Fine-Tuning a Project Plan

Core Training for Microsoft Project 2002

Reviewing Resource Allocations

1	To use the Project Guide to view resource usage, on the Project Guide toolbar, click the Report button.
2	In the Report pane at left, click See how resources' time is allocated.
3	To collapse the outline in the Resource Name column, click the Resource Name column heading.
4	On the Formatting toolbar, click the Hide Subtasks button (the minus sign).
5	To see the tasks assigned to one of your resources in the Gantt chart below, in the Resource Name column, click the name of Resource 4, Anne L. Paper.
6	To display Anne L. Paper's scheduled work hours in the right pane of the Research Usage view, on the Standard toolbar, click the Go To Selected Task button.
7	To see a ScreenTip with the date of an assignment, point to the M column heading at the top of the timescaled grid in the right pane of the Resource Usage view. Move the pointer off the M column heading to make the screen tip disappear.
8	Currently, the timescale is set to display weeks in the middle tier and days in the lower tier of any timescaled view. To change the timescale to see work data summarized more broadly, in the Resource Allocation pane at left, click below the scroll box on the scroll bar.
9	Click the Change Timescale link.
10	Since the upper tier is hidden by default, the middle tier, currently weeks, is the top unit displayed in timescales. To change the middle tier unit to months, in the Timescale dialog box, in the Middle tier formatting section, click the Units arrow and click Months.
11	To hide the lower tier, which currently displays days, in the Timescale options section, click the Show arrow and then click One tier (Middle).
12	Notice that the Preview pane of the Timescale dialog box now displays only months. To accept your changes, click OK.
13	To close the Resource Allocation pane, click the Close button in the upper-right corner of the Resource Allocation pane.
14	Notice in the timescaled grid that although Anne L. Paper appears underallocated, with only 8 hours in May, 36 in June, and 34 in July, Clair Hector's name appears in red, indicating that she is overallocated. To see all overallocated resources, on the Formatting toolbar, click the Filter arrow and in the list that appears, click Overallocated Resources.
15	To see the tasks assigned to an overallocated resource, in the Resource Name column, click the + (plus sign) next to Eric Lang.
16	Note that although Eric Lang is scheduled for only two tasks that take 24 hours each, he might still be overallocated if these tasks are scheduled to take place simultaneously. To change the timescale settings in order to see more detail about Eric's overallocation, click the Format menu and then click Timescale.
17	To change the middle tier unit to weeks, in the Timescale dialog box, in the Middle tier formatting section, click the Units arrow and click Weeks.
18	To show days in the lower tier, in the Timescale options section, click the Show arrow, click Two tiers (Middle, Bottom), and click OK.
19	To see the first scheduled tasks assigned to Eric in the Gantt Chart view, on the Standard toolbar, click the Go To Selected Task button.
20	Notice in the timescaled grid of the Gantt Chart view that both tasks assigned to Eric, shown as two blue bars, occur at the same time. To see which tasks might overlap for another overallocated resource, click the + (plus sign) next to Johnathan Perrera and then on the Standard toolbar, click the Go To Selected Task button.

