Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4 Leveling Overallocations In some cases, a resource could be assigned more work in a given time period than it has working hours leveling means correcting such overallocations open LAN-4-3 save as usual change Your Name to your name filter for Overallocated Resources

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4 Leveling Overallocations notice the yellow overallocation markers (!) View > Toolbars > Resource Management click the Resource Allocation View on the toolbar (first button) filter for Overallocated Resources Project > Sort > by name expand Gabriel Mitchell reduce his tasks Test Software (4h), Test Hardware (2h) and Test Security (2h) notice the changes

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4 Leveling Overallocations switch to the Task Entry View on the Resource Management toolbar click the go to next task overallocation button several times until you reach task 16 notice that you are scheduled to do other tasks that day too increase the General Labour hours to 16 and decrease your own to zero you are no longer overallocated for this task

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4 Leveling Overallocations go to task 26 notice that the same resources are assigned to tasks 26 and 27 on overlapping days double click Contract Trainer to open Resource info notice that 200% units are indicated this means that two contact trainers were to be hired however, only one was available reduce the units to 100% go back to the Resource Allocation View and notice that the Contract Trainer is now overallocated

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4 The Leveling Tool Project includes a sophisticated leveling took it levels work resources, though not material resources does not adjust task durations, work entries or resource assignments levels by delaying or splitting tasks so that work can be completed by the assigned resource during available working time

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4 The Leveling Tool splits tasks so that they are interrupted work starts and stops on the task so that there is a period of time when no work is being done on the task introduces delays to a project delay is the amount of time between the scheduled start of a task and the time when work actually begins on the task usually extends the project’s length as it moves tasks into time periods when a resource is available

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4 Material Costs so far we have entered work resources into our project open LAN-4-3-YourInitials from last week (or the one I have put in the common directory LAN-4-3-sample) note the seven work resources entered there enter the five material resources on the screen at the front of the class don’t forget to change the Type to Material instead of Work notice that some of these will be paid for at the end of the project, while others will be prorated

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4 Assigning Material Resources to Tasks select the Gantt Chart view go to Window>Split right-click the bottom form and change it to Resource Cost select task 11 (install cabling) click the second cell in the Resource cost form select Cabling from the list arrow type 250 units and then click okay the cost is calculated and the Gantt chart reflects the assignment click Next to go to Install Hardware assign six computers, three printers and one file server to this task save your work

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4 Assigning Fixed Costs remove the Split Window right click the Select All button and click cost as there is a fixed room rental, add a fixed cost of $500 to tasks 26 and 27 (Train Management and Train Users) Save your work

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 4 Viewing Project Properties Project Properties present summary cost and date statistics for the entire project File > Properties and click the Contents tab view the other tabs for additional information about the project

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 5 Working with a Baseline a baseline is a record of the scheduled dates and costs of each task of a project at a particular point in time as a project progresses, baseline data and actual data will differ this difference is called variance

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 5 Working with a Baseline open LAN-5 and save it with your initials go to Resource Sheet view change Your Name to your name and YN to your initials Project>Project Information click the Statistics button; note that baseline data is zero or N/A because a baseline has not yet been saved close the dialog box

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 5 Working with a Baseline Tools > Tracking > Set Baseline click okay to save the current data as a Baseline In the Gantt Chart view, right-click on the Select All button and choose Variance note the column headings towards the end of the sheet view

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 5 Tracking and Updating Progress in order to track progress, you must enter a project Status Date we want to update progress as of 17/08/07 Project > Project Information change the current date to 20/08/07 change the Status date to 17/08/07 click okay

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 5 Tracking Progress with the Tracking Toolbar open the tracking toolbar (right-click or from the menu) Tools > Options click the View tab and Show the Project Summary Bar change the name of the Summary bar to LAN Installation

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 5 Tracking Progress with the Tracking Toolbar Project Statistics click the Project Statistics button on the left side of the Tracking Toolbar note that there is no variance because no changes have been made as no progress has been tracked yet

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 5 Updating the Tracking Table Variance=Current (date) – Baseline (date) Projects that are ahead of schedule have a negative variance Projects that are behind schedule have a positive variance Project Managers will enter actual information such as actual start and finish dates for tasks into the tracking table Microsoft Project will then automatically update other information and statistics

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 5 Updating the Tracking Table right-click Select All and choose Tracking here you can update actual task information manually change the remaining duration for task 2 (Document Current Environment) from 4 to 2 days note that the Remaining Duration for the whole project updates automatically however, it is better to use the Tracking Toolbar whenever possible

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 5 Updating tasks that are on schedule select task 2 (Document Current Environment) click the Update as Scheduled button on the Tracking toolbar note the changes that occur select tasks 3 through 6 and update them as scheduled note the changes some of the tasks are not changed because they have not started as of the Status Date

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 5 Updating tasks that are ahead of schedule if a task is being worked on ahead of schedule, you can update it even if its scheduled for the future you can enter the progress dates manually or use the tracking toolbar select task 7 (gather vendor bids) and then click the 25% complete button on the Tracking Toolbar change the % Comp. cell for tasks 6 and 8 (Build Request for Proposal and Choose Vendors) to 10% make task 3 100% complete drag the Fill Handle to copy this completion to task 4

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 5 Updating tasks that are behind schedule open Project Information and change the Current Date to 24/09/07 and the Status Date to 21/09/07 make task 12 (Install Hardware) 25% complete double click task 12 to view Task Information and click the General tab notice that the scheduled Finish Date is 21/09/07 this task is behind schedule

Microsoft Project – Tutorial 5 Rescheduling tasks that are behind schedule you can reschedule tasks using the Tracking Toolbar select task 12 and click the Reschedule Work button on the Tracking Toolbar the task is split and rescheduled to begin on the current date other tasks that have relationships to this task will also be rescheduled as necessary