If you’re new to Project , this free guide offers useful tips to help you find your way around. Project Quick Start Guide. Thank you for adding this book to your Microsoft Project skills development plan. This book is designed as a self-paced tutorial. Microsoft Project is one of the world’s most widely used project management software tools and helps managers deliver work on-time and on-budget by turning.❿
 
 

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Please take a minute and review if you f eel like you need to. Interested in learning more? One does not have to finish collecting survey responses before starting the tabulation. The backstage area is under the file tab. Now let’s look at the entire Project interface by opening a blank project. Enter the duration. Microsoft Project is just one of those programs.

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Basics of microsoft project 2013 free

 

However, if you do not want to fork out a large sum of money at once, you can also purchase a subscription of Project Pro through Office The subscription requires that you pay a monthly fee; however, you get all the benefits of Project with the subscription-based version. You can also download a free trial of MS Project if you just want to learn the software, but not purchase it — or if you want to try it before you buy it.

You can download a free trial of Project without downloading any of the other Office programs. Simply go to the Microsoft site and locate Project If you haven’t already, you will be asked to fill out a profile for Microsoft. You will be asked for basic information, such as your name, address, and phone number. In addition, you will be asked some questions about your download requirements for Project Because downloading Microsoft Project is not always as simple as it seems, we are going to download the steps you need to follow below.

Fill out the profile information, such as your name, address, etc. Microsoft will as you if you want to download the 32 or 64 bit version of Project Be careful here. You should select the one that matches any other versions of Office or Office programs that you have on your computer. You should not choose the one that matches your operating system. If you choose the wrong one, Microsoft will instruct you to uninstall other Office programs from your computer during the Project installation process.

You do not want to have to do this. If you have Office , 32 bit is the default. Unless you specified 64 bit during your setup and installation of Office, you have 32 bit. This means you will need to choose 32 bit for Project.

Once you’ve finished your profile information, Microsoft will provide you with a product key to use for your free trial. The page will look like this:. Make sure you either print this page or write down the product key. Then, select the download language, and click Download to download MS Project Unlike other software programs that you download to your computer that save as a zip file or unpack and install without saving the install files to your computer , Project, as well as the versions of Office that contain Project, will appear on your computer as an image file.

It will look like this:. Chances are, if your computer is running the Windows 8 or 8. Installation will not proceed when you see this message. To mount the image file and install Project, right click on the image file again. This time, instead of selecting Mount from the context menu, select Copy. Now, click elsewhere in the location where you have the image file for us, it is Desktop.

Right click, then click Paste to paste the image file. We’ve pasted ours side by side in the snapshot below. Next, right click on the copy of the image file the one on the right in the snapshot above. Select Mount from the context menu. You will see the Project files as well. Double click the setup. The first screen you will see when you start setup is one that asks you to agree to the terms issued by Microsoft:.

Once Project is installed, locate it on your computer. If you are using Windows 8 or 8. You will be asked to sign into your Windows Live account to verify your copy of Project is genuine. Again, be careful!

If you downloaded a free trial of Project , you must enter the product key to verify the Project You will see a blue link toward the bottom part of the sign-in box that says “enter product key instead. Before we delve into learning all about Project and how it works, let’s talk about the improvements that have been made to this version. The snapshot below is of the backstage area of Project The backstage area is under the file tab.

In addition, the backstage area is what you will see when you open Project When you open Project for the firt time, you have a few choices in ow you want to get started. You can open a project you recently opened with Project. You will find recently opened files on the left as circled in red below.

There probably won’t be files showing in this area if it is the very first time you opened the program. You can also open another project file that you’ve saved. This includes files created in previous versions of Project. You can also open a new file. To do this, go to the right of the green column. You can choose to open a blank project.

You can also choose to use one of the templates displayed. If you want to use a template, but do not see one displayed that you want to use, you can use the search box and search for the type or category of template that you’d like to find and use. File types are simply the formats you can use to save your project files. Project supports numerous file types. You can open and save aspects of your project in the following formats, however some formats only allow you to save information contained in Project fields.

This is the standard file format for your projects. It uses the. Microsoft Project MS Project supports the opening and saving of files from Microsoft Project Microsoft Project file. MS Project supports the opening and saving of files from Microsoft Project , as well as These are template files that save information you will use in other products.

