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In case if someone needs a reference for MS Project,
below is a tutorial for All About MS Project. If you find it useful, do let me
know...

What is Project Management ?

To get the most out of Microsoft Project we need to first
understand some common terms because ambiguity can cause confusion later as we
move through how to use Microsoft Project.

Ambiguity is perhaps one of the greatest causes of failure of
projects. Ambiguity causes scope creep, missed deadlines, run-away costs,
under/over utilization of resources, and others. It's your job as project
manager to identify and eliminate ambiguities, otherwise your project plan is
nothing more than a guess.

Let's first look at what is and what is not a project.
We'll use the definition of project from the Project Management Institute, which
is:

A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a
unique product or service.

A project is consider temporary since once the projects
objectives are met, the project team will break-up and go onto other projects.
The goal of a project is to create something new, or unique.

Elements of Project Management

All projects have three basic elements: tasks, resources
and time. These are interrelated and any change in one has an effect on the
other two. This is one area where Microsoft Project excels. Whenever you make
any changes, the affect of those changes will become instantly visible through
Microsoft Project's graphical presentation of your project.

Think of tasks as individual pieces of work which need to be
done. Some typical tasks may include:

• Reports to management
  
• Pieces of code for an application
  
• Project definition documents
  
• Any small (or large) item that contributes to reaching the state goal of
  the project

Resources are anything used to meet the stated goals of the project:

• People
  
• Machinery
  
• Money

For time you originally start with an estimate (also know as a
guess) on how long it may take to reach the stated goal of the project. As the
project progresses, the time estimate becomes more solid as each piece of the
project is examined and a more firm estimate as to how long it'll take to
produce the individual pieces.

These three pieces are interrelated. If you think of the three
as a triangle, in order for the triangle to remain balanced, any change on one
side required changes on the other two. For example, if a new task is added to
the project, you'll need a resources to work on this new task, and the new
task may (or may not) affect the time side of the triangle .

It is within this area, the management of tasks, resources and
time, that Microsoft Project excels and will help you to successfully manage
your project...

Introduction to Microsoft MS Project 2000

Microsoft Project 2000 (along with Project 95) is perhaps one
of the most popular desktop project management tools available on the market
today.

While no tool can ensure the success or failure of a project,
knowing how to use the tools effectively can make your job easier.

Microsoft Project is a full-featured tool with many options
available to you as project manager. However it's this great flexibility and
size of Microsoft Project that can make it intimidating to use. Microsoft
Project assumes that you have a basic understanding of project management, so
we'll take a brief moment to review some of the basic knowledge of project
management you'll need in order to effectively use Microsoft Project and to run
your project.

Startup Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is based off of the Microsoft Office model
and has many similarities to other Microsoft Office products. It uses the
standard Microsoft Office interface of menu's, toolbars and graphical icons to
accomplish most tasks common to managing a project with Microsoft Project.

When Microsoft Project starts, you'll see a screen similar to
the one below. Microsoft Project's screen is divided into three main areas: the
menu/toolbar area, the outlook style toolbar down the left side of the screen,
and the data area. The data area changes depending upon which task you are
doing. All toolbars and menus are also customizable.

To become familiar with Microsoft Project we'll now step
through the creation of a small project this will introduce the most commonly
used features of Microsoft Project.

Creating a New Project

To create a new project in Microsoft Project you can either click the 'New'
icon on the toolbar or select 'New' from the 'Files' menu. Unfortunately, the
two methods of creating a project do not behave the same. If you clicked the
'New' icon a new blank project will automatically be created for you. If you
selected the menu method, you will be presented with a dialog box like the one
below.

From the New dialog box you have the option of creating a new blank project
or from selecting from one of the predefined templates. Looking at the templates
can be helpful, especially if you are new to project management. Depending upon
the type of project you are undertaking, they typically follow the same pattern
and this pattern has been laid out for you in the project template. (They may
also help you to think of things you may have forgotten!)

As you can see, there are pre-built templates for construction, software
develop, to developing a new project or business. For this tutorial will start
with a Blank Project.

