Using Microsoft Project for Project management

Project Management
Information systems projects are known to be late and/or over budget primarily because
of poor project management. Project management requires that we identify all the
activities of the project, the start/end of each activity and the resources allocated to the
activity. Because of the large number of activities, and the dependencies among them,
we typically use a specialized project management software package, such as Microsoft
Project.
Project management covers the processes of: initiating, executing, controlling, and
closing the project. The first step in project management is to define all the tasks that we
need to complete in order to achieve the project goal. For each task we define the
duration that is how long it takes to complete the task.
Two diagrams are created in MS Project. The Gantt Chart (named for Henry Gantt, a
pioneer of project management techniques) provides a graphical presentation of the
project. It displays each task as a horizontal bar with the length corresponding to the
duration of the task.
The Network Diagram graphically highlights the interdependencies of the tasks. Each
task is displayed as a box containing the start, finish, duration and % completion of the
task. The tasks are linked together through link lines, thus creating a picture of how the
tasks are sequenced. The Network Diagram highlights the critical path of the project.
The critical path is the series of tasks that determines the finish date of the project.

After you enter the tasks into MS Project, you can view the Gantt chart or Network
Diagram by selecting the view options.

Using Microsoft Project:

1) Click on Start/Programs/Microsoft Project.
2) The following screen shows up (Figure 1.1)
 Fig 1.1 Blank Project screen

3) Next, we enter the tasks that we have identified for our project.
Suppose, that for the initial phase of “Project Planning” we identified 5 tasks:
1. Defining the problem,
2. Producing Product schedule,
3. Confirming project feasibility Schedule
4. Staffing the project , and
5. Launching the project.
We next, defined the subtasks for each of the 5 tasks. Note that it is easier to
estimate the start/end times for the smaller subtasks. The tasks, subtasks and the
duration in days, are as follows:
1. Defining the problem;
1.1) Meeting with the users. 2 days
1.2) Defining scope. 1 day.
1.3) Writing business benefits. 1 day.
1.4) Writing statement of needs. 1 day.
1.5) Defining system capabilities. 1 day.
1.6) Defining context diagram. 1 day.

2. Producing Product Schedule:

2.1) Developing work breakdown structure. 1 day.
 2.2) Estimate resources’ duration. 1 day.
2.3) Developing Pert chart. 2 days.
3. Confirming project feasibility:
3.1) Identifying intangible cost. 1 day.
3.2) Estimate tangible cost. 1 day.
3.4) Do cost/benefit analysis. 2 days.
3.5) Evaluate organization feasibility. 1 day.
3.6) Evaluate technical feasibility. 2 days.
3.7) Evaluate schedule feasibility. 1 day.
3.8) Evaluate resource availability. 1 day.
4. Staffing the project:
4.1) Develop a project resource plan. 1 day.
4.2) Identify and request tech staff. 1 day.
4.3) Meet with users, identify staff. 1 day.
4.4) Organize project team. 1 day.
4.5) Conduct team-building exercises. 3 days.
5. Launching the project:
5.1) Prepare presentation material. 1 day.
5.2) Make executive presentation. 1 day.
5.3) Set up project facilities. 3 days.
5.4) Conduct official kick-off meeting. 1 day.

4) Next, we enter the tasks into the blank Project Window. Enter “1. Project
planning Phase” in the Task Name column. Note that the duration of a task is
defaulted to 1 day (followed by a ?), and the Start and finish fields are filled up
accordingly, as shown in figure 1.2. You may change the duration as necessary.

The total time to complete the entire project will be calculated by MS Project as
you enter all the tasks.
 Figure 1.2 Filling the task

5) The following are definitions of the fields:

Duration: tells you how long it takes to complete a particular task.
Start: the date you want to start that particular task.
Finish: the date you will finish that particular task.
The Start and finish dates are automatically filled in once you specify the
duration of the task.
Predecessors: the tasks that must be completed before you can start a particular
task.
Resource Names: the names of people who would perform that particular task.

