User manual Microsoft Project (English – 6 pages)

In other words, if you have a task that needs 16 hours to complete starting on Monday AM if this is the time your work day starts, and 8 hours being total work hours in a day , and Tuesday being a holiday, the task will logically end on the evening of Wednesday.

Enter the duration. Task 1 in the following screenshot You can also enter Start and Finish date and MS Project will calculate the duration on its own.

Task 3 and Task 4 in the following screenshot Note: In the above screenshot, Task 6 is scheduled to start on Sunday, which is a non- working day and ends on Wednesday. So essentially, one would believe that with these 3 days Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, the duration calculated would be 3 days. But MS Project calculates it as 4 days.

So one needs to be careful when choosing the start date of the task. Because for any successive operation, MS Project considers that Task 6 will take 4 days. The next time, you change the start date, the Finish date changes to reflect this 4-day duration. Elapsed Duration Elapsed Duration is the time that elapses while some event is occurring which does not require any resources. Elapsed duration for a task can be used in instances where a task will go on round-the-clock without any stoppage.

A normal workday has 8 hours, and an elapsed day duration will have 24 hours. The task also continues over non-working holidays and vacations and working days.

So 1ew is seven hour days. And it takes 4 days for this to happen. It does not need a resource or a work effort, and all you are doing is waiting for it to dry. You can use 4ed as the time duration, which signifies 4 elapsed days, the paint can dry regardless of whether it is a weekend or if it falls on a holiday.

Here in this example, the drying occurs over 24 hours over the weekend. They are used as major progress points to manage project success and stakeholder expectations. They are primarily used for review, inputs and budgets. Mathematically, a milestone is a task of zero duration. And they can be put where there is a logical conclusion of a phase of work, or at deadlines imposed by the project plan. There are two ways you can insert a milestone.

You can see the milestone appear with a rhombus symbol in the Gantt Chart View on the right. MS Project converts it to a Milestone. But one can also convert a task of non-zero duration into a Milestone. This is rarely used and causes confusion. Double-click a particular Task name. Task Information dialog box opens.

Create Summary Task There can be a huge number of tasks in a project schedule, it is therefore a good idea to have a bunch of related tasks rolled up into a Summary Task to help you organize the plan in a better way.

It helps you organize your plan into phases. In MS Project , you can have several number of sub-tasks under any higher level task. These higher level tasks are called Summary Task.

At an even higher level, they are called Phases. Remember because summary task is not a separate task entity but a phase of the project with several sub-tasks in it, the duration of the summary task is from the start of the first sub-task to the finish of the last sub-task. This will be automatically calculated by MS Project. Of course, you can enter a manual duration of the summary task as well which could be different from the automatically calculated duration.

MS Project will keep track of both but this can cause significant confusion. In most cases, you should ensure that there is no manually entered duration for any task you will be using as a Summary Task. If you would like to group Task 4 and Task 5 into a Summary Task 1. You can do it in two ways. Method 1 Select the names of Task 4 and Task 5. Rename it to Summary Task 1.

Method 2 You can click Task 4 row. You can rename the Task. Here it is renamed as Summary Task 1. Now select Task 4 and Task 5. For example, Task 2 can start once Task 1 has finished. These dependencies are called Links. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge PMBOK Guide does not define the term dependency, but refers to it as a logical relationship, which in turn is defined as a dependency between two activities, or between an activity and a milestone.

In MS Project, the first task is called a predecessor because it precedes tasks that depend on it. The following task is called the successor because it succeeds, or follows tasks on which it is dependent. Any task can be a predecessor for one or more successor tasks. Likewise, any task can be a successor to one or more predecessor tasks. There are only four types of task dependencies, here we present them with examples. Most used. One does not have to finish collecting survey response before starting the tabulation.

Least used. Method 1 Select the two tasks you want to link. In the following screenshot taken as an example, we have selected names, Task 1 and Task 2. Task 1 and Task 2 are linked with a Finish-to-Start relationship. A drop down box appears with all Tasks defined in the project.

Choose the predecessor task. Click OK. Here I have chosen Task 3. All tasks get linked. To select non-adjacent tasks, hold down Ctrl key and select each task separately. Respect Links If you are in Manually Scheduled mode, any change in duration of the predecessor task will not reflect on Start date of Task 4.

