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MS Project 2007 Training Manual

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MS Project 2007 Training Manual
Copyright © 2007 Orchid Systems Inc.
October 5, 2009
All rights reserved. We have not entered into the Cancopy agreement. No part of this book may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information address Orchid Systems Inc. at #304,
10617 – 105 Street, Edmonton, AB, CANADA T5H 4P7.
Orchid Systems books may be purchased for educational or business use. For information, please write:
Orchid Systems Inc. #304, 10617 – 105 Street, Edmonton, AB, T5H 4P7, or contact us by email at
mail@orchidsystems.com.
Copyright Policy Warning
Please note that this publisher will prosecute all copyright violations to the fullest extent of the law in any
country. Statutory penalties are $30,000.00 in Canada, $50,000.00 in the United States and apply equally to
individuals, institutions and corporate entities.

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.
ISBN 1-894899-62-8
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Table of Contents

Compressor Installation Project # A1

Gantt Entry, Baseline, Critical Path ........................................................................... 1
Resource Sheet, Over Allocated Resources ............................................................... 3
Gantt Fixed Cost Chart .............................................................................................. 3
Budget Report, Sorting by ID .................................................................................... 4
Start-Finish Date Scheduling ..................................................................................... 5
Task Usage Chart ....................................................................................................... 5
Network Diagram....................................................................................................... 6
Building Construction Project # A2
Gantt Entry, Baseline, Critical Path ........................................................................... 8
Tracking Percentage Complete .................................................................................. 8
Resource Sheet ........................................................................................................... 8
Gantt Fixed Cost Chart .............................................................................................. 9
Budget Report ............................................................................................................ 9
Network Diagram..................................................................................................... 10
Percentage Complete ............................................................................................... 11
Change Working Time ............................................................................................. 11
Building Construction Project # A3
Gantt Entry ............................................................................................................... 13
Lead/Lag Time, Help ............................................................................................... 13
FS, SS, FF ................................................................................................................ 13
Resource Chart ......................................................................................................... 14
Gantt Fixed Cost Chart ............................................................................................ 14
Budget Report .......................................................................................................... 14
Network Diagram..................................................................................................... 15
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Chemical Engineering Report Project # A4

Gantt Entry ................................................................................................. Figure 16
Resource Chart ........................................................................................... Figure 17
Gantt Fixed Cost ....................................................................................... Figure 18
Budget Report ............................................................................................ Figure 19
Network Diagram....................................................................................... Figure 20
Dupree Boiler Shut Down Project # A5
Gantt Entry ................................................................................................ Figure 21
Resource Chart .......................................................................................... Figure 22
Gantt Fixed Cost ....................................................................................... Figure 23
Budget Report ............................................................................................ Figure 24
Network Diagram....................................................................................... Figure 25
MS Project Software Objectives Project # A6
Gantt Entry ................................................................................................. Figure 26
Resource Chart ........................................................................................... Figure 27
Gantt Fixed Cost ....................................................................................... Figure 28
Budget Report ............................................................................................ Figure 29
Network Diagram....................................................................................... Figure 30
Backyard & Deck Project # A7
Gantt Entry ................................................................................................. Figure 31
Resource Chart ........................................................................................... Figure 32
Gantt Fixed Cost ....................................................................................... Figure 33
Budget Report ............................................................................................ Figure 34
Network Diagram....................................................................................... Figure 35
Water Treatment Plant Project # A8
Gantt Entry ................................................................................................. Figure 36
Resource Chart ........................................................................................... Figure 37
Gantt Fixed Cost ....................................................................................... Figure 38
Budget Report ............................................................................................ Figure 39
Network Diagram....................................................................................... Figure 40
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How to use this text

This is a text designed for students to work through on their own, at their own pace, without lecture! The

lectures, or theory, are embedded in the actual “doings” by the students, of the applied projects. By doing these

applied projects, you know where they are used in the “real world” and how to apply them. The need to have

“introductory” paragraphs has been greatly reduced or eliminated.

This is a workbook that has project management theory embedded into the practical work-through projects

where it seems to be “obvious”, rather than the typical introduction section which discusses abstract ideas that

you will eventually get to see and do. This approach is considered “minimalist” and has proven to be highly

effective over my 26 years of teaching. The more meaningful projects a student works through, the deeper their

understanding. The student who works through practical problems first will encounter all of the ideas that

would have normally been discussed (abstractly) in an introduction but will have a significantly deeper

appreciation of the same material! There is an incredible efficiency in “getting underway” with practical

problems immediately. You will be continually surprised at how much material a student can successfully

digest in a regular class period when freed up to investigate interesting problems by themselves rather than

passively listening to a lecture. These are referred to as Learner Centered Activities.

The projects are ones that each of us may encounter in our work life; replacing a compressor, building a home,

writing a report, etc. The flow of the text is one that hopefully fosters curiosity and the understanding of

organizing details, estimating durations of various tasks, how these tasks are interrelated and choosing resources

which have the ability to successfully complete these tasks – all important components of project management.

