Chapter 3 Introduction to Ms Project

OFFICE SOFTWARE APPLICATION (OBM255)

Faculty of Business & Management
UiTM Cawangan Kedah

Chapter 3

Introduction to Project Management Software:
Microsoft Project

Norafiza binti Mohd Hardi

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this topic, you should be able to:

❑ understand the Microsoft Project
❑ create project
❑ entering task (summary task, recurring task)
❑ entering duration
❑ create milestone

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

Introduction to Project Management Hands-on (MS Project 2016)
• The Project Goal • Create Project
• Project Management Process • Entering task (summary task,

Groups recurring task)
• Project Management Terminology • Entering Duration
• Task • Create Milestone
• Duration
• Start and Finish Date
• Predecessors and Successors
• Resources
• Project Manager
• Scope
• Quality
• Risk

Benefits of Project Management
• Gantt Chart

INTRODUCTION TO MICROSOFT PROJECT

1. Microsoft Project is design to help users easily plan
projects, keep the projects on track and collaborate
with others.

2. The Gantt Chart and Network Diagram are two
important project management tools within Project.

3. The Gantt Chart provides a graphical visualization of
the project.
▪ Tasks are shown as horizontal bars
▪ Illustrates task dependencies

MICROSOFT PROJECT- Getting Started

To create a new project from scratch
1. Open Project >> New >> Blank Project

Blank
project

The following screen is the Project’s start screen. Click the Blank Project
Tab.

MICROSOFT PROJECT- Getting Started

When you click the Blank Project Tab, the following screen pops up. The
screen should have the MS Project interface displayed.

MICROSOFT PROJECT WINDOW

Click to toggle between
Restore Down and

Maximize window button

Ribbon Timescale
View Bar
Project sets the plan’s
Split bar is start date to current
selected to move date, a thin green
vertical line in the chart
Nonworking portion of the Gantt
days in grey Chart View indicates
this current date.

Entry table with tasks Gantt Chart
and durations

MICROSOFT PROJECT- Getting Started

To set the project start or finish date:
1. Click Project >> Project Information

2. Go to the Schedule from box, and pick Project Start
Date or Project Finish Date.

3. Add the date to the Start date or Finish date box.

PROJECT INFORMATION DIALOG BOX

Project Information button Current date
shows today’s
date on your

screen

Description of the
constraint on this
project

Project Standard
users may not
see this
information

New Tasks mode

SETTING START AND FINISH DATES

Current Date

Default Start Date is
same as Current Date

Finish date is dimmed

Schedule will be
calculated based on
the Start Date

To set the project start date:

Click Project >> Project Information

A dialog box appears. In the start date box, type 1/6/2020 or
click the down arrow to display the calendar, select June
1, 2020.

Click OK to accept the start date.

SETTING START AND FINISH DATES

To set up the calendar:

Click Project >> Project Information

Click the arrow on the calendar dropdown box. A list appears
containing three base calendars.

• 24 Hour − A calendar with no non-working time.
• Night Shift − Covers 11 PM to 8 AM, night shifts covering all nights

from Monday to Friday, with one hour breaks.
• Standard − Regular working hours, Monday to Friday between 8

AM to 5 PM, with one hour breaks.

Select a Standard Calendar as your project Calendar. Click
“Cancel” or “OK” to close the dialog box.

Calendar shows
Three (3) base
calendars to
choose for your
project

WORKING IN DIFFERENT VIEWS

Chart or Graphic
• representation of data using bars, boxes, lines, and images
Sheet
• A spreadsheet-like representation of data in rows and columns
Form
• view of many pieces of information to focus on the details of one task
Combination
• view of many tasks at the top of the screen, view of task details below.

COMMON PROJECT VIEWS

1. Gantt Chart View
2. Network Diagram View
3. Calendar View
4. Task Information Dialog Box
5. Notes Tab, Notes Indicator
6. Relationship View

GANTT CHART VIEW

Entry table with Gantt Chart
tasks and durations
used to create the

Gantt Chart

NETWORK DIAGRAM VIEW

Network Diagram Tools format tab

Network Task Start Date Duration
Diagram Task Finish Date
button

Selected Task

CALENDAR VIEW

Calendar Tools
Format tab
Calendar button

Task name and
duration

TASK INFORMATION DIALOG BOX

Duration box

General tab
Task name

NOTES TAB

Notes tab is active
Note entered in
Notes Box

NOTES INDICATORS

Note
indicator

RELATIONSHIP DIAGRAM VIEW

FS indicates a Finish
to Start relationship

ENTERING TASK

To enter the tasks:
1. In Gantt Chart View, just click a cell directly below

the Task Name column.
2. Type a task name in the first empty Task Name field.

