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ACE2090 Engineering Practice Tutorial 1

By CHAU Long Ho, Arthur (18/09/2007) Page 1 of 10

ACE 2090 Engineering Practice Tutorial 1 MS Project 2007 Part 1

Introduction: The latest version of MS Project is Microsoft Office Project 2007. It can help you to control and manage your project, such as project work, schedule, resources and cost. Objectives:

1. To learn how to define tasks in three views, namely PERT, Gantt and Calendar. 2. To learn how to outline tasks. 3. To learn how to set the constraints and linkages among tasks.

Example Used in this tutorial: Activities Durations (in Day) Start Day: Demo: Task One 10 4th Sept, 2007 Gantt Task Two 10 10th Sept, 2007 Gantt Task Three 5 10th Sept, 2007 Network Diagram (PERT) Task Four On every Wednesday, 3

days in total 5th Sept, 2007 Calendar

Table 1 A. Create a new project Step 1: Click New Step 2: On the Project menu, click Project Information

Step 3: Set the start date or the project finish date



Step 4: Save the project as ace2090_t1.mpp B. Define project task 1. Create Task One through Gantt chart

Step 1: Type Task One in the Task Name field. Step 2: Set the Duration as 10 days. Then the finish day will be shown automatically. **OR** Enter 04/09/2007 in start and 17/09/2007 in finish. The result is the same.

Step 3: If you want to change the task information, on the project menu, click Task Information, or you can press shift + F2 to access. A dialogue will be shown as:

2. Create Task Two through Gantt chart again, but Step 1: Drag the dates from 10/09/2007 to 21/09/2007 in the Gantt chart. Step 2: Type Task Two in the Task Name field, under Task One.

3. Create Task Three through Network Diagram (PERT Chart) Step 1: On view menu, click Network Diagram Step 2: Select Task Two and insert a new task by pressing insert on the keyboard. **OR** click insert New Task.



Step 3: Set the start day as 9/10/07 and the duration as 5 days.

4. Create Task Four through Calendar Step 1: View Calendar. Step 2: Insert Recurring Task

Step 3: Set Task Name as Task Four. Step 4: Under the Recurrence pattern field, set the following:

i. Weekly ii. Recur every 1 week(s) on Wednesday

Step 5: Under the Range of recurrence, set the following: i. Start: Tue 9/4/07 ii. End after: 3 occurrences

Step 6: Click OK. Then the resulting chart is:



Note: There are three subtasks of Task Four generated as shown in the above view. If you change the view to the Gantt chart, then the chart is shown as:



C. Outline tasks into subtasks If the tasks consist of huge activities, you can outline (by indenting1 or outdenting2) them into subtasks so that the organization and the readability of the project can be increased. Consider table 1 again, i.e. this tutorials example, we can modify it as: Activities Durations (in Day) Start Day: Task One 10 4th Sept, 2007 Task Two 10 10th Sept, 2007 Task Three -subtask 3A -subtask 3B

5 - 3 - 4

10th Sept, 2007 - 10th Sept, 2007 - 11th Sept, 2007

Task Four -subtask 4A -subtask 4B -subtask 4C

On every Wednesday, 3 days in total

- 1 - 1 - 1

5th Sept, 2007

Table 2 Create two new subtasks in Task Three Step 1: View Gantt View Step 2: Select the row Task Four and then press Insert on the keyboard to add the new task. Step 3: Type Subtask 3A in the Task Name field. Then set the start day as 9/10/07 and the duration as 3 days.

Step 4: Select the row Subtask 3A and click the indent button on the toolbar, i.e.

Hence the Subtask 3A belongs to Task Three. Moreover, Task Three becomes a summary task.

1 indenting: Moving a task to a lower outline level [to the right] in the Task Name field. When you indent a task, it becomes a

subtask of the nearest preceding task at a higher outline level.

2 outdenting: Moving a task to a higher outline level [to the left] in the Task Name field.



Step 5: Now it is your turn to create Subtask 3B. Set the start day as 9/11/07 and the duration as 4 days. Finally the result is as follow:

D. Linking among tasks Linking the tasks means that you add the relationship among them. It can help you to save time of the project management and to adjust the schedule changes easier. In addition, it can make the tasks more flexible and more reliable. Types of Task Dependencies (Links): Task Dependency Description Gantt Chart View Finish to Start (FS), default

Task B cannot start until Task A finishes

Start to Start (SS) Task B cannot start until

Task A starts Finish to Finish (FF) Task B cannot finish until

Task A finishes Start to Finish (SF) Task B cannot finish until

Task A starts Now add two more tasks named as Task Five and Task Six after Task Four. Set the Duration of Task Five is 3 days and the Duration of Task Six is 4 days. i.e.:

Summary Task

Tasks have been indented

Gantt bar for summary task



Go back to our example used in the class, set the linking as following: Activities Durations (in Day) Predecessor: Task One 10 - Task Two 10 Task One, SS Task Three -subtask 3A -subtask 3B

5 - 3 - 4

Task Two, SS - - - Subtask 3A, FF

Task Four -subtask 4A -subtask 4B -subtask 4C

On every Wednesday, 3 days in total

- 1 - 1 - 1

-

Task Five 3 Task Three, FS Task Six 4 Task Five, SF 1. Create the link between Task Three and Task Five (FS)

Step 1: Select Task Three and Task Five

Step 2: Click on the toolbar. By default, Task Five starts after Task Three ended.

2. Create the link between Task One and Task Two (SS) Step 1: Select Task One and Task Two

Step 2: Click on the toolbar or press Ctrl + F2 to link the tasks. Step 3: Double click Task Two. Step 4: In the Information Task Box, choose Predecessors tab. In the Type column, choose Start-to-Start (SS).



Step 5: After clicking OK, the following figure is generated:

3. Create other linkages among tasks. The result is:

4. Unlink

If you want to unlink the tasks, then select the unwanted linkages and click Edit Unlink Tasks.

E. Lead Time and Lag Time Lead time: An overlap between tasks that have a dependency. Lag time: A delay between tasks that have a dependency. Example: 1. Add 2 days lag time for Task Five

Step 1: Double click Task Five, in the Information Task Box, choose Predecessors tab. Step 2: Set 2d in the Lag field in row one.



2. Add 3 days lead time for Task Six Step 1: Double click Task Six, in the Information Task Box, choose Predecessors tab. Step 2: Set -3d in the Lag field in row one.

In general, if you set the Lead time, you should add a -sign before the specific time. The final Gantt chart is as follow: F. Constraints A constraint limits the projects ability in recalculating the tasks schedule. There are eight constraints:

- As Late As Possible (ALAP) - As Soon As Possible (ASAP) - Finish No Earlier Than (FNET) - Finish No Later Than (FNLT) - Must Finish On (MFO) - Must Start On (MSO) - Start No Earlier Than (SNET) - Start No Later Than (SNLT)

By default, all the tasks in the project have a constraint of As Soon As Possible (ASAP). That means the tasks are scheduled as early as possible.



Examples: 1. Apply As Late As Possible (ALAP) Constraint for Task Six

Step 1: Double click Task Six, in the Information Task Box, choose Advanced tab. Step 2: Set the Constraint Type as As Late As Possible.

2. Apply Must Start On (MSO) Constraint for Task Two Step 1: Double click Task Two, in the Information Task Box, choose Advanced tab. Step 2: Set the Constraint Type as Must Start On. Step 3: Set the Constraint Date as Thu 9/6/07. However a Conflict Dialogue is shown:

Click Cancel to ignore.

Reference: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/CR102140061033.aspx

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