3. Creating a Project Schedule
Building a project schedule might seem as intimidating and
interminable as constructing the Great Wall of China. But if you build
your schedule stone by stone (or task by task), you’ll be done before
you know it.
Tip
If you’re already a Project maven, you may have a favorite approach
to building a schedule. In that case, consider following this test
drive anyway—you may just learn some new Project tips and tricks.
For just about any kind of project, you can start constructing a schedule by asking yourself the following questions:
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What work must be done to achieve the project’s objectives? -
What tangible results must your project produce—and when? -
How does each task depend upon the completion of other tasks? -
Who’s going to do the work? -
How long do they have to get it done?
3.1 What Work Must Be Done?
The foundation for any schedule is the work that will achieve the
project’s objectives and deliver the desired results. Before you can do
anything else, you need a list of the tasks to perform, from beginning
the project to sweeping up the confetti at the end. This section
describes how to build a list of individual tasks.
In this test drive, you’ll create the steps for part of the project
schedule—preparing the food and drinks for the party. For extra
practice, you can try filling out the rest of the schedule on your own.
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Start Project by choosing Start→All Programs→Microsoft Office→Microsoft Project 2010.
Project opens a blank project, called something like Project1. -
To change your project’s start date, choose Project→Properties→Project Information.
Remember, the shorthand in the instructions means you select the
Project tab, go to the Properties section on that tab, and then click
the Project Information button. -
In the Start Date box, select the starting date, and then click OK to close the dialog box.
Chances are your project doesn’t start the same day you build your
project schedule, so change the project’s start date to when you expect
work to begin. Setting an accurate start date is important, since
Project schedules new tasks to start as soon as possible—initially, the
project start date.
The Project Information dialog box, shown in Figure 3
also provides opportunities for specifying your project calendar,
working time, and so on. For this test project, as for many other
projects, the settings are fine as is.
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Add your project’s first task: In the first row of the Task Name column, type Buy the food and then press Enter.
For the moment, the task name is the only cell you must fill in.
Because Project initially creates new tasks as manually scheduled, it
leaves the duration for your first task blank. The icon in the Task
Mode cell (a pushpin with a question mark) indicates that more
information is needed. (You’ll fill in that information later.)
Tip
If you want Project to calculate your schedule for you, create tasks
as Auto Scheduled. In the status bar at the bottom of the window, click
New Tasks: Manually Scheduled, and then choose Auto Scheduled.
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Repeat step 4 to add the following tasks:
Figure 4 shows what the task list looks like when you’re done.
As your task list grows, so does the urge to group tasks. People
have a hard time focusing on more than half a dozen things at a time,
so gathering related tasks into groups makes the project schedule
easier to grasp. -
Drag over the task rows to select all the tasks. Then choose Task→Insert→Insert Summary Task.
Project inserts a new summary task above the selected tasks, named
<New Summary Task>. The program indents the selected tasks to
make them subtasks, as shown in Figure 5.
You can see that the summary task is set to Auto Scheduled, which means
Project calculates the values for the task. For example, the program
sets the Duration to “1 day?” The question mark indicates that the
duration is an estimate. It also sets the start date to the project
start date. -
Type the name for the summary task, Prepare food and drinks, and press Enter.
When Project inserts the new summary task, it selects the Task Name
cell, so you can immediately type the name of the summary task. -
To create a summary task and subtasks at the same time, select a blank row in the task list and then choose Task→Insert→Summary.
Project inserts a new summary task and one subtask, named <New Summary Task> and <New Task>.
-
Type Prepare drinks in the new summary Task Name cell and press Enter. In the Task Name cell that contains <New Task>, type Buy drink fixings and press Enter.
Project selects the next cell in the Task Name column. As you’ll see
in the next step, the next tasks you add are subtasks to the summary
task you just created. -
Repeat step 4 to add the following tasks:
Tip
To move tasks inward or outward at any time, select the tasks and
then choose Task→Schedule→ Indent Task or Task→Schedule→Outdent Task.
Indent Task is a green arrow pointing to the right. The green arrow for
Outdent Task points to the left. (Outdent
is Microsoftese for the opposite of indent. That is, outdenting moves a
task out to the next higher level in the outline.) You can also move
selected tasks inward or outward by positioning the pointer at the
magic spot in a Task Name cell (over the text of the task name) where
the mouse pointer turns into a double arrow. When you see the double
arrow, drag the tasks to the left or right.
If you wish, experiment with adding additional tasks and summary tasks to your schedule.
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