Before talking about the Critical Path Method, I would like to mention the types of task links. We can link the tasks in 4 ways.

• Finish-to-Start (FS)
• Start-to-Start (SS)
• Finish-to-Finish (FF)
• Start-to-Finish (SF) 

Now, let’s look at the details of these link types

Before starting the Critical Path Method, you need to get familiar with these certain terms. These are the most common terms in MS Project:

• Predecessor
• Successor
• Lag and
• Lead 

You will need to know some additional terms as well, but we will learn these terms when we talk about the Critical Path Method. For now, let’s talk about the definitions of these four terms. 

As each term has an abbreviation, Critical Path Method can also be abbreviated as CPM. In this lecture, we will learn the Critical Path Method Calculations.

Section Quiz 01

When we open Microsoft Project, we will see the Start Screen. We will learn the functions of these buttons step by step in the future. For now, we will talk about the locations of the buttons and their functions. 

In this lecture, we will talk about Project Workspace and Backstage View. Since we will constantly work on these pages, it will benefit you if you know which button is where.

We will talk about Touch Mode in this lecture. As you know, touch screen devices are very popular nowadays. Since some users find touch screen more useful, different software adapts to touch screen as well as using the traditional Mouse. Microsoft Project is one of this software, too. In fact, this property is adapted to most of the Microsoft Office programs. 

Section Quiz 02

Before starting to create our project plan on Microsoft Project, we should make the necessary settings. To do this, we will use the Options menu. 

In this lecture, we will look at the General options. We can make the most general settings of Microsoft Project here. 

In our previous lectures, we have seen the General settings. In this lecture, we will talk about the Display settings. 

In this lecture, we will talk about Proofing settings.

In this lecture, we will talk about the Save option.

In this lecture, we will look at the settings under Language, Add Ins, and Trust Center groups. Advanced, Customize Ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar groups will be covered in the future lectures. 

Section Quiz 03

In this lecture, we will start our Intermediate level lectures. We want to create a schedule for a new project. The first thing to do is, we need to set our calendar. There are few different ways to set the calendar in Microsoft Project. These settings should match each other, otherwise we may encounter some problems. We will see what happens if these settings do not match each other in the following lectures.

In the previous lecture, we did our Schedule settings under the Options menu. Unfortunately, we are not done with Schedule settings yet. The settings under the Options menu were the default settings. Now we should do the settings specific to our project, which are going to be used for the calculations. In this lecture, we will do the Scheduling settings that we will see when we click on the Change Working Time button.

Section Quiz 04

In our previous lectures, we have seen the settings we need to do before starting to create the project plan of a project. In this lecture, we will talk about our project, which is an imaginary project. Then, in the following lectures we will talk about how to create new tasks in Microsoft Project. We will create our new tasks according to our imaginary project.

In this lecture, we will learn how to create a work breakdown structure.

Section Quiz 05

In the previous lecture, we have constructed our Work Breakdown Structure in Microsoft Project. Now we are ready to enter our activities. Here, I would like to remind you that, creating a Work Breakdown Structure is not a must in MS Project. I mean, you may directly start to enter your activities without creating any WBS. But, in order to create a more understandable project plan, you will need to group your activities. Since creating a Work Breakdown Structure is the best way to group your activities, by creating a Work Breakdown Structure, your project plan will be more understandable. This is why, I recommend you to create your Work Breakdown Structure first.

OK, now let’s turn back to our “Setting Up Tasks” lecture. In this lecture, we will only enter the name of the activities. In the future lectures, we will see how to make Microsoft Project to calculate the durations by itself.   

In the previous lecture, we have entered our activities. Now it is time to set up their dependencies.

In order to do this, there are several methods again. In this lecture, I will teach you all of these methods. After learning all of them, just do which ever seems easier to you. 

In the previous lecture, we have established the relationships between activities. Now it is time to enter their man-hours. 

As we said before in the lectures, we will make Microsoft Project to calculate the durations automatically. As the first step for that, we need to enter the man-hours of each activity.

Section Quiz 06

In the previous lecture, we have entered the work hours needed for each activity. In this lecture, we will set up the resources of our project.

In this lecture, we start to define our resources. First, we will define the material resources.

In this lecture, we will learn how to define a Work resource.

In this lecture, we will learn how to define a Generic resource.

In this lecture, we will learn how to change working time of a resource.

In this lecture, we will learn how to create a resource calendar.

Some resources may be available from one date to another date. Or some others may partially be available for some time. In such cases, we need to determine the Resource Availability. In this lecture, we will learn how to do it. 

Section Quiz 07

In the previous lectures we have determined the resources of our project. Now, it is time to assign these resources to our activities.

In the previous lecture we have assigned the work resources of the activities. Now, it is time to assign the material resources.

In the previous lectures we have assigned the resources of the activities. Now, we will look at the task usage sheet.

Section Quiz 08

In the previous lecture we have assigned the material resources of the activities. Since we are done with our resources, we will introduce a couple of simple milestones into our project.

Section Quiz 09

Up to here we have created and linked our tasks, we have created resources and assigned them to the activities of our project. Now it is time to look at costs. In this lecture, we will learn how to assign costs to resources. Then in the following lectures, we will talk about the other project costs. 

