Microsoft Project

Lesson 5: Finishing the Plan 101

4. If we run into an overallocation problem, though, we can sometimes improve things
by replacing a resource. Let’s do this with task 142, Obtain Certificate of Occupancy.
We’ll start by selecting the task name. (This task and the next overlap in time and
resources, which is why there’s an overallocation.)

5. We can then go to the Resources tab on the Ribbon, and find the Assignments group
at left, where we can click the Assign Resources button.

6. We’ll need to click the “Replace…” button at right after glancing to the left to see
we’ve got the right resource selected. The Replace box will then come up.

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7. We’ll need to scroll and click on G.C. Project Manager. We can replace multiple
resources with other multiple resources if we need to, but here, we’re good with one-for-
one again. We can then OK back to the main box.
8. If we scroll to the top of the list of resources in the main box, we find that G.C. Project
Manager has a check mark next to it—the replacement is successful. We can now close
the main box (there’s a Close button at right).
9. Again, a straight replacement. But since the G.C. Project Management resource is no
longer overallocated, the red figures at left for tasks 142 and 143 are both gone.
10. Let’s save. We’ll continue from here.

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Topic B:

Setting and Using the Baseline

One of the last things we usually do when we’re on the “planning” side of the project is to
record, or set, a baseline. We normally do this a few days or so prior to officially starting the
project, once we get final approval from the top.

The thinking is, setting the baseline is the “this is how the plan should go” point in the story. We
record it for the purpose of comparing it to later baseline data, the “how it should go” versus
“how it’s actually going”. We can record as many as ten baselines in addition to the “main” one
at the beginning. This is so we can see where the plan might be following or not following the
schedule. If it follows pretty closely, we know the plan is probably good—we had enough time,
resources, etc. to do what we needed within the time we estimated. If not, we can often see where
the schedule started to “drift”, and think about what can be done more quickly to fix the problem,
or at least control it.

We can also check the Project Statistics once the baseline has been set. This is probably the
quickest way to get a look at the broad outline of progress. The button for it is in the Project
Information dialog. But in fact, the control for this can be added directly to the Quick Access
Toolbar if you like, should you feel the need to look at the stats frequently.

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Exercise 5-4:
Setting a Baseline and Checking Project Statistics
1. Before we set the baseline, let’s check the project statistics, to see what the box will
tell us. We can go to the Project tab in the Ribbon, and click the Project Information
button in the Properties group.

2. We want to look down at the bottom left of the box, and click the “Statistics…” button.
3. This brings up the Project Statistics box, which we see appears to be missing some
info.

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4. A number of items are either saying “NA” or otherwise showing zeroes. Because we
haven’t recorded any baseline data yet, they don’t know what to tell us.
5. Furthermore, the percentages complete of Duration and Work at the bottom left are
zero also. Since we haven’t started the project, and haven’t done any work or moved
through any time on it, this is okay. We’ll click the Close button at bottom right to get
out.
6. Having gotten the okay from the folks in charge, we’ll set the baseline for the finalized
version of the project. We go to the Project tab, since this is a project-level item, and in
the Schedule group, we click the drop-down for Set Baseline. In the list, we click “Set
Baseline…”.

7. In the dialog box, we can select which of the eleven sets of baseline information we
want to record. We’ll use the first one, without the number. The others we’d record
during the run of the project, for comparison.

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8. Once we’ve made sure of the selection, we’ll OK out.
9. As with using the Copy command, nothing obvious happens. But if we go back into
the Project Statistics box as before, we’ll see some info has been filled in.

10. If we want to make the Project Statistics box more easily available, we can add it to
the Quick Access Toolbar, as with any other command we use frequently. We can go to
the File tab, click Options at the bottom of the list of commands, and get to the Quick
Access Toolbar category as in Exercise 1-2 on page 200. We’d use the “Choose
Commands From” and select “All Commands” on top of the left-hand list there, after
which we’d find Project Statistics alphabetically in the list and move it to the right side.

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11. We can save—you can Save As and add the word “Complete”, or similar, to the file
name if you want—and take a deep breath.

The idea behind baselines is to let us see how things are going, which is important even if we
know the plan is good, and even if we’ve run similar projects from similar plans before. If things
go boringly well, great. If not, the sooner a PM can jump on a problem and solve it, the better.

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Topic C:
Sharing and Exporting the Plan

Microsoft Project is, as mentioned earlier, a fairly specialized piece of software. In order to open
a Project file directly, one has to have a copy of the program on the local computer. But if
someone wants to see the plan without having a copy of the program, what do we do?
We can easily export it, in a number of other usable formats. The designers of the program
anticipated this issue, and made sure it could be handled. It’s not much more complicated than
going to File…Save As… in any other business program, and it allows us to pass data around
without too much trouble. (We can import data from other programs as well, but we won’t touch
on that just now.)
About the only thing we need to know is if the recipient needs the data in some particular format;
we can then choose the file type to send out.
We can even fine-tune what comes out of the printer, or goes into a PDF, if need be. By
adjusting the divider between the two sides of the Gantt chart, and using the Zoom control, we
can make the output neater and easier to understand.

