Anil Purushothaman

Prepared By: Anil Purushothaman

task that has a finite duration, has well defined execution path and objectives to achieve, and requires utilization of certain resources, is called a Project. Resources can be any animate or inanimate object. For example, Time, money, manpower & machines, etc. Microsoft Project helps in managing project timeline and resource management. This tutorial uses Microsoft Office Project 2007.

project has basically two modes

Planning mode Tracking mode
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The

first leg of this tutorial that starts from the next slide describes creating project plan, the second leg will describe the tracking mode.

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 Follow

the following path on XP / Vista

Start Menu Programs Microsoft Office Microsoft Office Project 2007

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 Start

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by defining the properties of the project You need to know the start date of the Project Open Project Menu and select Project Information, and write the Project start date there. See screenshot on next slide -

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 Go

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to Tools menu and select Options. Select General tab from the top of the dialog box. You can switch the task pane on/off here, or set the Advice Wizard on/off. You may define the Standard Rate and Overtime rates here.

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 You

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can set the week start day, fiscal year start month, daily work start & end time, working hours per day, working hours per week and number of working days per month here for your project.

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 You

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can start adding tasks and sub tasks to the project now. break the whole project into individual tasks. Normally, a task involves one person or a small group of people over a span of time that can be measured in days.

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 to

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group tasks under phases, grouping is done from the top down with Final total at the very top, with Subtotals below and so on. Look at the next screenshot for a how-to on creating subtasks.

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 define

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the duration of all the tasks. The next screen shows tasks having a welldefined duration. You dont need to define the duration for the task group, it is evaluated using subtasks automatically.

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In MS Project a task that must be completed before another task can start is called a predecessor. The first task has no predecessor and each of the following tasks has to have at least one.

In some cases a task may have several predecessors meaning that several tasks have to be completed before that one can start. In other cases a task may be predecessor to several others - its completion can allow several other tasks to start.

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Prepared By: Anil Purushothaman

Prepared By: Anil Purushothaman

Two of the techniques used for project management are called Critical Path Management (CPM) and Program Evaluation and Review Techniques (PERT).
The technique involves using network models to trace the links between tasks and to identify the tasks which are critical to meeting the deadlines. When you have a large number of tasks overlapping you really have to use the right tool to show which tasks can be delayed and which must be on time.
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 Once

In MS Project, you use the Tracking Gantt diagram to show the critical path in red and you can see the PERT diagram by looking at the Network view.

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you've identified the critical path, any delay on any part of the critical path will cause a delay in the whole project. It is where managers must concentrate their efforts.

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 Now,

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you'll want to track the degree of completion of each of the tasks. You could do that every day as you go along. As soon as something starts to go off track, you can react and adjust accordingly.

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 people

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are resources that you have to manage well in order to achieve the project's objectives. You may also need some material resources equipment, supplies, specialized environments - that you will have to schedule and pay for. You can easily include the management of resources in MS Project along with the tasks

 You

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must start by identifying the resources available along with their costs. Resource costs will be multiplied by duration to calculate project costs. You have to open the Resource sheet to specify the projet resources and costs.

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 To

track costs, you insert a Cost column next to the Resources column.
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When you assign the resources to each task, the costs will be calculated an displayed.

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 You

assign resources, people or material, to each of the tasks. A task may have several resources.
Prepared By: Anil Purushothaman

Prepared By: Anil Purushothaman

Prepared By: Anil Purushothaman

For more, Write to me here anil@iper.ac.in www.iper.ac.in