Author: Dale Howard
Dale Howard is currently a Senior PPM Consultant with Arch Systems, Inc. His hair and beard have turned white because of using Microsoft's project management tools for more than 20 years. Dale started his career using Microsoft Project 4.0 for Windows 95 and began using Microsoft's PPM tools when they introduced Project Central in 2000. Dale is the co-author of 23 books in Microsoft Project, Project Server, and Project Online. He is currently one 0f 26 Microsoft Project MVPs in the entire world and one of only 4 Project MVPs in the United states.
Display the Project Summary Task
Background Are you displaying the Project Summary Task in every one of your projects in Microsoft Project? If not, I strongly recommend that you do this. What is the Project Summary Task? Often nicknamed Row 0 or Task 0, the Project Summary Task is the highest-level summary task in the entire project. When included in a project, Microsoft Project displays the Project Summary Task at Outline Level 0, and the software automatically indents every other task in the project at Outline Level 1 or greater. As the highest level summary task in the project, the Project Summary Task summarizes or “rolls up” all information about the project into a single task row. It displays the Duration of the entire project, the specified Start date and the calculated Finish date for the entire project, all of the Work and Cost for the entire project, and all of the variance for the entire project as well. Even rookie Microsoft Project users sense that they need a highest-level summary task in their projects. However, they commonly make the mistake of manually inserting a task on row 1 and then indenting all other tasks below that first task, which creates an “artificial” Project Summary Task. In this blog post article, I will show you how to display the Project Summary Task (Row 0 or Task 0) and how to delete an “artificial” Project Summary Task if you already created one in your projects. Solution To display the Project Summary Task, complete the following steps: Click the Gantt Chart Format ribbon tab to display the Gantt Chart Format ribbon. In the Show/Hide section of the ribbon, select the Project Summary Task checkbox, such as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: Select the Project Summary Task checkbox Figure 2 shows the Project Summary Task displayed in a project. As a courtesy, I inserted the Outline Level column so that you can see that the Project Summary Task is displayed at Outline Level 0, while all other tasks are displayed at Outline Level 1 or greater. In addition, notice that the Duration column displays the Duration of the entire project (145 days), while the Finish column displays the current calculated Finish date for the entire project (8/1/25). Figure 2: Project Summary Task displayed in a project After displaying the Project Summary Task in your project, you may have previously created an “artificial” Project Summary Task as task ID #1 in the project. If this is the case, you will need to delete the “artificial” Project Summary Task since it is no longer needed in the project. For example, notice in Figure 2 that task ID #1 is an “artificial” Project Summary Task, displayed at Outline Level 1, and that it displays the same information shown in the real Project Summary Task (Row 0 or Task 0). Notice also that all tasks below the “artificial” Project Summary Task are indented at Outline Level 2 or greater. Figure 3: Task ID #1 is an Artificial Project Summary Task To delete an “artificial” Project Summary Task, complete the following steps: Click the Task tab to display the Task ribbon, if necessary. Select the first task immediately below the “artificial” Project Summary Task. Press Control + Shift + Down-Arrow on your computer keyboard to select the current task and every task below it in the project. In the Schedule section of the Task ribbon, click the Outdent Task button. Right-click on the “artificial” Project Summary Task and select the Delete Task item on the shortcut menu. Based on the information I have presented in this article, I recommend that you display the Project Summary Task in all of your existing projects and in any project templates you currently use.
Create a 5/4-9 Calendar in Microsoft Project
Background A number of organizations in the United States, including agencies of the US federal government, use a compressed work schedule to manage projects. A common type of compressed work schedule is known by the names 5/4-9 and 5/4/9. In this compressed work schedule, during each bi-weekly pay period, a full-time employee works eight consecutive 9-hour days, followed by one 8-hour day, followed by a nonworking day. This yields 80 hours of work per bi-weekly pay period and gives each employee a three-day weekend every other week. I personally find this type of work schedule appealing. If you need to use this type of compressed work schedule in your own projects in Microsoft Project, I will teach you how to create it in this article. Solution To create a 5/4-9 working schedule for your own projects in Microsoft Project, complete the following steps: Launch Microsoft Project and open a project in which you need to create the 5/4-9 compressed working schedule. Click the Project tab to display the Project ribbon. In the Properties section of the Project ribbon, click the Change Working Time button. At the top of the Change Working Time dialog, make sure you have the Standard calendar selected. In the Exceptions grid of the Change Working Time dialog, delete any company holidays you may have previously entered as nonworking time, which will leave a blank exceptions grid such as shown in Figure 1. At the end of this process, you can re-enter your company holidays, as needed. Figure 1: Change Working Time dialog Click the Work Weeks tab in the bottom half of the Change Working Time dialog. On the Work Weeks page of the dialog, leave the [Default] item selected in the data grid, and then click the Details button, such as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2: Change Working Time dialog – Work Weeks page In the Details dialog, select Monday through Friday in the Select day(s) list on the left side of the dialog. In the Details dialog, select the Set day(s) to these specific working times option, and then enter 6:00 PM in the To cell for row 2, such as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3: Details dialog In the Details dialog, click the OK button. By completing the preceding steps, you have now set the schedule for every working day, Monday through Friday, to a 9-hour working schedule. In the bottom half of the Change Working Time dialog, click the Exceptions tab. In