Scheduling project tasks with Critical Path Scheduling

Friday, Feb 3, 2006 at University of BC, Robson Square

First day of UBC Award of Achievement: Project Management with Microsoft Project

See a detailed course agenda of topics. See answers to participant questions.

Participants will learn to brainstorm a project plan with their team using a case study and then enter this plan into Microsoft Project to create a project schedule. In this session, participants will learn to: 

  1. Brainstorm milestones and tasks with Project team.
  2. Define dependencies between tasks.
  3. Identify resources to complete project work.
  4. Assign tasks to resources.
  5. Create custom calendars to define working time.
  6. Share custom views and tables between projects and between users.
  7. Enter tasks into Microsoft Project. 
  8. Create a critical tasks schedule.
  9. Update tasks information with tables.
  10. Manage complexity with outlining.
  11. Create a project baseline.
  12. Report progress to management.

This session sets up basic planning skills for the balance of the Project Management with Microsoft Project UBC Award of Achievement.  Participants will create a project plan for a case study. We will enter this case study into Microsoft Project in the afternoon of day 1 to create a critical path schedule.

Planning software supports planning by scheduling tasks and calculating start and end dates for each task, so your plan is up-to-date after every change. We use Microsoft Project to demonstrate key planning concepts. You will define working calendars, task and dependencies to create a critical path schedule. You will also capture actual progress to track project. After this session you will be able to save a project baseline, capture actual start and end dates to track a project progress and report progress to management against a project baseline. The following process steps will be presented in this session.

We demonstrate planning concepts using Microsoft Project 2003. With any sizable project of 100 tasks or more, you need planning software to plan a project, assign tasks effectively and keep plan up to date. You will be requested to order a 60 day demo copy of Microsoft Project from the Microsoft Project web site "www.microsoft.com/project" at a cost of under U$10.

Planning a project without planning software would be like doing financial analysis without a spreadsheet. Planning software enhances our ability to plan and track projects. Planning software can record working days in a calendar and translate working days (1, 2, 3, ...) into dates which spreadsheet software cannot. As well planning software such as Microsoft Project allows us to assign multiple resources to a task. Microsoft Project calculates costs based on assignment work and rolls costs up to the summary tasks and to the project level.

In team planning sessions you brainstorm project work for a detailed project phase or to define tasks in a methodology. Team planning sessions improve communication amongst the project team, uncover wide range of tasks, build commitment to the plan. Use team planning sessions to kick-off your project and to define methodologies with your team. This session introduces turbo-brainstorming, the high-speed way to build project plans. See other topics in the   Project Management with Microsoft Project  course

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Scheduling Projects and Tasks
Friday, 9:00am to 4:00pm, Friday, Feb 3, 2006

Friday, 9:00am to 4:00pm, Feb. 3, 2006 Topic Brainstorm Plan with Team details
9am start
 Achieve benefits of team-planning sessions.
  • Increase commitment.
  • Open channels of communication.
  • Capture tasks in a team planning sessions.
  • Expedite storming phase in team formation.
  • Reduce preparation time.
930am Conducting team-planning sessions
  • Plan plan sessions with sponsor.
  • Planning workspaces.
  • Brainstorm tasks.
  • Sort tasks.
  • Define resources.
  • Assign tasks to resources.
  • Validate plan
10am Coffee break
10:15am Brainstorm tasks with a team-planning session A team planning session will be conducted for the case study. A plan of 40 to 50 tasks will be prepared in under one hour.
11:45am Lunch  
Afternoon  Topic Scheduling with Microsoft Project
12:45 pm
 Introduction to Critical-path scheduling The plan brainstormed in the morning session will be entered into planning software in the afternoon to create a Critical Path Schedule.
  • Tasks and dependencies.
  • Important role of calendars.
  • Early and late start and finish dates.
  • Slack time in non-critical  tasks

 

  Setup first project with Microsoft Project
  • Select right view for each operation.
  • Project start and finish dates.
  • Enter report headers

 

1:15pm Define working days with Calendar
  • Define country and organization calendars.
  • Define working days and shifts
  • Attach project calendars
  • Share custom objects with organizer
1:30pm Define tasks and dependencies with network diagram
  • Open multiple Windows in MS Project.
  • Add Tasks from Post-its on Flipcharts) with network diagram. 
  • Define dependencies between tasks. 
  • Customize dependencies between Tasks. 
  • Create Custom View to Edit Network diagram layout. 
  • Edit Network diagram Layout. 
  • Format Network diagram to communicate maximum information. 
  • Print Network diagram.
230pm coffee
245pm Update tasks with tables
  • Understand standard tables and task columns.
  • Customize Task Tables. 
  • Lookup column definitions. 
  • Inserting columns into Custom tables. 
  • Enter New Task into Task Table. 
  • Create Precedence Link in Task Table. 
  • Check Layout on the Pert Chart. 
  • Sort Tasks in Task Table with Drag and Drop.
  •  Insert Hypertext Link. 
  • Insert Recurring Tasks to Plan. 
  • Customize Project to suit your working style.
  •  View Task fields in Microsoft Project with Task Tables.
315pm Manage complexity with outlining
  • Understand Task types.
  • Define summary and sub tasks
  • Replace Task Id with the Outline Number. 
  • Add Summary Tasks with Task Table. 
  • Indent Sub-tasks under a Summary. 
  • Format Summary Tasks. 
  • Refine Existing Tasks in more detail with Subtasks. 
  • Avoid Losing estimate information when refining a task with subtasks. 
  • Hide Sub-tasks to reduce the level of detail. 
  • Reveal Sub-tasks hidden under a Summary Task.
  •  View Top-Level Summary Tasks. 
  • Filter summary tasks to present high level detail.
345pm Track and report project progress
  • Enter actual start and finish dates
  • Enter percentage complete
  • Rollup progress to project level
4pm Finish of first day


email Brian Mullen with your questions

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Questions and Answers

In what cases would you re-save the baseline?

The baseline is a frozen version of your plan used to compare actual progress against your original intentions. Your 'baseline cost' represents your project budget. Once your project is approved you don't want this changed so be careful about saving baselines. Microsoft has improved protection of the baseline by warning you that when you are about to overwrite the baseline.

When you first save your plan, Project will prompt you "Do you want to save a baseline?". Until your plan is ready and approved you can use the baseline to track the daily evolution of your plan. Once your plan is approved then be very careful with saving the baseline. Save the baseline for selected tasks only when changes are approved for your plan.

  1. Save the baseline for the whole project when the project is approved.
  2. Resave the baseline for selected tasks when the a change in the plan is approved.
  3. You could also take advantage of the multiple baselines and save a different baseline at the end of each phase so you can see how the plan has evolved.
  4. While the plan is under development use the baseline to track changes that you are making to the plan. Resave the baseline at the start of the day. During and at the end of the day, you can evaluate the impact of your recent changes to the schedule, the budget and resource workloads.