Scheduling is controlled in two ways. Manual Scheduling: This is done to quickly capture some details without actually scheduling the tasks. It calculates values such as task durations, start dates, and finish dates automatically. It takes into accounts all constraints, links and calendars.

For example, at Lucerne Publishing, the new book launch plan has been reviewed by the resources who will carry out the work and by other project stakeholders. Although you expect the plan to change somewhat as you learn more about the book launch, you now have enough confidence in the overall plan to switch from manual to automatic task scheduling. Converting Task to Automatic Schedule We have three different methods to convert a task to automatic schedule.

Method 1 If you want to change the mode for a particular task, say Task 5 in the following example. Click on Task Mode cell in the same row. Then, click the down arrow to open a dropdown box, you can select Auto Scheduled. Method 3 To switch completely to Auto Schedule mode: Toggle the scheduling mode of the plan by clicking the New Tasks status bar at the bottom-left and then selecting Auto scheduling mode.

Go to File tab and click Options. They can be people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything except labor required for the completion of a project task. Optimum Resource Scheduling is the key to successful project management. Travel expenses, food expenses, etc.

For example, paint being used while painting a wall. Note: Be aware of the crucial difference between People and Equipment resources. People resources will have limited work hours, say 6, 8 or 12 hours. Equipment resources have different working capacities of 2, 8 or 24 hours and could have maintenance breaks as well. Also note, that it is possible multiple people resources might be using one equipment resource, or one equipment might be accomplishing multiple tasks.

Enter Work Resource Names You can enter resource names according to your convenience. Click the cell directly below the Resource Name heading column. Enter Resources as an individual person, job function or group. The resource is available full-time on each workday.

If a resource does not represent an individual person but a job function, where a group of people with the same skill set can work on the task, we can enter larger Max Units to represent the number of people in the group.

Click the Max. Units field for the Engineers resource. Press Enter. Units would mean you expect the resource capacity to be lower than a full-time resource. Click the cell directly below Resource Name heading column. Enter Resource as an individual or job function. You can also enter overtime rates for work resources.

Standard rates are calculated on per hour basis. Costs per use on the other hand are costs that do not vary with task. Cost per use is a set fee used up to complete a task.

There are three types of resources: work, material, and cost. Like paint being used while painting a wall. People resources will have limited work hours say 6, 8 or 12 hours. Equipment resources can have different working capacities of 2, 8 or 24 hours and could have maintenance breaks as well.

Also note that it is possible multiple people resources might be using one equipment resource, or one equipment might be accomplishing multiple tasks. Cost resources do not use pay rates. Remember cost per use and cost resources are two different things. Cost resources are financial cost associated with a task, like travel expenses, food expenses, etc. The cost value of cost resource is only assigned when you assign cost resource to a task. MS Project will not automatically apply overtime calculations.

Click the cell directly below Resource Name heading column to create Resources. Click the Std. Rate field for each resource to costs in hourly default , daily, weekly, monthly and yearly rates. In the following example, the resource Rasmus is left at zero. Click the Ovt. Rate field to enter overtime rates. Double-click the Resource, a Resource Information dialog box opens.

Click on Notes tab. Hovering over it will make the note appear. Set Up Cost Resources You can use a cost resource to represent a financial cost associated with a task in a plan.

Examples of cost resources are travel, food, entertainment and training. So it is obvious that cost resources do no work on a task and do not affect scheduling of a task. Cost value of the cost resource is entered when assigning it to a task. Click the empty cell in the Resource Name column. Type Training and press the Tab Key. In the Type field, click the down arrow to select Cost.

MS Project — Assign Resources to Task MS Project Once the task and resource list are complete, resources need to be assigned to tasks in order to work on them. With MS Project you can track task progress, resource and tasks costs. Click the box below the Resource Name column for the task you need the resource to be assigned. From the dropdown, choose the resource name.

In the following screenshot as an example. You can also select multiple resources to work on a single task. Now click the Assign button. Double-click the Task Name. Click the Resources tab. Click the cell below the Resource Name column. Select the resource from the dropdown list. The window is split in two, Gantt Chart view and Task Form view below it.

