Semester 1

Faculty of Information Technology, University of Moratuwa

MSc. in Information Technology
IN 5210- System Analysis and design
Batch 08
Lab Session 01

MS Project Tutorial

Introduction
Project management helps you answer questions such as:
What is to be done?
Who will complete the task?
When must it be done?
How much will it cost?
What happens if work isnt completed on time?
Typically, project management involves three major activities:
Planning the project and creating a schedule
This includes defining the tasks and their duration, setting up relationships between tasks,
and, if you are tracking resource usage, assigning resources. ALL later phases of the project
are based directly on the information you provide when you first plan your project.
Managing changes
This is an ongoing process that begins once you create a schedule and the project starts, and
ends when the project is complete. It includes tracking and adjusting your schedule to reflect
changes that occur as the project progresses.
Communicating project information
This is a very important process that involves communicating project information to clients,
project staff, and management.
Project management software is productivity software that will assist you in each of these
steps. Many professionals find it is among the most productive tools in their skill set. Some
Information Systems professionals will find it essential to their jobs while many others will
use it only on an occasional basis.
Gantt Chart Basics

Gantt charts are a project planning tool that can be used to represent the timing of tasks required
to complete a project. Because Gantt charts are simple to understand and easy to construct, they
are used by most project managers for all but the most complex projects.
In a Gantt chart, each task takes up one row.

 Dates run along the top in increments of days, weeks or months, depending on the
total length of the project.
The expected time for each task is represented by a horizontal bar whose left end
marks the expected beginning of the task and whose right end marks the expected
completion date.
Tasks may run sequentially, in parallel or overlapping.
As the project progresses, the chart is updated by filling in the bars to a length
proportional to the fraction of work that has been accomplished on the task. This way,
you can get a quick reading of project progress by drawing a vertical line through the
chart at the current date.
Completed tasks lie to the left of the line and are completely filled in.
Current tasks cross the line and are behind schedule if their filled-in section is to the
left of the line and ahead of schedule if the filled-in section stops to the right of the
line.
Future tasks lie completely to the right of the line.
This assignment is designed to provide you with practical experience in applying project
management concepts through MS Project 2013.
Specifically, the objectives of this assignment are:

Starting Microsoft Project

Using Project Guide

Set up calendar and schedule

Developing a WBS

Add Tasks and Sub Tasks

Creating Summary Tasks

Editing Tasks

Using Gantt chart

Using Task Information

Dialog Box

Creating Task Dependencies and Critical Path Analysis.

Resources: Creating a pool.

Working with Project Costs

Starting Microsoft Office Project

Select the Start | Programs | MS Office option in your computer. You might see the following
programs.
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Here we activate MS Office Project 2013 and we should see the main project window as
displayed as follows.

Create a Simple Project

File New | Blank Project. Save it as MyFirstProject.
Add Tasks
The following tasks are added to the project.
1. Learn Project Management - 3 days
2. Review & Present Case Studies 2 days
3. Do Lab Activities 1 day
4. Review Concepts & Celebrate with a Party 0.5 day

Changing Date formats

It is possible to change date formats by using ribbon on the top of the window. to do this right
click on th ribbon and click the "customerize the ribbon.."

Then go general tab and select desired data format.

You can change the current Date line.(Go->Format->Gridline)

You can set the Duration, not only days but also weeks, months, years, hours etc. see below.(Go>View->Timescale)

Link Tasks
At this point we are ready to link tasks so that it shows the project completing by the end
of the week.
Step 1: Highlight all the tasks:

Step 2: Click the Link Button in the Task

or Press [Cntrl] [F2].
This should result in the following Gantt View.

We want to complete the Project by Friday March 12, 2010. Make changes to the Project so that
the lab activities are half day instead of 1 day.

Exploring the Project Information

The entire project information can be explored by selecting Project | Project Information
On selecting Project Information you will see
Following figure shows Project Summary Information. You can schedule a project from the Start
Date or from the Finish Date. The default is the Start Date. If you select Schedule from:
Project Finish Date it will give you a chance to change the Finish dates (at the moment
this is not editable).

You can obtain useful summary information by clicking the project statistics option. This will
give you start and finish dates, duration (schedule), and work (total labor or effort required to
complete the project).

OUTLINING TASKS/WBS
Creating an outline view of your tasks, also called a Work Breakdown Structure, allows you to
view tasks at the summary and details levels. Additionally, as your project goes on and earlier
phases have finished, you can close up the detail level tasks to be able to focus attention on the
current tasks in your project plan. When you first create your project plan, you may not have the

full detail for tasks that are happening later in the project. Using a summary task as a placeholder
allows you to create the project plan and fill in the detail later as that phase approaches.
To promote or demote tasks, use the Outdent and Indent buttons on the Formatting toolbar that
look like arrows:(Go->Task)

PROJECT SUMMARY TASKS

A project summary task is a task id 0 that appears at the top of your task list. It gives you the
overall start and finishes dates for the project, overall project duration and can have Budget Cost
values assigned to it.
Method 01
First enter the all tasks to Task Name column. Then select the sub tasks under summery task

Then select "Indent" Task under task tab. The output can be seen as follows.

Method 02
To show a project summary task :( Go->Task->Summery). The symbol for summery task as
follows.

To insert a new summery task, select "summery" under task tab.Then you can see the following window
that you have prompted to enter the task name with under sub tasks.

Then you can see the following figure as a example for summery task.

Adding WBS Colomn (Numbering)

First set the WBS number format. To do this go project tab->select WBS.

