Microsoft Project

Lesson 3: Working with Tasks 51

6. We can now hold down the (left) mouse button and drag up slowly. A gray horizontal
line follows the mouse up; we make sure it’s between tasks 4 and 5, then let go. And
we’ve repositioned the task.
7. If we need to insert a task anywhere in the list, we can also right-click in whichever
line and use the “Insert Task” command in the pop-up menu, or left-click where we want
it and either:

• Go to the Task tab, move to the Insert group at right, and click the upper half
of the “Insert” button (with the blue bar and the plus on it, or

• Tap the Insert key on the keyboard.
From there, we type the task name and fill in the other data, as usual. The tasks will be
pushed down, as it were, one row to make room for the new one.
Removing a task is also pretty straightforward, though we don’t have to do it here. The simplest
method is to right-click, either on the name of the task or its ID number on the left, and click
“Delete Task” in the pop-up menu.

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52 Lesson 3: Working with Tasks

Exercise 3-2:
Setting Durations and Dates
It’s generally good to get the task names in first, then worry about dates. As soon as you know
roughly or closely how long things are going to take, getting the information in there won’t hurt.
Typing a number for Duration followed by “d” for Days, “w” for Weeks, or even “y” for Years
is fine; typing the actual word, such as “months”, works too. Putting in a question mark after the
duration indicates the number is an estimate. You can leave estimates in as long as you like, but
do your best to clear them out when you have firm numbers.

1. For the durations of our tasks, we’ll want the numbers to go in as follows:
Clearing the property: 1 week (you can type 1w and tap Enter)
Run power and water: 1 week
Bring in building materials: 2 weeks
Dig foundation: 2 weeks
Rig rebar: 1 week
Build concrete forms: 1 week

2. Unless we tell the program otherwise, all the tasks will start on the same day. This
would be kind of silly, but we’ll see how we deal with it later. If we did want to change a
start or finish date for a single task, we could click in the Start or Finish date for a given
task and either use the drop-down calendar to scroll and click the date, or type it in.
You can try it with one or two of the tasks, if you like. If you do, you’ll see the blue bar
on the right which corresponds to the task gets longer or shorter, to tell you how long it’ll
take. Its position relative to its buddies above and below tells you when each can start
or finish. We’ll mess around with that shortly.
3. Since we have a file with a more complete setup available, we’ll close and save this
one. We can call it “Simple Construction Plan L3,” or something similar, and save it to
the Lesson 3 folder in our Exercise Files folder, and close it.

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Lesson 3: Working with Tasks 53

Topic B:
Linking Tasks and Setting Relationships

Linking tasks, as you’ll see, is pretty easy. We can simply select the tasks in question and click
the appropriate button, and it’s done. Setting up relationships among linked tasks is not hard
either, but does require a little thought.
For example, if you were writing a book, you might or might not want to have the illustrator(s)
wait till you were done writing before they started the artwork. If you knew your writing was
pretty finalized right off, they could start more or less immediately. Otherwise it might be better
to have them wait till you got at least half, or two thirds, done first. Or all of it.
And if you were building a house, as we’ve already talked about, the framing has to be done
before the electrical and plumbing can be done, and that has to get finished before the drywall
can be completely installed, and so on. So we see there has to be a method to the madness.
Though we can change relationships as we go, the more we think about this in advance, the less
fiddling will be needed last-minute.
Therefore: Get the tasks in, get them in order, link them in order, and finally, fine-tune the
relationships.

This illustration shows the four types of relationships we can create in Project:
Finish-to-Start (FS) is the default, and the most common by far. (You have to finish A, pouring
the foundation, before you can start B, building the house.)
Start-to-Start (SS) is a little less common, but not hard to understand, as with its counterpart,
Finish-to-Finish (FF). (You have to start or finish A, writing the book, before you can start or
finish B, illustrating the book.)

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54 Lesson 3: Working with Tasks
The last one, Start-to-Finish (SF), is the oddball. One example might be that the sale of tickets,
B, finishes when the play or musical, A, starts. In other words, the predecessor must begin
before the main task can end. The predecessor, though, is later in time—further to the right—
than the main task. This relationship is the least used by far. Perhaps two percent of projects ever
see it. If you don’t end up using it, there’s no problem.
The thing to think about here is, How do the tasks relate in real life? People frequently ask how
they should link two tasks, and it’s not a silly question. But there’s no right answer. It has to do
with how the tasks really come together. Answer that, and you’ll know what to do in Project.

IMPORTANT DON’T-GO-CRAZY TIP:
The program actually pays attention to the order in which we select tasks to link
them. If we select tasks from bottom to top, Project assumes the sequence of links
needs to go upward instead of down. And if we select them randomly—you can
try this later if you want—the program assumes we want to link them in whatever
order we selected them. And the connection arrows on the right side of the Gantt
will look like psychopathic spaghetti, leaping up and down with cheerful
abandon.
So: Select the tasks in the order you want them to proceed, usually top to bottom.

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Lesson 3: Working with Tasks 55
Exercise 3-3:
Link Tasks and Set Relationships
1. We’ll open a file that’s been prepped for us. It’s the next stage in our building project,
called “Typical Commercial Construction L3”. (It’ll be in the exercise files folder, inside
the Lesson 3 subfolder.) This version has a mostly complete set of tasks, but no
resources assigned—we’ll do that in the next lesson.
2. Once we have it open, we need to add some tasks at the end, after the main
construction is done. There’s some landscaping which needs to wait till the building
itself is complete. So we’ll scroll down to the last complete task, number 144, “Issue
final request for payment,” and click the Task Name space just below that.

3. Let’s add the following tasks and durations:
Filling and leveling soil—1 week
Laying sod and watering—3 days
Adding bushes—1 week
Mulching—2 days
Placing fences—3 days

4. These should be task numbers 145 through 149.

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56 Lesson 3: Working with Tasks

5. Since we may not see the bars which represent the task lengths, we need to find
them. Right-click one of the tasks you just entered and select “Scroll to Task” in the pop-
up menu. (There’s a button for it too—it’s in the Task tab, over on the right side, in the
Editing group.)
6. All the bars should now be there, but they’re not hooked together. So we’ll select the
task names, dragging from the middle of “Filling and leveling soil” down to “Placing
fences,” then go to the Task tab and find the Schedule group.

