HEP 3104: PROJECT MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Lecture 7: Tracking Budget Reports

19th July 2012 Lecturer: Emma Longei Email: emma.longei@gmail.com
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BASIC FEATURES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

1. Creating work breakdown structures, Gantt charts, and network diagrams 2. Integrating scope, time, and cost data
WBS is a key tool for summarizing the scope of a project Gantt chart summarizes the time or schedule for a project

3. Setting a baseline and tracking progress

Project management software allows you to assign cost and other resources to tasks on the WBS, which are tied to the schedule. This allows you to create a cost baseline and use earned value management to track project performance in terms of scope, time, and cost in an integrated fashion

4. Providing other advanced project management features

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Change Highlighting for Task and Schedule Analysis

The Change Highlighting feature presents a nice reminder of the interrelatedness of many tasks in your project, it is only a temporary visual clue. As soon as you save the project file or make another change, the original change highlighting is removed and often replaced with a new set of change data. If you don't want to see changes appear in blue, you can turn off Change Highlighting altogether. To do that, follow these steps: Choose View. Choose Hide Change Highlighting.
http://www.brighthubpm.com/software-reviews-tips/4559-project-2007using-change-highlighting-for-task-and-schedule-analysis/

TRACKING
Schedule Budget

Calendars
The standard Project 2007 calendar assumes that working hours are Monday through Friday, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with an hour for lunch from noon until 1:00 p.m. You can create a different calendar to meet your unique project requirements.

Creating a New Calendar

To create a new base calendar using the Tasks pane use the Tasks pane to create a new calendar. Click Define general working times in the Tasks pane. (If the Tasks pane does not appear on your screen, click View on the Menu bar, and then click Turn On Project Guide to see the Project Guide Task pane).

Creating a New Calendar

To create a new base calendar using the Tools menu: 1. Access the Change Working Time dialog box. Click Tools on the Menu bar, and then click Change Working Time. The Change Working Time dialog box opens. 2. Name the new base calendar. In the Change Working Time dialog box, click Create New Calendar. The Create New Base Calendar dialog box opens. Click the Create new base calendar radio button, type Project A+ as the name of the new calendar in the Name text box, and then click OK. Click OK to close the Change Working Time dialog box. You can use this new calendar for the whole project, or you can assign it to specific resources on the project.
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To assign the new calendar to the whole project: 1. Open the Project Information dialog box. Click Project on the Menu bar, and then click Project Information. The Project Information dialog box opens. 2. Select a new calendar. Click the Calendar list arrow to display a list of available calendars. Select your new calendar named Project A+ from this list, and then click OK.

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To assign a specific calendar to a specific resource: 1. Assign a new calendar. Click View on the Menu bar, and then click Resource Sheet. Type Adam in the Resource Name column, press Enter, and then select the word Adam. 2. Select the calendar. Click the Base Calendar cell on the right part of the screen for Adam. If the Base Calendar column is not visible, click the horizontal scroll bar to view more columns. Click the Base Calendar list arrow to display the options, and then select Project A+, as shown in Figure A-22.

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3. Block off vacation time. Double-click the resource name Adam to display the Resource Information dialog box, and then click the Change Working Time button, located on the General tab in the Resource Information dialog box. You can block off vacation time for people by selecting the appropriate days on the calendar and marking them as nonworking days. Click OK to accept your changes, and then click OK to close the Resource Information dialog box.
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Entering Task Durations

You probably noticed that when you enter a task, Project 2007 automatically assigns it a duration of one day, followed by a question mark. To change this default duration, type a tasks estimated duration in the Duration column or use the scroll box to select the duration.

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Entering Task Durations

If you are unsure of an estimate and want to review it again later, enter a question mark after it. For example, you could enter 8d? for a task with an estimated duration of eight days that you want to review later.