Project Properties

Once you have created a new project, the Project Information dialog will be
displayed. Lets look at the options of this dialog:

• Start Date - This dropdown box displays the anticipated start date of the
  project and defaults to the current date. Selecting the dropdowns arrow
  displays a calendar for you to select the start date.
  
• Finish date - This is disabled since the projects finish date will be
  calculated from the tasks of the project. The default project scheduling model
  used in Microsoft Project is to schedule from the projects start date.
  
• Schedule From - The default project scheduling model used by Microsoft
  Project is to schedule from the projects start date. Another common project
  scheduling model is to start with the finish date and work backwards. This is
  known as scheduling from the project end date. If you change to this method of
  scheduling, the Finish date dropdown become active, allowing you to enter the
  projects expected end date.
  
• Calendar - Microsoft Project supports three types of calendars: standard,
  24-hour, and Night Shift. Select the calendar appropriate to your project.
  
• Click 'OK'.

Entering Task Information in Microsoft Project

Having just created a new project, your Microsoft Project screen should look
similar to the one below. Your project is now ready for you to start entering
your project information.

There are two basic methods for entering task information into Microsoft
Project. You can enter your tasks directly into the Gantt Chart view (the
default view, shown below), or you can double-click on a row in the tasks area
and the Tasks dialog will be displayed. Each method has it's strong points as
well as it's weak points.

If you have a list of tasks, entering them directly into the task area of the
Gantt Chart view is quickest. The Task dialog is more detailed, allowing you to
fill in items not available in the Gantt Chart view.

For the this tutorial we will use the creation of a new Project Management
Office as our example.

Entering Task Information in Microsoft Project - Continued

For this exercise we will use the task area of the Gantt view to enter our
tasks. Assuming you have a blank, new project, select the first row of the
project.

• Project Office and press enter.
  
• Scope and press enter.
  
• Determine Project Office Scope and press tab, enter 3 days for the
  duration and press enter. Press left arrow once.
  
• Document high-level Project Office requirements including resources, press
  tab, enter 2 day for the duration and press enter. Press left arrow once.
  
• Justify Project Office via business model, press tab, enter 3 days for the
  duration and press enter. Press left arrow once.
  
• Secure Executive sponsorship, press tab, enter 2 days for the duration,
  press enter and press left arrow once.
  
• Scope Complete, press tab, enter 0.
  
• Your screen should look like the one below.

As this point we haven't entered any of the tasks dependencies, recourses or
rolled anything up into major task headings; we'll do these next.

Note: Any tasks that is created without a duration is a milestone.

Creating Sub Tasks in Microsoft Project

To create sub-tasks, you need to move the tasks over to the right under the
tasks category. For example, Scope is a sub-task of Project Office and all the
other tasks listed below Scope are sub-tasks to Scope. So let's move things
around to represent this fact.

• Click on row 2 to highlight the row. Once the row is selected click on the
  arrow pointing right in the toolbar. Scope will shift right and Project Office
  will change to bold and have a + symbol in front of it. These represent the
  fact the Project Office has sub-tasks.
  
• Click on row 3, and while holding the mouse button down, highlight the
  other rows (3 - 7). Press the right arrow twice to move these tasks over to
  make the sub-tasks of Scope. Your screen will not look like this...

You can also create sub-tasks by using the mouse. By placing the
cursor in the task field you want to make a sub-task you can click and drag the
task either left or right to move it to the appropriate task level.

Next we'll ad some predecessors to the tasks that we've defined so
far.

Creating Sub-Tasks in Microsoft Project - Continued

By using predecessors, Microsoft Project can show the sequence of
tasks. There are two ways to enter predecessors within a project and we'll cover
those here.

• Select row four of the project.
  
• Tab out past the duration field.
  
• You should now see a number of fields:
  
  
  
  • Start Date
    
  • End Date
    
  • Predecessors
    
  • Resource Name
  
  
• In the Predecessor field enter 3 and press enter.
  
• On row 5 enter 4 in the predecessor field and press enter.
  
• On row 6 enter 5 in the predecessor field and press enter.
  
• Double click row 7 and the following dialog will be displayed.

This is the Task Information dialog and contains all the fields
associated with the task. There are a number of fields available in the Task
Information dialog that are not on the Task spreadsheet.

