second task takes place. (Analogous to getting “a head start”).

Lag time creates a delay, or gap, in the task dependency that can lengthen the project duration. For example, if I specify a lag time of one day, the successor task begins one day after the predecessor task in a Finish-to-Start dependency.

To demonstrate lead time, let's say that Install Wiring can begin prior to the finish of Purchase Equipment (at least we can start doing some preparation ahead of time).

1. Bring up the task information for the task Install Wiring.

2. Select the Predecessor tab.

3. Under the column Lag, you should see 0d for 0 days for Purchase Equipment.

4. In the lag cell, type in the number -1 (that's minus one).

5. Press OK. Check the duration for the phase Implement System. It should now have been reduced by one day to 7 days. Also look at your Gantt chart and notice that the start date for Install Wiring has now moved to prior to the finish of Purchase Equipment (figure 14).

Figure 14

To demonstrate lag time, let's say that we want to wait two days after evaluating bids before awarding the contract (a cooling off period).

6. Bring up the task information for the task Award Contract.

7. Select the Predecessor tab.

8. Under the column Lag for the task Evaluate Bids, type in the number 2.

9. Press OK. Check the duration for the phase Vendor Selection. It is now 14 days. Also look at the effect on your Gantt chart (now 41 days).

One final item: If you notice that your project meeting only occurs once, in the first week of the project. What if you want to schedule it for every Friday until the end of the Project? In this case, you would bring up the Recurring Project Information for the summary task Project Meeting and indicate when the meetings will end (such as the end of the project) or the number of times the meetings will occur.

1. If I want to have project meetings every Friday until the end of the project, I need to know when the project will finish.

2. Select File Tab, select the Info tab.

3. The finish date should be December 4, 2013. (If it isn’t, go back to lag and lead time section).

4. Go back to the Task Tab and select the summary task Project Meeting. (Make sure the Project Meeting is number 1.4 and not 1.3.6. If it is the later, you need to “outdent” or move the task in the outline to the left).

5. Right-click and select Information from the menu.

6. In the Range of Recurrence section, change the End by date to December 4, 2013 and Press OK (Figure 15).

Figure 15

7. Hide the subtasks under Project Meeting to just show the Project Meeting summary task! (The total duration of the Project Meeting task is 35.25 days. Do you know why?).

Checkpoint:

From the File Tab, select Info and then Project Information. You will be given 2 choices, Advanced Properties and Project Statistics. click Project Statistics. If your screen matches figure 16 (below), then save your project file and print the following reports:

1. Your Gantt chart view and include only these columns from the table: Task ID, Indicators, Task Mode, Task Name, and Duration. To do this, slide the Gantt Chart divider to the left or right as necessary. (All columns must be wide enough to see the entire information in the fields). DO NOT DELETE COLUMNS. Check to make sure your project information is correctly inserted into your printouts, in the headers and footers. Do NOT forget that this is lab #1B… Also, make sure your Gantt timeline is set to the default of weekly for major timeframe and daily for minor time frame. Your print out should be no more than 3 pages.

2. Project Summary Report

3. Unstarted Tasks Report, with appropriate header/footer information. Fit this printout to 1 page.

4. Attach your printouts to the back of the Review Questions sheet IN ORDER, or submit to the dropbox.

Add these images to the Word document, containing printouts created in Part A, Week_1_Printouts_XXX.docx. Remember to replace "XXX" in the file names with your initials and ensure that all of your files are all clearly labeled and include your initials in the file name. Submit this file to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.

Figure 16

Printing tip: There is an easier way to specify which columns of the table you want to print without worrying about how your screen appears. While in Page Setup, after you change your header and footer information, select the tab View. You can quickly specify to print all columns or the first X columns. Try it out.)

When you have completed this lesson, please save it as MyLab1b_XXX.mpp and submit the file to the Weekly iLab Dropbox. Remember to replace "XXX" in the file names with your initials and ensure that all of your files are all clearly labeled and include your initials in the file name.

Also, complete the following page. Submit this Review Question sheet to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.

Review Questions

Name ____________________________

Answer the following questions (use MS Project Help, if necessary):

1. What is the difference between a main summary task and a summary task?

2. On the View Tab, what does the Outline button with plus and minus signs do?

3. What is a milestone?

4. What predefined report can you not make changes to the header and footer?

5. Give a real-world example of

a) A successor task requiring lead time

b) A successor task requiring lag time

Turn in this sheet with your MS Project file to the Week 1 iLab Dropbox.

MS Project Lesson #1, Part B Page 12

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MGMT404_Martinezt_Lab1/MS_Project_Lesson2.docx

MS Project - Lesson #2 - Managing Project Resources

Objectives - Microsoft 2010

· Create a list of resources

· Assign resources to tasks

· Enter resource information

· Assign costs to resources and tasks

· Assign variable resource pay rates and costs rate tables

Resources are the people, equipment, and materials necessary to complete a task. MS Project focuses on two aspects of resources: availability and cost. Availability determines when a specific resource can work on a task and how much work they can do and cost refers to how much money will be required to pay for that resource.

MS Project works with two types of resources: work resources and material resources. Work resources are the people and equipment that do the work of the project. These can be a single individual, a group of people who have common skills (such as electrician), or equipment (such as a truck or diagnostic tool). Equipment resources need not be portable; they can be fixed, such as a conference room or lab. Material resources are consumables that you use up during the project, such as cabling or bricks.

We will be creating our resources and assigning them to tasks. Please follow all instructions carefully!

Adding Resources

1. Log onto Windows.

2. Open your completed file MyLab1b_XXX.mpp (or download the MyLab1b_XXX.mpp file from Doc Sharing.) Check the addendum at the end of this lesson to make sure that your beginning file is correct. If it is not, then correct your file as needed or download the completed MyLab1b_XXX.mpp file from Doc Sharing.

3. Save as MyLab2_XXX.mpp, where XXX are your initials.

It is important to note, that when entering resources in MS Project to NEVER add resources to a summary task. ONLY ADD RESOURCES TO THE WORK PACKAGES. When adding resources to summary tasks, MS Project will add the value of that resource to each work package below the summary and add that time to the resource's usage. This will affect both cost and potentially cause resource over-allocations. Also, MS Project does not add the value of the cost on some reports, when the resource is assigned at the summary task level.

Resources can be entered into Project in several different locations. The Assign Resources dialog box is one method. The Resource Sheet is another method and the Task Information box is a third method.

4. Make sure you have not clicked or highlighted any of the tasks in your project!

5. On the Resource tab, click on the Assign Resources button. It is the one with the "faces" on it.

The Assign Resources dialog box appears.

6. In the first Name field, type Project Manager and press enter. ( Do not press Assign!) See Figure 1

Figure 1

7. After the first resource name as been entered, the selection moves to the next row.

8. Type Systems Manager and press enter. (Do not press Assign).

9. Type Systems Administrator and press enter. You should now have three resources displayed in the Assign Resources dialog box. Do NOT enter anything in the Units column and do not press Assign.

10. Click Close.

11. You can also enter resources on the Resource Sheet view, which is preferred.

12. From the Task tab, select the Down Arrow in the View dropdown on the words Gantt Chart.

13. Select Resource Sheet. The Resource Sheet displays the names you entered on the Assign Resources dialog box. Your screen should look similar to Figure 2. The values you see are default values when you create a resource.

Figure 2

14. Click in the Resource Name field below Systems Administrator.

15. Type Wiring Contractor and press enter. The name is entered along with the default information for that resource and the cursor should move to the next entry for a resource.

16. For Type, leave the default of work, since this is a work resource. Work resources are people and equipment. The other options are material and cost.

17. Type Financial Officer for the next resource and press enter.

18. Type Conference Room for the next resource and press enter. (Why is conference room a work resource and not a material resource?)

19. For your final resource, enter Systems Analyst.

20. You should now have seven resources listed.

You will notice that the “Max Units” field defaults to 100%. For an individual resource, this represents the amount of that resource’s time you have available to your project. For example, if you only have one Systems Manager, 100% maximum units means that 100% of the Systems Manager’s time is available to work on the project. You can assign different percentages, but it will change the availability of the resource. For example, if you have the maximum units at 50% for the Systems Manager, the 50% of the Systems Manager’s time is available to you, which could mean 4 hours out of a 8-hour day.

For a group resource, people with common skills, it would represent the number of people assigned, though not necessarily the same people. For example, if you had Systems Administrators at 200% maximum units, that would mean you would have two Systems Administrators available for your project or task, but not necessarily the same two administrators.

While each resource (whether group or individual) can be assigned to a task at less than their maximum units, if you assigned more work (or units) than the maximum, you will be overallocating that resource.

Assigning Resources to Task

While there are several ways to assign resources to a task, we will use the following method:

1. From the View tab, change to the Gantt chart view.

2. Select task # 6, "Proposal to Accounting".

3. On the far right of the Task ribbon, in the Properties group, select Details.

4. Your screen now is divided in an upper and lower half. The upper pane is the Gantt Chart View and the lower pane is the Task Details Form .

Lower Pane

Upper Pane

Figure 3

5. Right click in the lower pane. Notice there are 8 different views. Scroll through them all so you can see the differences.

6. Next select the Resources and Predecessors view.

7. In the Lower Pane, in the Resource Name column, select the Project Manager.

8. Then press OK.

9. The Project Manager has now been assigned to the task and a unit value of 100% is displayed. The resource name is also display next to the task on the Gantt chart.

10. The concept of unit is sometimes confusing. You can think of it as one whole person being assigned to the task, but a better way is you are saying that this resource will be devoting 100% of his/her time to this particular task. Therefore, if the task is 3 days of work (or 24 hours given a normal 8-hour day), the Project Manager, in this case, will be spending all of his/her time on this task for these 3 days. It also it very important to say that you have just assigned 24 hours of work to the Project Manager. (Please note that the column says Units, not Max Units). We will return to resource scheduling later.

11. You can also assign a resource to a task with a unit other than 100% (as long as you do not exceed the maximum units listed on your Resource sheet).

12. Select task 7, "Research Products and Services".

13. In the Resource Name column select the Systems Analyst and type 50 in the Units field (for 50%). You do not have to enter the % sign. Then press OK.

14. To assign multiple resources to a single task, follow the next procedures very carefully.

15. Select the task, "Design and Diagram New System". In the Resource Name Column, select Systems Manager. Do not press OK or the Enter key , just select the name! (If you accidentally pressed OK, select the Systems Manager and press the Delete key and then the Enter key, which will only remove the assignment to the task, not the resource.)

16. On the row below the Systems Manager. Select the Systems Analyst.

Figure 4

17. Then press OK.

18. What we have indicated to MS Project is that both the Systems Manager and the Systems Analyst will be assigned to this task and each will be assigned 40 hours of work (5 days). More about this in the next lab.

Figure 5

19. Check to make sure the time duration for this task is still 5 days, if it is not, you need to remove the resources from the task, reset the task back to 5 days and repeat steps 13-16 again.

Providing Resource Details

Resource details provide additional information about a resource and usually are entered on the Resource sheet. Information includes maximum units, costs, project/accounting codes, calendars, etc.

1. In the Upper Pane, In the Task tab and the Properties Group, press Details, to remove the Lower Pane, then From the View group, select the Resource Sheet view.

2. Select the Project Manager name and tab to the column, Initials. (We will not be using the material label for work resources or Cost label for costs).

3. The Initials column is where you can give abbreviated "nicknames" to each resource. You should give each distinctive letters or names of at least two characters.

4. Enter PM.

5. The next column, Group, again is optional for giving a name for a group of resources, such as Network Staff, Project Team, etc.

6. Assign each resource to a group in the Group Column as below:

Resource Name Group

Project Manager Management

Systems Manager Management

Systems Administrator IT Staff

Wiring Contractor Contractor

Financial Officer Administration

Conference Room Equipment

Systems Analyst IT Staff

7. A maximum unit is where you enter the number of units for each resource available to you for the project. Since there usually is only one project manager, leave this default of 100%.

8. Tab to Standard Rate.

In any project, there are two types of costs: resource costs and fixed costs. This information is crucial in identifying project budgets, cost overruns, etc. Each resource and task can have a cost associated with it (with the exception of summary tasks). Costs can be an hourly wage, rental on equipment, license fees, contractor expenses, material charges, etc. Costs can be prorated, paid up front or paid out at the end of the project.

As you create budgets for your project and assign costs, it is important to determine whether the cost is a resource cost or a fixed cost. Resource costs are fairly easy, with one exception. Wages, salaries, etc are resource costs. However, a fixed contract, say for installing wiring, is a fixed cost and is assigned to the task not the resource. The exception, and one that is hard to discern, is cost per use. Cost per use is a resource cost and is applied when then is a set charge every time you use the resource. For example, if you have a piece of equipment delivered to a construction site, you might be charged a delivery fee for the equipment (as well as an hourly rate). The delivery fee would be a cost per use.

Let's start with the easiest: resource costs.

