Using MS Project 2010

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Contents at a Glance
Introduction ............................................................................... 1
1 Introduction to Managing Projects with Microsoft Project 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 Navigating Project 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3 Starting a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4 Working with Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

5 Working with Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
6 Accounting for Project Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

7 Capturing Project Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
8 Sharing Your Project with Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

9 Customizing Project 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
10 Understanding Project Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
11 Dealing with Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
iv Us i n g | M i c ro s o f t Pro j e c t 2 0 1 0
Media Table of Contents

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Chapter 1: Introduction to Managing Projects with
Microsoft Project 2010
Show Me Media 1.1—What Is Project 2010? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Tell Me More Media 1.2—What Version of Project Is Right for Me? . . . . . . . 6
Show Me Media 1.3—Project Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Show Me Media 1.4—Introducing the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Show Me Media 1.5—A Look at Manually Scheduled Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Show Me Media 1.6—An Overview of the Team Planner View . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Show Me Media 1.7—Advantages of the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Show Me Media 1.8—Adding a New Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Chapter 2: Navigating Project 2010
Show Me Media 2.1—Sharing the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Show Me Media 2.2—Understanding Project Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Tell Me More Media 2.3—Deciding Which View You Should Use . . . . . . . . 16
Show Me Media 2.4—Group Data in a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Show Me Media 2.5—Sort Data in a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Show Me Media 2.6—Filter Data in a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Show Me Media 2.7—Highlight Data in a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Show Me Media 2.8—Display Two Views at Once . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Chapter 3: Starting a Project
Tell Me More Media 3.1—Top-Down Versus Bottom-Up
Project Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Show Me Media 3.2—Create a New Project File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Show Me Media 3.3—A Quick Look at Properties and Options . . . . . . . . . . 49
Show Me Media 3.4—Setting Calendars and Working Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Chapter 4: Working with Tasks
Show Me Media 4.1—Learn More About Task Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Show Me Media 4.2—Working with Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Show Me Media 4.3—Automatic Versus Manual Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Tell Me More Media 4.4—Best Practices for Working
with Manually Scheduled Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Chapter 5: Working with Resources
Tell Me More Media 5.1—Making Sense of Cost Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Show Me Media 5.2—Adding a Resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Show Me Media 5.3—Understanding Resource Calendars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Show Me Media 5.4—Splitting a Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Show Me Media 5.5—Using Usage Views to Edit Assignments . . . . . . . . . . 91
M e d i a Ta b l e o f Co n te n t s v
Chapter 6: Accounting for Project Costs

Show Me Media 6.1—Understand Types of Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Show Me Media 6.2—Set Up a Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Show Me Media 6.3—Project Spending Versus Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Chapter 7: Capturing Project Progress
Show Me Media 7.1—Entering Actual Start, % Work Complete,
and Remaining Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Show Me Media 7.2—Entering Actual Start, Actual Work,
Remaining Work, and Finish Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Show Me Media 7.3—Entering Actual Work Per Day,
Remaining Work, and Finish Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Show Me Media 7.4—Understanding the Critical Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Chapter 8: Sharing Your Project with Others
Show Me Media 8.1—Sharing Your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Show Me Media 8.2—Collaborating on a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Chapter 9: Customizing Project 2010
Tell Me More Media 9.1— Benefits of Customizing Project 2010 . . . . . . 137
Show Me Media 9.2—Create a Custom Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Show Me Media 9.3—Graphical Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Show Me Media 9.4—Create a New Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Show Me Media 9.5—Create a New View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Chapter 10: Understanding Project Options
Show Me Media 10.1—Customizing the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Show Me Media 10.2—Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . 184
Chapter 11: Dealing with Problems
Tell Me More Media 11.1—Avoiding Future Problems by
Using Project 2010 Now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Show Me Media 11.2—Manually Leveling Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
vi Us i n g | M i c ro s o f t Pro j e c t 2 0 1 0
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
How This Book Is Organized ....................................................2
Using This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Special Features .................................................................. 3
About the Using Web Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1 Introduction to Managing Projects with
Microsoft Project 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
What Microsoft Project 2010 Can Do for You ...............................4
What Version of Project 2010 Do You Need? ................................6
Laying a Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
What’s New in Project 2010? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Updated User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Manually Scheduled Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Team Planner View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
New Table Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
SharePoint Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2 Navigating Project 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Using the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Using the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Share the Timeline with Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Understanding Project Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
What Views Are Available in Project 2010? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Working with Project Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Grouping Data in a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Sorting Data in a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Filtering Data in a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Highlighting Data in a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Displaying Two Views at Once . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Ta b l e o f Co n te n t s vii
3 Starting a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Setting Up a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Creating a New Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Saving a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Setting Project Properties and Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Setting Project Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Setting Project Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Choosing a Project Start or Finish Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Setting Up Your Project’s Calendars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Modifying an Existing Base Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Changing a Working Day to a Nonworking Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Changing a Nonworking Day to a Working Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Changing Default Working Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Changing Working Times for a Specific Time Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Creating a New Base Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Setting Up Your Project’s Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
How Does Project 2010 Schedule Tasks? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Scheduling Methods in Project 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
What Factors Does the Project Scheduling Engine Consider? . . . . . 61
Which Scheduling Method Should I Use? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4 Working with Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Understanding Task Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Fixed Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Fixed Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Fixed Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Adding Tasks to Your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Adding a New Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Setting a Task Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Indenting and Outdenting Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Setting Up Task Dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Adding Dependencies Between Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74
Creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Setting Your Project’s WBS Code Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
5 Working with Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Understanding Resource Types and Other Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Adding Resources to Your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Adjusting Resource Calendars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

viii Us i n g | M i c ro s o f t Pro j e c t 2 0 1 0
Assigning Resources to Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Assigning a Resource Using the Task Information Dialog Box . . . . . 87
Assigning a Work Resource Using the Team Planner View . . . . . . . . . . 89
Editing an Existing Resource Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Splitting a Task to Create a Gap in Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Fine-Tuning a Resource’s Work Schedule for a Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Assigning Remaining Work on a Task to Another Resource . . . . . . . . 92
6 Accounting for Project Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Understanding Types of Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Creating a Budget for Your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Creating and Assigning Budget Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Adding Values to Budget Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Pairing Resources with Budgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Comparing Actual Cost and Work Values with the Project Budget . . 100
Accounting for Overtime Spent on Project Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Planning for Overtime Work and Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Recording Actual Overtime Work and Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7 Capturing Project Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Baselining Your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Gathering Status Updates from Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Actual Start, Percent Work Complete, Remaining Work . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Actual Work Per Day, Remaining Work, Expected Finish Date . . . . 116
Assessing the Impacts of Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
8 Sharing Your Project with Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Reporting on Your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Generating and Customizing a Visual Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Generating and Customizing a Basic Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Sharing Data with Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Copying the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Exporting Data to Excel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Taking a Picture of Your Project Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Saving the Project As a PDF or XPS File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Collaborating with Others on Your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
9 Customizing Project 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Creating Custom Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Adding and Removing Columns in a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Adding a Column to a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Hiding a Column in a View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Ta b l e o f Co n te n t s ix
Saving a Set of Columns as a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Creating and Editing Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
10 Understanding Project Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

General Project Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
User Interface Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Project View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Personalize Your Copy of Microsoft Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Display Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Currency Options for This Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Show Indicators and Options Buttons For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Show These Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Schedule Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Calendar Options for This Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Scheduling Options for This Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Schedule Alerts Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Calculation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Calculation Options for This Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Proofing Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
AutoCorrect Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
When Correcting Spelling in Microsoft Office Programs . . . . . . . . . . 166
When Correcting Spelling in Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Save Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Save Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Save Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Language Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Advanced Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Project Web App . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Planning Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
General Options for This Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Display Options for This Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Cross Project Linking Options for This Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Earned Value Options for This Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Calculation Options for This Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
x Us i n g | M i c ro s o f t Pro j e c t 2 0 1 0
Customize Ribbon Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Customize the Ribbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Quick Access Toolbar Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Customize the Quick Access Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Add-Ins Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Trust Center Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

11 Dealing with Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Problem: One of My Resources Is Overallocated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Problem: My Schedule Goes Longer Than My Deadline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Problem: My Costs Are Exceeding My Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Assigning Work to Fewer People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Cutting Back on What Needs to Get Done . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Trimming Budget Amounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .198
A b o u t t h e Au t h o r s xi
About the Authors

Sonia Atchison has been working with Microsoft Project since 1999. In 2006, she
joined the writing team at Microsoft that produces end-user Help content and
videos for Project and Project Server, planning and writing content for the 2007
and 2010 releases.
Brian Kennemer has been helping people understand and work with Microsoft
Project since 1998. He has worked at Microsoft, where he specialized in Project
Server deployments and was a member of the Enterprise Project Management
Center of Excellence. He currently does Project Server consulting at forProject
Technology, Inc., a Microsoft partner that specializes in Earned Value Management
System products that work with Project and Project Server. He lives in the forests
north of Seattle with his wife, Alicia, and his children, Riley, Jesse, and Alivia.
xii Us i n g | M i c ro s o f t Pro j e c t 2 0 1 0
Acknowledgments
For their unending patience, thanks to Vince Atchison, Jasper Atchison,
Brian Kennemer, and Loretta Yates.
—Sonia Atchison
My thanks go to my wife Alicia and my children Riley, Jesse, and Alivia for their
support that allowed me to work on this book. Thanks also to Sonia Atchison
and Loretta Yates.
—Brian Kennemer
R e a d e r S e r v i ce s xiii
We Want to Hear from You!