1. 
   

   Click on the Predecessors tab.

The following dialog will be displayed

.

1. 
   

   Click on 'Task Name' in the first row of the spreadsheet.

   
   
2. 
   

   A drop-down dialog box will be displayed listing all the tasks
   of the project.

   
   
3. 
   

   Select 'Secure Executive Sponsorship' and press tab.

Your screen will now look like this:

6. 
   

   Click 'OK' to close the dialog.

Your project will now look like the following:

Entering Resource Information in Microsoft Project

While we've entered a number of tasks and set the predecessors for these
tasks, we haven't yet assigned resources to the individual tasks of the project.
Before we can assign tasks to resources, we need to first create those resources
that will be responsible for completing the work. Microsoft Project allows you
to enter tasks without resources being associated with them since in most
instances, you will not know who will actually be doing a specific task until
later in the project.

To switch to the screen used to creating new resources, click on the
'Resource Sheet' from the left-hand side toolbar. Your screen will look similar
to the one below. Again there are two ways to enter resources into Microsoft
Project. You can use the resource spreadsheet of the resource sheet or you could
use the Resource Information dialog. We'll cover both methods of entering
resources into Project.

Note: If you create a resource and assign that resource to a task, the
resource can not be deleted from the project until all task associated with the
resource have been reassigned to another resource.

Creating Project Resources Using Spreadsheet in Microsoft Project

For our Project Office project we are going to create a number of resources
to carryout the work. We'll use both methods to create resources for our
project.

• Select the first row of the resources spreadsheet and enter 'Corporate
  Management' under the 'Resource Name' column.
  
• Select 'Work' from the drop down dialog for the 'Type'.
  
• Leave 'Material Label' blank.
  
• Enter the letter C in the 'Initials' column.
  
• Leave the rest of the columns at their default values.
  
• Repeat the steps above for: Project Office Coordinator, Analyst, and
  Developer, using the first letter for the 'Initials' column.

Your screen should look like the one below.

Creating Project Resources Using Dialog box in Microsoft Project

To create a resource using the Resource Information Dialog box, follow these
instructions:

1. Double-click on the fifth row of the Resource spreadsheet and you'll see a
   dialog like the one below.
   
2. In the Resource name field, enter 'Project Office staff analyst.
   
3. Enter 'POA' in the Initials field.
   
4. Select 'Work' from the Resource type drop-down dialog box.
   
5. Click 'OK' to create the resource.

Your resource spreadsheet should now look like this:

Assigning Project Resources using Task Spreadsheet in Microsoft Project

Now that we have created some resources for our project, we can go back as
assign tasks to these resources. There are a number of ways to do this and we'll
cover the two most common. In this section we'll discuss using the Task
Spreadsheet of the 'Gantt View' of Microsoft Project.

1. Click on 'Gantt Chart' in the left-hand toolbar.
   
2. Select row 3 and tab to the end column marked 'Resources'.
   
3. From the drop-down dialog box, select 'Corporate Management'.
   
4. Repeat this for all other tasks in the project.
   
5. Since these tasks will have more than one resource assigned we'll need to
   assign the other resources from the 'Task Information' dialog box.

Your project should now look like the following:

Assigning Project Resources using Task Information Dialog in Microsoft
Project

The quickest way to assign resources to a task is through the Task
spreadsheet of the 'Gantt Chart' view of your project. The only problem with
this method of entering resources is that you can only enter one resource for a
project from this area. In order to assign more than one resource to a project
you need to use the 'Task Information' dialog box. We'll walk through this
process here:

1. Double-click on line three of the task spreadsheet the dialog box shown
   below will be displayed.

2. Click on the 'Resources' tab to display it. The dialog box will now look
   like this.

Since we already entered 'Corporate Management' from the task spreadsheet,
it'll be displayed here.

3. Select the row below 'Corporate Management'.
   
4. A drop-down dialog box will be available.
   
5. Click the down arrow to open the dialog box.
   
6. Select 'Project Office Coordinator' from the drop-down list.
   
7. Now both Corporate Management and Project Office Coordinator will be shown
   as resources assigned to the task.
   
8. Click 'OK'
   
9. Repeat for all the other sub-tasks of Scope in the project plan.

Note: Be careful, Microsoft Project will change the duration of a task
automatically when you assign more resources to a task. The assumption being
that it'll take less time with more resources.

