Select File:Save As to save this new project as PanTransConference.mpp. We will be using this project over the course of this chapter.

At the bottom-left corner of the screen, you will notice that new tasks are currently set to be scheduled manually. While there are some cases where you do not want the Microsoft Project scheduling engine to perform normal calculations, you generally want the software to schedule the dates of new tasks for you. Select Auto Scheduled – Task dates are calculated by Microsoft Project.

Begin creating the WBS by entering the two project phases—General planning and Detailed planning—in the Task Name column of your project, as in the following figure.

Select the nine (9) tasks that follow General planning, and from Task:Schedule, click the Indent Task arrow [].

Your screen will resemble the following.

At this point in the WBS development process, it is common to continue to enter detailed tasks and sub-tasks for the entire project. However, for large projects or ones where the scope of later phases depends on the outcome of earlier phases, you may adopt a rolling wave approach. As covered in Section 6.2, “Determining Logical Relationships of Tasks in Your WBS,” in the sub-section on baselining, rolling wave planning is the approach of developing the immediate next phases in detail and only covering the later ones generally.

For this exercise, we will now add a starting task for the project, as well as additional tasks under the first two General planning sub-tasks.

Under General planning, add a new sub-task, Hold project kick-off meeting.

At the beginning of your project, add a new top-level task called Project Management, and include the following two sub-tasks: Project tracking and Issue management.

Your screen will resemble the following.

Additional examples of tasks/phases without specific product-related deliverables—but that are important for successful project execution—include safety inspections and personnel management tasks.

Select Task 30, Contingency planning, and from Task:Insert, click the Task icon. A new task line is inserted with the task name <New Task>. You can also use the Insert key on your keyboard and a blank line will be inserted above Contingency planning. In the newly inserted task line, type Arrange break-out rooms and press Enter. By default, new tasks in Microsoft Project assume the same outline level as the task displayed immediately above.

Your screen will resemble the following.

Notice that the new task Arrange break-out rooms is treated like all other tasks for the moment.

To make Arrange break-out rooms a detailed task under Meeting facilities, select the new Task 30, and in Task:Schedule, click the Indent Task icon . Task 30 has become a subordinate task of the new summary task Meeting facilities (Task ID 30). Your screen will resemble the following.

The left-pointing arrow next to the Indent Task icon is the Outdent Task icon [], which can be used to reverse the outlining process or to promote a task to a higher outline level.

Select the task Arrange break-out rooms (Task ID 30) and click the Outdent Task icon. Notice the task is now at the same outline level as the task above it. Delete the task Arrange break-out rooms.

Save and close your project.

Select the task Locate new site (Task ID 4).

Above Locate new site, insert Develop preliminary design and give it a duration of 5 days. Your screen will resemble the following.

Several cells turned blue as a result of inserting this task, and they will remain blue until the project is saved or another change is made that affects the project schedule. This feature is designed to make it easier for users to identify changes caused by modification to individual cells.

Insert the task Select target moving date (duration 1 day) above Hire mover (Task ID 13).

On further thought, you have decided this doesn’t make sense; the possible moving date will be produced as part of the project and doesn’t need to be a separate task. Click the down arrow next to the Undo button []—located by default at the top-left corner of your screen—several times until your project plan reverts to its condition before you inserted Select target moving date. At this point, the Redo button [] will become active, allowing you to change your mind back.

You’re curious about the task Negotiate new lease (Task ID 10) and wonder why it’s scheduled to start on April 29. The Task Inspector is a good way to see the factors affecting a task’s scheduling, as well as recommendations if there are conflicts with the task.

Select the task Negotiate new lease, and from Task:Tasks, click the Inspect icon []. The Task Inspector sidepane will appear, similar to the following.

Click the X in the upper right-hand corner of the sidepane to close it and save your project.

Click to select the entire task row of Hire mover (Task ID 13). When using drag and drop, it is important to select the entire row by clicking the task number, not just the task name.

Release your mouse button. Hire mover will replace Select subcontractors as Task ID 12, and Select subcontractors will become Task ID 13.

Select the task row of summary task Phase Two (ID 6).

From Task:Clipboard, click the Cut [} icon. The Planning Wizard dialog box will appear to remind you that because Phase Two is a summary task, deleting it will also delete all of its sub-tasks. (When you paste the summary task somewhere, all of its subordinate tasks will move with it.) From the Planning Wizard dialog box, select Cancel. Don’t delete any tasks. and click OK to close the box.

Click the arrow by the X in the Indicator field to see your options. Select the default option: Delete the task name.

Use the Undo button to restore the original task name.

Save and close your project.

Click Undo several times to remove the WBS column. Save and close your project.

Before beginning this exercise, confirm that you are able to import tasks from Excel spreadsheets that were created in an earlier version (pre-2013) of Microsoft Excel. To do so, open Microsoft Project, and from File:Options, select Trust Center. Click the Trust Center Settings… button and then click Legacy Formats in the sidebar.

Click OK twice to accept the new setting and close the dialog boxes.

Now, from File:New, click New from Excel workbook.

Accept the default New map option and click Next to see the Import Mode screen.

Ensure the default As a new project option is selected and click Next to see the Map Options screen.

Each type of data (tasks, resources, assignments) imported will require a separate mapping screen to define where each Excel field corresponds to which Microsoft Project field.

Click Next to see the End of Map Definition screen.

Notice this screen gives you the option to save and re-use your map.

Save your new project plan with the default name TaskList.mpp.

Close your project.

Click the Task Name column header to select all tasks in the project, and then from Task:Schedule, click the Link Tasks icon []. Your screen will resemble the following.