The instructors “job” is to answer all questions and, if necessary, give mini lectures or hold discussion sessions

– in other words, “the clean up crew”. Often an entire lecture can be reduced to a sentence when presented at

the “right” time – when the student has done the work necessary and is now “ready”.
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Using the Help Menu

1. To use the Help menu

(online), click on Help,
Microsoft Office Project
Help.

2. Type in “Critical Path”,

click on Search, Show the
critical path.

1. What is the definition of “Critical Path”?

2. What is the definition of a “Resource”? Type in “add resources”.

3. What is the definition of a “Milestone”?

4. What are the steps in moving a Network Diagram box manually? Type in “Network Diagram”.

5. What does the acronym “PERT” stand for?

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Project 1 – Compressor Installation

Chapter One Objectives

There are five different views in this chapter to work through and print.

1. Gantt Entry Chart

Task Names entry
Indents (Demotion)
Duration entry
Predecessor entry
Resources entry
Critical Path
Printing
Page Setup
Fit to One Page
Landscape vs. Portrait
Margins
Borders Every Page
Headers
Footers
Legends
Legend Every Page
Width
2. Resource Sheet
Wage entry
3. Gantt Fixed Cost Chart
Material, Equipment Rental, entry
4. Budget Costs Report
Sort by ID
5. Network Diagram (PERT Chart)

What does MS Project software do?

MS Project software will calculate the cost of an entire project, say, building a house. You will input the tasks
that need to be done (say building the walls), how long it will take to complete the task (duration), the wages for
someone (called a resource) to complete the task, the fixed costs (lumber, nails, equipment rentals) of that task,
and MS Project will calculate the entire cost to build the house and how long it will take.

You can predict costs and length of time to finish any project, regardless of size, before you start.

How long will it take to do these assignments?

The first assignment will require 1.5 hours to complete. The second assignment will require 1.0 hour, the third
45 minutes, the fourth 30 minutes and the rest 20 minutes each-mostly just data entry. The entire book will take
8 hours to complete or an average of one hour per assignment.
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To open up MS Project, click on the Start

button, Programs, MS Office, MS Project.

To reveal all of the columns now hidden

behind the calendar, pull this vertical
line to the right with a click and drag.
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Click and drag this

toolbar down and to
the left (see next
screen).

Type in the Task Names as shown. Do

not touch the Start and Finish Columns
dates. I have reduced the size of these on
mine so that you cannot see them.

The weekends are

To indent these tasks under the project gray because these
title, select these Tasks (2-11) and click are not work days.
on the Indent (Demote) right, green
arrow on toolbar above (see circle) or
use the pull down menus; Project,
Outline, Indent.
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This is a date and

your value will be
different.
Enter the Durations as shown. The top
one in bold (the project title) is an
automatic total of the tasks indented
below it. You do not type it in. Notice the
change of bar length on the calendar.
Notice that the top Duration has
automatically totaled itself to 7 days.

Enter the Predecessors (what comes before this task).

Notice the links between the tasks on the calendar.
Also notice that with the Predecessor links now in, that
the Duration automatic total is 18 days. If everything is
entered correctly you will have a Total Duration of 18
days. If you do not have a Total of 18 days check your
indents, durations, and predecessors again.
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Enter the Resource Names (who does

the work). You can use the drop down
box to simply click on repeated
Resource Names (saves typing). Notice
that they also appear on the calendar to
the right of the bars.

To get calendar to fit on the screen, click on

View, Zoom, Entire project. You can also
decrease column sizes by clicking and
dragging the divider lines in the headings
(titles) to the left (see white arrow).
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To get a Critical Path (red and blue) on your calendar

task bars, click on Format, Gantt Chart Wizard, Next,
Critical Path, Resources and Dates, Yes, Format it,
Enter. Note that this also shifts the task names on the
calendar bars to the right of the bars (if not already
there). Do a critical path for every project.
What is a Critical Path?
When all the tasks are linked (predecessors), you can see how long it will take to finish the project. This is the
critical path (Red). There are some tasks which can be done at the same time as other tasks and would thus be non
critical tasks (Blue). They would be considered non critical since, if they take less time than the other to complete
will not change the finish date of the project. It is the “big” tasks that typically make up the critical path. Click on
the Help menu; select MS Project Help, type in Critical path in the Search box, “About Critical path”.

To move task names to the left of the bar on the calendar,

click on Task 9 Resource Name (Maintenance), Format, Bar,
Bar Text, Left, and type in “Resource Names” above the
activated Left row (see arrow). To delete the task name on the
right of the bar, click on the Right row to activate it and
delete “Resource Names” from the bar above the Left row
(see arrow). When you print, task names beyond the right of
the last bar are often cut off, so we have to move them to the
left. Warning: Using the Gantt Chart Wizard moves all of the
Resource Names back to the right of the calendar bars.