This document provides an overview of how to use Microsoft Project to plan and track a project. It discusses defining the project properties including the start date. It describes adding tasks, durations, predecessors and grouping tasks. It explains identifying and tracking the critical path. Finally, it covers managing resources by identifying available resources, assigning them to tasks, and tracking costs. The overall document serves as a tutorial for using Microsoft Project to manage all aspects of a project from initial planning through ongoing tracking.

1. Anil Purushothaman

2. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 A task that has a finite duration, has well
defined execution path and objectives to
achieve, and requires utilization of certain
resources, is called a Project.
 Resources can be any animate or inanimate
object. For example, Time, money,
manpower & machines, etc.
 Microsoft Project helps in managing project
timeline and resource management.
 This tutorial uses Microsoft Office Project
2007.

3. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 A project has basically two modes –
 Planning mode
 Tracking mode
 The first leg of this tutorial that starts from
the next slide describes creating project
plan, the second leg will describe the
tracking mode.

4. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
1

5. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 Follow the following path on XP / Vista –
 Start Menu  Programs  Microsoft Office 
Microsoft Office Project 2007

6. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 Start by defining the properties of the
project
 You need to know the start date of the
Project
 Open “Project Menu” and select “Project
Information”, and write the Project start
date there. See screenshot on next slide -

7. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman

8. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 Go to “Tools” menu and select “Options”.
Select “General” tab from the top of the
dialog box.
 You can switch the task pane on/off here, or
set the Advice Wizard on/off.
 You may define the Standard Rate and
Overtime rates here.

9. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman

10. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 You can set the week start day, fiscal year
start month, daily work start & end time,
working hours per day, working hours per
week and number of working days per month
here for your project.

11. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman

12. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 You can start adding tasks and sub tasks to
the project now.
 break the whole project into individual tasks.
 Normally, a task involves one person or a
small group of people over a span of time
that can be measured in days.

13. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman

14. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 to group tasks under phases, grouping is done
from the top down with Final total at the
very top, with Subtotals below and so on.
 Look at the next screenshot for a how-to on
creating subtasks.

15. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman

16. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman

17. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 define the duration of all the tasks.
 The next screen shows tasks having a well-
defined duration.
 You don’t need to define the duration for the
task group, it is evaluated using subtasks
automatically.

18. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman

19. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 In MS Project a task that must be completed
before another task can start is called a
predecessor.
The first task has no predecessor and each of the
following tasks has to have at least one.
In some cases a task may have several
predecessors meaning that several tasks have to
be completed before that one can start.
In other cases a task may be predecessor to
several others - its completion can allow several
other tasks to start.

20. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman

21. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
2

22. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 Two of the techniques used for project
management are called Critical Path
Management (CPM) and Program Evaluation and
Review Techniques (PERT).
The technique involves using network models to
trace the links between tasks and to identify the
tasks which are critical to meeting the deadlines.
When you have a large number of tasks
overlapping you really have to use the right tool
to show which tasks can be delayed and which
must be on time.

23. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 Once you've identified the critical path, any
delay on any part of the critical path will
cause a delay in the whole project.
It is where managers must concentrate their
efforts.
In MS Project, you use the Tracking Gantt
diagram to show the critical path in red
and you can see the PERT diagram by looking
at the Network view.

24. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman

25. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman

26. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 Now, you'll want to track the degree of
completion of each of the tasks.
 You could do that every day as you go along.
As soon as something starts to go off track,
you can react and adjust accordingly.

27. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman

28. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
3

29. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 people are resources that you have to
manage well in order to achieve the project's
objectives.
 You may also need some material resources -
equipment, supplies, specialized
environments - that you will have to
schedule and pay for.
 You can easily include the management of
resources in MS Project along with the tasks

30. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 You must start by identifying the resources
available along with their costs.
 Resource costs will be multiplied by duration
to calculate project costs.
 You have to open the Resource sheet to
specify the projet resources and costs.

31. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman

32. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 To track costs, you insert a Cost column next
to the Resources column.
When you assign the resources to each task,
the costs will be calculated an displayed.

33. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman

34. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
 You assign resources, people or material, to
each of the tasks.
 A task may have several resources.

35. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman

36. PreparedBy:AnilPurushothaman
For more, Write to me here –
anil@iper.ac.in
www.iper.ac.in