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Exercise 5-5:

Printing and Exporting a Project Plan File

1. Continuing with our completed file, we can use the mouse to move the divider
between the two sides of the Gantt chart so as to show only a sliver of the
Predecessors column. Since any column not fully visible won’t show up in the printout,
we have a way to “neaten up” for the purpose.

2. We’ll then want to use the Zoom capability to show the entire sequence of tasks on
the right. (Note: it is important to do Steps 1 and 2 in order, to optimize the layout.) We’ll
go to the View tab in the Ribbon, and in the Zoom group toward the right, click “Entire
Project.” This will zoom the right side of the Gantt out till we don’t have to scroll that side
horizontally to see all the task duration bars. We can now scroll vertically to see the
whole set.

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3. If we now go to the File tab, and select Print, we can see the result. Although the
printout will almost certainly be more than one page “wide,” and at least twelve or
thirteen pages tall, depending on the paper size, we will have used as little paper as
possible and kept the physical printout as manageable as we can. (We could use the
Page Setup dialog box to reduce the scale percentage, but not while keeping the
printout readable below about 70% of normal size.)

4. Clicking the Back button at the top left, the (), we can return to the main window.
5. If we need to PDF the file, which plays out much like printing but allows us to email
the result, we can even go to File to Print again. (Many people now have PDF-making
software installed as a de facto printer.) But if we click File, and take a look at our
choices, another item we can use is Export. And if we click it, we’ll see the ability to
Create PDF/XPS Document. (XPS, by the way, is XML Paper Specification, an
alternative to PDF. And PDF stands for Portable Document Format, if you didn’t know.)

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6. If we click the “Create PDF/XPS” button, we can choose which format we want, type
a name, and select a location to save to.

7. We may want to change the name slightly, perhaps incorporating the letters PDF, or
the date, or similar, for identification purposes.
8. Going back to the Export command, if we select the other choice, “Save Project as
File,” we see the other formats available to us. Excel Workbook is one, and XML (raw
data storage without formatting—quite useful in some situations) is another. Or we can
select “Save as Another File Type,” and click the Save As button right below it.

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9. We then get a list of all available file types, including choices like Text (Tab
delimited), which lets almost any program read the data—no formatting at all included in
a Text file—and CSV (Comma-Separated Values), again, with no formatting to impede
readability.

10. If we choose Excel Workbook (which we could have from the Export selection in the
main window as well), we can send the data out in a form which most people in a
regular business environment can read—many people have Excel on their computers
even if they don’t use it.
11. We can give the file a new name if we like, and select the location (your Lesson 5
folder will do fine). When we click Save, up comes the Export Wizard.

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12. We can read the blurb to start with, and click Next (which we’ll do after dealing with
each step).

13. We’ll tell it we want to use Selected Data as the format, and click Next again.

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14. We’ll “Use existing map” to tell all the pieces of data where to go in the electronic
parking lot of our Excel worksheet (and click Next).

15. As we want to export only task data for now, we’ll make sure we select “Task
‘Export Table’ map”, and click Next again.

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16. We only need Tasks, so the first checkbox will be good. And we will be including
headers, so that one near the bottom should be on as well. (And click Next.)

17. In the Task Mapping step, we don’t need to change anything—the program’s
mapping is already in place, and as we’ll see, it gives us a readable, if not awesome,
layout of the data. So we’ll click Next again, and in the final step, though we have the
option to “Save Map…” with the button in the middle, we don’t need it. The map already
exists. We can click Finish, and take a look at our result.

18. If you saved the file to the same folder as our exercise files, you can find and open it
there in Excel. The information is not formatted for easy readability, though we can
auto-fit the columns and otherwise clean up the appearance of the data. The idea here
is to pass the data out to someone who might need to, say, check the dates or other
specifics of the tasks (or the resources, or even the costs, if we had changed what the
Gantt chart was displaying on the left side). And though the Export Wizard does take a
little time, we can go through it step by step, which makes it easier.

19. We can close (and save, if we like) all files, and exit Excel if need be.
There are a few other variations available to us as far as exporting is concerned, but these are the
ones we tend to use the most. The main point, as mentioned earlier, is to check with the
recipient(s), if possible, to find out what they need. Sending a PDF as an email attachment is a
simple matter indeed—almost all email programs have a button one can click, after which the
usual navigation lets us find and select the item.

