Mastering Microsoft Project 2016 Training Tutorial

Microsoft Project is a software program that lets you easily manage and coordinate the resources needed to finish a project. A “project” is any endeavor to create a product or accomplish a goal within a framework set by the related resource, time, and budget constraints. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You may start Microsoft Project in different ways. If you have a desktop icon for Microsoft Project, you can double-click the Microsoft Project icon to start the program. Learn this and more during this lecture.

As mentioned earlier, a project is any endeavor to create a product or accomplish a goal within a framework set by the related resource, time, and budget constraints. The first part of this definition states that each project has a “goal” to accomplish. This goal could be a new physical product or a more intangible product, like a quantifiable amount of research performed. Each project must meet its goal to be successful. Learn this and more during this lecture.

As with any program, you should begin learning Project by familiarizing yourself with its working environment. If using Project 2013, you will see a “Welcome to Project” file appear the first time you open Project. After reading and closing that file, the start-up screen appears. Project 2016 immediately opens to the start-up screen. The start-up screen displays previously opened project files and templates you can use to create a new project file. To create a new, blank project file, click the “Blank Project” template within the start-up screen. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The Title Bar is the thin bar that runs across the very top of the Microsoft Project application window. The name of your currently opened project file appears in the center of this bar if your project file window is maximized. At the right end of the Title Bar are three buttons in a button group: “Minimize,” “Maximize/Restore Down,” and “Close,” respectively. These buttons change the display of the application window. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The Ribbon is the primary tool used in Microsoft Project. The Ribbon lets you perform all the commands available. The Ribbon is divided into tabs. Within these tabs are different groups of commands. The commands in each group are accessed by using the buttons, boxes, or menus shown within the group. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can click the “File” tab in the Ribbon to open a view of the file called the “backstage view.” In this view, you can perform all your file management. This includes performing functions like saving a project file, opening a project file, or creating a new project file. However, you no longer see the contents of the project file. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The scroll bars run both vertically and horizontally along the right and bottom sides of the panes that are displayed within your project file view. They have little arrows at their ends that point in the direction they scroll. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The Quick Access toolbar is located above the Ribbon, by default. However, if you want to place it below the Ribbon, click the “Customize Quick Access Toolbar” button at the right end of the toolbar and then select the “Show Below the Ribbon” command. You can reset it to its default location by clicking the same “Customize Quick Access Toolbar” button and then choosing the “Show Above the Ribbon” command. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The Entry Bar is no longer displayed by default in Microsoft Project. Therefore, if you wish to use it, you must enable its display. To do this, click the “File” tab in the Ribbon. Then click the “Options” command at the left side of the backstage view to open the “Project Options” window. In the “Project Options” window, click the “Display” category at left. To the right, check the “Entry bar” checkbox under the “Show these elements” section. Then click the “OK” button at the bottom of the “Project Options” window. Learn this and more during this lecture.

At the bottom of the application window is the Status Bar. Within this bar you can see one of the three modes for Microsoft Project at the left end: “Ready,” “Edit,” or “Enter.” If the word “Ready” appears, Project is ready to do just about anything that you want. This is the mode that you want to see displayed in the Status Bar before you begin a task. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Project 2013 and later uses “Touch Mode” for easier access to the buttons and other commands within the Ribbon and Quick Access toolbar. When you enter touch mode, the Ribbon and Quick Access toolbar are enlarged. Extra space is added around the buttons and commands contained within them to help you easily access the buttons on a touch-based tablet. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When you initially open Project, you can see a listing of recently opened project files shown in the panel at the left side of the startup screen, under the “Recent” section. You can open one of these listed project files by clicking its name within the panel to reopen it. However, if the project file you want to open is not shown in the listing, click the “Open Other Projects” command at the bottom of the panel to reveal the “Open” category within the backstage view. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To close the currently opened project file, click the “File” tab in the Ribbon and then click the “Close” command at the left side of the backstage view. You can also click the “x” in the upper right corner of the project file window to close the current project file. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When you first open Project, you will be presented with the startup screen that lets you create a new project file. However, to create a new project file while using Project, click the “File” tab in the Ribbon and then select the “New” command from the command panel at the left side of the Backstage View. This shows any available project templates in the panel at the right side of the view. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You use the “Save As” command to save a project file for the first time. The ”Save As” command lets you choose where to save the file and what to name it. To do this, click the “File” tab in the Ribbon. Then click the “Save As” command in the command panel at the left side of the Backstage View. To the right of the command panel are the places available for you to save the file. If signed-in using a Microsoft account, you may see online storage, like OneDrive folders or SharePoint sites appear in this list. Learn this and more during this lecture. 