7. There, we simply click the Link the Selected Tasks button—looks like a little chain—
and it’s done.
8. Well, almost. We need to link this batch to the last of the previous bunch. So we drag
from the name of task 144 to that of number 145, and click the Link button again. We
might need to Scroll to Task again for those after that.

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Lesson 3: Working with Tasks 57

9. Now we have it. The blue highlight on 145 through 149 tells us their schedule has
changed, but it should, as we’ve told those tasks to happen after all the others.
10. The next thing is to figure out which tasks, if any, can have a different relationship
than a Finish-to-Start. We could argue that task 146, Laying sod and watering, can’t be
done till the predecessor, Filling and leveling soil, is done. To set the relationship, we
double-click the name of task 146, which brings up the Task Information box, and click
the Predecessors tab at top. We then click the Type of relationship (FS), click the drop-
down, and select (FF). Then, OK out of the box.
11. And let’s save.
The Unlink button, by the way, is the broken chain just to the right of the Link button. Normally,
we don’t use it too much if we’ve got our sequence of tasks correctly arranged. You can try
selecting a couple of adjacent tasks and unlinking them, then re-linking, to see what happens to
the bars on the right side of the Gantt chart. We might use this if we need to move several tasks
at once—unlink from the ones around them, move the set, relink. We’ll be doing this later in the
course.
The Predecessors column, on the left side of the Gantt chart, will show the relationship change—
the number will say 145FF, and we could even type the “FF” part in there after the number. We
may need to drag the middle divider between the two halves to see this column. But making the
change this way involves “slow-clicking” in the Predecessors column, and bringing up the dialog
box is a little more understandable for most people.

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58 Lesson 3: Working with Tasks

Exercise 3-4:
Setting Lag and Lead in a Task Relationship

If we want to start a task immediately following the end of another, we create a Finish-to-Start
relationship between them, and that’s that. If there needs to be a time gap between them, say, to
allow concrete not only to be poured, but to set, before we can frame the house on top of it, we
have to insert a lag. It’s just what it sounds like—we’re deliberately letting something lag behind
something else, for a reason. The opposite of lag is lead—rhymes with “need”. To insert lead is
to create an overlap between two tasks, instead of a gap. If we get about half the framing of the
house done, the plumbing and electrical people should have enough to get started. And when
they’re about halfway done, the drywall team can go to work. That’s what lead is about—getting
an early start.

Two things to note about this. First, whether we can use either will depend on the nature of the
tasks, so think ahead. Second, if we can use lag, or especially lead, we can significantly alter the
timeline of the project. If some things have to lag, at least we’re allowing for necessary
downtime. And if we can use lead, the overlap means the timeline will be shorter, and team
members are sitting on their duffs less often.

We’re going to make a little more use of the Task Information dialog box as we go. Even though
there are other ways to do some of the things we’ll do in it, the Task Information box is helpful
because it allows us to do several things in one place. This makes project management a little
easier.

1. To insert a lag between two tasks, we’ll use Tasks 148 and 149—after we mulch, the
stuff’ll need a little time to air out. So we go to the successor task, Placing fences, and
double-click its name. This opens the Task Information box. (Remember, we usually
work backward from the task to its predecessor.)

2. Once we’re in, we go to the Predecessors tab, and look over at the right side, under
the Lag header. We click in the Lag space for the Mulching task, and use the Up
spinner arrow to add one day of lag—a negative number would be a lead, which won’t
help here. (We could type “1d” instead, if we like.) Then, we can OK out.

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Lesson 3: Working with Tasks 59
3. Now we need to check the result. If we drag the vertical divider between the halves of
the Gantt chart to the right, or scroll the left half to the right with the scroll bar at bottom,
we can look at the Predecessors column for Task 149. It should show “148FS+1 day,”
which means it got the idea.
4. We can also check the right side of the Gantt, and this is often just as useful. If we
drag the divider to the left a bit, we can then go up to the View tab, and in the Zoom
group at right, click the drop-down for the Timescale. Setting it to Days will work here.
Then we right click “Placing fences,” click on Scroll to Task in the pop-up, and see that
there should be a gap between the end of the previous task’s bar and the beginning of
this one.

5. If we decide we can start mulching during the last half-day or so of the bush-planting,
we can set a lead for it. We can double-click the name of the Mulching task, number
148, and in the Task Information box, click on Predecessors if need be.
6. In the Lag space for the predecessor, we can click and type “-.5d” to indicate a
negative lag, or lead, of half a day. We could even type, say, “-10%” to tell the program
to start the mulching ten percent of the time from the end of the previous task, if we
wanted to use percentages, though this isn’t done as often. Once we’ve set the time, we
can OK out of the box.

7. Both sides of the Gantt should now show the change.
8. Save once again.

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60 Lesson 3: Working with Tasks

Topic C:
Inserting Summary Tasks and Milestones

Earlier on, the analogy came up comparing project setup to writing an outline for a research
paper. Many times, we use indents to indicate a sub-topic within a main topic, or a sub-sub-topic,
etc. This is precisely how summary tasks work. Each one is composed of a bunch of sub-tasks
the same way an engine or a transmission is built from individual parts and sub-assemblies. And
this is a key element in setting up a project—the idea that we can and should break a project
down visually into smaller pieces to make it more manageable. And we can enter the individual
tasks first, the summary tasks later if we wish, so we can work intuitively if it’s easier. Write it
down, then organize it.

One fairly common procedure is to enter a bunch of tasks, get them in order, and select them;
then, insert a summary task above them using the button in the Task tab. The whole bunch will
indent automatically under it as the program “understands” what we mean to do. There are a
couple of variations on this we can try, too.

Milestones are also tasks, but they serve a different purpose. Think of mile-markers on the
highway. They tell you where you are when you drive somewhere. If you want, you can figure
out about how fast you’re going and whether you’re on schedule by using them. Milestones serve
almost the exact same way here. A milestone, which is a task with a duration of zero, but has a
date, tells us “At this date in the timeline, we should be here in the progress of the project.” So
we can see, in broad terms, whether we’re on schedule. The duration of zero means no work
needs to be done on it by any resources; duration comes in for work on a task, which for
“regular” tasks would make sense.