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Part 2: Executing the Project

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Lesson 6: Running the Project 119

Lesson 6: Running the Project

In this lesson, you will be introduced to:
1 Updating Task Progress
2 Using the Progress Line
3 Reorganizing Data to View Progress

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How do we update a project’s progress?
What is the status date?
What are progress lines, and how do we use them?
How do we reorganize data to learn more?

Whether daily, weekly, or otherwise, it’s very important to keep a project file current. As long as
we do, the program can give us an accurate picture of the project’s situation. There’s a bit of a
pattern in doing the updates, and only a couple of dialog boxes are needed to do the job properly.
Many managers use the status date to officially “date” the updates, usually at status meetings
held periodically to make it easier for all. They’ll often measure how things are going as of this
date, since this frees the team to do their jobs and not worry minute by minute.
One especially useful tool in the Gantt chart is the Progress Line, which can be called up on the
right (graphic) side of the Gantt. It can work in concert with the status date to show at a glance
which tasks are on time, ahead of schedule, or falling behind. In keeping with the old adage
about a picture being worth a thousand words, the Progress Line adds a simple but effective
indicator which takes almost no time to understand.
In many programs, grouping, sorting, and filtering are non-destructive ways to temporarily
reorganize data to get a better understanding of what’s going on, or not going on. Project is no
exception. Once the data in the project are entered, doing any of these can help give the manager
a better idea of which tasks need more horsepower, or a change of resource, or which ones might
do better with another section of the team.

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Topic A:
Updating Task Progress

Making sure the tasks are getting done is part of project management. Updating the status of the
tasks in Project is another part. But it doesn’t have to be done piecemeal, if everything is more or
less on track.
A big part of the technique is to understand how the Status Date dialog box figures into the
update. Usually, a project manager will set or change the status date in the dialog to the date of
the latest status meeting, or the current date, then update the relevant tasks. If the status date part
doesn’t happen, Project will assume the updates are relative to the current date, regardless—
which could be incorrect. Though it isn’t an automatic recipe for disaster, it’s better to use the
Status Date dialog box and not leave any room for doubt.
But once the status date is set, the manager can select a task, and click the Mark on Track button
(Task tab, Schedule group). If the task is going the way it’s supposed to, this will indicate it’s
complete to the point it should be at the date in question.
If this isn’t the case, the Update Tasks dialog (from the Mark on Track button, clicking the
dropdown arrow at right) can let us manually change things like percentage complete, actual and
current start and finish dates, and remaining duration, without directly altering any other tasks.
(This might indirectly alter them, but at least we can focus on the tasks which are out of sorts
first.)

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Exercise 6-1:
Setting the Status Date and Updating Tasks
1. The next file picks up where we left off, as we’re ready to mark progress in the
project. We’ll go to the File tab, click Open, and navigate to the Lesson 6 folder in our
Exercise Files folder. We’ll open the one called Continuing Commercial Construction L6.
2. Once open, we need to bring up the Status Date box and enter the date we’re using
as the “current” one. So we click the Project tab, slide to the Status group, and click the
“NA” next to the “Status Date” caption.

3. We’ll type in a date which puts us a little way into the project timeline, so we can see
and enter some basic progress. Let’s go with March 15, 2020 (you can type it in any
format you like), and click OK. (Yes, it’s a Sunday. The program is okay with it.)
4. If we glance up at the Status Date we just clicked, which said “NA”, it should now
show the date we entered. We can change it any time, but being aware of it means
we’re entering progress as of that date.
5. Since Tasks 2 through 6 are done by now, we’re told, we can mark them as On Track
(they’re where they should be timewise). So we select them, go to the Task tab, then
the Schedule group near the middle of the Ribbon, and click the main part of the Mark
on Track button (not the dropdown arrow—we’ll get to that).

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6. If we look at the Info column on the left, just after the row numbers, we see the check-
marks indicating those tasks are done. Because as of March 15, they should be if they
were done on the dates in the Finish column.
7. We should also click in the row for Task 8, Submit monthly requests for payment, and
mark it on track too. (Clicking the name of the task will do fine.)
8. What if Task 7, Submit preliminary shop drawings, is about half done as of the status
date? We can select it, go to the Task tab, and click the 50% button in the Schedule
group. (The buttons there allow us some shortcuts for the principal percentages.)

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9. We can also glance at the Gantt bar to the right and see the darker stripe through it is
about half the length, indicating what we just told the task graphically.
10. If our steel contractor on Task 10, Submit shop drawings and order long lead
items… tells us the task is ongoing but might take a little longer, we can use the Update
Tasks box to input the new data. First, we click in the row for Task 10, and click Mark on
Track as before (since the task started on time and is underway). Then, we click the
dropdown arrow next to the Mark on Track button, and select Update Tasks from the
list.