Press Enter.
3. Repeat step 2 to enter the tasks you want.

• In the following screen, I have entered 6 different tasks as an example.

CREATING SUBTASK & SUMMARY TASK

In Project, an indented task becomes a subtask of the task above it,
which becomes a summary task. A summary task is made up of
subtasks, and it shows their combined information.

1. To create a subtask or a summary task, indent a task below
another one. In the Gantt Chart view, select the task you want to
turn into a subtask, then click Task > Indent.

Indent
Outdent

2. The task you selected is now a subtask, and the task above it, that
isn’t indented, is now a summary task.

Tip: Click Outdent to move the task back
to the level of the task above it.

CREATING SUBTASK & SUMMARY TASK

Insert summary task button

Summary task Summary Task Bar
Subtasks

On the Gantt Chart, a summary task bar always shows the summary task duration
(black line) and the sum of the durations of its subtasks (blue bar), like in the picture
below. You can see the difference between the two at a glance.

Tip: To show and hide all subtasks for a single summary task, simple
click the expand or collapse button to the left of the summary task
name to show them or hide them respectively.

Click expand and
collapse button
to show or hide
the subtask

ENTER DURATION

A duration of the task is the estimated amount of time it will take to
complete a task. You can enter task duration in terms of different
dimensional units of time, namely minutes, hours, days, weeks, and
months.

To enter task duration:

In Gantt Chart View, click the cell below Duration column heading. Enter
the duration. (Task: Confirm place of conference in the following
screenshot)

OR

You can also enter Start and Finish date and MS Project will calculate
the duration on its own. (Task: Confirm accommodation in the following
screenshot)

ENTER DURATION

Enter duration

WORKING WITH DURATIONS UNIT OF MEASURE

• The default unit of measure is day, and therefore “day” does not need
to be entered.

• To use any other unit, you must type the abbreviation. You can use
abbreviations for simplicity and ease as shown in the following table.

ENTER DURATION

Tip: Be careful about changing a duration by using
the Start and Finish columns, especially for linked
tasks or automatically scheduled tasks. Your changes might conflict
with the task dependencies or task constraints Project is tracking,
which can throw a carefully constructed schedule off track.

CREATE TASK DEPENDENCIES

Creating Task Dependencies In Microsoft Project
➢ Dependencies are the relationships of the preceding tasks to the

succeeding tasks. You can link any two tasks in a project to show
their relationship (also called a task dependency).
➢ Dependencies drive the project schedule — once you link the tasks,
every change you make to the predecessor affects the successor,
which affects the next one, and so on.
➢ When you create a dependency, it’s a finish-to-start relationship
by default: One task must finish before another can start. If that’s
just the kind of dependency you want, that’s all there is to it.
➢ If it isn’t the kind you want, after you create this link, you can edit it to
change the dependency type. Therefore, if you’re not careful in how
you select the tasks, the dependency arrow will go backward in the
schedule.

CREATE TASK DEPENDENCIES

To create Task Dependencies:

1. Double-click the successor task.
The Task Information dialog box opens for the selected task.

2. Click the Predecessors tab.
On this tab, you can build as many dependency relationships as
you like.

Predecessor

Successor task

CREATE TASK DEPENDENCIES

To create Task Dependencies:

1. Double-click the successor task.
The Task Information dialog box opens for the selected task.

2. Click the Predecessors tab.
On this tab, you can build as many dependency relationships as
you like.

Predecessor

Successor task

CREATE TASK DEPENDENCIES

3. In the ID field, type a task ID number for the predecessor task or you
can select the task from the Task Name drop-down list. All the tasks
you’ve already entered into the project appear. To display this list,
click the next blank Task Name cell and then click the drop-down list
arrow that appears.

Task Name drop-down list

ID Field

4. Press Tab.
The task name and the default finish-to-start dependency type
showing 0d (no days, which is the default unit of time) of lag time are
entered automatically.

CREATE TASK DEPENDENCIES

5. Click the Type column and click the arrow that appears to display the
dependency types, and then click the appropriate dependency for
your situation.

The dependency types
drop-down list

6. Repeat Steps 3 through 5 to establish additional dependency
relationships.

7. When you’re finished, click the OK button to save the dependencies.

CREATE TASK DEPENDENCIES

Tip: To “keystroke” a link between tasks, select both tasks and then
press Ctrl+F2. To unlink, press Ctrl+Shift+F2.