the calendar grid at the top of the dialog, scroll to and select the first Thursday that you want to set as an 8-hour working day. For example, notice in Figure 4 that I selected Thursday, October 13. Notice in the upper-right corner of the Change Working Time dialog that Microsoft Project shows the current schedule for that day as a 9-hour working day. Figure 4: Change Working Time dialog – first 8-hour Thursday selected In the first blank row of the Exceptions data grid, enter 2nd Week Thursday – 8 Hour Day in the Name field, and then press the Right-Arrow key to navigate to the Start cell for that row (you may need to press the Tab key before you press the Right-Arrow key). With the first row of the data grid still selected, click the Details button, such as shown in Figure 5. Figure 5: Change Working Time dialog – first exception entered In the upper left corner of the Details dialog, select the Working times option, and then change the 6:00 PM value in the To cell to 5:00 PM instead. In the Recurrence pattern section of the Details dialog, set the following options: Select the Weekly item Set the Recur every value to 2 weeks Select only the Thursday checkbox In the Range of recurrence section of the Details dialog, leave the Start value set to the date of the Thursday you selected previously in the calendar grid. In the Range of recurrence section of the Details dialog, set the End after value to 260 occurrences. Entering this value will give you approximately 10 years of the compressed work schedule. Figure 6 shows the settings in the Details dialog. Figure 6: Details dialog with 2nd Thursday settings In the Details dialog, click the OK button. Figure 7 shows the Change Working Time dialog with every second Thursday set to an 8-hour working day. Notice in the upper-right corner of the dialog that the working schedule for Thursday of the second week is an 8-hour working day from 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM. Figure 7: Change Working Time dialog – 2nd Thursdays schedule In the calendar grid at the top of the Change Working Time dialog, select the first Friday that will be a nonworking day. In my case, I need to select Friday, October 14. In the Exceptions grid, select the Name cell in the second row. Enter 2nd Week Friday – No Work in the Name field, and then press the Right-Arrow key to navigate to the Start cell for that row (you may need to press the Tab key before you press the Right-Arrow key). With the second row of the data grid still selected, click the Details button. At the top of the Details dialog, leave the Nonworking option selected. In the Recurrence pattern section of the Details dialog, set the following options: Select the Weekly item Set the Recur every value to 2 weeks Select only the Friday checkbox In the Range of recurrence section of the Details dialog, leave the Start value set to the date of the Friday you selected previously in the calendar grid. In the Range of recurrence section of the Details dialog, set the End after value to 260 occurrences. Again, this value will give you approximately 10 years of the compressed work schedule. Figure 8 shows the settings in the Details dialog. Figure 8: Details dialog with 2nd Friday settings In the Details dialog, click the OK button. Figure 9 shows the Change Working Time dialog with every second Friday set to a nonworking day. Notice in the upper-right corner of the dialog that Friday of the second week is set to nonworking time. Figure 9: Change Working Time dialog – 2nd Fridays schedule Adding Company Holidays to the Compressed Working Schedule Complete the following additional steps to add your organization’s holidays as nonworking time exceptions in the Change Working Time dialog: In the calendar grid at the top of the Change Working Time dialog, select the first company holiday after the date you selected for first Thursday that will be an 8-hour working day. Because I selected October 13 as the first 8-hour Thursday working day, I need to navigate to November and select Thursday, November 24, which is the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the United States. In the first blank row of the Exceptions data grid, enter the name of the holiday and then press the Right-Arrow key (you may need to press the Tab key before you press the Right-Arrow key) to navigate to the Start cell for that row. Leave the holiday row selected in the data grid, and then click the Details button. In the Details dialog, enter the information for the company holiday. For example, notice in Figure 10 that I entered the information for the Thanksgiving Day holiday, and set the holiday to recur 10 times (this creates 10 years’ worth of occurrences). Figure 10: Details dialog for the Thanksgiving Day holiday In the Details dialog, click the OK button to create the holiday. In the Change Working Time dialog, continue the process of creating company holidays for a one-year period of time after the first 8-hour Thursday selected previously in the calendar grid. In my case, this means I need to create the following company holidays in the following order: Thanksgiving Day 2022 Christmas Day 2022 New Year’s Day 2023 Memorial Day 2023 Independence Day 2023 Labor Day 2023 Set up each of your company holidays so that they recur 10 times, which will give you 10 years of company holidays. You will probably also need to create exceptions when a company holidays occurs on a Saturday or Sunday, according to your organization’s holiday policies. Figure 11 shows the Change Working Time dialog with all our organization’s company holidays entered as nonworking time. Figure 11: Change Working Time dialog – company holidays entered At this point, you have finished setting up the Standard calendar with the 5/4-9 compressed working schedule, along with your company holidays. Click the OK button to close the Change Working Time dialog. Changing a Project Options Setting After successfully setting up the Standard calendar with the 5/4-9 compressed working schedule, there is one option that you will need to change in the Project Options dialog. This option defines what constitutes a “Day” in Microsoft Project. To specify this setting, complete the following steps: Click the File tab, and then click the Options tab in the lower-left corner of the Backstage. On the left side of the Project Options dialog, click the Calendar tab. On the Calendar page of the dialog, change the Hours per day value to 9, such as shown in Figure 12. Figure 12: Project Options dialog – Calendar page In the Project Options dialog, click the OK button. At this point, you are now ready to begin using the 5/4-9 compressed working schedule in your Microsoft Project schedules.
