Project Management for Rey Writer Only

Course Project Tab in Course Home

The course project is laid out in summary (and in what has proven to be) a very confusing fashion in Course Home/Course Project.

PLEASE IGNORE that tab and its explanation of the Course Project. INSTEAD please use these course project instructions for the official, more complete and detailed information on these assignments the way we will do them here!

In the first two parts of our Course Project you have been taking your own selected project and documenting the effort (the Scope Statement), creating your initial WBS/Schedule, and then augmenting your schedule with additional information like durations, task dependencies, and estimated costs. Then you have been justifying your schedule and budget estimates.

In Course Project Part-3 (CP3) we will be starting afresh with a brand new project effort which you will all tackle, the creation of a theme park. The thinking here is, given the wide variety of projects selected by students, using a common project we assign would expose the class to a uniform level of challenge in this most complex part of the course project (using EVA and developing a set of corrective actions for a project in execution).

Overview

At a high level you will be building fully populated project schedule in Microsoft Project for the theme park effort to include:

1. Defining tasks

2. Defining task hierarchies

3. Defining task durations

4. Defining task dependencies

5. Defining task constraints

6. Defining resources

7. Assigning resources to tasks

8. Assigning variable and fixed costs

9. Establishing a Project baseline

10. Establishing a percentage complete

11. Defining a reporting period

12. Determining our EVA values (actually pulling those out of MSP which will do the calculations for you!)

13. Determining your project status given all the data

14. Developing corrective actions to get us back on track

15. Documenting what you found and what we plan to do about it

NOTE: (all the tasks in red you have already done before in your own projects as a part of CP1 and CP2)

Although it's a little involved (the pure number of steps for example complicates our lives) the assignment is straightforward given our level of knowledge at this point.

Where this gets a bit iffy is modifying your Microsoft Project Plan (AKA Schedule) to reflect your corrective actions which the original assignment in the course shell asks you to do. Inevitably that gets you down in the details of how MSP works at a level that leaves me uncomfortable given that we don't formally teach Microsoft Project in our training.

It is one thing to walk you through a step-by-step process on how to use MSP in a well-defined way. It's quite another to have you "mess around" in Microsoft Project doing schedule and cost calculation manipulation. Exactly what you need to do depends on what you find, AND what you decide to do about it. I've seen students stuck in a loop trying to determine the difference between a Fixed Work Task, vs a Fixed Duration Task, vs a Fixed Unit Task and the effect that selection has on the task cost calculation and schedule, and that is just for openers.

SOooooo, I'm going to modify the assignment slightly, by NOT having you submit a second After Modification Microsoft Project Plan file (showing what you did to modify the starting Microsoft Project Plan file we will build here) to correct the problems you found. Instead I will use the information you supply in your essay to assess your corrections. I will explain in more detail what you need to do below, as well as:

· Give you some checkpoints to validate your work is on track

· Simplify some of the unnecessarily complex reporting requirements for the assignment.

My hope is to expose you to the FULL pedagogical and educational value of the assignment while minimizing the frustration.

You need to open a new schedule (project file) in MSP and save it with the following name "ThemePark-YourLastName v0.MPP" v0 is version zero).

You can leave all the parameters to their default values EXCEPT, you must set the project start date to " 4/14/08" and set "new task created" to auto-scheduled (It defaults to Manual Schedule and you don’t want that).

You learned how do to that stuff from the Week-1 tutorial, yes?! If not review "Building a Schedule in MSP Example" in Doc Share. Follow the examples there to set the start date (pg-5) and the default “new task created values” (starts on pg- 8).

There is a TON of data to enter here! However, I have a work around. The easiest and least error prone way to build your schedule is to use a series of copy/pastes from the tables below. Follow the instruction carefully and all will go well. I've included row numbers in all the tables so you can quickly compare your MSP Schedule to the tables. Never copy the row number column to MSP (no need it already has the row number as a permanent fixture just like Excel). (So DON”T type in all these values! Copy paste them in people…)

Here are the tasks for our project without any hierarch set. Copy/Paste the Task Names (all 56 of them!) from the table below to your empty project schedule in Microsoft Project (remember-- just the task name column without the header -that is rows 1 – 56 below).