SORT-OF-SHORTCUT TIP:
Any task can be made a milestone by setting its duration to zero, so there’s no
trouble in how we enter one. The main thing is to name it such that anyone
looking at it will recognize it by name as well as its marker on the right side of the
Gantt.

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Lesson 3: Working with Tasks 61
Exercise 3-5:
Creating Summary Tasks and Milestones
1. To set up a summary task for our gardening items, we can start by selecting them.
We just drag down from the name of Task 145, Filling and Leveling Soil, to the name of
Task 149, Placing Fences.

2. With the tasks selected, we go up to the Task tab in the Ribbon, look to the right in
the Insert group, and click Summary.

3. The new summary task will drop in above the ones we selected, and indent them.
More accurately, it inserts itself and pushes the others down a row. We can now type a
name for it, like “Gardening Tasks,” and tap Enter.
4. The indent means these are now sub-tasks of the summary task. They’re the parts
that make up this phase, or stage, or what-have-you. And if we click the name of our
summary task, go to the View tab, and in the Zoom group click on Selected Tasks, we’ll
see the right side of the Gantt shows a significant update. The summary task shows a
different kind of bar, and its length is determined by the length of the other tasks as a
sequence.

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62 Lesson 3: Working with Tasks

5. To insert a task another way, we can click on Task 142, Obtain Certificate of
Occupancy, and tap the Insert key on the keyboard. In the blank row, we can type “Final
Building Paperwork” and tap Enter.
6. To make that a summary task, we then select the three below it, which are now
numbered 143 to 145, go to the Task tab in the Ribbon, and in the Schedule group near
the middle, find the second button of the second row, Indent Task, and give it a click.
Either of these methods works. You can decide which you find easiest.

7. For the milestone, we’ll click on Task 146, our summary Gardening Tasks item. Then,
in the Task tab, we can go to the Insert group again and find the Milestone button. Click
it, and the new milestone shows up, again pushing everything else downward. For the
name, we can type “Building Completed,” or similar.
8. The milestone will normally appear in the right place, but it may not be linked to the
tasks above and below. So we now select the name of Task 145, Issue Final Request
for Payment, hold down the Ctrl key, click the name of Task 146, Building Completed,
and Task 148, Filling and Leveling Soil. Then we can use the Link the Selected Tasks
button in the Task tab, Schedule group as we did before.

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Lesson 3: Working with Tasks 63

9. If we wanted to be really careful, we might note that the program could link the
summary task we created into the sequence. We can tell by looking at what the arrows
on the right side of the Gantt are doing. To be really thorough, we should use the Unlink
Tasks button on the summary task if needed, then make sure the tasks above and
below it are still linked, or relink them (Ctrl key). The arrows should progress smoothly
from top to bottom, left to right—someone described the correct sequence as looking
“like a waterfall going down a stairway.”
You may want to practice unlinking and relinking tasks in sequence, and using the Ctrl key to
work with non-adjacent tasks. If you see a visual glitch in the sequence on the right side of the
Gantt, or observe task numbers in the Predecessors column that don’t seem to make sense,
correcting the problem is easy enough with a little care.
We can indent for up to nine levels of subtask, though it’s rare for anyone to need more than two
or three. The nature of most business projects doesn’t seem to demand too many. And again, it’s
a good idea not to worry about linking or summary tasking till one has most or all of the tasks
entered and in order.

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64 Lesson 3: Working with Tasks

Topic D:
Using Manual vs. Auto Scheduling

When we set up a group of tasks in a project, we normally want them to have a little flexibility in
time. If something ends up taking more or less time, if we have to adjust some part of the
schedule for whatever reason, we’d want the affected tasks to be able to move forward or
backward. Sometimes, though, we need to “pin” a task in place, time-wise, so it won’t move
without the PM’s making it do so.
It is possible to set a project so all new tasks are either going to be Auto Scheduled (where they
can “slide”) or Manual (where they’re fixed, or pinned); the drop-down for this is in the Status
Bar at bottom.

In fact, we can set this for all new projects in the program options (File tab, Options, Schedule
category, in the section called Scheduling options for this project). You may want to think about
this once you know what will work best for most of the projects you manage.
There are even a couple of shortcuts for doing this:
For each task, we can set its scheduling individually by going to the Task Mode column and
clicking the drop-down to choose either Manual or Auto.
To change a bunch at once, we can select the names of the tasks by dragging, and then going to
the Task tab in the ribbon, and the Tasks group toward the right. The buttons for Manually and
Auto Scheduling are there, and we can click whichever one we need. The pin icon for Manually
Schedule gives us a strong clue on the nature of the item—as mentioned earlier, this choice
“pins” the task in place so it won’t move timewise unless the PM adjusts it.

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Lesson 3: Working with Tasks 65

Exercise 3-6:
Setting Tasks to Manual or Auto Scheduling
1. To see what happens when we use Manual scheduling, we’ll set one of our
gardening tasks that way. In the row for Task 152, Placing Fences, we’ll go to the
second column, Task Mode, click the blue bar icon, and select Manually Scheduled in
the drop-down.

2. We should then see a pushpin replace the bar, the dates for the task highlight in light
blue, and on the right side of the Gantt chart, the bar which represents start, duration,
and finish will change color as well.

3. If we now try to push all the Gardening Tasks back by a week, we’ll see the task we
changed gets stubborn. We’ll go to the start date for the summary task in question, click
the drop-down, and change the date to one week later.

4. The one task refuses to budge, and the program accepts the change of schedule
despite the fact that we’ve kind of snarled our timing up on the last couple of tasks. This
is why it’s considered a good idea to go with keeping all tasks either Auto or Manual—
we get more consistent behavior and a more understandable project.
5. A simple fix is available, though. We can change the Task Mode for the last one back
to Auto (and we may have to do the same for the summary task—don’t forget to
check!), and things should return to the way they were.
6. We can now save the project with a slightly different name, to signify we’re done with
it, perhaps adding the word “Complete” on the end, and close.
With the tasks in the list, we can now think about the resources to get them done. Having the
calendar in place, then entering the tasks, will set the stage for the resources. In a way, they’re

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66 Lesson 3: Working with Tasks
both necessarily entered first, because having them there allows the PM to more easily see how
the resources need to be allocated to get things done.