As the reader of this book, you are our most important critic and commentator. We
value your opinion and want to know what we’re doing right, what we could do
better, what areas you’d like to see us publish in, and any other words of wisdom
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This page intentionally left blank
Introduction
Project management is a broad term that can mean something very formal and spe-
cific to one person, but something very organic and pieced together to another.
The fact of the matter is that “pieced together” can get you only so far. Spread-
sheets, sticky notes, and email are all great tools, and they may work fine for
smaller projects, but when you start adding just a few more people working on a
project, or just one or two more reports to generate for upper management, proj-
ect management becomes more complicated. Your blood pressure goes up a
smidge and gathering bits and pieces from the various tools you’ve been using to
track your projects gets to be more tedious than you may have time for.
Microsoft Project 2010 addresses these issues gracefully and powerfully. I can’t lie;
it has a steep learning curve, but it’s absolutely worth your time to figure it out,
even at a rudimentary level. The amount of time it ultimately will save you is reason
enough. And as you complete projects, you can review the project data to help
make decisions about future projects. It’s a thing of beauty, really, especially if
you’ve been used to a lot of manual updating and high-maintenance project and
resource tracking.
Project 2010 is versatile enough to help bring order to a novice project manager’s
plans, while offering rich solutions for experienced project managers. The latter will
benefit from items such as earned value and critical path analysis, resource level-
ing, and heavy customizability to meet organizational needs.
How This Book Is Organized

This book introduces you to Project 2010. It is designed to familiarize you with proj-
ect management terminology, as it is used in Project 2010, and covers functionality
that was brought forward from previous versions of Project, as well as features that
are new in Project 2010. This book is far from a be-all, end-all reference book for
Project 2010. Instead, it focuses on introducing the concepts and procedures that
are most commonly used. Using Microsoft Project 2010 offers you the following:
2 Introduction
• Some high-level project management theory, as it applies to Project 2010

• An introduction to new features in this version
• An orientation to Project 2010, including the different parts of the Project
window and the many views available to you
• A walkthrough of the process of creating a project, from adding tasks and
assigning resources, to tracking costs and reporting on progress
• Information about some simple customization options, as a starting point for
more advanced topics
• Some solutions to commonly encountered project issues
Using This Book

This book allows you to customize your own learning experience. The step-by-step
instructions in this book give you a solid foundation in using Project 2010, while
rich and varied online content, including video tutorials and audio sidebars, pro-
vide the following:
• Demonstrations of step-by-step tasks covered in this book
• Additional tips or information on a topic
• Practical advice and suggestions
• Direction for more advanced tasks not covered in this book
Here’s a quick look at a few structural features designed to help you get the most
out of this book:
• Chapter objective—At the beginning of each chapter is a brief summary of
topics addressed in that chapter. This objective enables you to quickly see
what is covered in the chapter.
• Notes—Notes provide additional commentary or explanation that doesn’t fit
neatly into the surrounding text. Notes give detailed explanations of how
something works, alternative ways of performing a task, and other tidbits to
get you on your way.
• Tips—This element gives you shortcuts, workarounds, and ways to avoid pit-
falls.
• Cautions—Every once in a while, there is something that can have serious
repercussions if done incorrectly (or rarely, if done at all). Cautions give you a
heads-up.
A b o u t t h e Using We b E d i t i o n 3
• Cross-references—Many topics are connected to other topics in various

ways. Cross-references help you link related information together, no matter
where that information appears in the book. When another section is related
to one you are reading, a cross-reference directs you to a specific page in the
book on which you can find the related information.
LET ME TRY IT tasks are presented in a step-by-step sequence so you can

easily follow along.
SHOW ME video walks through tasks you’ve just got to see—including

bonus advanced techniques.
TELL ME MORE audio delivers practical insights straight from the experts.
Special Features
More than just a book, your Using product integrates step-by-step video tutorials
and valuable audio sidebars delivered through the Free Web Edition that comes
with every Using book. For the price of this book, you get online access anywhere
with a web connection—no books to carry, content is updated as the technology
changes, and the benefit of video and audio learning.
About the Using Web Edition

The Web Edition of every Using book is powered by Safari Books Online, allowing
you to access the video tutorials and valuable audio sidebars. Plus, you can search
the contents of the book, highlight text and attach a note to that text, print your
notes and highlights in a custom summary, and cut and paste directly from Safari
Books Online.
To register this product and gain access to the free Web Edition and the audio and
video files, go to quepublishing.com/using.
1
This chapter provides a basic understanding of
project management terminology, Microsoft
Project 2010, and what’s new in this version.
Introduction to Managing Projects

with Microsoft Project 2010
Here’s a common scenario: You’ve been put in charge of some project in your
organization. This project requires scheduling, coordinating, and progress tracking.
Your office is covered in yellow sticky notes, and you have five different spread-
sheets going at once, which each need to be updated manually every time a date
changes. Your manager is knocking at your office door, asking for a status report for
a meeting she has in 10 minutes, and you’re feeling panicky because you don’t
even know where to start to pull together a summary of what’s going on with your
project, let alone what that summary is going to reveal about the project’s status.
This is the point at which you, as a project manager, can either throw your hands
up and find a new line of work or step up to the plate and take your project man-
agement skills to the next level. What’s the next level? Tools. My recommendation?
Microsoft Project 2010, for its powerful scheduling engine and customizability.
What Microsoft Project 2010 Can Do for You

Microsoft Project 2010 is a software tool that takes a lot of the manual updating
and guesswork out of managing your projects. You can enter information about
your project’s tasks, when they need to happen, how long you think they should
take, and who should be doing the work. As you make updates, Project 2010’s
scheduling engine takes all the project work into account, providing a grounded
schedule that represents the reality of what can be accomplished. After you’ve
seen the facts, you can move forward and make adjustments to the time, scope,
or costs involved with your project, to find acceptable solutions for time-
management challenges.
If you’re not sure how to adjust your project to meet certain constraints, consider
the project management triangle: one side each for time, scope, and costs associ-
ated with your project. Figure 1.1 illustrates this triangle. If you have fewer people
working on the project than you had planned, you’ll need to make up for that by
extending the project deadline or limiting the scope of your project. If you have a
smaller budget than planned, you’ll need to adjust your project by not doing quite
Wh a t M i c ro s o f t Pro j e c t 2 0 1 0 Ca n D o fo r Yo u 5
as much work or completing the work in less time. If your project expands to
include more work, you’ll need to increase the budget to hire more people or
extend the schedule so that the people currently assigned to the project have
more time to finish the added work.
Time Costs
Project
Management
Triangle
Scope
Figure 1.1 Project management triangle
As work progresses, you can track how close the actual schedule is to your original
baseline dates, so that you can more accurately predict when your project may be
completed. If you need to be done sooner, you can use Project 2010 to model what
would happen if you added more people to ease the workload or increased the
project’s budget to allow the current set of people working on the project to spend
even more time getting the work done. Or if you need to pull some people off of
your project, you can use Project 2010 to model what your project’s dates will look
like with fewer people doing the work.
As in the earlier scenario, when your manager knocks on your door asking for a sta-
tus report in the next 10 minutes, you can use the reporting features in Project
2010 to quickly produce any of several attractive reports, showing things such as
overall project health, budget tracking, and earned value over time. And you’ll
already know what the reports will reveal, because each time you make changes,
the charts and views that illustrate your project’s work over the course of the
schedule are updated in real time. No surprises!
6 Chapter 1 | I nt ro d u c t i o n to M a n a gi n g Pro j e c t s w i t h M i c ro s o f t Pro j e c t 2 0 1 0
SHOW ME Media 1.1—What Is Project 2010?

Access this video file through your registered Web Edition at
my.safaribooksonline.com/9780132182461/media.
What Version of Project 2010 Do You Need?

