Microsoft Project 2013

Lesson 13
Project Schedule Optimization

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 1
Objectives

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 2
Software Orientation
• The Calendar Options, located in the Schedule section of the Project
Options dialog box, are used to provide basic time values, such as
the hours per day or week, fiscal year settings, and the first day of
the week.
• Keep in mind that the Calendar tab has nothing to do with Microsoft
Project’s base, project, resource, or task calendars. The settings on
the Calendar tab affect only the time conversions for task durations
that you enter into Microsoft Project, not when work can or should
be scheduled.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 3
Software Orientation

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 4
Making Time and Date Adjustments
• As part of its project management capabilities, Microsoft Project has
a scheduling engine that works with time.
• Because time is always part of the “project equation,” it is critical
that the project manager understand the array of time and date
settings used by Microsoft Project.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 5
Step by Step: Adjust Fiscal Year Settings within
Microsoft Project
• GET READY. Before you begin these steps, launch Microsoft
Project.
1. OPEN the Don Funk Music Video 13M project schedule.
2. SAVE the file as Don Funk Music Video 13.
3. On the Gantt Chart, drag the divider bar (between the table portion
and the graph portion of the Gantt Chart) to the right until the Start
and Finish columns are visible.
4. On the ribbon, click the File tab and then select Options. In the
Project Options dialog box, select Schedule.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 6
Step by Step: Adjust Fiscal Year Settings within
Microsoft Project
5. In the Calendar Options area, click the Fiscal year starts in: box, select
July, and then click OK to close the Options dialog box.
6. [Press the F5 key.] In the ID box, type 60 and click OK. Your screen
should look similar to the figure below.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 7
Step by Step: Adjust Fiscal Year Settings within
Microsoft Project
• When you select the starting month of the fiscal year, Microsoft
Project reformats the dates on the Gantt Chart timescale to use the
fiscal year, not the calendar year. The months of July–December
2016 now show a 2017 year to reflect that the 2017 fiscal year runs
from July 1, 2016, through June 30, 2017.
7. Click the Undo button twice to restore the dates to the calendar
year format.
8. Drag the divider back to the right edge of the Duration column.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 8
Step by Step: Adjust Fiscal Year Settings within
Microsoft Project
9. SAVE the project schedule.
• PAUSE. LEAVE Project open to use in the next exercise.
• In this exercise, you changed the timescale view to accommodate a
fiscal year–any 12 consecutive month period defined for accounting
purposes–rather than a calendar year–a 12 month period from
January to December.
• Using a fiscal year timescale is most appropriate if there are
stakeholders who are accustomed to analyzing information in a
fiscal year format. Otherwise, use the calendar year format.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 9
Step by Step: Adjust Fiscal Year Settings within
Microsoft Project
• There are many other options for controlling time in Microsoft Project
through the Calendar options of the Project Options dialog box.
• You use the Calendar options to define basic time values, such as how
many hours a day or a week should equal, or how many days should
equal one month.
• You can also control other time settings, such as which day is the first
day of the week (this varies from country to country).
• The Calendar options can be confusing, however, because it has
nothing to do with Microsoft Project’s base, project, resource, or task
calendars. (You control these calendars through the Change Working
time dialog box on the Project tab.)

