Getting Started with Microsoft Project

The Gantt Chart

The Gantt chart is the classic project manager's tool and gives a useful overview of the entire project. On the left of the Gantt Chart is a list of project tasks. These tasks coincide with the bars on the Gantt chart. When bars on the chart are selected the corresponding task is highlighted in the task sheet.

Tasks are shown as a blue bar, critical tasks are red and milestones are depicted as a black diamond. The project's phases can be seen as a black bar. We will discuss each of these attributes in the next section.

Creating a New Project

We first start with basic information which Microsoft Project will use to define start and finish dates, working days and holidays. We will also need to list all the separate tasks and assign resources to them.

To begin, ensure that the project guide 'tasks' pane is visible on left hand side. This can be switched on by clicking 'view' on the main menu bar at the top, then selecting 'turn on project guide'. This useful guide lists all the necessary steps to quickly define the project.

Defining the Project & General Working Times

First we need to set the project start date:

1. Begin by clicking 'define the project' in project manager tasks pane
2. Next click the calendar date picker and choose an appropriate start date for the project. Click 'continue to step 2' at the bottom of the project guide.
3. If you are not using Project Server click 'continue to step 3'
4. Finally click 'save and finish'

Next we need to set the normal working hours and days which are available to the project. These hours will be defined in the main project calendar, however individual resources (or project workers) can have their own calendars which may have different times of availability (for instance holidays).

1. Start by clicking 'define general working times' to see a preview of the default hours and days. Three default calendars are available: standard, 24 hours and night shift.
2. Next click 'continue to step 2' where we can now edit the working days in the week if necessary. The default is Monday to Friday, 8am - 12pm and 1pm - 5pm. The days can be changed by clicking in the appropriate tick boxes. The working hours are modified by clicking 'I want to adjust the working hours...' and making appropriate selections.
3. Now click 'continue to step 3' where we can set holidays and other days off. Click 'change working time' to launch a dialogue box. Here we can set further non-working time to allow for unavailability due to holidays or other commitments.
4. Next click 'continue to step 4' and you will see that we can define other time units as hours per day, hours per week and days per month.
5. Finally click 'continue to step 5' where we can now define additional calendars if necessary.

Entering Tasks

The next step is to enter all of the individual tasks that will need to be carried out in order to complete the project. Each task is given a duration before assigning resources to carry out them out. Although we need to give each individual task a timescale, we will not set start and finish dates yet as Project will calculate these for us at a later stage.

1. In the task pane, select 'list the tasks' in the project.
2. To insert a task, click in the name field on the task sheet and enter a descriptive label.
3. Next enter information into the duration field but do not enter start and finish dates as noted previously. Project will initially enter the project start date by default then adjust it later based on relative task relationships.

Tasks can be deleted by selecting the number, right clicking and choosing delete. Task order can be rearranged by clicking and dragging. New tasks can be inserted by clicking in the number below, right clicking and choosing new task

Outlining Tasks

Outlining refers to defining main tasks and sub tasks. There are two approaches to this process: Top Down and Bottom Up. In the top down approach, broad headings for the project are listed first, then they are broken down into sub tasks. In the bottom up approach, all the individual tasks are listed first, then grouped under main headings.

In the previous section we listed all tasks using the bottom up approach. We must next add the broad headings (or outline taks) to this list then group all sub-tasks below.

1. First select each task to be grouped under a heading.
2. Now right-click and select 'new task'. A blank task row will be inserted above which will be our heading. Name this accordingly.
3. Next select the task below (which is to become a sub-task) and use the indent tool on the formatting toolbar. Note that several tasks can be selected together by clicking and dragging.
4. Outline tasks will now appear in the gantt chart as black bars and sub-tasks appear in blue

Linking Tasks

One of the most powerful aspects of Microsoft Project is the way that tasks can be linked together. Rather than assign start and finish dates as noted previously, we instead assign a linkage which will set up a relationship between each task. When something happens to cause a change to our project, the software will recalculate based upon the assigned linkages and produce a new scenario.

There are 4 main linkage types:

1. Finish to Start: second task cannot start until predecessor has finished
2. Start to Start: second task cannot start until first task has started.
3. Finish to Finish: second task cannot finish until first task has finished
4. Start to Finish: second task cannot finish until first task has started

Creating Task Links

To create any of the 4 main linkage relationships:

1. Open the task information window by double clicking on a task.
2. In the ID field, type the number of the predecessor task and the task name will be added.
3. Select the linkage by clicking in the type field (if different from the default finish to start).

Allocating and Assigning Resources

In the next lens we will look at how to allocate work and material resources to your project and how to assign these to specific tasks. For information about Microsoft Project training courses visit our website www.pbatraining.co.uk