The two versions of Project 2010 are Standard and Professional. For many people,
Project Standard 2010 has all the functionality they need. However, if you find that
you do a lot of reassigning of staff or shifting of the tools you need to get work
done, Project Professional 2010 has more advanced features to help you get the
right people doing the right tasks. Project Professional 2010 also has advanced
functionality to help you share your plan with others, using Microsoft SharePoint
Foundation 2010 or Microsoft Project Server 2010.
If you’re looking for an end-to-end enterprise project management solution, you
can use Project Professional 2010 with Project Server 2010. With both of these tools
deployed in your organization, people can submit project proposals for analysis by
stakeholders, project managers can plan and track work in either a desktop client
or on the Web, and team members can report time and task progress using Project
Web App.
An end-to-end enterprise project management solution can be beneficial for

small organizations as well as for medium and large organizations. If you choose
to evaluate this option, keep in mind that the functionality offered in this solu-
tion can be scaled up or down to meet your organization’s needs.
TELL ME MORE Media 1.2—What Version of Project Is Right for Me?

Access this audio recording through your registered Web Edition at
Laying a Foundation
Before we talk about the details of using Project 2010, you need to clearly under-
stand a few terms, because they’re used extensively in the Project 2010 interface.
SHOW ME Media 1.3—Project Terminology

W h a t ’s N e w i n Pro j e c t 2 0 1 0 ? 7
Project
Just so we’re clear, in relation to Project 2010, a project is a set of work that is com-
pleted according to a schedule and that has some kind of end result. For example,
a project may result in a tangible item, such as a report, a building, or a retail prod-
uct, or it may result in an intangible item, such as an event, a set of goals, or a
strategy.
Task
A task is a smaller chunk of work that contributes to the completion of a project.
For example, if you’re planning a project to build a house, you might have separate
tasks for laying the foundation, putting up the walls, and adding the roof. In Project
2010, each task has a start date and a finish date, and you can assign people and/or
things to help do the task work.
Resource
A resource can be a person, an item, a facility, or an expense that is required to
complete the work associated with a task. In Project 2010, people are referred to as
work resources; items or facilities are referred to as material resources; and
expenses are referred to as cost resources. A single task may require more than one
type of resource. For example, if the task is to travel to a satellite office and teach a
training course, you might need a person (work resource) to teach the class, a
roundtrip plane ticket (cost resource) to get the person to and from the satellite
office, and a classroom (material resource) where the training course is held.
Assignment
An assignment is the term used when a resource is identified as a person, item, or
cost that will do work on, or be used for, a task in a project.
What’s New in Project 2010?

The following sections provide a high-level overview of what’s been updated or
added in Project 2010.
Updated User Interface

The most noticeable change in Project 2010 is the addition of the ribbon. If you
used the 2007 version of Access, Excel, PowerPoint, or Word, you may be familiar
with the ribbon. Commands that previously had been available in the menus at the
top of the Project window are now available as buttons on several tabs across the
top of each view, as shown in Figure 1.2.
Figure 1.2 The ribbon is displayed at the top of the Project window.
As you work in Project 2010, the tabs display commonly used commands for what-
ever you happen to be doing. For example, if you’re making changes to the way
the Gantt Chart view is displayed, there’s an entire tab with buttons that control
what bars are displayed, what colors are used, and other formatting options.
The ribbon takes up a good amount of real estate in the Project 2010 window. If
you find yourself needing just a little more room to display your project, press
Ctrl+F1 to minimize the ribbon. When the ribbon is minimized, only the tab
names appear at the top of the window. When you click a tab name, the ribbon
appears. When you click outside the ribbon, it goes back to being minimized.
Press Ctrl+F1 again to bring the ribbon back.
SHOW ME Media 1.4—Introducing the Ribbon

LET ME TRY IT
Using the Ribbon

To get familiar with using the ribbon, follow these steps:
1. Click through the tabs on the ribbon to get familiar with the buttons and
options available on each tab.
2. Press Ctrl+F1 to minimize the ribbon. Click a tab on the minimized ribbon to
display the full ribbon, and then click outside of the ribbon to return the tabs
to minimized. Press Ctrl+F1 again to maximize the ribbon.
Manually Scheduled Tasks

In previous versions of Project, tasks could be scheduled only using Project’s sched-
uling engine. That is, you’d tell Project a few details about a task, such as when it
should start and how long it should take (duration), and Project would figure out
when the task would be done, based on how many people or things were assigned
to the task, what other things the task depended on, and what the calendar looked
like. Until you had a good understanding of how Project was making these calcula-
tions, the scheduling engine seemed to be a bit of a mystery. Even some experi-
enced project managers who had been using Project for years occasionally would
run into situations in complex projects in which the dates given by the scheduling
engine were just not what they expected.
Project 2010 has taken a new approach to scheduling by introducing manually
scheduled tasks. That is, instead of letting Project 2010 calculate when a project
should start or finish, you can identify a task as being manually scheduled, and
then you have full control over task start and finish dates.
SHOW ME Media 1.5—A Look at Manually Scheduled Tasks

As you might guess, choosing to manually schedule a task can be a blessing and a
curse. On the one hand, your dates are firm, and you won’t be stuck sitting there
trying to figure out why the task start date is a week later than you thought it
should be. On the other hand, by forcing a task to start and finish on specific dates,
you may forget to account for company holidays, the people working on your task
are more likely to have too much work on their plates, and you may end up acci-
dentally double-booking tools or facilities required to get the work done. If you
choose to manually schedule a task, you’ll need to keep a close eye on how that
task is affected by the rest of your project and what impact that task may have on
other tasks and resources.
Team Planner View

The Team Planner view, available only in Project Professional 2010, is a quick, easy,
and highly visual way to review and change what your team members are working
on in your project. In the Team Planner view, shown in Figure 1.3, you can see
where people may have too much on their plates (overallocation), what tasks have
yet to be assigned, and what the current progress is on your project’s tasks.
The darkened portion of this task The red highlighting shows where
shows how much work has progressed. this resource is overallocated.
This task is not assigned to anyone at the moment.

Drag it to a resource name above to assign it.
Figure 1.3 The Team Planner view shows what each team member is working on.
You can resolve overallocations by dragging tasks between team members and
assign tasks to people by dragging them from the Unassigned Tasks area of this
view to a team member’s name.
SHOW ME Media 1.6—An Overview of the Team Planner View

Timeline
At the top of each view, you can display a timeline of your project, illustrating proj-
ect tasks and dates (see Figure 1.4).
You can use the timeline to help focus what’s displayed in other Project views. This
timeline can be printed or copied and pasted into other applications, enabling you
Figure 1.4 The timeline can be displayed above another view.
to easily communicate your project plan with others who don’t have access to your
plan or don’t have Project 2010 installed.
SHOW ME Media 1.7—Advantages of the Timeline

New Table Customization

Adding new columns to any of the tables in Project 2010 is considerably easier
than in prior versions. Instead of going through a separate window and several cus-
tomization steps, you now can simply click the Add New Column header on the
right side of any table, as shown in Figure 1.5.
When you click the Add New Column header, the entire list of available fields is
displayed for you to choose which column you want to add. After the column is
added, you can drag it to where you want it displayed. If you decide you need to
rename a column, you can simply double-click the column header and type the
new name. So easy!
Figure 1.5 Click the Add New Column header to insert a new column.
SHOW ME 1.8—Adding a New Column

LET ME TRY IT
Adding a New Column to a View

To add a new column to a view, follow these steps:
1. Click the Add New Column header, and then click the name of a column
you want to add to the current view.
2. Click the column header for the new column. The cursor turns to a four-
way arrow. Click and drag the header to move it to another location in the
view.
3. To rename the column, double-click the column header and type a new
name.
SharePoint Collaboration
If you have Project Professional 2010, you can export your project to a SharePoint
project tasks list, which is included as part of SharePoint Foundation 2010. This
enables you to share project information without Project Server 2010 and without
requiring others to have Project 2010 installed. Figure 1.6 shows the Sync with
Tasks List options on the File tab.
Figure 1.6 The File tab includes multiple options for working with SharePoint.
2
In this chapter, you’ll learn how to navigate around
the interface and how to use the views in
Project 2010.
Navigating Project 2010
The first step in really digging into Project 2010 is to look closely at the different
parts of the user interface. At the top of the Project window is the ribbon, below
that is the timeline, and below the timeline is the view display area.
Using the Ribbon

