Project Libre Tutorial: Creating Your First Project

ProjectLibre could be the first project management tool that you have ever used, and therefore,
it’s worth mentioning that nearly all data is entered in tables as rows, like Excel. And after all of
it’s entered, diagrams, Gantt Charts and a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) generate
automatically. No need to draw the diagrams yourself, all you have to do is clearly define
your project and enter your project-data correctly.

Downloading, Installing and Running ProjectLibre

If you have a Windows Operating System, you can download Project Libre at SourceForce. This
website also has the latest version for Mac or Linux.

Once you have downloaded and installed Project Libre, you should see a window like this one
below.

Ready to Create Your First Project?

After clicking on ‘Create Project’ you must enter some basic project details as seen in the screen
below.
You will need to enter the following information about your project:

Project Name: Welding Table

Manager: Me
Start Date: October 9th, 2019
Notes: Anything you may need to keep an eye on, reminders etc. etc. , they can all go here.

Forward Scheduled: If ‘Forward Scheduled‘ is checked, then the project’s end date changes
according to the task finish dates you enter. If ‘Forward Scheduled’ is unchecked, then you
indicate the project’s finish date/deadline. This means that the project has a mandatory, non-
negotiable, end date. And for good reason, you may be managing a project involving a
scheduled event at a hotel, or in this case, a project in a term with a dedicated start and finish
time!

Adding Your First Task

After you enter your project details you are ready to create your first task. As seen in the table
above, type in the appropriate field, the task’s ‘Name‘, ‘Duration‘ and ‘Start‘ – the finish date is
then calculated automatically. Take a moment to change the ‘Duration’ from 1 day to 20 days
and notice how the chart on the right changes.

On the right of this window, is where you will see the project’s Gantt diagram -we will come
back to this.

Referring to the image below, you may want to see how many hours it takes to complete a task.
You can do this by right clicking on the column ‘Duration‘, click ‘Insert Column‘ and then choose
‘Work‘.
Now, you can see your task’s total hours. After showing the total project’s work hours, double-
click on the tasks record for different viewing options. For example, double click on ‘Meeting
with Client‘ text. As seen below, you can see some of the task’s options:

‘Duration‘ and ‘Work‘ represent the task’s duration. ‘Start‘ represents the task’s start and
‘Finish‘ is calculated automatically. You can click on ‘Estimated‘ if you are not sure about the
task’s duration. You will see a question mark near ‘Duration’. We will discuss other tabs
(Predecessors, Successors, Resources and Advanced) in another part of this tutorial.

Connecting the Tasks

One of the most fundamental actions that you will do when planning a project is connecting
tasks to one another as the start of some tasks are dependent on others completion. To do this,
add tasks as shown in the image below (left) and then drag and drop the first task to the third
task as shown on the right of the image. Your tasks are now dependent on one other. Red tasks
mean task dependency. Blue tasks means no task dependency. As you can see in the image
overleaf, this is a great way to visualize your project’s critical path.
Breaking down tasks

Let’s start by adding a master task. Add a task with a duration of 10 days as at the image
below.

After adding the task lets breakdown this task to other tasks. Add another task called ‘Child task
1’ with a duration of 5 days and another task called ‘Child task 2’ with a duration of 7 days.
We now have three tasks independent from one another. As you have noticed, the first one is
red. This is because it is the most critical one. Meaning that the project duration is dependent
on that. Anyway, let’s connect ‘Child task 1’ and ‘Child task 2’ with ‘Master task’. If you right
click on ‘Child task 1’ you will see some options. You can understand what New, Delete, Cut,
Copy and Paste do. We are going to use the ‘Indent’ option for now. So, right click on ‘Child task
1’ and ‘Indent’. Do the same for ‘Child task 2’. You can see immediately the following:

 Both child tasks are ‘enclosed’ to Master task.

 Master task look has changed
 Master task duration has automatically changed.

Congratulations on making it possible to breakdown ‘Master task’!

Let’s make things a little bit more complicated now. Below ‘Child task 2’ add ‘Child for child 2’
and ‘Child for child 2b’. Add a duration of 2 days for the first, and 8 days for the second. Also,
link the two tasks as we have shown at the previous ProjectLibre tutorial part (making the ‘Child
for child 2’ completion a prerequisite for ‘Child for child 2b’. Then select both tasks (hold Ctrl
key pressed and click on number 4 and 5) and then click ‘Indent’. The result should look like the
following picture:
Also, instead of using the mouse to Link and Unlink tasks and right click in order to indent you
can use the following buttons located on the top toolbar.

