Topic XXX Microsoft Project

1. Topic XXXMicrosoft Project

2. XXX. MS Project a) Basics b) Project planning – Theory and practice c)Definition and planning of activities d)Resource assurance plan e)Project costs planning f) Advanced topics g)Supervision of a project h) Visual supervision of a project

3. a) MS Project - basics • It enables project work schedule planning – before the project start and … • … monitoring of all activities important for project development and successful completion – during the project execution. • MS Project is a powerful and flexible tool for project management, enabling supervision of both simple and complex projects.

4. XXX. MS Project a) Basics b) Project planning – Theory and practice c)Definition and planning of activities d)Resource assurance plan e)Project costs planning f) Advanced topics g)Supervision of a project h) Visual supervision of a project

5. b)Project planning – Theory and practice • Project “initiation” • for a long lasting project that gathers larger number of people, it is important to define aims, assumptions andlimitations. • Project database creation • after the initiation, it is possible to create project database, enter basic data about the project, and enclose planning documents. • Work results definition • After definition of aims, it is possible to define concrete product(s)/service(s) that will – as a result of a project completion – satisfy these aims.

6. Project plan creation 1/3 • Throughout plan creation, MS Project recalculates and constructs work schedule on the basis of entered information about: • jobsto be performed, • peopleworking on those jobs, • equipment andmaterialavailable for the job, and • pricesandexpenses of certain job elements.

7. Project plan creation2/3 • Successful project plan creation assumes: • definition of a project subject, • determination of a project job scope, • identification of a project activities, • decomposition of activities into logical parts, • distribution of resources, and • estimation of needed time and expences.

8. Project plan creation3/3 • Adjustment of the main project parameters assumes work on a precise definition of basic project parameters: • Time – reduction or extension of duration of some activities, and a project as a whole; • Quantity – elimination or addition of activities making the project; • Expenses – induction of additional resources for certain activities, or reduction/rejection of assigned resources, and • Quality – decrease or increase of a quality level in order to satisfy time, quantity and cost limitations.

9. Project management • After project plan is finished, project itself has to be supervised during execution. • Through critical review and analysis of time schedule, it is possible to execute needed changes in activities, resource management, or questions of quality and quantity, in order to keep the project • on the right track, and • within a budget.

10. Project information exchange • During the supervision and analysis phase of MS Project usage, a need often emerges for information exchange with: • “bosses” – share-holders, administration board, owners …, and • executioners – persons to whom certain activities are assigned for execution. • Within MS Project, available for these actions are: • reports printing – for “paper” exchange of information, • HTML report creation and “publication” on a Web server of a company, • MSP Central/Workgroup for management of information using intranet and local e-mail services, and • MS Outlook for integration of tasks and deadlines created inside MS Project.

11. Practical project definition - basics 1/6 • After creation of a new project using menu optionFile  New, inFile  Propertieswe can define basic characteristics of a project.

12. Practical project definition - basics2/6 • ThroughTools  Change Working Timewe adjust working and nonworking days ...

13. Practical project definition - basics3/6 • ... while throughTools  Change Working Time Optionswe adjust working hours for certain weekdays, and weekly and monthly working time.

14. Practical project definition - basics4/6 • As a part ofProject Project Informationwe define start and finish dates, and also ...

15. Practical project definition - basics5/6 • ... method for task scheduling. • If we plan from “Project Start Date”, all tasks start “as soon as possible”.

16. Practical project definition - basics6/6 • If we plan to “Project Finish Date”, all tasks start “as late as possible”.

17. Project supervision through“Project Information” • During the project execution, “Statistics” will show us insight in a project status.