ASSIGN RESOURCES TO TASK

Once the task and resource list are complete, resources need to be
assigned to tasks in order to work on them. With MS Project you can
track task progress, resource and tasks costs. Typically, once tasks
are entered into a schedule, people are assigned to work on them.

To assign people to work on tasks:
(Method 1)

1. With the task selected, choose Task > Task Information.
2. The Task Information dialog box screen pops up.
3. Click Resources
4. In the Resource Name field, type a job title, material, or generic

resource name.
5. Click “Cancel” or “OK” to close the dialog box.

ASSIGN RESOURCES TO TASK

Click Resources to key in
the resource name etc.

ASSIGN RESOURCES TO TASK

To assign people to work on tasks:
(Method 2)
1. In the Gantt Chart, go to the Resource Names column.
2. Click the arrow and pick the people to work on the task.

3. If you don’t see the name of the person you want to assign, enter a new
name.

If you don’t see any names in the list, then no one has been added to the project yet.
Either enter a new name in the column, or add resources to your project before assigning
them to work on tasks.

RECURRING TASK

Recurring Task Information dialog box

• A recurring task is a task that repeats at a regular interval.
• Example of recurring task:

Weekly project team meetings every Thursday from 3
pm to 5 pm.

Recurring task How to create a recurring
indicator task

CREATE RECURRING TASK

To create recurring task:
1. In the Gantt Chart view, Select the row below where you want the

recurring task to appear.

2. Click Task, click the bottom part of the Task button and then
click Recurring Task.

CREATE RECURRING TASK

3. In the Task Name box, type the recurring task’s name.
4. In the Duration box, add the duration of each occurrence of the task.
5. In the Recurrence pattern section, click Daily, Weekly, Monthly,

or Yearly.

You can fine-tune how often the task repeats in the area to the right of these options.
For example, you can create a task that repeats every Tuesday and Thursday, or one
that repeats every three weeks.

6. In the Start box, add a start date and then decide when the
repeating task will end:

• Pick End after, and then type the number of times the task will repeat.
• Pick End by, and then enter the date you want the recurring task to end.

7. Pick an item from the Calendar list, but only if you want the recurring
task to have a different calendar than the rest of the project.

8. For example, the recurring task could happen during the night shift,
while the rest of the project happens during daytime business hours.

9. When you’re finished, click the OK button to save the task.

RECURRING TASK INFORMATION DIALOG BOX

Recurrence
pattern

When you create a recurring task, Project automatically renumbers

the task IDs and puts a recurring task indicator in

the Indicators column

CREATE A MILESTONE

• A MilesAtonetaisska twashkostheat smtaarrtks oarsigfinniifsichandt ate
point indteimteermorinaesprtohgeresstsarct hoercfkinpiosihnt.date of its

• Milestosnuecscaersesoarcttiavsitkies of ZERO duration.
A task whose start or finish date is driven
by its predecessoMr itlaesstokne symbol

How to create a milestone

CREATE A MILESTONE

Before your project gets rolling, you will probably want to mark its major
goals with milestones. The quickest way to create a milestone is to add a
task with no duration to your project plan.
To create milestone:
1. In the Gantt Chart view, type the milestone name in the first empty

row or pick a task you want to turn into a milestone.
2. Type 0 in the Duration field, and then press Enter.
3. The milestone symbol is now part of your Gantt Chart.

11/7

CREATE A PROJECT REPORT

The Project Overview report combines graphs and tables to show
where each phase of the project stands, upcoming milestones, and
tasks that are past their due dates.

You can customize the content and the look of any of the reports, or
build a new one from scratch.

CREATE A PROJECT REPORT

With Project, you can create and customize striking graphical reports
of whatever project data you want, without having to rely on any other
software.

To create a project report:

1. Click the Report tab.
2. In the View Reports group, click the type of report you want and

then pick a specific report.
3. For example, to open the Project

Overview report,
Click Report > Dashboards > Project
Overview.
4. Save your report as a PDF file.

Remember!
Different versions of Microsoft Project will lead you to different steps
in finishing the task.

ADDING FOOTER AND HEADER

To add header and footer:

1. In the File tab, click Print, then click Page Setup.
2. On the Header, Footer tab, click the Left, Center, or Right tab to key in the

information.
3. In the text box, type or paste the text, add the document or project information, or

insert or paste a graphic.

To add page numbers,
click Add Page Number

4. Click “Cancel” or “OK” to close the dialog box.