In the Task Form view, click under the Resource Name column and select the resource. We can also assign other material resources to the same task. In the Gantt Chart view, you can also look at the project summary task, to note the duration, start and finish dates of the plan. In the following example, Assign Resources is the project summary task identified as Task 0. MS Project — Track Progress MS Project Once your project plan is ready in MS Project, it becomes essential for a project manager to measure the actuals in terms of work completed, resources used and costs incurred and to revise and change information about tasks and resources due to any changes to the plans.

A Project Manager should not assume that everything is progressing according to plan and should always keep track of each task. Resistance to formal tracking of project management data is normal. You can overcome resistance to tracking by explaining your expectations, explaining the benefits of tracking, and training people to track the task themselves. Save a Baseline To evaluate project performance you need to create a baseline against which you will compare the progress.

One needs to save the baseline, once a plan is fully developed. Of course, due to rolling wave planning or progressive elaboration needed to manage projects one can always add new tasks, resources, constraints and costs to the plan. Also note, it makes sense to save the baseline before entering any actual values such as percentage of task completion.

These multiple baselines seem contrary to the definition of baseline. You want to develop separate baseline plans for risk response and recovery. You will see Baseline Gantt bars displayed together with the current Gantt bars. Update the Baseline for the Entire Project This simply replaces the original baseline values with the currently scheduled values. Update the Baseline for Selected Tasks This does not affect the baseline values for other tasks or resource baseline values in the plan.

Save Multiple Baselines You can save up to 11 baselines in a single plan. The first one is called Baseline, and the rest are Baseline 1 through Baseline It can be used as a project marker. It is visually easy to see how off-track or on-track the project progress is. Because it only specifies dates, it is simple, clear and easy information.

But sometimes this approach might be fine when the actual work and cost values generated are close enough to your baseline schedule. Select the current date. Check marks will appear in the indicators column for tasks that have been completed.

On the right in the Chart portion, progress bars are generated in the Gantt bars of each task. This table includes Work Scheduled work , Actual, and Remaining columns. Click on Task you want to update. For this task, initial scheduled Work was 16 hours, because 24 hours is greater.

In the example, a Baseline is saved, because the Baseline does not change and is used as a comparison. Note: Actual work is rolled up and also reflects on the summary task. Change Start or Finish field in Actual group. You can fill Actual duration field as well. One does not have to finish collecting survey responses before starting the tabulation. Click the box under the Type column and choose the relationship according to your requirement. Under Lag heading column, enter the lag in terms of hours, days, weeks, or years.

You can also apply lag or lead as a percentage. As Soon As Possible means the task starts as soon as the project starts, if there are no dependencies that would delay it. So, no fixed start or end dates are imposed by this constraint type, but of course predecessor and successor dependencies are maintained.

Default constraint when you schedule from the project finish date. Do not enter a Flexible task start or finish date with this constraint. As Soon As Task is scheduled to begin as early as possible. Do not enter a start or finish date with this constraint. Start No Earlier Task is scheduled to start on or after a specified date.

Must Finish On Task is scheduled to finish on a specified date. Click dropdown box for Constraint type. Choose the constraint you would like to apply.

It is a better idea to use a Deadline Date which has no effect on the scheduling of a task or summary task. MS Project will alert you with a red exclamation symbol in the indicators column, if the scheduled completion of the task exceeds its deadline date. Enter the cost under the Fixed Cost column for the task of interest. Enter a Recurring Task Status meetings, status reports, inspection dates can recur with a particular frequency.

In MS Project , you can specify recurring tasks without having to assign tasks each time separately. You can also assign resources to these task. Enter Task Name and choose Recurrence pattern.

You can also choose a specific time for the task to start as well. You can add time value in the Start box for Recurring Task Information dialog box to change this. In the following figure, start time of AM is entered. Discover what it takes to handle a project successfully.

Build and refine your plan. Put together your team, schedule, and budget. Achieve the results you want. Build realistic schedules with Project, and learn how to keep costs under control. Track your progress. Measure your performance, make course corrections, and manage changes.