According the dialog box set the levels as desired.

Next, to insert a new column right click on it and select insert column.

After select the WBS from the list.

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The output can be seen as follows.

Recuring Task
A requirement is to create a task that occurs repeatedly during the course of a project.
Some tasks in a project are recurring tasks. A good example is weekly team meeting or
meeting with a stakeholder or sponsor at a fixed date. In this module we show you how to
Create a recurring task.
Click the Task in your Gantt Chart
Click Insert
Click recurring task
to create a Recurring Task:
1. Select Recurring Task from the Task Tab as follows.

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2. To create a one day regular Weekly Review Meeting across the project duration, enter the
following information within the Recurring Task dialog box, with your own specific settings:

After the output can be seen as follows.

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Resources
Once you have entered the tasks and duration or effort you can create a resource list. Resources
are the people, equipment and supplies required to complete the project within the
defined constraints. Three different types of resources can be entered using Microsoft
Project:
Work resources
Material resources
Cost resource
Work resources include equipment and people that work on tasks. Allocation of Time
and Percentage of assignment of the resource is important. Material resources are good
used by the work resources and here the units-of-measure is an important gauge.
Example, 20 cans of paint. Cost resource is a fixed cost task, cost-dependent on work
performed. The most common type of resource you will be using the work resource.
In this module our goal is to:
1. Create resource pool
2. Assign resources

Creating Resource Pool:

This is a preferred approach. In this option we enter all the resources at once into a Resources
Spreadsheet. The resources from the resource pool can then be assigned to the tasks.
Note: You can directly assign a resource to task inside the Gantt View. If you assign a
resource to a task in this manner and if it does not exist in the resource pool, MS Project will
automatically add it to the resource pool. But it will be missing certain data like hourly rates
or overtime rates.
By using the resource sheet you can enter all the resources at once on a spreadsheet.
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If you have a list of all the resource you can enter them into a resource sheet by clicking
View | Resource Sheet or by clicking the Resource Sheet in the Team Planner.

Adding Resourses

Then enter the resources to the sheet as follows

Then go to gantt chat select the resources for relavant task as below

Adding Cost
First insert a new column as Cost. Then go resources sheet and enter the cost for relavant
resources.
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Critical Path Analysis

The critical path is used by project managers to monitor and control the project. It is
called the critical path as it depicts a sequence of tasks associated with the path that has
the least amount of slack.

Where is the Critical Path?

and then choose Detail Gantt:

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output

Highlight the critical task

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output

Draw a network diagram

select network diagram and apply

output

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Exercise 01
Task ID
S (start)
T2
T3
T4
T5
T6
T7
T8
T9
T10
T11
T12
F (finish)

Predecessors
None
S
T2
T3
T4
T5,T9
T2
T3,T7
T8
S
T8,T10
T11
T6,T12

Duration
0 days
10 days
5 days
4 days
12 days
15 days
20 days
12 days
15 days
2 days
5 days
4 days
0 days

Using this table

1. Draw the gantt chat
2. Draw the Network Diagram
3. Find the critical path
Exercise 02
See the following outline of the WBS. Enter subsequently the data into MS Project.
Hint: You can enter desired time duration for the tasks.

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1. Draw the Gantt chat

(In here you should add summery tasks ,subtasks (indent), add WBS column and add
recurring task for Keeping the project on schedule every Monday )
2. Draw the Network Diagram
3. Find the critical path
Project Tasks
1. Initiation
a. Project Kickoff
b. Gaining Sr. Management approval
c. Determining major stake holders
2. Planning
a. Gathering the upgrade details from Microsoft and other sources
b. List of applications running on a PC
c. Check H/W compatibility and Space requirements
d. Mock run on a test PC
e. Test Vista compatibility
f. Upgrade running S/W, if required
g. Rollback plan for critical machines
3. Execution
a. Procurement of OS license keys
b. Ordering the H/W upgrades
c. Gathering of resources
d. Installation of the H/W and the OS
e. Training/Helpdesk
f. Steps for Upgrading to Windows Vista
i. Assess Hardware Requirements
ii. Backup Important Data
iii. Upgrade to Windows Vista
iv. Migrate user settlings
4. Control and Monitoring
a. Keeping the project on schedule
b. Keeping the cost on budget
c. Monitoring the impact on users
d. Resolving Issues/Concerns
5. Closing
a. Project Closure
b. Lessons learnt
c. Archiving the Project documents to the Org. Repository
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Exercise 03

Task
A. High level analysis
B. Selection of server hosting
C. Configuration of server
D. Detailed analysis of core
modules
E. Detailed analysis of
supporting modules
F. Development of core
modules
G. Development of
supporting modules
H. Quality assurance of core
modules
I. Quality assurance of
supporting modules
J. Initial client internal
training
K. Development and QA of
accounting reporting
L. Development and QA of
management reporting
M. Development of
Management Information
System
N. Client internal user
training
Resource
S
C
P
E
J
G

Duration
1 week
1 day
2 weeks
2 weeks

Predecessor Resources
S
A
S
B
S
A
S, C

2 weeks

S, P

3 weeks

S, E

3 weeks

S, J

1 week

S, G

1 week

1 day

C,H

S, P

1 week

1 week

1 week

1 week

I, J, K, M

Cost(Rs)
2000
1000
3000
500
600
700

Using above details

1. Draw the gantt chat
2. Create a resource sheet and allocate the cost for each resources.
3. Draw the Network Diagram
4. Find the critical path
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