Offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning at UIS www uis edu ctl training Beginning Microsoft Project BEGINNING MICROSOFT PROJECT 1 WHAT IS PROJECT WHAT IS IT USED FOR 1 PROJECT WINDOWS 1 Views and Tables 1 PHASE 1 PLANNING AND SETTING UP PROJECT 2 PLANNING AND UNDERSTANDING A GANTT CHART 2 GETTING STARTED 2 Adding Tasks Milestones 2 Setting Duration 2 Setting Start Date 3 PHASE 2 MANAGING RESOURCES 3 SETTING THE WORK WEEK 3 A SSIGNING RESOURCES 4 PHASE 3 USING PROJ ECT ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS 4 Enter a Task s Completeness 4 SAVING PROJECT AS A WEBPAGE 4 QUICK REFERENCE CHART 5 ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR MS PROJECT 5 What is project What is it used for Project is a long term project management tool that can be used by Teachers Students Administrators and Staff to manage time and control the workflow of any project or task Using Gantt charts and other tables Project can help make large tasks manageable and increase the manager s ability to tack and change timetables and sub projects Project Windows Besides the usual window components close box title bar scroll bars etc Project has features you may recognize from spreadsheet programs such as columns and rows and the formula bar used for editing Figure 1 Sheet Pane and the Time Scale Pane in MS Project Information is entered into fields as in a database and there are unique commands and tools specific to working with projects The standard toolbar located beneath the menu bar has buttons for commonly performed tasks Some tasks unique to MS Project are linking and unlinking tasks entering task information and assigning resources There are also drop down boxes for grouping and filtering data Views and Tables Views allow you to look at a subset of project information in a certain format For example the default view called the Gantt chart displays basic task information in columns and a bar graph Page 1 of 1 February 10 2003 Offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning at UIS www uis edu ctl training Phase 1 Planning and Setting up Project In this first phase we will begin looking at the planning and prep needed to design your project This is best done in the initial stages of your project Consequently this time should be mapped onto the MS Project Gantt chart later on Planning and Understanding a Gantt chart Before opening project it is important to have some elements of the project mapped out Understanding project milestones and having a concept of what tasks is part of a major backbone of the project will greatly aid you in using project An essential part of working with project is understanding Gantt Charts For more on Gantt charts please check out the links in the reference section Getting Started Once you have a clear idea of the tasks and milestones in the project you should start project When project loads then begin adding in your tasks in milestones Start with the most immediate task and end with the least immediate task or milestone For example if you were organizing a meeting then the tasks could be organized as such Tasks Milestones Meeting Topics Topics Settled Book Facilities Book Speaker Participants Facilities and Participants Booked Call Caterer Call Audio Visual Support Caterer and A V Support booked Adding Tasks Milestones To start placing these tasks and milestones into project simply click on the first Task Name cell in the Sheet Pane Start adding in your tasks and milestones in start to finish order Once you have added all your tasks and milestones into the task column then you begin adjusting the duration of the tasks Figure 2 Tasks and Milestones columns and their duration Setting Duration Milestones should be set to a 0 day duration to set a duration click on the corresponding duration cell Then using the up and down boxes you can choose the amount of working days it will take to complete the project NOTE Partial days can be set as well ex 0 25 days is equal to two hours or one fourth a working day Once the duration of the tasks are set then you should alter start dates and align the different tasks on the Timescale The start date is the day in which you desire the task to start Figure 3 Duration box Page 2 of 2 February 10 2003 Offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning at UIS www uis edu ctl training Setting Start Date To change the start date click on the start cell s drop down triangle A calendar will open Select the date in which the task should start Alternatively you can move the blue task bar in the Timescale Pane to the appropriate start date When a task is moved the Planning wizard appears asking if the task is dependant on earlier ones If a task is dependant on the previous task it is wise to link them example You must call conference participants in order to know how many people you will need to give to the caterer Figure 4 Using the calendar drop box We know our target project end date thus we will begin mapping each task to complete in series or sequence on the projected date which in our example is the conference date You can also create links by highlighting the preceding task and then using the CTRL key select the following task Then click on the links button menu Figure 5 Planning Wizard pop up box Figure 6 Completed Gantt chart with task links Phase 2 Managing resources Once you have your Project mapped out on the Gantt chart it is time to manage your resources Resources can be anything from office space to personnel We ll start with the most needed resource Time Setting the work week MS Project works on a standard workweek What this means is that MS Project plans your workdays in eight hour blocks 8AM 12 PM 1PM 5PM Monday through Friday If this is your workweek then you need not change anything But many people work a non standard workweek This means that project times will be wildly off if you use a standard workweek as your template To change the workweek click Tools change working time Click on the new button A pop up box will appear Insert the name of this schedule i e second shift part time work G A Schedule Then in the box to the bottom right insert the shift hours Page 3 of 3 Figure 7 Change working time pop up box February 10 2003 Offered by the Center for Teaching and Learning at UIS www uis edu ctl training Assigning Resources Click on Tools Assign Resources The resource box should appear Resources can be added either by the resource box or the resource column in the sheet pane When a resource is assigned to a task the name then appears on the Gantt view Resources can be