Selected Topics in Management Information Systems [MOIS470] Fall 2004 Nahed Amin MS Project

1. Selected Topics in Management Information Systems [MOIS470] Fall 2004 Nahed Amin MS Project

2. Introduction • What’s Project Management? • Project management is a matter of keeping scope,scheduleand resourcesin balance • Scope: the range of tasks required to accomplish project goals • Schedule: the time and sequence of each task, as well as the total project duration • Resources: the people and/or equipment that perform or facilitate project tasks

3. Steps for Managing a Project • Project Definition: • Decide on the goals to be accomplished • Identify the major tasks • Agree on the available resources • Determine the schedule’s limit • Project Plan: • Identify all project tasks and who will do them • Get work and time estimates for tasks • Determine task dependencies • Enter task and project constraints

4. Steps for Managing a Project • Tracking: • Track project progress comparing actual to original • Review resources, scope, and schedule factors • Identify problems that could knock off schedule • Analyze resource requirements over project • Make midstream changes to reach goals sooner • Project Close: • Compare original plan to actual one • Analyze problems for future improvements • Archive the project file

5. Getting Started • Set clear project goals, scope and assumptions • Start a new project file • Enter a project start or finish date • Enter project goals, scope and assumptions • Save project

6. MS Project Building Blocks • Tasks: • Actual work needed to be accomplished to meet project goals can be broken into tasks • The scope of a project consists of all its tasks • Resources: • The amount of resources can affect the project scope and schedule • Assignments: • Assigning resources to work on a task directly affects the time required to complete a task, and indirectly the total project time

7. 1. Tasks • Break project into tasks, phases, and milestones: • Tasks: A concrete step required to meet project goal. It represents actual work to be done in the project • Phases: Consists of a group of related tasks. A phase represents a major step in the project • Milestones: Tasks that require no actual work. But just to indicate the beginning or end of a phase. Milestones are interim goals used to track the progress of the project

8. 1. Tasks • Create a task list: • Include only tasks critical to project’s completion • Add detailed enough tasks so that the time to complete each one is short compared to overall project’s length • Remember tasks that occur repetitively, such as weekly meetings, status reporting, and anticipated revision work

9. 1. Tasks • Enter tasks • Estimate task length: • Base estimates on: • Others’ experience • Your experience • Past records • Enter every task duration only, not its start or finish date

10. 1. Tasks • Ensure to perform a logical, well-ordered task list • Add milestones • Order & group related tasks in tasks’ list. A straight list of tasks doesn’t indicate when one phase ends and another begins. The most common two grouping criteria: • Tasks belonging to the same process • Tasks to be completed in the same time period • Summing up summary tasks • Outline task list

11. 1. Tasks • Link tasks: • Power of linking: • Let MS Project calculate all dates: every task start and finish dates, project finish date • See instantly how changes in start, finish, and duration of a task affect related tasks and whole schedule • Determine the best task sequence: • Identify dependencies of start or finish dates of a task on another one • A task that must start or finish before another task is called a predecessor task • A task that depends on start or finish of another task is called a successor task

12. 1. Tasks • Link tasks: • Types of links: • Finish-to-start (FS) • Start-to-start (SS) • Finish-to-finish (FF) • Start-to-finish (SF)

13. 1. Tasks • Link tasks: • Create links between tasks – avoid entering start or finish dates • Overlap or delay tasks: • Lag time • Lead time

14. 1. Tasks • Add task’s constraints: • Constrain a task if: • The constraint reflects an actual time constraint in real world • The project will be penalized for not starting or finishing by a specific date • Types of constraints: • As Soon As Possible (ASAP) Finish no Later Than (FNLT) • As Late As Possible (ALAP) Start No Later Than (SNLT) • Finish no earlier than (FNET) Must Finish On (MFO) • Start No Earlier Than (SNET) Must Start On (MSO) • Enter constraints

15. 2. Resources • Determine resource needs • Create a resource list: • A resource list includes: • The name of the resource • The maximum amount of time per day a resource is available to work • Enter the resource list

16. 2. Resources • Determine the working times calendars: • There are two types of working times calendars: • A base calendar to store the planned working and non-working days and hours for a group of resources • A resource calendar containing the work schedule for only one individual resource • Modify the project calendar or create a working times calendar

17. 3. Assignments • Assign resources to tasks: • Assigning resources to tasks provide several benefits: • The schedule mirrors actual circumstances more accurately • Responsibilities can be assigned for tasks • Workload is monitored to make adjustments in case any resource is overloaded • Pillars of task scheduling: work, duration, resources: • Work: amount of effort, measured in time units put into a task by a resource. The total work for a task is the sum of all these time units • Duration: amount of time between start & finish dates for a task • Resources: people, equipment, office space, etc • Assign one or more resources to each task

18. Schedule’s Evaluation & Adjustment • Ensure the plan is accurate and complete • Review project goals, scope, assumptions • Add or delete tasks • Refine task-duration estimates • Check project finish date • Determine if constraints are necessary • Identify & correct obvious errors

19. Plan’s Streamlining • Fine-tune schedule by making trade-offs among scope, resources, time; the three main factors that shape a project • Focus on: • shortening the schedule • Using resources as efficiently as possible