Double check that you have 56 rows of tasks with Row 1 = Theme Park Project, Row 25 = Ductwork & Piping and Row 56 = Grand Opening

Do a Save AS with a name of "ThemePark-YourLastName v1.MPP"

Let's add the WBS codes to your plan

Click on the Task tab (or the View tab for that matter), THEN click on the Format button under the PURPLE Gantt Chart Tools label.

Then click on the Outline Number check box

Setting that parameter will add the WBS code to the task name so that (for example)

Theme Park Project Becomes

1 Theme Park Project

Add Hierarchies

Again, we know how do to this from the Week-1 tutorial. If not review "Building a Schedule in MSP Example" in Doc Share

a. Select rows 2-56 (all but the Row-1)

Click Task Tab then the green (right facing) indent arrow in the ribbon, to make all the tasks in the plan a subtask of Row-1 Theme Park Project

b. Repeat the process of highlighting sub-task rows and indenting the tasks under their corresponding group level tasks as follows:

c. One more to do. Under "1.21 Attraction Install and Training" there is another group level task 1.21.1 Ferris Wheel. We need to take care of it's sub-tasks

Compare your schedule to these sample tasks. The WBS codes should be the same!

Do a Save AS with a name of "ThemePark-YourLastName v2.MPP"

Here are the tasks again with task durations. Highlight the entire Duration column from row 1 to row 56 in the table below and paste it into your schedule in the duration column (lining up row #1 in the table with row # 1 in the plan.). You also could do this in pieces if you feel more comfortable doing it that way. Just make sure the row numbers match up! The items in red are group level tasks and DO NOT get a duration. MSP will calculate those durations for you from the duration of the sub-tasks, taking into account task relationships.

Compare your schedule to these group task durations. They should be the same! To get the group level durations to display you may have to right-click on each and select Auto Schedule from the pull down list.

NOTE: these durations are wacked because we haven't entered task dependencies yet so EVERYTHING starts on the same date Mon 4/14/08?! We will fix this issue that later.

Do a Save AS with a name of "ThemePark-YourLastName v3.MPP"

Here are the tasks again with Task Dependencies. Same drill! copy/paste the Task Dependencies column (Predecessors) from the table below to the "predecessors" column in your plan. Note we have a variety of relationships here FS, SS with lag, etc. Cool!

Compare your schedule to these group task durations. They should be the same! (See I told you we would fix the dates!).

Do a Save AS with a name of "ThemePark-YourLastName v4.MPP"

So far we have been using "auto schedule" to figure out everything now that we have both task durations and dependencies. Unfortunately, that is NOT how it always works! It turns out in our case there a number of tasks where we need to enter (manually) a required Start Date as a "Start No Earlier Than" constraint. We have vendors etc., with their own schedule and they are ready when they are ready!

NOTE: When you manually enter the dates, you may get a Planning Wizard message from MSP asking you whether or not to preserve the link. When you do just click on the second option as shown below and then Ok. (In our case it wouldn't affect you if the selected the first option but let's all do it this way)

Overtype the dates in the "Start" column of these tasks with the date as indicated

Compare your schedule to these group task durations. They should be the same! Note the constraints have extended the project duration out 5 days!

Do a Save AS with a name of "ThemePark-YourLastName v5.MPP"

See the Week-3 tutorial "Adding costs to a MSP Schedule Example" in Doc Share if you have questions about this next step.

The table below lists the variable resources for our project. Go to the project Resource Sheet and copy paste each column separately:

· The Resource Names

· Then the Max Units values

· Then the Standard rate values

· The entries will default to Type "Work"

By the way, a value of 300% for example means that there are 3 equivalent resources assigned to that Resource Name/Role.

The easiest way to do this is to go to the Gantt view in MSP and drag (to the right) the divider that separates the columns on the left (e.g., Task Name, Duration, Start, etc.) from the Gantt Bars on the right to expose additional columns. You want to expose the Resource Names column!