1. Under the Standard Rate for the Project Manager, enter 125. Tab to the next column. (Note: if the resource is paid other than hourly, you can enter weekly, monthly or yearly salaries).

2. The next column, Overtime Rate, you would enter the amount of overtime pay rate for the resource. Please note that on this sheet you cannot enter a formula to calculate overtime rate, you must calculate it for yourself. (Microsoft left this one out!) Since our Project Manager does not technically qualify for overtime rate, one might leave this blank, however, I would enter the same amount for overtime as standard.

3. Enter 125 for overtime rate for the Project Manager.

Let's go to the next easiest: fixed costs

1. Our wiring is being done via a contractor. This is a typical example of a fixed cost. Even though this task is being done by a resource, the Wiring Contractor, it is being done at a fixed price. Unlike resource costs, the fixed cost is not dependent on the amount of time or the number of resources it takes to complete a task. (Note: you can have both fixed costs and resource costs assigned to the same task, such as the contractor is working on a fixed price for materials, but a resource cost for labor).

2. First let's assign the Wiring Contractor as the resource for the task 14, Install Wiring.

3. From the View tab, change to the Gantt chart view. Split the Window and assign the Wiring Contractor to task 14, Install Wiring. (100% unit).

4. The Wiring Contractor will be charging a fixed contractual price (materials and labor) of $4,000 to install the necessary wiring. The amount of $4,000 is NOT a resource cost, but a fixed cost and must be assigned to the task!

5. We now need to change the current table we are using, which is called the Entry table.

6. Select the Upper Pane, Go to the View tab and in the Data group select the Tables dropdown.

7. Select the Cost table and the figure 5 should appear on your screen. (Move your Gantt chart if you have problems seeing the table).

Figure 5

8. Notice the column Fixed Cost. For task 14, enter 4000 for the fixed cost.

9. Tab to the next column. The word Prorated is now highlighted in a pull down menu box. Press the down arrow and select End. This means the charge will not be added to our project until this task is completed.

Let's go to the hardest: cost per use

1. Return to the Resource Sheet and Highlight Conference Room.

2. Tab over to the Cost/ Use column.

3. Since we have a very cost-conscious company, they charge for use of the conference room. This would not be a fixed cost, but a cost per use. Every time I use the conference room there is a charge!

4. Enter 100 for the Cost/Use for this resource.

5. To see the effect of this, return to the Gantt Chart View.

6. Change from the Table: Cost to Table: Entry. (Can you figure how to do that?).

7. Go to the summary task Project Meeting. Expand the summary task to see all the project meetings.

Figure 6

8. Select Project Meeting 1 and assign the Conference Room as a resource.

9. Switch from Table: Entry to Table: Cost.

10. Notice the $100 under the Total Cost column, but not the fixed cost column.

11. Assign the Conference room to all the Project Meetings. (Hint: Return to the Entry table. One easy way to do this is in the Entry Table to select the Resource Name column in the proper row, and select the Conference Room resource for each of the meetings)

12. Check now the cost for the summary task, Project Meetings, on the Table: Cost. Why $800?

Assigning Cost Rate Tables and Variable Resource Rate

Variable resource rates are time-stamped so new rates are applied to the project at an appropriate time. For example, during a project a resource earning $20 an hour at the beginning of the project receives a pay increase later in the project. By entering a pay rate effective on a certain date, the resource costs can be tracked appropriately. (You can also enter pay rates this way rather than resource sheet).

1. If your Window is still Split, close the split now.

2. Go the Resource Sheet.

3. Select the Systems Analyst.

4. Double-click on the name Systems Analyst and the Resource Information window appears:

Figure 7

5. This is the Resource Information dialog box. Here you can enter information about the resource, including e-mail information, working schedule, etc. Spend some time looking over all the information you can enter by clicking on the four tabs.

6. Click on the Costs tab. In the Cost Rate table area, tab A is selected by default: (Figure 8)

Figure 8

7. Leave the effective date for the first row blank; do not put a date in it.

8. In the first row for Standard Rate, enter 40.

9. Tab to the Overtime Rate; enter 60.

10. Go to the second row, under Effective Date.

11. A down arrow appears. Click the down arrow and select November 15, 2013. This is the date that the new cost rate for the resource will become effective.

12. Click in the Standard rate field for this row and enter 10% for a 10 percent raise! (Include the % sign.) This time MS Project will automatically calculate the new hour wage.

13. Click in the Overtime rate field for this row and enter 10% again. What happened?

14. Before we leave, you will notice the tables B, C, etc. These are cost rate tables. They are used if your resource can do more than one type of work each at different rates. For example, a worker may charge one rate for painting, but another rate for plastering. Another example would be a different rate for hazardous work. To apply different rate tables, you would go to the task usage sheet, find the task the resource is assigned and apply the correct rate table there. For the purposes of this lab, we will not be doing that in this project.

15. Click OK to accept the changes made to the rate table and close the Resource Information window.

( Note: To set up material resources on the assignment sheet, you would enter the name of the resource (such as wiring or nails), then enter Material in the type field, and in the Material Label field the unit of measurement (such as Feet for wiring or Pounds for nails). You would then enter the amount charged per unit of measurement in the Standard Rate column, such as 1.50. However, we will not be dealing with material resources for the purposes of these labs.)

On Your Own

Finish the Resource Sheet with the following information:

Resource Name	Initials	Max. Units	Std Rate	Ovt Rate	Cost/Use
Systems Manager	SM	100%	$75000.00/ yr	$75000.00/ yr	0
Systems Administrator	SAD	300%	$25.00/hr	$37.50/hr	0
Wiring Contractor	WC	100%	0	0	0
Financial Officer	FO	100%	$85.00/hr	$85.00/hr	0

Make the following additional resource assignments to the appropriate tasks: (Hint: go to Gantt Chart view and, if necessary, change to Table: Entry, and remember to split the window). Try using the Task Information box to assign these resources. Make sure to change the percentage of each resource BEFORE assigning!!

Inventory Current Equipment Systems Administrator 200%

Assess Current Dept Needs Systems Administrator 100%

Issue RFP's Project Manager 100%

Evaluate Bids Project Manager 100%

Purchase Equipment Financial Officer 50%

Install Hardware Systems Administrator 200%

Install Software Systems Administrator 300%

On the last one, be very careful to select each resource BEFORE entering OK!

Test System Systems Manager 100%

Systems Analyst 100%

Systems Administrator 100%

From the Project tab, select Project Information and then press the statistics button. Check your project information statistics with the one provided in the addendum to this lab. If it is not correct, you will need to un-assign all resources from all tasks, check your resource sheet cost values and then go back to the beginning of the lab and re-assign your resources. Your project duration should never change from 41 days! After verifying that everything is correct – save the file.

If you look at the resource sheet you will see that the Systems Administrator is RED and marked with an Exclamation Point. Do not be alarmed. This means that the resource is over-allocated (has more work than hours available). We will fix over-allocation problems in Lesson 5.

When finished with the lab, print out the following after checking all column widths and proper header/footer information. Then staple the printouts IN ORDER to the back of your question/answer sheet:

1. A printout of your Task Table: Entry showing all columns, but no Gantt chart. (Format to print on 1 page)

2. A printout of your Task Table: Cost showing all columns but no Gantt chart. (Make sure to widen Task Name column so the entire column can be read).

3. The project Summary Report.

4. Your project's Budget Report. (Print on one page)

5. Your project's Who Does What report.

6. Your project's Overallocated Resources report. (You should have overallocated resources. If not, make sure your assignments are correct and all your resources are 100% default, with the exception of the Systems Administrator)

7. Save the file.

Again, with the exception of the Summary report, all printouts must contain the proper header and foot information.

When you have completed this lesson please save it as MyLab2_XXX.mpp and submit the file to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.

Also complete the Review Question page and submit this page to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.

Addendum

Task Information for Beginning of Lesson 2

Project Information at end of Lesson 2

Review Questions

Name ____________________________

Answer the following questions:

1) What is a resource?

2) Why aren't resources assigned to summary tasks?

3) What is the difference between Start, Prorated and End in association with costs?

4) Give a real-world example of the difference between a fixed cost and a cost per use?

5) Why is a fixed cost entered with the task and not the resource?

6) Why is the resource cost for the Wiring Contractor $0.00?

7) Which resource is Overallocated and why?

Turn in this sheet with your MS Project file to the Week 2 iLab Dropbox.

MS Project Lesson #2 Page 11

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MGMT404_Martinezt_Lab1/MS_Project_Lesson3.docx

MS Project - Lesson #3 - Scheduling With Resources

Objectives - MS Project 2010

· Change the task type settings to control how resources affect task assignments

· Apply a preset resource contour to change work value distribution

· Working with task information forms

When planning a project schedule, adjustments are often needed to reflect necessary changes in project scope, assignments, etc. In MS Project, when an assignment is changed, the schedule is recalculated to display the changes. You can work with the scheduling method and the task type settings when making changes to the initial resource assignment.

In the previous lesson, the initial resource assignments were made for our project. But we need to learn how to make adjustments to how those resources are used. It is important that you read every part of this lab carefully, if not twice.

Working with Effort-Driven Scheduling

How a task reacts to the addition and removal of resources is defined by the scheduling method and the task type settings. In MS Project, the default scheduling method is effort-driven scheduling. Effort-driven scheduling extends or shortens the duration of a task to accommodate changes to resources but doesn't change the total work for the task.

Work is the amount of effort, or number of hours, resources put into a task.

The total work for a task is determined by the duration estimate for the task and the initial resource assignment using the following formula:

Work = Duration * Units

For example, say you give a task the duration of one day (or eight hours based upon a normal working day). If the initial resource assignment is two units (200%) of a particular resource, the total work for the task will be 16 hours.

16 hours = 1 Day (8 hours) * 200%

As resources are added or removed after the initial assignment, the amount of work is not recalculated, but redistributed among the resources. In other words, the duration is recalculated, not the work:

Duration = Work / Units

So if you assign two more units of the previous resource or two different resources, the total work remains 16 hours; however, the 16 hours is now redistributed among the four resources (16 hours divided by 4 units equals 4 hours of work per resource). The duration is now .5 days (4 hours).

.5 Day (4 hours) = 16 hours / 400%

Effort-driven scheduling assumes that the more (or fewer) resources you assign to a task will decrease (or increase) the duration of a task. "If I can use more people, I can get done faster". The key to effort-driven scheduling is when you make that first assignment (when you press assign or press enter when entering resource assignments), that is when the amount of work is calculated and never changes when you make additional assignments or subtract resources. This effect is very important to understand!

Let's demonstrate this effect.

1. Log onto Windows.

2. Open your completed file MyLab2_XXX.mpp. (or use the MyLab2_XXX.mpp file from Doc Sharing) Check the addendum at the end of this lesson to make sure your beginning file is correct.

3. Save as MyLab3_XXX.mpp, where XXX are your initials.

4. Make sure you are in Gantt chart view and your table is the task entry table.

5. From the View tab and the Task Views group, click Other Views and then More Views.

6. The More Views dialog box appears (figure 1). Select Task Entry and then press Apply.

Figure 1

7. You will notice that your screen "splits" into two separate windows or panes again.

8. The top window or pane is your Gantt chart view with the entry table. The bottom pane is known as the task form window and contains many different formats. The default format you are looking at is known as the resources and predecessors detail view. We will use different detail formats in this window in coming labs. For now, remember this is the task form window.

9. In the top pane, click on task #3, Inventory Current Equipment. Notice in the lower pane, the resource assignment you made from the previous lab, Systems Administrator. Remember that you initially assigned two units of this resource. The duration you gave this task was 3 days (or 24 hours). When you made the assignment, the initial scheduling then calculated the work. Given the formula, work equals duration times units, 24 hours times 2 units equals 48 hours of work and that is what is in the work column for that resource.

10. Also notice the box Effort driven (next to the Previous button) is checked. That means that this task is using effort-driven scheduling. Also notice the textbox below it labeled Task Type and the phrase Fixed Units. We will be returning to this box shortly.

11. Again, making sure you have clicked on task #3, open the Assign Resources dialog box from the Resource tab (the one with the faces).

12. Change the number of units of the resource Systems Administrator to 300%. (Either type in 300 or use the up arrow and then press enter). (Figure 2).

Figure 2

13. Notice in the lower pane the units of the resource changed to 300% and the work remained at 48 hours, but notice the duration of the task: it changed to 2 days. Why? Taking our formula that work equals duration times units, when we make any change after the initial calculation of work, work is not recalculated, but the duration is! Therefore (using our algebraic knowledge), duration is equal to work divided by units, or 48 hours divided by 3 units equals 16 hours or 2 days. Got it? Also remember the 48 hours is the cumulative amount of work for the three units.

14. But what happens if we now subtract some of the units? In your Assign Resources dialog box, change the units of Systems Administrator to 100%. What happened? Your work is still 48 hours, but since there is only one resource the duration is recalculated for 6 days (48 hours divided by 1 unit equals 48 hours or 6 days).

