MSProject Lectures

2. GANTT CHART
• View most often seen in MSProject
• A Gantt Chart is a spreadsheet on the left
half of the screen and a calendar on the
right hand side
• Tasks & task information entered in
spreadsheet and software transfers data
to the calendar

3. GANTT CHART

4. PROJECT PROPERTIES
• These are entered on the project tab and
can also be viewed (and changed) on File,
Info
• Important kept up to date as projects can
last long periods of time – should
irregularities occur you can refer back to
project information

5. START/END DATE
• MSProject can schedule either from a
start date or an end date
• Dates are entered in project information
under PROJECT TAB

6. CHANGE WORKING TIMES
• 3 default calendars
• Standard
• Nightshift
• 24 hour
• Can customise to reflect non-
working hours
• Add in bank holidays etc.

7. CREATING THE WORK BREAKDOWN
STRUCTURE (WBS) AND GANTT CHART
• WBS- a tool used to graphically display the
deliverables of the project in a
hierarchical fashion. It organises the
work of a project in logical groupings and
displays the information in tree form or in
outline form (Heldman,2005)
• Gantt Chart – graphically displays tasks
on a timescale

8. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WBS AND GANTT
CHART
• We will only use the outline form of WBS
• This means the task side of Gantt Chart
is the WBS
• Therefore can use MSProject to
construct WBS and Gantt Chart
simultaneously

9. ACTIVITIES: TASKS, SUB TASKS AND SUMMARY
TASKS
An activity is:-
“…A task or jobs that must be completed in order to
eventually complete the project” (Burke,2007)
Summary Tasks – headings or collections of group tasks
Subtasks – contain verbs and read like instructions, eg.
DIG FOUNDATIONS
Summary tasks – named as objects, eg. CONSTRUCTION

10. MSPROJECT
Show MSProject presentation

11. MSPROJECT RIBBON

12. CREATE A NEW PROJECT
Project opens by default with a new
project. To create additional projects,
follow these steps:
• Click the File tab. The Backstage view
appears.
• Click New.
• Click Blank Project.
• Click Create.

13. PROJECT INFORMATION
On the Project tab, click Project Information.
Schedule the project in the Project Information dialog
box:
 To schedule from the start date, click Project Start
Date in the Schedule from box, and then select the
start date in the Start date box.
 To schedule from the finish date, click Project Finish
Date in the Schedule from box, and then select the
finish date in the Finish date box.

14. MSPROJECT
• Type in 6 tasks and durations of your
choice

15. LINKING TASKS
• Linking tasks allows you to create relationships between
tasks. For example, you may want one task to begin after
another one ends.
• Select the two tasks that you want to link. Select the first
task by clicking its name in the Task Name column, and then
hold down the SHIFT key while clicking the second task.
• Click the Task tab, and then in the Schedule group, click Link
Task ∞ .
• To change the link type, double click the line between the
linked tasks, and select one of the options

16. TYPES OF DEPENDENCIES
Finish-Start
• Default, most often used. Succeeding task cannot commence
unless preceding task has finished
Finish-Finish
• The succeeding activity cannot finish unless the preceding
activity finishes
Start-Start
• The succeeding activity cannot start unless the preceding
activity has started
Start-Finish
• Uncommon. The succeeding activity’s start date will determine
when the preceding activity will finish

17. CHANGE THE TASK MODE FOR A TASK
Two types of task modes: manually scheduled and automatically
scheduled:
• Manually scheduled Manually scheduled tasks allow greater
flexibility in how a task is scheduled. For example, you can
create a duration of “Soon” for a manually scheduled task
without Project displaying an error.
• Automatically scheduled Automatically scheduled tasks
require specific types of values for duration and start fields.
These tasks use this information (along with calendar
information) to help determine where tasks should begin in
relation to other tasks.
• To change the task mode of a task, do the following:
• In the Task Mode column for a task, click Auto Schedule or
Manually Scheduled

18. OUTLINE A PROJECT TO CREATE A PHASE WITH
SUBTASKS
• Outlining allows you to break down your task list to make it
appear more organised and readable. Outlines are created by
indenting or moving a task to a lower outline level in the Task
Name column. When you indent a task, it becomes a subtask of
the nearest preceding task at a higher outline level. Tasks at the
highest outline level are sometimes referred to a phases.
• Select the task that you want to indent under its phase, or
summary task.
• On the Task tab, in the Schedule group, click Indent Task