Category: How-to

This post will discuss the simplicity of using master projects in MS Project.  The image below shows a master project with two subprojects under it.  Three MS Project MPP files are required to create the project below.  The master project file is independant of the individual subproject files.  Follow the steps below to create a master project with subprojects.  Notice the green icons next to Sub1 and Sub2.  They indicate the sub-files included in the main master mpp file.

 

Master project and two subprojects

 

To create a master project in MS Project:

1. Create a new MS Project file named Sub1.mpp (see the example above)
2. Add some tasks
3. Create another mpp file named Sub2.cpp
4. Add some tasks to it
5. Create a third mpp file to act as the master project
6. Click in the first row of the master project
7. Choose Insert, Project…
8. Choose Sub1.mpp
9. Repeat steps 6 – 8 for the second subproject (the results should be similar to the image above)

 

–ray

Progress lines in Microsoft Project help see where tasks are behind schedule.  They’re hideous to look at, but serve a useful purpose.  This post shows how to add progress lines to a Microsoft Project file.  Buckle up; this may get rough.  🙂

 

Start by adding a few tasks to a new project:

1. Add Task 1, with 10 hours duration
2. Add Task 2, with 20 hours
3. Add Task 3, with 30 hours

The tasks and Gantt bar should look like this.  At this point, we have no progress lines, just simple task bars in the Gantt chart.

 

 

Add a Project Status date:

1. Choose Project, Project Information
2. Enter a ‘Status date’ for when you would like to check task status (the status date progress line will be red)
3. Click OK

 

Add progress lines:

1. Choose Tools, Tracking, Progress Lines
2. Click ‘Always display current progress line’
3. Click ‘At project status date’
4. Click ‘Display selected progress lines’
5. Click in the list and choose the dropdown arrow
6. Select a date for a progress line (these lines will be black)
7. Click OK

You should now have two progress lines on your Gantt chart, and things may have gotten a little ugly.  As you move the task bars, the progress lines will update.  Tasks before the progress line will cause the line to go leftward (that’s the ugly part).  What good are they?  Backward facing lines are those tasks you need to move forward.  They need to be rearranged to meet your current project plan.  The image below is an example.  Notice how the lines go backwards to tasks that are behind schedule.

 

 

–ray

Here, we’ll be showing how to display critical path tasks in Microsoft Project.  The critical path is the sequence of tasks that take the longest to reach the project goal.  The steps below can be used to display your project’s critical path.  Follow these, and you’ll know which tasks threaten the final completion date of the project.   Create tasks to display the critical path: Enter three tasks Make the second task twice as long (in duration) as the first task Link the first task to the last task Link the second task to the last task At this point, the tasks should look like this.  Both the first and second tasks link to the last one. Two tasks, links to final task   Group the tasks by critical path: Choose Project, Group By, Critical Or, choose ‘Critical’ from the ‘Group By’ dropdown in the toobar After choosing this menu item the tasks will be grouped differently.  All the tasks that are not in the critical path will be displayed first (in the in ‘Critical: No’ group).  All the tasks in the critical path will be in the second group (‘Critical: Yes’). Tasks grouped by ‘Critical’   Format the Gantt column: Right-click in the Gantt column Choose Gantt Chart Wizard Click Next Click the ‘Critical path’ option Click Finish Click Format It Click Edit Wizard After formatting the Gantt column, the task bars in the critical path will turn red. Critical path task bars are red   –ray

Ever wonder how to reduce your Microsoft Project file from thousands of tasks down to a manageable few hundred, without deleting any?  Have you tried filtering?  This post discusses the steps to filter tasks in Microsoft Project.

Filtering is the act of reducing the number of visible tasks so that you only see what you are interested in.  All the tasks will still exist in the MPP file, but you will only see tasks that correspond to your filter criteria.  Follow these steps to filter tasks in Microsoft Project.

Create some tasks to filter by:

1. Enter three tasks
2. Set the durations to 10 hours, 20 hours, and 0 hours
3. The results should look like the image below

 

 

 

Set up a new filter to show long tasks only:

1. Choose Project, Filtered, More Filters…
2. Click New
3. Enter the name “Long tasks” (without the quotes)
4. Click ‘Show in menu’
5. Click in the ‘Field Name’ column, and choose ‘Duration
6. Click in the ‘Test’ column and choose ‘is greater than’
7. Click in the ‘Values(s)’ column and enter 10
8. Click OK to save the new filter
9. Nothing should change in your view

 

Activate your task filter:

1. Choose Project, Filtered, Long Tasks (the new filter you created)
2. Your view should now look like this image (hiding all the short tasks)
3. Choose Project, Filtered, All Tasks to remove the filtering and show all tasks

 

 

 

–ray

Microsoft Project offers calendars that can be used to set the working hours for a project and the resources working on it.  In other words, you can set the base calendar for the project, and then override that with resource work times.  This post discusses how to set the working time in Microsoft Project.