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Lesson 4: Creating and Assigning Resources 67

Lesson 4: Creating and Assigning Resources

In this lesson, you will be introduced to:
1 Adding Resources to a Project
2 Working with the Resource Calendar
3 Connecting Resources to Tasks

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68 Lesson 4: Creating and Assigning Resources

How and where do we add resources?
What types of resources can we work with?
What is a Resource Calendar?
How do we assign resources to tasks?
What does “effort-driven” mean?
What is “resource leveling?”

As the Gantt Chart is the main working space for the tasks which make up a project, the
Resource Sheet is the usual receptacle for entering the resource data—the people and things
which get the tasks done. There are three kinds: Work, which is usually people but can also
include one’s company assets like printer/copiers, company cars, and so on; Material, which
could be loosely thought of as consumables, such as paper or toner for a printer, fuel for a car, or
wire for a house; and Cost, for things we might consider intangibles, like airfare or hotel costs, or
any other item which we need but can’t hold in the hand—tracking where the other money goes.

All resources, but mainly people and assets, can have their own calendars. These are usually
based on the project calendar and add their own particulars to the resource’s schedule, like non-
availability over the summer or different work hours due to personal factors. It’s a good idea to
set up the resources’ calendars, if any, before assigning the resource(s) to tasks, because the
connection between task schedule and resource availability can affect the project schedule
overall.

While the initial assignment of resources is happening, we need to consider whether a task is
effort-driven—whether adding resources reduces duration, or vice versa. If more people can stuff
more envelopes in less time, it’s effort-driven. But the feature can be turned on or off before
making these changes, so the program will “understand” that we want the duration to be
constant, or not.

If a resource is assigned too many hours per week or per month, it’s overallocated. Though not
always an ideal solution, resource leveling must sometimes be done to prevent overwork.
Pushing a mound of sand on a beach into a nearby hole and smoothing it down is pretty close to
what leveling does in Project—trying to find a piece of time where the task can be done without
going outside regular hours.

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Lesson 4: Creating and Assigning Resources 69

Topic A:

Adding Resources to a Project

We can start by asking, What kinds of resources do we need to get the project done? It’s not a
silly question. We’ll almost always find they fall into three main categories—people, things, and
money. Project is set up to allow us to classify them that way. And again, usually, almost all will
cost something, whether wages, purchase price, rental, or other. So we need to enter costs for
most resources, and there’s a place for those.

There’s one part of the resource entry we’ll see which often gives new users pause. It’s an item
called “Max Units.” Units of what? Turns out the answer is time. For example, if a project
manager (PM) has to manage two or three projects (…nah, couldn’t happen…☺), s/he might
need to decide what total percentage of work hours can be given to each project or task during a
day or week. If the thought is to divide work time evenly, each item would get about 33% of the
total per day/week. If one is more important, the division might be 50/25/25 or similar.

And what if someone’s wage changes over time, or during holidays? We can use a Cost Table to
enter the date and amount. This is another of the “you-may-use-it-a-lot-or-not” features, but
knowing about it just in case won’t hurt.

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70 Lesson 4: Creating and Assigning Resources

Exercise 4-1:
Adding Resources to a Project

1. We’ll begin by opening our next file, which picks up more or less where the previous
one left off. After going to the File tab in the Ribbon, we’ll click the Open command and
navigate as usual to wherever your exercise files are (again, we recommend the
Desktop, where the manual refers to them by default).

2. The file we want to open will be called Typical Commercial Construction L4, in the
Lesson 4 folder under the Exercise Files folder. This file has resources already in place,
and we can use them, but we’ll add a couple of our own as we go, too.

3. To see the resources, we’ll need to get to the Resource Sheet. The easiest way
would be to click the View tab in the Ribbon, and in the Resource Views group, to then
click the Resource Sheet button.

4. We can widen or narrow the columns by going up to the column headers and moving
the pointer to the division between, say, the Resource Name column and the Type
column. When we get the Adjustment cursor, <-|->, as in Excel, we can drag or double-
click, to manually change the width or auto-fit. (This works on the left side of the Gantt
chart too.) Go ahead and adjust the widths if you like, for readability of the stuff in them.

5. We don’t have a project manager listed, so we’ll add one. We can scroll to the bottom
of the sheet, click in the Resource Name column in the first empty row, and type “G.C.
Project Manager.”

6. When we tap the Tab or Enter key, some other information will fill in. We would then
want to decide if the Type of resource (next column to the right) would be Work,
meaning a person, or something else. Work is fine for now.

7. Another thing we might need to fill in is Group. Many organizations use it to tell a
reader which department a resource belongs to, or whether it’s internal (part of the
company) or external (temp/consultant/etc.) Either way of thinking is fine, as long as the
PM is consistent in how they use it. We can put Internal in there, indicating the PM is
part of our hypothetical company.

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Lesson 4: Creating and Assigning Resources 71

8. We might then mark the contractors as External, if we want to follow up on this. You
can go through some of the other resources and mark them accordingly if you wish.

(SIDE NOTE: The initials “G.C.” in front of several of the names refer to General Contractor,
the “main” organization in which the project is being run.)

9. To see what happens with other resource types, we’ll enter a couple more below our
PM. In the next row’s Resource Name space, we’ll enter “Concrete Mix” and tap the Tab
key.

10. We then need to change the Type to Material, as this is a consumable. Doing this
changes what’s filled in further to the right.

11. If we’re working with a Material resource, we normally need a label for it. Paper
would be labeled “ream,” paint would use “gallon;” demolition waste is often measured
by the ton, and concrete by the cubic yard. So “cubic yard” will do for the Material Label
column.

12. The next thing, in the Std. Rate column, is going to be the cost. Concrete doesn’t
get paid hourly or weekly—it gets purchased and used, so time units don’t figure in
here. We just type the cost per unit (cubic yard), say $20, and again tap Tab or Enter.

13. One more resource (for demonstration) will be “Site Safety Insurance”. This can go
in the row below the Concrete Mix. We’ll change the type to Cost.

14. Hmm. Almost everything else in that row drops out, and we especially can’t add the
Std. Rate. Why? Because a Cost resource can’t have a rate in the Resource Sheet—it
needs to be assigned to a task before we can enter how much is spent. On the task.
This is one way the program tracks where the money is going, literally. Not just how
much, but on what. Once we get there, as we’ll see later, it’s no problem.