The ribbon is made up of several tabs that display commands appropriate for what-
ever view you’re using in Project 2010. Each tab contains several groups of buttons,
separated by vertical gray lines and labeled in gray text at the bottom of the tab.
Figure 2.1 illustrates the tabs and groups on the ribbon.
Tabs
Groups
Figure 2.1 The ribbon is displayed at the top of the Project window.
The Task, Resource, Project, and View tabs are always available, with some buttons
on each tab made unavailable depending on what view you’re using or what you
have selected.
Each view in Project 2010 has a special Format tab with buttons for commands that
you can only use in each view. This special tab is the last one on the right and is
highlighted using a different color for each view.
If you’re familiar with previous versions of Project, you may find the interactive rib-
bon mapping guides available on Office.com helpful in learning where to find
menu commands on the ribbon. To view the Project 2010 interactive guide, go to
Us i n g t h e Ti m e l i n e 15
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-help/learn-where-menu-and-toolbar-
commands-are-in-office-2010-HA101794130.aspx and then click Open the Project
guide, under Use an interactive guide to find my commands.
A printable guide is also available on this page, if you’d prefer a desk reference.
For more information on using the ribbon, see Show Me Media 1.3.
Using the Timeline

The timeline, which illustrates your project’s tasks, is displayed between the ribbon
and the main viewing area in the Project 2010 window. The timeline can be very
helpful in communicating your project data with others.
Where’d the timeline go? The timeline can be turned on or off at any time. On
the ribbon, click the View tab and then select or clear the Timeline box in the
Split View group to turn the timeline on or off.
If you click within the timeline portion of the window, a Format tab specific to the
timeline is displayed on the ribbon, in the shaded area labeled Timeline Tools
(shown in Figure 2.2).
Figure 2.2 The Format tab for the timeline contains several view options.
You can use the buttons on the Format tab for the timeline to add tasks and mile-
stones to the timeline, change the date formats used for each task on the timeline,
and change the text styles used for different elements of the timeline. Tasks can be
displayed as bars within the timeline, or as callouts above or below the timeline.
After you have the timeline displayed with the information you want, you can share
it with others.
SHOW ME Media 2.1—Sharing the Timeline

16 Chapter 2 | N av i g a t i n g Pro j e c t 2 0 1 0
LET ME TRY IT
Share the Timeline with Others

To share the Timeline with others, follow these steps:
1. On the Format tab, in the Copy group, click Copy Timeline.
2. Choose whether you want to copy the Timeline For E-mail, For
Presentation, or Full Size. The timeline is copied to your clipboard.
3. Paste the Timeline in another application, such as Outlook, Word, or Pow-
erPoint, for sharing with others.
Understanding Project Views

Project 2010 has 27 built-in views that you can use to see different information
about your project. Views display task information, such as task names and dates,
resource information, such as names and rates for the people involved with your
project, and assignment information, such as what tasks a specific person is work-
ing on at a given time.
SHOW ME Media 2.2—Understanding Project Views

What Views Are Available in Project 2010?

Project 2010 provides several different default views, each designed for a unique
purpose. The following sections go over each default view.
TELL ME MORE Media 2.3—Deciding Which View You Should Use

Bar Rollup
Use the Bar Rollup view, shown in Figure 2.3, to display subtasks overlapping sum-
mary tasks on the Gantt Chart.
U n d e r s t a n d i n g Pro j e c t Vi e ws 17
Figure 2.3 The Bar Rollup view
LET ME TRY IT
Roll Up a Subtask
To include a subtask overlapped on a summary task in the Bar Rollup view, follow
these steps:
1. In the Bar Rollup view, double-click a subtask to display the Task
Information dialog box.
2. On the General tab, select the Rollup check box, shown in Figure 2.4.
3. Click OK. The subtask bar now appears overlapped on its summary task bar
on the Gantt chart.
Calendar
The Calendar view, shown in Figure 2.5, displays your project’s tasks as overlays in a
standard calendar format. This view enables you to jump between viewing a
month, a week, or a custom span of weeks or dates.
Figure 2.4 Select the Rollup check box.
Figure 2.5 The Calendar view
Click Month, Week, or Custom, above the calendar, to change what dates the Cal-
endar view displays. Figure 2.6 highlights these buttons on the Calendar view.
Figure 2.6 Click Month, Week, or Custom.
LET ME TRY IT
Set a Custom Calendar Period

To choose a specific set of dates to display in the Calendar view, follow these steps:
1. In the Calendar view, click Custom, above the calendar.
2. On the Zoom dialog box, choose whether you want to display a certain
number of weeks, or a specific date range, using the options shown in
Figure 2.7.
3. Click OK. The calendar is updated to display the period you specified.
Figure 2.7 Use the Zoom dialog box to set a custom calendar period.
Descriptive Network Diagram

As shown in Figure 2.8, the Descriptive Network Diagram view displays boxes for
each task in your project, containing details about each task. When appropriate,
the boxes are connected using arrows that show dependencies between the tasks.
Tasks on the critical path are highlighted in red.
Figure 2.8 The Descriptive Network Diagram view
Detail Gantt
The Detail Gantt view, shown in Figure 2.9, helps to highlight how much a task can
be delayed before other task dates are impacted. This view shows the critical path
using red bars on the Gantt chart.
Gantt Chart
The Gantt Chart view, shown in Figure 2.10, is probably the most-used view in Pro-
ject 2010. It lists the project’s tasks on the left portion of the view, and displays
coordinating bars across a timeline on the right portion of the view.
Gantt with Timeline

The Gantt with Timeline view, shown in Figure 2.11, is a split view that displays the
Timeline view in the top pane and the Gantt Chart view in the bottom pane.
Leveling Gantt
The Leveling Gantt view, shown in Figure 2.12, shows how the tasks in your project
will be affected if you use the resource-leveling feature in Project 2010.
Figure 2.9 The Detail Gantt view
Figure 2.10 The Gantt Chart view

Figure 2.11 The Gantt with Timeline view
Figure 2.12 The Leveling Gantt view

Milestone Date Rollup

Use the Milestone Date Rollup view, shown in Figure 2.13, to view your project’s
summary tasks on the Gantt chart, with labels for milestones and dates.
Figure 2.13 The Milestone Date Rollup view
The Milestone Date Rollup view will only display milestones and dates on the sum-
mary task Gantt bar if the subtasks are set to roll up to the summary task. Refer to
the section, “Roll Up a Subtask,” for information on how to roll subtasks up to the
summary task level.
Milestone Rollup
Use the Milestone Rollup view, shown in Figure 2.14, to view your project’s sum-
mary tasks on the Gantt chart, with labels for milestones.
The Milestone Rollup view will only display milestones on the summary task Gantt
bar if the subtasks are set to roll up to the summary task. Refer to the section, “Roll
Up a Subtask,” for information on how to roll subtasks up to the summary task level.
Figure 2.14 The Milestone Rollup view
Multiple Baselines Gantt

The Multiple Baselines Gantt view, shown in Figure 2.15, displays the dates saved as
Baseline, Baseline 1, and Baseline 2, using different colored Gantt bars on the
right portion of the view.
Network Diagram
The Network Diagram view, shown in Figure 2.16, displays boxes for each task in
your project. When appropriate, the boxes are connected using arrows that show
dependencies between the tasks. Tasks on the critical path are highlighted in red.
This view may come in handy when you need an illustrated look at how tasks in
your project are connected.
Figure 2.15 The Multiple Baselines Gantt view
Figure 2.16 The Network Diagram view

Relationship Diagram
Use the Relationship Diagram view, shown in Figure 2.17, to clarify how a single
task relates to other tasks, in projects with many dependencies.
Figure 2.17 The Relationship Diagram view
Resource Allocation
The Resource Allocation view, shown in Figure 2.18, is a split view, displaying the
Resource Usage view in the top pane and the Leveling Gantt view in the bottom
pane.
Resource Form
The Resource Form view, shown in Figure 2.19 enables you to view or enter
detailed information about each of your project’s resources individually.
Resource Graph
The Resource Graph view, shown in Figure 2.20, displays a bar graph for each
resource assigned to at least one task in your project. The bar graph illustrates allo-
cation, availability, cost, and work details throughout the project’s life cycle.
Figure 2.18 The Resource Allocation view
Figure 2.19 The Resource Form view

Figure 2.20 The Resource Graph view
Resource Name Form

The Resource Name Form view, shown in Figure 2.21, enables you to view or enter
basic information about each of your project’s resources individually.
Figure 2.21 The Resource Name Form view

Resource Sheet
Use the Resource Sheet view, shown in Figure 2.22, to enter or review details about
the resources that may be assigned to tasks in your project.
Figure 2.22 The Resource Sheet view
Resource Usage
The Resource Usage view, shown in Figure 2.23, displays task assignments for each
resource on the left portion of the view, and the work or cost information about
the task assignments over time in the right portion of the view.
Task Details Form

The Task Details Form view, shown in Figure 2.24, enables you to view or enter
detailed information about each of your project’s tasks individually.
Task Entry
The Task Entry view, shown in Figure 2.25, is a split view, displaying the Gantt Chart
view in the top pane and the Task Form view in the bottom pane.
Figure 2.23 The Resource Usage view
Figure 2.24 The Task Details Form view