Resolving Resource Overallocations

1	To see tasks in the Gantt Chart view that are assigned to Clair Hector, in the Resource Name column of the Resource Usage view, click Clair Hector.
2	To scroll the timescaled grids (on the right, both upper and lower) to show Clair's earliest assignments, on the Standard toolbar, click the Go To Selected Task button.
3	Notice that for the week of February 29, Clair has no overallocations.To display the next week, in the scroll bar at the lower right of the Gantt Chart view, click the right scroll arrow seven times.
4	The timescaled grid on top shows an overallocation (shown in red) for Clair on Monday, March 8, for 10 hours. To see each task assigned to Clair that day, on the right side of the Resource Usage view, click the down scroll arrow six times.
5	To expand Clair's list of assignments, in the Resource Name column, click the + (plus sign) next to Clair Hector.
6	Notice that in the Gantt Chart view below, Clair is assigned to a staff planning meeting on Monday, March 8. In the scroll bar at the lower right of the Gantt Chart view, click the right scroll arrow three times. Clair is also assigned to a development script breakdown. To return to the previous view, click the left scroll arrow three times. To show Claire's simultaneous tasks in the Resource Usage view, on the right side of the Resource Usage view, click once below the scroll box on the vertical scroll bar.
7	Notice that Clair has a staff planning meeting that takes 2 hours. To see her other assigned task for that day, on the right side of the Resource Usage view, click again below the scroll box on the scroll bar.
8	Notice that Clair has been assigned 8 hours to developing the script breakdown. Since two hours of overtime is a relatively minor overallocation, you can leave this assignment as is. To review data for another overallocated resource, on the right side of the Resource Usage pane, click once below the scroll box on the scroll bar and then in the Resource Name column, click Eric Lang.
9	To display the project in Resource Allocation view, click the View menu, and then click More Views.
10	In the More Views dialog box, click Resource Allocation, and then click Apply.
11	To scroll the timescaled grids in both upper and lower views to show Eric Lang's task assignments, in the Resource Name column, click Eric Lang and then on the Standard toolbar, click the Go To Selected Task button.
12	Notice in the Leveling Gantt view that Eric has two tasks scheduled to occur simultaneously, both starting Friday, May 14, and ending Wednesday, May 19. To resolve this overallocation, in the Resource Name column, click Eric's first assignment, Reserve camera equipment.
13	To see information about this assignment, on the Standard toolbar, click the Assignment Information button.
14	To reduce the percentage of Eric's time assigned to this task, on the General tab of the Assignment Information dialog box, on the right side of the Units box, click the Down arrow once, and then click OK.
15	To see more of the week of May 16, in the scroll bar at the bottom of the lower-right pane, click the right scroll arrow twice.
16	Notice that Eric's daily work assignments for the selected task are reduced to 2 hours on Friday the 14th, and 4 hours on the following Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday but Project has extended the task for several days beyond the previous end date. To reduce Eric's work assignment but retain the task's previous end date, click the Smart Tag Actions button to the left of Reserve Camera Equipment.
17	In the Smart Tag Actions list, click Change the task's total work (person-hours) to match the units and duration.
18	Notice that Eric's second task still makes him overallocated. To remedy this by reducing his assignment units for the second task, in the Resource Name column, click Reserve sound equipment.
19	On the Standard toolbar, click the Assignment Information button.
20	On the General tab of the Assignment Information dialog box, on the right side of the Units box, click the Down arrow once, and then click OK.
21	To the left of Reserve sound equipment, click the Smart Tag Actions button.
22	In the Smart Tag Actions list, click Change the task's total work (person-hours) to match the units and duration.

