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MSProject Exercise4

This document provides instructions for customizing views and reports in Microsoft Project and tracking project progress. It has two parts: Part 1 focuses on customizing views like the Gantt chart and Timeline to highlight important tasks and milestones. It also covers customizing reports and copying views. Part 2 focuses on tracking project progress by saving a baseline, viewing the critical path, updating completion percentages and actual values for tasks, and viewing key progress indicators. The exercises guide the user through formatting views and reports and entering progress updates in Microsoft Project.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
80 views30 pages

MSProject Exercise4

This document provides instructions for customizing views and reports in Microsoft Project and tracking project progress. It has two parts: Part 1 focuses on customizing views like the Gantt chart and Timeline to highlight important tasks and milestones. It also covers customizing reports and copying views. Part 2 focuses on tracking project progress by saving a baseline, viewing the critical path, updating completion percentages and actual values for tasks, and viewing key progress indicators. The exercises guide the user through formatting views and reports and entering progress updates in Microsoft Project.

Uploaded by

Mohd Tanveerul
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

ME4103 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND SOCIETY

Hands-on Sessions on using Microsoft Project

Exercise 4
Formatting and Sharing Project Plan
and Tracking Project Progress

Peter C. Y. Chen, PhD


Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
National University of Singapore

2019-2020

Contents of this document are based on material in Microsoft Project 2016: Step-by-Step by C. Chatfield and T. Johnson

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

Note: Depending on how the date format of your PC is set up, the date shown in the figures in
this document may appear different from what you see on your PC, e.g., Tue 06-02-18 instead of
Tue 06/02/18.

File template required in this exercise is provided on LumiNUS. Please download a copy to
the local PC and use it for this exercise.

What will you learn in this exercise?


This exercise has two main parts. Part 1 focuses on views and reports, which are the most common
ways for displaying or printing a plan’s data. Part II focuses on tracking the progress of a project,
which is an important aspect of project management after your project has started.

For Part I, you will learn how to customize the layout of different types of views and how to share
them with others by copying and pasting or printing. For Part II, the skills involved in working
through this exercise are for checking and updating the project plan.

The main procedures are:

Part I:

 Customize a Gantt chart view


 Add tasks to a Timeline view
 Customize reports
 Copy views and reports
 Print views and reports

Part II:

 Save a baseline of your plan


 View the plan’s critical path
 Track a plan as scheduled
 Enter a task’s completion percentage
 Enter actual values for tasks

What main functions of the software are to be used in this exercise?


This exercise first guides you through procedures related to designing the layout of a Gantt view and
a resource cost overview; most of the functions are on the View tab and the Format tab. It then
guides you through procedures related to tracking the progress of a project; most of the functions
are on the View tab, the Task tab and the Project tab.

The main functions are:

Part I

 Gantt Chart Style


 Background Color
 Font

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 Bar Styles
 Add Tasks to Timeline
 Display as Callout
 Resource Cost Overview
 Chart Styles
 Table Styles
 Copy Picture
 Copy Timeline
 Copy Report
 Print
 Page Break

Part II

 Set Baseline
 Task Sheet
 Variance
 Update Project
 Completion Percentage
 Tracking
 Actual Work
 key progress indicators
 Update Tasks

Note that at the end of this exercise, you will need to upload to LumiNUS a
PowerPoint file in addition to 3 Project files.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

Part I: Formatting and Sharing Project Plan

Customize a Gantt chart view


The Context: At Lucerne Publishing, you are almost done with planning the “new book launch”
project, and the team is about to commence work. For more effective communication with the
project team and management, you want a key milestone and a few other details in the project plan
to be highlighted for greater visual impact.

Open the file Exercise4_a_Format.mpp. The layout appears as shown below.

1. In the Gantt Chart view, scroll to the manually scheduled Task 9, Prepare book P&L
statement. The default formatting of the Gantt bars for manually scheduled tasks differs
from that of automatically scheduled tasks. For instance, the color of the Gantt bar for Task
9 (currently manually scheduled) is different from that of other tasks shown in the figure
below.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

2. Apply the predefined orange color style from the Presentation Styles area of the style
gallery.
1) Click on the Format tab to display a set of pre-defined color styles in the Gantt Chart
Style group. Click on the small downward arrow at the right edge of the style group to
display more pre-defined color styles for selection. Select the predefined orange color.