Create attractive reports. Communicate clearly to stakeholders and team members using charts, tables, and dashboards. Show and hide more. Table of contents Product information. Project Management: The Missing Manual 1. What Is Project Management? Why Manage Projects? Projects in Action Project Power Tools Customizing Project

[Microsoft project 2013 user manual free

Microsoft Access is a database management system DBMS from Microsoft that combines the relational Access Database Engine ACE with a graphical user interface and software-development tools not to be confused with the old Microsoft Access which was a telecommunication program provided terminal emulation and interfaces for ease of use in accessing online services such as Dow Jones , Compuserve and electronic mailbox back during s [2] [3]. It is a member of the Microsoft suite of applications, included in the Professional and higher editions or sold separately.

It can also import or link directly to data stored in other applications and databases. Software developers , data architects and power users can use Microsoft Access to develop application software. Visual objects used in forms and reports expose their methods and properties in the VBA programming environment, and VBA code modules may declare and call Windows operating system operations.

Microsoft Access was the first mass-market database program for Windows. With Microsoft\’s purchase of FoxPro in and the incorporation of Fox\’s Rushmore query optimization routines into Access, Microsoft Access quickly became the dominant database for Windows—effectively eliminating the competition which failed to transition from the MS-DOS world.

Microsoft\’s first attempt to sell a relational database product was during the mid s, when Microsoft obtained the license to sell R:Base. After the Omega project was scrapped, some of its developers were assigned to the Cirrus project most were assigned to the team which created Visual Basic.

The project used some of the code from both the Omega project and a pre-release version of Visual Basic. Years after the program was abandoned, they decided to reuse the name here. The product shipped on seven 1. The manual shows a copyright date. As a part of the Microsoft Office 4. The photo of Andrew Fuller, record 2 of that sample database was the individual that presented and worked with Microsoft to provide such an outstanding example database.

With Office 95, Microsoft Access 7. Since then, Microsoft has released new versions of Microsoft Access with each release of Microsoft Office. This includes Access 97 version 8.

Versions 3. Formats include Access 1. The most significant transition was from the Access 97 to the Access format; which is not backward compatible with earlier versions of Access. As of [update] all newer versions of Access support the Access format. New features were added to the Access format which can be used by Access , , , and It supports links to SharePoint lists and complex data types such as multivalue and attachment fields. These new field types are essentially recordsets in fields and allow the storage of multiple values or files in one field.

For the first time, this allowed Access applications to be run without having to install Access on their PC and was the first support of Mac users. Any user on the SharePoint site with sufficient rights could use the Access Web service. A copy of Access was still required for the developer to create the Access Web service, and the desktop version of Access remained part of Access The Access Web services were not the same as the desktop applications.

The data was no longer in an Access database but SharePoint lists. An Access desktop database could link to the SharePoint data, so hybrid applications were possible so that SharePoint users needing basic views and edits could be supported while the more sophisticated, traditional applications could remain in the desktop Access database.

Microsoft Access offers traditional Access desktop applications plus a significantly updated SharePoint web service. Unlike SharePoint lists, this offers true relational database design with referential integrity, scalability, extensibility and performance one would expect from SQL Server.

The Access desktop is similar to Access but several features were discontinued including support for Access Data Projects [ clarification needed ] ADPs , pivot tables, pivot charts, Access data collections, source code control, replication, and other legacy features. In addition to using its own database storage file, Microsoft Access also may be used as the \’front-end\’ of a program while other products act as the \’back-end\’ tables, such as Microsoft SQL Server and non-Microsoft products such as Oracle and Sybase.

NET , or Visual Studio. NET will use the Microsoft Access database format for its tables and queries. Microsoft Access may also be part of a more complex solution, where it may be integrated with other technologies such as Microsoft Excel , Microsoft Outlook , Microsoft Word , Microsoft PowerPoint and ActiveX controls. Access tables support a variety of standard field types, indices , and referential integrity including cascading updates and deletes.

Access also includes a query interface, forms to display and enter data, and reports for printing. The underlying Access database , which contains these objects, is multi-user and handles record-locking. Repetitive tasks can be automated through macros with point-and-click options. It is also easy to place a database on a network and have multiple users share and update data without overwriting each other\’s work.

Data is locked at the record level which is significantly different from Excel which locks the entire spreadsheet. There are template databases within the program and for download from Microsoft\’s website.

