Microsoft Project Support Course

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PUBLISHED BY
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052-6399

© 1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Microsoft Project 98 Support Course

Part Number: 098-80553
June, 1998

Written By:

Andy Rabun and Jim Sommers

ÿ


Table of Contents

Module 1 - Introduction 1

Lesson 1.1: Introduction to Project Management 3

Overview 4

Lesson 1.2: Introduction to Microsoft Project 11

How Microsoft Project Helps 12

New/ Improved Features 13

Usage Features 13

Scheduling and Costing Features: 13

Data Import/Export Features 15

Visual Basic Applications Features 15

Workgroup Features 15

Module 2 - Setup 1

Lesson 2.1: Setup 3

Microsoft Project 98 Setup 4

System Requirements 4

Setting Up Microsoft Project on a Network 6

Installing the Workgroup Message Handler 10

New Microsoft Project 98 Limits 12

Tools Options Registry Settings 14

Lesson 2.2: Upgrade Issues 21

Overview of Microsoft Project 98 file system 22

File Formats Supported in Microsoft Project 98 22

Automatic Updating 28

Global Upgrade Mode in the Organizer 31

Cross-Language Upgrading 32

Module 3 - Import and Export 1

Lesson 3.1: Overview of the File System 3

Overview of Microsoft Project 98 file system 4

File Formats Supported in Microsoft Project 98 4

Code Page Support 9

Lesson 3.2: Import-Export Interface 19

The Microsoft Project 98 Import-Export Interface 20

ODBC Interface 20

Reading and Writing Data in Microsoft Project 98 20

Changes to the File Open and File Save Dialogs 21

The Read and Write Process 23

Saving a Complete Project to an Arbitrary Database via ODBC 26

Concurrent Usage and Project Locking 30

Database Permissions 32

Database Modification or Corruption 32

Lesson 3.3: Database Structure for Full Saves 66

Saving Entire Projects to a Database 67

Supported ODBC Databases 67

Database Overview 67

Database Table and Field Names 74

Enumerated Types versus Text Strings 74

Enumerated to Text Conversion Tables 75

Note Fields 94

Custom Fields 95

Project_Information table 102

Reserved_CommandBars table 109

Reserved_ExternalDataLinks table 109

Reserved_ImportExportMaps table 111

Reserved_Filters table 111

Reserved_Modules table 112

Reserved_Reports table 112

Reserved_Tables table 113

Reserved_CustomForms table 113

Reserved_V_iews table 114

Calendars table 115

Calendar_Working_Times table 116

Calendar_Exceptions table 117

Task_Dependencies table 118

Reserved_AssignmentPoolInfo table 119

Task_Information table 123

Resource_Information table 129

Assignment_Information table 133

Resource_Rates table 137

Assignment_Remaining_Work table 138

Assignment_Actual_Work table 139

Assignment_Overtime_Work table 140

Assignment_Actual_Exceptions table 141

Assignment_Baseline_Work table 141

Assignment_Baseline_Cost table 142

Assignment_Actual_Cost table 142

Resource_Baseline_Work table 143

Resource_Baseline_Cost table 144

Task_Baseline_Work table 145

Task_Baseline_Cost table 146

Task_Percent_Complete table 146

Task_Baseline_Interim_Splits table 147

Lesson 3.4: HTML File Type 152

Selective Export to HTML 153

Exporting With and Without a Template 157

The Charset Tag 160

The HTML Output 161

Exporting Special Characters 163

Module 4 - Viewing and Editing 1

Lesson 4.1: User Interface Overview 3

User Interface Overview 4

Menus 10

Microsoft Project 98 default menus 10

Toolbars 19

Outline symbols in Usage views 42

Double-clicking task, resource, and assignment records 43

Expanding Inserted Projects 43

Lesson 4.2: Customizing the User Interface 51

Custom Fields 52

How to Create/Modify the Menu Bar and Toolbars 59

Lesson 4.3: Formatting Improvements 62

Rich Edit Features 63

Lesson 4.4: Filter Improvements and AutoFilter 78

New Microsoft Project 98 Filter Features 79

Filters in Usage Views 85

Lesson 4.5: Printing and Reports 96

Printing Improvements in Microsoft Project 98 97

Maximum number of rows in the header, footer, and legend 103

Crosstab Report Definition Improvements 104

Duration and Work Labels 106

Changes to the Task and Resource Reports 107

Report Gallery Improvements 109

New Shipping Reports 109

Printing Resource Cost Rate Tables 109

Usage views as an alternative to crosstab reports 110

Lesson 4.6: View Changes and Improvements 113

View Changes and Improvements 114

View Overview 114

New and Improved View Types in Microsoft Project 98 116

Changes in the Microsoft Project 98 More Views list 116

Lesson 4.7: Usage Views 126

Introduction to Usage Views 127

Column Widths 129

Timescale Zooming and Nonworking Time 130

Outlining and Grouping 131

The Unassigned Resource 132

Displaying and Formatting Different Sets of Timephased Data 132

Default Format of the Task Usage View 136