Figure 2.25 The Task Entry view
Task Form
The Task Form view, shown in Figure 2.26, enables you to view or enter basic infor-
mation about each of your project’s tasks individually.
Task Name Form

Use the Task Name Form view, shown in Figure 2.27, to view or enter a single task’s
assigned resources, predecessors, and successors.
Task Sheet
The Task Sheet view, shown in Figure 2.28, enables you to view or enter task infor-
mation without simultaneously viewing the Gantt chart.
Task Usage
The Task Usage view, shown in Figure 2.29, displays assigned resources for each
task on the left portion of the view, and the work or cost information about the
resource assignments over time in the right portion of the view.
Figure 2.26 The Task Form view
Figure 2.27 The Task Name Form view

Figure 2.28 The Task Sheet view
Figure 2.29 The Task Usage view

Team Planner
As shown in Figure 2.30, the Team Planner view, available only in Project Profes-
sional 2010, provides a visual representation of what the resources in your project
are working on, throughout your project’s life cycle. You can drag task assignments
between resources to adjust for overallocation or free up some of a resource’s time
to make room for other work.
Figure 2.30 The Team Planner view
Timeline
The Timeline view, shown in Figure 2.31, illustrates your project’s tasks and dates
using a traditional timeline format. It can be customized to display certain tasks as
callouts on the timeline, and it can be printed or copied into other applications.
Tracking Gantt
The Tracking Gantt view, shown in Figure 2.32, displays Gantt bars for the baseline
dates and the current schedule for each of your project’s tasks. This enables you to
quickly see how well your project is tracking to your baseline dates.
Wo r k i n g w i t h Pro j e c t Vi e ws 35
Figure 2.31 The Timeline view
Figure 2.32 The Tracking Gantt view

Working with Project Views

After you’ve decided which view you want to use to work with your project, the
next step is to group, sort, filter, highlight, or split the view so that you are looking
at the right set of data for whatever you’re trying to accomplish.
SHOW ME Media 2.4—Group Data in a View

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Grouping Data in a View

When you group data in a view, you display all tasks or resources with a common
factor together. For example, in the Resource Sheet view, you might find it helpful
to group the resources by Type, so that all work resources are displayed together,
all material resources are displayed together, and all cost resources are displayed
together. Figure 2.33 provide another example of grouping, with projects grouped
by Complete and Incomplete.
Figure 2.33 Projects are grouped by Complete and Incomplete in the Gantt Chart view.
You can group data in a view in two ways. If the data you want to group is dis-
played in the view, click the arrow on the right side of the column header, click
Group By, and then click the grouping option that meets your needs.
You can also group the data in a view using the ribbon by following these steps:
1. On the View tab of the ribbon, in the Data group, choose the criterion you
want to use to group data from the Group By list.
2. If the criterion you want to group by is not listed, click More Groups if you
think the grouping is already set up, or click New Group By to set up a
new grouping.
3. To set up a new grouping, in the Group Definition dialog box, complete
the following:
• Name—Give the grouping a name.
• Show in Menu—Select this check box to display the grouping in the
Group By list.
• Group By—Click the Field Name column in the Group By row, and then
click the name of the first field you want to group by. Click the Order col-
umn in the Group By row to choose whether you want the data in the
field you selected to be displayed in Ascending or Descending order.
• Then By—Complete each Then By row, as needed, to create subgroups
within each group. For example, if you chose to group by Type, in a
resource view, you might find it helpful to create a subgroup within that
group to sort by Base Calendar. This would show all work resources, for
example, that use a night shift calendar together in a resource view.
Figure 2.34 shows an example of how to set up tasks to be grouped first
by whether they’re critical, and then by their percent complete.
Figure 2.34 The Group Definition dialog box with a grouping example
4. Use the plus or minus signs next to the group rollups to expand or col-
lapse each group.
5. Click Clear Group in the Group By list to remove the grouping from the
view.
SHOW ME Media 2.5—Sort Data in a View

LET ME TRY IT
Sorting Data in a View

By sorting data in a view, you choose the order in which you want data to appear.
For example, you may want a list of names to be displayed in order from A to Z, or
you may want a list of dates to be displayed from earliest to latest. Figure 2.35
shows the Gantt Chart view sorted by Duration.
Figure 2.35 The Gantt Chart view with data sorted by Duration
There are two ways to sort data in a view. If the data you want to sort is displayed
in the view, you can click the arrow on the right side of the column header and
then choose the sort option from the list that appears. For example, if you click the
arrow on the right side of the Duration column header, you can choose Sort
Smallest to Largest or Sort Largest to Smallest.
You can also sort the data in a view using the ribbon by following these steps:
1. On the View tab of the ribbon, in the Data group, click Sort.
2. Choose a criterion you want to sort by, or, if none of the existing options
meet your needs, click Sort By to create a custom sort order.
3. To create a custom sort order, on the Sort dialog box, choose the first field
you want to use in the Sort by list, and then choose whether you want to
sort in Ascending or Descending order. If you want to refine the sort
order using additional fields, choose those fields from the Then by lists,
and choose orders for those fields as well. Figure 2.36 shows an example
of a sort order where tasks will first be sorted by Duration, then by Start.
Figure 2.36 An example of setting up a custom order
4. Click Sort to sort the view using this custom sort order.
SHOW ME Media 2.6—Filter Data in a View

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Filtering Data in a View

Filtering data can help by narrowing down the data displayed in a view. For exam-
ple, let’s say you’re trying to find a resource with a particular skillset. If you’ve set
Project 2010 up with a field for capturing resource skillsets, you can filter by that
field in the Resource Sheet view to see only resources that meet your needs.
Figure 2.37 shows this filter applied to the Resource Sheet view, looking only for
Testers.
Figure 2.37 The Resource Sheet view filtered to only show resources with “Tester” in the
Skillset column
Project 2010 provides two ways to filter data in a view. To filter data that appears in
a view, click the arrow on the right side of a column header, click Filter in the list
that appears, and then click the filter that you want to apply to the column. You
can also use the check boxes that appear in the list to select the data you want to
appear. You can filter multiple columns in a view using this method.
You can also filter a view using the ribbon by following these steps:
1. On the View tab of the ribbon, in the Data group, choose a filtering
option from the Filter list.
2. If the filter that you want to apply is not listed, click More Filters if you
think the filter is already set up. Otherwise, click New Filter.
3. To set up a new filter, in the Filter Definition dialog box, complete the
following:
• Name—Give the filter a name.
• Show in menu—Select this check box to display the filter in the Filter
list.
• Filter—Complete the first row of the grid to indicate what field you want
to filter on and what you want to look for with that field. Choose the field
name, test, and value(s) for the filter. For example, if you want to create a
filter that looks for cost overages, you might choose Actual Cost in the
Field Name column, is greater than in the Test column, and [Baseline
Cost] in the Value(s) column. You can include multiple rows in the filter
to add conditions and use the And/Or column to indicate whether the
filter should include all conditions or just select conditions.
Figure 2.38 shows an example of a filter definition that will show only
Testers that have 100% of their time available to your project.
Figure 2.38 An example of a filter definition
4. Click Apply to apply the filter to the view, and then click Save to save the
filter for future use.
5. Click Clear Filter in the Filter list to remove the filter from the view.
SHOW ME Media 2.7—Highlight Data in a View

LET ME TRY IT
Highlighting Data in a View

When you’re working with a project, it can be helpful to have certain tasks, dates,
or other information called out with a visual indicator for easy identification. Pro-
ject 2010 enables you to set up data highlight filters based on conditions that you
define. Figure 2.39 shows the Gantt Chart view, with tasks using a specific resource
highlighted.
Figure 2.39 Tasks with the “Van #1” resource assigned are highlighted.
Here are the steps to follow to highlight data in a view:

1. On the View tab of the ribbon, in the Data group, choose a highlight filter
from the Highlight list.
2. If the highlight filter that you want to apply is not listed, click More
Highlight Filters if you think the filter is already set up. Otherwise, click
New Highlight Filter.
3. To set up a new highlight filter, in the Filter Definition dialog box, com-
plete the following:
• Name—Give the highlight filter a name.
• Show in menu—Select this check box to display the filter in the
Highlight list.
• Filter—Complete the first row of the grid to indicate what field you want
to filter on and what you want to look for with that field. Choose the field
name, test, and value(s) for the filter. For example, if you want to create a
filter that highlights tasks that you haven’t baselined, you might choose
Baseline Start in the Field Name column, equals in the Test column,
and type NA in the Value(s) column. You can include multiple rows in
the filter to add conditions, and use the And/Or column to indicate
whether the filter should include all conditions or just select conditions.
Figure 2.40 shows an example of how to set up a highlight filter for tasks
that are critical, and that finished later than planned.
4. Click Apply to apply the highlight filter to the view, and then click Save to
save the filter for future use.
Figure 2.40 An example of the settings for a highlight filter
5. Click Clear Highlight in the Highlight list to remove the filter from the view.
SHOW ME Media 2.8—Display Two Views at Once