Microsoft Project has many different views of the project data available to use. The default view of a project file is called the “Gantt Chart” view of the project. This view shows the project’s tasks in an “Entry” table at the left side of the view. The duration of these tasks and the relationships between them appears in the timescale bar chart to the right of the tasks. Learn this and more during this lecture.

A project plan lets you set the basic parameters of a project file. To create a project plan for a new project file, click the “Project” tab in the Ribbon. Then click the “Project Information” button in the “Properties” button group. Doing this then opens the “Project Information” dialog box. Learn this and more during this lecture.

After creating the initial project file in Microsoft Project, you must enter the project’s tasks. Simply put, you must enter the actual work required to finish the project. In Microsoft Project, you enter this work as tasks within the project file. This chapter examines how to create tasks in a project file. Learn this and more during this lecture.

After creating tasks in a project file’s task list, you may need to edit or delete the tasks. To edit tasks in the task list, click the cell to change and then click again directly over the text in the cell to put the text insertion marker into the cell. Then make your desired changes to the cell’s contents. Press the “Enter” key on your keyboard or click into another cell to save the editing changes when finished. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Each task you create in a project file must have a duration. This duration can be measured in any unit of time, from minutes to months. Most often, it is measured in terms of hours, days, or weeks. When entering tasks into the task list, you can enter the task duration into the “Duration” column of the table in the Gantt Chart view. You can also enter this information into the “Duration” field on the “General” tab in the “Task Information” dialog box if you use that method of task entry. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Many project tasks share dependencies. For example, perhaps “Task A” must be finished before “Task B” can start. You can model this task dependency using task linking in Microsoft Project. There are four types of task links you can create: “Finish-to-Start (FS),” “Start-to-Start (SS),” “Finish-to-Finish (FF),” or “Start-to-Finish (SF),” which is rarely used. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You use “milestone” tasks to show when a specified minor project goal is accomplished. Unlike many other tasks, you often do not enter a duration for milestone tasks. This is because they simply indicate that a series of tasks is complete. However, you can set any task in a project task list as a “milestone” task. If the task has a specified duration, the entire duration is not drawn in the bar chart at the right side of the Gantt Chart view. Only the last day of the duration appears. This day is also marked with a small black diamond, which is the milestone task indicator. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You often have a grouping of related tasks that creates a larger task phase in projects. You can group these lower-level tasks, which are often linked together, into a larger task. This larger task is often called a phase or summary task. The summary task, or phase, consists of the tasks that must be completed to finish that part of the project. In this lesson, we will examine how to indicate a phase in a project file using summary tasks. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Task notes are one of three main types of notes in Microsoft Project. They associate additional text, images, or web page hyperlinks with a selected task. To create a task note, first select the name of the task to which you want to attach a note from the listing of tasks. Next, click the “Task Notes” button in the “Properties” button group on the “Task” tab in the Ribbon. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Resources within Microsoft Project are the different people, equipment, materials, and costs used to complete tasks in a project file. Resources in a project are often as varied as the project tasks for which they are required. Generally, all projects need some people resources and many projects also require other equipment, cost, and material resources. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Since resources track who and what is needed to complete a project’s tasks, the first type of resource you will learn to create is also the most commonly used: the work resource. Work resources show who completes task work in a project file and what equipment is used to complete the task. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Another type of resource you can create in projects is the material resource. In the previous lesson on creating work resources, note you had to select the “Work” choice from the “Type” drop-down for any work resources you created, like people, places or equipment. Material resources are different from work resources because material resources represent materials used or consumed by the project’s tasks. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Another type of resource you can create in projects is the cost resource. Cost resources are different from work and material resources in that cost resources represent costs commonly incurred to complete tasks within a project that are not directly tied to the amount of work performed or materials used. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Both work and material resources can have default costs and/or pay rates associated with them. This helps you record the costs associated with finishing tasks. This information helps keep your project within its financial constraints and also improves the future cost estimates involved with different types of project tasks. Learn this and more during this lecture.

