AIR UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING SOFTWARE
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
LAB 07
Semester: FALL 2025 Date of Experiment: 27-11-2025
Student name: [Link] AMIR Faculty Signature:
Student ID: 15748 Remarks/Comments:
Lab07 Formatting and sharing Project Plan in MS Project
PLO1 – Engineering Knowledge C1 – Recall
PLOs PLO5 - Modern Tool Usage Bloom’s Taxonomy C3 - Apply
PLO8 – Ethics P2 – Strength
LAB TASK PERFORMANCE
Excellent Average Poor
CLO’s Aspects of Assessments Marks
(75-100%) (50-75%) (<50%)
Complete understanding of Complete understanding of
Student lacks clear
Recall Recall the associated the concepts of SPM and the concepts of SPM and
CLO1 understanding of concepts of
10%
concepts form theory Tools that we used / Tools that we used / less
SPM and Tools that we used /
regarding concepts of SPM. actively participate during actively participate during
Unable to read and interpret it.
lecture. lecture.
Experimental Validation Correctly select the Correctly select the technique Don’t able to write a logic and
Select an appropriate and technique and advance and Advance concept of Applying Tools for the
suitable SPM advance concept of SPM to perform SPM to perform particular required output and as per
concept to solve and particular task (real world task (real world modelling) given in a task.
CLO6 implement real world modeling) and validate the but working with tools have
80% examples to validate the working of Tools like some minor errors.
working of different Jira,Slac,Github.
conceptions of SPM by
applying different Tools
Lab Safety Properly handle Properly handle lab Minor or no safety
CLO7 Moderate level lab handling
10%
lab infrastructure/safety equipment & obey safety measurements has been
and safety measurements
precautions measures. considered.
Total Marks: 10
Objective:
At the end of this experiment, Students will get familiar with HOW TO:
1. Customize the Gantt chart view
2. Customize the Timeline view.
3. Customize a report
1 - Customizing a Gantt chart view
A Gantt chart view consists of two parts:
1. A table on the left and
2. A bar chart on the right
The bar chart includes a timescale band across the top that denotes units of time. The bars on the chart
graphically represent the tasks in the table in terms of start and finish dates, duration, and status for example,
whether work on the task has started or not.
On a Gantt chart, tasks, summary tasks, and milestones all appear as Gantt bars or symbols, and each type of
bar has its own format.
Formatting Gantt bars.
There are three distinct ways to format Gantt bars:
a. Quickly apply predefined color combinations from the Gantt Chart Style group, which you can
see on the Format tab when a Gantt chart is displayed.
b. Apply highly customized formatting to Gantt bars in the Bar Styles dialog box, which you can
open by clicking the Format tab when a Gantt chart is displayed, and then, in the Bar Styles
group, clicking Format, Bar Styles
c. Format individual Gantt bars directly. The direct formatting changes you make have no effect on
other bars in the Gantt chart.
Exercise:
In this exercise, you change the formatting of different elements in a Gantt chart view .
To begin, you will view the Gantt bar for a manually scheduled task . Then you will adjust the colors of the Gantt
bars and milestones in the chart portion of the Gantt Chart view, and see how a manually scheduled task’s Gantt bar
is formatted.
1 In the Task Name column, click the name of task 9, Prepare book P&L statement .
2 On the Task tab, in the Editing group, click Scroll to Task .
Project scrolls the chart portion of the Gantt Chart view to display the Gantt bar for a manually scheduled task that
was previously added to the book launch plan. As you can see, the Gantt bar of this manually scheduled
task does not look like the Gantt bars of the automatically scheduled tasks.
Keep an eye on this Gantt bar as you apply a different Gantt chart style to the plan .
3 On the Format tab, in the Gantt Chart Style group, click More to display the predefined color styles.
The formatting options under Scheduling Styles distinguish
between manual and automatically scheduled tasks, but
the Presentation Styles do not.
The More button
The Gantt Chart styles are divided into two groups:
Scheduling Styles distinguish between manually and automatically scheduled tasks
Presentation Styles do not make that distinction .
4 Under Presentation Styles, click the orange color scheme
. Project applies this style to the Gantt bars in the plan .
The Gantt bar of task 9, the manually scheduled task, is no longer visually distinct from the automatically scheduled
tasks.
Your next step in this exercise is to reformat a task name so that it will visually stand out .
5 In the Task Name column, right-click the name of task 6, Planning Complete!
This is a milestone task that describes the end of the first phase of the new book launch at Lucerne
Publishing . You’d like to highlight this task name .
In addition to the regular shortcut menu, note the Mini Toolbar .
6 On the Mini Toolbar, click the arrow next to the Background Color button, and under Standard
Colors, click yellow .
Background Color button.
Italic button.
Project applies the yellow background color to the task name’s cell.
7 On the Mini Toolbar, click the Italic button .
Now the milestone task name stands out .