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Duration Units
Duration unit symbols include: d = days (default) w = weeks m = minutes h = hours mo or mon = months ed = elapsed days ew = elapsed weeks
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Elapsed time
You would use an elapsed duration for a task like Allow cement to dry. The cement will dry in exactly the same amount of time regardless of whether it is a workday, a weekend, or a holiday. Projects default calendar does not assume that work is done on weekends. Elapsed time includes weekends Differentiate between 10d? 10ed 10d == Estimated / Elapsed / Normal duration
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RULES WHEN ENTERING DURATIONS

Do not enter durations for summary tasks. Summary task durations are calculated automatically based on the subtasks. Project 2007 will not allow you to enter or change the duration of a summary task. To mark a task as a milestone, enter 0 for the duration. You can also mark tasks that have a non-zero duration as milestones by checking the Mark task as milestone option in the Task Information dialog box on the Advanced tab.
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RULES WHEN ENTERING DURATIONS

You can enter the exact start and finish dates for activities instead of entering durations. To enter start and finish dates, move the split bar to the right to reveal the Start and Finish columns. If you want task dates to adjust according to any other task dates, do not enter exact start and finish dates. Instead, enter durations and then establish dependencies to related tasks.
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 You can view the critical tasks by changing the color of those items in the Gantt Chart view. Tasks on the critical path will automatically be red in the Network Diagram view. You can also view critical path information in the Schedule table or by using the Critical Tasks report. 1. Click Format on the Menu bar, and then click Text Styles. The Text Styles dialog box opens. 2. Click the Item to Change list arrow, and then select Critical Tasks. Click the Color list arrow, and then select Red. Click OK to accept the changes to the text styles. 3. No red tasks means that the project has slack
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Critical Path Analysis

Entering Fixed Costs in the Cost Table

Click View on the Menu bar, point to Table: Entry, and then click Cost. The Cost table replaces the Entry table to the left of the Gantt chart. In the Fixed Cost column for Surveying, enter 20,000/-.

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Fixed Costs: Surveying

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Entering Resource Information

Enter basic information about each person into the Resource Sheet and assign them to tasks using the Entry table This we have already done

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Assigning Resources to Tasks

Click the Gantt Chart view on the View bar Widen the Task Name column and move the split bar to reveal all of the entry table columns, if needed. Click in the Resource Names cell and select a resource

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To assign several resources to a task

Click the Assign Resources button on the toolbar. (If the Assign Resources button is not visible, click the Toolbar Options button on the toolbar, and then click the Assign Resources button. You can also press Alt+F10.) You can select one resource at a time and click Assign, or click on the first name, hold down the Shift key, click on the last name to select all of the names at once, and then click Assign.
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To assign resources using the split window

Click Window on the Menu bar, and then click Split. The Cost Table and Gantt Chart view is displayed at the top of the screen and a resource information table is displayed at the bottom of the screen Right-click anywhere in the bottom window and select Resource Cost.

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Removing the Effort driven option

Uncheck the Effort driven box in the lower window so Project does not change task durations based on resource entries for that task.

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Resolving overallocations
One of the most difficult things to do when planning a project is resolving the inevitable overallocation of resources. When assigning your resources, you will likely assign too many hours of work for a given period. For example, you might assign Steve to work five hours on Task One and six hours on Task Two on the same day, yet Steve only works an eighthour day. This is an obvious overallocation, since Steve has been scheduled to work three hours more than he is available.
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/microsoft-project-tutorialassigning-resources/1031578

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Assign a few more costs and resources

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Setting a Baseline
Click Tools on the Menu bar, point to Tracking, and then click Set Baseline Display the Tracking toolbar. Click View on the Menu bar, point to Toolbars, and then click Tracking. Click View > Table: Entry > Tracking A grey bar shows the baseline, a blue bar is actual progress, and tasks on the critical path shown in red Percentages indicate progress/completion of individual tasks
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Tracking task completion

Select a task or several tasks Click the <X>% Complete button on the Tracking toolbar. The columns with dates, durations, and cost information should now contain data instead of the default values, such as NA or 0. The % Comp column should display 100%. Adjust column widths if needed. Notice that the Gantt chart bars for those tasks now have a blank line through them.
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Enter actual completion dates for Task

Select the task Click the Update Tasks button on right side of the Tracking toolbar next to the 100% button Enter the Actual Start date and the Actual Finish date. Click OK. Notice how the information in the tracking sheet has changed.

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View the Tracking Gantt chart

Click View on the Menu bar, and then click Tracking Gantt. Alternatively, you can click the Tracking Gantt button on the View Bar, if it is displayed. Use the horizontal scroll bar in the Gantt chart window (move it to the left) to see symbols on the Tracking Gantt chart. To view the entire Gantt chart, right click on the dates at the top of the chart > select Zoom > select Entire Project
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 Viewing the Tracking Gantt chart allows you to easily see your schedule progress against the baseline plan. After you have entered some actuals, you can review earned value information for the initiating tasks of this project.