Leveling Overallocated Resources

1	To display the project in Resource Sheet view, first click the Window menu and then click Remove Split.
2	Click the View menu, and then click Resource Sheet.
3	Notice that Clair Hector appears in red and has the Overallocated icon in the Indicators column. To look for additional overallocations, click once below the scroll box on the vertical scroll bar.
4	To begin leveling resources, click the Tools menu and click Level Resources.
5	To have Microsoft Project level resources only when you tell it to (Manual), rather than every time an overallocation occurs (Automatic), in the Resource Leveling dialog box, under Leveling Calculations, click Manual.
6	To set the time frame in which Microsoft Project will look for overallocations, click the arrow for the box that currently reads Week by Week and in the list, click Day by Day.
7	To be sure you don't lose the results of any previous leveling when you level this time, click to insert a check mark in the Clear leveling values before leveling check box.
8	To level the entire project at once, under Leveling range for 'Short Film,' click Level entire project.
9	Under Resolving overallocations, confirm that Leveling order is set to Standard. Then, to allow the project's finish date to be extended, if necessary, to resolve overallocations, click to remove the check mark from Level only within available slack.
10	To allow multiple resources working on the same task to start and finish the task at different times, click to insert a check mark in the Leveling can adjust individual assignments on a task check box.
11	To allow work to be split on a task or an assignment, click to insert a check mark in the Leveling can create splits in remaining work check box.
12	To begin leveling, click the Level Now button.
13	In the Level Now dialog box, click Entire pool and then click OK.
14	Notice that the Overallocated indicators are gone but some resource names still appear in red because they might be overallocated hour by hour (or minute by minute) but not day by day.To compare the project plan before and after leveling, click the View menu and click More Views.
15	In the More Views dialog box, click above the scroll box on the scroll bar, click Leveling Gantt, and then click Apply.
16	To view changes for a specific task, in the Task Name column, click task 8, Apply for filming permits.
17	On the Standard toolbar, click the Go To Selected Task button.
18	Notice that each task now has two bars: a green bar for the preleveled task, and a blue bar for the leveled task. To display a ScreenTip showing a task's preleveled start, finish, and duration, point to the green bar opposite Apply for filming permits.

Examining Project Costs and Finish Date

1	To remove the Gantt Chart view from the lower half of the screen, click the Window menu and click Remove Split.
2	To display the project in Task Sheet view in order to begin examining costs, click the View menu and click More Views.
3	In the More Views dialog box, click once below the scroll box on the scroll bar, click Task Sheet, and then click Apply.
4	To display the Project Summary task in order to examine the upper-level values of the project, click the Tools menu and click Options.
5	In the Options dialog box, click the View tab, in the bottom section, click to insert a check mark in the Show project summary task check box, and click OK.
6	To change this view from an Entry Table (showing duration, start, and finish dates) to a Cost Table (showing costs), click the View menu, point to Table: Entry, and click Cost.
7	Notice in Row 0 of the Actual column that the actual cost (what is already spent) for the project is $0 because the project has not yet started. To view the current calculated cost of the project plan in Row 0 of the Total Cost column, which is now displayed as a series of pound signs (##), double-click the right edge of the column heading for Total Cost.
8	To view the total cost of the original project plan (before leveling and other changes were applied) in Row 0 of the Baseline column, double-click the right edge of the column heading for Baseline.
9	Notice in Row 0 of the Variance column that the variance (difference between total cost and baseline) for the entire project is $372, all of which appears to come from changes in the pre-production costs shown in Row 2. To see the cost remaining for the project, double-click the right edge of the column heading for Remaining.
10	To view an easily printed report showing the project budget, click the View menu and click Reports.
11	In the Reports dialog box, click Costs and then click Select.
12	In the Cost Reports dialog box, click Budget and then click Select.
13	To get a closer look at this page, on the Reports toolbar, click the Zoom button.
14	To close the report, on the Reports toolbar, click Close and then in the Reports dialog box, click Close.
15	To view the scheduled start date for the project and the finish date that Microsoft Project has calculated based on project data, click the Project menu and then click Project Information.
16	Notice that you can change the start date, but the finish date is shown in grey because it cannot be changed without changing elements of the plan itself. To view the project's current, baseline, actual, and remaining costs summarized in the Project Statistics dialog box, in the Project Information for 'Short Film' dialog box, click Statistics.
17	To close the Project Statistics for 'Short Film' dialog box, click Close.
18	To view the critical path for this project (the tasks that affect the project's finish date), on the Project Guide toolbar, click the Report button.
19	In the Report pane, click See the project's critical tasks.
20	To close the Critical Path pane, click the Close button in its upper-right corner.
21	Only non-critical tasks (shown as blue Gantt bars) appear in the current view. To scroll to a part of the schedule where both non-critical (blue) and critical (red) tasks are shown together, in the Task Name column, click task 25, Production, and then on the Standard toolbar, click the Go To Selected Task button.