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 10
Step by Step: Adjust Fiscal Year Settings within
Microsoft Project
• The Calendar settings affect only the time conversions for task
durations that you enter into Microsoft Project, such as how many
hours equal one day–not when work can be scheduled.
• For example, if your project is planned for 10 hours a day, 5 days
per week, set the hours per day to 10 and the hours per week to 50.
• The Default Start Time and Default End Time settings on the
Calendar tab can also be confusing.
• These settings are not related to working time values for calendars.
Rather, the Default Start Time and Default End Time settings have a
very specific purpose.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 11
Step by Step: Adjust Fiscal Year Settings within
Microsoft Project
• These settings supply the default start and end time for task
constraints or for actual start and finish dates in which you enter a
date but do not include a time.
• For example, if you enter a Must Start On constraint value of
January 14, 2016, for a task but do not specify a start time,
Microsoft Project will use the Default Start Time value that is set on
the Calendar tab.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 12
Viewing the Project’s Critical Path
• One of the most important parts of the project schedule is the
project’s critical path.
• The critical path is the series of tasks that affect the project’s end
date.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 13
Step by Step: View the Project’s Critical Path
• USE the project schedule you created in the previous exercise.
1. On the ribbon, click the View tab, then click the Other Views
button in the Task views group. From the list, select More Views.
The More Views dialog box appears.
2. In the More Views dialog box, select Detail Gantt, and then click
Apply.
3. On the ribbon, click the Tables button, then select Entry.
4. Move the divider bar back to cover the Duration column.
5. [Press the F5 key.] In the ID box, type 54, and then click OK.
Microsoft Project displays the Scene 4 summary task at the top of
your screen; this is a convenient location to view both noncritical
and critical tasks.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 14
Step by Step: View the Project’s Critical Path
6. On the ribbon, click the Format tab. Click the Slippage button. Select
any baseline that does not have a date. Microsoft Project removes the
slippage lines from in front of the tasks. Your screen should look similar
to the figure below.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 15
Step by Step: View the Project’s Critical Path
• In the Detail Gantt view, noncritical tasks appear in blue and critical
tasks are in red. In this view, you can also see some tasks that have
slack (float). A thin teal line represents the total slack for a given
task. Why does the critical path seem to stop in the middle of the
project? The answer lies in the total slack.
7. On the ribbon, click the View tab, click the Tables button, and then
click Schedule. The Schedule table appears in the Detail Gantt
view.
8. Drag the divider bar to the right until all columns in the Schedule
table are visible, then auto fit all the columns until you see all
information easily.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 16
Step by Step: View the Project’s Critical Path
9. [Press the F5 key.] In the ID box, type 69 and click OK. Your
screen should look similar to the figure below.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 17
Step by Step: View the Project’s Critical Path
• Review the free slack and total slack for each task.
• Recall from Lesson 4 that free slack is the amount of time the finish
date of a task can be delayed before the start of any successor task is
affected.
• Total slack is the amount of time the finish date on a task can be
delayed before the completion of the project will be delayed.
• A task may have total slack, free slack, or both. Slack can be a
positive value, negative value or a value of zero.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 18
Step by Step: View the Project’s Critical Path
10. Drag the divider bar back to the left to show just the Task Name
column. Select tasks 54 through 78.
11. On the ribbon, in the Zoom group, click Selected Tasks.
