Transcript Document
Business Information Systems
Analysis and Development
[SYST430]
Spring 2003
Mrs Nahed Amin
MS Project
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Introduction
What’s Project Management?
Project management is a matter of keeping scope,
schedule and resources in balance
Scope:
the range of tasks required to accomplish
project goals
Schedule: indicates the time and sequence of each
task, as well as the total project duration
Resources: the people and/or equipment that
perform or facilitate project tasks
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Steps for Managing a Project
1. Project Definition:
Decide on the goals to be accomplished
Identify the major tasks
Agree on the available resources
Determine the schedule’s limit
2. Project Plan:
Identify all project tasks and who will do them
Get work and time estimates for tasks
Determine task dependencies
Enter task and project constraints
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Steps for Managing a Project
3. Tracking:
Track project progress
Review resources, scope, and schedule factors
Identify problems that could knock off schedule
Analyze resource requirements over project
Make midstream changes to reach goals sooner
2. Project Close:
Compare original plan to actual one
Analyze problems for future improvements
Archive the project file
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Getting Started
Set clear project goals, scope and
assignments
Start a new project file
Enter a project start or finish date
Enter project goals, scope and
assignments
Save project
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MS Project Building Blocks
1. Tasks:
Actual work needed to be accomplished to meet project goals
can be broken into tasks
The scope of a project consists of all its tasks
2. Resources:
The amount of resources can affect the project scope and
schedule
3. Assignments:
Assigning resources to work on a task directly affect the time
required to complete a task, and indirectly the total project
time
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1. Tasks
Break project into tasks, phases, and
milestones:
Tasks:
A concrete step required to meet project goal. It represents
actual work to be done in the project
Phases:
Consists of a group of related tasks. A phase represents a
major step in the project
Milestones:
Tasks that require no actual work. But just to indicate the
beginning or end of a phase. Milestones are interim goals used
to track the progress of the project
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1. Tasks
Create a task list:
Include only tasks critical to project’s completion
Add detailed enough tasks so that the time to
complete each one is short compared to overall
project’s length
Remember tasks that occur repetitively, such as
weekly meetings, status reporting, and anticipated
revision work
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1. Tasks
Enter tasks
Add milestones
Estimate task length:
Base estimates on others’ experience
Base estimates on your experience
Base estimates on past records
Enter every task duration only, not its
start or finish date
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1. Tasks
Ensure to perform a logical, well-ordered task list
Add milestones
Order & group related tasks in task list. A straight list
of tasks doesn’t indicate when one phase ends and
another begins. The most common two grouping
criteria:
Tasks belonging to the same process
Tasks to be completed in the same time period
Summing up summary tasks
Outline task list
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1. Tasks
Link tasks:
Power of linking:
•
Let MS Project calculate all dates; task start, finish dates,
project finish date
•
See instantly how changes in start, finish, and duration of
a task affect related tasks and whole schedule
Determine the best task sequence:
•
Identify dependencies of start or finish dates of a task on
another one
•
A task that must start or finish before another task is
called a predecessor task
•
A task that depends on start or finish of another task is
called a successor task
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1. Tasks
Link tasks:
Types of links:
•
Finish-to-start (FS)
•
Start-to-start (SS)
•
Finish-to-finish (FF)
•
Start-to-finish (SF)
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1. Tasks
Link tasks:
Create links between tasks – Avoid entering start or
finish dates
Overlap or delay tasks:
•
Lag time
•
Lead time
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1. Tasks
Add task’s constraints:
Constrain a task if:
•
The constraint reflects an actual time constraint in real
world
•
The project will be penalized for not starting or finishing by
a specific date
Types of constraints:
As Soon As Possible (ASAP)
Finish no Later Than (FNLT)
As Late As Possible (ALAP)Start No Later Than (SNLT)
Finish no earlier than (FNET)
Must Finish On (MFO)
Start No Earlier Than (SNET)
Must Start On (MSO)
Enter constraints
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2. Resources
Determine resource needs
Create a resource list:
A resource list includes:
•
The name of the resource
•
The maximum amount of time per day a resource is
available to work
Enter the resource list
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2. Resources
Determine the working times calendars:
There are two types of working times calendars:
•
A base calendar to store the planned working and
non-working days and hours for a group of
resources
•
A resource calendar containing the work schedule
for only one individual resource
Modify the project calendar or create a
working times calendar
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3. Assignments
Assign resources to tasks:
Assigning resources to tasks provide several benefits:
•
•
•
The schedule mirrors actual circumstances more accurately
Responsibilities can be assigned for tasks
Workload is monitored to make adjustments in case any
resource is overloaded
Pillars of task scheduling: work, duration, resources:
•
•
•
Work: amount of effort, measured in time units put into a
task by a resource. The total work for a task is the sum of all
these time units
Duration: amount of time between start & finish dates for a
task
Resources: people, equipment, office space, etc
Assign one or more resources to each task
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Schedule’s Evaluation & Adjustment
Ensure the plan is accurate and complete
Review project goals, scope, assumptions
Add or delete tasks
Refine task-duration estimates
Check project finish date
Determine if constraints are necessary
Identify & correct obvious errors
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Plan’s Streamlining
Fine-tune schedule by making trade-offs
among scope, resources, time; the three
main factors that shape a project
Focus on:
shortening the schedule
Using resources as efficiently as possible
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