After the chosen style is applied, there is no formatting distinction between the Gantt
bars of manually and automatically scheduled tasks, as is illustrated below.

3. Task 6 is a milestone task that describes the end of the first phase of the “new book launch”
project at Lucerne Publishing. You would like to highlight this task by applying italic text
formatting and a yellow background color to the name of this task.
1) Choose Task 6, Planning complete!, in the Task Name column.
2) On the Task tab, in the Font group, click the Background Color button (as shown in the
figure below) and select the yellow color.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

3) On the Task tab, in the Font group, click the Italic button.

4. Note that a shape, instead of a Gantt bar, appears in the Gantt chart area for Task 6. This is
because this task is a milestone task. Format the Gantt shape of Task 6 to be a star.
1) Double-click a previously formatted Gantt bar.
Or
Click the name of the task (in this case, Task 6) of the previously formatted Gantt bar.
Then, on the Format tab, in the Bar Styles group, click Format, click Bar.

2) The Format Bar dialog box appears. In the Start group, select the star shape in the cell of
Shape.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

The formatted Gantt Chart is as shown below.

Add tasks to a Timeline view


The Context: Past experience indicates that some stakeholders of the project will find your Gantt
chart view to be more detailed than they could easily comprehend. To help such stakeholders see
the key details you want to convey, you decide to build a Timeline view. Later you will copy the
Timeline view to another document (such as a PowerPoint presentation) as a quick “project at a
glance” image.

1. Add the following (existing) tasks to the Timeline:


 Planning Phase
 Planning complete!
 Internal Launch Phase
 Public Launch Phase
 Author travel and appearances
1) Click anywhere in a Timeline view, i.e., the pane above the Gantt Chart pane. Project
shifts focus to the Timeline view and displays “Timeline Tools” above the Format tab.

2) On the Format tab, in the Insert group, click Existing Tasks.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

3) The Add Tasks to Timeline dialog box appears.

4) Select the tasks: Planning Phase, Planning complete!, Internal Launch Phase, Public
Launch Phase, Author travel and appearances, then click OK.

2. In the Timeline view, switch the display for the task Author travel and appearances to a
callout so its full title is visible.
1) Click anywhere in the Timeline view. Project shifts focus to the Timeline view and
displays the Timeline Tools label above the Format tab.
2) In the Timeline view, click on the task Author travel and appearances. A callout box
appears.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

3) On the Format tab, in the Current Selection group, click Display as Callout.

The result is as illustrated below.

Customize reports
The Context: You want to share the Resource Cost Overview report with the team. However, you
would like to change the formatting of some elements in the report.

1. Display the Resource Cost Overview report.


1) On the Report tab, in the View Reports group, click Costs, then select Resource Cost
Overview in the dropdown menu.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

The report shown below includes chart and table elements—both types of elements
support extensive formatting.

2. Apply the black background chart style (Style 7) to the pie chart.
1) Click anywhere in the pie chart.
2) Click on the Design tab (under the label Chart Tools). Hover the cursor over the small
image with a dark background in the Chart Styles group as indicated in the figure below.
A callout box with the text “Style 7” appears. Click on this small image.

The pie chart now appears as shown below.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

3. Apply the gray background table style (Themed Style 1, Accent 3) to the table.
1) Click anywhere in the table with the heading “Cost Details”.
2) Click on the Design tab (under the label Table Tools). In the Table Styles group, click the
small triangle with a bar on top as shown in the figure below.

A set of pre-defined table styles appears. Click on the Themed Style 1 – Accent 3 icon
located under Best Match for Document in the top row, as shown in the figure below.

The formatted table is as shown below.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

The overall formatted view of the selected report elements is as shown below.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

Copy views and reports


The Context: You would like to share snapshots of key views and a report from the project plan via
email or some other documents.

1. Display the Gantt Chart view so the Gantt bars of Task 7 through Task 14 are visible.
1) On the View tab, in the Task Views group, click on Gantt Chart.