15. Let’s save.

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72 Lesson 4: Creating and Assigning Resources
Exercise 4-2:
Adding Costs to Work Resources
1. If our G.C. Project Manager gets $40 per hour, and half again that for overtime, we
can easily enter those in the Std. Rate and Ovt. Rate columns. The program normally
defaults to hourly if one enters only a number for a rate, so clicking in the Std. space
and typing 40, then tapping Tab, will do it. Typing 60 and again tapping Tab takes care
of the overtime.

2. We’ve already entered the cost per cubic yard for the concrete, so that’s covered. If
you want to enter a few other resources’ standard and overtime rates for practice, go
ahead.
3. What if our Painting Contractor charges a higher rate during holidays? We have to
take a slightly different approach for that. (Note: since you might be going through this
course at a different time of the year than illustrated, please adjust your dates
accordingly.) To enter cost change for date info, we’ll double-click the name of the
Painting Contractor and bring up the Resource Information box.

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4. We then need to click the Costs tab, as pictured above, and go to the first of the five
cost table tabs (A) in the bottom half.

5. In the book example, our project is taking place from mid-2020 to near the end of
2021. So the Christmas holiday for 2020 falls during our project. If the standard and
overtime rates are $40/hr and 60/hr, respectively, we can jump them during the month
of December to $60 and $80. The first row of costs needs to be filled in—we can click
the first standard rate space and type 40, then the first overtime space for 60.

6. Next, we set the effective date for the hike in rates. In the second row, we click the
Effective Date space and type (in this case) 12/1/2020, and tap Tab. We may still need
to click the next space over after that.

7. Once the date is in place, we specify what the rates go to on that date, 60 and 80, as
we decided earlier.

8. If the rates go back to normal in January, we need to account for it. So in the third
row, we follow the same routine, and enter the date (1/1/2021), the regular rate (40),
and the overtime rate (60) as they resume after the holidays.

9. We can then OK out of the box. If we look at the rates for the Painting Contractor, we
should see the numbers we entered. And if we happen to be looking at them during the
holiday time, the rates should be up. The program is aware of the time and date, and
will update accordingly.
10. And…save.
We can have a total of 125 date-sensitive rates for any resource like this—the initial rate and 124
changes over time, with 25 slots in each of the five cost rate tables. It’s very rare to need more
than the “A” table, but it does happen.

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Topic B:
The Resource Calendar

Just as a project, or a task, can have a calendar of its own, a resource can be set up with one. If a
resource can only be involved during a certain range of dates, or can only work, say, mornings or
afternoons, we can modify that resource’s calendar accordingly.
It’s considered a good idea to get all project and resource calendars set up before assigning
resources to tasks, because the assignments might then affect the schedule. It’s easier to make
changes to fix potential problems when you can see them right off, instead of having to run
around and put out little fires later.
We should also make sure, if we have to modify the resource’s calendar, we make a note about
why in the Notes section of the Resource Information dialog box. Writing things down, in
general, is an important aspect of good project management, whether it’s in regard to tasks,
resources, or the project overall. That’s why several key parts of the program include spaces for
notes.

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Exercise 4-3:

Modifying a Resource Calendar

1. For various reasons, our Electric Contractor has to work slightly different hours,
namely 7 AM to 3 PM. So we’ll make the change to that resource’s calendar. We start
by going to the View tab in the Ribbon, clicking Resource Sheet in the Resource Views
group, then double-clicking the Electric Contractor’s name.

2. We’ll need to click the General tab, as pictured, and then, over on the right, the
Change Working Time button.

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3. Hey, wait…this looks familiar. Just like the project calendar dialog from earlier! Well,
yeah. It is. It’s the same box, but the info we’re going to fiddle with is specific to this
resource. And we know this because it says so at the top left—“Resource calendar for
Electric Contractor.”
4. To change the default work time for our resource, we need to click the “Work Weeks”
tab on the left, just next to the Exceptions tab. Then we click the “Details…” button on
the right to bring those up.

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5. If the resource specifically has hours from 7 AM to 3 PM Monday through Friday, This
is where we set them. We need to drag to select the days at left, then click the button in
the middle for “Set day(s) to these specific working times.”
6. You should then be able to click once in each of the spaces where a time is listed,
and set them as we see in this illustration:

7. We can then OK back to the Resource Information window.
8. The Resource Availability section, at the bottom left of the General tab, is as easy as
pie. For each range of dates in which a resource is available, we click and fill in the
From and To dates, along with the max percentage of time (the Units column just to the
right of From and To) the resource can be used during that range.

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(If this becomes necessary, be very careful to enter the right dates, and when assigning resources
to tasks, check the task dates as well. If they don’t match, the project schedule is going to have a
problem—the resources in question can’t get the tasks done, according to the data we’d have.)
9. We’ll OK out of the Resource Information box, and save.

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Topic C:

Connecting Resources to Tasks

Once we have all the elements in place—calendar, tasks, resources—we’re ready to start
assigning resources to the tasks. There are a few different techniques we can use, as usual, and
once you’ve tried them you can go with whichever is easiest.

The program assumes the PM knows which resources and how many are needed to get a
particular task done in the time allotted. Meaning, if the PM changes the assignment after the
initial allocation, s/he might see the duration of the task change. This is due to the feature called
“Effort-Driven.” It basically says, the more resources you give a task, the less time it takes to do
it. Stuffing envelopes, carrying boxes, painting a fence—any of these can be done faster if more
people are involved. So if we want to have a task go faster, we can make sure Effort-Driven is
on, and assign more resources. But if we don’t want the task to take less time, for example
spreading concrete (which takes a certain amount of time to set regardless), we might need to
turn the feature off. The key is to turn it on or off before making changes to the initial assigning
of resources.

We may also need to look at resource leveling. If we spot a situation where a resource is being
overworked, working more hours than they should per day or per week, we ought to spread the
work out, if possible, to get it done and not risk the resource’s having trouble (such as sickness
due to overwork). This can put the PM in a bad spot, as the choice may be to leave the resource
overallocated or spread the work out and have the task, or even the project, take longer. Unless
the PM can get more resources, there may be some balancing to do in this situation.