The following steps will illustrate the effect that working time has on a task in a Microsoft Project file.

Set up a new task:

1. Enter a new task
2. Enter 8 hours for the Duration
3. Enter your Name as the Resource
4. You will notice that the task occupies one day  See below.

 

 

 

To change the base calendar for the project:

1. Choose Tools, Change Working Time
2. Choose “Standard (Project Calendar) from the dropdown
3. Hold down the control key and select all the working days of the month
4. Remove the 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM hours (to make half days)
5. Notice that the calendar has changed to show your new choices
6. Click OK, and notice that your task Gantt bar has gotten longer to accommodate the fewer hours per day.

 

 

To change the individual work hours for the resource:

1. Choose Tools, Change Working Time
2. Choose your name from the dropdown
3. Click on the second day of the task
4. Hold the control key down and select three days
5. Click the “Nonworking time” choice to signify a vacation
6. Click OK, and notice that the task has gotten every longer

 

 

–ray

This post discusses how to perform resource leveling in Microsoft Project.  Before we perform the steps, we should first define resource leveling.

Resource leveling is the act of moving project tasks so that employees are not over allocated.  In other words, tasks are moved to new dates so they are not all piled on top of each other.  This ensures that resources have steady work without gaps and without excessive demand.

Microsoft Project can perform a one-time leveling, or automatically perform it each time a task is changed.  Normally, resource leveling is most effective for projects that have tasks with constraints.  For instance, a task may be set to ‘Start No Earlier Than’ a certain date.  This constraint forces the task to start after a specified date.  Other tasks may need to be split to start before and after this task.  In fact, the example below demonstrates this exact scenario.

 

First, setup a new project:

1. Create two new tasks
2. Add resources to the tasks
3. Set the task durations
4. The tasks should look like the image below

 

 

Set a task constraint:

1. Drag the first task to the right so it overlaps the second task
2. Notice the task icon in the information column
3. Double-click on the task to see the Task Information dialog
4. Click the Advanced tab to see the task constraint

 

 

Level the tasks:

1. Choose Tools, Level Resources
2. Click Level Now
3. The results will be a split task that allows the resource to work before and after the first task.

 

 

–Newshirt

This topic (how to set a deadline for an MS Project task) is so simple, it’s hardly worth mentioning.  But, it might be good to review.  It’s just another little piece of information that might help scheduling projects.

To create a task deadline:

1. Double-click on a task  (the Task Info dialog box appears)
2. Click the Advanced tab
3. Click the Deadline dropdown
4. Choose a date, sometime after the task finish date

These steps allow you to set a deadline that the task should be finished by.  A small arrow is displayed in the Gantt column at that date.  The image below shows what it looks like.

 

Arrow indicating task deadline
(normally before the task finish date)

 

If your task gets bumped (presumably because of linked predecessors) the finish date may go beyond the deadline.  When this happens, a small red indicator is shown next to the task name.  The image below shows what it looks like.  Browse your mouse over it to see a tool tip explaining the reason.

Deadline indicator

 

–ray

This post discusses how to use Microsoft Project resource pools.  First, let me say that you are going to find this a little kludgey.  Standard Time® has a better solution for resource pools, so you might find it a bit easier to assign users to project tasks.  But, this will discuss resource pools in MS Project.

What is a resource pool?  It is just a common set of employees or resources that will be used to assign to project tasks.  Standard Time® has all resources and projects available in one database, so the “pool” is always available.  Microsoft Project uses the technique below to meet this requirement.