Project Libre Calendar Options

With Project Libre you have many calendar options. You can define your own working and non-
days, and different calendars for different resources. Let’s start with the basics and edit your
standard calendar. We for example do not have an 8 hour working day, we have 4 hours in the
lab, if this is purely going to be an “in-lab” project then our calendar needs to reflect the hours
you are actually in the lab… Or, the software will read 4 hours as ½ a day instead of a days work
and put your end date way short on the Gannt chart.

Click on the ‘Calendar’ button on top. It should be available whether you are at the File, Task
and Resource section of Project Libre. You will see that the available days have white
background while the non-available days have gray background. At the standard calendar the
non-available days are the weekends (Saturday and Sunday).
Select For “Night Shift” on top left and see the changes. As you will notice, at Night Shift
calendar the Saturdays are available for work.
You can try selecting ’24 Hours’ too to see what happens. Now, select ‘Standard’ again and lets
make some changes. You will notice that below Calendar choice are three options:
Use default: Use the calendar’s default option for this day
Non-working time: Ignore the calendar’s default option for this day and make this a non-
working day
Non-default working time: Ignore the calendar’s default option for this day and make

Excluding days at calendar

One of the most common changes that people want to apply at the calendar is to exclude
National Holidays from the calendar. Click on a day (eg 25th of March) and then select ‘Non-
working time’
You will see that the day is now red with a gray background. The red color means that there is a
special rule for this day and the gray background means that this day is not a working day.

You might see that the Gantt diagram does not look ok now where there is task dependancy. If
such a problem occurs click on the connection arrow and ok in order to fix the connection.
Something else that you must pay attention to is that sometimes days might not be correctly
recalculated. You should close the project and reopen it if something looks strange to you.

Including days at Calendar

Similar to the previous instructions, by clicking on a weekend day (eg March 24th 2013) and
selecting ‘Non-default working day’ you can set this day as a working day. Also, by selecting this
option, you can set specific work hours for that day.
Defining your own Calendar

By clicking on ‘New’ at the bottom of the calendar window, you can create your own calendar
that you can use. This might be useful if you have specific workhours for different teams, or
resources. Your new calendar can be completely new or based on an existing calendar of yours.
Using the Calendar options

After defining your calendar options, you can set your new calendar or define the task’s
calendar at the task’s details. Double-click on a task and then click ‘Advanced’. There is the
option ‘Task Calendar’. You can choose the Calendar that this task will use there. Also, you can
choose to ignore the Resource calendar or not (we will talk about this in a while)
Defining a calendar for each resource

Instead of defining a calendar for a task, you can define a calendar for a resource. Click on
‘Resources’ on the top menu and then on the ‘Resources’ button on the left to view your
available resources. Double-click on a resource. At the ‘Resource Information’ dialogue you can
see the ‘Base Calendar’ option. You can leave that option unchanged or change it to any other
calendar (ProjectLibre’s or your own). After changing that option, if you click on the button on
the right you can make further customizations.
If you have defined the 25th of March as a national holiday, then you will see it as gray here.
For the purposes of the tutorial, we will make this resource available. You can go on and click
on a non-working day and select ‘Non-default working time’. Now, for only this specific
resource, the calendar is changed
I hope that after this tutorial you had a great understanding of how Calendar works for
ProjectLibre.

Using resources for a project

Since you got a pretty good idea about how you can handle tasks, break them down and
connect them, we can now move on to the resources section of a project. Click on Resources at
the top menu and you should see the following image:
Now go on and add the following resources as in the image, Mr Analyst (type=Work) and 1kg
coffee (type=Material).

The important elements here are:

Type: It can be either material or work
Standard rate: Rate of use per hour
Overtime rate: If the resource is used at a time different than normal working hours (overtime).
Then use this rate
Cost Per Use: This is for contract jobs or for materials. If you hire someone and you pay him a
fixed amount to do the task, then you can use this item instead of standard rate. Also, if you
consume some resources then you have to use this item too.
Accrue at: ‘Prorated’ means that costs are calculated when the task is planned, ‘Start’ means
when the task starts and ‘End’ when the task ends.
Base calendar: We will get to this at a later part of the tutorial.