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80 Lesson 4: Creating and Assigning Resources
Exercise 4-4:
Assign Resources to Tasks
The basic procedure is pretty simple, and we’ll take a look at the different ways it can be done in
this first exercise. If we run into any overallocations, we’ll ignore them for now. We’ll take a
look at those later.
1. We’ll start by assigning one resource to one task, and use the simplest technique.
First, we go to the Gantt Chart (View tab, Task Views group at left, clicking on the upper
half of the Gantt Chart button as we don’t need the drop-down right now). We’ll double-
click the name of task 2, Receive Notice to Proceed and Sign Contract.

2. In the dialog box, we’ll go to the Resources tab by clicking it at the top, and clicking in
the space right below the Resource Name column header. We should then see a drop-
down arrow, and clicking that gives us the list of resources.
3. Go ahead and assign G.C. General Management to this task, and OK out of the box.
4. We can now look over at the right side of the Gantt and see the name of the resource
there. It’s also visible in the Resource Names column on the left side, if one scrolls it
horizontally.

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5. To assign a resource to multiple tasks at once, we can select the tasks and bring up
the Task Information box for all of them. Let’s select the names of tasks 3 through 8,
Submit Bond and Insurance Documents down to Submit Monthly Requests for
Payment.

6. In the Task tab, we can go to the right and find the Properties group, where we can
click the Information button. This calls up the Task Information box collectively for those
tasks.

7. Following the same procedure from there as in Steps 2 and 3, we should now have
the G.C. Project Management on all the General Conditions tasks, 2 through 8. Again,
we may see the little red figure on the Information column which means an
overallocation, but we’ll fix it later.

8. Another way is to select the task (or tasks) in question, and use the Assign
Resources dialog box. We’ll try this with some of the tasks in the Site Grading and
Utilities section, Tasks 24 through 27, and 29. Let’s select them using the Ctrl key, since
not all of them are adjacent. Click the first one, hold down Ctrl, and click the others.

9. To get to the dialog, we’ll click the Resource tab on the Ribbon, and in the
Assignments group right below it, click the Assign Resources button.

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10. We’ll give the Site Grading Contractor a click, then the Assign button to the right.
That should put a check mark next to the resource in the dialog, and if we move the box
away, or click the Close button at bottom right, we can see the name of the resource
showing on the right side of the Gantt as with the previous example.
11. Finally, let’s add the Site Safety Insurance to the task where it starts to be needed.
We’ll go back to the Gantt chart, and double-click the name of Task 24. (Adding it to all
the tasks in this stage would mean we’d be spending $5000 per task. And that’s not
required.)
12. In the Task Information box, we can select the Resources tab at top, click the
second Resource Name space, and select Site Safety Insurance in the list.
13. Once it’s there, we can go over to the Cost column, click in this row, and type
“5000”, and tap Tab. The number should format with appropriate currency symbols, as
the program knows this is a money resource. We could add it to the summary task, but
it wouldn’t show up on the right side of the Gantt the way we’d like it to.

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14. When we OK out, and glance at the right side of the Gantt chart, the SSI should be
listed with the amount there too.
15. We can save.

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Exercise 4-5:
Making Tasks Effort-Driven
This feature is not hard to use. It’s simply a check mark in the Advanced section of the Task
Information dialog box. We just have to decide whether a task needs to be marked as effort-
driven. Meaning, whether it’s the kind which would go faster with more resources to help. The
examples mentioned at the start of the topic should give you an idea of how to look at the tasks
in your own projects on this point.
The key thing to remember is, it doesn’t have an effect until after you assign the initial resources.
From then on, if you add or take away resources, you’ll see the duration for a task decrease or
increase unless you turn the feature off first.
(By the way, “Fixed Units” for the task type we see in Step 4 refers to the idea of units of work:
Square feet of fence to paint or number of envelopes to stuff. Fixed Duration means “keep the
time the same,” which nullifies the time change from Effort-Driven—changing number of
resources won’t change the duration. We use those two the most.)
1. To see what happens if we use the Effort-Driven feature, we’ll now add another
resource to Task 2, Receive Notice to Proceed and Sign Contract. Let’s double-click
that task name, to add the resource in the Task Information box.
2. When we get in there, we can go to the Resources tab at top, give it a click, and go
down to the resource list.

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3. We’ll click the Resource Name space under the one already there, click the drop-
down, and select G.C. Project Manager.

4. Then, we need to go to the Advanced tab, and see whether Effort-Driven is on
already. It should be. This means, when we OK out, we should see the duration of this
task change.

5. So we OK out of the box, and indeed, the duration dropped from three days to one
and a half.

6. We even get a warning diamond which we can click on and specify what we really
had in mind. Luckily, this time it was correct—we wanted to “reduce duration but keep
the same amount of work.” So we can click that to confirm it, and continue on.

7. What if that wasn’t the case, though? Can we just arbitrarily change the duration back
now, if we want to? We can. We can simply click the Duration for this task, type “3d,”
and tap Enter. If the warning diamond comes up again, we can select the “Increase
work” choice, and it will again get the hint.

(Ideally, we should turn the Effort-Driven check mark off first, and make the resource
changes after. But if we forget, we’re not in trouble.)

8. We note the light blue highlight, telling us about the tasks whose start and finish
dates changed. Even if we know this is going to happen, we should glance at them and
make sure the important ones are still good to go timewise.

9. We can save and close this file. We’ll use another one for the next exercise.

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Exercise 4-6:
Using Resource Leveling
The idea behind leveling, in plain terms, is to prevent overwork. Whatever the calendar says, the
number of hours per day or per week is looked at and if a resource is set to work more than those
numbers, it’s overwork. Leveling therefore will then do one of two things. It will either split a
task, to spread the work out over the available hours, or it will delay a task (or tasks) until the
resources involved are no longer overworked.
If you’re thinking this can change the completion date of the project, you’re correct. It can. So
project managers need to balance resources, allocation, and schedule to minimize the need to do
this. There are a couple of other things a PM can do to minimize or even eliminate the need for
leveling, which we’ll see in the next lesson, but if leveling needs to be done, here’s how we
would do it.
1. We’ll open a file that’s got some overallocation going on (some do, at first). Clicking
the File tab, going to Open, we’ll navigate to the Lesson 4 folder within the Exercise
Files folder and open the Typical Commercial Construction L4 Leveling file.
2. Once we have it, we’ll look over at the left side of the Gantt chart, to see a bunch of
little red figures (some PMs refer to these as the “Burning Man” indicators). They tell us
that on a given task, there’s at least one resource overallocated.

