Enhance your project pipeline management in IT architecture documentation with airSlate SignNow

How to create outlook signature

in this video I'm going to teach you how to use Microsoft Project download the entire exercise file for free over at alvinthepm.com exercise to follow along with this video and learn Microsoft Project the easy way alright so for our example let's say you're working on a very simple DIY project to build your own dog house and you want to create a schedule and a total cost estimate using Microsoft Project Microsoft projects interface is split up into two areas the right side is the Gantt chart view which graphically shows your project schedule using bars in the left hand side of the screen is the table where you input all of your tasks to complete your project now we've already inputted several of our tasks and we've divided them into five phases the first phase is initiation where we'll identify the location and the layout of our doghouse the second and the third phase is are drafting the design and identifying and purchasing our materials the fourth and the fifth phases are constructing and finishing out the house now it looks like we're missing a few key tasks for testing the floors the wall stability and roof leaking before we can actually Mark the house as fully completed so let's insert a group of tasks after add roof to do that hover your mouse to the leftmost column with the numbers and drag it down to select rows 17 through 20. right click and select insert task we want this first task to be the section header let's call it testing of house and let's out Dent it by pressing alt plus shift plus left Arrow if you ever need to indent or outdent a task use these buttons here which are a part of the schedule group underneath the task tab now as part of testing the house we want to complete floor testing while stability testing and roof waterproof testing it looks like we have all the tasks that we need to complete the project so let's add a milestone to signify the Project's completion go to the line after the last task and type in Milestone project completion you'll notice that this Milestone is indented underneath the group for finishing so let's out Dent it by selecting the task and pressing alt plus shift plus left Arrow the next thing we need to do is to make sure that all tasks are linked correctly to each other so let's first make sure that Microsoft Project automatically schedules all tasks based upon their dependencies the resources and the working days in the calendar to select all the tasks move your mouse to the top left square button of your table and left click it you'll see that all of your tasks have been selected now move your mouse to the auto schedule button that's underneath the taskbar of the tasks group once you select it Microsoft Project will automatically input temporary dates and durations which we'll fix later the next step to create our schedule is to establish the sequencing of activities as best practice we want to add predecessors for the sub-level tasks and not the header group titles so starting with the first phase of initiation selecting the location and defining the layout what happened first at the same time so both of these tasks would not have any predecessors for the second phase of design drafting the design can only take place after the layout and the location has been identified we select the location and the layout of the house first and then we start drafting the design so for this task underneath the predecessors column let's add task IDs 3 and 4. you'll see that the Gan chart on the right hand side has been updated with this dependency the first two tasks have been linked to the third task for drafting the design with an arrow what this tells us is that the first two tasks must take place before the third task can start establishing these dependencies is very important so that Microsoft Project knows in what order to schedule each task now let's go through the rest of the tasks so expert design review can only take place after the design has been drafted so let's add task ID 6 as a predecessor to expert design review the next task for finalizing the design can only start after you've completed a design review so let's add task ID 7 as our predecessor to finalizing the design and just like before the Gantt chart on the right hand side has been updated automatically to show these new dependencies these new tasks must happen sequentially one after the other after the design has been drafted now let's take a look at the next section from Material preparation identifying materials can happen at the same time that you're drafting the design so we want identifying materials to have the same predecessors as a task for draft design so let's copy the predecessors for test ID 6 by selecting the cell and pressing Ctrl C and then pasting them for task ID 10 by pressing Ctrl V the Gantt chart now shows these two tasks taking place simultaneously with the same predecessors as best practice and as a pro tip I recommend looking at your Gan chart to make sure the correct dependencies are in place between each task the next task for purchasing material can only begin after we've identified the materials so let's add task ID 10 identify materials as a predecessor to purchasing the materials moving on to the next phase for construction of the house we will first cut the wood we can only cut the wood after we've purchased all of the materials so its predecessor will be task ID 11. the next task for building the platform can only start after the design has been finalized all material has been purchased and the wood has been cut so this task will have three predecessors task ID 8 for finalizing the design task ID 11 for purchasing the materials and task ID 13 for cutting the wood so let's add task IDs 8 11 and 13. as the predecessors for building the platform the next two tasks are adding walls to the platform and adding the roof so in terms of sequencing the activities the platform must be built first and then the walls can be added to the platform once that's finished then the roof can be added onto the walls since all three of these tasks must happen one after the other we can use a shortcut in Microsoft Project to quickly link these tasks so they take place in sequential order to do that we'll use the chain button of the schedule group underneath the task tab first select all three task IDs 14 15 and 16 and then press the chain button the Gantt chart now shows that all three tasks have been one after the other one task can't start until the other task has finished in a linear sequence all right so going to our next phase for testing of the house the first subtask that we have here is floor testing we can only test the floors after the platform has been built so let's add task ID 14 as our predecessor to floor testing wall testing can only start after the walls have been added to the platform so let's add task ID 15 as its predecessor and similarly waterproof testing of the roof can only start after the roof has been added moving on to our next phase for finishing we have painting the exterior of the house let's say that we only want this to start after all testing has been completed and after the roof has been added so we'll need to add all four of these tasks as their predecessors to painting the exterior alright so we've added in task ID 16 18 19 and 20 as predecessors to the task for painting the exterior the next two tasks for cleaning up the debris and inspecting the house must happen sequentially after the exterior has been painted so let's use the chain button to link these tasks as predecessors in sequential order and let's say that the milestone for completing the project will happen after the inspection of the house is completed so let's add that task as a predecessor now we can quickly see the overall project view in the Gan chart by going to the view Tab and selecting the entire project from the zoom group by the way if you're getting a lot of value out of this video do me a favor and smash that like button it truly shows your support for me and it helps the channel up tremendously so I can make even better videos like this alright now that we added in the correct dependencies for all tasks the next step is to determine the durations and how long each task will take