Now all you have to do is Copy/Paste the Resources column in the table below to the Resource Names column in your plan you just exposed and you have assigned ALL variable resources to their respective tasks in one operation!

To check and see if all went well, we will test a few representative tasks. You need to double click on the Task Name in the plan to open the Task Information window, then select the Resources Tab to view the assigned resource and the calculated costs

Compare your schedule to these group task durations. They should be the same!

Do a Save AS with a name of "ThemePark-YourLastName v6.MPP"

ALMOST THERE GANG!

Next we need to add all our fixed costs. See the Week-3 tutorial " Adding costs to a MSP Schedule example" in Doc Share if you have questions about this next step.

You need to change your default "Entry Table" Gantt columns to the" Cost" columns in the Gantt view by selecting the View Tab on the ribbon and then in the Data portion of the ribbon click on the Tables pull down list and select Cost.

Copy/Paste the following cost values into the Fixed Cost column in the Gantt view (first column after task name (you may need to make it wider to see the "fixed cost" column header.)

Compare your schedule (the Total Cost column) to these group task Total Cost values. They should be the same!

Just to make sure everything is okay, here is a complete list of task with start and end dates of our plan. Double check a few with your version.

Do a Save AS with a name of "ThemePark-YourLastName v7.MPP"

Well done people! We have a completed plan, so we need to set it as a baseline. From here on out we will be comparing everything to this point! As we have seen in our reading and discussion, there are reasons to Re-baseline a project, but until and unless we do, this is the basis for all our comparisons.

To establish a project baseline in Microsoft Project, select the Project Tab on the ribbon, then click on Set Baseline

Now click on the "set Baseline" option from the two-item pull down list. It will default to "entire project" so just click okay

THAT'S IT!

Do a Save AS with a name of "ThemePark-yourlast-name Baseline v0.MPP”

You can delete your prior versions from v0 - v6 if you want (I would keep V7 just as a precaution). However, "ThemePark-yourlast-name Baseline v0.MPP" is the go to version going forward! (PLEASE use this naming convention for your submitted plan though you will be at v2 by the time we are finally ALL done)

Now that we have the baseline for project we're going to simulate that we are in actual project execution. In fact we're going to simulate that we have completed 40% of our project but have used up 50% of our time!? Not such a rare scenario. First we will tell MSP that our project is 40% complete. Then we will fast forward to a date ½ way through planned effort. We will set our Project Date and our Project Status Date to 10/1/08 to simulate that.

There are lots of ways to do this, one way is to display the tracking Gantt and type in 40% on the highest level task, so let's do that.

In your Gantt view click on the View Tab, then in the data section of the ribbon, click on the Tables pull down list. Select Tracking from the list. MSP will display a number of the project tracking columns in the Gantt view. One of those columns it is Percent Complete (3rd one over, you may need to make it a bit wider to see the full column header). Enter 40 in the Percent Complete cell for row #1 Theme Park Project press enter and watch the fireworks!

MSP uses a basic formula Percent Complete = (Actual Duration / Planned Duration) * 100 to calculate Percent Complete.

When you enter a % Complete MSP works backwards to figure out Actual Duration (it has the planned duration already). When you do it on a Group Level Item it prorates it through the sub tasks! We just entered it on the HIGHEST group level item (the entire project), so it prorated EVERYTHING! This gets REALLY complex really quick, but it's WAY cool!

Let me explain something about dates in Microsoft project. Let's say for a second we are talking about a completely different project. Just for a second then we will get back to this one!

Let's say you have been gathering the status for the Acme project and it is taking you two weeks to get everything together, however the status you are collecting is AS OF the end of last month and today is the 14th of the following month (A pretty common circumstance in larger efforts). Clearly, you want MSP to use the end of the month date, not today's 14th date as you enter in all the statuses. MSP is setup to do that kind of thing, which works well for us because our Theme Park Project is dated to way back in 2008. So we need to tell MSP what the current PROJECT DATE is (not the real date for today which MSP gets from the operating system) AND what the current STATUS DATE is. The date we are going to use for both is 10/1/08 (which is 50% through the planned effort schedule wise)

To do that select the Project Tab in the ribbon and then the Project Information button

Then enter our Current Date and Status Date values (both 10/1/08), and click Ok.

