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Chapter - Microsoft Project Demystified Introduction The Building Blocks: Tasks, Resources, and Assignments Tasks Resources Assignments Where Does Your Data Go? The Flow of Information Within Microsoft Project Data Central: The Microsoft Project Database View the Right Set of Project Information Data Lost and Found You Can't Delete a Field Views Just Display Project Data You Can Delete Data Microsoft Project Creates Some Data by Itself Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of Introduction When we encounter something new, our minds open with questions: What makes it work? What does it do? How can I use it? What are the possibilities? In this chapter, we’ll see how Microsoft Project is able to perform its magic on your data We’ll look behind the scenes at the gears, levers, pipes, and containers that make up Microsoft Project Once you see how it all works together, you’ll be better able to take advantage of the program’s many capabilities The Building Blocks: Tasks, Resources, and Assignments Nearly every action you take within Microsoft Project does something to or for tasks, resources, and assignments These three components are the building blocks of any project You can manipulate these essential components easily in Microsoft Project, finding the configuration that suits your needs Tasks The actual work that needs to be accomplished to meet your project goals can be broken into tasks For example, painting museum walls and hanging clocks are tasks that, when combined with other tasks, result in the completion of a clockwork exhibit But putting on a clockwork exhibit is the goal of that set of tasks — it is not a task itself The scope of a project consists of all its tasks and all its goals Cutting scope, for instance, often means eliminating some goals and the tasks needed to fulfill those goals Resources A resource is usually a person, but it can also be a piece of equipment, materials, services, or even a room — whatever is required to complete a task The amount of resources you have can affect the project scope and the time it takes to complete a project If, for instance, half of your team comes down with the flu, you may decide to cut the scope so that the project can be accomplished by the remaining team members and meet its original deadline Alternatively, you may decide to maintain the original scope and push out the project deadline Assignments When you assign a resource to work on a task, you have made an assignment Assignments directly affect the amount of time required to complete a task and, indirectly, the total project time When your deadlines change and you have to complete a project in less time than you had planned, you can assign more resources to a task Essentially, you make new assignments so that it takes less time to complete the individual task With shorter task lengths, your overall project length will shorten, too Where Does Your Data Go? The Flow of Information Within Microsoft Project Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of Before information can flow within Microsoft Project, there must be an exchange of information between you and the Microsoft Project interface — what you see on your computer screen Microsoft Project communicates with you through its interface: all the various charts, graphs, and sheets; the menus and toolbars that appear around the edges; and the dialog boxes that surface from time to time You, in turn, use the interface to communicate with Microsoft Project Let’s take a closer look now behind the interface, at the inner mechanisms that store and act on your data after you enter it Let’s suppose you have entered a task and assigned someone to work on it (Don’t worry about how that’s done just now The specifics on entering tasks and assigning resources are discussed in later chapters.) Data Central: The Microsoft Project Database The data you enter in the Microsoft Project interface travels to Microsoft Project’s database A database is nothing more than a special container for storing data in a very orderly way, as you might if you compiled a table that listed construction tasks in one column, the resources for those tasks in another, and the task cost in the last column In a database, a column is called a field, such as the Task Name field Each field stores a particular kind of information Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of View the Right Set of Project Information If Microsoft Project’s only skill were to store your data out of sight in its database, it wouldn’t be very useful as a project management aid You need to be able to see your project data and add to it, delete it, or modify it as circumstances dictate Microsoft Project has the tools that let you just that They are called views Each view gives you a different way of looking at some of the data in the database The view you choose depends on what information you want and the format you want to see it in You can, for example, use a table format or a bar-graph format to see how many hours each resource works during a given time period You can also use views to accomplish specific tasks, such as entering and editing information about tasks and resources Some views show essentially the same information, but in different formats For instance, you can enter data in a column in one view and see it displayed as a bar graph in another view There are two major categories of views: task views and resource views Task views show information about one or more of your tasks One of the most often used task views, which you see by default when you start Microsoft Project, is the Gantt Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of Chart view Resource views show information about one or more of the resources — people or equipment — you assigned to your project One example of a resource view is the Resource Usage view, which displays work allocations over time for each resource The following tables describe some of the more commonly used task and resource views and the types of information they display Use a task view when you want to enter, change, or display task information Task view Description Gantt Chart A list of tasks and related information and a chart that graphically shows tasks and durations over time Use this view to enter and schedule a list of tasks PERT Chart A network diagram showing all tasks and task dependencies Use this view to create and fine-tune your schedule in a flow chart format Calendar A monthly calendar showing tasks and durations Use this view to show the tasks scheduled in a specific week or range of weeks Task Usage A list of tasks showing assigned resources grouped under each task Use this view to adjust the amount of work your resources on tasks Tracking Gantt A list of tasks and related information and a chart that graphically shows planned and scheduled bars for each task Use this view to compare the desired schedule to the actual schedule Task Sheet A list of tasks and related information Use this view to enter and schedule tasks in a spreadsheet-like format Use a resource view when you want to enter, change, or display resource information Resource view Description Resource Graph A graph showing resource allocation, cost, or work over time Use this view to display information about a single resource or group of resources over time Resource Sheet A list of resources and related information Use this view to enter and edit resource information in a spreadsheetlike format Resource Usage A list of resources showing assigned tasks grouped under each resource Use this view to show cost or work allocation information for each resource Also, use this view to adjust the amount of work resources on tasks Data Lost and Found Have you ever found that some of the data you entered into a program seems to have vanished? And you sometimes wonder why information appears in certain places without your having entered it there? For instance, where does the data for a task’s start and finish dates come from? These seeming oddities are explained in the following sections You Can’t Delete a Field Views Just Display Project Data You Can Delete Data Microsoft Project Creates Some Data by Itself You Can’t Delete a Field A field that you see within a view, such as the Duration field in the Gantt Chart view, is simply a visible copy of the real Duration field that’s located in the database If you delete the Duration field from the Gantt Chart view, you have removed that copy of the field from the Gantt Chart view only You have not deleted the "real" Duration field from the database In fact, not only can you still display the Duration field in other views, you can also display it again in the Gantt Chart view Views Just Display Project Data Views offer you many ways to examine portions of your project information But only the database, which you never see, actually stores data You Can Delete Data While you cannot delete a field itself, you can delete the entries in a field Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of Microsoft Project Creates Some Data by Itself Microsoft Project enters certain data into special fields called calculated fields For example, when you enter a task duration, Microsoft Project automatically performs a calculation to determine the task’s start and finish dates It enters the calculated dates into your Start and Finish fields without your having to so manually Actually, this is one of many such calculations Microsoft Project performs automatically So don’t be surprised next time you see data that you didn’t enter That completes the flow of data: from you to the Microsoft Project interface, "down" to the database, back "up" to the views, and then finally out to you once more In this flow you and Microsoft Project are interdependent partners Microsoft Project depends on you for complete and accurate information And you depend on Microsoft Project to create an accurate schedule from the information you enter Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of