It is just like a template for a website, except it is for a project. The global file Global. It can contain information for all projects, but it cannot save tasks, resources, or assignments. PDF files. This format is the portable document format. It has the extension. Excel Workbook or Excel notebook. You can export your field data to this format, but you cannot export entire projects. This format is commonly used by word processing programs. You can export field data to this format, but you cannot export entire projects.

Comma-separated values CSV. This format uses the. This format is used to deliver rich and structured data. You can import and export data using this format. It can also be used to interchange data from Project between Project and other programs.

We’ve looked at the backstage area shown to you when you first open Project Now let’s look at the entire Project interface by opening a blank project. Mathematical Methods of Operations Research Application of average dynamic programming to inventory systems. MS Project About the Tutorial MS Project, the project management software program by Microsoft, is a very handy tool for project managers that helps them develop a schedule, assign resources to tasks, track the progress, manage the budget, and analyze workloads for an ongoing project.

This tutorial discusses the various features of the software program with examples for easy understanding. Audience This tutorial has been designed keeping in mind the needs of beginner level MS Project user.

Project managers and Project planners from varied backgrounds who have not used MS Project, especially the edition before can use this tutorial for scheduling, planning, and reporting their projects of any size.

This tutorial is designed with Project Standard features, hence there is no need of Project Professional. Prerequisites A basic understanding of Computers and Windows Operating System is all it takes to get started.

Hardware: A reasonable home desktop configuration. All the content and graphics published in this e-book are the property of Tutorials Point I Pvt. The user of this e-book is prohibited to reuse, retain, copy, distribute or republish any contents or a part of contents of this e-book in any manner without written consent of the publisher. We strive to update the contents of our website and tutorials as timely and as precisely as possible, however, the contents may contain inaccuracies or errors.

Tutorials Point I Pvt. If you discover any errors on our website or in this tutorial, please notify us at contact tutorialspoint. To ensure the results are not different from what is shown in this tutorials, ensure the settings as follows.

Remember all these are the default settings you will have when you first install MS Project on your computer. Check all options. Check the On button. Both options, Status Bar and Scroll Bar should be checked. Set to manual. MS Project — Introduction MS Project Microsoft Project is a project management software program developed and sold by Microsoft, designed to assist a project manager in developing a schedule, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing the budget, and analyzing workloads.

Project creates budgets based on assignment work and resource rates. As resources are assigned to tasks and assignment work estimated, the program calculates the cost, equal to the work times the rate, which rolls up to the task level and then to any summary task, and finally to the project level.

Each resource can have its own calendar, which defines what days and shifts a resource is available. Microsoft Project is not suitable for solving problems of available materials resources constrained production.

Additional software is necessary to manage a complex facility that produces physical goods. Project Management MS Project is feature rich, but project management techniques are required to drive a project effectively. A lot of project managers get confused between a schedule and a plan. MS Project can help you in creating a Schedule for the project even with the provided constraints. It cannot Plan for you. As a project manager you should be able to answer the following specific questions as part of the planning process to develop a schedule.

MS Project cannot answer these for you. This relates to the scope of the project. This relates to the schedule of the project. This would relate to the cost of the project.

This might affect the scope, cost and time constraints of your project. Strictly speaking, from the perspective of Project Management Methodology, a Plan and Schedule are not the same.

A plan is a detailed action-oriented, experience and knowledge-based exercise which considers all elements of strategy, scope, cost, time, resources, quality and risk for the project. Scheduling is the science of using mathematical calculations and logic to generate time- effective sequence of task considering any resource and cost constraints. Schedule is part of the Plan.

Of course the schedule is linked with resources, budgets and dependencies. This is because of two reasons. One, MS Project does more than just create a schedule it can establish dependencies among tasks, it can create constraints, it can resolve resource conflicts, and it can also help in reviewing cost and schedule performance over the duration of the project.

So it does help in more than just creating a Schedule. This it makes sense for Microsoft to market MS Project as a Plan Creator rather than over-simplifying it as just a schedule creator.

Two, it is due to limitation of generally accepted form of English language, where a schedule can be both in a noun as well as verb form. As a noun, a Schedule is like a time table or a series of things to be done or of events to occur at or during a particular time or period.

And in the verb form, schedule is to plan for a certain date. The distinction is important for you as a project manager, but as far as MS project is concerned the noun form of Schedule is a Plan.

Of course, a project manager should also be able to answer other project-related questions as well. Here you have options to open a new plan, some other plans, and even a new plan template.