If you double-click on any resource row you can click on the ‘Costs’ tab and define different cost
rules for different dates. If a resource charges a different amount for a specific job, you can take
advantage of the ABCDE tabs, and define different rates. Also, at the ‘Resource Availability’ tab,
you can define when this resource will be available.
As in Task data entry, at resources, you can also have child resources. So, you can add a
resource and ‘Indent’ it in order to show where it belongs. Notice however that the master’s
rates are not auto calculated. You have to enter the rates yourself. It is up to you how you are
going to handle resources break down.

ProjectLibre user interface reminder

After opening your project to switch between resources do the following:

To view tasks click on ‘Task’ at the top menu and ‘Gantt’ button on the left
To view resources click on ‘Resources’ at the top menu and then the ‘Resources’ button on the
left

Assigning resources at tasks

Scenario

For this part of the tutorial we will have the following very simple scenario about a software
project:

 Mr Salesman has to visit a client in order to sign the agreement by plane

 Mr Analyst has to visit the client in order to discuss requirements by plane
 Mr Developer A and Mr Developer B are going to develop the project
 Mr Tester is going to test if the project works ok
 Finally Mr Developer A and Mr Developer B are going to fix the project’s bugs

Create the tasks as shown at the following image

Now that we have created the project’s tasks, lets add some resources. For the purpose of the
project we are going to use the following resources:

Material resources

 Tickets for airplane

 0,5kg of coffee

Work (people)

 Mr Salesman
 Mr Analyst
 Mr Developer A
 Mr Developer B
 Mr Tester

Congratulations! Now we have 2 material resources and 4 work resources available for use!

Now, go at the tasks list, double-click on the first task and then click on the ‘Resources’ tab.
Then, click on the blue button with the two people.
As you can see, you have the list of your project’s resources available. You can Control+click to
select multiple resources for a task. Control+click at ‘Ticket for airplane’ and ‘Mr Salesman’ and
then click on ‘Assign’.
You can close the windows and click on ‘Resources’ at the top menu and then ‘Resources usage’
on the left. Congratulations on your first resource assignment! As you can see on the left side of
the project you can see where each resource is used and on the right side of the project you
can see a detailed view of the resource usage per day.
Now, go on and assign the following resources to the following tasks:

 Analyze requirements: Ticket for airplane

 Develop project: Mr Developer A, Mr Developer B, 0,5Kg coffee
 Test project: Mr Tester
 Discuss additional requirements: Mr Analyst
 Fix bugs: Mr Developer A, Mr Developer B

Your final Resource usage table should look like this:

And yes, you can go on and change the hours if you wish. Increase or decrease them.

Project costs calculation

Those were the basics about assigning resources at tasks. Since we are now confident about
resources, we are going to estimate the total project costs. Some words about Project Libre
costing features:

For each resource you can define:

 Effective date: From when do the following rates are valid

 Standard rate: Rate per hour for normal working hours
 Overtime rate: Rate per hour for overtime working hours
 Cost per use: Cost for resource usage independent of duration. You can combine Cost
per use with Standard rate or Overtime rate.

Notice: Although you can enter ‘Overtime rate’, I have not figured out how to actually use it.
Normally you would use standard and overtime rate for your employees and cost per use for
materials or contract jobs.

Also, for each resource you can define different rate tables (A to E). When assigning a resource
to a task you can choose which rate table to use.

Okay, now let’s go and add some costs. Click on the Resources table and add double-click each
task to add the following:

 Ticket for Airplane: Cost per use: 200

 0.5Kg of coffee: Cost per use: 8
 Mr Salesman: Standard Rate: 15/hour
 Mr Analyst: Standard Rate:20/hour
 Mr Developer A: Standard Rate:10/hour
 Mr Developer B: Standard Rate:10/hour
 Mr Tester: Standard Rate:5/hour
Now we want to see the estimated project cost. Go to Resource usage and Right click->Insert
column and choose ‘Cost’

You should see the column with the cost per Resource-Task
In ProjectLibre you also have the following options

View cost per Task

Click on ‘Task’ on the top menu and then ‘Task Usage’ on the left and then right click on the
columns to add ‘Cost’ column as we did before. You can know see how much each task costs.
View total project costs

Click on ‘View’ on the top menu and then ‘Reports’. Choose report ‘Project details’. You can see
the Scheduled, Remaining and Actual costs if you scroll a little down
Those were the basics about assigning resources and calculating costs with ProjectLibre

What is a Project Baseline

A project baseline is the initial project plan which will be used as a reference in the future. It is
used mostly to measure the real performance of the project against the initial schedule.

