For use by ME4103 only. Not for distribution.

ME4103 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND SOCIETY

Hands-on Sessions on using Microsoft Project

Exercise 1
Building Task List for a New Plan

Peter C. Y. Chen, PhD

Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
National University of Singapore

2019-2020

Contents of this document are based on material in Microsoft Project 2016: Step-by-Step by C. Chatfield and T. Johnson

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Note: Depending on how the date format of your PC is set up, the date shown in the figures in
this document may appear different from what you see on your PC, e.g., Tue 06-02-18 instead of
Tue 06/02/18.

File template required in this exercise is provided on LumiNUS. Please download a copy to
the local PC and use it for this exercise.

What will you learn in this exercise?

In this exercise, you will learn how to

1. create tasks and edit the information of these tasks (i.e., task name, duration, etc.),
2. adjust the relationship between tasks, and
3. use task list and Gantt chart.

The main procedures are:

• Creating tasks
• Entering task durations and dates
• Entering milestone tasks
• Creating summary tasks to outline the plan
• Linking tasks to create dependencies
• Switching task scheduling from manual to automatic
• Checking a plan’s duration and finish date
• Documenting task information

What main functions of the software are to be used in this exercise?

This exercise focuses on “task editing” in the Gantt Chart view, using functions under the Task tab.
Many of these functions can be operated in several ways. The main functions are:

 New task
 Task Name, Duration, Start and Finish
 Milestone task, Summary task and subtask
 Indent Task
 Predecessor
 Task Information
 Link Tasks
 Auto Schedule/ Manual Schedule (Task Mode)
 Project Information
 Notes
 Hyperlink

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Create tasks
The Context: Throughout the hands-on exercises, you’ll play the role of a project manager at
Lucerne Publishing, a book publisher that specializes in children’s books. Lucerne is about to publish
a major new book, and you have been asked to develop a plan for the book launch. You have
collected the initial task names for this new book launch and are ready to start a project plan.

1. Enter the following task names:

• Assign launch team members

• Design and order marketing material

• Distribute advance copies

• Coordinate magazine feature articles

• Launch public web portal for book

1) Start Project and open the file Exercise1_BuildTaskList.mpp, the layout appears as
the following

2) Click an empty cell in the Task Name column.

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3) Enter Assign launch team members in the first cell of the Task Name column, then
press the Enter key.

4) Repeat 3) to enter the task names as shown in the figure below. When you finish
entering all the task names, the task list should appear as shown below.

2. Suppose at this point you realize that you have missed out a task, and need to insert it in the
existing list.

To insert a new task named Public Launch Phase so that it will appear above the Distribute
advance copies task.
1) Click the Distribute advance copies task in the Task Name column where you want to
insert the new task.

2) On the Task tab, in the Insert group, click Task.

Project inserts a row for a new task and renumbers the subsequent tasks. Project
names the new task <New Task>.

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3) With <New Task> cell selected, enter the task name, Public Launch Phase, then press
Enter. Your initial task list should appear as shown below.

Enter task durations and dates

The Context: You have shown your initial task list to the project team and other project
stakeholders. They gave you their preliminary (although incomplete) feedback on some task
durations and dates. You are now to update the information in the project plan.

1. Enter a duration of one day for Task 1, Assign launch team members.

1) Click a cell in the Duration column for that task Assign launch team members.

2) Enter a duration value 1 day.

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2. Enter the following durations or text phrases for the other tasks.

Your initial list should look like this:

3. For Task 5, Coordinate magazine feature articles, click on its Start field. A gray vertical bar
(with an arrow head pointing downward) appears at the right border of the field. Click on
the arrow head to display a calendar. Select the date January 22 2018 from the calendar.
Repeat these steps to set the Finish field as January 30 2018.

Once the Start and Finish fields are filled, the duration of Task 5 is automatically updated
with the entry: “6 days”. The reason that the Duration field of Task 5 displays “6 days” is that
Thursday (January 25), has already been pre-set in the template file that you are now
working with as a nonworking day, so Project calculates the duration of Task 5 as six days;
that is six working days, i.e., Monday through Wednesday, plus Friday of the first week, and
the Monday and Tuesday of the following week. Note that Project also draws the Gantt bar
for the task to span these working days plus the nonworking days (i.e., Thursday, January 25)
and the weekend included in that time span.

Remark: The procedure for specifying nonworking days is described in the Appendix at the
end of this document. It is for your information only, since the nonworking day of January 25
2018 has already been pre-set in the original template that you are using now.

4. Suppose that for Task 6 you do not yet know the start date, the finish date, or the duration.
Even so, you can still enter some information to indicate what you know.
In the Start field for Task 6, enter About two weeks before launch complete.

