2008

Tutoriales
Taller de Proyectos
Microsoft Project 2007
(en inglés)

1º Parte

Objectives:
1. To learn how to define tasks in three views, namely PERT, Gantt and
Calendar.
2. To learn how to outline tasks.
3. To learn how to set the constraints and linkages among tasks.

Sociocultural Project
http://sociocultural.mforos.com
ACE2090 Engineering Practice Tutorial 1

ACE 2090 Engineering Practice

Tutorial 1 – MS Project 2007 Part 1

Introduction:
The latest version of MS Project is Microsoft Office Project 2007. It can help you to
control and manage your project, such as project work, schedule, resources and cost.

Objectives:
1. To learn how to define tasks in three views, namely PERT, Gantt and Calendar.
2. To learn how to outline tasks.
3. To learn how to set the constraints and linkages among tasks.

Example Used in this tutorial:

Activities Durations (in Day) Start Day: Demo:
Task One 10 4th Sept, 2007 Gantt
Task Two 10 10th Sept, 2007 Gantt
Task Three 5 10th Sept, 2007 Network Diagram (PERT)
Task Four On every Wednesday, 3 5th Sept, 2007 Calendar
days in total
Table 1

A. Create a new project

Step 1: Click “New”
Step 2: On the Project menu, click Project Information

Step 3: Set the start date or the project finish date

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Step 4: Save the project as ace2090_t1.mpp

B. Define project task

1. Create “Task One” through Gantt chart
Step 1: Type “Task One” in the Task Name field.
Step 2: Set the Duration as 10 days. Then the finish day will be shown automatically.
**OR** Enter 04/09/2007 in start and 17/09/2007 in finish. The result is the same.

Step 3: If you want to change the task information, on the project menu, click Task
Information, or you can press “shift + F2” to access. A dialogue will be shown as:

2. Create “Task Two” through Gantt chart again, but…

Step 1: Drag the dates from 10/09/2007 to 21/09/2007 in the Gantt chart.
Step 2: Type “Task Two” in the Task Name field, under “Task One”.

3. Create “Task Three” through Network Diagram (PERT Chart)

Step 1: On view menu, click Network Diagram
Step 2: Select “Task Two” and insert a new task by pressing “insert” on the keyboard.
**OR** click insert → New Task.

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Step 3: Set the start day as 9/10/07 and the duration as 5 days.

4. Create “Task Four” through Calendar

Step 1: View → Calendar.
Step 2: Insert → Recurring Task

Step 3: Set Task Name as “Task Four”.

Step 4: Under the Recurrence pattern field, set the following:

i. Weekly
ii. Recur every 1 week(s) on Wednesday
Step 5: Under the Range of recurrence, set the following:
i. Start: Tue 9/4/07
ii. End after: 3 occurrences
Step 6: Click OK. Then the resulting chart is:

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Note: There are three subtasks of Task Four generated as shown in the above view. If
you change the view to the Gantt chart, then the chart is shown as:

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C. Outline tasks into subtasks

If the tasks consist of huge activities, you can outline (by indenting1 or outdenting2)
them into subtasks so that the organization and the readability of the project can be
increased. Consider table 1 again, i.e. this tutorial’s example, we can modify it as:
Activities Durations (in Day) Start Day:
Task One 10 4th Sept, 2007
Task Two 10 10th Sept, 2007
Task Three 5 10th Sept, 2007
-subtask 3A - 3 - 10th Sept, 2007
-subtask 3B - 4 - 11th Sept, 2007
Task Four On every Wednesday, 3 5th Sept, 2007
days in total
-subtask 4A - 1
-subtask 4B - 1
-subtask 4C - 1
Table 2
Create two new subtasks in “Task Three”
Step 1: View → Gantt View
Step 2: Select the row “Task Four” and then press “Insert” on the keyboard to add the
new task.
Step 3: Type “Subtask 3A” in the Task Name field. Then set the start day as 9/10/07 and
the duration as 3 days.
Step 4: Select the row “Subtask 3A” and click the indent button on the toolbar, i.e.

