To obtain Microsoft Project, please see the Questions and Answers section of our LEO classroom. Load Microsoft Project and then complete the following MS Project homework exercises.
WBS and Schedule II
Important Note: Doing this exercise now will greatly help you in succeeding on the ITP projects.
This exercise requires both Microsoft Project AND a Word document.
Note: At each step just continue on from where you finished the previous step. Don't revert back to the beginning. Also, just submit this homework exercise once at the end of the sequence (step N). You need not submit multiple copies after each group of steps. Just once at the end.
1. Enter the following project into MS Project, with project start date of January 1st of this year (or the following Monday if that was on a weekend):
Note: Yes, those are successors, not predecessors.
In MS Project, add a top level root task whose name is the project name (MSP-1), with no work in itself, and all remaining tasks (the tasks listed above and those you added) subordinate to (indented from) it.
Make sure to use "Automatic scheduling", not "Manual scheduling", and to enter task durations not hard-coded task dates. ("Manual scheduling" can really mess things up.
• Do not enter hard coded dates (that is, dates that you enter by hand instead of letting MS Project calculate them for you), with the sole exception of the project start date. (Note that even that does not mean you can enter the task date of the first task. It means that you can set the project start date separately and explicitly in MS Project. Hard-coding the start date of the first task is not the same as entering a project start date.)
• Do not use "manually scheduled" tasks. Rather, use "automatically scheduled" tasks. When manually scheduled, the dates are essentially hard-coded (see above) and not allowed to automatically adjust when the task durations and critical paths change.
2. Peruse the Tracking Gantt chart view with predecessor/successor links shown and with the critical path highlighted in red.
3. Peruse the network diagram view with the critical path highlighted in red.
4. Save a copy of it with a file name of " H1.mpp".
5. What is the total work duration of the whole project? (i.e., the sum of the durations of the tasks along the critical path.)
6. What is the critical path of this project? (i.e., list the tasks on the critical path of this project in order.)
7. Suppose (wonder of wonders!) that task D actually finishes early! Change its duration to 6 in MS Project. Save the changed file with a file name of " MSP-H2.mpp".
Task changes like this may have to be "Manual scheduling", but still should involve only task duration changes, not hard-coded task dates.
8. Did this change the work duration of the project? If so, what is the project work duration now?
9. What is the critical path of this project now? (i.e., list the tasks on the critical path of this project in order.)
10. Suppose task F runs late. Change its duration to 6 in MS Project. Save the changed file with a file name of " MSP-H3.mpp".
11. Did this change the work duration of the project? If so, what is the project work duration now?
12. What is the critical path of this project now? (i.e., list the tasks on the critical path of this project in order.)
13. Suppose task G runs late. Change its duration to 8 in MS Project. Save the changed file with a file name of " H4.mpp".
14. Did this change the work duration of the project? If so, what is the project work duration now?
15. What is the critical path of this project now? (i.e., list the tasks on the critical path of this project in order.)
16. What version of MS Project did you use for this?