Advanced Use of the Nonworking Time Calendar
Background In my previous article on Understanding the Nonworking Time Calendar, I showed you how to apply an alternate base calendar as the Project Calendar and the Nonworking Time Calendar for a project. I suspect that for many of you, the Nonworking Time Calendar might be a new concept to you. Whether the concept is new or not, in this article, I would like to extend that knowledge even further and show you an advanced use for the Nonworking Time Calendar. Advanced Use of the Nonworking Time Calendar When the Microsoft Project software development team implemented the Nonworking Time Calendar feature many years ago, they added some additional functionality that you can use to troubleshoot scheduling problems. For example, notice the scheduling mystery shown in Figure 1, in which the task’s Gantt bar contains a task split (the … pattern) in the middle of bar. What is going on here? Why is Microsoft Project displaying this task split? Figure 1: Mysterious task split I can tell you that most scheduling mysteries are caused by resource calendars. In the case of this particular task, three resources are assigned to this task, so the task split is probably caused by the resource calendar(s) of Quinlyn Baker, Jennifer Bruce, and/or Richard Sanders. Although there are several methods to troubleshoot scheduling issues caused by a resource calendar, one method of which you may not be aware is using the Nonworking Time Calendar feature. Let me show you how to use this feature. To use the Nonworking Time Calendar feature, double-click the Timescale bar at the top of the Gantt Chart screen and then select the Non-working time tab in the Timescale dialog. When you click the Calendar pick list, the Timescale dialog displays a list of every base calendar, along with the calendar for every resource in the project team, such as shown in Figure 2. Notice that I am preparing to select the name of the first assigned resource, Quinlyn Baker, on the task that contains a task split. Figure 2: Select the name of an assigned resource When you select the name of a resource to apply the resource’s calendar as the Nonworking Time Calendar, Microsoft Project displays the selected resource’s nonworking time as gray shaded vertical bands in the Gantt Chart screen. Notice in Figure 3 that the Gantt Chart screen shows a gray shaded vertical band for every work day during the week of December 4, which indicates that the entire week is nonworking time for Quinlyn Baker. Figure 3: Entire week is nonworking time for Quinlyn Baker Note: After applying one or more resource calendars as the Nonworking Time Calendar, be sure to set the Nonworking Time Calendar back to the base calendar used as the Project Calendar. Since I have determined that Quinlyn Baker’s calendar includes nonworking time for the entire week of December 4, which is causing the task split, I would like to know why she is not available for work that week. If I navigate to the Resource Information dialog from the Resource Sheet view, and then click the Change Working Time button, Microsoft Project displays the Change Working Time dialog for Quinlyn Baker’s resource calendar. Notice in the dialog shown in Figure 4 that she is taking a certification training class during the entire week, and that this class has been approved. Figure 4: Change Working Time dialog for Quinlyn Baker In addition, Figure 5 shows the Notes page of the Resource Information dialog, which displays documentation about her absence from December 5-9, including who approved her to take the week of certification training. Figure 5: Resource Information dialog – Notes page To wrap up this article, allow me to answer a final question you are probably asking, which is, “So why is there a split in the task shown previously in Figure 1?” The easiest way to answer this question is to use the Task Usage view. In the Task Usage view shown in Figure 6, notice the following: Jennifer Bruce and Richard Sanders are scheduled to work 8 hours/day on Tuesday and Wednesday, December 6-7. Quinlyn Baker is not assigned to any work from December 5-9, as evidenced by the blank cells for her assignment that week, because she is taking the certification training. Quinlyn Baker is assigned to work on this task 8 hours/day on Monday and Tuesday of the following week, December 12-13. Because no work is scheduled on this task for any resource on Thursday and Friday of the first week, Microsoft Project displays a task split on those two days in the Gantt Chart view. Figure 6: Task Usage view By the way, the view shown previously in Figure 6 is actually a special combination view consisting of the Task Usage view in the top pane and the Gantt Chart view in the bottom pane. When I selected the task in question in the Task Usage pane, Microsoft Project displayed only that task in the Gantt Chart pane. If you want to display this special custom view in your own projects, complete the following steps: Apply the Task Usage Click the View tab to display the View In the Split View section of the View ribbon, select the Details To the right of the Details checkbox, click the pick list and select the Gantt Chart Wow, I think I covered a whole lot of information about how Microsoft Project schedules a project. I hope you learned something new that helps you with our own project management responsibilities!