LET ME TRY IT
Displaying Two Views at Once

At times, it may be helpful to show more than one view in the Project window at
the same time. The viewing area of the Project window can be split into two panes.
The top pane can contain the Timeline view or another overall view of your project,
such as the Gantt Chart view.
When the top pane displays the Timeline view, the bottom pane can display any
other Project view. With the Timeline view in the top pane and the Gantt Chart
view in the bottom pane, you can drag the highlighted box in the Timeline view
horizontally to change the focus of the Gantt chart timeline.
To display the Timeline view, follow these steps:
1. On the View tab of the ribbon, in the Split View group, select the
Timeline check box.
2. Click once in the Timeline view and then use the options on the Format tab
to change the display options and data used in the Timeline view.
When the top pane displays another overall view of your project, the bottom pane
is typically used to display one of the detail views, including the Resource Form,
the Resource Graph, or the Task Form view, as shown in Figure 2.41.
Figure 2.41 Display the Gantt Chart view and the Task Form view at the same time to
easily enter task details.
With this configuration, clicking a task or resource in the top pane focuses the
details displayed in the bottom pane. For example, if you have the Gantt Chart
view displayed in the top pane, and the Task Form view displayed in the bottom
pane, when you click a task in the Gantt Chart view, that task’s details are dis-
played in the Task Form view.
To display a detail view in the bottom pane, follow these steps:
1. On the View tab of the ribbon, in the Split View group, select the Details
check box.
2. Click the name of the detail view you want to display in the Details list.
3. To change the display options for either displayed view, click once in the
pane that displays the view you want to modify and then click the Format
tab.
3
This chapter covers how to start planning a project
using Project 2010.
Starting a Project
The process of creating a plan in Project 2010 begins before work is done on any
part of a project, before the schedule is set, before tasks are even identified. Creat-
ing a new project in Project 2010 means setting up the framework for the plan, and
making some decisions about how the plan will be carried out, when people will
be working on it, and what factors matter most while work is being done on the
project.
TELL ME MORE Media 3.1—Top-Down Versus Bottom-Up

Project Planning
Setting Up a Project
The first step to starting a project in Project 2010 is setting up the file and choosing
where to save it.
SHOW ME Media 3.2—Create a New Project File

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Creating a New Project

When you’re ready to begin planning a project in Project 2010, start by creating a
new file. You can create a new, blank plan; you can use a template; or you can create
a new plan based on an existing project, Excel workbook, or SharePoint task list.
46 Chapter 3 | S t a r t i n g a Pro j e c t
Some organizations may use Project Professional 2010 with Project Server for an
end-to-end enterprise management solution. Projects are saved to Project
Server, making them available to other project managers, portfolio managers,
team members, or other users. If you are using Project Professional 2010 and
want to save your new project to Project Server, be sure you are connected to
Project Server before creating your new project. If you’re not sure how to con-
nect to Project Server, contact your organization’s site administrator.
Follow these steps to create a new project:

1. Click the File tab and then click New on the left side of the Project
window.
2. Choose how you want to create your new project, as shown in Figure 3.1.
Figure 3.1 Choose a method for creating a new project.
• Blank Project—Click this option and then click Create on the right por-
tion of the window to create a new project from scratch.
• Recent Templates—Click this option, click a template, and then click
Create on the right portion of the screen to create a new project using a
template that you have recently used.
S e t t i n g U p a Pro j e c t 47
• My Templates—Click this option, click a template, and then click OK to

create a new project using a template that you have created or stored on
your computer.
• New from Existing Project—Click this option, locate and click an exist-
ing project, and then click Create New to create a new project using an
existing project as a starting point.
• New from Excel Workbook—Click this option, locate and click an Excel
workbook, and then click Open to create a new project using data stored
in the selected workbook. A wizard will walk you through the data-
importing process.
• New from SharePoint Task List—Click this option, provide a URL for an
existing SharePoint site, choose a task list from that site, and then click
OK to create a new project using data from that list.
• Office.com Templates—Choose any of the options in this section or
type a search query in the Search Office.com for Templates box to
download and use a template from Office.com for your new project.
LET ME TRY IT
Saving a Project
With your new project created, the next step is to decide where you want to save it.
If you are using Project Professional 2010 and Project Server, you can choose to
save the project to Project Server, making it possible to share your project with oth-
ers in your organization using Project Web App. Project Web App is the Web inter-
face for Project Server. It can be used for project planning, proposing new projects,
capturing progress on existing projects, and business intelligence reporting.
To save your project on your computer or on a network share to which you have
access, follow these steps:
1. Click the File tab and then click Save on the left side of the Project
window.
2. Type a filename for the new project in the File Name box, locate where you
want to save the project, and then click Save.
Project 2010 files cannot be opened using previous versions of Project. Instead, you
can save your Project 2010 file to a format used by a previous version. Follow these
steps:
1. Click the File tab and then click Save As on the left side of the Project
window.
2. Type a filename in the File Name box, and then locate where you want to
save the project,
3. In the Save As Type list, click Microsoft Project 2007 or Microsoft
Project 2000 – 2003, as shown in Figure 3.2.
Figure 3.2 Choose a previous version from the Save As Type list.
4. Click Save to save the file using a previous version format.
Follow these steps to save your project to Project Server using Project Professional
2010:
1. Click the File tab and then click Save on the left side of the Project win-
dow.
2. Type a name for the new project in the Name box.
3. Click Value and select a value to complete any appropriate or required
enterprise custom fields for the project. Required fields are marked with
an asterisk (*).
4. Click Save.
With your project saved to Project Server, a couple of considerations need to be

made if you want to share your project with others:
• Check your project in—After saving your project to Project Server, you can
begin planning, but the changes will not be available to others with the
appropriate permissions to open the project until you check it in. To check
your project in, click the File tab and then click Close. Checked-in projects
can be checked out by people with the appropriate permissions.
• Publish your project—People who are assigned to tasks in your project will
not be able to view or enter project data using Project Web App until you
have published the project. To publish the project, click the File tab and then
click Publish.
S e t t i n g Pro j e c t Pro p e r t i e s a n d O p t i o n s 49
Setting Project Properties and Options

You can set a lot of different options and defaults for your project—way too many
to cover in a reasonable way when you’re just getting started with your project. I
do, however, point you to the ones that are the most important and the most com-
monly used at this point in your project.
SHOW ME Media 3.3—A Quick Look at Properties and Options

LET ME TRY IT
Setting Project Properties

First, look at setting project properties:
1. Click the File tab and then, with Info selected on the left side of the Pro-
ject window, click Project Information on the right side of the window.
2. Click Advanced Properties, as shown in Figure 3.3.
Figure 3.3 Click Project Information, and then click Advanced Properties.
3. On the Summary tab, provide whatever data is most appropriate in your

organization. You can choose to include a Title, Subject, Author,
Manager, Company, and other relevant metadata for your project, as
shown in Figure 3.4.
Figure 3.4 The Summary tab of the Properties dialog box contains metadata for your
project.
4. On the Custom tab, shown in Figure 3.5, you can include additional proj-
ect properties by choosing a property Name, the data Type for the prop-
erty, and the Value for the property. When all three of these fields are
completed, click Add to add the property to your project.
5. Click OK to save your project’s properties.
Setting Project Options

In addition to project properties, you can set several project options to control how
different aspects of your project behave. At this point, it’s probably best to use the
default settings until you have a better idea of your project management needs.
When you begin to identify things that aren’t working the way you’d like, look at
Chapter 10, “Understanding Project Options,” for a detailed review of each option
available on the Project Options dialog box.
C h o o s i n g a Pro j e c t S t a r t o r Fi n i s h D a te 51
Figure 3.5 Set custom metadata on the Custom tab of the Properties dialog box.
Choosing a Project Start or Finish Date

A project can be scheduled from its start date or from its finish date, depending on
whether you want to start it on a specific date or have it finished by a specific date.
To set a start or finish date for your project, follow these steps:
1. On the Project tab of the ribbon, in the Properties group, click Project
Information.
2. Click the Schedule from box and then choose whether you want to
schedule your project from the Project Start Date or the Project Finish
Date.
3. Choose a project Start Date or Finish Date, as shown in Figure 3.6.
4. Click OK to save the date you selected.
Figure 3.6 Choose how you want your project to be scheduled and set the corresponding
date.
Setting Up Your Project’s Calendars