After entering a work resource, you can adjust its working schedule so Microsoft Project can then adjust the scheduling and use of the work resource, as needed. When creating a work resource in the “Resource Sheet” view, you can set the resource’s default working calendar from the “Base Calendar” cell’s drop-down menu. This lecture examines making individual changes to the availability schedule of a work resource. Learn this and more during this lecture.

As shown in the previous lecture, you can edit the individual work availability schedules of selected work resources in a project file. These scheduling changes are deviations made from a selected base calendar, like the “Standard” calendar or the “Night Shift” calendar. These are the base calendars you select when initially creating a project file to set the default work availability schedule for the project. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Microsoft Project uses effort-driven scheduling by default when assigning work resources to tasks or removing work resources from tasks. For example, if you assign one person to a task, Microsoft Project calculates how long that person will take to complete the task based on the person’s work availability. If you then assign another person with the same work availability to the same task, Microsoft Project then decreases the total task duration by half. When using effort-driven scheduling, assigning the total task workload equally to two resources with the same work availability reduces the work time by half. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can assign material resources to tasks to note project costs associated with the use or consumption of a material resource to accomplish a task. Remember that material resources do not perform any work. Therefore, assigning material resources to a task will not change task durations in the way work resource assignment does. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can also assign cost resources to tasks within your project file. Like material resources, when you assign cost resources it has no effect on task scheduling or task duration. You assign cost resources to tasks to show costs incurred to complete the tasks. This lets you better track indirect project costs, like client entertainment or business travel, for example. When assigning a cost resource to a task, you enter a fixed dollar amount to assign to the task. This amount assigned to the task will not change unless you manually edit it later. Learn this and more during this lecture.

If using Microsoft Project Professional, you can use the “Team Planner” to easily assign and manage multiple project tasks and work resources simultaneously. This view also shows how the work resource assignments you make impact other work resources within the project. This lets you make additional changes, as needed, when assigning work resources to project tasks. Learn this and more during this lecture.

At this point in your project development, you should have an initial project plan created. Before recording the actual progress made, meaning the actual work performed on the tasks in the project file, you should save a copy of the original project plan. This copy is called a project baseline. Learn this and more during this lecture. 

After saving a baseline copy and after work has started on project tasks, you must record the actual work performed on the tasks in the project file. You can update tasks individually or mark multiple tasks complete as of a selected date. This lesson shows how to mark multiple tasks as being completed by a specified date. You can use this for tasks that have completed all their work on schedule as of a set date. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You will often need to update the work performed on individual tasks in a project file. Tasks with a long duration often need their completion progress measured and marked individually as the work is completed over time. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can use the “Update Project” function to reschedule all uncompleted project work. As when updating work completed in a project file, you can also reschedule all tasks within a project file or only selected tasks. Learn this and more during this lecture.