Click the Blank Project Tab. The following screen pops up. Toolbar controls have heterogeneous sizes and are classified in visually distinguishable Groups. Groups are collections of related commands. Each tab is divided into multiple groups. Each tab contains several commands. If you point at a command you will see a description in a tooltip.

Active view is the one you can see in the main window at a given point in time. The View label just tells you about the view you are using currently. Project can display a single view or multiple views in separate panes. Because once you enter one of the two, and other project tasks, constraints and dependencies, MS Project will calculate the other date.

It is always a good practice to use a start date even if you know the deadline for the project. In the list of available templates, click Blank Project. A dialog box appears. Click OK to accept the start date. Click the arrow on the Current Date dropdown box. A list appears containing three base calendars.

Now let us add exceptions. Step 3: Adding Exceptions to Calendar Exceptions are used to modify a Project calendar to have a non-standard workday or a non-working day. You can also allot unique working hours for a particular resource as well.

Here is an example to create a non-working day, which could be because of a holiday or office celebrations or events other than the standard office work effort. Change Working Time dialog box appears. This date is now scheduled as a non-working day for the project.

You can also verify the changed color indicated in the calendar within the dialog box as below. Click Ok to close. You can modify the resource calendar to accommodate flex-time, vacation time, training time, etc. Also remember, Resource Calendar can only be applied to work resources and not to material and cost resources.

By default when we create the resources in a plan, the resource calendar matches the Standard base calendar. And any changes you make to the Project Calendar, gets reflected automatically in resource calendars, except when you create an exception in the resource calendar. In that case even if you update the project calendar, the exception in resource calendar is not affected.

Select the resource for whom you want to create an exception. In example below I have chosen John. The Change Working Time dialog box appears. In the following screen you can see we have chosen John. Double-click the [default] cell below the Name column heading.

We have chosen Tuesday and Wednesday. Click Set day s to these specific working times. Change the time. Select the resource for whom you want to change work schedule. We have chosen John again. Click OK to close the Dialog box. You will now see all Fridays are greyed out in the calendar. You can record some top level information for your. Under Info Tab go to Project Information. Click arrow near Project Information to click Advanced Properties.

A dialog box opens, you can type in the changes as required. WBS identifies the deliverable at the lowest level as work package. So a task is action-oriented, and the work package is the deliverable or a result of one or more tasks being performed. There is a significant amount of confusion between what constitutes an activity and what constitutes a task within the project management community.

But for MS Project, a task is the effort and action required to produce a particular project deliverable. Enter the task name. In the following screen, we have entered 5 different tasks.

Enter Duration A duration of the task is the estimated amount of time it will take to complete a task. As a project manager you can estimate a task duration using expert judgment, historical information, analogous estimates or parametric estimates. You can enter task duration in terms of different dimensional units of time, namely minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months.

You can use abbreviations for simplicity and ease as shown in the following table. So 1 day is not equivalent to 24 hours but has 8 hours of work for the day. Of course, you can change these defaults anytime you want. You can apply this to all projects or a specific project that you are working on currently.

One of the neat tricks MS Project possesses is, it considers duration of the task in work- day sense. So if you have a non-working day in between, it accommodates this and ensures a task that takes 16 hours to complete to end on the 3rd day.

In other words, if you have a task that needs 16 hours to complete starting on Monday AM if this is the time your work day starts, and 8 hours being total work hours in a day , and Tuesday being a holiday, the task will logically end on the evening of Wednesday. Enter the duration.

Task 1 in the following screenshot You can also enter Start and Finish date and MS Project will calculate the duration on its own. Task 3 and Task 4 in the following screenshot Note: In the above screenshot, Task 6 is scheduled to start on Sunday, which is a non- working day and ends on Wednesday. So essentially, one would believe that with these 3 days Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, the duration calculated would be 3 days.

But MS Project calculates it as 4 days. So one needs to be careful when choosing the start date of the task. Because for any successive operation, MS Project considers that Task 6 will take 4 days. The next time, you change the start date, the Finish date changes to reflect this 4-day duration. Elapsed Duration Elapsed Duration is the time that elapses while some event is occurring which does not require any resources.

Elapsed duration for a task can be used in instances where a task will go on round-the-clock without any stoppage. A normal workday has 8 hours, and an elapsed day duration will have 24 hours. The task also continues over non-working holidays and vacations and working days.