12. On the ribbon, click the File tab and then click Options. Select
Advanced, and then scroll to the bottom of the window until you
reach the Calculation options for this project: section.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 19
Step by Step: View the Project’s Critical Path
13. Select the Calculate multiple critical paths check box near the bottom
of this dialog box, and then click OK. Microsoft Project reformats the
tasks in the remaining scenes and the Production phase to show a clearer
picture of the critical path. Your screen should look similar to the figure
below.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 20
Step by Step: View the Project’s Critical Path
14. On the Quick Access Toolbar, click the Undo button. Microsoft
Project reverts to the single critical path for the project.
15. On the ribbon, click the View tab if necessary, then click the Tables
button, and then click Entry.
16. Drag the vertical divider bar to the right of the Duration column.
17. SAVE the project schedule.
• PAUSE. LEAVE Project open to use in the next exercise.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 21
Step by Step: View the Project’s Critical Path
• In this exercise, you reviewed the critical path of your project schedule and
the free and total slack for some of the tasks.
• One of the most important factors that should be monitored in any project
schedule is the project’s critical path.
• Keep in mind that “critical” does not refer to the importance of these tasks
in relation to the overall project, but rather to how their scheduling will
affect the project’s finish date.
• As a project manager, it is very important for you to understand how
changes in schedule, resource assignments, constraints, etc., will affect this
key series of tasks.
• After a task on the critical path is complete, it is no longer critical, because
it can no longer affect the project finish date.
• During the life of the project, it is normal that the critical path will
occasionally change.
© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 22
Delaying the Start of Assignments
• If more than one resource is assigned to a task, you may not want all
the resources to start working on the task at the same time.
• You can delay the start of work for one or more resources assigned
to a task.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 23
Step by Step: Delay the Start of a Resource
Assignment
• USE the project schedule you created in the previous exercise.
1. On the ribbon, click the View tab, and then click Task Usage. The Task
Usage view appears.
2. [Press the F5 key.] Type 75 in the ID box, and then click OK. Microsoft
Project displays the “Duplicate audio and video masters” task. Your
screen should look similar to the figure below.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 24
Step by Step: Delay the Start of a Resource
Assignment
• Luis Bonifaz will inspect the final copies of the masters, so you
want to delay his work on this task until Wednesday, August 10,
2016.
3. In the Task Name column, double-click the name of the resource
Luis Bonifaz. The Assignment Information dialog box appears.
You can also click on the name of the resource, then click Resource
tab and select the Information button.
4. Click the General tab if it not already selected.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 25
Step by Step: Delay the Start of a Resource
Assignment
5. In the Start box, type or select 8/10/16, and then click OK to close the
Assignment Information dialog box. Microsoft Project adjusts Luis
Bonifaz’s assignment on this task so that he works eight hours on
Wednesday. The other resources assigned to this task are not affected.
Your screen should look similar to the figure below.
Step by Step: Delay the Start of a Resource
Assignment
• 6. SAVE the project schedule.
• PAUSE. LEAVE Project open to use in the next exercise.
• In this exercise, you delayed the start of work for a resource
assigned to a task.
• You can delay the start of work for any number of resources
assigned to a task.
• However, if you need to delay the start of work for all resources on a
particular task, it is better to just reschedule the start date of the task
(rather than adjusting each resource’s assignment).

