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COIS20008/MGMT22166/PPMP20007Week2TutorialandPracticalExercises
Learning objectives After this workshop exercise, you will be able
to create a project schedule in MS Project. In creating this plan
you will learn how to:
Enter project phases, tasks, and milestones Enter task durations
Enter dependencies between tasks Enter resources and resource costs
Assign resources to tasks Show the critical path Determine the
total cost and duration of the project
Scenario: Getting up in the morning The scenario for this
workshop is the process we go through when getting up in the
morning. In the example provided the goal is to get up in the
morning and get to work on time (by 9.30), having showered,
dressed, and had a good breakfast. In order to develop a useful
project schedule, the following has to be done:
determine the various steps needed to complete the project
determine the duration for each of these steps determine the
sequence in which these steps take place identify the resources and
their costs
Tasks Duration Sequence/Predecessors
and Resources Alarm sounds 0 (Milestone) Trigger that starts
the
project Get out of bed 15 min Do this after alarm
sounds Take a shower 20 min After getting out of bed
Use hot water which costs $1 per litre
Get dressed 15 min After showering Assume clothes are not part
of project resources
Eat breakfast 15 min After getting dressed Breakfast costs $5
each time
Read the newspaper 10 min While having breakfast The paper costs
$1.20 each morning
Listen to the radio 60 min You have the radio on for one hour
The radio starts when the alarm goes off
Drive to work 30 min After eating breakfast. We assume petrol
costs $1.50 per kilometre for 4 kilometres
Arrive at work 0 (Milestone) After driving to work
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The aim of this exercise is to determine how long it takes to
get to work, and how much it will cost. MS Project will help us do
that, but we need to set up all this information accurately in a
project file. Starting MS Project To run MS Project, find MS
Project in the Start menu. Some introductory dialog boxes may
appear. If this happens, just close these boxes. The standard main
screen will look like similar to the shot shown below.
Effort driven tasks A task or activity is referred to as
effort-driven when adding additional resources reduces the duration
of a task. An example of an effort-driven task is that of painting
a fence. If it takes one person two hours to paint a fence, then
adding an additional person will reduce the time to one hour. By
default MS Project assumes all tasks are effort-driven. This
default has just been removed because, in this project, as in many
other projects, adding more resources to a task should not reduce
its duration at the initial planning stage. Initial settings 1.
Select the File Tab and click Options menu item. In the options
dialog box that appears,
ensure the Schedule menu item is selected:
1. Select Decimal from the Show assignment units as a combobox.
2. Un-tick New tasks are effort. 3. Select Automatically Scheduled
from the New tasks created combobox.
Make sure the settings appear as is shown below.
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Adjusting the date and currency format 4. Select the General
menu item and in the Date Format combobox select the format
with
both a date and a time as shown below.
5. Select the Display tab and ensure that the Currency selected
is AUD as shown below.
6. Finally, once all initial settings are adjusted, click OK.
Click on the project tab to begin
work on your schedule if necessary. Entering in project tasks
Now you will enter the required project tasks that make up the
schedule. It is similar to working with a spreadsheet. 7. Click in
the top-most cell under the column named Task Name and type in the
name of
the first task in our simple project: Alarm sounds.
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8. Press the Tab key. The next cell on the right will be
selected. 9. Type in the duration 0. This makes the task a
milestone. 10. Press the Arrow Down key to go to the next row. 11.
Press the Arrow Left key to go to the cell under Task Name. 12.
Type in the name of the second task: Get out of bed. 13. Press the
Tab key. Type in 15m. 14. Press the Arrow Down key. Notice how the
15m became 15 min. 15. Continue entering the tasks as listed in the
earlier table (page 1-2). As each project task is entered, a blue
bar appears in the Bar Chart pane on the right side of the chart,
as shown below. Note that your dates will be different.
16. Select the View Tab and click a number of times on the
Zoom>Zoom In button, until the
differences in the length of the bars is more obvious. Take note
of the vertical bar separating tasks and Gannt Chart (or time bar)
panes. It can be moved to allow data entry in Predecessors or
Resource Names columns.