So 1ew is seven hour days. And it takes 4 days for this to happen. It does not need a resource or a work effort, and all you are doing is waiting for it to dry.

You can use 4ed as the time duration, which signifies 4 elapsed days, the paint can dry regardless of whether it is a weekend or if it falls on a holiday.

Here in this example, the drying occurs over 24 hours over the weekend. They are used as major progress points to manage project success and stakeholder expectations. They are primarily used for review, inputs and budgets. Mathematically, a milestone is a task of zero duration. And they can be put where there is a logical conclusion of a phase of work, or at deadlines imposed by the project plan.

There are two ways you can insert a milestone. You can see the milestone appear with a rhombus symbol in the Gantt Chart View on the right. MS Project converts it to a Milestone. But one can also convert a task of non-zero duration into a Milestone. This is rarely used and causes confusion. Double-click a particular Task name. Task Information dialog box opens. Create Summary Task There can be a huge number of tasks in a project schedule, it is therefore a good idea to have a bunch of related tasks rolled up into a Summary Task to help you organize the plan in a better way.

It helps you organize your plan into phases. In MS Project , you can have several number of sub-tasks under any higher level task. These higher level tasks are called Summary Task.

At an even higher level, they are called Phases. Remember because summary task is not a separate task entity but a phase of the project with several sub-tasks in it, the duration of the summary task is from the start of the first sub-task to the finish of the last sub-task.

This will be automatically calculated by MS Project. Of course, you can enter a manual duration of the summary task as well which could be different from the automatically calculated duration. MS Project will keep track of both but this can cause significant confusion. In most cases, you should ensure that there is no manually entered duration for any task you will be using as a Summary Task. If you would like to group Task 4 and Task 5 into a Summary Task 1.

You can do it in two ways. Method 1 Select the names of Task 4 and Task 5. Rename it to Summary Task 1. Method 2 You can click Task 4 row. You can rename the Task. Here it is renamed as Summary Task 1. Now select Task 4 and Task 5. For example, Task 2 can start once Task 1 has finished.

These dependencies are called Links. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge PMBOK Guide does not define the term dependency, but refers to it as a logical relationship, which in turn is defined as a dependency between two activities, or between an activity and a milestone.

In MS Project, the first task is called a predecessor because it precedes tasks that depend on it. The following task is called the successor because it succeeds, or follows tasks on which it is dependent. Any task can be a predecessor for one or more successor tasks. Likewise, any task can be a successor to one or more predecessor tasks. There are only four types of task dependencies, here we present them with examples.

Most used. One does not have to finish collecting survey response before starting the tabulation. Least used. Method 1 Select the two tasks you want to link. In the following screenshot taken as an example, we have selected names, Task 1 and Task 2. Task 1 and Task 2 are linked with a Finish-to-Start relationship. A drop down box appears with all Tasks defined in the project. Choose the predecessor task. Click OK. Here I have chosen Task 3. All tasks get linked. To select non-adjacent tasks, hold down Ctrl key and select each task separately.

Respect Links If you are in Manually Scheduled mode, any change in duration of the predecessor task will not reflect on Start date of Task 4. Scheduling is controlled in two ways. Manual Scheduling: This is done to quickly capture some details without actually scheduling the tasks. It calculates values such as task durations, start dates, and finish dates automatically. It takes into accounts all constraints, links and calendars.

For example, at Lucerne Publishing, the new book launch plan has been reviewed by the resources who will carry out the work and by other project stakeholders. Although you expect the plan to change somewhat as you learn more about the book launch, you now have enough confidence in the overall plan to switch from manual to automatic task scheduling. Converting Task to Automatic Schedule We have three different methods to convert a task to automatic schedule.

Method 1 If you want to change the mode for a particular task, say Task 5 in the following example. Click on Task Mode cell in the same row. Then, click the down arrow to open a dropdown box, you can select Auto Scheduled.

Method 3 To switch completely to Auto Schedule mode: Toggle the scheduling mode of the plan by clicking the New Tasks status bar at the bottom-left and then selecting Auto scheduling mode. Go to File tab and click Options. They can be people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything except labor required for the completion of a project task.

Optimum Resource Scheduling is the key to successful project management. Travel expenses, food expenses, etc. For example, paint being used while painting a wall. Note: Be aware of the crucial difference between People and Equipment resources. People resources will have limited work hours, say 6, 8 or 12 hours.

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