6) Now, enter the first sub-task of the task you just entered, i.e. ‘1.1 define the
problem’. To indicate that it is a subtask, we indent it to the right by clicking on
the right green arrow on the menu bar as shown in the figure below.
 Figure 1.3 Entering the tasks

7) Next, we enter Resource Names (i.e. the names of people who will perform the
task.) There are two ways to enter resources; double click on the particular field
of Resource names and select Resource tab (as shown in Fig 1.3), or right click on
a particular field, select Task Information and click on Resources tab (as shown in
Fig 1.4 and Fig 1.5):
Fig 1.3: Double clicking on the particular field and selecting the Resources tab.
Fig 1.4: Right clicking on the particular field, and selecting Task Information.
 Fig 1.5: Selecting Resource tab

8) We enter in this window two fields: Resource Name and Units. Resource Name
identifies the resource, (for example, it can be name of a person or machine). The
Units field identifies the percentage of the resource being used to accomplish this
task. Ex., in Fig 1.6 we enter Mary as the resource name, and the 100% indicates
that Mary will spend 100% of her time performing the task. Click the OK tab
once you entered the data.
Fig 1.6: Entering the data in Resource name and Units fields before clicking OK button.
 Fig 1.7: Screen display after entering the Resources Names

9) We continue populating the Tasks, duration, Resources Names and Predecessors

Fields in the project as shown in the Figure below. We have to ensure that each
sub-task is indented (to the right) of the related task (by using the green right
arrow on the menu bar). To indent the task to the left, use the green left arrow on
the menu bar.

10) Next we update the Predecessors Field. A predecessor task is the task that must
be completed before starting a particular task. The predecessor is identified by the
Predecessor ID that is entered in the ID field. The ID is the row number of the
task in the main window. To enter predecessors, we either double click on the
particular field of Predecessors and select the Predecessors tab (as shown in Fig
1.8) or right click on that particular field and select Predecessors tab (as shown in
Fig 1.9):
Fig 1.8: Double clicking on the particular field and selecting the Predecessors tab.
Fig 1.9: Right clicking on the particular field ,select Task Information
 Fig 2.0: Clicking on the Predecessors tab

10a) In our example, the predecessor of ID ‘1.1.2 Define the scope field’ is the task ‘1.1.1
Meet with users. It’s ID is 3 as entered in Fig 2.0. Notice that as soon as we tab to go
to the next field, all the information (Task Name) of that ID is displayed
automatically as in Figure 2.1.
Fig 2.1: Predecessor Data entered
 Fig 2.2 Numbering subtasks

11) Notice that we can have multiple predecessors for a particular task. We enter them
one by one likewise. Also notice that the duration for the tasks are automatically
calculated according to the subtasks assigned to it. For example, in Fig 2.2 we have
two subtasks (1.1.1 with 2 days and 1.1.2 with 1 day) for a task (1.1). Then the
duration of task 1.1 is automatically calculated as 3 days. Similarly, 1.1 ‘Define the
problem’ is the only subtask of ‘1.Project planning phase’. So, ‘1. Project planning
phase’ has the same duration as ‘1.1 Define the problem’.

12) Populate the remaining fields as shown in Fig 2.3

 Fig 2.3 The completed tasks

13) Notice that a Gantt chart is drawn as you enter the tasks (on the right hand side of
your project). You can view other diagrams such as: Netwroks (PERT),
Resources, etc, using the View menu on the tool bar.
A Gantt chart from the options on the left hand corner of the project as shown in
Fig 2.4
 Fig 2.4: Gantt chart for the tasks

14) Similarly we can view the various graphs: Pert Chart, Task Usage, Resource Graph,
and Resource Usage by selecting them from the option on the left corner. Microsoft
Project has provided this additional functionality so that you can view your task schedule
and the resources being used for their maximum utilization.

PRINT & SUBMIT Figure 2.4