You can also format the milestone indicator in the chart . You’ll do this next .
8 With the name of task 6 still selected, on the Format tab, in the Bar Styles group, click Format, and
then click Bar .
9 In the Format Bar dialog box, under Start, click the Shape drop-down list.
Project displays the symbols you can use as a Gantt bar starting edge or, in this case for a milestone, as a
milestone symbol .
10 Click the star symbol, and then click OK .
Project uses the star symbol as the milestone symbol for this task .
This milestone symbol has been formatted with a custom shape.
As you might have noticed already, Project automatically draws horizontal lines in the chart portion of a
Gantt chart view for just the selected task .
These lines help you visually track from the task’s name and other information on the left side of the view
to its Gantt bar or symbol on the right
To conclude this exercise, you will add horizontal gridlines for all tasks in the Gantt Chart view .
11 On the Format tab, in the Format group, click Gridlines, and then click Gridlines .
12 Under Lines to change, leave Gantt Rows selected, and in the Type box under Normal, select the
small dashed line (the third option down), and then click OK .
Project draws dashed lines across the chart portion of the Gantt Chart view .
With these dashed lines displayed, the solid horizontal lines Project draws for the selected task are still
clearly visible.
2 Customizing a Timeline view
A Timeline view is best suited to display key tasks from your plan in a simple and compact format . This
view is especially well suited for conveying quick summaries of plans . The Timeline view is a handy way
of sharing project information .
EXERCISE:
In this exercise, you populate a Timeline view with specific tasks and adjust some display details .
1 Click anywhere in the Timeline view .
Project shifts focus to the Timeline view and displays the Timeline Tools contextual label above the
Format tab .
2 On the Format tab, in the Insert group, click Existing Tasks
The Add Tasks To Timeline dialog box appears .
This dialog box contains an outline of the summary and subtasks in the plan.
3 Select the boxes for the following task names:
▪ Planning Phase
▪ Planning complete!
▪ Internal Launch Phase
▪ Public Launch Phase
▪ Author travel and appearances
Use this dialog box to indicate tasks you want to
include in the Timeline view.
These tasks are summary tasks and a milestone task you will add to the Timeline view.
4 Click OK.
Project adds the summary tasks and milestone to the Timeline view . If necessary, adjust the
horizontal divider bar between the Timeline and Gantt chart views so that you can see more of the
Timeline view .
Next you’ll adjust the formatting of the Author travel and appearances summary task on the
Timeline.
5 In the Timeline view, click the bar for the Author travel and appearances summary task.
Only a portion of the summary task name is visible. Point your mouse pointer over the bar name and
Project displays a ScreenTip with the task’s full name and other details.
6 On the Format tab, in the Current Selection group, click Display as Callout .
Project displays this summary task as a callout, which for this task has the advantage of making the
full task name visible .
Next you’ll add the final milestone task to the Timeline, but you’ll use a different technique.
7 In the Task Name column in the Gantt chart view, click the name of task 24, Launch complete!
8 On the Task tab, in the Properties group, click Add to Timeline.
Project adds this milestone task to the Timeline view .
As you can see on the Timeline, Project displays the milestone tasks as callouts and uses the diamond marker that
is a visual convention for milestones.
2- Customizing reports
You can use Project’s reports to see details of your plans in a variety of ways.A single report can include
a dynamic mix of tables, charts, and textual content . Unlike most views in Project, a report is more like a
blank canvas onto which you can place whatever elements (such as tables or charts) that focus on the
information of most interest to you .
Project includes several built-in reports, and you can customize those or create your own for the unique
information needs of your project’s stakeholders .
Reports are intended for viewing Project details . You don’t directly edit your plan in a report as you can
in views . However, you can extensively customize what data appears in a report and how it’s formatted .
Reports are especially well suited for sharing with others via printing or copying .
EXERCISE
In this exercise, you change the formatting of a built-in report.
1 On the Report tab, in the View Reports group, click Dashboards and then click Work
Overview. The Work Overview report appears.
This report includes several charts that describe work overtime and per resource. Depending on your
screen resolution, you might need to vertically scroll the report to see all the charts.
On the left side of the report is the Work Stats column chart. You will change the formatting of this
chart.
2 Click anywhere in the Work Stats column chart.
As soon as you click the chart, the Field List pane appears on the right side of the screen.
3 Under Chart Tools, click the Design tab. Then in the Chart Styles group, click the chart style with
the black background
4 Project applies the chart style to the Work Stats chart.
5 On the View tab, in the Task Views group, click Gantt Chart.
The Gantt chart view replaces the Work Overview report.
Lab task:
Students are instructed to perform all the activities mentioned above on OOP
Semester Project. (Marks: 4)
Home task:
Students are instructed to perform all the activities mentioned above on their O
Project. (Marks: 4)