15. Change the units of resource for Systems Administrator back to the original 200%. Your duration should return to the original 3 days.

16. Since this was the same resource, what would happen if we added a different resource?

17. Click on Systems Analyst and make an assignment of 100%. (Click Assign button or Press Enter).

18. You should now see in the task form the name of Systems Analyst appear and in the work column the 48 hours of work is now distributed evenly among the three resources (2 Systems Administrators and one Systems Analyst), but it still totals 48 hours. The duration is now 2 days, because each unit will be working 16 hours or 2 days.

19. Close the Assign Resource and Keep this assignment of the Systems Analyst to this task. (Duration for project is now 40 days).

Effort-driven scheduling can be turned off for individual tasks (or all tasks when you first created a project in the Tools - Options - Schedule). When effort-driven scheduling is turned off, total work increases (or decreases) when units of different resources are added (or subtracted) from the task. To see this effect:

1. Click on task #4, Assess Current Department Needs. In the lower pane (in the task form), make sure the Effort driven box is unchecked.

2. Press the OK button to effect the change. (You must do this!)

3. Making sure you've clicked in the task #4 in the upper pane.

4. In the lower pane, add one unit (100%) of the Systems Analyst and one unit (100%) of the Systems Manager to this task and press OK.

5. Notice the duration remains at two days, but each of the units is assigned the same amount of work (16 hours). You would do this if you know each of your resources is doing different work within the task's duration and they are a different resource. (See figure 3).

Figure 3

6. Keep these assignments for this task.

7. But what if we turn off effort-driven scheduling, but add additional units of the same resource? What happens? Here is where it can get confusing and you must reflect on what is happening behind the scenes and the effect task type has on scheduling.

8. Click on task # 7, Research Products and Services. Your task form should show the resource Systems Analyst, 50% under the Units column and 28 hours of work (50% of 7 days/56 hours, is 28 hours).

9. Make sure the Effort driven box in is Unchecked the task form and click on OK.

10. Change the 50% to 100%, and click OK. What happened? Notice the work stayed at 28 hours (in other words, work was not recalculated), but the duration changed to 3.5 days! We would have expected that work should have been recalculated to 56 hours and the duration to stay the same.

11. Keep this assignment.

The task type setting also has an effect on how tasks are scheduled. There are three task types: Fixed Units, Fixed Duration and Fixed Work. Using one of these types, any variable in the standard equation of Work = Duration * Units can be controlled.

When Fixed Units task type is used (and it is the default), the duration of the task is affected. Fixed Unit tasks are also called Resource-driven tasks. Assigning additional units of the same resource will decrease the schedule, not the work! Therefore, work remains at 28 hours, but duration is recalculated by dividing the work by the new number of units (28 hours divided by 1 equals 28 hours or 3.5 days). To help you, here is a table to explain the effect of effort-driven with fixed unit task type:

Example: Task X has a duration of 2 weeks, and initial resource assignment of one unit of Resource A, and therefore an initial total work of 80 hours.
Fixed Unit With Effort Driven	Duration	Units	Work
Add one unit of same resource (A)	1 week	200% of Resource A	40 hours each 80 hours total
Add one unit of different resource (B)	1 week	100% of Resource A 100% of Resource B	40 hours 40 hours 80 hours total
Fixed Unit Without Effort Driven	Duration	Units	Work
Add one unit of same resource (A)	1 week	200% of Resource A	40 hours each 80 hours total
Add one unit of different resource (B)	2 weeks	100% of Resource A 100% of Resource B	80 hours 80 hours 160 hours total

At this point, this all seems very confusing I assure you. Actually, fixed units sounds like a bad term for this task type. But if you notice from the table, the key is really effort driven. If a task is effort-driven, the philosophy says that the more resources, regardless of being the same resource or a different resource, work remains the same, but the duration will be affected. If a task is not effort-driven, but a fixed unit or resource-driven task, duration will only be affected if you add or subtract the number of units of the same resource!

But what if you want to ensure that the duration of a task never changes? You can control that by changing the task type to Fixed Duration. Let's see that effect:

1. Keep the assignment you just made on Task #7 (100% of Systems Analyst), and now click on task #9, Issue RFPs. The resource assignment is the Project Manager. The duration is 7 days therefore work has been calculated as 56 hours of work based upon 1 unit (100%).

2. In the task form in the bottom pane, change the task type to fixed duration by choosing from the pull-down men, and check the effort-driven box). (Figure 4)

Figure 4

3. Press OK to effect the change.

4. Add the Financial Officer (100%) to this task and press the OK button. What happened?

Figure 5

The Project Manager and Financial Officer are both assigned 28 hours worth of work over 7 days.

If a task has the task type Fixed Duration, the duration of the task remains the same (fixed) when resources are added or removed; however work for each resource could be allocated differently depending on whether it is the same resource or a different resource. Here is a chart of how effort-driven scheduling could affect the workload of a resource (but not the task duration) when designating a task type of Fixed Duration:

Example: Task X has a duration of 2 weeks, and initial resource assignment of one unit of Resource A, and therefore an initial total work of 80 hours.
Fixed Duration With Effort Driven	Duration	Units	Work
Add one unit of same resource (A)	2 weeks	200% of Resource A	80 hours each 160 hours total
Add one unit of different resource (B)	2 weeks	50% of Resource A 50% of Resource B	40 hours 40 hours 80 hours total
Fixed Duration Without Effort Driven	Duration	Units	Work
Add one unit of same resource (A)	2 weeks	200% of Resource A	80 hours each 160 hours total
Add one unit of different resource (B)	2 weeks	100% of Resource A 100% of Resource B	80 hours 80 hours 160 hours total

Let's try this table to see if we can predict the effect of our scheduling:

1. Make sure task #9 (Issue RFPs) is selected in the upper pane.

2. In the lower pane, Select the Financial Officer and press the delete key to remove the Financial Officer. Press OK.

3. The task form should show the Project Manager back to 100% assignment and 56 hours of work.

4. In the task form, uncheck the effort-driven box and press OK.

5. Making sure you are still on task #9 again. Add the Financial Officer and assign him back to the task (100%). What happened?

6. According to the above chart, if effort-driven is turned off and the task type is Fixed Duration, adding one unit of a different resource will not change the duration (it is still 7 days), but each resource will be assigned the same amount of work, 56 hours. ( Keep this assignment as is ).

The last task type is Fixed Work. Fixed work means the total work for the task will remain the same when resources are added or subtracted. Only the duration and units are affected in a Fixed Work type task, but inversely. A Fixed Work task can only be effort-driven.

To see this effect:

1. Click on task # 10, Evaluate Bids. Notice that the Project Manager was initially assigned to this task for 100% or 40 hours of total work.

2. Change the task type to Fixed Work in the task form and Press OK. (Notice the effort-driven checkbox is grayed out).

3. Assign one unit (100%) of Financial Officer to this task. What happened? Notice the work stayed at 40 hours, but the work was distributed between the two resources and the duration was changed to 2.5 days. Why is the duration 2.5 days or 20 hours? ( Keep this assignment change ).

4. Click on the task # 13, Purchase Equipment. Notice we have assigned .5 (or 50%) of the Financial Officer to this task. Since the initial duration was given as 4 days, 50% of 4 days is 2 days or 16 hours.

5. Change the task type of this task to Fixed Work. Press OK.

6. Change the percentage of the Financial Officer from 50% to 100%. What happened? Why did duration of the task change to 2 days?

7. Change the percentage of the Financial Officer back to 50%. (Very important for the next section). Duration changed back to 4 days. Why? ( Keep this assignment as is). (Your project should now be at a total duration of 37.25 days; if not, check previous instructions).

8. If it appears that Fixed Work is similar to effort-driven, you are not far off the mark.

Again, all this is very confusing, I assure you, but hopefully it encourages you to think about your initial assignments and what affect adding or subtracting resources has on your schedule and workload.

Another chart you can use to determine what changes in MS Project when you change task types and what is recalculated is:

		And you change…	…then MS Project Recalculates this
If your Task Type is…		Duration	Units	Work
	Fixed Duration	Work	Work	Units
	Fixed Units	Work	Duration	Duration
	Fixed Work	Units	Duration	Duration

Perhaps the best advice is the following:

1. Leave all tasks as effort-driven, fixed units unless the duration absolutely needs to remain fixed. Fixed durations are rare. Tasks such as waiting 1 hour after swimming may seem like a fixed duration, but can be best handled by using lag times. (Actually the above is really not a task). A better example of a fixed duration task would be driving a truck. If we estimate that to drive a truck from Seattle to Spokane will take about 4 1/2 hours, it does not matter how many drivers we assign to the task, it will still take 4 1/2 hours.

2. If you want to assign two resources (or people) to a task and each is doing different work, it is best to split the task into two tasks. For example, in the current project, we have assigned the Project Manager and the Financial Officer to the same task, Issue RFPs. If the Project Manager is working on the technical section of the RFP and the Financial Office is working on the financing requirements of the RFP, then it is best to split Issue RFPs into two different tasks (such as Write Technical Requirements and Write Financial Requirements) and assign each resource to the task they are responsible.

Resource Contours

One other assumption made by MS Project when you assign a resource to a task: that work is evenly distributed throughout the duration of the task. For example, in our previous task, Purchase Equipment, we said that the Financial Officer would be devoting 16 hours over 4 days to complete the task. Those 16 hours are then evenly distributed over the 4 days (or 4 hours per day). This is known as a flat contour. A contour defines how scheduled work is distributed over the duration of a task.

You can change this distribution or use several preset contours to a resource. To see this contour:

1. From the Task tab and in the Properties group, click on Details twice to remove the split.

2. You should now have just the Gantt chart view on your screen.

3. From the View tab and the Task Views group, select Task Usage. Your screen should look similar to figure 6. (You may need to use the vertical and horizontal scroll bars to get to the top of the table and to see the appropriate dates on the right).

Figure 6

4. On the left you will see your tasks and under each task are the names of the resources assigned to the task. On the right are the work details in calendar form.

5. Move the divider between the left and right panes to the right of the Duration column. Expand the task name column so that you can see all of the information.

6. Using the right scroll bar, scroll down to the task, Purchase Equipment and click on it to highlight it.

7. Click on Financial Officer directly below.

8. On the Task tab and on the far right in the Editing group, click on the Scroll to Task button.

9. To the right, you will see the 16 hours evenly distributed over four days (4 hours per day). (Figure 7 ). However we can change that distribution manually.

Figure 7

10. In the first cell that says four hours ( make sure you stay in the same row as the Financial Officer, change the first day to 6 hours, the second day to 5 hours and the third day to 1 hour. (Figure 8) The fourth day we will not change.

Figure 8

What we have done is created a custom contour, and while MS Project has preset contours, I recommend that you do these manually. Keep in mind, however, that your duration may change based upon the task type.

At this point, return to the Gantt chart view. Save your file and print out the following reports: ( use proper header/footer information)

1. Project Summary Report.

2. A Task Usage Report (under Workload category).

3. A Resource Usage Report (under Workload category).

Checkpoint (From Project Information Statistics)

Addendum

Task Information for the Beginning of Lesson 3

Project Information Statistics at the Beginning of Lesson 3

When you have completed this lesson please save it as MyLab3_xxx.mpp and submit the file to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.

Also complete the following page and submit the Review Question sheet to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.

Review Questions

Name ____________________________

Answer the following questions (use MS Project help if necessary):

1) Define effort-driven?

2) Under what circumstances would you turn off effort driven scheduling?

3) Use a real-world example of when you would make a task as a Fixed Duration type task?

4) What is the formula for calculating duration?

5) What are the eight preset work contours (hint: In the Task Usage view right click on a resource name an open the assignment information box) and what are the procedures in applying them to a resource on a task?

Turn in this sheet with your MS Project file to the Week 3 iLab Dropbox.

MS Project Lab #3 Page 6

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MGMT404_Martinezt_Lab1/MS_Project_Lesson4.docx

MS Project - Lesson #4 - Working With Calendars

Objectives - MS Project 2010

· Change the working and non-working time on Standard Calendar

· Change the working and non-working time on a Resource Calendar

· Create new base calendars

· Assign different base calendars to resources

With calendars, you can determine when resources on a project are working and when they are not working. If you do not indicate when resources are available, you may accidentally schedule tasks when resources are not actually available. Calendars are part of determining availability of resources.

In MS Project, calendars define the working and non-working time for the project and for each resource assigned to the task. As a change is made to a calendar, MS Project automatically reschedules all tasks affected by the change.

Using Calendars

There are two types of calendars in Project: base calendars and resource calendars. Base calendars define the working days and working hours for a project or a set of resources. Resource calendars define the working days and working hours for a specific resource.