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 27
Applying Contours to Assignments
• You can control the amount of time a resource works on a task by
applying a work contour.
• A contour describes the way the resource’s work is distributed over
time.
• To optimize your project schedule, you can apply a predefined
contour to a task’s assignments.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 28
Step by Step: Apply a Contour to a Resource
Assignment
• USE the project schedule you created in the previous exercise.
1. [Press the F5 key.] Type 70 in the ID box, and then click OK. Microsoft
Project scrolls to Task 70.
2. On the ribbon, click the Tables button, select the Entry table and bring
the center divider to the left so the duration column is the last one visible.
Your screen should look similar to the figure below.
Step by Step: Apply a Contour to a Resource
Assignment
• This task has four resources assigned to it.
• The time-scaled data illustrates that two of the four resources are
scheduled to work on this task for two hours the first day, eight
hours the next two days, and six hours the last day.
• The last two resources, Greg Guzik and David Barber, are only
working on this project half-time.
• All these assignments have a flat contour–Microsoft Project
schedules their work based on a regular rate of eight hours per day.
(The resources only work a portion on the first day because they are
scheduled on another task.)

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 30
Step by Step: Apply a Contour to a Resource
Assignment
• This is the default work contour type that Microsoft Project uses
when scheduling work.
• You want to change Greg Guzik’s assignment on this task so that he
starts with a brief daily assignment and increases his work time as
the task progresses. He will still be working on the task after the
other resources have finished their assignments.
2. In the Task Name column under Task 70, double-click the row
heading cell of Greg Guzik. The Assignment Information dialog
box appears.
3. Click the General tab, if it not already selected.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 31
Step by Step: Apply a Contour to a Resource
Assignment
4. In the Work contour box, select Back Loaded, and then click OK
to close the Assignment Information dialog box. Microsoft Project
applies the contour to Greg Guzik’s assignment and reschedules his
work on the task. Scroll your screen so that you can see all of
Greg’s planned work on this task. Your screen should look similar
to Figure 13-9.
Step by Step: Apply a Contour to a Resource
Assignment
5. Point to the contour indicator in the Indicators column. Microsoft
Project displays a ToolTip describing the type of contour applied to
this assignment.
6. SAVE the project schedule.
• PAUSE. LEAVE Project open to use in the next exercise.
• In this exercise, you applied a predefined work contour to an
assignment.
• A contour determines how a resource’s work on a task is scheduled
over time.
• In general, predefined contours describe how work is distributed
over time in terms of graphical patterns.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 33
Step by Step: Apply a Contour to a Resource
Assignment
• Some options are Bell, Front Loaded, Back Loaded, Double Peak,
and Turtle. Predefined contours work best for assignments where
you can estimate a probable pattern of effort.
• For instance, if a task might require significant ramp-up time, a back
loaded contour might be beneficial, since the resource will be most
productive toward the end of the assignment.
• Keep in mind that because Greg Guzik’s assignment to this task
finishes later than the other resource assignments, Greg Guzik sets
the finish date of the task.
• In this situation it would said that Greg Guzik is the “driving
resource” of this task because his assignment determines, or drives,
the finish date of the task.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 34
Manually Editing a Task Assignment
• It is also possible to manually edit the assignment values for a
resource assigned to a task rather than applying a contour.
• Since the reality is that a project manager does not plan Greg
Guzik’s work for 6 minutes (or 0.1h) on 7/22/16, a manual editing
of the assignment is necessary.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 35
Step by Step: Edit a Task Assignment Manually
• USE the project schedule you created in the previous exercise.
1. In the time-scaled grid area, click the cell at the intersection of
Greg Guzik and 7/22/16.
• After conferring with Greg, you want to change this assignment to
make it more realistic. Greg states that he can work for an hour on
the first two days, 3 hours on the next two days and 4 hours on the
fifth day to complete his work. Note that you are not changing
Greg’s total assigned work on this task, which is 12 hours.

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Step by Step: Edit a Task Assignment Manually
2. Type the following hours in the corresponding cells:
• 7/22/16—1
• 7/25/16—1
• 7/26/16—3
• 7/27/16—3
• 7/28/16—4
• 7/29/16—0

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Step by Step: Edit a Task Assignment Manually
3. Point to the contour indicator in the Indicators column. Microsoft
Project displays a different ToolTip on this assignment. Notice now
that Greg’s assignment is a bit more realistic. Your screen should
look similar to the figure below.
4. SAVE the project schedule.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 38
Step by Step: Edit a Task Assignment Manually
• PAUSE. LEAVE Project open to use in the next exercise.
• In this exercise, you manually edited the assignment for a resource
by directly changing the assignment values in the time-scaled grid of
the Task Usage view.
• You may have noticed that when you deleted the last contoured
work day, by entering zero work hours, the tasks after task 70
shifted back to reflect the shortened duration of task 70.
• You can use either predefined contours or make manual edits to a
resource’s work assignments. How you contour or edit an
assignment depends on what you need to accomplish.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 39
Optimizing the Project Schedule
• As the work continues on your project, you will be tracking actuals
and updating your project schedule.
• An important part of project management is verifying that the
project has been optimized.
• This might mean reducing cost, duration, scope, or any combination
of these aspects.
• In order to optimize a project schedule, you must first identify and
understand the project’s duration, finish date, and total cost.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 40
Step by Step: Identify the Project Finish Date
and Total Cost
• USE the project schedule you created in the previous exercise.
1. On the ribbon, in the Task Views group, click the Gantt Chart button.
2. On the ribbon, click
the Project tab, and
then click the
Project Information
button. Click the
Statistics button.
The Project Statistics
dialog box appears.
Your screen should look similar to the figure above.