Hence the Subtask 3A belongs to Task Three. Moreover, Task Three becomes a
summary task.
1 indenting: Moving a task to a lower outline level [to the right] in the Task Name field. When you indent a task, it becomes a

subtask of the nearest preceding task at a higher outline level.

2 outdenting: Moving a task to a higher outline level [to the left] in the Task Name field.

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Step 5: Now it is your turn to create “Subtask 3B”. Set the start day as 9/11/07 and the
duration as 4 days. Summary Tasks have Gantt bar for
Task been indented summary task
Finally the result is as follow:

D. Linking among tasks

Linking the tasks means that you add the relationship among them. It can help you to
save time of the project management and to adjust the schedule changes easier. In
addition, it can make the tasks more flexible and more reliable.

Types of Task Dependencies (Links):

Task Dependency Description Gantt Chart View
Finish to Start (FS), default Task B cannot start until
Task A finishes
Start to Start (SS) Task B cannot start until
Task A starts
Finish to Finish (FF) Task B cannot finish until
Task A finishes
Start to Finish (SF) Task B cannot finish until
Task A starts

Now add two more tasks named as “Task Five” and “Task Six” after “Task Four”. Set the
Duration of Task Five is 3 days and the Duration of Task Six is 4 days. i.e.:

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Go back to our example used in the class, set the linking as following:
Activities Durations (in Day) Predecessor:
Task One 10 -
Task Two 10 Task One, SS
Task Three 5 Task Two, SS
-subtask 3A - 3 - -
-subtask 3B - 4 - Subtask 3A, FF
Task Four On every Wednesday, 3 -
days in total
-subtask 4A - 1
-subtask 4B - 1
-subtask 4C - 1
Task Five 3 Task Three, FS
Task Six 4 Task Five, SF

1. Create the link between Task Three and Task Five (FS)
Step 1: Select Task Three and Task Five
Step 2: Click on the toolbar. By default, Task Five starts after Task Three ended.

2. Create the link between Task One and Task Two (SS)
Step 1: Select Task One and Task Two
Step 2: Click on the toolbar or press “Ctrl + F2” to link the tasks.
Step 3: Double click Task Two.
Step 4: In the Information Task Box, choose Predecessors tab. In the Type column,
choose “Start-to-Start (SS)”.

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Step 5: After clicking “OK”, the following figure is generated:

3. Create other linkages among tasks. The result is:

4. Unlink
If you want to unlink the tasks, then select the unwanted linkages and click Edit →
Unlink Tasks.

E. Lead Time and Lag Time

Lead time: An overlap between tasks that have a dependency.
Lag time: A delay between tasks that have a dependency.

Example:
1. Add 2 days lag time for Task Five
Step 1: Double click Task Five, in the Information Task Box, choose Predecessors tab.
Step 2: Set 2d in the Lag field in row one.

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2. Add 3 days lead time for Task Six

Step 1: Double click Task Six, in the Information Task Box, choose Predecessors tab.
Step 2: Set -3d in the Lag field in row one.

In general, if you set the Lead time, you should add a “-“sign before the specific time.

The final Gantt chart is as follow:

F. Constraints
A constraint limits the project’s ability in recalculating the tasks’ schedule. There are
eight constraints:
- As Late As Possible (ALAP)
- As Soon As Possible (ASAP)
- Finish No Earlier Than (FNET)
- Finish No Later Than (FNLT)
- Must Finish On (MFO)
- Must Start On (MSO)
- Start No Earlier Than (SNET)
- Start No Later Than (SNLT)
By default, all the tasks in the project have a constraint of As Soon As Possible (ASAP).
That means the tasks are scheduled as early as possible.

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Examples:
1. Apply “As Late As Possible (ALAP)” Constraint for Task Six
Step 1: Double click Task Six, in the Information Task Box, choose Advanced tab.
Step 2: Set the Constraint Type as “As Late As Possible”.

2. Apply “Must Start On (MSO)” Constraint for Task Two

Step 1: Double click Task Two, in the Information Task Box, choose Advanced tab.
Step 2: Set the Constraint Type as “Must Start On”.
Step 3: Set the Constraint Date as “Thu 9/6/07”.

However a Conflict Dialogue is shown:

Click Cancel to ignore.

Reference: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/CR102140061033.aspx

-END-

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