The default base calendar (also known as the project calendar) is called Standard. This standard calendar is usually set as an 8-hour day, 40-hour week, Monday through Friday, with no holidays. However, you can modify this standard calendar, but it is not recommended. MS Project also comes with two other base calendars: a 24-hour calendar and a night shift calendar. You can also create your own base calendars. You can manipulate such options as default start time and hours per day.

Note: Resource calendars are updated automatically when the base calendar assigned to the resource changes. But changes to the default calendar options are not automatically displayed in the base calendar.

When we first set up this project, MS Project assumed the Standard calendar. As we entered task duration, MS Project calculated the amount of work based upon 8 hours a day, 40 hours per week, Monday through Friday. So when we entered 2 days for the task, Inventory Current Equipment, prior to any resource assignment, MS Project calculated 16 hours of work (8 hours per day), to start at 8 AM, Wednesday morning and concluding 5 PM, Thursday evening. When we assigned resources, each resource was by default also assigned a standard calendar. However, if the resource we assigned had a different working time, the same amount of work would have been calculated, but the actual time of duration would have changed.

Note: When you open dialog boxes that contain calendars, MS Project will also show the current day and month. Therefore you will need to scroll to the correct month for this project/lab.

To view the standard calendar options:

1. Log onto Windows.

2. Open your completed file MyLab3_XXX.mpp. Check the addendum at the end of this lesson to make sure your beginning file is correct.

3. Save as MyLab4_XXX.mpp, where XXX are your initials.

4. Make sure you are in Gantt chart view, Table: Entry.

5. Select the File tab, click Options.

6. Click the Schedule tab.

7. The default options are displayed (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Note: If you anticipate that your project start time will be earlier than 8 AM, you should change the calendar options and the Standard calendar before entering tasks and resources. Otherwise, the first task will remain scheduled to start at 8 AM even if the options and base calendar are changed.

Please note the defaults for the Standard calendar. Also note the changes you can make to the standard calendar. The emphasis must be made that this calendar is primarily for the entire project. Again it is best not to change these calendar settings unless absolutely necessary.

8. Click Cancel after observing. We will not be making changes to this calendar.

Changing the Working Time

The best way to make changes to a base calendar is to change the working time. For example, let's say that Monday, October 14 is a company holiday and we need to make sure no work is scheduled on that day.

1. Click on the Project tab and select Project Information. Note that our project is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, October 9, 2013 and end on Friday, November 29, 2013. Press OK to close window.

2. From the Project tab and the Properties group, select Change Working Time.

3. Select Monday, October 14, 2013, using the scrollbar. (Make sure you have the right year!)

4. On the bottom section in the EXCEPTIONS tab, under name, type “Day Off”. ( Figure 2).

5. Press OK. This will assign the date as a non-working day.

6. Check your Project Information. This change did not have an effect on the finish date, but overall duration of the project was shortened by one day to 36. 25 days. Why? (Hint: critical path?)

Figure 2

7. When you close this dialog box and check your Gantt chart , you will notice that Monday, October 14 is shaded gray in the column.

8. Just reverse; let's say that due to this holiday, we will be working on Saturday, October 19 from 8 AM to 12 PM and 1 PM to 5 PM (we have a one hour lunch break).

9. From the Project tab and the Properties group, select Change Working Time again.

10. Click on Saturday, October 19, 2013

11. Underneath the Day Off exception, type, “Make-up Day”. Click in the Start box to the right and with “Make-up Day” selected, click the Details button. The Details for the "Make-up Day" window will pop-up.

Figure 3

12. Select the Working times radio button. Make sure the times from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM and from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM are entered. ( Note: They may be automatically entered for you! Can you guess why?)

13. Click OK on this window and on the Change Working Time window. What happened to your project completion date and overall duration?

14. On your own: Let's say that for this entire project we will be working on Saturdays, but only from 8 AM to 12 PM (Noon). Change all the Saturdays in October, November and December ( 2013) to the above working times, including October 19, 2013. How would you do this?

(Hint: To change all Saturdays, create a new rule selecting all Saturdays from October 5 to December 28 in the details tab, using the Weekly Recurrence pattern, and delete the rule for the Make-up Day.)

Figure 4

Figure 5

15. What is the completion date? (Check Project Information). Is it still November 29? But why is the total duration of the project now 39.75 days? The problem here has to do with the recurring task, Project Meeting. When we originally set up this project, Project meetings were independent of any other tasks and, based upon the original calendar, there were to be eight meetings. However, if you notice, the final task, Test System, actually completes on November 21. It looks like we do not need eight project meetings. (How do you find the start and finish dates for each task on your entry table?)

16. Delete the Project Meeting 8 from the task list (but keep the project meetings 1-7).

17. Now what is your completion date and project duration? It should be November 22, 2013 and 34.25 days. This gives you an indication that when you change working time, you need to review recurring tasks for their appropriate parameters. Normally, if we had no recurring tasks, all the changes that we made to the working times would have immediately affected completion dates, but not total hours of work.

Note: It is good to have a final project meeting after the project completion to review the project and how it met the objectives. BUT when you include this in the MS Project plan, it could disrupt the critical path, so it is often better to leave this last review meeting task out of MS Project.

Changing a Resource Calendar

Resource calendars track the availability of individual resources. When you create or assign a resource, the resource is given the base ( Standard) calendar by default. Each resource may be on a different work schedule or have vacations, training or other events, which may interfere with the availability of that resource during the course of a project. For example, a student working on a project at school may not be available during 8-5, Monday through Friday, but may be available evenings and weekends.

Note: a resource calendar may also be used for other types of resources to reflect maintenance time, down time, cleaning time, etc.

Resource calendars are edited in the same way base calendars are edited. Resource calendars are available in the Change Working Time dialog box or on the Working Time Tab in the Resource Information dialog box.

1. From the Task tab and the View group, click Resource Sheet.

2. Select the Project Manager resource.

3. Scroll across the row, until you find the Base Calendar column.

4. You will notice the calendar, Standard, is assigned to this resource. If you click on the arrow, a drop-down menu appears where you could assign another base calendar to this resource. Your choices are 24 hour and Night Shift. For now, leave this assignment as Standard.

5. Scroll back and select the Project Manager.

6. From the Resource tab and Properties group, click the Information button.

7. The Resource Information dialog box should now open.

8. From the General tab, Click the Change Working Time button..

9. Click on Monday, October 14, 2013.

10. Let's say the Project Manager will be working the entire day on this date, from 8 AM to 12 PM and also working that afternoon from 1 PM to 5 PM.

11. Make an exception named “Work Day”. In the details select the Working times radio and make sure that from 8 AM to 12 PM and 1 PM to 5 PM is defined.

12. Press OK on the Details window.

Figure 6

13. Click OK on the other windows to get back to the Resource Sheet.

14. Select the Financial Officer.

15. Apparently, the Financial Officer will be away on vacation the week of October 28 - November 1, 2013.

16. Click the Resource Information button (Note: While in the Resource Sheet you can also double click the resource name to open the Resource Information window.)

17. Click the Change Working Time button and create an Exception named “Vacation”. In the details window create a Nonworking rule (He will be unavailable) for the dates of Monday, October 28 through Friday, November 1, 2013 and click OK on the Details and Change Working Time windows.

18. At this point, you will receive a warning (not an error) indicating that the resource is assigned outside the original dates for task 9 Issue RFPs in project Maynard Furniture Company… If you do not receive the warning message, go back to verify the vacation’s end date and correct as necessary.

19. What do you think this message is telling you??? Press OK to accept.

20. Change to the Gantt View, Table: Entry. What happened to task # 9, Issue RFPs? Why is the completion date of the task November 11? Why is the duration now 10 days rather than 7 days? It is always important to remember availability of resources can affect the completion of a task or project. (Your project’s duration is now 37 days).

21. The above is fine for individual resources and individual dates or times, but what about a situation like a student working on a project where the standard, 24 hour or night shift calendars do not apply?

Creating a New Base Calendar

New base calendars can be created when none of the default calendars apply to your project needs or to a group of resources. (A new base calendar should not be created for just one resource). In this lab, we know that all managers do not work standard 8-5 hours, so let's create a calendar called Managers.

1. Making sure that you are in the Gantt Chart View, from the Project tab and Properties group, click Change Working Time. Scroll to October 2013. The dialog box should look as figure 7:

Figure 7

2. While we have seen this dialog box before, notice in the top left corner is a pull down menu. Click on the down arrow for this menu, and you will see the calendars being used in this project:

Figure 8

3. Here you could change the working time, not only for the three base calendars, but also for each individual resource. Again, it is best to create a new base calendar.

4. Click the Create New Calendar … button at the Top Right of the Change Working Time dialog box and the following dialog box opens:

Figure 9

5. Type Managers as the name of our new base calendar.

6. Be sure the Make A Copy of Standard Calendar is selected and press OK.

Figure 10

7. Make sure your calendar reflects October, 2013.

8. Since we will be creating a special calendar for the managers assigned to this project, we can change the default hours worked by the managers.

9. On the Work Weeks tab, select the Default line, then click on the Details button.

10. This opens a details dialog. (Figure 11).

Figure 11

11. Hold the Control Key and select the days, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday

12. Select the “Set day(s) to these specific working times:” radio button

Figure 13

13. Select the text in the first From box (8:00 AM) and change it to 6:00 AM. (If you have difficulty getting into edit mode, highlight the box and hit F2)

14. Change the 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Make sure you click out of the 8:00 PM box for it to stick. (See Figure 14).

15. Click OK to accept the changes and then OK again to close the Change Working Time window.

Figure 14

16. To assign a resource to this new calendar, change to Resource Sheet view.

17. Double click on the name, Systems Manager. The Resource Information Dialog box appears.

18. Select the Change Working Time button. In the left hand corner, you should see a drop-down menu for Base Calendar. Change the base calendar for this resource to Managers and press OK.

19. On your own, change the Project Manager to the Managers calendar. Use the Base Calendar dropdown in the Resource Sheet to change this. You will receive another warning message concerning task 9...press OK to accept it. After the change, what hours is the Project Manager working on October 14, 2013? Why is it still 8-5?

20. Finally, create another calendar based upon the 24-hour calendar. Call this calendar Contractor and set the Non-default working hours 6 AM to 10 PM (no breaks) for all seven (7) days of the week. (Again, change the default hours on the new calendar.) Assign this new calendar to the Wiring Contractor. (Note: when you make this change, the duration of the Install Wiring task is still 3 days, but the finish date has been moved up one day. Why would the duration still be 3 days, when the start and finish date shows only two days?)

21. Your project should now be at 37 days. If not, check to make sure that the Manager’s calendar and the Contractor calendar reflect the correct working times.

Check your work with the provided project information statistics below. If all is right with the world, save your file and print out the following reports: ( use proper header information)

1. Project Summary Report.

2. Task Entry Table and Gantt Chart view that includes ONLY the following column up to and including the Finish Date column and the Gantt chart. (Print this only 2 pages wide)

3. Who Does What When report (Under Assignments). (Print this on 3 pages)

4. Click on Project then select Reports. Select Workload and then click on Task Usage report, but press Edit. Under the Definition tab, select Days for column one. Then press OK. (We have now edited this report to show each task's information by days rather than weeks. Please note that once you edit a report, it will retain those settings on the report until you change it!).

5. Press Select and view this report – 14 pages worth – wow!! DO NOT PRINT THIS REPORT!!

6. Change the setting back to weeks and THEN print the Task Usage report.

Check Point for End of Lesson 4

When you have completed this lesson please save it as MyLab4_xxx.mpp and submit the file to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.

Also complete the Review Questions page at the end of this document and submit the completed Review Question sheet to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.

Addendum

Task Information for the Beginning of Lesson 4

Project Information Statistics at the Beginning of Lesson 4

Review Questions

Name ____________________________

Answer the following questions (you may use MS Project Help):

1) What are the three base calendars included in MS Project and what are the default values of each?

2) What is the difference between a base calendar and a resource calendar?

3) Why schedule one project meeting after completion of the last task, Test System?

4) Give an example of when you would assign a 24-hour calendar to a resource.

5) If you were doing a senior project, what would be the base calendar you would use for students working on the project and what adjustments would you make to it?

Turn in this sheet with your MS Project file to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.

MS Project Lab #4 Page 7

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MGMT404_Martinezt_Lab1/MS_Project_Lesson5.docx

MS Project - Lesson #5 - Resource Workloads

Objectives

· View resource workloads

· Locate resource conflicts

· Use automatic leveling to resolve resource overallocations

· Manually resolve resource overallocations

When making resources assignments to tasks, MS Project tries to schedule the appropriate work for that resource; however conflicts can arise if a resource is scheduled to perform more work than the resource can accomplish. These conflicts can occur as a result of a single or multiple task assignment and are often a case of overallocation of the resource. (You can also underallocate a resource). The problem then becomes how to resolve those conflicts. With MS Project, some of these conflicts can be solved automatically or manually.

For this lab, we will be using the MS Project Lab, MyLab4_XXX (where XXX are your initials) from where we left off in Lab 4. Included with this lab is an Addendum, where you can quickly check your project information prior to starting this lab.

