Conart Engineers Limited

APresentation on

MS Project

Conart Engineers Limited

Introduction

• Microsoft Project is a project management software developed and sold by Microsoft

• Design to assist project managers in developing plans, assigning resources to task, tracking progress, managing budgets and analyzing workloads,

• The application creates critical path schedules, and critical chain which can be visualized in a Gantt chart.

• Available currently in two editions, Standard and Professional.

• MS Project’s proprietary file format is *.mpp

Conart Engineers Limited

Scheduling Software Commonly Used

• Gantt Project

• Genius inside

• Liquid planner

• Micro planner X-pert

• Naval plan

• Open project

• Open workbench

• Primavera 3.1 / 6.2

• Project. Net

Conart Engineers Limited

Project Manager

Responsible for:

• Work• Quality• Human Resource• Time• Communications• Costs

Conart Engineers Limited

Basic Settings of MS project

Conart Engineers Limited

Basic setting A: Create a new project plan

• On the file menu, click on new.

• Under new click on blank project.

• Project 2003 create a New Project, and the New Project task pane is replaced by the task panes of the project guide

Conart Engineers Limited

Conart Engineers Limited

Basic setting B: Create a Calendar for a task

•By default, tasks are scheduled based on the project calendar.

•To define unique or specific exceptions, such as machinery that runs during nonworking time, or an office move that can occur only on a weekend, you can create a task calendar for individual tasks that override the project calendar.

Conart Engineers Limited

Using MS ProjectProject

Management

Planning task

Build the plan

Set the project start date

Enter task, name & duration

Link task

fine tune the plan

Monitoring & Tracking task

Set a base line

Enter actual

Track variables

Adjust schedules

Communicate

with team

Conart Engineers Limited

CRITICAL PATH

The sequence of the activities which have no float or slack is called critical path.

Slack= Late start – Early start OR Late finish – Early finish

• Add up to the longest overall duration. T• Is the shortest time possible to complete the project.

Any Delay of an activity on the critical path directly imparts the planned project completed date.

Conart Engineers Limited

TIME-COST TRADE-OFFS: CRASHING

• When they an activity will take a certain no. of days or weeks what we really mean is this activity normally takes this many days or weeks. We could make it take less time, but to do so would cost more money.

Crashing is the process of expediting project schedule by compressing the total project duration

• Key is attain maximum decrease in the schedule time with minimum cost.

• More resources are needed to speed up a part of project.• Depends on what slack is available in a non critical activity.

Conart Engineers Limited

Conart Engineers Limited

Other Settings of MS Project

Conart Engineers Limited

Constraints type and description

Description

As soon as possible This is default setting based. Start the task ASAP based upon the other constraints & relationship. Do not enter a date for this constraint.

As late as possible Start the task as late as possible based upon the other constraints & relationship. Used when scheduling a project from the project finish date. Do not enter date for this constraint.

Finish no earlier than Finish the task on or after the date you specify.Start no earlier than Start the task on or after the date you specify.Finish no later than Finish the task on or before the date you specify.Start no later than Start the task on or before the date you specify.Must finish on Finish the task on specified date.Must start on Start the task on specified date.

Other Settings A – SCHEDULING A TASK

Conart Engineers Limited

Other Setting – B: DEPENDENCY – Finish to Start

• Task 1 must finish before Task 2 can start. This is the By Default Dependency created and very commonly used Relationship in Project.

Conart Engineers Limited

Other Setting – B: DEPENDENCY – Start to Start

• Task 1 and Task 2 must start at the same time.

Conart Engineers Limited

Other Setting – B: DEPENDENCY – Finish to Finish

• Task 1 and Task 2 must finish at the same time.• FF dependencies also reduce the overall amount of time in

Project, same as SS Dependency.• If Task 1 will take 5 days to complete, and Task 2 will take 3

days to complete, with FS dependency the overall duration of the two tasks is 8 days.

• If we set an FF dependency, the overall duration of the two tasks is only 5 days.

Conart Engineers Limited

Other Setting – B: DEPENDENCY – Start to Start

• Task 2 cannot finish until the start of Task 1.This is VERY RARE scenario of Task in any type of Project.

Conart Engineers Limited

Other Setting – C: UNLINKING

To unlink tasks:• Using the Control key, select the tasks to unlink. • Click the Unlink icon located on the ribbon menu.

Conart Engineers Limited

Other Setting – E: Activity Type: Milestone, Flag, Bar

• When u enter a task or import a no. of task, they have duration of 1 day as default

• To create a milestone select the task considered as milestone and then right click. Select Task information. Put a check mark on Milestone

• To create subtask, select the task considered & then select Project/Outline/indent in the menu

• Link the selected task by selecting Edit/link task in the menu

Conart Engineers Limited

Conart Engineers Limited

Other Setting – G: Page set up

• Select file, page set up in the Menu bar.

• The “ Page set-up” dialog Box will appear showing Paper sizes and other choices

• Customize the printed output By inserting additional info Into the “Header” and

“ Footer”

Conart Engineers Limited

Conart Engineers Limited

Action Reflection