MS Project – Resourcing The Project Plan

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 Topics To Be Covered
Lesson 2: Creating a Project Plan
- Adding Resources To A Project Plan

Lesson 3: Managing Tasks in a Project Plan

- Task Dependency
- the Lag Time
- The Lead Time

Lessons 5: Finalising A Project Plan

- Baselines
- Set the Baseline Dialog Box

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 Lesson 2 – Creating A Project Plan
Add Resources to a project plan

• you have created tasks and assigned duration to each of them in your project plan. Now, you
need to determine who will perform the work to accomplish these assigned tasks. In this
topic, you will add resources to a plan.

• If you plan to assign resouces to tasks in your project plan, then you should be able to add the
correct resources within your plan.

• Without resources, your project plan is simply a timeline of related tasks that theortically will
accomplish a goal. With the resources added, you can ensure that the project tasks applied
and that the work necessary to complete the project will get done.

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 Lesson 2 – Creating A Project Plan
Add Resources to a project plan
Resources
Definition

Resources are people, equipment, material and other miscellaneous items used to
complete project tasks. Once assigned to project tasks, resources
determine the duration and cost details

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 Lesson 2 – Creating A Project Plan
Add Resources to a project plan
Resources
Definition

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 Lesson 2 – Creating A Project Plan
Add Resources to a project plan
Types of resources

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 Lesson 2 – Creating A Project Plan
Add Resources to a project plan
Resource Sheet Fields

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 Lesson 2 – Creating A Project Plan
Add Resources to a project plan
Resource Information Dialog Box

The Resource Information dialog box is used to enter edit,

And review information for selected resources in a project.

The cost tab display options to enter, review or change the

Cost information about the resource.

Notes tab, you can enter or review the detailed notes about
A specific resource.

The custom field tab allows you to enter and edit values for the
resources custom fields.

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 Lesson 2 – Creating A Project Plan
Add Resources to a project plan

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 Lesson 2 – Creating A Project Plan
How to add resources to a project

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 Lesson 3 – Managing Tasks in a Project Plan
Task Dependency Types (topic B)

A task relationship or dependency occurs when the starting time of a

particular task, called the successor, is dependent on whether another
task, called the predecessor, is called the predecessor, is
Starting or is completed.

There are four kinds of dependencies:

- Finish-to-start (FS)
- Start-to-start (SS)
- Finish-to-finish (FF)
- Start-to-Finish (SF)

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 Lesson 3 – Managing Tasks in a Project Plan
The Lag Time
Definition
Lag time is a delay between two dependent tasks. In a project plan, a
lag time adds waiting time after a task is completed.
Lag time is a set between a maximum of two tasks and it must be set
after a dependency is created between two tasks.

Lag time can be entered as a duration of the predecessor task. Lag time
is always entered as a positive value.

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 Lesson 3 – Managing Tasks in a Project Plan
The Lag Time – screen shot

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 Lesson 3 – Managing Tasks in a Project Plan
The lead Time
Definition
Lead time is the overlap between two tasks that are linked by a
dependency. In a project, lead time is set for a task that can
Start when its predecessor task is partially finished.

It is entered either as a duration or as a percentage of the duration of

the predecessor task. Lead time can be set between a maximum of two
weeks and it must be set after a dependency is created between those
tasks. Lead time is always entered as a negative number.

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 Lesson 3 – Managing Tasks in a Project Plan
The lead Time – screen shot

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 Lesson 3 – Managing Tasks in a Project Plan
The Task Information Dialog Box
The six tabs in the task information dialog box have various sections that
you can use to enter, review or change information about a selected
task.

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 Lesson 3 – Managing Tasks in a Project Plan
How to link Dependent Tasks

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 Lesson 3 – Managing Tasks in a Project Plan
How to link Dependent Tasks

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 Lesson 5 – Finalising a Project Plan
Set A Baseline (Topic B)
You made addjustments to the schedule based on a new project finish
date. You can now consider your project plan to be finalised. However,
before you begin tracking progress on the project, you will want to
preserve your orginal project estimates so that you will have some data
to compare the actual project results with. In this topic, you will set a
project baseline.

Once your project begins, you will enter updated information into your
plan as neccary that may not match the orginal plan information. As you
make adjustments between the orginal plan and the actual project
progress, such as task duration, start and finish dates, or costs, saving a
project baseline becomes essential. Setting a baseline creates a
benchmarck for future reference, and can be referenced and tracked
within the project file.
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 Lesson 5 – Finalising a Project Plan
Baselines
Definition
Baslines are orginal project plans used to monitor a project’s progress. A
baseline includes, tasks, resources, assignments, and cost estimates.
After you enter the complete project information in your project plan,
you save a baseline plan, so that you can view the results in the task
sheet view.

The dates in the start and finish fields are copied to the baseline start
and baseline finished fields, and so on for several fields.

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 Lesson 5 – Finalising a Project Plan
The Set Baseline Dialogue Box
The set Baseline dialog box is used to set a baseline plan or an iterim
plan for tasks, resources, and assignments, for the entire project, or
select tasks. You can set multiple baseline and have up to 11 different
baselines for your project.

You also have the option to update a baseline by rolling up suntasks

into selected summary tasks or to all summary tasks within a project
plan.

The start and finish dates for tasks are updated as you adjust and track
your project using baselines.

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 Lesson 5 – Finalising a Project Plan
Actual Progress
The actual progress of a task is the actual work completed for a specific
task that gets updated by the project manager.

This project information can be compared to a baseline in order track

overall project progress.

The actual progress can be entered in the Percent complete text box in
the task information dialog box or in the task form.
In the Gantt Chart, the actual progress is represented by a thin black line
in the gantt bar.

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