Saving the file 17. Click on the Save button and save the file
as GettingToWork.mpp. Entering task sequence: Predecessors
Adjusting column widths If the information under the Start or
Finish column contains asterisks you will need to widen the columns
for Start and Finish Entering the task sequence Predecessors are
entered in the column of the same name in MS Project to indicate
the sequence of tasks. Each task has a task number. Task 2 (Get out
of bed) needs to happen after Task 1 (Alarm sounds). That means the
predecessor of Task 2 is Task 1. 18. Enter 1 in the Predecessor
columns for task 2 and complete the predecessors for tasks 3
to 5 (see overleaf). The result of these actions is shown
overleaf:
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Tasks occurring at the same time The newspaper is read while
eating breakfast. That means that Task 6 can occur at the same time
as Task 5. Therefore, Task 6 has what is known as a Start-to-Start
relationship with Task 5. The Start-to-Start relationship is
different from the Finish-to-Start relationship (which is the
default/standard). Task 2 has a Finish-to-Start relationship with
predecessor Task 1. That means the predecessor - Task 1 - has to
finish before the successor - Task 2 - starts. Start-to-Start means
the predecessor and successor tasks start at the same time. 19.
Enter 5SS as the Predecessor for Task 6. The following link between
task 5 and 6 will
appear after entering a Start-to-Start relationship.
Complete the list of predecessors for the tasks as follows (see
overleaf): 20. Task 7 The first radio that is being listened to is
a clock radio that is used as an alarm 21. Task 8 requires Task 5
to have been finished before it can start 22. Arrive at work occurs
after the Drive to work (Task 8) The resulting Gantt chart looks
like this you may need to zoom in further to achieve the same
appearance in your Gannt Chart:
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Hanging tasks There are a couple of hanging tasks, (tasks that
have predecessors but no successors). All tasks must have
predecessors (except the first one) and successors (except the last
one). Add the following predecessors to task eight using the entry
bar underneath the horizontal menu: 23. Task 6 (Read the newspaper)
should have the successor Task 8 (Drive to work) 24. Task 7 (Listen
to the radio) should have the successor Task 8 (Drive to work)
That
means that Tasks 5, 6 and 7 all finish before Task 8 begins. 25.
Click on the Save button to ensure you have a copy of all of your
changes to the
schedule. Entering resources The next thing is to enter the list
of resources and their costs.
26. To do so you need to open the Resource Sheet. Go to View
then select Resource Sheet. The Resource Sheet is like a
spreadsheet where important information about the project resources
is entered. These are: Costs either fixed (per use) or variable
(depending on amount of resources used) Time constraints when these
resources are available or not available. These have to be entered
first before resources are assigned to tasks. Then MS Project will
compute the total project cost and consider all the constraints in
the project schedule. Resource Name: Enter a descriptive name for
the resource. Type: This refers to whether the resource is a
Material resource or aWork resource
(e.g., manpower). For now, enter all resources as Material
resources. Later, a Work resource will be added to see how it is
different.
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Initials: This is just a short name for the resource. Usually,
this is the first letter of the Resource Name. There is no need to
change this.
Std. Rate: This means a cost per unit of the material. If the
Hot Water costs $1 per litre, then just put $1 as the rate. Later,
when the resource is assigned, it will be important to state how
many litres are needed for taking a shower.
Cost/Use: This is a fixed cost. Any amount entered here will be
added to the total cost each time this resource is assigned. If
there is a Std Rate and a Cost/Use for a resource, this means the
usage of this resource will be the Std Rate multiplied by the
number of units plus the Cost/Use.
Accrue at: Determines when the cost of the resource is incurred:
at the Start of a task, at the End, or during the task (Prorated).
Leave this at Prorated.
To enter values noted in the table on page 1-2 in the Resource
Sheet: 27. Click in the first row under Resource Name. Type in the
name of the resource Hot
water 28. Press Tab to go to the next column 29. Press the
letter m to change the Type to Material 30. Press Tab to go to the
next column 31. No need to enter anything in the Material column
32. Press Tab continually until you reach the Std. Rate column 33.
Enter 1 as the standard rate per litre for hot water 34. Repeat the
above procedure for all the other resources. Note that there is a
cost per use
for breakfast and the newspaper. Your resource sheet should
appear similar to the one depicted below.
After entering all your resources, you can now assign these to
the tasks in the project. Assigning resources to tasks 35. Return
to the Gantt chart view through the menu by selecting View then
Gantt chart.