3. One thing we often want to pre-check is whether the program will use only the
available “slack” (i.e. unused) time within the schedule. If so, we’re restricting it to trying
real hard not to let the end date change. We can go to the Resource tab in the Ribbon,
move over to the Level group at right, and click the Leveling Options button.

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4. If we make sure the check mark is on, we’ll see the program tries to fit all the pieces
into the available time when we attempt to level a resource. We’ll turn it on, and OK out.
5. Then, we need to click the name of an overallocated task—let’s use Task 3, Submit
Bond and Insurance Documents. We do so, and up in the Resource tab, still in the
Level group, we click Level Resource. Up comes our next dialog box.

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6. Which resource needs leveling? If we looked very closely at the right side of the
Gantt chart (zooming in on this task, with the Zoom control at the bottom right of the
window), we would see the problem lies with this task and Task 6, Obtain Building
Permits. Our G.C. Project Management has to do both at the same time! There’s the
answer.
7. If we click the Level Now button, we get a dialog telling us the program can’t do it.

8. So here we have the point of the problem. If we click Skip, or Skip All, we’re saying
“Do what you can.” But that will involve splitting the work of the task, and consequently
having it take a lot more time. Even clicking Stop, from this box, will perform the split. (if
you want to click Skip, Skip All, or Stop, to see what happens, it’s okay. Just remember
to Undo, Ctrl-Z, after you take a look.
9. Before we go any further, let’s note an important detail—the finish date of the project.
If we scroll to the bottom of the list and look at the last task, or if we bring up the Project
Information dialog box, we can make a note of the finish date (in the case of the book
example, it’s currently June 24th, 2021).

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10. There are some tasks in most projects that can be leveled without affecting the end

date. Task 33, Excavate Elevator Pit, is going on at the same time, and with the same
resource, as its predecessor, Excavate Foundations. So what happens if we level that
one within available slack?

11. We select Task 33, go to the Resource tab, and again click Level Resource. The

only resource we need to deal with is the Site Grading Contractor. So we can just click
Level Now.

12. Looks like that one is solved. It might create a couple of other overallocations,
depending on which other resources are doing something and when, but we can check
that the finish date didn’t change this time. What did happen is that the task we used
leveling on was moved to a later date, when the resource can do the work without being
overallocated. As the title of a famous film once said, “Something’s Got to Give.”

13. Let’s save, and close. (If you like, you can Save As, and add the word “Complete” to
the name, to mark it done.)

We now see that when we assign resources to tasks, we have to be a little careful. The program
will allow us to overallocate, in the same way a car can be driven on the sidewalk—it can be
physically done, but whether it’s a good idea is another story. And to use the analogy from
earlier, a good secretary won’t try to run a business as a boss; s/he will simply try to help the
boss do the job.

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90 Lesson 5: Finishing the Plan

Lesson 5: Finishing the Plan

In this lesson, you will be introduced to:
1 Working with the Critical Path
2 Setting and Using the Baseline
3 Sharing and Exporting the Plan

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What is the critical path, and why is it important?
How can we display it and use it?
What is a baseline?
How do we see the project statistics?
Why do we need to export a project plan?

When we’ve got most of the plan elements in place—calendar, tasks, resources, assignments—
we can give it a final polish. The critical path is an important place to do this, as it tells us where
we can have the most effect on the timeline and length of the project. Making changes to task
links and positions on the critical path will almost always have the most effect. If we need to
modify or reassign resources, doing it along there is usually the most beneficial.

One of the last things we usually do before starting the project itself is setting a baseline. It’s like
taking a picture of the project, so we can see how things are going when we actually get
underway. If something gets a little ahead of schedule compared to the baseline, we can note
how and why, and see if we can do it again. If something falls behind, we can find out what
happened and try to fix it, or make sure it doesn’t happen again. Having the baseline to compare
to can be a big help if a company is going to run similar projects again later. And the Project
Statistics dialog box can give us a quick overview of how we’re doing on the schedule.

Sharing or exporting the plan is often necessary, as most companies don’t have more than a
small number of project managers, and therefore a small number of copies of the program. Since
Project files are readable only by the program which produced them, exporting should be
simple—and it is. We can save project data in several other formats, and email or otherwise send
it to whoever needs to see it.

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Topic A:
Using the Critical Path

When putting together a project, we want to make sure we do it as efficiently as we can.
Sometimes we have to rough the plan in, and then refine it. When it’s time for the refinements,
we want to make those work in favor of either shortening the timeline, or otherwise improving
the plan from any aspect possible. Where in the plan can we do this best?
The answer is, Along the critical path. It’s rather like figuring out the most efficient way to go
through the aisles at the supermarket—trying to get most of the things we need with the least
effort. The key word is efficiency.
Okay, so what exactly is the critical path? It’s the chain of tasks with no, or very little, slack.
(This is “empty” time between tasks, where nothing is getting done.) It’s called “critical”
because if any of these tasks is delayed, or otherwise finishes late, the whole project will finish
late. They’ll push their buddies down the timeline like a bunch of boxcars on a siding, if another
comes along and bumps into the first. They all move toward the end of the siding, and if they run
out of room, the back end is going to get damaged. In Project terms, this means the end date of
the project gets pushed back.
Oddly enough, having most of a project on the critical path is not normally considered a bad
thing. It means there’s very little slack time, so very little wasted time or effort for the resources.
It also means everyone had better be on their toes.
Luckily, displaying the critical path is easy in the newer versions of Project. There used to be
several steps involved. Now we just click a checkbox, and it shows right up.

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Exercise 5-1:
Displaying the Critical Path

1. Our next file will start with some more setup done for us, so we can work with some
items we’d have entered ourselves. We’ll go to the File tab, click Open, and navigate to
the Lesson 5 folder in our Exercise Files folder. The one we need is called Typical
Commercial Construction L5. We’ll open it up.