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VIEWING EARNED VALUE MANAGEMENT

Earned value management is an important project management technique for measuring project performance. Click View on the Menu bar, point to Table: Entry, select More Tables, and double-click Earned Value Note that the date on your computer must be set later than the date of a completed task for the data to calculate properly.
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Earned Value Abbreviations

EAC: Estimate at Completion BAC: Budget at Completion VAC : Variance at Completion

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Earned Value Report

Click Report on the Menu bar, and then click Custom Reports, click Earned Value Report

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INTEGRATING PROJECT 2007 WITH OTHER APPLICATIONS

Project 2007 provides many different tables, views, reports, and formatting features to aid in project communications, as have seen in the previous sections. One can insert hyperlinks within Project 2007 to other project documents, and use the copy picture feature to insert Project 2007 screens into other documents.
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Common Reports
Click on Reports > Reports

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Overview reports include:

Project Summary Top-Level Tasks Critical Tasks Milestones Working Days

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Current Activities reports include:

Unstarted Tasks Tasks Starting Soon Tasks In Progress Completed Tasks Should Have Started Tasks Slipping Tasks

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Cost reports include:

Cash Flow Budget Overbudget Tasks Overbudget Resources Earned Value

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Assignments reports include:

Who Does What Who Does What When To-do List Overallocated Resources

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Workload reports include:

Task Usage Resource Usage Custom allows you to customize and save your own report formats.

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Visual Reports
Baseline Cost Report Baseline Work Report Budget Cost Report Budget Work Report Cash Flow Report Earned Value Over Time Report Resource Cost Summary Report Resource Remaining Work Report Resource Work Availability Report Resource Work Summary Report
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Activity
Print the Critical Path Report Print the report showing tasks starting in the next 1 month (4 weeks) Print your Project Budget Print a to-do report for the Site Foreman Print a report showing the allocation of resources to tasks (Workload)
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Creating Hyperlinks to Other Files

A Project Manager may use their Project 2007 file as a main source of information for many different project documents. Select the task in which you want to insert a hyperlink. Click Insert on the Menu bar, and then click Hyperlink. Double-click the filename of the hyperlink file. Double-click the file to be linked to. A hyperlink should appear in the Indicator column.
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Missing Indicator Column

Right click Task Name Column Select Insert Column Select Indicators, and click OK

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Using the Copy Picture Feature

The Copy Picture feature helps you easily copy images from Project 2007 into other applications, e.g. the Project Plan Document in Word. You may need to remove some of the toolbars by selecting Tools from the Menu bar and unchecking them to get the entire image to show on your screen. Drag the split bar so the entire Predecessors column is showing. Click in the Task Name column for task 0. Make sure you can see the entire Gantt chart on your screen.
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Using the Copy Picture Feature

Click Report on the Menu bar, and then click Copy Picture to display the Copy Picture dialog box. Keep the default settings. Click OK.

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Project Screen without predecessors

You can also post this screen in a Word Document, or in an email

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Project Screen with predecessors

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10 insights to better master MS Project

1. MS Project is a database All views and tables show the same data from different perspectives. 2. MS Project is a calculator Everything is recalculated to minutes. And then shown in time units as per your configuration settings. 3. Start each project schedule by checking your basic configuration settings These include your default calendar, the calendar calculations, metadata, currency and time settings. 4. Let MS Project calculate Let it calculate start and end times for you ! 5. MS Project is already programmed to be asap ; Dont put constraints initially; if needed put them in when project is ongoing.
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10 insights to better master MS Project

6. Use an outline code to discern your task levels and WBS structure. You can use the default one or your own. 7. Each of the input fields have 3 faces, personalities or characteristics Input happens in duration | work | cost fields but to be able to manage a project you need 3 versions of those fields: scheduled | baseline | actual different versions are shown in different views and tables.
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10 insights to better master MS Project

8. Set the timescales to weeks and month for easier management The default setting is by days and weeks in many cases a key to mastering views and schedules is triggered off by zooming out the time scale to weeks and months. This makes assessing over allocation (in weeks) much easier to handle too. 9. Think in work-terms as much as possible. Distinguish between work and hours. If you prefer work in man days, do so, but then express duration in weeks. Work only exists when resources are assigned, which triggers off the formula W = D * U . Have a good eye on the task type at all times. 10. Tracking a project = entering actuals To track values, search for the appropriate actual field and enter the data.

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