18. XXX. MS Project a) Basics b) Project planning – Theory and practice c)Definition and planning of activities d)Resource assurance plan e)Project costs planning f) Advanced topics g)Supervision of a project h) Visual supervision of a project

19. c)Definition and planning of activities • Definition of phases and creation of task list • work that has to be done can be organized through “milestones”, phases, and activities, and then be entered into a project database. • (Organization of a primary and secondary project databases) • if a project is big and complex, or is consisting of several mutually connected projects, it can be organized through several databases, connected and controlled by MS Project. • Estimation of tasks duration • entering the duration of certain activities – instead of start and end dates – enables MS Project to create a working schedule. • Definition of task dependencies and limitations • after entering task durations, connections between certain tasks and between tasks and dates should be entered, too.

20. Project activities planning • For a successful work on a project, we need: • list of activities, and • resource data. • “Resource data” assume: • list of employees, material, equipment, tools, and • prices for usage of each of those.

21. How to define activities? • Clear ending criteria. • Long-lasting activities should be decomposed – this simplify resource distribution and ending date estimation. • Complex activities should be decomposed into sub-activities, until they become so simple that the problem they are supposed to solve becomes completely clear and obvious.

22. Types of activities • Cumulative activities – those containing sub-activities. • Sub-activities – smaller tasks, grouped into cumulative activities. • Repeating activities – activities that are repeated in regular intervals. • Activities with a special importance, critical activities – marking the beginning or the end of a certain phase of a project, usually with no duration (Milestones).

23. Practical definition of activities 1/4 • We select the cell Task Nameand enter the name for the activity. The rest of the data is “entered by MS Project”.

24. Practical definition of activities 2/4 • UsingIndentandOutdentarrows, we define level of importance for certain activities – we define cumulative and sub-activities.

25. Practical definition of activities 3/4 • Assumed duration for each activity is “1 day”. These values should be adjusted. • Total time for cumulative activity is calculated by MS Project.

26. Practical definition of activities 4/4 • “Critical tasks”(Milestones) are defined usingTask Information Advanced Mark as Milestone • Another possibility is to enter duration of a critical task to be 0 days.

27. Connections between activities • The essence of planning is definition of connections between certain activities. • Four types of connections are distinguished: • A must finish so that B can start (finish to start) • A ........ start .............B …start (start to start) • A ........ finish ............ B ... finish (finish to finish) • A ........ start ............. B … finish (start to finish)

28. Definition of connections between activities 1/6 • Creation of a connection: • we select the first activity, • holding the Shiftkey, we add other activities

29. Definition of connections between activities2/6 • Click on Link Tasksconnects activities. • Assumed type of connection isfinish to start.

30. Definition of connections between activities3/6 • Break of connection between certain activities is gained by clicking Unlink. • After connection break, all the rest of activities are rearranged also. • After rearrangement of activities, cumulative duration is recalculated and changed.

31. Definition of connections between activities4/6 • Instead of assumed connection type finish to start, double-click on the arrow connecting the activities enables the change of a connection. • It is also possible to define delay/forward time(Lag).

32. Definition of connections between activities5/6 • In a given example, connection between two chosen activities is redefined intostart to start. • ... and than the delay of 2 days is added.

33. Definition of connections between activities6/6 • In this example, connection between two chosen activities is redefined intofinish to start. • Each time, cumulative time of project duration is recalculated.

34. XXX. MS Project a) Basics b) Project planning – Theory and practice c)Definition and planning of activities d)Resource assurance plan e)Project costs planning f) Advanced topics g)Supervision of a project h) Visual supervision of a project

35. d)Resource assurance plan • Estimation of resource needs • at this point of project planning, scope of a project is defined, task list created, and estimation is given on duration of certain activities. These information can now be used for preliminary estimation of demands, people employment, and assurance of material, equipment and tools needed for project successful execution. • Input of resource information and work hours adjustment • at this point, all of the resources are defined, approved, and dedicated. You know who the members of the team are, what materials they use, and which equipment is available. • (Resource sharing between projects) • Resource sharing is important for proper supervision and allocation of resources among projects, assuring their more efficient usage.. • Allocation of resources to tasks • After resources information is entered into a project database, they can be assigned to individual tasks.