2. We’ll need to go to the Gantt Chart view, if the file doesn’t already show it—if need
be, we’ll click the View tab, and click the upper half of the Gantt Chart button in the Task
Views group at left (so we don’t open the drop-down right now).

3. Then, to show the critical path on the right side of the Gantt, we can click the Gantt
Chart Tools Format tab in the Ribbon. In that tab, in the Bar Styles group near the
middle, we can click the Critical Tasks checkbox to turn it on.

4. The critical tasks will turn red, indicating where there is no slack between tasks. We
may need to scroll down to see larger sections of critical tasks, as some projects get
more later as the tasks pick up.

5. If we want to check the location(s) of slack time, whether or not it’ll help immediately,
we can turn on the Slack checkbox right under the Critical Tasks checkbox. Black lines
like stretches of blacktop will appear to the right of tasks with unused or “dead” time
after them.

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6. Turning on the checkbox shows us, around Task 96 or so, that we have some slack
as well as a few critical tasks. In fact, if we look at task 104, Hang Wallpaper, we see it’s
overallocated (the red figure at left, by the task number). Why? Because it takes place
at the same time as Task 99, Paint Walls and Woodwork—which is also overallocated.
The Painting Contractor has to do both at once. But there’s slack for Task 104, even if it
isn’t critical.
7. If we double-click Task 104, and go to the Task Information dialog, we can change
the predecessor from Task 102, Install Ceiling Grid, to Task 99, Paint Walls and
Woodwork, which pushes the start of Hang Wallpaper back to the end of the other
painting job. We click the name of Task 102, click the drop-down, and scroll up to click
on Task 99. Then we OK out.

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8. The overallocation indicators for those two are gone. What’s more, we didn’t affect
the finish date.

9. For a more direct view of what happens when we can work with a critical task, we’ll
scroll down to Task 141, Complete Punch List Items from All Inspections. If we find out
we’d only need one week, instead of two, for getting all these done, we can simply
change the duration. (Note the completion date for the project before we do this: in the
case of the course example, it’s June 24th, 2021.)

10. Aside from the warning diamond which may come up (we can click the first choice in
the drop-down from it, if it does show), we see that changing the duration of a critical
task will almost always affect the overall schedule—the final task does indeed finish a
week earlier, on June 17th.

11. Though it’s not on the critical path, we can also see an important point by looking at
Tasks 11 through 16. They’re all running at the same time, which saves time. Since
none of them use the same resources, they don’t overallocate each other. Whenever
we can run tasks in parallel to each other like this, we should. On the critical path, it’s
even more helpful.

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12. Let’s save, but leave the file open. (You can change the name, if you want, to leave
the original for reuse later.)

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Exercise 5-2:

Modifying Resources

Though we can’t always do it, there will be occasions when we can request more of a given
resource or resources if a task or group of tasks turns out to be really critical. The simplest way
to show this in Project, when possible, is to change the Max Units percentage in the Resource
Sheet. This tells the program we have more of whichever resource. We can then apply it to the
tasks which need it. If the Plumbing Contractor can give us 100% of their time, and we can ask
for and get another team from the same contractor, we can change the percentage to 200 and
shorten the time for the relevant task, or relieve the overallocation on another.

We can modify what percentage of effort a resource can give an individual task as well. But we
want to remember that the Effort-Driven checkbox in the Task Information dialog may come into
play on this. When it’s on, more resources equal less time needed, and this may not always be
the case. So it’s a good idea to look at it and see if it’s on or off before fiddling with the resource
allocation on tasks.

1. Looking once again at the course example, we can scroll to Task 77, Install Exterior
Sheathing and Metal Studs. We see this one takes place in November, and doing
exterior work at that time means it would help to get it done as quick as possible for
reasons of weather. So if we can get another drywall contractor team in to help, it can
go faster—the task is effort-driven.

2. We need to go to the Resource Sheet first, via the View tab in the Ribbon, and the
Resource Views group where we can click the button to change over.

3. In the Resource Sheet, we’ll find the Drywall Contractor in Row 23, and change the
Max Units to 200%--click the number and use the spinner arrows to bring it up.

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98 Lesson 5: Finishing the Plan

4. Now we can go back to the Gantt Chart and apply what we got of our additional
resources. In the Gantt, we can go to Task 77, double-click the name of the task, and
go to the Resources tab in Task Information.

5.Again, we can click on the percentage of Units for the resource, spin it up to 200%,
and OK out.
6. When we do, the Gantt shows the work time as half what it was before. The warning
diamond pops up to ask what we want to do here, and we can again click the first
choice, “Change duration.” Same amount of work, but more people can do it in less
time.

7. The light-blue highlight tells us the change has had a domino effect on the schedule,
and the shortening of the red bar for this task tells us where it started. We can also see
the change in percentage listed next to the bar, so we have verification it did what it was
supposed to.
8. If we scroll down and check the last task, we also see that shortening the time on a
critical task has indeed affected the timeline overall—the ending date is now up to June
8th, 2021 in the course example.

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Lesson 5: Finishing the Plan 99

9. We’ll save and leave the file open to continue.

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100 Lesson 5: Finishing the Plan
Exercise 5-3:
Reassigning Resources on Tasks
Hopefully we won’t need to do this too often, but when resource planning changes, especially
during the early part of the project setup, it’s easy enough. We can make the change in the Task
Information box, or use the Assign Resources dialog if we want. The latter also allows us to see
which resources we’re replacing on which tasks, even if we want to do it for multiple tasks.
Watch out for overallocations. While you reassign resources, make sure you don’t set a resource
working on two or more tasks at the same time. This is the main thing by far which causes
overallocations, and the program can’t yell at you for it (though the resources might!).
1. We’ll start with an example using the Task Information box. The G.C. Project
Manager wants to personally handle Task 2, Receive Notice to Proceed and Sign
Contract. We’ll double-click the name of that task and go to the Resources tab in the
Task Information.
2. We can then click the resource already there, G.C. General Management, and click
the drop-down arrow at the right. Since the resources are usually displayed here in
alphabetical order, we find G.C. Project Manager in the list and select it.

3. Because we did a one-for-one replacement, despite the fact that this task is effort-
driven, we shouldn’t see a change in the duration.

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