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11. In the dialog box, we see the percentage complete has updated. But we don’t need
to put in the Actual Finish Date—technically, the task isn’t done yet. What we do need is
to add a little time to the Remaining dur(ation) at right and let the finish date change
accordingly.
12. If we spin the remaining time up to 1w(eek), which adds one more day, and OK out
of the box, we’ll find the Gantt bar changes slightly to indicate the new timing. And the
Finish column changes dates to Friday, March 20.
13. Having done the updates we need for now, we can save.

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Topic B:
Using the Progress Line

Microsoft Project is a well-designed piece of software for what it does. Picking up the basics
doesn’t take long, and it’s set up to be easy to use from the beginning. But there are a couple of
features which are not immediately visible; once we know where to get them, they can
significantly boost our understanding of the big picture in the project. One of these is the
Progress Line.
The name gives an idea of what it’s for. It tells us, for a given status date, or series of dates, or
intervals, how the project is going.
We can call it up on the right side of the Gantt chart anytime we like, just by right-clicking, and
tell it what kind of progress to show, mainly by date or dates. And all we have to do to use it is
look at which way it zigzags and points at tasks to find out which ones are ahead of, behind, or
on schedule.
Using the Zoom feature in the View tab helps with this. Sometimes the line needs to be looked at
closer to see exactly what’s going on with certain tasks which may be longer or shorter in
duration, and it won’t change anything other than how closely we’re examining the schedule.

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Exercise 6-2:
Showing and Using the Progress Line
1. As we want to quickly understand which tasks are on schedule, or ahead, or behind,
we’re going to have the Progress Line show up and use the status date as its reference.
First, we’ll right-click the name of Task 2, Receive notice to proceed… and click Scroll to
Task in the popup menu.

2. Next, in the Zoom group under the View tab in the Ribbon, we’ll click the dropdown
for the Timescale and select Weeks.
3. To get the Progress Line into the picture, we find a blank spot anywhere on the right
side of the Gantt chart, right-click, and select Progress Lines.
4. In the dialog box, we’re going to turn on the checkmark for Display at the top left, and
make sure the button for At project status date is chosen right below it. Then we can OK
out of the box.

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5. The line appears, zigzagging slightly as it descends through the tasks.
If a zigzag points to the left on a task, that one is behind schedule.
If the zigzag points to the right, it’s telling us the task in question is ahead of

schedule.
How far left or right is how far behind or ahead the task is.
And if the line is straight through a bar, the task is on schedule.

6. So if we scroll down through the Gantt chart till we reach Tasks 18 through 21, the
zigzags point sharply left.

7. What the heck? The answer is, We haven’t yet updated those tasks, and they were
supposed to start earlier than the status date. The program interprets this as meaning
they’re behind schedule—with no updates, that’s all it can think.
8. So if we mark them as On Track, it should fix the issue. We’ll select the task names,
go to the Task tab, and the Schedule group, and click Mark on Track.
9. And the line straightens out for those tasks.
10. To turn the Progress Line off, we can rerun the procedure from Steps 3 and 4
above: Right-click a blank spot on the right side of the Gantt, select Progress Lines,
uncheck Display under Current progress line, and OK out.
11. Let’s save here.
Since the Progress Line is purely a display feature, and doesn’t affect any data, turning it on or
off is fine any time we want. And though we don’t usually use the Recurring intervals or
Selected progress lines elsewhere in the box, to avoid cluttering the graphic side of the chart with
too much information, it’s certainly okay to experiment with them later if you want to.

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Topic C:
Reorganizing Data to View Progress

Even if we have a project well organized and planned, it can sometimes help to “turn it different
ways” and look at it by prioritizing some items. We could look at just the critical tasks, or see all
tasks grouped by who’s doing them, or even sort them by duration.
Grouping, sorting, and filtering are fairly common in other kinds of data-handling programs,
particularly Microsoft Office® Access® and Excel®. And since Project is a database-ish program
under the hood, it shouldn’t surprise us to find we can do those things here, too. The Data group
under the View tab has all the controls we need for these operations.
The thing to remember is we can always un-group, or un-sort, or un-filter—we can get things
back as they were. In fact, it’s easy.

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Exercise 6-3:
Grouping, Sorting, and Filtering Project Data
1. With over a hundred tasks, we may need to check a couple of things quickly, such as
whether we have any tasks without resources. So we can go to the View tab, slide over
to the Data group, and click the dropdown for Group by.

2. Once the menu opens, we can select Resource near the bottom, and see which ones
are assigned to which tasks.

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3. Scrolling to the top of the Gantt chart (and widening the Task Name column a bit), we
see at least one task, number 8, has no resources assigned to it. This isn’t necessarily a
problem, depending on the task, but better to find out.
4. If you like, you can scroll down and see which resources are assigned to which tasks.
And you can drag the vertical divider left or right between the two halves of the chart, to
show whichever columns.

