Getting started with the project information dialog box
When you first open up a Microsoft project 2010, you will be presented with an onscreen blank project file. You can open a new play project schedule by selecting File tab, then the New command and clicking on the blank project icon under Available Templates and click the Create button. It is from this small acorn that your project oak tree will grow!
The first set of new information that you will want to enter into the blank project file will be of a general and high-level nature. You will do this via the project information dialog box.
The project information dialog box
Click the project tab on the ribbon and then click the project information icon within the properties group. Now you can start filling in the relevant information:
Setting the start date for the project.
Best-practice project management will normally ensure that the start dates for your project is at some point in the future. If you are using a typical methodology (for example PRINCE2 or PMBOK-based), then you will be in the Pre-project timeframe at this point. Even if you are not sure exactly when the project should start, then I would recommend that you set a start date of a few weeks in the future from today’s date.
When eventually you had all the tasks for the project and your schedule within Microsoft project 2010 now gives you a calculated end date, it is no problem to go back and re-set the start date if that is now more clearly understood. Project 2010 will automatically recalculate all of your task schedule start and finish dates.
Setting the finish date for the project.
Suppose that you have and end date driven project. This can often happen due to a perfectly reasonable business need; for example at launch date that must coincide with the start of a trade exhibition.
In such a case, instead of setting the project start date, you can ask Microsoft project 2010 to calculate backwards from a stated end date. The value here is that when you enter all of your tasks and create a schedule, you will automatically be given a calculated start date to honor your stated end-date.
Scheduling from the start or finish of the project as described above, can be set here.
IMPORTANT. When you ask Microsoft project 2010 to calculate backwards in order to determine when the project must start, it is important that having got that date, that you now reset the project to schedule from the start.
The reasons for this are that when calculating backwards from an end-date, all tasks have their constraints changed from ‘start as soon as possible’ to ‘start as late as possible’. What this means in practice is that each non-critical task will be set to start at the end of its slack amount.
Setting the current date.
The current date is entered automatically as the current date from your computer’s calendar. Thanks for the flexibility of Microsoft project 2010, you can reset the current date to a different date. This might be necessary for example if you are using your computer in a different time zone.
Setting a status date.
It is important here that you understand the difference between current date and the status date.
As a default setting Microsoft project 2010 does not set a status date for your project file. The reason for providing a status date field is for when you are tracking progress within your project. As an example, suppose you are creating a report for your manager at the beginning of a particular week, but have the report must contain information as of the previous Friday.
Setting a status date and then performing calculations, is vital in the above scenario in order to obtain accurate information.
Setting up the working calendar for your project.
Microsoft project 2010 comes with three default calendars; Standard, Night Shift, and 24 Hours.
By standard calendar assumes an 8 hour work day starting at 8.00 AM in the morning, taking 1 hour off for lunch at 12 midday, and working through until 5.00 PM. The standard calendar assumes that you do not work over the weekend, thus giving you a 40 hour week.
The night shift calendar is set up as a nightshift and a day shift. Although shift patterns may vary, it is very easy two edit the night shift calendar.
The 24 hour calendar is intended for 24/7 working. This is particularly helpful for such following critical projects where human resource teams can take turns to work around the clock. It is also useful to assign to non-human resources such as facilities which are available at all times.
Which one you choose to drive and calculate your project file would depend on the environment and working practices of your organization.
It is not my intent in this article to delve into the details of using and applying the calendars, but as you might imagine, you cannot edit and fine-tune each of these project calendars to precisely suit your project needs.
Whichever calendar you choose here, you must set up the same standard working hours in the appropriate File, Options fields otherwise Microsoft project 2010 will not schedule correctly.
For most users of Microsoft project 2010, the standard calendar will be applied to the project file (possibly with some resetting of the standard work day), leaving the control of the actual work performed on each task by assigning and editing individual resource calendars.
To be clear, project allows you to assign a calendar to the project as whole, individual calendars to each resource, and even a calendar to individual tasks if you so wish. This will give you the most flexibility in your scheduling choices as you can have a standard work day applied to the project as a whole, and if any overtime or shift work is to be done, you can control this by assigning and editing appropriate calendars to each resource.
Assigning a project priority.
Microsoft project 2010 gives a priority field where a number between zero and one thousand can be entered; and by default this is set to 500 of the project file and each task.
Suppose that your organisation has many projects underway at the same time, then it can be useful to set a priority for each individual project file. This is helpful if for example, the project’s share the same resource pool, and in the event of assigning own individual to several projects, Microsoft project 2010 Gantt prioritise and automatically relocate resources hence calculating which project gets access to that individual.
The statistics button.
This is a helpful dialog box that summarises the project information in terms of start, finish, duration, work, and cost. For each of these it also gives the current, baseline, actual, and variance fields for each.
When planning or tracking the project, this dialog box provides you with a handy snapshot of the project overview.
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