Sorting 136

Filtering 139

Usage Views as Master and Slave Panes 141

Moving (changing the cell with focus) in a Timescaled Grid 144

Selection Behavior in a Timescaled Grid 145

Fill Up/Down/Left/Right in a Timescaled Grid 146

Inserting and Deleting in a Timescaled Grid 147

Deleting Rows in Usage Views 147

Inserting Rows in Usage Views 148

Editing Names in Usage Views 148

Adding Duplicate Assignments 148

Drag and Drop in Usage Views 149

Cutting, Copying and Pasting Records 152

Task Fields Shared with Assignments 155

Resource Fields Shared with Assignments 156

Timephased Usage Fields 157

Lesson 4.8: OLE and Copy Picture 162

OLE Support 163

Inserting a Project object 164

Project as an In-Place Container 173

Lesson 4.9: Office Assistant 201

Office Assistant 202

Introduction to Office Assistant 202

General Behavior 203

Office Assistant Alerts Format 208

PlanningWizard Interface 210

Module 5 - Scheduling 1

Lesson 5.1: Schedule from Project Start/Finish Date 3

Scheduling a Project from Finish 4

ASAP and ALAP task behavior. 5

Task Leveling Delay 5

Resource Assignment Delay 8

No Later Than Constraints 8

Flexible vs. Fixed Durations 9

Lesson 5.2: Calendars and Availability 11

Calendars Overview 12

Selecting Weekday letters versus date cells 13

Working Time Formatting 14

The New command (in the Change Working Time dialog) 16

The Options command (in the Change Working Time dialog) 16

Week Starts On 18

Fiscal Calendar 20

Lesson 5.3: Constraints 27

New setting: Tasks will always honor their constraint dates 28

Lesson 5.4: Task Types and Effort Driven Options 31

Task Type and Effort Driven settings 32

Fixed Work and Effort Driven Settings 34

Interface changes related to the Type and Effort Driven fields 34

Increasing the value in the task Duration field 35

Decreasing the value in the task Duration field 37

Extending a task or task part in the Gantt Chart 39

Reducing a task or task part in the Gantt Chart 40

Summary Tasks and Subproject Tasks 40

Effort Driven Calculations 40

Adding/Removing assignments if the task has Actual Work 42

Restrictions When Assigning a Resource to an Effort Driven Task 45

Summary Tasks and Inserted Project tasks are Never Effort Driven 46

Lesson 5.5: Resource Contouring 48

Resource Contouring 49

Smallest Timeslice 50

Technical Definition of a Contour 50

Even Distribution of Edited Timescaled Data 51

Preservation of Contour Shape 51

Assignment Information General Tab 55

Assignment Information Tracking Tab 57

Assignment Information Notes Tab 58

Derivation of the Equation 64

Formulas for Edited Contours 67

Usage Records that Can be Edited 67

Editing Assignment Timephased Work 67

Editing Assignment (Total) Duration, Units, and Work 68

Editing Task Timephased Work 70

Editing Task Total Work 71

Edits to Task Duration 79

Microsoft Project 4.x default assignment work 82

Microsoft Project 98 default assignment work 85

Actual and Remaining Duration 89

Editing Assignment Start and Finish Dates 89

Editing Assignment Actual Start and Actual Finish Dates 90

Predefined versus Edited 93

Editing Assignment Timephased Actual Work 93

Editing Assignment Remaining Work 94

Editing Assignment (Total) Actual Work 95

Editing Assignment % Work Complete 95

Editing Task Timephased Actual Work 95

Editing Task Actual Work 96

Task Remaining Work 96

Task Actual Start Date 96

Task Actual Finish Date 97

Task % Complete 100

Update Task Status Updates Resource Status 100

Task % Work Complete 101

In Schedule From Start Projects: 102

In Schedule From Finish Projects: 102

How Overtime is Scheduled 104

How Changes Task Duration impacts OT 108

How Changes to Assignment Units impacts OT 108

How OT is Scheduled Within a Day 108

Actual Overtime 108

How OT is related to other Assignment Fields 109

The Microsoft Project 98 Save Baseline Command 113

Microsoft Project 4.x Baseline Features 113

Microsoft Project 98 Improved Baseline Features 113

Increases/decreases in Work always occur at the end of the Assignment. 115

Lesson 5.6: Task Splitting 121

Task Splitting and Scheduling 122

Splits Caused by Leveling 126

Stop and Resume Fields 128

Split In-Progress Tasks 134

Baseline and Interim Plan Split Information 134

Task versus Assignment Splits 137

Splits and Predefined Work Contours 137

Basics of Dragging 138

Summary Tasks Do Not Support Splits 138

Splitting an existing task or split part 138

Dragging to reschedule the remaining part 140

Creating a new split part 144

Linking 151

Assigning Resources 151

Gantt Chart Bar Styles for Split Tasks 152

Calendar View 156

Lesson 5.7: Multiple Critical Paths 161

Multiple Critical Paths 162

Lesson 5.8: Leveling 165

Leveling 166

Task, Resource and Assignment Fields Related to Leveling 166