2. Copy a picture of Task 7 through Task 14. Render the picture for the screen.
1) Select Task 7 through Task 14 in the Gantt Chart view by clicking on the label “7” of the
left-most column and then drag the cursor down to “14”.

2) On the Task tab, in the Clipboard group, click the arrow next to Copy, then click Copy
Picture.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

3) In the Copy Picture dialog box, under Render image, select For screen. Then click OK.

3. Paste the image into a new document or email message.


1) Create a new Microsoft PowerPoint document, using your Student Number as its
filename.
2) Right click on a blank slide and select the “Picture(U)” option to paste the Gantt chart of
Task 7 through Task 14 into the PowerPoint document.

The copied picture is as shown below.

4. Copy a full-sized image of the detailed Timeline, and paste it into a new slide in the same
PowerPoint document.
1) Click anywhere in the Timeline view. With the focus now on the Timeline, the label of the
Format tab changes to Timeline Tools.
2) On the Format tab, in the Copy group, click Copy Timeline. The Copy Timeline options
appear. Select Full Size.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

3) Paste the full-size Gantt chart picture (using the “Picture(U)” option) into a new slide in
the same PowerPoint document created earlier. Resize the picture in PowerPoint to fit
within the slide. The Gantt chart picture appears as shown below.

5. Copy the Resource Cost Overview report, and paste it into the same PowerPoint document.
1) On the Report tab, in the View Reports group, click on Cost and select Resource Cost
Overview.

2) Click anywhere in the report. On the Design tab (under the label Report Tools), in the
Report group, click Copy Report.

3) Paste, using the “Picture(U)” option, the Resource Overview Report onto a new slide in
the same PowerPoint document created earlier. Resize the picture in PowerPoint to fit
within the slide.

Save the PowerPoint document. Make sure to use your Student Number as its filename.

Upload the PowerPoint document to the folder Exercise 4 submission under the “Files”
section of the ME4103 module page on LumiNUS.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

Print views and reports


The Context: You would like to print views and reports from the plan to post on the wall space for
the team to provide feedback or clarifications.

1. Display the print preview of the full Gantt Chart view, set to multiple pages.
1) On the View tab, in the Task Views group, click on Gantt Chart.

2) Click File on the top menu bar. Click Print. Various printing options and a preview of
what is to be printed are displayed. When previewing a large view or report, use the
page navigation and zoom controls (in the lower right corner of the Project window) to
manage what is displayed, as is illustrated in the figure below.

2. Display page breaks in the Resource Cost Overview report.


1) On the Report tab, in the View Reports group, click on Costs and select Resource Cost
Overview.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

2) Click the Design tab (under the label Report Tools). In the Page Setup group, note the
four commands available.
3) Click Page Breaks to see where the page breaks will occur in the report based on your
currently selected paper size.

You can show page breaks in multipage reports outside of the print preview, as is
illustrated in the figure below.

Use the “Save As” option to save a copy of the Project file that you have been working on for this
part of Exercise 4. Make sure to use your Student Number plus a tag “_a” as the file name, i.e.,

XXXXXXXXX_a.mpp

where “XXXXXXXXX” is your Student Number. Upload the saved file into the folder Exercise 4
submission under the “Files” section of the ME4103 module page on LumiNUS.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

Part II: Tracking Project Progress

Save a baseline of your plan


The Context: At Lucerne Publishing, the “new book launch” project plan is now fully developed.
Actual work on the project will soon begin. To allow for later comparison of actual and originally
scheduled work, you will first save a baseline.

Open the file Exercise4_b_TrackBaseline.mpp. The layout appears as shown below.

1. Save the baseline for the entire plan; use the default baseline settings.
1) On the Project tab, in the Schedule group, click Set Baseline, then click Set Baseline in
the dropdown menu.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

2) The Set Baseline dialog box appears. To use the default setting, click OK.

2. Switch to the Task Sheet view.


1) On the Task tab, in the View group, click the small black triangle to the right of Gantt
Chart icon, then select Task Sheet.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

The layout will appear as shown below.

3. Display the Variance table to the see scheduled and the baseline values.
1) On the View tab, in the Data group, click Tables, then select Variance.