Viewing Resource Workloads

Viewing resource workloads helps to identify to what extent a resource is overallocated or underallocated. When a resource is overallocated, the resource text is highlighted in red and a leveling indicator is displayed.

To view the workloads:

1. Log onto Windows.

2. Open your completed file MyLab4_XXX.mpp. Check the addendum at the end of this lesson to make sure your beginning file is correct.

3. Save as MyLab5_XXX.mpp, where XXX are your initials

4. From the Task tab and the Resource Views group, select Resource Usage.

This view shows each resource, total assigned for the entire project, each task the resource is assigned and total hours for each task, and on the right, a time graph showing the detail of how the work is divided up. (You may need to expand the columns and move the time graph to see all details).

5. Notice the resource, Systems Administrator, is highlighted in red. This resource is overallocated.

Also notice the icon to the left of Systems Administrator. This is the leveling indicator.

Leveling Indicator

Work Detail

6. Select the Systems Administrator resource name.

7. On the Task Tab and the Editing group, click the Scroll To Task button.

8. The right pane timescale scrolls to the first work values for the resource.

9. Scroll the timescale (at the bottom of the scale) until you see work values highlighted in red. In the week of November 17, the timescale shows this resource working a total of 40 hours on Friday of that week. The breakdown is 16 hours on Install Hardware and 24 hours on Install Software. ( Figure 1).

Figure 1

10. From the View tab and the Resource Views group, select Other Views, the select More Views and apply the Resource Allocation View.

11. The resource allocation view is now displayed. The tasks for the selected resource are displayed in the bottom pane along with the Leveling Gantt view, showing you the first conflict in the schedule ( Figure 2).

Figure 2

12. By viewing this screen, we notice that the two tasks, Install Hardware and Install Software are occurring at the same time. Install Hardware was initially scheduled for 2 units of Systems Administrator for 3 days for a total of 32 hours. The 32 hours were distributed over the three working days…at 16 hours the first day, 8 on Saturday and 8 on the following Monday. Install Software was initially schedule for 3 units of Systems Administrator for 3 days (or 48 hours total). The 48 hours were distributed over the three working days at 24 hours the first day, 12 on Saturday and 12 on the following Monday. Unfortunately, we only have 3 units of resources total for these three days, and 3 units can only do 24 hours of work in one day (3 * 8 is 24 hours). At this point, we have to decide what we want to do to alleviate this situation.

Resolving Resource Conflicts Automatically

Before you begin a project, you should try to resolve your resource allocation conflicts. Overallocations can be resolved automatically or manually. Before you decide to do either, you should review all allocation problems, availability of resources, time and task constraints, etc., before you make changes.

Leveling is a strategy used to resolve resource overallocations by delaying or splitting tasks. If you do it automatically, MS Project examines all overallocations by looking at task dependencies, start times, dates, priorities, and constraints, and it determines if a task can be delayed or split to resolve the conflict. Keep in mind that if you allow MS Project to determine how to level your resource workloads, it may not be to your liking! When MS Project levels a resource, the resource's selected assignments are distributed and rescheduled and the task and/or project schedule may change.

1. From the File Tab, check Project Information.

2. View the Finish Date for this project. It should read 11/26/13. Go back to the Resource tab and the Resource Allocation View will be displayed.

3. Click in the bottom pane of your screen (the one that lists the tasks and Gantt chart).

4. From the Resource tab and the Level group, click Leveling Options.... The resource dialog box appears:

Figure 3

The Resource Leveling window includes the defaults for the leveling process The settings should be: Leveling Calculations - Manual, Look for overalloactions on a Day by Day basis, Clear leveling values before leveling should be checked, Leveling Range, should be set for Entire Project, Leveling order - Standard, Level only within available slack - Unchecked, Leveling can adjust individual assignments on a task - Checked, Leveling can create splits in remaining work - Unchecked, Level resources with the proposed booking type - Unchecked, Level manually scheduled tasks - Checked.

5. One note of caution… Note the Leveling calculations radial tab is set to Manual. This allows the user to make the leveling decisions. When the Automatic radial is selected, MS Project will take over and not allow any resource overallocations. It is recommended this setting remains on Manual, to allow the user to control resources, rather than MS Project.

6. Be sure the default options are selected as shown in Figure 3. Make sure "Leveling can create splits in remaining work" is unchecked. What this can do is to stop a task before it is completed, to resume it later. This could cause inefficiencies and should be avoided.

7. Click Level All. What happened? (Look at delay applied to Install Software).

8. You will notice that the Systems Administrator is no longer in red. But look at the workload detail in the top right pane and the Gantt chart in the lower right pane.

9. In the Gantt chart, the Olive bars indicate the original start and finish dates, the blue bars represent the new start and finish dates.

10. From the File tab, review the Project Information. The finish date is now 11/28/2013; two days have been added to the project.

11. But what if this is unacceptable? Can you undo automatic leveling?

12. Go back to the Resource tab, be sure the lower pane is active (click in the bottom pane to make sure).

13. In the Leveling group, select Clear Leveling, and select Entire Project. (You can also click on Undo if it is still highlighted).

14. Check to make sure your Finish date is back to 11/26/2013. Unfortunately, the Systems Administrator returns to overallocation “red”.

Resolving Resource Conflicts Manually

Using MS Project to perform leveling operations might result in unwanted schedule adjustments or solutions that are not practical for the project. In addition, there may be some conflicts that MS Project cannot resolve, as we shall see later. When the above occurs, other techniques can be used to manually resolve the overallocations. Some suggestions for manual leveling include:

· Increasing the maximum units of the resource

· Reschedule the task that has created the conflict

· Add overtime

· Adjust task dependencies or constraints

· Remove a resource that is not important to the task

· Replace the overallocated resource with an underallocated resource

· Make adjustments to the working days and hours

· Decrease the amount of work assigned to the resource

Given our previous problem with the Systems Administrators, let's see if there is a better way of leveling the workload without jeopardizing our schedule. In this case, while it would be nice to assign more Systems Administrators to the task, let's say we only have three on our staff! So we will make changes to their current schedule and make adjustments to the hours worked.

Please follow these instructions carefully! (You may want to save your file at this point!)

1. Make sure you are in Resource Allocation View and your screen looks like Figure 2.

2. In the upper pane, double-click on the name Systems Administrator.

3. The Resource Information box should open. Select the Change Working Time button.

4. In the calendar, create a new exception for Friday, November 22, 2013 to reflect the time frames of 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM, and 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. (Remember to click outside the10:00 PM box for this to "stick").

5. Change the working time for Saturday, November 23, 2013 to reflect the time frames of 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM, and 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

6. Finally, change the working time for Monday, November 25, 2013 to reflect the time frames of 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM, 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM, and 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM. Click OK.

7. If you get a scheduling conflict error message, click “Continue, allow the scheduling conflict.”

8. Check your project finish date from the Project Information. Your current finish date should be Monday, November 25, 2013. At this point you should save your file just in case…

9. After making the above changes to the Systems Administrator working times (looks like we will be paying overtime), we have added more hours to the working day and added a full working day on Saturday. Assuming that we have three units of Systems Administrators, each one can work a 12-hour day on Friday an 8-hour day on Saturday and a 12-hour day on Monday. That amounts to 36 hours (12 x 3) on Friday, plus 24 hours (8 x 3) on Saturday plus 36 hours (12 x 3) on Monday for a total of 96 hours. The two tasks, Install Hardware and Install Software are 32 hours and 48 hours of work respectively, for a total of 80 hours. So, we should be able to adjust the load to make sure there are no overallocations.

Figure 4

10. In the top pane, make sure the timeline for the Systems Administrator reflects the Friday, Saturday and Monday of November 22-25, 2013. You will notice that the change in the calendar has altered the amount worked on Friday, Saturday and Monday. (This is because MS Project " front" loads all work). Follow the next instructions to the letter.

11. Click on the cell for Friday work for the Install Hardware task. It should say 24 hours.

12. Enter 12 in this cell. (For 12 hours).

13. Staying in the Install Hardware task row, verify that Saturday still has 8 hours.

14. Staying in the Install Hardware task, move to Monday and enter 12 hours.

15. Your screen should now look like figure 5:

Figure 5

Install hardware task for the Systems Administrator has been modified to show 12 hours of work on Friday, 8 hours on Saturday and 12 hours on Monday.

16. You will notice that the only number in red is for Monday, a total of 48 hours.

17. Carefully, click in the cell for Friday for the task Install Software. (There currently is no number in the cell). Enter 12 for 12 hours.

18. In the cell for Monday, change the 36 hours to 24 hours (and hit enter).

19. Do not change Saturday at all.

20. If everything goes right, your red should go away, this resource is no longer overallocated and your screen should look like figure 6:

Figure 6

The Install software task for the Systems Administrator has been modified to show 12 hours of work on Friday, 12 hours of work on Saturday and 24 hours of work on Monday.

21. Check your project information. Is your finish date back to Tuesday, 11/26/2013? If so, great! We met our goal, without overallocating resources. If not, you need to close the file, without saving it and go back to instruction 7 of this section.

22. You may have noticed the (pencil icon) next to the two tasks, Install Hardware and Install Software. This indicates that the work assignment has been edited.

23. While what we did was an extreme, it gives you an idea of some of the things you can do to resolve resource assignment conflicts. If you decide to adjust your resources, regardless of method, it is always best if you save your file before doing so, in case you make errors or do not like the results.

24. Again, resource leveling (and what goes on "behind the scenes") can be a very complicated process. It is best that when you make your initial assignments that you consider workload, availability, etc.

25. At this point, save your file.

26. From the Task tab and the Properties group, click on Details 2 times remove Split. Change to Gantt chart view.

27. Print out the Task Entry Table and Gantt chart view. Include all the columns of the Table: Entry and the Gantt chart. Be sure to include proper project header information. Make sure you widen the column showing task names and resource names. (Hint: on Page Setup in Print Preview, select the tab View and check Print All Sheet Columns). This will be printout number 1.

On your own

1. In the Gantt chart view, click on task Research Products and Services.

2. Click on the Assign Resources button on the Resource tab.

3. In the Assign Resources dialog box, select Systems Analyst and then click on Remove.

Figure 7

4. Keeping the Assign Resources dialog box open and while still on the task Research Products and Service, select Systems Analyst again and enter 200 (for 2 units). Press Assign. (Figure 8).

Figure 8

5. What we have done is replaced an initial assignment. If you were replacing different unit allocations of the same resource, you would do the preceding instructions. If you were replacing one resource with another resource, you would use replace rather than assign. We have just told MS Project that rather than one Systems Analyst doing 28 hours of work, we will have two Systems Analysts doing 28 hours of work each (total of 56 hours). If we had just changed the percentages from 100 to 200% without removing the initial assignment, MS Project would have assumed effort-driving and would not have added 28 hours of work, but divided 28 hours of work between the two units. A very important, yet another confusing, point to understand about how MS Project views the information you enter.

6. Close the Assign Resources window and make sure this task, Research Products and Services, is still showing 3.5 days before proceeding.

7. Change to Resource Sheet view.

8. Scroll down to Systems Analyst. Is the name in red? The resource is now overallocated, perhaps because we assigned two units of a resource when we only have one unit available!

9. Click on the name, Systems Analyst.

10. From the Resource tab and the Level group, select Level Resource.

11. You should see the Level Resource dialog box.

12. Make sure the Systems Analyst is selected and click on the Level Now button.

13. You should now see a MS Project alert message:

14. Whenever you get this message, MS Project cannot resolve the problem automatically. The message however gives you suggestions on how to resolve the problem. Here, MS Project also tells you what the problem is and the date of the problem.

15. Press Skip. (If you get another error message, just press skip until error messages stop).

16. MS Project did not perform leveling because it could not do so.

17. How would you solve this problem? Without affecting the project finish date? Look at the suggestion that MS Project is giving you. Perhaps if you went to the Resource Sheet view and changed the maximum units for this resource?

18. So do it. Change the maximum units for Systems Analyst to 200%. What happened?

19. Once you resolve the problem so that no resource is overallocated, print out the following:

· A Project Summary Sheet

· A Task Usage Report (showing work by weeks)

20. The above reports will be printouts 2 and 3 respectively. Again make sure proper project header information is included.

21. Check point: 37.5 days. (Plus see project statistics below).

22. Change back to Gantt chart view and save your file.

Check Point for the End of Lesson 5

Addendum

Task Information for the Beginning of Lesson 5

Project Information Statistics at the Beginning of Lesson 5

When you have completed this lesson please save it as MyLab5_xxx.mpp and submit the file to the Weekly 5 iLab Dropbox.

Also complete the following page and submit the Review Question sheet to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.

Review Questions

Name ____________________________

Answer the following questions:

1) What is resource overallocation?

2) What is resource leveling?

3) Under what circumstances would you want to manually resolve conflicts?

