MS Project Example
Project Management Unit #4a
LSU 10/09/2007 MS Project Example 1
New Project Screen
• On starting Project a blank template will appear.
LSU 10/09/2007 MS Project Example 2
Basic Project Information
• From the “Project” menu select “Project Information” and
enter the anticipated project start date.
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Enter the major tasks
• Type in the major tasks (WBS level 1) in the “Task Name” box.
• Each row is a separate task
• Do not worry about the rest of the columns for now
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Insert Rows
• Select the row above which you want to insert a subunit
• Select “New Task” from the “Insert” menu
• To delete a row, select the row and press the “Delete” key
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Enter the subunit task names
• Type in the name of the subunit task in the “Task Name” field
• Subunits are “indented” with the right arrow on the task bar
• When subunits are so “indented” the major unit will become bold and the Gantt chart bar will change shape
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Complete entering WBS
• Process of inserting rows, typing in the task name and indenting the subunit continues until all
tasks in the WBS are entered
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Display the WBS code
• Select the “Information” column, right click and choose “Hide Column”.
• Next select the “Task Name” column and from the “Insert” menu select “Column”. The following pop-up will appear.
• Choose “WBS” as the “Field name”
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Showing the WBS code
• The correct WBS code number will now be displayed for all tasks
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Task bars
• With all subunits inserted the lowest level will be blue rectangles and higher levels will be black
bars with points on the ends.
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Distinguishing different levels
• You can change the color of the task bar to distinguish between the different levels in your WBS
• Select the task bar to change (in the Gantt chart area), right click and select “Format Bar”.
• Change the color of the “Start”, “Middle” and “End”
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Results after task bar change
• The results of changing the task bar color are shown below
LSU 10/09/2007 MS Project Example 12
Set the task durations
• Now enter the time associated with each task in the “Duration” field. See the MS Project Help for choices on units.
• Set durations for the lowest level tasks and the total time will be summarized or rolled-up to the next highest level.
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Set the task predecessors
• Enter the task dependence (i.e. which tasks must be complete prior to starting the next task) in the “Predecessors” field.
• You need to use the row number, not the WBS code.
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Enter all predecessors
• Here all the task predecessors are determined and entered, but the Gantt chart now needs room
to display fully
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Set the timescale of the chart
• From the “Format” menu select “Timescale”
• Set the Major Scale to Months
• Set the Minor Scale to Weeks
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After timescale change
• Now the full Gantt chart from project start to end can be displayed
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Make an image for documents
• To make a GIF image that can be inserted into documents, first arrange the chart and task info boundaries to display just what you want.
• From the “Edit” menu select “Copy Picture”
• Select “To GIF image file:” and enter a filename for the image
• Select what to copy: Rows
on screen or Selected Rows
• Select the timescale as
either what is shown on the
screen or for specific dates
• Click OK and the image
will be generated.
LSU 10/09/2007 MS Project Example 18
Final version of project
• Below is the GIF image of the example project ready to be inserted in a document.
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