This lecture examines the formatting options found in the “Format” button group on the “Format” tab of the “Gantt Chart Tools” contextual tab in the Ribbon. You use this tab in the Ribbon to apply formatting changes to the Gantt Chart view. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To format the gridlines in Gantt Chart view, click the “Gridlines” button in the “Format” button group on the “Format” tab of the “Gantt Chart Tools” contextual tab within the Ribbon. Then select the “Gridlines…” command from the drop-down menu that appears to open the “Gridlines” dialog box. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To format the layout of task bars at the right side of the Gantt Chart view, click the “Layout” button in the “Format” button group on the “Format” tab of the “Gantt Chart Tools” contextual tab in the Ribbon. In the “Layout” dialog box that appears, select the desired linking style to use between task bars from the options shown in the “Links” section. In the “Bars” section, you can select the date format to show next to bars by choosing one from the “Date format:” drop-down. Then select the desired height of the task bars from the “Bar height:” drop-down. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When formatting Gantt Charts, you can change the appearance of columns within the task list shown at the left side of the Gantt Chart view. In this lesson, we will examine the buttons found within the “Columns” button group on the “Format” tab of the “Gantt Chart Tools” contextual tab within the Ribbon. Learn this and more during this lecture.

This lecture shows how to format task bars in the Gantt Chart view. To do this, select the “Format” tab of the “Gantt Chart Tools” contextual tab in the Ribbon. To change the appearance of a bar graph for a selected task in the Gantt Chart view, click the “Format” button in the “Bar Styles” button group and select the “Bar” command from the drop-down menu that appears. Learn this and more during this lecture.

After creating the initial project file in Microsoft Project, you must enter the project’s tasks. Simply put, you must enter the actual work required to finish the project. In Microsoft Project, you enter this work as tasks within the project file. This chapter examines how to create tasks in a project file. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can add drawing objects to the task bar area within a Gantt Chart. Drawing objects can provide additional information or illustrate data in the Gantt Chart view. To add a drawing object to a Gantt Chart, click the “Drawing” button in the “Drawings” button group on the “Format” tab of the “Gantt Chart Tools” contextual tab in the Ribbon. Then select the type of drawing object to add from the drop-down menu that appears. Then click and drag over the area in the chart where you want to draw the object. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can change the increments, appearance, and labeling of the timescale at the top of the task bar area at the right side of the Gantt Chart view. To do this, click the “View” tab in the Ribbon and then click the “Timescale:” drop-down button in the “Zoom” button group. You can then easily select a different timescale from the increments shown in the drop-down menu. To see all of your timescale formatting options, select the “Timescale…” command from the drop-down menu to open the “Timescale” dialog box. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can create your own custom views of a project file that contain the desired project elements and custom formatting you wish to see within the view. A custom view can display information from any of the other existing views within project. You can even create combination views that display information from two different views at the same time. You can use the “More Views” dialog box to create your own custom views of a project file. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “Timeline” view of a project file shows tasks as blocks of time allocated over the project’s timeline. This view appears at the top of the “Gantt Chart View” of a new project file. It is useful as a visual way of showing the tasks that need to be accomplished in a timeline format. It is great for inserting into other reports in Word or PowerPoint to quickly update people on the status of a project using a visual “big picture” that easily shows the project’s progress. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Project 2016 lets you create multiple timelines within the “Timeline” view. Each timeline bar can have its own tasks and start and end dates. This lets you easily add multiple timelines within a single timeline view to better show phases within projects or tasks in subprojects. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “Task Usage” view shows the hours spent by work resources on the tasks in a project file. To see the “Task Usage” view, click the “Task Usage” button in the “Task Views” button group on the “View” tab in the Ribbon. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “Network Diagram” view displays the tasks within the project in a flowchart style. You can switch to this view by clicking the “Network Diagram” button in the “Task Views” button group on the “View” tab in the Ribbon. Within this view, each task is represented by a box and information about the task appears on the lines in the shape. Critical tasks appear red and non-critical tasks appear blue. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “Calendar” view displays the tasks within the project in a calendar style. This view helps you show which tasks are scheduled for which days in a calendar layout. To open the “Calendar” view of a project file, click the “Calendar” button in the “Task Views” button group on the “View” tab of the Ribbon. Within this view, each task is represented by a rectangle that contains the task name and its duration. You will also see the “Format” tab of the “Calendar Tools” contextual tab appear within the Ribbon. You can use the buttons within this tab to change visual aspects of this view. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To print a view of a project file, first ensure you are viewing the project file in the desired view you want to print. Then click the “File” tab in the Ribbon and select the “Print” command at the left of the backstage view. The current printing options appear to the right, followed by a large print preview of the content in the selected view of the project file. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can edit relationship links between tasks in a project file to enter lag time or lead time between tasks. For example, you could allow a day of lag time to pass between tasks. Alternatively, you could also allow for lead time, where you begin working on a second task before completing all the work on a first task. You can edit the duration shown in the “Predecessors” column within the Gantt Chart view of your project file to enter lead time or lag time for a task. Learn this and more during this lecture.