Project 2010 uses calendars that identify working times to determine when
resources in your organization are likely available to work on tasks in your project.
The four types of calendars are
• Base calendars—Project uses base calendars as a starting point for creating
the other three types of calendars (project, task, and resource calendars). Use
base calendars to enter holidays, typical working hours, and other organiza-
tion-wide calendar items.
• Project calendars—Use a project calendar to set the default working times
for all tasks in your project.
• Task calendars—Use task calendars to enter special days specific to individ-
ual tasks in your project. For example, if the task is to carry out an event that
occurs over a weekend, you may want to change the working days for that
task to include the weekend day as working time and replace the weekend
day with a weekday as nonworking time.
• Resource calendars—Use resource calendars to track the schedules of indi-
vidual resources. For example, if a resource has a flexible work arrangement
and works four 10-hour days instead of five eight-hour days, you can set that
resource’s calendar to reflect that schedule, without changing the overall
schedule for all other resources in the organization.
S e t t i n g U p Yo u r Pro j e c t ’s Ca l e n d a r s 53
The following sections talk about base and project calendars. For more information
on task and resource calendars, see “Setting a task calendar” in Chapter 4, “Working
with Tasks,” and “Adjusting resource calendars” in Chapter 5, “Working with
Resources.”
SHOW ME Media 3.4—Setting Calendars and Working Times

LET ME TRY IT
Modifying an Existing Base Calendar

Project comes with three default base calendars already configured:
• Standard—8 A.M. to 5 P.M. weekdays, with a one-hour lunch break.
• 24 Hours—8 A.M. to 4 P.M., 4 P.M. to 12 A.M., and 12 A.M. to 8 A.M., continu-
ously, with no breaks.
• Night Shift—11 P.M. to 8 A.M. weekdays, with a one-hour break.
You can modify these base calendars to meet your organization’s needs.
If you are using Project Professional 2010 with Project Server, the base calendars
can be modified only by someone with appropriate permissions.
To choose which base calendar you want to modify, follow these steps:
1. On the Project tab, in the Properties group, click Change Working Time.
2. Click the For Calendar list and then click the base calendar you want to
modify.
3. Review the working times displayed on the right portion of the Change
Working Time dialog box. Click a day on the calendar to review its working
times, as shown in Figure 3.7.
Figure 3.7 Working times are displayed for the selected calendar day.
LET ME TRY IT
Changing a Working Day to a Nonworking Day

While on the Change Working Time dialog box, you can make several different
kinds of changes to the selected base calendar.
Here’s how to change a working day to a nonworking day (for example, to add a
company holiday):
1. Click the day of the holiday in the calendar.
2. Type the name of the holiday in the Name column on the Exceptions tab
and then press Enter to move to the next row and fill in the Start and
Finish columns for the holiday.
3. If the holiday is observed on a regular basis, double-click the holiday, and
then set a Recurrence Pattern and Range of Recurrence on the Details
dialog box, as shown in Figure 3.8.
4. Click OK on the Details dialog box, and then click OK again on the Change
Working Time dialog box to add the holiday to the selected base calendar.
Figure 3.8 Set details about calendar exceptions.
LET ME TRY IT
Changing a Nonworking Day to a Working Day

To change a nonworking day to a working day (for example, for an event occurring
over a weekend), follow these steps:
1. Click the day of the event in the calendar.
2. Type the name of the event in the Name column on the Exceptions tab
and then press Enter to move to the next row and fill in the Start and
Finish columns for the event.
3. Double-click the event and then click Working Times on the Details dia-
log box.
4. Use the From and To columns to define the working hours for the event.
5. If the event is scheduled on a regular basis, you can set a Recurrence
Pattern and Range of Recurrence.
6. Click OK on the Details dialog box, and then click OK again on the Change
Working Time dialog box to add the event to the selected base calendar.
LET ME TRY IT
Changing Default Working Times

To change the default working times for the base calendar, follow these steps:
1. Click the Work Weeks tab and then double-click [Default].
2. Click a day of the week in the Select Day(s) box or use Ctrl+click or
Shift+click to select multiple days and then choose which option you want
to use for scheduling on the selected day(s):
• Use Project Default Times for These Days—Click this option to use the
calendar options from the Project Options dialog box to define the
working times on the selected day(s).
• Set Days to Nonworking Time—Click this to identify the selected day(s)
as planned days off.
• Set Day(s) to These Specific Working Times—Click this and use the
From and To columns to identify the working times for the selected
day(s), as shown in Figure 3.9.
Figure 3.9 Set different working times for specific days.
3. Click OK to change the default working times for the selected base calendar.
LET ME TRY IT
Changing Working Times for a Specific Time Period

You may have specific weeks when the working times need to be different from
the default working times. For example, if your organization has a week-long train-
ing session that limits the amount of project time to half-days for that week, you
can include the schedule changes for that week in the base calendar.
Follow these steps to change the working times for a specific time period in the
base calendar:
1. Click the Work Weeks tab and then type a name for the changed period
of working time in the Name column.
2. Choose the start date for the changed period in the Start column and
then choose the finish date in the Finish column.
3. Double-click the row you just created to bring up the Details dialog box.
4. Click a day of the week in the Select day(s) box, or use Ctrl+click or
Shift+click to select multiple days, and then choose which option you
want to use for scheduling on the selected day(s):
• Use Project default times for these days—Click this to use the calendar
options from the Project Options dialog box to define the working times
on the selected day(s).
• Set days to nonworking time—Click this to identify the selected day(s)
as planned days off.
• Set day(s) to these specific working times—Click this and use the
From and To columns to identify the working times for the selected
day(s).
5. Click OK to add the changed working times to the selected base calendar.
LET ME TRY IT
Creating a New Base Calendar

If none of the default base calendars meet your needs, you can create a new base
calendar to use as a starting point for the project, task, and resource calendars.
If you are using Project Professional 2010 with Project Server, you can only cre-
ate a new base calendar if you have the appropriate permissions.
Here’s how to create a new base calendar:

2. Click Create New Calendar.
3. Choose how you want to create the calendar:
• Create a New Base Calendar—Click this option to create a new calendar
from scratch. Working times will be set to the calendar options from the
Project Options dialog box, by default.
• Make a Copy of [Existing Base] Calendar—Click this option to use an
existing base calendar as a starting point for your new base calendar. Use
the drop-down list to choose which base calendar you want to copy.
4. Type a name for your new base calendar in the Name box, as shown in
Figure 3.10.
Figure 3.10 Create a new blank calendar or base one off of an existing calendar.
5. Click OK to create your new base calendar.
Use the steps in the previous section, “Modifying an Existing Base Calendar,” to do
the following:
• Change a working day to a nonworking day.
• Change a nonworking day to a working day.
• Change the default working times for the new base calendar.
• Change the working times for a specific time period in the new base
calendar.
LET ME TRY IT
Setting Up Your Project’s Calendar

When setting up your project’s calendar, you need to decide which base calendar
you want to use as a starting point. If most of your tasks need to be completed dur-
ing normal working hours, choose the Standard base calendar. If most of your
tasks need to be completed during off hours, the Night Shift base calendar may
make more sense for your project. Or, if your project needs continuous coverage,
choose the 24 Hours base calendar.
If you are using Project Professional 2010 with Project Server, you can only mod-
ify the project calendar if you have the appropriate permissions.
If you need to change the working times in your project, consider modifying the task
or resource calendars, as described in “Setting a task calendar” in Chapter 4 or
“Adjusting resource calendars” in Chapter 5.
Remember that when you set the project calendar, you are simply choosing what
the default working times will be for tasks and resources in your project. You can
modify working times for individual tasks and resources to reflect exceptions to the
default hours.
To set your project’s calendar, follow these steps:
1. On the Project tab of the ribbon, in the Properties group, click Project
Information.
2. Click Calendar and choose the base calendar that you want to use for
your project, as shown in Figure 3.11.
3. Click OK.
5. Ensure that the base calendar you selected in step 2 is displayed in the For
calendar list.
6. Review the working times displayed on the right portion of the Change
Working Time dialog box. Click a day on the calendar to review its work-
ing times.
Figure 3.11 Choose a base calendar to use for your project.
7. Use the steps in the “Modifying an Existing Base Calendar” section to do

the following:
• Change a working day to a nonworking day.
• Change a nonworking day to a working day.
• Change the default working times for the project calendar.
• Change the working times for a specific time period in the project
calendar.
8. Click OK to save your changes.
How Does Project 2010 Schedule Tasks?