36. Entering the resource data 1/2 • Individual resources are assigned to a certain tasks simple by typing – select Task Information, choosingResourcesand entering data ...

37. Entering the resource data2/2 • ... or selecting from the list of available resources – menu ViewoptionResource Sheet. • For each resource, we enter name, type, unit of measure, “initials” (that will be shown in a diagram), maximum availability, schedule, price ...

38. Allocation of resources to activities 1/5 • In a Gantt diagram, double click on an activity, or selection ofTask Information  Resourcesenables entering of the resources for a certain activity, or ...

39. Allocation of resources to activities2/5 • ...or selection of a buttonResourceson aStandardtoolbar, and then buttonAssign will open a dialog window for resource allocation.

40. Allocation of resources to activities3/5 • Resource allocation can be performed for more than one activity at the same time, using Shift and Ctrl keys in a same manner as usual in other Windows applications.

41. Allocation of resources to activities4/5 • During the resource allocation, we define percentage of time dedicated to a certain activity for people, and unit of measure for usage with a certain activity for material. • Also, we define prices of usage for regular working hours and for overtime.

42. Allocation of resources to activities5/5 • After all this, final allocation of all needed resources to a certain activity can be as the one shown in picture.

43. XXX. MS Project a) Basics b) Project planning – Theory and practice c)Definition and planning of activities d)Resource assurance plan e)Project costs planning f) Advanced topics g)Supervision of a project h) Visual supervision of a project

44. e)Project costs planning • Costs estimation • is a process of creation of a list of approximate prices and costs for resources and for tasks, needed for finishing of project activities. • Definition and distribution of costs information • after all of the expenses are entered, it’s a good practice to create a backup of these information before the project (supervision and control) starts. Also, notes on a budget decisions might be needed, and sharing these data with other projects using the same resources and with the accounting department is a good idea. • Preparation for the costs tracking • after the estimation, it is good to make necessary preparations for supervision and control of finances, so project would stay within budget limits. Available options are: definition of a fiscal year start, control of a accounting type, or determination when to pay which of the costs.

45. Costs types • Changeable costs • costs already calculated through fees, overtime fees, or prices of material usage. • Fix costs • added afterwards in a separate column Fixed Costs, signifying costs that will not change, that always exists in the same amount for certain tasks and activities. • in our case, an example of such costs can be: costs for copying of teaching material, travel expenses for visiting professors, cost of software used …

46. Fixed costs column adding • ColumnFixed Costsdoes not exist in the original table, we have to add it, and fill in appropriate data (Insert  Column)

47. XXX. MS Project a) Basics b) Project planning – Theory and practice c)Definition and planning of activities d)Resource assurance plan e)Project costs planning f) Advanced topics g)Supervision of a project h) Visual supervision of a project

48. Risk and quality planning • Planning of quality • Before a project starts, it is appropriate to precisely define quality standards that your project must follow, in order to know when to consider a project successfully finished. • After the standards are defined, it is possible to adjust the scope of a project, resource usage, and work schedule to those needs. • Recognize and plan for risks • After the project starts, events that are difficult to predict, might create new risks. Try to take care of those too, as much as possible.

49. Communication and security planning • Define methods of project information exchange • communication and information exchange with the team members, members of other teams you cooperate with, and managers is important. Plan for it. • equally important for successful project accomplishment is a project database update during the supervision and control phase of a project. • Information protection in MS Project • MS Project offers elementary security measures for information protection of data from project database, to protect from unauthorized access. • available protection is of a password type, having two levels: • access and read password, and • edit, change, and save password.

50. Optimization of a project plan • Optimization of a plan – time aspect • After the plan definition is over, review it and check if the project finishes before earlier given deadlines. • Optimization of a plan – resources aspect • After the plan definition is over, review the schedule of your resources. Are some of them overloaded? Are there any resources that you used unnecessary? • Optimization of a plan – budget aspect • After the plan definition is over, review planned expenses. Do you have enough finances? Can your project be cheaper?