4) What would be the caution of adding more resources to a task to resolve resource conflicts?

5) What would be the caution of rescheduling a task to resolve a resource conflict?

Turn in this sheet with your MS Project file to the Week 5 iLab Dropbox.

MS Project Lesson #5 Page 8

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MGMT404_Martinezt_Lab1/MS_Project_Lesson6.docx

MS Project - Lesson #6 - Task Constraints and Baselines

Objectives - MS Project 2010

· Use constraints to set date limitations

· Set a project schedule baseline

A task constraint is a restriction or limitation that you or MS Project set on the start or finish date of a task. During the course of a project, limitations may have to be placed upon a start or finish date of a task. For example, while you can start doing your income taxes at any time, you must complete them by April 15 (assuming you do not file for an extension). Do not confuse task constraints with task dependencies. While you may schedule two tasks to start at the same time (dependency), you may not specify a certain starting date (constraint).

All tasks are assigned constraints. A constraint is either flexible or inflexible. A flexible constraint is not tied to a specific date; whereas an inflexible constraint is tied to a specific date.

Task constraints can help create a more accurate schedule by using detailed information to control start and finish dates of important tasks. But they can restrict your flexibility in scheduling. You should make sure that any constraint for a task is necessary before assigning that constraint, particularly if the task is part of the critical path.

For this lab, we will be using the MS Project Lab, MyLab5_XXX (where XXX are your initials) from where we left off in Lab 5. You may use your previous file or download MyLab5_XXX.mpp from Doc Sharing.

Applying Flexible Constraints

The following table lists the flexible constraints and when they are flexible:

Constraint	Description	Flexible for…
As Soon As Possible (ASAP)	Starts the task as soon as possible based on other constraints and dependencies	All projects
As Late As Possible (ALAP)	Starts the task as late as possible based on other constraints and dependencies	All projects
Finish No Earlier Than (FNET)	Finishes the task on or after an entered date	Projects scheduled based on a start date
Start No Earlier Than (SNET)	Starts the task on or after an entered date	Projects scheduled based on a start date
Finish No Later Than (FNLT)	Finishes the task on or before an entered date	Projects scheduled based on a finish date
Start No Later Than (SNLT)	Starts the task on or before an entered date	Projects scheduled based on a finish date

The As Soon As Possible constraint is the default constraint for projects that are scheduled from a start date. Therefore, our project's tasks all currently are assigned the ASAP constraint. (If project is scheduled from a finish date, As Late As Possible is the default constraint.)

1. Log onto Windows.

2. Open your completed file MyLab5_XXX.mpp. Check the addendum at the end of this lesson to make sure your beginning file is correct.

3. Save as MyLab6_XXX.mpp, where XXX are your initials.

4. Make sure you are in Gantt chart view, with the Entry table appearing.

5. Click on task #6, Proposal To Accounting.

6. Double click to open the Task Information dialog box.

7. Be sure that the General tab is selected and view the currently scheduled start and finish dates for this task. (The task is scheduled to begin on Monday, October 21 and finish on Wednesday, October 23).

8. Click the Advanced tab.

9. Click the Constraint type down arrow and select Finish No Earlier Than.

10. Click the Constraint date down arrow and select Wednesday, October 23, 2013. (See Figure 1).

Figure 1

11. If the Effort Driven box is not checked, do so now and then Click OK.

12. If you get a Planning Wizard, select “Continue. Allow the scheduling conflict.”

13. The constraint is set for this task. We have said that this task cannot finish prior to October 23, 2013 but can finish any time beginning with October 23 (or later!).

14. You will notice beside the task, Proposal To Accounting, a flexible constraint indicator icon. Notice that a similar icon is next to the task, Install Software. What is its constraint? When was this constraint applied? (Hint: these are the tasks we manually leveled to avoid resource conflicts, MS Project helped us in changing the constraint on one of these tasks to meet our needs).

15. Save the file.

Applying Inflexible Constraints

Inflexible constraints are tied to a specific date and should be used less often because they take flexibility away from the schedule. Inflexible constraints are generally applied if the project's start or finish date is absolute and beyond your control. But be careful! The following table lists the inflexible constraints and when they are inflexible:

Constraint	Description	Inflexible for…
Must Finish On (MFO)	Finishes task on an entered date	All projects
Must Start On (MSO)	Starts the task on an entered date	All projects
Finish No Earlier Than (FNET)	Finishes the task on or after an entered date	Projects scheduled based on a finish date
Start No Earlier Than (SNET)	Starts the task on or after an entered date	Projects scheduled based on a finish date
Finish No Later Than (FNLT)	Finishes the task on or before an entered date	Projects scheduled based on a start date
Start No Later Than (SNLT)	Starts the task on or before an entered date	Projects scheduled based on a start date

1. From the Gantt View, select the task, Issue RFPs. Open the Task Information dialog box for this task.

2. Click the General tab and view the currently scheduled start and finish dates for this task. The task is scheduled to begin Monday, October 28 and finish on Tuesday, November 12, 2013.

3. Eleven days should be sufficient to issue and receive replies to our Requests for Proposals. Although we should receive all the responses by Tuesday , November 12, we do not want to wait beyond Monday, November 11, 2013. Therefore, we are going to mark this task with a Finish No Later Than constraint for November 11.

4. Click the Advanced tab.

5. Click the Constraint Type down arrow and select Finish No Later Than.

6. Click the Constraint Date down arrow and select Monday, November 11, 2013. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2

7. Click OK.

8. The Planning Wizard dialog box appears. (Figure 3)

Figure 3

9. The Planning Wizard indicates a possible conflict and offers us three options. One, to just cancel the request. Another to continue, but change to a better constraint. Or finally, to continue with our original selection. Generally, you should either cancel or accept the advice on how to avoid the conflict. Only when absolutely necessary, continue with your selection; however, it could possibly affect your project's finish date.

10. Select the “Continue. A Finish No Later Than constraint will be set.” option, and click OK.

11. A Scheduling Conflict message may appear. Select "Continue. Allow the scheduling conflict." and click OK.

12. The constraint is set. An inflexible constraint indicator icon is displayed in the Indicated field. Note the " red" square versus the “ blue" square for a flexible constraint.

13. Please Note: MS Project will, by default, honor constraint dates over scheduled dates unless you remove this default from the Tools-Options menu, then select the Schedule tab and uncheck Tasks Will Always Honor Their Constraint Dates. Bottom line, it is best to wisely use constraints and preferably flexible constraints.

14. Save your file.

When task constraints are set, conflicts can occur that can affect the project finish date or a task dependency. When a conflict occurs, the Planning Wizard appears, indicating a conflict (or a potential conflict) will exist if the constraint is applied. The Planning Wizard monitors scheduling activities and offers suggestions when appropriate.

1. Click on the task, Evaluate Bids.

2. Open the Task Information dialog box for this task. Click the General tab and note the start date for this task is Monday, November 11, 2013, finish date is November 14, 2013.

3. Click the Advanced tab.

4. Click the Constraint Type down arrow and select Must Start On.

5. Click the Constraint Date down arrow and select Monday, November 11, 2013.

6. Click OK.

7. The Planning Wizard dialog box appears again.

8. This time select the Cancel option . No constraint will be set on "Evaluate Bids".

9. Save your file.

10. From the View tab select Tables from the Data group. Then select More Tables. The More Tables dialog box opens.

11. Select Constraint Dates from the list and click Apply.

12. Move the Gantt chart to the far side of your screen. Widen the table columns so all information can be seen.

13. Print this table. Include all the columns of the Table: Constraint Dates but NOT the Gantt chart. Be sure to include proper project header information. Make sure you widen the columns showing task information. This will be Printout 1.

14. Save the file.

Establishing a Baseline

Once the project schedule is completed and all resource and task conflicts have been resolved, your current schedule represents the best estimate of how the project should proceed and what resources it will take. The emphasis is estimate. When entering any type of project, regardless of experience, no one knows exactly what will really happen; we can only give it our "best guess".

Before the first task in the project begins, a baseline should be set. (Notice we have always saved our project files without one in the past.) A baseline is a record or "snapshot" taken of our forecast or expectations. Without a baseline, we cannot measure progress of a project. A baseline is useful for comparing the planned schedule with later versions of the schedule. A project baseline should be viewed also as a learning tool. Comparing the baseline to actual progress on a project can help you identify upcoming problems on the project as well as helping future projects with better duration estimates and more accurate resource assignments.

Think of a baseline as a forecast. If I predict that on my vacation I will spend $400, I will make that my baseline or prediction. At the end of my vacation, if I discovered that I spent $450, I know that I was over budget (by $50) because I had a baseline ($400) to compare to my actual progress ($450).

Note: Once you save a project with a baseline, any changes to the baseline should not be made. However, if a baseline is saved before the schedule planning is finished, a new baseline can be saved over the existing baseline. If this is necessary, you would access the Tools menu, point to tracking and then click Save Baseline. This should only be done to reset a baseline that was saved by accident.

We are now ready to save this project with a baseline. Read the following instructions carefully, because once saving a project with a baseline, it is difficult to undo any mistakes previously made.

1. First, save your current file as MyBaseline_XXX. mpp (where XXX are your initials), without a baseline. This way, if you made any mistakes, you can go back to MyLab5_XXX.mpp.

2. On the Project tab and the Schedule group select Set Baseline.

3. From the drop down select Set Baseline.

4. The Set Baseline window appears.

5. In the For area, be sure that the Entire Project option is selected. Press OK.

6. Once you set a baseline, you can quickly monitor baseline statistics for your project.

7. On the Project menu, click Project Information. In the Project Information dialog box, click Statistics. The Project Statistics window should appear.

Figure 4

8. The Project Statistics window will compare basic progress of your project with your baseline. This information comprises your Project Summary Report. (Notice that the fields for baseline now contain information).

9. Close this window and save your file.

10. Print your Project Summary Report, (from this file, MyBaselineXXX.mpp). Make sure it has all appropriate information. This will be Printout 2.

At this point, you have been introduced to the basics of project scheduling and resource management. There is much more to the software, but you should be encouraged to experiment and discover on your own using on-line help or books on MS Project.

Now that we have set a baseline for our project all that is left to do is to implement our project and track our progress. However, a little review before we do…

Addendum

Task Information for the Beginning of Lesson 6

Project Information Statistics at the Beginning of Lesson 6

When you have completed this lesson please save it as MyBaseline_XXX.mpp and submit the file to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.

Also complete the following page and submit the Review Question sheet to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.

Review Questions

Name ____________________________

Answer the following questions:

1) What is the difference between a task dependency and a task constraint?

2) Give a real-world situation when you might used the following task constraints:

a) Start No Earlier Than

b) Start No Later Than

c) Finish No Later Than

d) Finish No Earlier Than

e) Must Finish On

f) Must Start On

g) As Late As Possible

3) What is the importance of a baseline?

4) What is an interim plan?

Turn in this sheet with your MS Project file to the Week 6 iLab Dropbox.

MS Project Lesson #6 Page 7

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MGMT404_Martinezt_Lab1/MS_Project_Lesson7.docx

MS Project - Lesson #7 - Tracking Project Progress

Objectives - MS Project 2010

· Track the actual progress of tasks

· Updating a Project

· Compare baseline data to actual and scheduled data

· Viewing a Network Diagram

· Earned Value Overview

Once the project starts, it's time to begin tracking the actual progress of tasks and resources. Tracking is the process of gathering and entering task information into the schedule. You can track progress by entering all or some of the actual information.

In the previous lesson, we complete our scheduling and resource assignments. For this lesson, we will assume our project is underway and that several tasks have either finished or are partially finished. We will then determine if our project is behind or ahead of schedule.

Tracking Progress

Before we can begin tracking progress, the project schedule should be fully developed and a baseline plan should be set. Once work begins, progress should be tracked throughout the project. The more often we update the information, the easier it is to identify problems and take corrective action.

When actual information is entered, the project is automatically recalculated. For this reason, task progress should be entered starting at the top of the task list and continuing down the list.

There are three types of dates stored for each task:

Scheduled: Tasks that haven't started yet or are in progress.

Actual: Tasks that are in progress or are completed.

Baseline: Originally planned dates. These dates are used to compare the original plan with the actual dates and scheduled dates. Baseline dates do not change.

There are five types of actual data that can be entered in MS Project:

Actual start and finish dates

Percentage completion

Actual duration and remaining duration

Actual and remaining work

Actual and remaining costs

Our project was scheduled to begin on October 9 2013 and end on November 26, 2013. For the purposes of this lesson, we will assume that it is now Monday, November 11, 2013 and the project is underway

1. To ensure that all students are starting from the same scheduling parameters, download the following file: Lesson7Base.mpp. DO NOT use your project file from week 6.