Make Saturday a Working Day in Microsoft Project
Background There was an interesting question recently in the Tech Community Project user forum. A user asked how to change the default working calendar to allow Saturday as a working day. The question was specifically related to Project Online, but both the question and the answer relate to the Microsoft Project desktop application as well. Because the user provided very little details in his question, the responses from a fellow Project MVP and I dealt with two possible situations the user might be facing: The user wants to schedule every task in a project using a standard 6-day work week that includes Saturday. The user wants to schedule only certain specific tasks with an alternate 6-day work week schedule that includes Saturday. In this newsletter article, I will show you how to address both of these situations. Schedule Every Task Using a 6-Day Work Week To schedule every task in a project using a standard 6-day work week that spans from Monday through Saturday, complete the following steps: Open the project in which you want to create the calendar. Click the Project tab to display the Project ribbon. In the Properties section of the Project ribbon, click the Change Working Time button. Microsoft Project displays the Change Working Time dialog with the Exceptions tab selected, such as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: Change Working Time dialog – Exceptions page By default, the Change Working Time dialog displays the built-in Standard calendar. This calendar is automatically set as the Project Calendar (which controls the schedule of the project) and the Nonworking Time Calendar (which displays nonworking time as gray shaded bands in the Gantt Chart screen) in your project. To provide the most accurate project schedule, I recommend that you add all of your organization’s company holidays in the Exceptions grid for the Standard calendar. For example, notice in Figure 1 shown previously that I entered all of my organization’s company holidays as exceptions in the Exceptions grid. In the Change Working Time dialog, click the Work Weeks tab. Microsoft Project displays the Work Weeks page of the dialog, such as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2: Change Working Time dialog – Work Weeks page The [Default] item in the Work Weeks data grid defines the default working schedule for the Standard calendar. By default, the working schedule defined by the Standard calendar is Monday through Friday, from 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM, with Saturdays and Sundays marked as nonworking time. In the Change Working Time dialog, leave the [Default] item selected in the Work Weeks data grid, and then click the Details button. Microsoft Project displays the Details dialog, such as shown in Figure 3. Figure 3: Details dialog In the Details dialog, select the Saturday item in the Select day(s) list. Select the Set day(s) to these specific working times option and then enter the working schedule for Saturday in the From and To data grid. For example, notice in Figure 4 that I set the working schedule for Saturday as 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Figure 4: Set the Saturday working schedule Click the OK button to close the Details dialog. The Change Working Time dialog displays the new default working schedule for the Standard calendar as Monday through Saturday, such as shown in Figure 5. Figure 5: New schedule for the Standard calendar Click the OK button to close the Change Working Time dialog. Microsoft Project will automatically update the working schedule for every task in the project to follow the new Monday through Saturday working schedule. In the Gantt Chart screen on the right side of the Gantt Chart view, you will also notice that the software only displays a gray shaded band on each Sunday, which means that Sunday is the only nonworking day each week, such as shown in Figure 6. Figure 6: Gray shaded bands shown only on Sundays After updating the Standard calendar, you also need to update one particular scheduling option in the Project Options dialog. Click the File tab and then click the Options tab in the lower-left corner of the Backstage. In the Project Options dialog, select the Schedule tab. On the Schedule page of the dialog, change the Hours per week option to 48, such as shown in Figure 7. Figure 7: Change the Hours per week option In the Project Options dialog, click the OK button. The reason you need to change the Hours per week option is so that if you enter a Duration value in Weeks for a task, Microsoft Project will then correctly schedule the task using a 6-day work week and not a 5-day work week. For example, if you enter a Duration value of 2 Weeks, the software will schedule the task as 12 working days, not 10 working days. Schedule Specific Tasks Using a 6-Day Work Week If you need the normal work week for tasks in your project to be 5 days/week, but you need to schedule certain tasks to follow a 6 days/week working schedule, then you will need to create a new base calendar for this purpose. To create this new base calendar, complete the following steps: Click the Project tab to display the Project ribbon. In the Properties section of the Project ribbon, click the Change Working Time button. Microsoft Project displays the Change Working Time dialog, such as shown in Figure 8. Figure 8: Change Working Time dialog In the upper-right corner of the Change Working Time dialog, click the Create New Calendar button. In the Create New Base Calendar dialog, leave the Make a copy of Standard calendar option selected. Enter a name such as 6-Day Work Week in the Name field, such as shown in Figure 9, and then click the OK button. Figure 9: Create New Base Calendar dialog When you are creating a new base calendar, I recommend that you create the calendar by making a copy of the Standard calendar. This recommendation is based on the assumption that you have added your company’s holidays as nonworking time exceptions on the Standard calendar. Creating a new base calendar by copying the Standard calendar would copy all of your company holidays to the new base calendar. In the Change Working Time dialog, click