MS Project w/Screenshots

Please complete this MS Project

E.     Baselining and Actuals

Please write all your response in a single MS Word document covering all questions and exercises, and paste (do not attach) the screen shots into the document in-line with your text.  It makes it much easier to read  — and grade.  Please include screen shots of each step, not just one screen shot before or one after.

Note:  These are not trick questions, though (as with many of the MS Project exercises) you need to read them carefully.  Some people seem to misread the question and do the wrong thing.

E.1.   How do you set a project baseline in MS Project?  Describe AND provide a screen shot of the steps.   

E.2.   How do you enter the actual duration or effort a task took when executed?  Describe AND provide a screen shot of the steps.  

(Important Note:  This is to update the ACTUAL duration for a task as executed, not the planned duration.  The planned or scheduled duration is to remain the same.  Note also that this refers to updating the date (or percentage complete) for an individual task, not for the entire project.) 

E.3.   How do you “status” or recalculate a schedule , update a schedule to adjust its dates based on actual execution durations?  (Note that this will change the critical path, though this question does not care how to display the critical path.)  Describe AND provide a screen shot of the steps.  

(Important Note:  This refers to updating the data and re-calculating the dates for the entire project, not for individual tasks of the project.  It does not refer to changing individual dates nor to adding actual dates.   Basically, this is like clicking the Update or Refresh key in other apps.  This is also not the same as updating all tasks to say that they are complete as of the current date.)

E.4.   How do you show both the baseline and current bars on a Gantt chart?

F.     Task and Schedule Changes

Inspired by: Fuller, Valacich, and George (2008). Information Systems Project Management.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice-Hall.  pp.403-4-4.

Suppose you are the project manager for the following project:

F.1.   “Before”:  First, prepare a network diagram for the project using MS Project.  Determine the critical path and slack times for all of the tasks. This completes the plan for the project schedule.

F.2.   Then figure out the project duration and completion date.  Then baseline this (in MS Proj: Tools > Baseline) then save the .mpp file as “<yourname> F. Baselined Project”.

F.3.   “After”:  During project plan Proj Execution, we become aware of the need to change the duration of Task 4 to five days.  Meanwhile, Task 3 has been finished one day early, so it only took one day to do.

F.4.   Re-do the network diagram and figure out the new duration and completion date. 

F.5.   Look at the “tracking Gantt chart” to compare the before (baselined) and after (actual) versions.  The baselined version will generally be black/gray, and the actual/current version will generally be in color (red for critical path tasks, blue for non-critical path tasks).

F.6.   Save the .mpp file, making sure it shows both versions, before (baselined) and after (actual) in the file. 

F.7.   Then, having done all this, answer these questions:

a.       What effect did this have on and total project effort?  Why?

b.      What effect did this have on project duration?  Why?

c.       What effect did this have on the critical path?  Why?