for the initiation phase let's say that selecting the location and defining the layout will take one day each for the design phase let's say that drafting the design takes two days while the design review and finalizing the design only take one day each for the next phase of material preparation we'll be identifying materials which will take two days and purchasing materials let's give it three days all right so let's go down to the next phase for construction of the house cutting the wood should only take one day building the platform adding the walls and adding the roof should each take about two days long for testing of the house testing the floors the walls and the roof that should all take one day each so for the finishing phase let's also say that painting the exterior cleaning up all the debris and inspecting the final house also take one day each and for the Milestone signifying the project completion since this is a milestone this should not have any duration assigned to it so let's give it zero days now when we zoom out of the Gan chart we can see the entire project timeline with the correct duration by this point we've established all the tasks in our project we've also defined the correct predecessors for each task or in other words the correct sequencing of activities and we've also determined the durations for each task or the best case estimates for how long it will take to complete the work the next step for us is to assign resources to each task to do that we need to change our view from gen chart to resources mode so move your mouse to the left most side of the screen where it says again chart right click and select option for resource sheet this is the section within Microsoft Project where we'll list out the material and all the labor resources that we'll use on our project let's say that there are three people working on this project Michael Jim and Dwight for the material that we're using let's add wooden planks and nails and let's say that we'll be hiring contractor a to cut the wood for us after we've added these resources we need to make sure that the material types are correct Michael Jim and Dwight are individuals who will work on the project on an hourly rate so this is correct the wooden planks and the nails are both material types so let's select that option from the drop down menu we'll be working with contractor a to cut the wooden planks for us so this will be a service or a cost to the project itself so let's change this material type from work to cost now let's assign the hourly work rates for Michael Jim and Dwight for Michael let's say that he gets paid a standard rate of 30 an hour in both Jim and Dwight are paid 25 an hour for the wooden planks let's say this is priced in terms of linear feet so three dollars and fifty cents per linear foot and for the nails let's say that this is priced at seven dollars per box and each box contains 100 nails for our contractor a let's say that we'll pay them after all their assigned work with cutting the wood is completed so instead of putting a prorated we want to pay them at the end of that activity now that we've defined all the resources let's switch out a resource sheet mode and go back to the Gantt chart mode so we can assign our resources to our project's tasks in the column for resource names you should see a drop down menu for each resource however I found that it can be very tedious and really time consuming to assign resources to every single task using this approach instead if you're assigning resources to multiple tasks simultaneously here's what I personally recommend go to the resource Tab and click on the button for assign resources which is a part of the assignments group what I love about this feature is that you can assign more than one task to multiple resources all at the same time and you can see that the task name changes inside the window when I select a new task so let's assign Michael to the tasks select location Define layout and inspect to do that press the Ctrl key and left click each of the tasks in the assigned resources window click on Michael and then click on assign immediately we can see that Michael has been assigned as a resource and the cost for his work is 240 dollars so now let's assign Dwight to draft design expert design review finalize design paint exterior and clean up debris for Jim let's assign them to all the tasks from Material preparation construction of the house except for cutting the wood and of course testing the house and let's assign contractor a to cut the wood for a one-time service cost of twenty dollars all that's left to do is to assign our material resources so let's assign nails and wooden planks to the task for purchase materials right now Microsoft Project is saying that we only need one box of nails and one linear foot of wooden planks let's say that we actually need 10 linear feet of wooden planks so to do that underneath the units column change it from 1 to 10. right away we see that the cost of all the wooden plings has changed from three dollars and fifty cents to a total of thirty five dollars now when Microsoft Project calculates the cost for our project it's going to assume that we're purchasing 10 linear feet of wooden planks and 35 dollars for a cost estimate we've now assigned all resources to our tasks but if you look to the leftmost column for indicators we see a red person icon which tells us that a resource is over allocated for these tasks to better visualize where our resource over allocation is let's switch from Gantt chart mode to Resource usage mode to do that go to the left side of your screen where it says Gantt chart right click and select resource usage inside resource usage mode we can see what task is assigned to a specific resource and what date this is taking place on the chart to the right for our project Michael is over allocated on two tasks for select location and Define layout because these two tasks are taking place on the same day Jim is over allocated for the following tasks add walls of platform and floor testing and add roof and wall testing to prevent this resource over allocation instead of having Jim work on floor testing and wall testing let's assign Dwight to these two tasks since he's available on both of these dates so let's switch from resource usage to get chart mode Let's select the two tasks for floor testing and wall testing and click on assign resources select gym and click remove and then assign Dwight all right so the last resource overall location is with Michael for selecting the location and defining the layout to fix this let's have the fine layout take place after select location is finished so let's add task 3 as a predecessor to defining the layout with all of our tasks and our resources assigned let's take a look at the cost for our project to do that let's switch our table view go to the top left square button left click it and then right click and select the option for cost in the total cost column we can see what the total cost estimates are for each task the header sections and the overall project let's go back to the entry table View to find out our overall project information go to the project Tab and select the button for project information this tells us when the product is starting and when it's finishing let's update this field so the actual start date is January 9 2023. once we do that the entire schedule will automatically update with the correct dates assuming that we're starting the project on January 9 2023 going back to the project information window select the statistics button this tells us all the high level information about our project start and finish dates this also tells us how long the project will take the number of work hours to complete the project and the Project's total cost the bottom of the window also tells us the percent completion for duration and work so now you've created your first project plan using Microsoft Project you've learned how to input tasks create dependencies assign resources and view cost estimates download the entire exercise file over at albumthepm.com exercise to follow along with the entire video to learn Microsoft Project the easy way thank you so much for watching I love having you here so stay tuned for my next video with how to use Microsoft Project and I'll see you in another video