Since at the moment, the scheduled dates in this plan match the baseline dates, the
variance values are zero, as shown in the figure below.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

During project execution, baseline can be saved at different times as the project
progresses. When referring to a baseline, it is important to know the time at which a
particular baseline was saved.

The procedure to check when a baseline was saved is as follows. On the Project tab, in the
Schedule group, click the Set Baseline button, then select Set Baseline. The Set Baseline
dialog box appears. In the Set Baseline field of the dialog box, any previously saved
baselines in the plan will be indicated by the dates they were saved. Click Cancel to exit the
dialog box.

View the plan’s critical path


The Context: You are frequently asked when the “new book launch” project will be completed. You
can quickly see the project’s overall duration and finish date in Project, but occasionally you need to
show a project stakeholder the project’s critical path, because that sequence of tasks drives the
project’s duration.

A critical path is the series of tasks that will delay the end date of the overall project if any of those
tasks are delayed. The word “critical” in this context has nothing to do with how important these
tasks are to the overall plan. It refers only to how their scheduling will affect the finish date of the
project. Project automatically recalculates the critical path in response to schedule changes even if
you never display the critical path. A detailed discussion on the topic of critical path is presented in
the supplementary note (entitled “Introduction to Microsoft Project 2016”) available on LumiNUS.

1. Display critical tasks in the project plan.


1) On the View tab, in the Task Views group, click on Gantt Chart to display the Gantt
Chart view.
2) On the Format tab, in the Bar Styles group, select the Critical Tasks check box. The
critical path is shown in red. It is easier to see the chain of tasks that is driving the plan’s
finish date. Clearing the Critical Tasks check box removes the red-color formatting.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

2. Display slack for noncritical tasks.


1) On the Format tab, in the Bar Styles group, select the Slack check box.

2) Project draws slack lines from the finish dates of the Gantt bars of the noncritical tasks.

3. The default slack value for a task to be considered as critical is 0. However, this value can be
changed if needed.
1) Click the File tab to display the Backstage view, and then click Options.

2) In the Project Options dialog box, click Advanced.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

3) On the Advanced page, scroll down to see the Calculation options of this project
section. In the field for the Tasks are critical if slack is less than or equal to option, enter
the number of days you want.

Use the “Save As” option to save a copy of the Project file that you have been working on for this
part of Exercise 5. Make sure to use your Student Number plus a tag “_b” as the file name, i.e.,

XXXXXXXXX_b.mpp

where “XXXXXXXXX” is your Student Number. Upload the saved file into the folder Exercise 4
submission under the “Files” section of the ME4103 module page on LumiNUS.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

Track a plan as scheduled


The Context: Some time has passed since you saved the baseline in the “new book launch” project
plan. Some work has been completed through the first week and a half as planned. You need to
account for the completed work in the plan.

Open the file Exercise4_c_TrackActuals.mpp. The layout appears as shown below.

1. Use the options in the Update Project dialog box to record that work that has been
completed as scheduled through January 17, 2018.
1) On the Project tab, in the Status group, click Update Project.

2) The Update Project dialog box appears. Change the entry for the Update work as
complete through field to January 17 2018. Click OK.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

Project records the completion percentage for the tasks that were scheduled to start
before January 17. It displays the progress by drawing progress bars inside the Gantt
bars for those tasks.

In the chart portion of the Gantt Chart view, the progress bar shows how much of each
task has been completed. Because Task 2, Task 3, and Task 4 have been completed
100%, a check mark appears in the Indicators column for those tasks, and the progress
bars extend through the full length of the Gantt bars of those tasks. Note that Task 5 is
only partially completed.

Enter a task’s completion percentage


The Context: Work continues in the “new book launch” project. You have additional progress to
record in the plan as percent complete values.

1. Set the following tasks to 100 percent complete:


• Task 5, Design and order marketing material
• Task 6, Planning complete!
• Task 8, Kickoff book launch meeting

1) In the Task Name column, select Task 5 for which you want to record a percent
complete value.
2)

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

3) On the Task tab, in the Schedule group, click the 100% Complete button.