2. Open the above file in MS Project. If you receive a scheduling error select “Continue: Allow the scheduling conflict” and then immediately…

3. Save as MyLab7_XXX.mpp, where XXX are your initials.

4. Under File > Project Information > Advanced Properties, change the author's name and the manager's name to your name.

5. Change the name of the main summary task (task #1) to reflect your name.

6. Once you have made those changes, make sure the file is saved with a baseline ! File > Project Information >Project Statistics). If your file does not have a baseline then save one (Project tab > Schedule > Set Baseline).

7. Finally, before continuing, under Project tab in the Status group, select Status Date.

8. Change the Status Date to November 11, 2013 . ( Important : You must do this every time you open this file !)

9. If you receive a Planning Wizard, allow the Scheduling Conflict.

Entering Actual Dates

1. Select task 3, Inventory Current Equipment.

2. From the Task tab and the Schedule group click on the arrow next to Mark on Track and select Update Tasks. The Update Tasks dialog box appears:

Figure 1

Do Not Click on the “Mark on Track” as this will automatically update the status as 100% complete. If you did this then use the Undo button to roll back the change.

3. In the Actual area, click the Finish down arrow.

4. Select/Enter October 10, 2013 and click OK.

5. If the Planning Wizard appears, click the radial, "Continue. Allow the scheduling conflict."

6. The actual finished date is entered and a checkmark is displayed in the indicator field, and a progress bar is displayed on the Gantt chart.

7. Go back to the Task tab and the Schedule group click on the arrow next to Mark on Track and select Update Tasks.

8. Notice the actual start date has been entered, the actual duration was 2 days, the % complete is 100% and the remaining duration is 0d. Click Cancel.

9. Position your mouse on the checkmark in the indicator field and a tip box will open showing you when the task was completed.

10. With completed tasks, you can either enter the actual finished date or enter 100% complete or both!

Entering Actual and Remaining Durations

1. Select task #7, Research Products and Services.

2. From the Task tab and the Schedule group click on the arrow next to Mark on Track and select Update Tasks

3. Click the Actual Duration up arrow until 2 days (2d) is displayed.

4. Click the Remaining Duration down arrow until 2 days (2d) is displayed. Click OK.

Figure 2

Figure 2 shows the completed Update Tasks window for task 7. The duration is 3.5 days, the actual duration is 2 days and the Remaining duration is also 2 days.

5. Still on task #7 Select Update Tasks again.

6. Notice the actual start date is entered as October 24 and percentage completion is 50%. (Note, since this task was originally at 3.5 days, you have just added one-half day to the duration. That is an additional 4 hours of work for each System Analyst. Therefore you just added 8 hours of additional work to your overall Project. The baseline, however, will still be at the original 3.5 days. Obviously this task took longer than you expected.

7. You will notice there is no icon in the task information column, but if you look at your Gantt chart for this task, you will see that the task is partially filled in with a black bar (indicating progress).

8. With partially completed tasks, you can either enter the actual duration with remaining duration or enter the percentage completed. You can also enter any different start date than that reflected. However to affect the change you must press OK.

Entering Percentage Completion

1. There is also a Tracking table and a Tracking toolbar that you can also use to update task information.

2. On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, click on Other Views then More Views…and then select Task Sheet. Press Apply. (See figure 3).

Figure 3

3. Notice the Gantt chart has been removed from your view.

4. Still in the View tab, go to Tables in the Data group point to Table and select Tracking.

5. Your table should look similar to Figure 4.

Figure 4

Figure 4 shows the Tracking Table. The columns are: Task Name, Actual Start, Actual Finish, % Complete, Physical % Complete, Actual Duration, Remaining Duration, Actual Cost and Actual Work. Based on the status entered, the Actual Start of the project is 10/9/2013, the % complete is 8%, actual duration 2.95 days, remaining duration 34.55 days, the actual cost $2,720 and the actual work 80 hours.

6. Go back to the Task tab. On the Schedule group you should see:

Figure 5

Figure 5 is a screen capture of the schedule area of the ribbon. It includes icons to update task completion by 0%, 25%, 75% or 100% complete.

7. Select task 4, Assess Current Department Needs, on the Task table.

8. On the Tracking toolbar, click the 75% button. This will complete 75% of the work.

9. The actual start date is entered as scheduled ( October 10) since the predecessor was completed on time. The actual and remaining durations are updated as scheduled; 2.25 days has been completed (75% of 3 days) and there is .75 days remaining on the task. Your overall project completion percentage is 12% and this phase of the project (Proposal Creation) is 33% complete.

Note: using percentage completion data for tracking can be somewhat subjective and should only be used when everyone involved understands what the percentage means.

Entering Actual Work

Sometimes, you need to update or report actual work hours performed on a task. There are times the work that you projected for a resource or resources may be different than what they actually performed.

1. From the Task tab and View group, click on Task Usage.

2. Your screen should now appear as in Figure 6. (You may have to widen the task name column to see the entire task name).

Figure 6

3. From the Format tab, in the Details group, check Actual Work box.

4. Notice the Details column splits into two rows: Work and Actual Work.

5. Go to task 7, Research Products and Services, and scroll, if necessary, until you see the hours work for the System Analyst. (See Figure 7).

Figure 7

6. In the row for Systems Analyst, select the cell with 16 hours for Thursday ( Oct 24) that is in the Actual Work row ( Act.Work). ( DO NOT change the Work row!).

7. Change the 16 hours to 24 hours. If you receive a Planning Wizard, Allow the Scheduling Conflict.

8. Note the icon that appears in the Indicator Column. This indicates that the work assignment has been changed.

On your own, do the following:

1. Edit/track task 5, Design and Diagram New System, as 2 days actual duration with remaining 3 days duration. (Hint: Do NOT press OK…continue with next step…)

2. Edit task 5 for an actual start date of Tuesday, October 15, 2013. (Hint: Now, press OK.)

3. Edit/track task 6, Proposal to Accounting, as 50% completed.

4. For task 6, Proposal to Accounting, indicate that the Project Manager's actual work for Tuesday, October 22 from 11 to 7 hours.

5. At this point in time, the project team has also met for the first 5 meetings. Show these meetings as being 100% complete.

Entering Changes in Fixed Costs

To enter changes to fixed costs, after you have begun a project, do the following:

1. Change to Gantt chart view. From the View tab, in the Data group point to Tables and select Cost.

2. Move the Gantt chart so you can see all the columns of this table.

3. Go to task # 14, Install Wiring.

4. In the Fixed Cost column, change $4,000 to $6,000

5. Notice the column Baseline still says $4,000, but the total cost column says $6,000 for a variance of $2,000. (Note the variance column).

Tracking actual costs, other than fixed costs, can only be done after the task is completed or the remaining work is zero. In our lesson, the only task that is completed is task #3. To change that task's actual cost would require changing the details of our task sheet to add cost information and then change that information. For this lab, we will not be doing this.

(Note: MS Project automatically calculates actual costs, so you must turn off this option to manually change actual costs.)

Comparing the Baseline to Actual Data

When we save our project with a baseline, we did so because we need to have something to serve as a basis for comparing costs, work and dates for task and resources. It is the only way we can know if we are on-schedule, within budget, etc.

Project baselines and actual data can be viewed graphically in charts or numerically in tables. The following describes the tools in MS Project to analyze and compare baseline, actual and scheduled data:

Tool	Type	Description
Tracking Gantt	Chart	Displays the actual and baseline information for tasks in a graphical format
Variance	Table	Displays the difference between actual information and baseline information
Work	Table	Displays the difference between actual and baseline work hours
Cost	Table	Displays the difference between actual and baseline costs
Cost Over budget	Task Filter	Displays all tasks with a cost greater than baseline cost
Slipping Tasks	Task Filter	Displays all tasks that are behind in schedule
Work Over budget	Resource Filter	Displays all resources with scheduled work greater than baseline work.

You can quickly see overall progress by displaying project statistics:

1. From the Project menu, click Project Information.

2. Click Statistics. Note: You may also use the icon on the Tracking toolbar to display these statistics.

3. You should see the information as in figure 8. The Percent Complete is for the entire project.

Figure 8

Or you can view the Tracking Gantt Chart:

1. From the View tab, select Tracking Gantt.

2. The Gantt chart now is displayed showing actual versus baseline scheduling information.

3. Another graphical representation of your project is the Network Diagram. The Network Diagram view displays tasks and task dependencies in a network or flowchart format. A box (sometimes called a node) represents each task, and a line connecting two boxes represents the dependency between the two tasks. By default, the Network Diagram view displays one diagonal line through a task that is in progress and crossed diagonal lines through a completed task.

4. To see the Network Diagram, select Network Diagram from the View tab. Your screen will look something like this:

5. You can change to zoom levels to see the more of the diagram, but for now leave it at 100%.

6. MS Project’s Network Diagram is similar to a PERT chart. You may want to view the legend on this diagram to see what each shape and color means.

Understanding Earned Value

Another way to view information about the baseline are in Earned Values. Earned value is a measure of cost of the work performed up to a given date in a project. Earned value information is based on three pieces of information. This information is:

· Planned Value (PV) - This is the amount of budget planned to be spent during a given period of time.

· Earned Value (EV) - This is a value indicating how much of the budgeted cost should have been spent given the amount of work actually completed.

· Actual Cost (AC) - This is the amount of money actually spent on the completed work.

Knowing these numbers can help you understand if the task (or project) is on, over or under cost and on, behind or ahead of schedule, by calculating variances.

To calculate the cost variance (CV) the formula used is EV-AC. A zero, "0", indicates the task (or project) is right on budget. A negative number indicates the task (or project) is over budget and a positive number indicates the task (or project) is under budget.

Likewise to calculate a Schedule Variance (SV), the formula is EV-PV. A zero, "0", indicates the task (or project) is right on schedule. A negative number indicates the task (or project) is behind schedule and a positive number indicates the task (or project) is ahead of schedule.

The shortcut rule for variances is a negative number bad (over budget or behind schedule) and a positive number is good (under budget or ahead of schedule).

1. To see the Earned Value numbers in MS Project, first switch back to the Gantt chart view and then from the View tab and the Data group, select Tables then More Tables, from the list select Earned Value. The PV, EV, AC and SV and CV are now displayed.

2. Notice three other columns, EAC, BAC and VAC

a. EAC is "Estimated Cost at Completion". This is the new forecast value of the final budget, based on current actual values.

b. BAC, "Budgeted Cost at Completion" is the baseline value.

c. VAC, "Variance at Completion" is the difference between the BAC and EAC (BAC-EAC). As with SV and CV, negative numbers represent an over budget condition and positive numbers represent below budget.

The project's current PV = $22,919.23. What do you think this means? (NOTE: If your value is $0, then make sure you have set the Status Date to 11/11/2013, per step 4, page 2.) If your EV amounts do not match, then the status information has been entered incorrectly.

It means that if we had worked according to the plan, we would have completed $22,919.23 worth of budgeted work. What do the EV and AC mean?

Note the positive VAC. As of this date, we expect our project to be $1,710.01 under budget at completion.

There are 2 other values which can be calculated from the PV, EV and AC. These are SPI (Schedule Performance Index) and CPI (Cost Performance Index). These values are ratios and can be used for trend data.

To calculate SPI, divide the EV by the PV (EV/PV=SPI). When the SPI is at 1, the project (or task) is right on schedule, when the SPI is less than 1, the project (task) is behind schedule and when the SPI is greater than 1, the project (task) is ahead of schedule.

To see the SPI values, again go to More Tables and this time, select Earned Value Schedule Indicators.

Note the project has an SPI value of 0.31. This means the project has completed 31% of scheduled work… or that for every $1 worth of work scheduled, only $0.31 worth of scheduled work has been completed. Do you know why this is? Hint: Look for those tasks with negative SV's. Note the task that has a particularly large SV.

The last value we are going to look at is the CPI or Cost Performance Index.

To calculate CPI, divide the EV by the AC (EV/AC=SPI). When the CPI is at 1, the project (or task) is right on budget, when the CPI is less than 1, the project (task) is over budget and when the CPI is greater than 1, the project (task) is below budget.

To see the CPI values, again go to More Tables and this time, select Earned Value Cost Indicators.

The Project's CPI is 1.05. This indicates the project is ahead of schedule. For every $1, the project team completed $1.05 worth of work. Not bad so far! See if you can identify the tasks that helped the project to be under budget.

At this point:

1. Save your file

2. Print out the following reports : (use proper header/footer information)

1. Project Summary

2. Overbudget Tasks

3. Earned Value

This concludes our survey of MS Project 2010. MS Project is a great tool to help manage projects. It does take effort, but with proper usage the effort will pay off with better project results.

There is much more to explore and learn. We hope this will encourage you to explore more about the tool.

When you have completed this lesson please save it as MyLab7_xxx.mpp and submit the file to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.

Also complete the following page and submit the Review Question sheet to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.

Review Questions

Name ____________________________

Answer the following questions:

1) Why is it best not to enter a percentage (%) completion?

2) According to your Project Summary, is this project on schedule? Will you be over or under budget and by how much?