These options are available upon starting Access and allow users to enhance a database with predefined tables, queries , forms, reports, and macros. Power users and developers can extend basic end-user solutions to a professional solution with advanced automation, data validation , error trapping , and multi-user support.

The number of simultaneous users that can be supported depends on the amount of data, the tasks being performed, level of use, and application design. Generally accepted limits are solutions with 1 GB or less of data Access supports up to 2 GB and it performs quite well with or fewer simultaneous connections concurrent users are supported.

If using an Access database solution in a multi-user scenario, the application should be \”split\”. This means that the tables are in one file called the back end typically stored on a shared network folder and the application components forms, reports, queries, code, macros, linked tables are in another file called the front end.

The linked tables in the front end point to the back end file. Each user of the Access application would then receive his or her own copy of the front end file. Applications that run complex queries or analysis across large datasets would naturally require greater bandwidth and memory.

Microsoft Access is designed to scale to support more data and users by linking to multiple Access databases or using a back-end database like Microsoft SQL Server. With the latter design, the amount of data and users can scale to enterprise-level solutions. Microsoft Access\’s role in web development prior to version is limited. User interface features of Access, such as forms and reports, only work in Windows.

In versions through an Access object type called Data Access Pages created publishable web pages. Data Access Pages are no longer supported.

The data i. Access allows databases to be published to SharePoint web sites running Access Services. These web-based forms and reports run in any modern web browser. The resulting web forms and reports, when accessed via a web browser, don\’t require any add-ins or extensions e.

Access can create web applications directly in SharePoint sites running Access Services. Access web solutions store its data in an underlying SQL Server database which is much more scalable and robust than the Access version which used SharePoint lists to store its data.

Access Services in SharePoint has since been retired. A compiled version of an Access database file extensions. ADE; ACCDE only works with Access or later can be created to prevent users from accessing the design surfaces to modify module code, forms, and reports. Both the. MDE and. ADE versions of an Access database are used when end-user modifications are not allowed or when the application\’s source code should be kept confidential.

Microsoft also offers developer extensions for download to help distribute Access applications, create database templates, and integrate source code control with Microsoft Visual SourceSafe. Users can create tables, queries, forms and reports, and connect them together with macros.

Advanced users can use VBA to write rich solutions with advanced data manipulation and user control. Access also has report creation features that can work with any data source that Access can access. The original concept of Access was for end users to be able to access data from any source.

It also has the ability to link to data in its existing location and use it for viewing, querying, editing, and reporting. This allows the existing data to change while ensuring that Access uses the latest data. It can perform heterogeneous joins between data sets stored across different platforms. Access is often used by people downloading data from enterprise level databases for manipulation, analysis, and reporting locally.

This makes it very convenient to distribute the entire application to another user, who can run it in disconnected environments.

One of the benefits of Access from a programmer\’s perspective is its relative compatibility with SQL structured query language —queries can be viewed graphically or edited as SQL statements, and SQL statements can be used directly in Macros and VBA Modules to manipulate Access tables.

Users can mix and use both VBA and \”Macros\” for programming forms and logic and offers object-oriented possibilities. VBA can also be included in queries. Microsoft Access offers parameterized queries. These queries and Access tables can be referenced from other programs like VB6 and.

Microsoft Access is a file server -based database. Unlike client—server relational database management systems RDBMS , Microsoft Access does not implement database triggers , stored procedures , or transaction logging. Access includes table-level triggers and stored procedures built into the ACE data engine.

Thus a Client-server database system is not a requirement for using stored procedures or table triggers with Access Tables, queries, forms, reports and macros can now be developed specifically for web based applications in Access Integration with Microsoft SharePoint is also highly improved.

The edition of Microsoft Access introduced a mostly flat design and the ability to install apps from the Office Store, but it did not introduce new features. The theme was partially updated again for , but no dark theme was created for Access. NET web forms can query a Microsoft Access database, retrieve records and display them on the browser. SharePoint Server via Access Services allows for Access databases to be published to SharePoint, thus enabling multiple users to interact with the database application from any standards-compliant Web browser.

Access Web databases published to SharePoint Server can use standard objects such as tables, queries, forms, macros, and reports. Access Services stores those objects in SharePoint.