Repeat 1) and 2) for Task 6 and Task 8. The result is as shown below. Note that Project
records the actual work for the tasks as scheduled and extends progress bars through
the length of the Gantt bars. Recording 100%-complete is a quick “check-list” way of
indicating that a task was completed as scheduled with no variance.

Because Task 6 is a milestone task with no duration, there is no change in the


appearance of its symbol in the chart portion of the Gantt Chart view (unlike Task 5 and
Task 8). However, the completion check mark appears in the Indicators column of all
three tasks.

2. Set Task 9, Prepare book P&L statement, to 50% complete.


1) In the Task Name column, select Task 9 for which you want to record a percent
complete value.

2) On the Task tab, in the Schedule group, click the 50% Complete button.

3) Move the mouse to the chart portion of the Gantt Chart view. Hover the cursor over the
progress bar (i.e., darker line inside the thicker Gantt bar) of Task 9 to see its key
progress indicators in a ScreenTip, as is illustrated below.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

Note that although 50% of the work on Task 9 is completed, the progress bar does not
span 50% of the length of the Gantt bar. This is because Project measures duration in
working time but draws the Gantt bars to extend over nonworking time, which in this
case includes Thursday, January 25, a nonworking day.

Enter actual values for tasks


The Context: A few more days have passed, and work on the new book launch continues to
progress. Resources performing the work have reported to you their actual progress that differs
somewhat from what has been planned, and you want to record these actuals and observe the
effect on the overall project plan.

1. Use the Tracking table to record that Task 9, Prepare book P&L statement, required a total
of 24 hours of actual work to complete.
1) On the View tab, in the Data group, click Tables, then select Tracking.

2) In the Act. Work column, enter 24 hrs in the cell for Task 9. If the Act. Work column is
not visible, move the vertical divider bar to reveal it.

Because 24 hours is greater than its original duration of 16 hours, Project marks the task
as completed and extends the Gantt bar of the task to indicate its longer duration, as
illustrated below. Note that in the figure below, the cells whose contents have been
affected by this change are highlighted in a different color (see, for example, the cell of
Task 7 in the Act. Work column). This is referred to as change highlighting. When you
record actual duration, the change highlighting is a convenient way to see what other
changes in the plan are caused by it.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

2. Use the options in the Update Tasks dialog box to record that Task 10, Plan author’s travel
itinerary, started one working day ahead of schedule (the Tuesday before its scheduled start
date) and required a total of seven days to complete.
1) In the Task Name column, select Task 10.

2) On the Task tab, in the Schedule group, click the arrow to the right of Mark on Track,
then click Update Tasks.

3) The Update Tasks dialog box appears. Enter 7d in the field for Actual dur, and enter the
date of January 23 2018 in the field for of Start in the Actual section.

3. Click OK.
Project records the actual values for the task and marks it as complete. The updated values
roll up to the Internal Launch Phase summary task (Task 7) and the project summary task
(Task 0), as indicated by the change highlighting (i.e., the change in the color of the affected
cells).

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

4. Use the options in the Update Tasks dialog box for Task 11, Channel Sales prep. This task
started on time and currently has three days of actual duration; it still requires five days of
remaining duration to complete.
1) In the Task Name column, select Task 11.

2) On the Task tab, in the Schedule group, click the arrow to the right of Mark on Track,
then click Update Tasks.

3) In the Update Tasks dialog box, enter 3d in field for Actual dur. Click OK.

4) Repeat 2) and 3) to bring up the Update Tasks dialog box again. Enter 5d in the field for
Remaining dur. Click OK.

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For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

This gives the task a new total duration of eight days: three days actual of duration plus
five days of remaining duration, as illustrated in the figure below. Unless you record an
actual start date, Project assumes the task started as scheduled.

Because you did not specify an actual start date, Project assumes that the task started
as scheduled. However, the actual duration and updated remaining duration value you
entered caused Project to calculate a new finish date.

Use the “Save As” option to save a copy of the Project file that you have been working on for this
part of Exercise 5. Make sure to use your Student Number plus a tag “_c” as the file name, i.e.,

XXXXXXXXX_c.mpp

where “XXXXXXXXX” is your Student Number. Upload the saved file into the folder Exercise 4
submission under the “Files” section of the ME4103 module page on LumiNUS.

30

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