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Step by Step: Identify the Project Finish Date
and Total Cost
• Notice that the Current Finish Date is 8/15/16. This is later than the
Baseline Finish Date of 7/29/16.
• You have a positive duration variance of 10.63 days, which means
you are scheduled to finish more than 10 working days later than
planned.
• This box also provides the current cost: just over $68,750. This
value is the sum of all actual costs to date and the remaining planned
task and resource costs in the project. These include actual and
planned fixed costs, per-use costs, and the costs of resource
assignments.
3. Click Close to close the Project Statistics dialog box.
4. SAVE the project schedule.
• PAUSE. LEAVE Project open to use in the next exercise.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 42
Step by Step: Identify the Project Finish Date
and Total Cost
• In this exercise, you reviewed project details such as the duration,
finish date, and total costs.
• It is helpful to review this information so that you understand the
nature of your project and how it can best be optimized.
• Optimizing is adjusting the aspects of the project schedule, such as
cost, duration, and scope (or any combination of these), to achieve a
desired project schedule result.
• A desired result may be a target finish date, duration, or overall cost.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 43
Step by Step: Identify the Project Finish Date
and Total Cost
• Now let’s look forward to the next exercise. Assume that you have
shared the project details from above with the project sponsor.
• The sponsor expected that the project would be slightly over budget,
but they did not expect that it would be a week or more beyond the
agreed finish date.
• The current projected budget overrun is acceptable, and can even
increase slightly, if the project manager can get the project
completed by 8/8/16.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 44
Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
• Now that you have reviewed the project details, you will focus on
pulling in the project finish date.
• USE the project schedule you created in the previous exercise.
1. [Press the F5 key.] In the ID box, type 54 and click OK. Since you
need to pull in the project finish date, your focus will be on the
critical tasks.
2. Scroll through and review the task list. Note that only tasks 69 and
73 are non-critical. Shortening the duration of non-critical tasks
will have no effect on the project finish date. To shorten the project
finish date, you must work with the critical tasks.

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Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
3. If necessary, scroll the Gantt Chart view to the right so that you can
see the entire Gantt bar for task 70. Your screen should look similar
to the figure below.

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Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
4. In the Task Name column, double-click the name of Task 71, Dub
audio to video. The Task Information dialog box appears.
5. Click the Predecessors tab.
6. In the Lag field for the predecessor Task 70, type 225% and [press
Enter]. Click OK to close the Task Information dialog box.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 47
Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
• Applying a lead time to the task relationship between tasks 70 and
71 causes Task 71 and all successor tasks to start earlier. Entering
this lead causes the successor Task 71 to begin when 75% duration
of the predecessor Task 70 has elapsed.
• Also note that some of the tasks that were critical before you added
the lead are no longer critical. This is temporary. Your screen should
look similar to the figure on the next slide.

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Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 49
Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
7. Double-click Task 68, Rough Audio Edit. You realize that you can
gain some additional time by adjusting the relationship of tasks 67
and 68 since these can be performed at roughly the same time.
8. Click the Predecessor tab if necessary. In the Lag field, type 22d.
Click OK. Notice now that some of the tasks are critical again.
Your screen should look similar to the figure on the next slide.

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Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date

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Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
• This process is called fast-tracking, which is defined as doing tasks
in parallel that were originally planned to be done in series.
• You can review the Gantt Chart view (or display the Project
Information dialog box) to see that the final task of the project now
ends on 8/10/16. This is still about 8 working days later than your
desired finish date.
• To compress the project duration further, you will apply overtime
work to some assignments.

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Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
9. On the View ribbon, click the Task Usage button. The Task Usage
view appears. Click the Tables button, then select the Usage table.
10. Right-click the Work column heading. On the quick menu that
appears, select Insert Column.
11. Type Over, and then select Overtime Work from the list.
Microsoft Project inserts the Overtime Work column between the
Task Name and Work columns. Drag the divider bar between the
table and chart portions of the Gantt Chart to the right until the
Duration column is visible. The specific task for which you wish to
apply overtime is task 67.

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Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
12. [Press the F5 key.] In the ID box, type 67 and click OK. Microsoft
Project scrolls the Task Usage view to display the assignments of
Task 67. Your screen should look similar to the figure below.

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Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
• Currently, four of the resources are assigned 40 hours of regular
work to this task. Bjorn Rettig is assigned 20 hours of work because
his Max Units value is 50%.
• To shorten the task’s duration without changing the total work in the
task (for each assignment except Bjorn Rettig), you will record that
10 of the 40 hours of work is overtime work.
• You will record 5 hours of overtime work for Bjorn Rettig.
13. Click the Overtime Work cell for Jamie Reding, the first resource
assigned to Task 67.
14. Type 10 and [press Enter].
15. Repeat steps 13 and 14 for Shu Ito, Florian Voss, and Jane Clayton.