SIDE TECHNO-TIP:
In earlier versions of Project, there was a report available called “Who Does What
When,” which allowed us to see a similar layout of resources assigned to tasks,
and a calendar-style row-and-column arrangement of days and work times for
them. This was dropped in Project 2013, but grouping by resource and adjusting
the divider for the start and finish dates gives us a close approximation of what
the WDWW report showed. So for longer-time users of the program, it helps.
(We’ll be looking at reports in a later lesson.)
5. To return to the original sequence, we can drop the Group by: menu down again and
select [No Group] under the Built-In category.
6. We can also filter for various criteria among our tasks. One of the most common, and
one that helps almost any time up until the project is nearly done, is filtering for critical
tasks—to see which ones we have to make sure are done on time.

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7. We can go to the View tab and the Data group again, and click the Filter: dropdown
just above the Group by, and select Critical under Built-In.
8. Now the only tasks we’ll see are the critical ones. We may still have quite a few, as
we’re still early on in the execution of the project, but otherwise this is fine.
9. You may have noticed we could also filter for any resource, and show only the tasks
a given resource is assigned to. Late or incomplete tasks are also a good filter choice—
we really have to be careful of those, after all. And you can go into the same list and
select [No Filter] to show all the tasks again.
10. There are at least two ways to sort. One is to use the Sort dropdown in the Data
group, just to the left of the two we’ve seen. Another, though, is at the top of every
column on the left side of the Gantt. Next to each column header, there’s a dropdown
arrow just like the ones we see in an Excel or Access table. Clicking any of those gives
us both sorting and filtering—another positive double whammy for the money!

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11. Try using a couple of those to see what happens sorting-wise. Then, go up to the
Sort dropdown in the Data group and put everything back in order by selecting “by ID.”
12. Since we’ve now finished with the file, we can save it under a slightly different name,
maybe adding the word “Complete” at the end.
13. Then we can close the file.
Being able to juggle the project data can help get a clearer view of problems quickly; knowing
how to update tasks and see which ones are ahead or behind means we can keep the project plan
current. The old semi-joke among computer programmers was “GIGO”—Garbage In, Garbage
Out. If we don’t give good data, we can’t get good data. So the analogy with a good secretary
comes into play in a big way here.
In the next lesson, though, we’ll see how to deal with things that require us to update tasks for
things we can’t anticipate beforehand, and even occasionally insert or delete tasks when it’s
necessary.

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134 Lesson 7: Updating the Project Schedule

Lesson 7: Updating the Project Schedule

In this lesson, you will be introduced to:
1 Rescheduling Tasks
2 Editing the Task List
3 Updating and Using Baselines

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Lesson 7: Updating the Project Schedule 135

How do we reschedule tasks, and why?
How can we split tasks if delays occur?
Can we edit the task list?
How do we update the baseline and use it?

Once a project is underway, we usually don’t have to reschedule a task, or a group of tasks,
unless something unforeseen happens—something we can’t anticipate. So we have to know how
to move tasks around in the list. We also have to know how to allow for a task getting started and
having to pause it. If a storm causes a power outage, or someone has a family emergency, there
needs to be a way to note and adjust for it.
Sometimes we even end up adding or deleting tasks. It’s not hard to do it; there’s a recipe we can
follow without too much trouble. Project’s Professional version even has a way to inactivate, or
turn off, a task while leaving it in place, in case someone needs to see every single thing in the
project regardless.
The Baseline feature has a couple of benefits not everyone knows about. We can create up to
eleven baselines as the project progresses, and compare them to see how things are going versus
how they should be going. We can’t always catch every problem right off, but we can often see
them emerge and fix them when we do, or note them for similar projects in the future.

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Topic A:
Rescheduling Tasks

When a significant change has to be made to a project schedule, assuming the project manager
gets permission from the stakeholder(s), Microsoft Project makes it pretty easy. We can simply
go to the appropriate task in the Gantt chart and update the start and/or finish dates as needed.
Even when tasks are set in Auto-Schedule mode, the program won’t protest.
A more common issue is a task getting delayed partway through. Many things can do this—
paperwork incorrectly filled out, quality control problems discovered, even something as simple
as a power outage. The technique called “splitting a task” describes what we do quite well. We
literally click the tool, move to the Gantt bar in question, and either click or drag to position and
set the length of the split, whether it’s a day, several days, or (hopefully not) weeks.
There’s even a dialog box to update the task (or subsequent tasks) in question date-wise; it can
even update the whole project’s progress, which can save us some more time in a large project.
It’s just a matter of selecting them, so the program knows which ones to do something to.
If you do split a task, it will almost always affect the schedule, and therefore the completion date.
Therefore, double-click the task name, go into the Notes tab of the Task Information box, and
WRITE DOWN THE REASON. This is almost always a simple way to avoid several kinds of
legal and ethical trouble. Noting a delay due to a power outage from a thunderstorm, to make
sure the client knows why the delay occurred, can save a LOT of paperwork. Among other
things.