To create a resource pool:

1. Create a new Microsoft Project MPP file
2. Choose View, Resource Sheet
3. Enter the names of resources you will assign to tasks in your projects
4. Save the file with a catchy name like RezPool.mpp
5. Consider creating resource pools for each workgroup in your company
6. Keep the file open for use in the next step

To associate the resource pool with your project:

1. Create a new MPP file (a new project)
2. While in the new project, choose Tools, Resource Sharing, Share Resources
3. Choose the “Use Resources” option
4. Choose RezPool.mpp from the dropdown list
5. Click OK
6. Save the new project file

To use the resource pool in task assignments:

1. Make sure both your project file and resource file are open in Microsoft Project
2. Click in the Resources column next to a task
3. You should see the list of resources from the pool
4. Choose one

This technique should allow you to share a common set of resources, which you will frequently assign to task.  As we said earlier, you should consider creating multiple resource pools representing each workgroup in your company.  But, consider using Standard Time®, where resources are always available for all projects.

–ray

This post discusses how to assign percentages to resource assignments.  Or in English, how to set how much each resource will work on a task.  By default, people in Microsoft Project are set to work 100% of their time on tasks.  But we know that’s not always practical.  People multitask their work, and may work on four tasks at once.  This post discuses how to multitask in MS Project.

Follow these steps to set assignment units in MS Project:

1. Create a new task in MS Project
2. Right-click before the “Start” column an choose Insert Column
3. Insert the Work Column
4. You should now have the Duration and Work columns next to each other
5. Enter 16 hours into both Duration and Work
6. Enter your Name into the Resource column

At this point, you should have a single 16-hour task that is assigned to you.  By default, it is assumed that you will work 100% of your time on this task.  But as we stated earlier, we wish to work on multiple tasks, spreading our time across them.  The steps below will do that.

1. Right-click on your task
2. Choose Task Information
3. The Task Information dialog is displayed
4. Click the Resources tab
5. You should see your name and 100% at the right
6. Enter 50% into the Units column and press OK
7. Notice that the text [50%] has been added next to your name in the resource column
8. Also notice that the duration column changed to 32 hours
9. The finish date has also been extended to accommodate the extra time

 These steps demonstrate that the Duration column is affected by the assignment units.  Duration = Work * Units.  In other words, if you are only working half the time on a task, it will take you twice as long.  The following steps show what happens when another resource is added to the task.

1. Right-click on your task and choose Task Information again
2. Click the Resources tab
3. Add another resource under your name
4. Set the units for this new resource to 50% also
5. Click OK
6. Notice that the Duration went back to 16 hours because you have help
7. Notice that the Finish date also went back to two days

We just learned that adding a new resource to a task can help it get done quicker.  Each person is working only half their time, but there are two of you, so the task is finished sooner.  You can use this technique to spread yourself around to many tasks.  But beware, this can become a little difficult to manage.

–ray

This post will help you understand the Resource Graph in Microsoft Project.  The Resource Graph shows a graphical view of when your employees are scheduled to work.  You should also take a look at the Resource Allocation window in Standard Time.  It has additional options to help view scheduled employee hours.

 

Steps to use the Resource Graph:

1. Create a new task in a blank Microsoft Project file
2. Enter 4 hours into the duration column and assign the task to your name
3. Choose View, Resource Graph
4. Right-click in the graph, and choose Work from the menu
5. Notice the blue bar representing the hours you entered (it stops at the “4h” line)
6. Choose View, Gantt Chart to go back to the task view
7. Create a second task, enter 5 hours, and assign it to you
8. Choose View, Resource Graph to see the effect
9. Notice that the blue bar has a red bar on top (this is the over allocated portion)

The previous steps demonstrate two simple principles: a graphical representation shows when employees are scheduled to work, and over-allocated hours are shown in red.  Standard Time takes this a step farther and shows under-allocated time in yellow.

 

Steps to add another resource:

1. Choose View, Gantt Chart to see your tasks
2. Add another task, enter some hours, and assign it to another resource
3. Choose View, Resource Graph to return to the bar graph
4. Right-click in the legend, and choose Next Resource
5. Notice that the bar chart changes to show the hours for your second employee

Standard Time allows you to see groups of employees stacked on top of each other.  This lets you see allocated hours for the entire workgroup.

 

Steps to change working hours for a resource:

1. Right-click on the legend, and choose Resource Information
2. Click the Working Time tab
3. Click in the calendar to select a day
4. Drag the mouse to select multiple days
5. Change the working hours at the right side (you are overriding the defaults)
6. Click OK to return to the Resource Graph
7. Notice that the bars change to reflect your new working hours

Normally, you’ll leave the working hours at 40, and change the start dates of tasks to reschedule them.

 

We hope this has helped.  Feel free to post comments on additional usage techniques!

–ray