Adjusting Your Calendar in Microsoft Project

Now that we have a basic project plan put together, we'll examine some of the
other features you'll need on a regular basis or those that can help you to spot
trouble in your project. One such area is the base calendar used by the project.
The default calendar has work-time scheduled every Monday - Friday 8AM - 5 PM,
52 weeks of the year.

To effectively calculate dates for items within your project, you will need
to modify the base calendar to include things like holidays, planned shutdowns,
etc. This is how you would make these adjustments:

1. Click on 'Tools' menu.
   
2. Select 'Change Work Time' from this menu and the following dialog will be
   displayed:

3. With a copy of your companies holiday schedule, scroll through the
   calendar until you find the correct month for a holiday.
   
4. Click on the day you wish to change, so that it's highlighted with a box
   outline.
   
5. Then click 'Nonworking time' on the right-hand side of the dialog. This
   day will now be marked as a non-workday and any tasks that fall on that date
   will be updated automatically. You can also set a date to half a day by using
   the Nondefault working time option.

Note: Every resource in your project has an individual calendar based off
the Standard calendar. You can update a resources calendar from the 'Resource
Information' dialog to enter things like vacation time, business trips,
etc.

Gantt Chart View

The Gantt chart is the most commonly used chart in project management. It
shows all the relationships between tasks, when tasks are expected to start,
who's assigned to a task, when the task is scheduled to end, etc. Because of
this, this chart can very quickly become large and unreadable. You can adjust
the items displayed on the Gantt chart or change the size, but these tend to
make it less easy to read and understand.

The Gantt chart for our small project is displayed below. There other view
that support other parts of project management and the other most commonly used
is the Network Diagram.

Network Diagram View in Microsoft Project

Another commonly used diagram in project management is what's called the
network diagram. Basically a network diagram shows all the relationships between
tasks. More importantly, the network diagram shows what is called 'Critical
Path' of a project. It is called the critical path because any changes to any of
the tasks on the critical path affect the outcome of the project. If a task on
the critical path takes longer than expected, the entire project will be late
because of it. A shrunken view of the network diagram for our small project is
shown below:

Task Usage View in Microsoft Project

The task usage view displays useful information about all the tasks in a
project. Through this view you can see how much time and money any task will
take. Once you have assigned an hourly rate to the different resources in your
project you can get an estimate to how much the project is going to take. The
Task Usage view can be modified to display a number of different pieces of
information.

The screen below shows the work effort and the estimated cost for each of the
tasks associated with our small project. The top line 'Project Office' contains
are rolled-up amount for the given day.

Resource Graph View in Microsoft Project

The resource graph, obtainable by clicking on the 'Resource Graph' on the
left-hand side toolbar, displays a graph for each resource defined in the
project. By using this graph you can spot resources that have been assigned too
much (over utilization) or too little (under utilization) tasks within the
project. One of the primary goals of a project manager is make sure that people
are being used at the optimal level of utilization. Over allocated resources
burnout and do not perform well over the life of the project; under allocated
resources are an added expense to the project since you're paying for their time
even if you don't keep them busy.

Project management is a constant juggling act and resource utilization is
just one of the many balls you must juggle. Microsoft Project makes is fairly
easy to spot resource utilization problems.

Microsoft Project has a number of built-in reports to help you monitor
different items within your project. The dialog box below display a few of the
standard categories of report that Microsoft Project has built into them. You
can also create your own custom reports to suit your needs, however, the most
commonly needed information is already available in the standard reports.

Conclusion

This has been a very quick overview of Microsoft Project and the portions of
it you'll need to get a project setup and running with it. There are whole books
dedicated to the topic of Microsoft Project and if you're going to be using it
frequently you may wish to pick one up. This tutorial has given you all you need
to get a quick start using Project. Even those who use Project daily can still
find things they didn't know in a book.

Warm regards,


Prashant Dubey
Technical Writer
Reliadat