COMP 211: Introduction to Software Engineering

Tutorial: Project Schedule Management using Microsoft Project

The goal of project schedule management is to ensure that a team of developers completes a project within
the planned time and budget. To achieve this goal, it is vital to construct a schedule for accomplishing the
project tasks, to follow it and to revise and update it periodically to reflect the actual project progress. Only by
constructing and maintaining a project schedule can development problems be identified and addressed
early, before they result in major delays and/or cost overrun, or worse, become project killers! These tutorial
notes introduce the basic concepts of project schedule management by demonstrating how to construct and
maintain a project schedule using Microsoft Project.

IDENTIFYING THE TASKS: DIVIDE AND CONQUER A LARGE PROJECT

It is not easy to manage a project, particularly a large one involving many people. There are usually many
different things to do and to keep track of. To effectively manage a project, it needs to be decomposed into
tasks. Because a task is usually much smaller than the entire project, it is easier to understand and thus
easier to manage. Experience has shown that a task should be small enough to be completed in a week so
that it can be easily managed. Completing all project tasks completes the project. Therefore, the very first step
in project schedule management is to identify what are the project tasks.
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Microsoft Project can be used to record and keep track of the tasks in a project. When Microsoft Project
starts, a window similar to that shown in Figure 1 is displayed. The default view is a Gantt chart into which you
can enter project information. There is a task information area for defining tasks and their properties (the
middle area of the window in Figure 1) and a chart area that graphically shows the project schedule against a
calendar (the right side area of the window). In Figure 1, two tasks have been entered in the task information
area. A task can be entered simply by clicking and typing in a box under the Task Name column.

Figure 1: Microsoft Project window showing Gantt chart view and two tasks.

The default and most commonly used columns available in the task information area, from left to right, and
their meaning are (see also Figure 3):
• Task identifier – Shows the unique identifier for a task. Tasks are numbered sequentially starting from 1.
• Task Status – Displays status information about a task (see Figure 5 and Figure 8 for some examples).
• Task Name – The meaningful name for a task.
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Microsoft Project can usually be found under the Microsoft Office menu item in the Start menu.

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Tutorial: Project Management using Microsoft Project

• Duration – Shows how long a task will take to complete. The default is one day, which is assumed to be 8
hours. A question mark after the duration indicates that this is an estimate only. The duration can be
changed by typing in the column or by dragging one end of the task bar in the chart area of the window.
• Start – Shows the start date of a task. The default is the current date. The date can be changed by
clicking in the column and selecting a date from a pop-up calendar.
• Finish – Shows the end date of a task. The default is
the current date since the default duration is one
day. The date can be changed by clicking in the
column and selecting a date from a pop-up
calendar.
• Predecessors – Shows the task identifier of the
tasks that must complete before a task can start.
• Resource Names – Shows the resources (people,
equipment, etc.) required by a task.
To add various additional columns, such as %
Complete, Actual Cost, etc., to the task information area,
select “Insert→ Column…” in the main menu to open the
Column Definition window shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Column Definition window.

ASSIGNING TASK RESOURCES: THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH

To get something done, resources are needed. At the very least, a person-in-charge (PIC) is needed for each
task. Different tasks need different resources. For example, when doing programming a computer is needed.
When doing testing a lab might be needed. It is important that the resources are available when we are
working on a task, otherwise the task cannot be done. Thus, the second step of project management is to
identify and assign the resources needed for the tasks.

By scrolling or resizing the task information area, a column titled Resource Names can bee seen where the
resources for each task can be specified as shown in Figure 3. A task can use multiple resources and a
resource can be used by multiple tasks. If a task uses multiple resources, a comma should separate their
names as shown in Figure 3. Furthermore, once a resource has been specified, it is available for selection
when defining the resources needed by other tasks as shown in Figure 3. By default, a task’s resources are
also shown in the chart area as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Specifying task resources.

Microsoft Project can help you analyze and discover various properties of your schedule such as resource
overload and the cost of the resources. Suppose Andrew is assigned to study the MVC Framework instead of
Fred as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Overloading a resource.

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Tutorial: Project Management using Microsoft Project

By selecting “View→ Resource Usage” from the main menu, you can see that Andrew is shown in red as
shown in Figure 5, which indicates a scheduling conflict. Since Andrew cannot do both tasks in one day, the
schedule needs to be adjusted by either allocating the task to somebody else or delaying the task.

Figure 5: Resource Usage view of project schedule.

SPECIFYING TASK DEPENDENCY: YOU CAN’T RUN THE PROGRAM BEFORE YOU WRITE IT

Resource allocation is not the only issue that needs to be considered when scheduling tasks. The
dependency among tasks also needs to be considered because some tasks must be done before other tasks
can be started. For example, you must write the code before you test it; however, nothing prevents you from
constructing the test plan before writing the code.

In Microsoft Project, you can drag a source task (i.e., the task that must finish first) to a target task (i.e., the
task that cannot start before the source task finishes) in a Gantt chart to create a dependency as shown in
Figure 6. The dependency will then automatically change the schedule so that the dependency constraint is
met. Microsoft Project prevents you from creating a cyclic dependency in a project.

Figure 6: Creating a task dependency.

Notice that in Figure 6, Saturday and Sunday have been specified as non-working time so the task “Study
MVC Framework” cannot start until Monday. You can change the default non-working time by selecting
“Tools→ Change Working Time…” from the main menu.

PROJECT SCHEDULING: ONLY GOD KNOWS HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE; WE CAN ONLY ESTIMATE

A project schedule is one of the most important deliverables that a project manager must prepare for each
project. An experienced project manager can arrange the tasks so that the dependency constraints are met,
resources are not overloaded and the time needed for each task is an accurate estimate. It is, in general,
impossible to tell when tasks will end. We can only estimate, based on existing information, such as
experience. In planning a project schedule, it is always a good idea to allow some extra time as a buffer to
make sure that the schedule can be met even if minor problems occur.

You can change the start time of a task by dragging it to the left or right in the calendar area; you can change
the end time and thus the duration of a task by dragging the right edge of the task.

PROJECT TRACKING: YOU CAN’T EXPECT EVERYTHING TO BE SMOOTH

After you have constructed the project schedule, it is unlikely that you will be perfectly on schedule. As a
project manager, you should regularly check whether your team members are on schedule. You should ask
them periodically (for example, weekly) if they are on schedule and if they are not, the reasons for missing the
schedule. By checking often, you can have a better idea about the progress of the project.

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Tutorial: Project Management using Microsoft Project

In Microsoft Project, you can update a task’s progress by editing the “Percent complete” field in the General
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tab of the Task Information window as shown in Figure 7. Microsoft Project will display a progress bar for the
task as shown in Figure 8. You can also add notes to tasks using the “Notes” tab, which will result in a note
icon in the tasks status field as shown in Figure 10.

Figure 7: Task Information window.

Figure 8: Showing a task’s progress.

Various views of the project schedule, useful for tracking various aspects of the project, can be displayed by
going to the “View” item in the main menu. Some available views are:
• Calendar – shows the project schedule as a calendar.
• Network Diagram – shows the hierarchical order of tasks and summary information about each task (see
Figure 9).
• Task Usage – shows the time each task will take, the resources allocated to the task and when the
resource will be used by the task.
• Tracking Gantt – shows the percent complete information for each task as well as their hierarchical order
(see Figure 10).

Figure 9: Network Diagram view of project schedule.

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The Task Information window can be viewed by double-clicking anywhere in the task information area of the Gantt chart.

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Tutorial: Project Management using Microsoft Project

Figure 10: Tracking Gantt view of project schedule.

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