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Lesson 7: Updating the Project Schedule 137
Exercise 7-1:
Splitting and Rescheduling Tasks
1. We’ll pick up with our next file, already prepped for us again. So we’ll go to the File
tab, click Open, and navigate to the file in the Lesson 7 folder called Continuing
Commercial Construction L7, and open it up.
We can see a good number of tasks have not yet been marked as complete. We won’t worry
about that for now.
2. We’re told Task 80, Lay masonry at core, mechanical, and toilets, might have a
couple days’ delay because of a manufacturing glitch where the raw materials are
made. So we’ll scroll down to the task and insert the split.

3. Having selected the task, we can go to the Task tab in the Ribbon, move over to the
Schedule group, and click the broken-blue-bar button which is the Split Task tool.

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The trick to using the tool is, once we click the button, we DON’T drag it onto the Gantt bar. We
simply move the pointer onto the bar and allow the Split display to come up and let us see the
date where we insert. Then, we slowly move the arrow-and-lines pointer, ||-> , left or right on the
bar, till the “scheduled start” in the popup shows the date we want the split to be at. We can then
either click (to insert a one-day split) or drag (for a longer one). The popup will show the dates as
we drag. This can take a little practice, so don’t worry if you need a few tries. And remember…
“Undo is your friend.”
4. We want to aim for a short split around Monday, August 17, 2020. We can zoom in, if
desired, and move the pointer to a spot just a hair left of center on the bar.

5. The split may go quite a bit further than a couple of days, so we may need to drag the
right half of the now-split bar back toward its buddy and shorten the time. This time we
don’t need the Split tool; we can just grab the piece of bar and drag left. The Split
display will come up and we can aim for a start date of about August 24, 2020 for the
second half. This should move the finish date in the popup to about September 7, 2020,
a week or so later than originally planned.

DON’T-GO-CRAZY TIP:
Once in a rare while, the Split tool may not allow us to actually split a task bar in
the Gantt despite having selected it. This appears to be a minor glitch in the
program. It seems to be solvable by simply saving the file, closing the program,
and re-opening both.

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Lesson 7: Updating the Project Schedule 139

6. Now we’ll tackle one other item. We haven’t updated a bunch of tasks for a while, at
least as far as the program’s concerned, so we’ll take a shortcut and use the Update
Project dialog box, under the Project tab in the Status group.

7. We’ll say we want to mark tasks current as of the last Friday in June 2020; the button
we selected at left means anything which should be done by then, the program will mark
complete, and anything partly done by then will be marked as however much percent
done. Once we enter the date we want (6/26/2020), we’ll OK out of the box.
8. If we scroll up to any earlier task due to be in progress or complete by this date, we’ll
either see a check mark in the Info column at left (complete), or the Gantt bar will have
a darker stripe partway through to indicate the percentage done at this point.
9. We can drag a Gantt bar left or right to move its start and finish dates, but it’s much
easier to type an update on the left side, or click there and use the dropdown calendar
to change those dates. Try it with a couple of the later tasks, if you like; leave the
durations as they are, and you’ll see the bars shift left or right but not change length
more than a little (to account for weekends).
10. We’ll save at this point.
It’s a good idea to save a copy of the project file before the project actually gets underway; keep
the original, or the copy, unchanged, just in case you need a backup to check against, or if there’s
a major problem with your hard drive. Making periodic backups every week or every other
week, say, if you can, is a safe means of making sure you never lose more than a certain amount
of information.

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140 Lesson 7: Updating the Project Schedule

Topic B:
Editing the Task List

Changes to the project schedule—assuming the forces of nature and luck aren’t against you—are
not very frequent. Ditto having to add or delete tasks. We occasionally have to move a task up or
down the list, if something turns out to be possible earlier, or needs to come later, than something
else. But if we need to actually move or add or delete, the only thing to be careful of is the task
links.
Microsoft Project Professional, as opposed to Project Standard, even has a feature called
Inactivate Task. This lets us leave a task we won’t need to do on the list, to account for it, as it
were, while simultaneously not taking time on the schedule anymore.
It’s also a good idea to double-check the settings related to this in the program options before we
start fiddling with the list. It’s recommended to check some options regularly, so we don’t forget
what we’ve got the program doing behind the scenes. If we miss something, we can easily fix it.