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Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
16. Repeat steps 13 and 14 for Bjorn Rettig, except type 5 in the Overtime
Work cell. Your screen should look similar to the figure below.

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Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
17. On the ribbon, click the Project tab, then click Project Information,
and then select the Statistics button. Note the new projected finish
date of 8/9/16. Remember the sponsor asked the scheduled be
compressed to complete the project no later than 8/8/16–you are
almost there.
18. Close the Project Statistics dialog box. Now click the Task tab, and
then click the Gantt Chart button.
19. [Press the F5 key.] Type 69 in the ID box, and then click OK. Notice
now how Task 69 is no longer critical.
20. Look at Task 76 and its relationship with Task 75. After speaking with
your team, you realize that Task 76 can be started one-half day after
Task 75 starts. Double-click Task 76.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 57
Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
21. On the Predecessors tab, type 21.5d in the Lag column, and then click
OK.
22. On the Project ribbon, click Project Information. Click the Statistics
button. The Project Statistics dialog box appears. Note that the new
finish date is 8/5/16. CLOSE the Project Information dialog box.
The finish date is now before the newly mandated finish date of
8/8/16, which is acceptable to the sponsor. You will stop your project
optimization work here.
23. SAVE the project schedule, and then CLOSE the file.
• PAUSE. If you are continuing to the next lesson, keep Project open. If
you are not continuing to additional lessons, CLOSE Project.

© 2014, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Microsoft Official Academic Course, Microsoft Project 2013 58
Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
• In this exercise, you compressed a project schedule by applying lead
time to some tasks and allowing overtime for another task.
• Optimizing a project schedule and responding to variance are issues
that Microsoft Project cannot automate.
• As a project manager, you must know the nature of your projects
and how they should be optimized.
• As you saw in this exercise, you might need to make trade-offs, such
as cutting scope, adding resources, allowing overtime, or adding
lead time.

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Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
• Although you stopped your optimization work when you achieved
your desired finish date, keep in mind that once actual work starts,
variance will almost certainly appear and the critical path and
project finish date are likely to change.
• For this reason, properly identifying and responding to variance is a
key project management skill.
• In previous lessons, only a single critical path per project has been
emphasized: the critical path that determines the project finish date.
However, as you saw in this exercise, Microsoft Project can identify
a critical path within any chain of linked tasks.

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Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
• This is especially useful when the project is divided into distinct
phases. Usually, the critical path within a phase will have a much
more distinct line of tasks in it.
• Most projects have a specific due date by which they need to be
completed. If you want to shorten the duration of the project to
make the end date occur sooner, you must shorten the critical path
(in project management jargon, this is called “schedule
compression”).

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Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
• In reality, compressing the schedule happens in various ways, but
these can be classified into two categories:
• Fast-Tracking—Performing two or more project tasks in parallel
that would otherwise be done in series, or one right after the other.
By overlapping the tasks, more work gets completed in a shorter
amount of time.
• Crashing—Adding more resources to the critical path tasks. This
could take the form of working extra shifts, working overtime,
adding more work resources to a task, or outsourcing (paying to
have some work done outside the organization).

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Step by Step: Compress the Project Schedule to
Pull in the Project Finish Date
• Prior to starting actual work on the project, it is critical that the project
manager closely manage both the critical path and the float (called
“slack” in Microsoft Project). This involves:
• Knowing the tasks that are on the critical path and being able to
evaluate the risk-to-project success if any of the tasks are not
completed as scheduled. Any delays in completing tasks on the critical
path delay the completion date of the project.
• Knowing where the slack is in the project. On a complex project, the
critical path may change frequently. Tasks with very little free slack
might become critical as the project begins and the actuals start to vary
from the schedule. In addition, tasks that had no free slack initially (and
therefore were on the critical path) might get free slack as other tasks
move onto the critical path.

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Skill Summary

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