the Work Weeks tab, such as shown in Figure 10. Figure 10: Change Working Time dialog – Work Weeks page In the Change Working Time dialog, leave the [Default] item selected in the Work Weeks data grid, and then click the Details button. Microsoft Project displays the Details dialog, such as shown in Figure 11. Figure 11: Details dialog In the Details dialog, select the Saturday item in the Select day(s) list. Select the Set day(s) to these specific working times option and then enter the working schedule for Saturday in the From and To data grid. For example, notice in Figure 12 that I set the working schedule for Saturday as 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Figure 12: Set the Saturday working schedule Click the OK button to close the Details dialog. The Change Working Time dialog displays the new default working schedule for the custom base calendar as Monday through Saturday, such as shown in Figure 13. Figure 13: Change Working Time dialog shows the newschedule for the custom base calendar Click the OK button to close the Change Working Time dialog. Applying the New Base Calendar as a Task Calendar At this point you may be wondering, “So how do I apply the new custom base calendar as a Task calendar to override the schedule of the task with a 6-day work week?” Complete the following steps to do so: Double-click any task whose schedule you want to override with the new custom base calendar. Microsoft Project displays the Task Information dialog shown in Figure 14. Figure 14: Task Information dialog In the Task Information dialog, click the Advanced tab. On the Advanced page of the dialog, click the Calendar pick list and select the custom base calendar with the 6 days/week schedule, and then select the Scheduling ignores resource calendars checkbox, such as shown in Figure 15. Figure 15: Task Information dialog – Advanced page settings In the Task Information dialog, click the Notes tab. On the Notes page of the dialog, add a note to document the reason for applying the base calendar to the task, such as shown Figure 16. Figure 16: Task Information dialog – Notes page Click the OK button to close the Task Information dialog. After applying the custom base calendar as a Task calendar, the task will be rescheduled to reflect a 6-day work week that includes Saturdays as working days. Copying Calendars to the Global.mpt File After updating your Standard calendar or creating a new custom baseline calendar, you should also add either the updated Standard calendar or the new calendar to your Global.mpt file. Doing so will make this calendar available in every future project you create. To copy a calendar to the Global.mpt file, complete the following steps: Click the File tab and then click the Info tab in the Backstage. In the Organize Global Template section of the Info page, click the Organizer button, such as shown in Figure 17. Figure 17: Info page in the Backstage In the Organizer dialog, click the Calendar tab to display the Calendar page of the dialog. On the right side of the Organizer dialog (in your active project), select either the Standard calendar or your new custom base calendar. You will only need to select the Standard calendar if you edited this calendar. In the middle of the Organizer dialog, click the << Copy button, such as shown in Figure 18. Figure 18: Organizer dialog – Calendars page If you are copying the Standard calendar to the Global.mpt file, Microsoft Project will display the confirmation dialog shown in Figure 19. Click the Yes button in this dialog to overwrite the Standard calendar in the Global.mpt file. Figure 19: Confirmation dialog Click the Close button to close the Organizer dialog. Click the Save tab in the Backstage to save the latest changes to your project.
Update and Save an Existing Project Template in Microsoft Project
Background Information I answered a question recently in the Tech Community Project user forum about how to edit an existing enterprise template in Project Online. That user’s question, and the answer I provided, got me thinking about the process needed to update an existing project template. I began exploring how to update an existing project template in both the Microsoft Project desktop application and in Microsoft Project Professional when used with either Project Online or Microsoft Project Server. In my process of exploration, I discovered that a common method is needed to update an existing template with either tool. Suppose that you need to make changes to an existing project template. For example, you might need to add a new section of tasks in the template, to change task dependency relationships or task Duration values, or to add a standard set of team members to the project. If you ever run into situations like this, you need to be aware that there is no method that allows you to directly edit a project template and then save those changes to the template. But there is an indirect method that you can use to edit the project template and then to save the changes. In this blog post article, I am making the following assumptions: Based on the preceding assumptions, in this blog post article I will teach you the secret, non-obvious method for editing an existing project template. Solution for Users of the Microsoft Project Desktop Application Complete the following steps to edit and save any existing project template: 3. In the preview dialog, such as the one shown in Figure 2, click the Create 4. Edit the project with any changes you want to see reflected in the updated project template. For example, you might need to add a new set of tasks to the template. 5. Click the File tab and then click the Save As tab in the Backstage. Click the Browse button in the lower left corner of the Backstage, such as shown in Figure 3. 6. In the Save As dialog, navigate to the folder in which you saved your project template. For example, notice in Figure 4 that I save all of my Microsoft Office templates in the Custom Office Templates subfolder of the Documents folder. 7. At the bottom of the Save As dialog, click the Save as type pick list and select the Project Template (*.mpt) item on the list, such as shown in Figure 5. 