In the previous lecture, we have entered the basic costs of the resources. We have assumed, the standard and overtime rates do not change over time. In some cases, some costs may change over time however. In this lecture we will learn how to enter these values.

In this lecture you will find the solution of the homework assignment given in the previous lecture. 

Regarding a Typo in the Homework

Up to here, we have learned two different types of resources. These were Work and Material resources. However, there is one more resource type in Microsoft Project. This is the cost resource. 

In a project, some tasks may be associated with a particular type of cost. Travel expenses are good example for this kind of resources. We can define Travel Expenses as a cost resource, and then we can use this resource as a financial cost associated with a task in a project plan. 

Up to here, we have seen how to assign costs to the resources. In a project, there are some other costs which are not directly related to the resources. In this lecture, we will learn how to handle these costs. 

Up to here, we have seen almost every cost type, but there is still one more left. All of the costs we have entered were our known costs. This is, we almost know how much money we will spend and we have calculated them one by one.

We may want to add some cost in a project for some expenses that we cannot calculate yet. I mean, we know, we will spend money on something, but we don’t know how much money we will spend at the moment. “Incidental costs” is a good example of that. We define such costs as budget costs in Microsoft Project. In this lecture, we will see how to define such costs. 

Section Quiz 10

In this lecture we are going to talk about constraints and deadlines.

We have created our project schedule in the previous lectures. In this lecture, we will talk about the results. This is, we will take a look at the critical path of our project and we will make some comments on this path.

If you are working on a project with other people, you may want to put the contact information in a note, either on a resource or a task in Microsoft Project. This is a good way to communicate with each other about the important subjects of a project. You may use notes to give some information about a task or resource, to remind someone about an issue and etc. Using the notes feature is quite useful and in this lecture we will learn how to use it. 

In this lecture we are going to look at Timeline View. 

A baseline provides us a copy of our project plan. It copies not only the schedule but also the resource and work-hour information and the original cost information of the tasks. Therefore, we have to create a baseline before starting to track our project. In this lecture, we are going to learn how to create a baseline. 

In the previous lecture, we have talked about how to create a baseline. In this lecture, we will talk about how to replace a resource. 

While creating the resources, we have created a Generic Resource. We said we didn’t know the subcontractor companies and after determining them, we would replace the generic resource with the new resources. In this lecture, we will learn how to do that. 

Section Quiz 11

So far, we have created our project plan. After that, we took a copy of our project, that is, we have created a baseline for our project. Now we are ready for tracking.

In the previous lecture, we have talked about some basics of progress updating. In this lecture, we will talk about how to update a project automatically.

In the previous lecture, we have learned how to automatically update our project. If everything is on schedule, then we can automatically update our project. But most of the time, being on schedule is very hard. In such cases, we need to manually update our project. In this lecture and the following one, we will learn how to update a project manually.

In the previous lecture, we have learned how to update a project by using work hour data. That was the most precise way of doing the project track. Due to some reasons, it may be very hard to get the “work hour data” regularly. In such a case, you may update your project by using the Percentage Complete data of the tasks. In this lecture, we will learn how to update our project by using Percentage Complete data of the tasks.

In the previous lecture, we have learned how to update a project by using Percentage Complete data. After updating our project, we saw that, planned finish date of the project became 2 days later of the baseline finish date. This is a problem and needs to be fixed. In this lecture, we will talk about how to deal with this kind of delaying problems.

Section Quiz 12

In the previous lecture, we have talked about how to deal with delay problems. In this lecture, we will talk about how to do Earned Value Analysis in Microsoft Project. 

By default, Microsoft Project uses “percentage complete” value to do the Earned Value calculations. In this lecture, we will talk about how to do Earned Value Analysis by using “percentage complete” value. 

We know that, Microsoft Project uses “Percentage Complete” value to do the Earned Value calculations by default. If we want to get more accurate results from the Earned Value calculations, we may use “Physical Percentage Complete” data.

Section Quiz 13

In the previous lectures, we have talked about tracking and then we have discussed the Earned Value analysis. Now we know how to track a project and how to do Earned Value Analysis in Microsoft Project. In this lecture, we will talk about how to customize the Quick Access Toolbar and the Ribbon. 

Microsoft Project lets us customize most of the thing we see. In this lecture, we will talk about these customizations. 

Section Quiz 14

In this section, I will explain this concept as simple as possible so that you understand it easily. So, if you are ready, let’s start the lectures.

In the previous lectures, we have talked about the basic principles for the Earned Value Analysis. By only knowing the subjects we have seen up to here, you will be able to solve 2 third of the questions regarding Earn Value Analysis. But since you want to solve all of the questions, you need to follow the rest of the EVM lectures.

In this lecture we will simulate the 60th and the 80th days of the same example we have discussed in the previous lectures.

In this lecture, we continue the EVM calculations of the 60th day of our example.

In this lecture, we will simulate the 80th day of the example we have discussed in the previous lectures.

In this lecture, we will do the calculations of the 3rd example which we have discussed in the previous lecture.

Solidify your knowledge by solving these questions.

Sample Questions in Quiz Format

In this lecture, we will learn how to determine the duration of the activities one by one.