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After entering the durations and the dates, your task list should appear as shown below.

Enter milestone tasks

The Context: You have just been informed about the deadline for completing the preparation for
the book launch, and you want this deadline to be visible in the plan. Milestones can serve this
purpose.

1. Insert a new milestone task named Planning complete so that it will appear above Task 3,
Public Launch Phase.
1) In the Task Name column, click Public Launch Phase.

2) On the Task tab, in the Insert group, click Milestone.

3) A <New Milestone> row appears above the task Public Launch Phase.

4) Click <New Milestone> and enter the milestone task name, Planning complete. The
plan should now appear as shown below.

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Create summary tasks to outline the plan

The Context: The “new book launch” plan is sufficiently developed for it to be divided into two
phases, with each phase consists of a number of tasks.

1. Make the Public Launch Phase task the summary task of Task 5 through Task 7, i.e.,
Distribute advance copies through Launch public web portal for book.
1) Select (using the Shift-Click combination) Task 5, Task 6, and Task 7 that you want to
include in a summary task.

2) On the Task tab, in the Schedule group, click the Indent Task button.

Notice that Project sets the start date of the summary task to be same as the earliest start
date of its subtasks.

2. Insert a new summary task named Planning Phase that will include Task 1 through Task 3, so
they become its subtasks.
1) Select the name of the tasks (Task 1 to Task 3).

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2) On the Task tab, in the Insert group, click Summary.

3) With <New Summary Task> selected, enter the summary task name, Planning Phase.

Now the plan is organized into two phases of work, and appears as shown below.

Link tasks to create dependencies

The Context: The tasks in the “new book launch” plan have now been grouped under different
summary tasks. The next step is to create the dependencies among the tasks.

1. Enter a task ID in the Predecessor field to link Task 2 and Task 3 with a finish-to-start
relationship.
1) Enter 2 in the Predecessor field of Task 3.

Note that, before its task dependency is specified, Task 3 had no start or finish date. By
making it dependent on Task 2, Project now has the information to set its start date to be
January 9, the next working day following the finish date of Task 2.

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2. Make Task 3, Design and order marketing material, a predecessor of Task 4 by using the Task
Information dialog box.
1) In the Task Name column, choose Task 4, Planning complete.

2) Click Information in the Properties group on the Task tab.

3) Choose the Predecessor tab.

4) Enter 3 in the ID column and choose the Finish-to-Start (FS) type, then click OK.

3. Link all subtasks under Public Launch Phase (i.e., Task 6 through Task 8) all at once by using
the Link the Selected Tasks command.
1) Select the task you want to be the predecessor task (i.e., Task 6), and then select the
task you want to be the successor task (i.e., Task 7).

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2) On the Task tab, in the Schedule group, click Link the Selected Tasks. The two tasks
are linked with a finish-to-start relationship.

3) Repeat 1) and 2) to link Task 7 and Task 8.

Keep an eye on the text About two weeks in the Start field of Task 8. Project replaces
this text with a scheduled start date and added a default “1 day” duration. This is
because a task requires a start date as soon as it is linked to another task. The question
mark in the duration entry “1day?” is to indicate that this is an estimated duration; this
question mark has no effect on the scheduling of the task.

1) Link Task 1, Planning Phase, to Task 5, Public Launch Phase, by using the mouse.
In the chart portion of the Gantt Chart view, click and hold the left button of mouse,
then drag it to the spot as illustrated in the figure below.

4. The Lucerne marketing team has reported that its estimate is that Task 3 should have a two-
week duration. Change the duration of Task 3 from the placeholder text Check with
Marketing to “two weeks”.
1) Click the Duration cell of Task 3.

2) Enter 2 weeks.

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Note that new duration of Task 3 caused the duration of the summary task Planning
Phase to increase but did not affect the scheduling of Task 4 milestone. The reason
is that this task is still manually scheduled.

5. Adjust Task 4, Planning Complete, so that it respects the predecessor link.

1) In the Task Name column, select Task 4, Planning complete.

2) On the Task tab, in the Schedule group, click Respect Links.

Project re-schedules Task 4 to start upon the completion of its predecessor Task 3.
The link lines between the Gantt bars and the task IDs in the Predecessors column
convey task relationships. The result is as shown below.

Note that the start of the summary task Public Launch Phase does not respect its link
to its predecessor (i.e., the summary task Planning Phase). This is because the start
and finish dates of a summary task are driven by the earliest start and latest finish
dates of its subtasks. These subtasks are for now still in the manually scheduled
mode, as indicated by the icon in their Task Mode field.

Switch task scheduling from manual to automatic

The Context: The “new book launch” plan has now been reviewed by various stakeholders and
received a vote of confidence. It is now ready for the task scheduling to be switched to automatic.