8. In the Save As dialog, click the name of the project template you want to replace with the updated version, such as shown in Figure 6, and then click the Save button. 9. In the Confirm Save As dialog shown in Figure 7, click the Yes 10. In the Save As Template dialog shown in Figure 8, select all of the relevant checkbox options for your project template. At a minimum, you should select at least the first two checkboxes. Click the Save button when finished. 11. Close the updated template. Solution for Users of Project Online or Microsoft Project Server Complete the following steps to edit and save any existing enterprise project template using Microsoft Project Professional when connected to Project Online or Microsoft Project Server: 3. Edit the project with any changes you want to see reflected in the updated enterprise project template. For example, you might need to add a new set of tasks to the template. 4. Click the File tab, click the Save As tab in the Backstage, and then click the Save button at the top of the Backstage, such as shown in Figure 10. 5. In the Save to Project Web App dialog, enter the exact same name as the template you are wanting to edit. Notice in Figure 11 that you will see the original template name displayed at the top of the Save As page. 6. In the Save to Project Web App dialog, click the Type pick list and select the Template item, such as shown in Figure 12. 7. In the Custom Fields section of the dialog, specify any custom field settings you may want applied initially in the template. 8. In the Save to Project Web App dialog, click the Save button. 9. In the confirmation dialog about overwriting an existing project, such as shown in Figure 13, click the OK button. 10. In the Save As Template dialog, select all of the checkboxes such as shown in Figure 14, and then click the Save button. 11. When the Save job is completed, close the updated enterprise project template.
Create a Custom Schedule Status Field in Microsoft Project
Overview Have you ever tried to use the default task Status field in Microsoft Project? This field uses the Status date that you set in your project (or the Current date if you have not set a Status date) to calculate the current status of every task in your schedule. Once calculated, the Status field will return one of four values for each task in your project schedule. These values are: Complete On Schedule Late Future Task In the past couple of weeks, I have been experimenting with the Status field, and have encountered a couple of issues that concern me. The primary issue with this field is that it does not calculate the Late value the way I would have expected it to do. To me, the Status field should calculate a Late value whenever it encounters one of the following conditions: An unstarted task has a Start date that is earlier than the Status date. The progress line for an in-progress task does not reach the Status date for the project. In my experimentation, however, I discovered that Microsoft Project will calculate an unexpected On Schedule value when it encounters one of the following situations: The Start date of an unstarted task is one day earlier than the Status date. The progress line for an in-progress task reaches within one day of the Status date for the project. Thinking that I may have encountered a bug in Microsoft Project, I did a little more research. Specifically, I read the Help article on the Status (Task) field. In the How Calculated section of this article, I discovered the reason for the previous behavior. To quote the Help article: “If timephased cumulative percent complete is spread to at least the day before the status date, then the Status field contains On Schedule.” After reading the Help article and understanding fully how the Status field values are calculated, I said to myself, “I respectfully disagree.” For example, take a look at the project schedule in Figure 1. Suppose that the Current date for this project is Tuesday, April 5 (shown by the green gridline in the Gantt Chart screen). And suppose that I set the Status date to Friday, April 1 (shown by the red dashed gridline in the Gantt Chart screen), which represents the last working day of last week’s reporting period. In Figure 1 shown previously, notice that the Status field displays an On Schedule value for the Build 1 and Design 2 tasks. In reality, these two tasks are Late tasks. Given that the Status date is Friday of last week, the Build 1 task should have 1 day of task progress, and the Design 2 task should have been completed. Because neither of these happened, the tasks are actually late and are not on schedule. Furthermore, in Figure 1 shown previously, the Design 4 and Build 4 tasks have progress in the future (to the right of the Status date line). In scheduling terms, we refer to this situation as “out of sequence progress” or “future progress”. In fact, in the world of accurate project scheduling, there should never be any actual progress in the future! As a result of my frustrations with the default task default Status field, I decided to see if I could create a custom field that would accurately depict the current schedule status of every task, based on whatever date you set for the Status date. And furthermore, I would like this custom field to “flag” tasks have “future progress” entered. Solution The good news is that after a lot of experimentation, I was able to successfully create my own custom Schedule Status field that accurately portrays the true schedule status of every task based on the Status date of the project. Here is how to create your own custom Schedule Status field: Open any project that is currently in-progress. Click the Project tab to display the Project ribbon. In the Properties section of the Project ribbon, click the Custom Fields button. In the upper-right corner of the Custom Fields dialog, click the Type pick list and select the Text value, such as shown in Figure 2. The formula to paste into the Formula dialog is as follows: Switch([Start]<[Status Date] And [Stop]=ProjDateValue(“NA”),”Needs an Update”,[% Complete]<100 And [Stop]<[Status Date],”Needs an Update”,[% Complete]=100 And [Finish]>[Status Date],”Future Progress”,[% Complete]=100 And [Stop]<=”Status Date”,”Completed