Creating a Project Baseline with ProjectLibre

When you have finished planning your project and before it begins it is a good time to save this
‘snapshot’ as a baseline.

Load up your project and click on File at the menu on the top and then on Save Baseline button
You will see a pop-up window with the following:

In a project you can have many baselines (up to 10). You can set the baselines at the most
important project milestones or whenever there is a big change. Also, you can set the project
baseline only for selected tasks of the project (you have to have some tasks selected for the
option to be enabled). For the purposes of this tutorial you can go on and select ‘Baseline’.

If you are careful enough, you will notice something like a shadow below each project task at
the Gantt diagram. The ‘shadow’ is your baseline.

Even if you change a task, the shadow remains the same until you ‘Save Baseline’ again. You
can go on and change a task to see what happens.
If you change a task after saving a baseline. You will notice that the ‘shadow’ remains intact.

Quick Reminder about resources

Since we are probably going to use data related to Gantt diagrams and resources. In order to
remove a resource from a task, you cannot do it from the resource view. You must double click
on the task, click on the resources tab, click on the icon for resources assignment and assign or
remove resources as you wish.

Ok, enough for the reviews for now. Let’s start with the reports. There are four reports
available in ProjectLibre:

 Project Details
 Resource Information
 Task Information
 Who Does What

Each of the reports, except “Project Details” have various versions available:

Resource Information
  Default
 Earned Value
 Earned Value – Cost
 Earned Value – Schedule
 Name

Task Information

 Baseline
 Constraint Dates
 Cost
 Default
 Earned Value
 Earned Value – Cost
 Earned Value – Schedule
 Name
 Schedule
 Schedule (CPM)
 Schedule Variance
 Summary
 Tracking
 Work

Who Does What

 Assigned Resources
 Basic Report
 Name and Id
 Resource Usage
 Tasks Assigned

The reports that are highlighted are the ones that we are going to describe later.

Project details report

The project details report, displays the following information:

Dates: Start, Finish, Actual Start and Actual Finish
Duration: Scheduled, Remaining, Actual and Percent Complete
Work: Scheduled, Remaining and Actual
Costs: Scheduled, Remaining, Actual and Variance
Along with notes.

In order to view the report click on View, then ‘Report’ and then Report: Project Details’
Some notes about ProjectLibre reports

While the functions of the reports are limited, and at some reports, some filtering and sorting
options might not work. You can always click on the little disk icon and export the report at an
Excel file and do whatever you like with that. Also, you can zoom in, zoom out and move pages
with the toolbar options.

Resource Information – Default

The Resource Information – Default report displays in a simple list all your resources with the
following columns:
Name, RBS, Type, E-mail Address, Material Label

Resource Information – Earned Value

The Resource Information – Earned Value report, displays your resources along with various
columns related to Earned Value (BCWS, BCWP, ACWP, CV, SV, EAC…)

Task Information – Constraint Dates

The Task Information – Constraint Dates report is very useful to check all the constraint dates at
once as a checklist. You can use this report as a checklist regularly to check that everything is
going according to plan.

Task Information – Cost

The Task Information – Cost report might be one of your favorites. At this report, you can have
a quick glance at every task cost, actual cost and remaining cost. It might be a useful report to
export at Excel for extra filtering.

Task Information – Default

The Task Information – Default report displays all the tasks, along with the duration, start,
finish, predecessors and resource names. Because of the format of this report, you can export it
at Excel or CSV and import it maybe at your own company’s software.

Task Information – Earned Value

Similar to Resource Information – Earned Value report, with this report, you can check the
Earned Value per task.

Task Information – Tracking

Very useful report, displaying all the tasks, along with the actual start, actual finish and percent
complete. You can also filter the tasks to view Completed, Cost overbudget tasks, Critical tasks,
In-progress tasks, Incomplete tasks, Late/overbudget tasks and Normal tasks.
Who Does What – Tasks Assigned

The Who Does What – Tasks Assigned report, is a checklist for your resources (either work or
material) to check where they are allocated and how are they doing. You can also filter your
resources by Material Resources, Work Resources, In-progress Assignments, Unstarted
Assignments, Work Complete.