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Lesson 7: Updating the Project Schedule 141

Exercise 7-2:
Adding, Deleting, Moving, and Inactivating Tasks
1. Before we do any major juggling of the task sequence, we should check a few related
options in the program options dialog. Let’s open it by clicking File and going to Options
at the bottom of the list there.

2. In the Schedule section of the options, the one checkmark we’re really interested in is
under the Scheduling options for this project area. “Autolink inserted or moved tasks” is
the item, and we’ll make sure it’s on.
This means, when we move a task, or insert a new one, the links to its immediate predecessor
and follower will update as necessary, and task relationship connections won’t look like a
psychopathic rollercoaster on the right side of the Gantt chart. (No offense, rollercoaster
enthusiasts.) The thinking is, we usually want a task to link only to the ones just above or below
it. We can change this manually, but it’s what the program was told is the norm.
3. Having dealt with this, we’ll OK out of the box.
In the next couple of steps, look back and forth between the left and right sides of the Gantt, to
make sure you see the effect of the changes we’re about to make.
4. We’re going to move Task 65, Install rebar and in-floor utilities… above what is
currently Task 64, Form roof slab… , as those two might get done in a different order
sometimes. We click on the task number (65) at the extreme left of the task’s row, and
watch the change of cursor to the big black arrow with the four small ones behind.
Leaving the cursor on the number, we hold down the left mouse button and drag
SLOWLY up till we’re a tiny bit above the number 64. As we drag, a dark gray horizontal
line should follow us up the list. When it’s between numbers 63 and 64, let go.

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5. If we now look on the right side of the Gantt, we can see that not only have we moved
the task up, the relationship connections have updated automatically, per our checkbox
in the program options.
6. Next, we’ll see what happens when we delete a task. We’ll re-insert it right after, so
as not to disrupt the timeline too much, though. Let’s use Task 71, Install plumbing
underground. We can simply right-click on it, and select Delete Task from the popup.
7. If we glance over to the right, we see the link lines have updated automatically once
again. It’s a good idea to check regardless—very occasionally the auto-update feature
can be a trifle erratic.
8. To put the task back, we’ll right-click on what is now Task 71 and select Install Task.
We’ll put in the title, Install plumbing underground, tab over to the Duration column, and
type 1 wk to set the right amount of time. (Don’t forget to add the Plumbing Contractor
back in as the resource, in the Task Information box—by double-clicking the task
name—or however else you like.)
9. But we may possibly see the task not link properly to its predecessor and follower.
There’s a bit of a shortcut we can use, if we like: We can scroll the left side of the Gantt
to the right, to find the Predecessors column.
10. Click in the space there for this task, type the number 70, and hit Enter. Then for the
next task down, number 72, click in the Predecessors space, click the dropdown, and
we can use the checkmarks to add Task 71 as another predecessor to this one. Click
away from this when done.

11. If the client decides against wallpaper in Task 104, but we want to make sure we
don’t lose track of the task, we can inactivate it (IF we are working with Project

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Lesson 7: Updating the Project Schedule 143
Professional). Simply right-click the name of the task, click Inactivate Task in the popup,
and it becomes struck-through and grayed-out. If we then right-click on it once more and
select Scroll to Task, the bar on the right side of the Gantt is now hollow and gray to
match.
12. Don’t forget to save.
If you happen not to be working with Project Professional, it is possible to unlink a task from
those above and below it by removing predecessors from that one and those which follow it.
(The Unlink Tasks button in the Task tab, Schedule group, can help.) You may need to change
its dates if you want it to remain in place time-wise, though. All this can act as a rough substitute
for the Inactivate Task command. You should note—that is, write down in the Notes section of
the Task Information box—that the task is inactivated.

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144 Lesson 7: Updating the Project Schedule

Topic C:
Updating and Using Baselines

Changes to the project will happen. And even if they are few, we want to see how the project is
actually progressing versus how it was supposed to. This is the reason for the Baseline feature.
The ideal technique is, we record a baseline at the time we’re about to start the project, when the
plan is finalized and approved, using the un-numbered slot on the list. Then, during the project
execution, roughly every ten percent of the way through, we record another baseline using one of
the numbered positions in the list. We can then add the appropriate columns to the left side of the
Gantt, and if we position the various Start and Finish columns side by side, we can see whether
the dates correspond or drift in time.
But looking at columns of dates can be a little cluttered. A simpler way is to use the Tracking
Gantt chart to display the original baseline, and the current status. We can choose which
baseline’s data to display. If the lower set of bars represents the original data and the upper the
current, the “drift,” left or right, of the upper set will show how closely the project is sticking to
its intended schedule. Drift left, things are ahead. Drift right, they’re behind. And if they mostly
match, we’re on time.
We can export the baseline dates on the left to Excel, for instance, if someone hasn’t got a copy
of Project to see this stuff. But using this variation of the Gantt chart if you do have the program
is almost always easier to understand quickly.

