Practical 2 Project Management (part 1)

In this practical, you will use Microsoft Project to complete a Gantt chart by:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Defining a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of a given scenario

Specifying the dependencies among the tasks **
Viewing the critical path
Identifying the slack time
** Refer to short video clip on specifying dependencies

Remember to save the project file as you will continue with it in the next practical.
Before we look at the project scenario, lets do a small exercise to warm up first. We will use
Microsoft Project to do a simple WBS for the Requirement Gathering Activity that you have
discussed during the practical last week. A sample WBS may be:
1. Requirement Gathering Activity
o Understand requirement overview
o Draft questions to ask during interview
o Arrange a meeting with users
o Conduct interview with users
o Document detailed requirements
o Review requirements with users
o Correct and finalize requirements

Estimated duration
1d
1d
0.5d
1d
2d
0.5d
1d

Examine each of the above tasks to :

identify their sequence (i.e one task must complete before the next task can
start)
identify any tasks can be concurrent
Use Microsoft Project to fill up the WBS, predecessors and estimated duration. Derive the
overall duration needed to complete the requirement gathering activity from the Gantt chart.
________ days are needed.

IT2116/SWENG

Now you may proceed to the next exercise for more complicated scenario.
Project Scenario: There are 3 phases involved in this project and they are defined as follow:
Phase 1 Design
Task 1 Gather information
Task 2 Analysis
Task 3 Prepare/Present options
Task 4 Design/document
Milestone Design complete

5d
10d
6d
15d
0d

Phase 2 Develop
Task 1 Develop prototype
Task 2 Testing/QA
Task 3 Develop final product
Task 4 Final testing/QA
Milestone Development complete

20d
5d
15d
10d
0d

Phase 3 Implement
Task 1 Install
5d
Task 2 Test
5d
Task 3 Train user
10d
Task 4 Onsite support
20d
Milestone Implementation complete 0d
Instruction 1: Create a new project in Microsoft Project and enter these tasks accordingly.
Next, we look at the dependency scenario among the tasks. There are 3 basic scenarios:
Sequential
Concurrent and
Overlapping
The following Network diagram and Gantt chart shows the representation of the above 3
dependency scenario.
a. Sequential tasks

b. Concurrent tasks

IT2116/SWENG

c. Overlapping tasks

To specify FS-50%,
Select Task 2
Select Information
Select Predecssors
Select Finish-to-Start at
the Type column
Specify -50% at the Lag
column
Click Ok

IT2116/SWENG

Instruction 2: Now you may construct the Gantt chart by identifying the dependencies
(sequential, concurrent or overlapping) of the tasks given above.
If you have interpreted the dependencies correctly, your final Gantt chart should look like this
(except that the dates should be current dates):

Instruction 3: View the critical path. (Select Gantt Chart -> Tracking Gantt. It should look
something like this).

What is the purpose of identifying

the critical path of a project?

Instruction 4: Identify the slack time in the schedule and give the details below.
Task Description

IT2116/SWENG

Slack (aka float) in days

Remember to save your project file and we will continue in the next practical.
Review Questions:
1. A project is carried out and slack time is consumed on individual tasks, the slack left
over for the remaining tasks is:
a. Insignificant
b. Reduced
c. Unchanged
d. Increased
2. The critical path in a schedule is the path that:
a. Takes the longest time to complete
b. Must be done before any other tasks
c. Allows some flexibility in delaying a task
d. Is not affected by schedule slippage
3. Which of the following involves subdividing the major project milestones into smaller
and more manageable components?
a. Define scope
b. Create WBS
c. Allocate enough resources
d. Accurate estimate
4. Identify the critical path of the following Gantt chart.

IT2116/SWENG