There are a number of ways to assign resources, but the simplest
is to use the method of entering the information in the rows and
columns on the left side of the Gantt chart.
Viewing the Resources column in the Gantt Chart 36. Adjust the
view to show the Resource Names column. 37. Assign a resource to
Task 3 (Take a shower) which uses Hot water, and estimate the
number of litres to use for this task. Say, 30 litres of Hot
water. Click in the row for Task 3 (Take a shower) in the Resource
Names column. Click on the combobox and select the resource Hot
water. Once Hot water is selected, click the cell again and the
cursor will appear next to the words Hot Water[1]. To specify that
we will use 30 litres overwrite 1 with 30: [30] and then press
Enter.
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Notice that the resource name Hot Water[30] will appear both in
the Resource Names column and in the Gantt Chart time bar area. If
a number is not typed in after the resource name (i.e. Enter is
pressed), the default value is [1]. 38. Continue assigning
resources in a similar fashion. It takes four litres of petrol to
get
from home to work. After assigning all resources the screen will
appear as follows:
Viewing total project cost and duration How much will this
project cost, given our resource costs and amounts? To view the
project cost and duration, use the menu: 39. Click on Project then
select Project Information. 40. A dialog box will appear showing,
among other things, Start Date and Finish Date
(your dates will be different this is fine). 41. Click the
button labelled Statistics.
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42. Total duration is shown, total man-hours, and total cost.
During the planning stage, the
values in the Current row are what should be considered and
watched. Click Close. Viewing the Critical Path The critical path
is a path of tasks along the project timeline that need to be
completed on time otherwise any delay in these tasks will cause a
delay in the project. Knowing the critical path helps in risk
management. If the project manager is aware of the risks that might
delay these tasks, then he/she is able to set out a risk management
plan for these tasks. To highlight the critical path in the
project: 43. Click on the Format tab in the horizontal menu. 44.
Select Critical tasks in the Bar styles section of the Format menu.
The Gantt chart appears as follows:
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The blue time bars represent the non-critical tasks, and the red
bars represent the critical tasks. 45. To understand how the
critical path works, change any of the durations of the
critical
tasks. If it takes 20 mins instead of 15 mins to Get Dressed
(delay this task by 5 minutes), then the finish time will change by
5 minutes.
46. If the duration of a non-critical task was extended (up to a
certain point) the project will not be delayed at all. For example
if the task Listen to the radio was extended by 5 minutes, it would
not extend the finish time. On the other hand, if it took 120
minutes, it will. Change all the values back to those shown in the
figure above.
Changing the project start time 47. By default, the project
starts on the day that the tasks are entered into MS Project.
To
change the project start time, select the Project tab and click
Project Information. Click the combobox for Start Date. On the
resulting calendar clicking on a date selects the date in that
month. Select the date December 8th, 2014. Change the start time to
10:00am by clicking next to the time 8:00am in the start date box,
delete the old time and type in 10:00am.
48. Click Ok to change the start date and time on your Gantt
Chart.What time does it finish now?
Scheduling from project finish time If the date and time that
the project should finish on is known and you want to know, given
the tasks, durations, sequence, and resource availability, what
date and time should the project start then this is called
scheduling the project from finish time. 49. To set this, access
the Project menu and select Project Information, then select
the
Schedule from and then select Project Finish Date. Notice that
the Finish date can be edited but the Start Date cant. Set the
project finish date to 8th December, 2014, 9:30am. This means we
want to arrive at work at this time. Click Ok to implement this
change.
Notice that the start date and time of the first task now
changes to the 5th December, 2014 at 4:55pm. What happened? What
caused this involves Working Time set in the project. By default MS
Project assumes that projects will only take place on Monday to
Friday, 8am to 5pm. Since the whole project takes more than one
hour and a half, and has a finish time of 9.30 am, then it must be
started during the working time on the previous working day. 50.
Save your work. You have just completed planning a project in MS
Project and hopefully learnt how to manipulate a number of key
aspects to using the application. Acknowledgement
TheGettingupinthemorningprojecthasbeenadaptedbyGinaReyesandAdrianRampfromTatnall,A2008,AguidetoMicrosoftProject,2ndedn,DataPublishing,Melbourne,Australia