Do a Save AS with a name of "ThemePark-yourlast-name Baseline v1.MPP"

This version has the project at 40% complete halfway through.

Some other things have changed in our project effort. It turns out that some of our costs were different than what we planned. Select View/Tables and choose Cost (again) to display your cost data. Update the fixed cost column for these tasks with their new costs

From an individual task completion point of view, when we set the completion % for the project effort to 40%, to MSP that meant we were approximately 72 days into the project (40% of 180 days). So it set the % complete for a bunch of tasks to 100%. However, NOW we have told MSP that we are 90 days into the project effort not 72 days (50% of 180 days or approximately 10/1/08). That fact didn't affect completed tasks, it did affect incomplete work. MSP doesn't know what to do with the "time shift" so we have to tell it. We need to tell MSP to Reschedule Incomplete Work to start date after: 10/1/08.

We do that by selecting the Project Tab in the ribbon and then selecting Update Project

Then click the Reschedule uncompleted work to start after radio button and enter 10/1/08 and OK

You will get another Planning Wizard message alerting you to the fact that we have date constrains in place. Just click Okay.

Do a Save AS with a name of "ThemePark-yourlast-name Baseline v2.MPP"

This version has the project at 40% complete halfway through with uncompleted work moved forward.

(Submit THIS FILE along with the word document described next)

Microsoft Project has already done the EVA numbers for you! You just did not know it.

By now you are pretty expert at changing the columns displayed in the Gantt view. So in your Gantt view Select the View tab and then select the tables pull down and this time select more tables as your option. Of particular interest here you will see three table selections all of which you should review.

· Earned Value

· Earned Value Cost indicators

· Earned Value Schedule indicators

Review the project as it now stands and think about what we need to do to

· Review the Critical Path (See Building a Schedule in MSP Example" in Doc Share for instructions how to do that).

· Review current EVA values

· Look at the current forecasting numbers (Like EAC and VAC)

Think about what you can do to pull the date back to 12/19/08. What compromises to budget do you have to make? Document your thinking, approach and results.

· Attach your baseline plan (The version of the project at 40% complete halfway through the schedule with uncompleted work moved forward) to the Week-7 drop box. That is the MSP file named "ThemePark-yourlast-name Baseline v2.MPP" (or whatever your final version number is)

Besides your Microsoft Project baseline .MPP file, you will be submitting a MSWord file (using the supplied required template – see 6D - Executive Summary and Detailed Analysis and Correction Plan Essay Template) documenting defending your analysis of the project effort and your suggested actions to get the project back on track. Your paper will include:

· A cover page

· The first part of your paper will be yet another Executive Summary. Here, you will briefly layout your summarized cost and schedule findings and your approach to resolution.

· At Least one full page in length. With a title, double-space, one inch margins, and 12 point font size.

Detailed Analysis and Corrective Plan Essay

· The second part of your paper (in the same word doc) will begin with the title "Detailed Analysis and Corrective Plan Essay" and tackle the information in your Executive Summary but with full details as to the current project status, including all the current (baseline + 40%) EVA numbers and your current forecasting numbers to include your EAC, ETC, and TCPI. References REQUIRED unless you invented EVA and all its measures.

· The main focus of this second paper is your Corrective Plan to get the effort back on track. What techniques will you use? Why? References REQUIRED unless you invented fast tracking, crashing, etc.

· At least 2 full pages or more in length. With title, double-space, one inch margins, and 12 point font size.

· A reference page (covering both essays) in APA format

As always… The quality of writing will be appropriate for a Masters level University course, and with appropriate tone and clarity expected of communication with corporate executives.

The following is the grading rubric I will be using for the assignment. The rubric will confirm what it is you are being asked to deliver and tell you what each part is worth.

Submission Analysis

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