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Lesson 7: Updating the Project Schedule 145
Exercise 7-3:
Using a Baseline with the Tracking Gantt Chart
1.We’re going to leap ahead in time here, to see how even a small delay (the split we
added in Task 80) might affect the subsequent flow of events. We’ll go to the Project
tab, and over on the right in the Status group, we’ll click Update Project.

2. The date will be September 7, 2020, and we’ll say (as the illustration shows) we want
to mark all work complete to that date. So we’re taking into account the split we added
earlier, but otherwise things are progressing.
3. Having updated to roughly the halfway point in the list of tasks, we’ll record another
set of baseline data for testing. This’ll be under the Project tab, in the Schedule group.
Specifically, the Set Baseline command we used earlier.

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146 Lesson 7: Updating the Project Schedule
4. In the dialog box, we’ll click the dropdown at top to Set baseline for the entire project,
and record it in Baseline 5 since we’re supposedly about halfway through our tasks.

5. After we OK out of the box, we want to show a particular variation of the Gantt chart,
which is designed for this purpose—the Tracking Gantt. As the name implies, it lets us
track progress by comparing our original intended schedule with what’s going on at the
moment.
The key thing here is to understand the scheme of the horizontal split of each Gantt bar. The
lower half is how things are supposed to go; the upper half is how the currently displayed
baseline says they are going.
6. So now, we tell the program which view we want. In the View tab, we can use any of
the Other Views dropdowns and, if we don’t see the Tracking Gantt view, we click More
Views… to get to the dialog box.

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Lesson 7: Updating the Project Schedule 147

7. And in the More Views box, we scroll down, find Tracking Gantt (they’re in
alphabetical order, remember), click it, and Apply at bottom.
8. To see what’s what now, we’ll scroll to Task 80, right-click it, and select Scroll to Task
in the popup. Then, in the View tab, over in the Zoom group, we’ll select Entire Project.

9. And now we see, even before checking which baseline we’re looking at, that a few
tasks have “slipped.” The upper halves of a few bars have slid to the right, indicating
they will start and finish late.
10. To see which baseline we’re actually using, we can go to the Gantt Chart Tools
Format tab at top in the Ribbon, and in the Bar Styles dropdown for Baseline, select
either the top, unnumbered baseline, or Baseline 5. The first shows slippage compared
to our starting plan, but the second does not. That’s because the second one assumes

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148 Lesson 7: Updating the Project Schedule
everything is “current” or “adjusted” from the status date onward, and nothing else has
(yet) been marked as late, or delayed.
If you’re wondering, the percentages next to the Gantt bars are percentage complete of each task.
11. Before we finish up, we’ll switch back to the regular Gantt chart (View tab, Task
Views group at left, Gantt Chart dropdown) via the menu. And we can then save, and
close the file.
Exactly how we view the project file is important. But as I’ve already said, making sure we
update the status of the tasks, and the project in general, is vital. If we don’t, looking at the info
in different ways won’t help—the information we’d be seeing would not be correct, and
therefore not much use regardless.
But once we get in the habit of keeping the updates regular, knowing there are different ways of
looking at our project can be very useful indeed. We’ll take a gander at this in the next lesson.

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Lesson 8: Using Different Project Views 149

Lesson 8: Using Different Project Views

In this lesson, you will be introduced to:
1 Creating and Using Custom Views
2 The Network Diagram View
3 The Timeline

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150 Lesson 8: Using Different Project Views

What are the views, and what are they for?
What are custom views?
How do we create them and use them?
What is the Network Diagram view?
What is the Timeline, and how do we use it?

It’s true that Microsoft Project makes managing projects easier. We still have to enter data, and
update it, but having a place to put it all, and a system to manage it, certainly helps. One set of
features which enhances this is the ability to change how we view the tasks, resources, and so on.
Sometimes, literally looking at a batch of data from a slightly different viewpoint can give us
insights we wouldn’t have had otherwise. Like figuring out how to decode a secret transmission,
and then fitting it into the bigger picture, seeing new ways in which tasks and other elements
relate to each other can clue us in to tweaking projects just that little bit better to make a week, or
two weeks, difference in the finish date. And the budget.
So adding custom views which combine different aspects of the data in one space can let us see
both the basic info about a task and its details, especially as they relate to other tasks. And even a
view like the Network Diagram, which takes a hint from a long-established technique in
programming, can offer some insight by giving a different kind of visual organization.
And to give a viewer just the high points, just the essentials—especially in this day of doing
twenty thousand things a minute, thirty-six hours a day—the Timeline view allows us not only to
pick and choose the top-level items, but to export them neatly out of Project where they might be
the first-line selling point on a project proposal.

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