Resource Leveling Dialog 168

Leveling and Hard / Soft Constraints 177

Examples of the interaction between leveling related settings 176

Leveling from a Finish Date 181

Recurring Tasks Default to Do Not Level 181

Leveling Progress Indicator 181

Leveling Gantt View 180

Overtime 182

Leveling Alerts/Messages 182

Changing Project Type or Changing Task Type 184

Module 6 - Tracking 1

Lesson 6.1: Progress 2

Status Date Setting 3

Status Date and the Update Project dialog 4

Status Dates and Inserted Projects 4

The effect on timephased Actual Work 7

Distribution of timephased % Complete edits within a cell 9

Calculating Summary task total and timephased % Complete 16

Editing Summary task total % Complete 18

Changes from Microsoft Project 4.x 25

BCWS, BCWP, and ACWP Calculations 27

BCWS (Budgeted Costs of Work Scheduled) 29

BCWP (Budgeted Costs of Work Performed) 30

ACWP (Actual Costs of Work Performed) 31

Calculations Related to Summary Task Progress 37

Calculating Summary Progress dates 38

Calculations Involving Summary Task Total and Timephased % Complete 43

Setting Progress Dates and Formatting Progress Lines 51

Dates and Intervals tab in the Progress Lines dialog, 51

Line Styles tab in the Progress Lines dialog 60

Progress Line Drawing Calculations 64

Filtering and Sorting 64

Progress Line Z-ordering 64

How to Calculate Progress Points 64

Split Tasks 69

Excessive Calculation Time Alert 69

Printing Progress Lines 70

Lesson 6.2: Costing 74

Cost Rate Tables 75

Rate Tables and the Resource Rate Fields 75

Default Resource Cost Rate Tables 76

Editing Rate Tables 76

Resource Cost Accrual Setting 78

Resource Pools 79

Printing the Variable Costs 80

Default Fixed Cost Accrual 82

Fixed Cost Accrual setting for individual tasks 82

Prorated Fixed Cost Contribution to Actual Cost 83

Importing Old Microsoft Project Files 83

Actual Cost Calculations 84

The 'Actual costs are always calculated by Microsoft Project' option 84

The 'Edits to total Actual Cost will be spread to the status date' option 85

Edits to timephased Actual Cost 88

Actual Cost calculations that roll up or down 89

Summary Actual Costs 89

Remaining Actual Costs 89

How changing Actual Start effects Actual Cost 89

Lesson 6.3: Recurring Tasks Improvements 92

Recurring Tasks Improvements 93

Module 7 – Database Modifications 1

Lesson 7.1: Working with Projects in a Database 2

Supported Databases 3

Performance Tuning 7

Lesson 7.2: Adding and Changing Records in the Database 15

Working with Microsoft Project Data in the Database 16

Module 8 - Multiple Projects 1

Lesson 8.1: Inserted Projects 3

Inserted Projects 4

Definitions 5

Overview of Features 5

User Interface 5

Window New Window 7

Inserted Project Information dialog 8

Inserted Project Display Behavior 9

Editing Rules 12

Navigating an Inserted Project 12

Saving Inserted Projects 13

Currency 13

Custom Fields 13

Backwards Compatibility 14

Effects on Existing Commands 14

Lesson 8.2: Cross Project Links 19

Cross Project Linking 20

Terminology 22

Creating and Editing Cross Project Links 23

Editing Ghost Tasks 28

Link Updates and Maintenance 32

Project Calculations 35

Circular Loop Detection 36

Lesson 8.3: Resource Pools 38

Resource Pools 39

Information stored in the Pool 39

Information stored in a Sharer 39

Viewing task, resources and assignments 40

Opening a Pool or Sharer 40

Updating the Pool 42

Refreshing the Pool 44

Local Options 44

Module 9 - Workgroup Features 1

Lesson 9.1: Overview of Workgroup Features 3

Workgroup Features Overview 4

Web Workgroup Features 4

Web vs. E-mail 4

Lesson 9.2: E-mail-based Workgroup Messaging 7

E-mail-based Workgroup Messaging 8

Updated Message Handler 8

Workgroup related fields 9

New TeamStatus Features 13

Overtime 18

Additional Customizable Workgroup Fields 18

Mapping between Microsoft Project 98 and Outlook fields 19

Work-related calculations between Microsoft Project and Outlook 19

Adding/Deleting Tasks 21

Unsolicited TeamStatus Reports 21

Setting Reminders in Outlook 22

Outlook Journal Integration 24

Custom OLE Properties 25

Lesson 9.3: Web-based Workgroup Messaging 32

Web Workgroup Messaging 33

Supported Web Servers 34

Supported Browsers 34

The New Tools Options Workgroup tab 35

Setting up the Microsoft Project Web Workgroup site 38

Sending Web workgroup messages from Microsoft Project 41

Receiving Web workgroup messages in Microsoft Project 42

Running MSPJHTTP.EXE 46

The Login page 48

The TeamInbox page 49

The Navigation Bar 53

Microsoft Project Web Workgroup Help 54

Changing the Password 55

The Task List page 56

The Task List Options page 58

Microsoft Project Support Group Created Date 6/18/98

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