1. Switch Task 2 through Task 4 to be automatically scheduled by using the Auto Schedule
command on the Task tab.

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1) Select Task 2, Task 3 and Task 4.

2) On the Task tab in the Task group, click Auto Schedule.

The Task Mode icon of the task and the Gantt chart bars will be changed to reflect
the new setting.

2. Use the Task Mode field of Task 6 to change it to be automatically scheduled.

1) Click the Task Mode cell in front of Distribute advance copies and choose Auto
Schedule.

Note that Task 6 has now been scheduled to start later. The reason is that, even
though the dependency between the two summary tasks (namely, Planning Phase
and Public Launch Phase) was set, Project did not re-schedule their subtasks to
reflect this dependency because Task 6 was previously set as manually scheduled.
Now Task 6 has been set to be automatically scheduled, Project also adjust the start
date of the relevant summary task.

3. Switch Task 7 and Task 8 to be automatically scheduled using any method you prefer.

At this point the plan is still set to treat any new tasks that may be added as manually
scheduled. It can be left as it is. However, since this plan is sufficiently developed, it can be
switched to the automatic scheduling mode. In any case, a specific task can still be switched
back to the manual scheduling mode when needed.

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4. Switch the plan to make all new tasks automatically scheduled.

1) On the Task tab, in the Tasks group, click the Mode button, then click Auto Schedule
in the dropdown menu.

Or

1) Click New Tasks on lower left corner of the status bar at the bottom of the Project
window.

2) Click on the scheduling mode you want.

5. Enter a new task named Launch social media programs for book below Task 8, using any of
the methods described above that you prefer.

Note that by default, the Task 8 just added is given a “1day?” duration and the start date of
its summary task; moreover, it is not linked to any other tasks.

6. Link Task 8 and Task 9 using any of the methods described above that you prefer. Note that
the duration of the summary task Public Launch Phase has been automatically updated from
9 to 10 days.

Now all tasks in the plan are automatically scheduled (as indicated by the icon in the Task
Mode field) as shown below.

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Check a plan’s duration and finish date

The Context: The project team is getting organized for the work. You are frequently asked by the
various team members to provide the scheduled duration and the finish date for the book launch.

1. In the Timeline view, note the plan’s current start and finish dates.

2. Find the plan’s finish date in the Project Information dialog box.
1) On the Project tab, in the Properties group, click the Project Information button.

2) In the Project Information dialog box, click Statistics.

3) The finish date is displayed.

3. Details about the task duration can be found in the Project Statistics dialog box.
4. Display the project summary task in the Gantt Chart view.
1) Click anywhere in a Gantt Chart view.
2) On the Format tab, in the Show/Hide group, select the Project Summary Task check
box.

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Project displays the project summary task (at the top of the Gantt Chart view with an
ID of 0) and its start and finish dates and overall duration, as shown below.

Document task information

1. Add the note Get recipient list from publicist to Task 6, Distribute advance copies.
1) Select the name of the task (i.e., Task 6, Distribute advance copies).
2) On the Task tab, in the Properties group, click the Notes button.

Or, right-click the task name, and then click Notes.

3) In the Notes box, enter the note text, Get recipient list from publicist, and click OK.

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2. Move the cursor to be at the note icon for Task 6 to reveal the note.

3. Move the cursor to be at the note icon for Task 0 to reveal the note.

4. Add the hyperlink text Add to spring catalog here, with an address of
http://www.lucernepublishing.com, to Task 8, Launch public web portal for book.
1) Right-click the task name, Launch public web portal for book, and then click
Hyperlink to open the Insert Hyperlink dialog box.

2) In the Text to display box, enter the link text, Add to spring catalog here.

3) In the Address box, enter the URL of the destination address,

http://www.lucernepublishing.com.

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4) Click OK. The task notes and hyperlinks you have added to tasks are indicated by the
icons in the Indicators column, as shown in the figure below.

Use the “Save As” option to save a copy of the Project file that you have been working on for this
exercise. Make sure to use your Student Number as the file name, i.e.,

XXXXXXXXX.mpp

where “XXXXXXXXX” is your Student Number.

Upload the saved file into the folder Exercise 1 submission under the “Files” section of the ME4103
module page on LumiNUS.

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Appendix (for information only)

How to set nonworking days in the project calendar

1) Click Change Working Time in Project tab.

The following dialog box appears:

2) Under the Exceptions tab, enter Staff at morale event under Name column, start form
1/25/2018 and finish on 1/25/2018.

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3) Double click the text Staff at morale event to open the Details for ‘Staff at morale
event’ dialog box. Set working times as Nonworking. Then click OK in the Details for
‘Staff at morale event’ dialog box and click OK in the Change Working Time dialog box.

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