3) After printing out the Earned Value report, define (you may use MS Project help) the following terms and write in the Total Values of each from your Earned Value Report (Make sure your current date is properly set to 11/11/2013).

PV:

EV:

AC:

SV:

CV:

EAC:

BAC:

VAC:

Turn in this sheet with your MS Project file to the Week 7 iLab Dropbox.

MS Project Lesson #7 Page 1

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MGMT404 Week 8 Final Project Package.zip

Week 8 Final Project Package/Week 8 - Final Project Package - Project Coffee Shop.docx

Project Coffee Shop 3

The Coffee Shop Project

<<Name>>

MGMT404 Project Management

DeVry University Online

Table of Contents Introduction 3 Scope statement 3 Work breakdown structure 5 Network diagram 6 Risk Management plan 8 Resource Management plan 9 Communication Management Plan 12

Introduction - A coffee shop has always been more than a place to have a beverage. It is a place to socialize, ideate, have fun and meet new people. As Starbucks puts it, it’s the third place, a home away from home or office. Also, due to the competitive and busy lifestyles that people lead today, a coffee house near their work or home has become a major point of relaxation. This report details out a project plan for opening up a coffee shop, bringing together the various things that must be considered and activities that should be performed to successfully open the coffee shop. Various elements of the project such as project scope, work breakdown structure, resource management plan, and communication plan and risk management are addressed, thus ensuring that the project is effectively thought out and planned in a structured and very detailed manner.

Scope statement – The scope statement of the project is discussed in this section, essentially all the activities that are required to make the project a success

Project objective – To start a niche and specialty themed coffee shop within three months at a cost not to exceed $100,000

Deliverables –

a. A coffee shop with a seating capacity of 30 people and with an area of 1000sft

b. All electrical and air-conditioning work completed. This includes having power backup of 60 minutes.

c. Equipment includes coffee makers, fridge, freezer, mixers, jukebox

d. Furniture includes chairs and tables for 30 people, a counter with a cabinet and shelves to store inventory

e. Glow Signboard measuring 2ft x 6ft outside the shop

f. Menu card, menu board, posters for the coffee shop

Milestones

a. Lease agreement signed and deposit paid for property – October 1st

b. Inspection of electrical wiring and air conditioning completed – October 15th

c. Equipment purchased and tested – November 15th

d. Interior and exterior painting completed – November 15th

e. Furniture, Shelves and Counter/Cabinets installed – December 10th

f. Sign board installed and tested – December 24th

g. Menu card, menu board, posters finalized and sent for printing – November 30th

h. Final inspection one week before opening – December 24th

Technical requirements

a. The coffee shop must meet the local regulations for commercial establishments, fire safety regulations

b. All electrical equipment and air conditioning used should pass LEED 25 certification

c. Cables used for wiring should have a thickness of greater than 25cm

d. Painting used should be of premier quality, as certified by its rating

e. Large size freezer with a capacity of more than 300 liters

f. Shelves should have a capacity of being able to store more than 50 large boxes

g. Glow sign should be made out of high quality plastic,, with a thickness of more than 0.5 inches

Limits and exclusions

a. Work would be carried out as per blueprint provided by the customer

b. Work timings at site limited from 6.00 AM to 6.00 PM

c. Buying inventory such as coffee, sugar and disposables are not in scope

d. Contractor reserves the right to subcontract work, but would be responsible for the work to be delivered

e. Customer is responsible for providing the designs and artwork for the menu and posters

f. Marketing and advertising are not part of the project and would be done separately

g. Budget does not include deposits, rents and employee salaries and other costs which would be part of coffee shop operations

Reviews with customer

a. Food industry consultant

b. Coffee shop owner

Work breakdown structure – The work breakdown structure for the coffee shop project, which is a breakdown of the different phases of the project into constituent activities and tasks at a granular level is shown in the below image. As can be seen the project is broken down into 6 major phases and sub tasks, which would be done in parallel to successfully achieve project goals.

Gantt chart Entry Table $C:\DOCUME~1\Karthik\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg$

$C:\DOCUME~1\Karthik\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg$

Network diagram – Given that the project is on a very tight schedule of being completed within a very aggressive schedule, it is very critical that we are able to effectively identify the activities that are on the critical path and manage them well so that they are not delayed and can be completed within time. The network diagrams of the project with the activities on the critical path are shown below; the activities that are in red are the activities that are on the critical path. The network diagram for the coffee shop project is shown below that gives a different view of the project activities and schedule that can be used to see what are the tasks that are happening in parallel, the amount of float that is available should it be necessary in case there are delays.

Network Diagram $C:\DOCUME~1\Karthik\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg$

$C:\DOCUME~1\Karthik\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image002.jpg$

$C:\DOCUME~1\Karthik\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image003.jpg$

Risk Management plan – Another key area that would need focus for effectively and successfully completing the project would be ensuing that there is a structured approach to identifying the various risks that can come on to the project and then following best practices to ensure that proper responses and contingencies for the various risks are prepared. For the coffee shop project the risk evaluation matrix that is used for identifying the various risks that can impact the project, the degree of impact on the three constraints, the probability of the risk occurring are performed to come up with a weighted risk score that helps in effectively ensuring that major risks are identified and proper responses to these risks made.

Risk Response Matrix
Risk Event	Response	Contingency Plan	Trigger	Person Responsible
Delays in supply of material	Eliminate	Redo schedule, eliminating all slack	Supply delayed by more than one week	Project manager
Lease agreement signing being delayed or denied	Mitigate	Have three backup locations ready as alternatives	Agreement not signed by October 15th	Project manager
Licenses and other permissions not getting approved in time	Share	Engage expert/consultant who will be able to advise and expedite	Licenses not approved by October 10th	Project manager
Fridge and coffee maker being on long lead time	Transfer	Include in terms while buying that delivery delays do not happen and get confirmation	Time of purchase	Project manager
Delays in painting due to contractor delays	Transfer	Include condition in agreement for timely completion	While contract is being prepared	Interior designer
Materials and paints used not of high quality	Mitigate	Inspect material for quality and grade	Material delivery date	Painting contractor
Food industry consultant not being available	Accept	Organize for another expert or consultant	Intimation from consultant post contact	Project manager
Cabling and wiring installation installation issues	Mitigate	Inspect early after lease is signed, so that appropriate action can be taken	Lease agreement signed	Interior designer
Increase in prices of inventory and logistics	Accept	have long term fixed priced contracts and also have some extra buffer in budget for price increase	Price list of inventory	Project manager

Resource Management plan – Given that coming up with the coffee shop would incur a lot of effort, time and investment, having the right people for the project and managing the project team in an effective and efficient manner would be very important. The project team for this project is given below would be there for the duration of the project, and assigned various tasks that would need to be done. There would be additional people engaged if required based on any specific requirement that may be there.

S No	Name	Role	E-Mail Address	Telephone
1	Your Name	Project Manager, Owner
2	Name 1	Interior Designer
3	Name 2	Painting Contractor
4	Name 3	Shop Manager
5	Name 4	Staff Member
6	Name 6	Investor

Resource Assignments – The various resources who are engaged to work on the project are shown below, and assigned to various tasks that show their project responsibilities which would be very useful to track the project effectively and manage the resources in a efficient manner. This would also help to see what resources are over allocated so that they can be addressed to ensure that project schedule and cost are not impacted. The image below show the resources from the above table assigned to the various tasks followed by the resource assignments as per project schedule which shows the various dates and the duration for which each of the resources would be working on the project.

Resource Assignments $C:\DOCUME~1\Karthik\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg$

Resource Assignments with Schedule $C:\DOCUME~1\Karthik\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image001.jpg$

Communication Management Plan - The communication plan is a very key component of successful project execution which would help the project team to effectively work together, be updated and resolve issues in a value creating manner, and would be an essential component of successfully completing the project. The attached plan shows the different types of communications, the form of communication, people who are involved with contact information, the frequency of communication and the person who is responsible for ensuring completion of deliverable. It essentially has all the things that are necessary for keeping all relevant stakeholders updated, bringing in clarity and setting right expectations and ensuring that any obstacles in way of successful project completion are removed. The communication plan for the project is presented below

Communication Plan

What	Who/Target	Purpose	When/Frequency	Type/Method(s)	Contacts
Project Kick Off Meeting	All stakeholders	Communicate plans and stakeholder roles/responsibilities Set expectations	Once at project start	Meeting	[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Project Status Reports	All stakeholders and Project Sponsor	Update stakeholders on progress of the project.	Weekly	E-Mail	[email protected] [email protected]
Team Meetings	Entire Project Team Individual meetings for sub-teams	To review detailed plans (tasks, assignments, and action items).	Scheduled as per project requirement Weekly for the duration of phase completion	Meeting	[email protected] [email protected]
Project Sponsor Meeting	Project Sponsor and Project Manager	Update Sponsor on status and discuss critical issues. Seek approval for changes to Project Plan and any budgetary approvals.	Monthly	Meeting	[email protected] [email protected]
Quality Audit	Project Manager, Food Industry Consultant	To inspect project progress and take recommendations for improvement Site Inspection	Monthly	Meeting at Project Site	[email protected] [email protected]
Open issues meeting	All stakeholders	To resolve any open issues that need resolution	Ad-hoc as and when needed	Meeting	[email protected] [email protected]
Project Closure Meeting	All stakeholders	Final project signoff and Go Live	Once at end of project	Meeting	[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

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Week 8 Final Project Package/Week 8 - Lessons Learnt Document.docx

Lessons Learned Document

What went well in the project? What could have gone better?

The best part for me from the course project was the learning gained on how to create an end to end project plan and being made aware of the various things that must be considered, and the various aspects that must be managed such as risk, communication and people. The way I was able to manage these aspects in MS Project and also use various templates to create project artifacts was what in my opinion went well. What could have gone better is that is the Network Diagram and allocation of project costs, which in my opinion could have done better. However, given that I could review and do my work every week, there was continuous learning which was very good.

What did you learn in completing this project about yourself and how you work in a team environment?

Given that I was exposed to multiple aspects of project management, I learnt that I am good at the people aspects of the project while I need to learn more about the technical and functional aspects, which I think I will become better by practicing in real world projects. I also learnt that I am a good communicator, and am able to effectively use tools and artifacts of communication to be able to communicate with various members to fulfill this effective part of project management. I did this project individually, but given that a real project is done in a team, I feel that I need more practice to ensure that I fine tune my people and resource management skills.

What could have made this project a better learning experience?

I have done this project individually. However, I feel that this could have been a better learning experience if it is done as a team, as that would ensure that we have experience of working in a team environment. Also, after every week, sample documents based on best practices should be distributed to the class so that they can get more perspective and reference points.

Week 8 Final Project Package/Week 8 Business Memo.docx

Business Memo: Coffee Shop Project Plan Package

For being able to execute the coffee shop project successfully, there needs to be proper preparation and planning, where all the things are well thought out and a structured plan on all aspects drawn that would help in successfully and reliably executing the project. This would be a key value add from a project management perspective, that would ensure that a complex project that has got multiple things to take care of would be planned and thought of, thus helping the project to be a success. In addition to it, there needs to be a lot of communication and coordination that would ensure that the project objectives are met in an effective manner. To this end, the project plan and communication plan for the coffee shop project.

The project plan has got much different aspect that would ensure that there is enhanced communication, while putting together a comprehensive plan that would ensure that the project is being executed in a streamlined and effective fashion. For the Coffee Shop project, we have come up with a complete project package that is one document that would give complete information about the project, and would be a ready reference from a management and communication perspective. The project is identified in terms of its scope and requirements, the various tasks are identified and included as a work breakdown structure, resources are identified and assignments shown, key aspects such as risk management and communication plan are included in the project plan package.

management project

MGMT404_Martinezt_Lab1/MS_Project_Lesson1A.docx

Objectives - MS Project 2010

Understanding Project Scheduling

MS Project Basics

Basic Setup

6. Click OK to close the window. 7. Next, select the Gantt Chart Tools Format tab from the ribbon. Click the check box to show the tasks that will be on the Critical Path. 8. Select the Task tab. With these settings we are ready to start entering data

Entering tasks

Task ID

Displaying Project Information in Views

Printing Project Schedules and Reports

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MGMT404_Martinezt_Lab1/MS_Project_Lesson1B.docx

Objectives - MS Project 2010

Creating an Outline

Hiding and Showing the Outline

Viewing Outline Numbers

Establishing Task Dependencies

Changing Task Dependencies

Understanding Lag and Lead Time

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MGMT404_Martinezt_Lab1/MS_Project_Lesson2.docx

Adding Resources

Assigning Resources to Task

Providing Resource Details

Assigning Cost Rate Tables and Variable Resource Rate

Project Information at end of Lesson 2

Review Questions

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6. Click OK to close the window.

7. Next, select the Gantt Chart Tools Format tab from the ribbon. Click the check box to show the tasks that will be on the Critical Path.

8. Select the Task tab. With these settings we are ready to start entering data