All tasks have some type of constraint applied to them. A constraint is simply a scheduling rule that determines the start or end time of a task, or otherwise controls the scheduling and rescheduling available for the task. Constraints allow the scheduling engine within Microsoft Project to reschedule tasks, as needed, within a project file. Learn this and more during this lecture. 

When you record actual work completed or progress made on a task in a project file, Microsoft Project recalculates the remaining task duration, by default. When calculating the work value of a task after updating either the work, duration, or unit values, Microsoft Project uses a formula called the scheduling formula, to recalculate the task’s remaining work value. The scheduling formula is: Work = Duration x Units. Note that “Units” refers to the resource assignment units, often entered as a percentage. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Many new users of Microsoft Project accidentally make the mistake of using of too many semi-flexible and inflexible constraints when creating tasks within a project file. This often comes from the urge to set “Must Finish On” constraints or actual “Finish” dates when creating their tasks. This often produces an inflexible or semi-flexible constraint on the task. The problem that often occurs when creating tasks in this manner is that you severely limit the task rescheduling potential of Microsoft Project. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Despite your best efforts in planning, there will inevitably be times when work on a task will be interrupted. This may be due to an unplanned event or even a task reprioritization. Either way, you can interrupt work on a task by using the split task function within Microsoft Project. This feature allows you to split, or interrupt, a task to accommodate planned and unplanned breaks in the work on the task. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In addition to interrupting tasks, you can also reschedule entire tasks in a project by moving them to a new date. If using “Auto Scheduled” tasks that are linked together, Project asks if you want to move the related tasks, as well, when you move the initial task within the linked tasks. When you are moving tasks, always inspect the tasks after you move them to ensure you haven’t broken any task dependencies or violated any task constraints, like a “Start On” date constraint, for a related task. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can inspect tasks to display information about the task and task assignment information in a pane at the left side of the application window. To inspect a task, select the task to inspect in the “Gantt Chart” view of the project file. Learn this and more during this lecture. 

Some project tasks can be standard and repetitive, like a weekly project coordination conference meeting. You can enter these types of tasks as recurring tasks in a project file so you can create the task once and then have it recur on a regular basis without needing to enter a separate task for each instance of the task. When you create a recurring task, the tasks that are created all contain a “Start No Earlier Than” constraint, no task links, and no effort-driven scheduling. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You may have fixed costs associated with a task in your project file. A fixed cost is usually a one-time charge that is needed to accomplish the task. For example, having to pay a permit fee for a construction project could be an example of a fixed cost. Learn this and more during this lecture.

As used within Microsoft Project, a critical path is the set of tasks that, if delayed, would extend the end date of a project file. The term “critical,” as used in this context, has nothing to do with the importance of the task to the overall completion of the project. Rather, it is called a critical task if its delay would extend the ending date of the project. Learn this and more during this lecture. 

The term WBS codes stands for Work Breakdown Structure codes. These codes are an outline numbering automatically applied to tasks by task level when you create them. You can view the default WBS codes for tasks within the “Advanced” tab of the “Task Information” dialog box. This lesson shows how to renumber WBS codes and create custom WBS codes in project files. Learn this and more during this lecture.