Notice that by linking all the tasks in this way, the project’s duration jumped from 36 days to 54 days. Ideally, the new project finish date would be acceptable to the client, but it’s far more common for project managers to have to look for ways to speed up the schedule.

The way the tasks are linked above, all tasks in Phase One must be completed before any task in Phase Two can begin. You might decide that you could speed up the project by doing Phase One and Phase Two at the same time.

Click Delete to remove the link. Your screen will now resemble the following.

Another way to remove the link is to click Phase One and Ctrl-click Phase Two to select the noncontiguous tasks. Then, from Task:Schedule, click the Unlink Tasks icon [].

Although you have saved some time (the project duration is now 36 days instead of 54 days), you realize this work schedule is impossible. According to this logic, we can review the proposal (Task ID 7) before we’re done writing it (Task ID 2). Click Write proposal and Ctrl-click Review proposal to select only those tasks, and then click the Link Tasks button to link them.

Your screen will resemble the following.

The process of shortening a project by doing tasks at the same time (in parallel) is called fast tracking. Fast tracking is the most common method used for shortening a project because it appears to be less expensive than the only alternative: crashing. Crashing requires applying additional resources to critical path tasks to shorten individual tasks. We will present a more detailed discussion of this concept in Section 14.2, “Plan Revision and Scope Management.” Unfortunately, risk increases when tasks are done at the same time.

Click the Undo button in the upper-left corner of your screen, and save and close your project.

From the Type: dropdown list, select Start-to-Start (SS) and click OK. The two tasks are now shown to start at the same time. Your screen will resemble the following.

In the same manner, link all the Agenda and schedule sub-tasks (Task IDs 14 to 20).

The WBS structure often becomes even more complicated. Develop list of entertainment events (Task ID 19) is dependent on the venues being considered and so must be a successor to Perform detailed research on top three potential venues (Task ID 10). Update the project accordingly.

Save your project.

Select Project tracking and Issue management, and from Task:Properties, click the Information button to view the Multiple Task Information dialog box.

Select the Advanced tab and use the dropdown arrow in the Task type field to select Fixed Units. Click OK to close the dialog box.

Another method for identifying a task’s type is to insert a new column (Type) in your Gantt Chart view.

Save your project.

To change the default manual setting for scheduling of new tasks, at the bottom left of your screen, click New Tasks and select Auto Scheduled – Task dates are calculated by Microsoft Project. Alternatively, from Task:Tasks, use the Mode dropdown to select Auto Schedule. For this exercise, we will continue to use manual scheduling, so ensure this setting is restored.

Select Edit project plan again, and from Task:Tasks, click the Auto Schedule icon. Notice the task now has scheduled dates. Click Undo in the upper-left corner of your screen to return to the manually scheduled task.

Click Cancel (we do not want to save this option).

Select Edit project plan and change the new task scheduling mode to Auto Schedule. To make this task a top-down summary task, enter a new task immediately following it called Review project plan edits.

Save your project.

Continuing our work with TaskScheduling.mpp (or open TaskScheduling_Inst1.mpp), select Review project plan edits (Task ID 6). Go to Task:Schedule and click the Inactivate icon []. Your screen will resemble the following.

Notice that the inactive task no longer affects the schedule and is not able to be updated. This change also triggered a recalculation of the summary task above (Task 5 Edit project plan), and its duration was set to 0 days.

To reactivate this task, right-click the task, and from the dropdown list, click Inactivate Task to uncheck it.

How can you display the project summary task?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When could organizing the WBS to major sections for each phase of the project with the phases appearing sequentially be valuable?

What is the next step after the overall structure of the project is determined?

Describe the “8-80 rule.”

What are some of the best practices to use when determining the level of detail required for each task in your project?

Why does the duration appear as “1 day?” by default when you start entering tasks in your project plan?

What is the Task Inspector?

___________________________________________________________

You accidently delete a task that was not supposed to be deleted. What can you do?

_________________________________________________________

What is the difference between the outline number and the WBS code?

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

How can you get outline numbers to appear in your project plan attached to the task names? How can you get them to appear not attached to the task names?

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

True or False: You can import information from Microsoft Excel into any defined Microsoft Project field.

When mapping fields, each type of data imported will require a separate ________ _________ to define where each Excel field should correspond to which Microsoft Project field.

What is fast tracking? ________________________________________

What is crashing? Why is it generally a secondary option to fast tracking?

___________________________________________________________

What kind of dependency is the default when linking tasks in Microsoft Project 2019?

___________________________________________________________

If you had selected Review proposal (Task ID 7) first in a project plan and dragged its link line to Write proposal (Task ID 2), which task would be shown as the predecessor?

___________________________________________________________

How can you display the split Gantt Chart view?

___________________________________________________________

When working in split Gantt Chart view, what do you have to do in order to ensure that the changes made in the Task Details Form are implemented?

What are some of the ways that task dependencies can be changed (list at least two different ways)?

Task A has to start 3 days after Task B starts. How can you make this happen?

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Fill in the blank: Lead time is expressed as a ________ number in the lag field.

What is the duration if a resource is assigned 40 hours of work at 100% units? What happens to the duration if the resource is working only 50% of their time on this task?

What are the three different task types as defined by Microsoft Project 2019?

Fill in the blank: If one of the three values is fixed and you change a second value, the third will be ________ by Microsoft Project.

True or False: You can place a manually scheduled task anywhere in your schedule, and Microsoft Project won’t move it.

What are two ways to change the default setting for scheduling new tasks?

What is the benefit of using the inactive tasks feature?

How do you inactivate tasks?