The following tutorial demonstrates the use of MSPROJECT for Project Management which organizes and tracks the required activities. It is intended to be used in “getting started” with the tool To use MSPROJECT for Project Management we: Define the required TASKS Establish the sequence and various DEPENDENCIES Make any required modifications to the CALENDAR Assign RESOURCES to complete the TASKS Once a satisfactory schedule has been developed, it is BASELINED so the MSPROJECT has a “history” it can employ in displays Finally, as TASKS are worked on, % COMPLETION is entered for each TASK Other functions are available which enable the user to adjust the schedule to optimize the chance for success. These include critical path analysis, resource leveling and many powerful Project Management tools.

Open application MSPROJECT and then list all known tasks and force all MILESTONES to be ZERO Days by clicking on the Duration cell and decrementing it to zero. Note that we have planned ahead by starting to create two summary task rows. Next we will indent subtasks.

Select Tasks1P-Milestone 5P and then click on INDENT to create subtasks. Repeat for Tasks1D – Milestone 5D. The INDENT is the GREEN right facing arrow in upper left of screen. Note display change with INDENTATION. INDENT

Create some initial dependencies by first selecting Task 1P, then while holding down the CNTRL key, select Task 2P and Milestone 1_2P and then click on Link Task, the “chain link” icon in the tool bar above. Note new “arrows” in display. Link Tasks

Repeat for Task 3P, Task 5P and Milestone 5 and click on Link Tasks. Repeat for Task 4P and Task 5P and click on Link Tasks.

Create more dependencies by first selecting Milestone 1_2P, then while holding down the CNTRL key, select Summary Task for Design and click on Link Tasks. Repeat for Milestone 5P and Summary Task for Design and click on Link Task. Now the Summary Task for Design is dependant upon completion of the two major Milestones under Summary Task for Planning !

Complete all dependencies under Summary Task for Design. Select Task 1D, then Task 2D, then Task 4D,then Task 5D and finally Milestone 5D and then click on Link Tasks. Repeat for Task 3D and Task4D.

Select Tools/Change Work Time – then HIGHLIGHT the Column for Saturday and then select Nondefault working time (box) followed by OK. This makes MON-SAT work days for the schedule. We decided Sunday is a day of rest!!

We now enter the duration estimates for each subtask in total hours of work required by clicking on the appropriate duration cell and entering the data. Task 1P is set to 10 hours by typing 10h. Note that the schedule now has automatically moved out in time. Next we will add resources (people). Initially we add our staff names… Tom, Dick, Harry & Janet by clicking on the resources icon in the toolbar above. As we add resources to each task, its duration will change. Resources

We have now added our resources… a first cut. After that we can now fine tune the schedule… longer or shorter as required by modifying the resource levels. Or we can actually adjust the duration directly via the duration cell. Once we are happy with the results we should “BASELINE“ the schedule which means that MSPROJECT will remember what the schedule looks like at this point. We BASELINE by selecting Tools/Tracking/Save Baseline and select “Entire Project” followed by OK.

We now change our “View” to Tracking Gantt from our original setting of Gant Chart by selecting View/Tracking Gantt. To show the benefit of this chart which employs the established BASELINE, we will change Task 5D from 4 to 24 hours.

Note how the chart displays the change

And finally we opened Task 4D and marked it as 60% complete to demonstrate MSPROJECT’s tracking capability. Note display change.