Task”,[% Complete]<100 And [Stop]=[Status Date],”On Schedule”,[% Complete]=0 And [Start]>=[Status Date],”Future Task”,[Finish]>[Status Date] And [Stop]>[Status Date],”Future Progress”) WARNING: If you copy and paste the formula from this article, make sure that the paste operation results in straight quotes in the formula (the ” ” characters) instead of the curly quotes that are used by default in Microsoft Word (curly quotes look like this “ “). In the preceding formula, I opted to use the Switch function rather than a series of nested IIF statements. The formula works as follows: The formula tests to determine if the task is an unstarted task with a Start date earlier than the Status date. If true, the formula displays a “Needs an Update” value. If false, the formula applies the next test. The formula tests to determine if the task is an in-progress task with progress that does not extend to the Status date. If true, the formula displays a “Needs an Update” value. If false, the formula applies the next test. The formula tests to determine if the task is a completed task with a Finish date in the future (the Finish date of the task is later than the Status date). If true, the formula displays a “Future Progress” value. If false, the formula applies the next test. The formula tests to determine if the task is a completed task with a Finish date less than or equal to the Status date. If true, If true, the formula displays a “Completed Task” value. If false, the formula applies the next test. The formula tests to determine if the task is an in-progress task with progress that extends to the Status date. If true, the formula displays an “On Schedule” value. If false, the formula applies the next test. The formula tests to determine if the task is an unstarted task with a Start date in the future (the Start date is greater than or equal to the Status date). If true, the formula displays a “Future Task” value. If false, the formula applies the next test. The formula tests to determine if the task is an in-progress task with a Finish date in the future (the Finish date of the task is later than the Status date) and with progress that extends past the Status date. If true, the formula displays a “Future Progress” value. In this formula, I attempted to test for every possible condition people might encounter in their projects. If the formula encounters a condition which I failed to anticipate, the formula will display an Error value. Note: If you encounter a condition in one of your own projects that causes the formula to fail and display an error message, please reach out to me. Let me know the condition that resulted in the error message so that I can correct the formula and then update this blog post article. Thanks! 9. Click the OK button to close the Formula dialog. 10. In the confirmation dialog shown in Figure 5, click the Yes button. 11. In the Calculation for task and group summary rows section of the Custom Fields dialog, select the Use formula option, such as shown in Figure 6. To use this custom field, first set the Status date to the last day of the previous reporting period (usually last Friday). Then insert the Schedule Status field in the Gantt Chart view. Notice in Figure 7 that I set the Status date to Friday, April 1, and that I inserted the custom Schedule Status field to the left of the default Status field. Compare the differences between the values shown in these two fields. Please notice the following: For task IDs #2 and #3, the custom Schedule Status field correctly indicates that these two tasks need a progress update, while the default Status field incorrectly reports that these tasks are on schedule. For task IDs #7 and #8, the custom Schedule Status field reports that these tasks are ahead of schedule, while the default Schedule field simply reports that one is a completed task and the other is a future task, completely disregarding the fact that both tasks have progress in the future. If you are a regular user of the default Status field, I would encourage you to try creating and using the custom Schedule Status field I describe in this blog post article. If you find that the custom field works well in one of your own projects, be sure to use the Organizer tool to copy this custom field to your Global.mpt file for use with all of your projects.
Display Actual Duration in Calendar Days and Not in Working Days
Background Information Last month there was a fascinating “brain teaser” question posted in the Project and Planner User Group on LinkedIn. The user wanted to know if there was a way to display the Actual Duration value in calendar days (including weekends and company holidays) and not in working days. At least one other group participant tried to answer the question, but the answer given was not correct. After waiting a couple more days and seeing that no one else attempted to answer the user’s question, I decided to give it a try. Figure 1 shows the sample project that I used to develop the solution for this problem. Keep in mind that Microsoft Project displays the Actual Duration value of 15 days in working days and not in calendar days. Solution The solution to this problem involves two steps. The first step is to create a custom calendar that shows every Sunday through Saturday work day using 8-hour working days. Complete the following steps to create this custom calendar: Click the Project tab to display the Project ribbon. In the Properties section of the Project ribbon, click the Change Working Time button. In the upper-right corner of the Change Working Time dialog, click the Create New Calendar button, such as shown in Figure 2. 