clonedbhandar said:
I have this problem
Based on the information provided in the table below for one of the project
phases:
Predeces Act ID Descr Orig Dur(D) Budgeted Cost ($)
- 0-X (NTP) 0 0
0-X 1000 A 10 14,000
0-X 1100 B 5 12,000
1000 1200 C 10 22,000
1200 1300 D 7 27,000
1100, 1200 1400 E 5 16,000
1100 1500 F 16 18,000
1100 1600 G 14 14,000
2100 1700 H 2 13,000
1900, 2000 1800 I 5 12,000
1500, 1600 1900 J 8 8,000
1400 2000 K 3 8,000
1300, 1400 2100 L 4 5,000
1700, 1800 X-0 Phase X Complete 0 0
Graphical Baseline schedule.
How would I go about in putting this into ms project. Never used project
before.
Thanks
Clonedbhandlar,
The plan you show is simple enough to put into Project but if you have
never used the app before, I suggest you get a little training. Project
is not a quick learn and is not as user friendly or intuitive as other
Office apps. I suggest you take a look at fellow MVP, Mike Glen's series
on Project topics. You can find them on our MVP website at:
http://www.mvps.org/project/links.htm.
With regard to your plan, most of the information shown fits into
equivalent Project fields directly however Project will supply the ID
and the budget needs to be addressed in terms of resources (labor and/or
material) assigned to the tasks. I suggest the following sequence.
1. First, when a new project is opened, an opening window will ask (or
allow you to provide) a project Start Date. Even if the start is fuzzy
at this point, (i.e. not yet nailed down), put in your best guestimate.
It can always be changed later.
2. Enter the task names - they should be in the form of action verb
statements since they are considered 'performance tasks". As you enter
task descriptions Project will automatically generate a task ID.
3. Enter the estimated Duration. The default is days, but it can be in
minutes, hours, days, weeks, etc. Note: Duration hours are not the same
as Work hours. The former is the time span during which the task will be
performed while the later is the effort one or more resources will spend
completing the task - they may be the same number of hours but not
necessarily.
4. Using the ID, enter the task linkages into the Predecessor field. The
default link is finish-to-start.
That will give you the basic schedule outline. The "budget" can be
handled in various ways and setting it up depends on whether your tasks
are fixed Duration, fixed Work, or fixed Units (resource allocations).
Since fixed Units is the default, this procedure is based on that.
5. Open the Resource Sheet (View/Resource Sheet) and enter the names of
the resources that will be working on tasks in the project. For the
moment lets assume they are all labor type resources. Note, resources do
not have to be someone's name - they could be carpenters, bakers,
candlestick makers, etc.
6. For each resource enter the standard rate. This is needed for Project
to calculate the task Cost based on the formula: Cost = Resource Work
hours x resource pay rate.
7. Go back to the Gantt Chart view and insert columns for Work and Cost.
8. For each task, select the Resource Names column and pick a resource
from the drop down list.
9. In the Work column enter the estimated number of hours it will take
the assigned resource to complete the task. As you enter hours you will
notice two things. The Cost column will reflect the task cost and the
Duration column will adjust based on the hours entered since it assumes
the resource is assigned at 100% allocation (full time).
10. If the object is to hit the "budget" value for each task, iterate
the Work column until the budget value is reached.
11. Once all the tasks have their cost, I recommend you save a baseline
to truly capture the cost as a "budget". To save a baseline, go to
Tools/Tracking/Save Baseline.
Obviously, your goal may be different (i.e. Duration is fixed or Work is
fixed), but this gives you the general procedural outline.
Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP
10.