4. In the Create New Base Calendar dialog, select the Create new base calendar option, enter a name such as 7 Day Work Week, such as shown in Figure 3, and then click the OK button. Microsoft Project will create the new base calendar and then immediately display it in the Change Working Time dialog. Notice in Figure 4 that the new calendar uses the default working schedule, with Monday through Friday scheduled as working time, from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM each day. 11. After creating the new calendar, click the OK button to close the Change Working Time dialog. The second step in the solution is to create a custom field containing a formula to make the necessary calculation of an Actual Duration value measured in calendar days. Complete the following steps to create this formula: In the Properties section of the Project ribbon, click the Custom Fields button. In the Custom Fields dialog, click the Type pick list and select the Duration value, such as shown in Figure 7. If you want to copy and paste this formula, the formula is as follows. ProjDateDiff( [Start], [Stop], “7 Day Work Week”) WARNING: If you copy and paste the formula from this article, make sure that the paste operation results in straight quotes in the formula (the ” ” characters) instead of the curly quotes that are used by default in Microsoft Word (curly quotes look like this “ “). In the preceding formula, I use the ProjDateDiff function to calculate the difference between two days. In the formula, the [Start] field represents the Start date of the task, and the [Stop] field represents the date on which the current progress (the % Complete value) ends. In other words, it is the end date for the Actual Duration progress bar shown in the Gantt bar for the task. The “7 Day Work Week” portion of the formula forces Microsoft Project to calculate the resulting duration value in calendar days, not working days. 7. In the Formula dialog, click the OK button. 8. In the confirmation dialog shown in Figure 10, click the OK button. 9. In the Calculation for task and group summary rows section of the Custom Fields dialog, select the Use formula option, such as shown in Figure 11. 10. Click the OK button to close the Custom Fields dialog. After creating the custom calendar and the custom formula that references that custom calendar, you can insert the new custom field in any Task view, such as in the Gantt Chart view, for example. Notice in Figure 12 that the new custom Actual Duration 2 custom field shows a duration value of 19 calendar days for the task in question. The time span calculated for that duration includes 15 working days and 4 weekend days, resulting in a grand total of 19 calendar days.
Substituting a Resource in the Middle of a Task
Background There was a really interesting scheduling question posted recently in the Tech Community user forum on Microsoft Project. Although I was not the one who answered the question, I thought it was interesting enough to become my latest MPUG article. Following is the background information in the user’s post: Chuck Kirkpatrick is assigned to work full-time (Units value of 100%) on a task with a Duration of 20 days. On day #3, Chuck informs the project manager that he will be unable to work on the task from days #12-15. The project manager has recruited a resource named Mickey Cobb, who has the necessary skills and is available to work on the task from days #12-15. The user’s question was how to assign Mickey Cobb to the task to substitute her for Chuck Kirkpatrick during days #12-15 while he is unable to work on the task. Solution The solution to this problem requires two sets of action: Create a break in the task schedule for Chuck Kirkpatrick so that he is not scheduled to work on days #12-15. Assign Mickey Cobb to the task so that she is working full-time only on days #12-15. Here is how to implement this solution: Apply the Task Usage view. Select the task to which Chuck Kirkpatrick is assigned and then click the Scroll to Task button in the Editing section of the Task ribbon. This action will scroll the Work hours into view in the timephased grid (timesheet-like grid on the right side of the view). Figure 1 shows the first week of the task assigned to Chuck Kirkpatrick in the Task Usage view, along with the first week of work in the timephased grid on the right side of the view. Scroll the timephased grid to the third week of the task. In the Work row of the timephased grid for Chuck Kirkpatrick, enter 0h on days #12, 13, 14, and 15. Figure 2 shows the third week of the task in the Task Usage view. Notice that I entered 0h for Tuesday through Friday of that week, which is the time period during which Chuck will not be available to work on this task. Notice also that Microsoft Project reduced the Work value for Chuck from 160 hours to 128 hours accordingly. Right-click anywhere in the timephased grid and select the Show Split item in the shortcut menu. Microsoft Project will create a temporary combination view or “split view” with the Task Usage view displayed in the top pane and the Task Form view displayed in the bottom pane, such as shown in Figure 3. In the Task Form pane, select Mickey Cobb in the Resource Name column, enter a Units value of 100% for her, and enter 32h in the Work column for her. In the Task Form pane, click the OK button to assign Mickey as a helper on this task. Figure 4 shows that Mickey Cobb is now assigned to this task. With her assigned to this task, notice that the total Work on this task is now back to its original value of 160 hours. By the way, Microsoft Project assigned her to begin her work on the first day of the task. I now need to move her work to start on day #12. Right-click anywhere in the gray part of the Task Form pane and select the Schedule set of details on the shortcut menu. In the Task Form pane, enter the date of day #12 of this task in the Scheduled Start column for Mickey Cobb. In my example, March 22 is the date of day #12. In the Task Form pane, click the OK button. Figure 5 shows that Mickey Cobb is now scheduled to begin her work on the task on day #12. Notice that she is working full-time during the period that Chuck Kirkpatrick will not be available to work on this task. Right-click anywhere in the gray part of the Task Form pane and select the Resources & Predecessors set of details on the shortcut menu. Right-click anywhere in the timephased grid and deselect the Show Split item on the shortcut menu. By following the preceding process, the project manager can accurately schedule Chuck Kirkpatrick so that he is not working on the task on days #12-15, and then schedule Mickey Cobb to work in his place on those four days. This allows the project manager to know exactly “who does what, when, and how much” on this task!