Talk about opening a can of worms! Although we could tackle this subject in a mil-
lion ways, here’s our best shot at summing up how tasks are scheduled in Project
2010. It’s important to have a basic understanding of this before you head into the
next chapter, where you’ll start adding tasks to your project.
Scheduling Methods in Project 2010

Project 2010 offers two scheduling methods: automatic and manual. With manual
scheduling, the project manager fully controls the task’s start and finish dates. The
Project scheduling engine does not come into play, and the dates the project man-
ager sets for a task stay exactly as they’re set, regardless of any other factors that
may change in the project or with the resources assigned to the task. As you might
imagine, there are plusses and minuses to this approach. The big plus is that there
H ow D o e s Pro j e c t 2 0 1 0 S c h e d u l e Ta s k s ? 61
is no guessing game about what’s impacting a manually scheduled task’s dates. If

you know a task needs to occur at a certain time, you may find manual scheduling
easier to cope with than trying to manipulate other task dates and resource avail-
abilities to get the right dates for the task in question. However, the downside to
manual scheduling is that you don’t get the project management assistance
offered by the Project scheduling engine. This may make more sense after you
have an understanding of automatic scheduling.
Look at automatic scheduling as having your own personal project management
assistant sitting next to you to remind you of all the little things that are easy to
overlook when you’re planning your project. Need an example? Say that you know
someone will be working full time on a task, and you assign that person to that
task. Then, you change the duration for that task from 5 days to 10 days. With man-
ual scheduling, the Work value for the task remains 40 hours. With automatic
scheduling, when you increased the duration, the Work value also increased to 80
hours, to reflect the full time work across the new 10-day duration. Automatic
scheduling helps you keep all of your bases covered, enabling you to craft an accu-
rate and realistic schedule for your project.
What Factors Does the Project Scheduling Engine

Consider?
When looking at when to schedule a task, the Project scheduling engine takes sev-
eral things into account:
• Project start and finish dates—Depending on how you’ve decided to
schedule your project, tasks will either be scheduled starting with the start
date for the project or the finish date for the project. If a task date goes
beyond the project start or finish date, a notification will appear.
• Task factors—The Project scheduling engine takes into account several task
factors:
• Duration—This is the amount of time each task is likely to take. Manually
scheduled tasks also consider duration.
• Dependencies—Some task dates may rely on when other tasks start or
finish. In Project, these are called dependencies. Manually scheduled tasks
also consider dependencies, to some extent.
• Lag/Lead Time—This is the amount of time between the finish of one
task and the start of the next, or the amount of time that one task needs
to overlap another. Lag/lead time is captured when creating dependen-
cies between tasks.
• Constraints—Some tasks may have to start or finish by a certain date.

The Project scheduling engine will observe these date restrictions.
• Task Types—Tasks in your project fall under one of three different types,
depending on whether time, amount of work, or number of resources is
most important. When you have appropriately set the task type, the
scheduling engine will protect that factor when adjusting the dates for
that task.
• Calendars—The Project scheduling engine considers the working and
nonworking time identified on the task calendars.
For more information about task factors, see Chapter 4.

• Resource Factors—The Project scheduling engine takes into account several
resource factors:
• Work—This is the amount of time a resource likely will need to finish the
task.
• Units—This is a percentage that represents how much of a resource’s
overall time will be spent on the task.
• Calendars—The Project scheduling engine considers the working and
nonworking time identified on the resource calendars.
For more information about resource factors, see Chapter 5.

The Task Inspector, included in Project 2010, helps you to find out what factors are
affecting a task’s start and finish dates. To display the Task Inspector, on the Task
tab of the ribbon, in the Tasks group, click Inspect and then click Inspect Task.
Which Scheduling Method Should I Use?

Choosing whether to use manual scheduling or automatic scheduling really comes
down to how much work you want to do to maintain your project’s schedule, how
well you understand how automatic scheduling works, and how much faith you
have in the Project scheduling engine. Trust the Project scheduling engine (which, I
assure you, was designed and developed by good, hard-working people who know
what they’re doing), use automatic scheduling for the bulk of your tasks, and use
manual scheduling for one-off situations when your dates, resources, and amount
of task work really are completely inflexible. Try your hardest not to resort to man-
ual scheduling simply because you don’t understand why Project is giving a task a
certain start or finish date.
H ow D o e s Pro j e c t 2 0 1 0 S c h e d u l e Ta s k s ? 63
Here’s an example that may help to convince you. First, follow these steps to see
what you might run into if some of your tasks are manually scheduled:
1. On the File tab, click New, click Blank Project, and then click Create.
2. At the bottom of the Project window, click New Tasks: Manually
Scheduled, and then click Auto Scheduled – Task dates are calculated
by Microsoft Project.
3. In the Task Name column, create five tasks, labeled Task 1 through
Task 5.
4. In the Task Mode column for Task 3 and Task 4, choose Manually
Scheduled.
5. Type 5d in the Duration column for each task.
6. Type Resource 1 in the Resource Names column for each task.
7. Select all five task rows by clicking the row header for Task 1, and the
pressing Shift and clicking the row header for Task 5.
8. On the Task tab, in the Schedule group, click Link Tasks.
9. With your initial project plan created, type 10d in the Duration column for
Task 1, to represent an increase in the amount of work that needs to be done
for that task.
Because of the dependencies between tasks, and the manual scheduling for Task 3
and Task 4, Resource 1 becomes overallocated on Task 2 and Task 3.
Now, let’s look at what would happen if Task 3 and Task 4 were automatically
scheduled, by continuing with these steps:
1. Press Ctrl + Z to undo the change to the duration for Task 1.
2. In the Task Mode column for Task 3 and Task 4, choose Auto Scheduled.
3. Type 10d in the Duration column for Task 1.
With automatic scheduling, if a task’s duration is extended, the predecessor tasks

that are linked to the changed task are pushed out appropriately, with no unneces-
sary overallocations.
On a small project like the one used in this example, issues like the overallocations
resulting from manually scheduled tasks are relatively easy to handle. There weren’t
very many tasks, there was only one resource involved, and manually rescheduling
the involved tasks wouldn’t have been too difficult. However, imagine if you were
dealing with a large, complex project, with 300+ tasks and 100+ resources.
Reviewing your project for issues resulting from manual scheduling may be time-
consuming and unnecessary.
That said, there are times when manual scheduling is the right choice for tasks in
your project. Here are a couple of examples:
• Dates not defined—When you are in the early planning stages of a project,
you may not know what dates you’re dealing with. Using manual scheduling,
you can leave dates blank, or set to TBD, to include the task in the list, but
leave it off of the Gantt chart.
• Top-down scheduling—In some cases, you may want to plan your project
by providing high-level project start and finish dates, and then breaking
those dates down into tasks. To do this, your project needs to use manual
scheduling. With automatic scheduling, the dates for the tasks roll up and
define the dates for the project. This is called bottom-up scheduling. With
manual scheduling, you can plan the project in the other direction, starting
with the project dates. This is called top-down scheduling.
At any point during a project, you can change a task from manual scheduling to
automatic scheduling, or vice versa, using the Task Mode column. So, for example,
you can do your initial project planning using top-down scheduling in manually
scheduled mode, and then, once your schedule is set, switch to automatic schedul-
ing to help monitor and maintain your initial schedule.
4
This chapter walks you through adding tasks to your
project in Project 2010.
Working with Tasks
After you have created and saved your initial project plan, the next step is to add
tasks to your project. It’s important to understand the different types of tasks that
Project 2010 offers. With a basic understanding of task types, you can add tasks to
your project and then set up dependencies between the tasks. Project 2010 also
provides a framework for adding work breakdown structure codes to your tasks, if
your organization uses them.
Understanding Task Types

Each task in your project can be one of three different types:
• Fixed units
• Fixed work
• Fixed duration
These task types are used to determine which element of a task is most important
for scheduling, so that Project knows what it should maintain as it sets your pro-
ject’s schedule. Project calculates the schedule using the following formula:
Duration = Work / Units.
Table 4.1 shows what changes Project makes, based on task types, for a task that is
set to automatic scheduling.
Table 4.1 Task Types
Task Type Adjust Units Adjust Work Adjust Duration

Fixed units Duration is adjusted. Duration is adjusted. Work is adjusted.
Fixed work Duration is adjusted. Duration is adjusted. Units are adjusted.
Fixed duration Work is adjusted. Units are adjusted. Work is adjusted.
66 Chapter 4 | Wo r k i n g w i t h Ta s k s
Fixed Units
Fixed units is the task type to pick if the level of effort on your project is important
to you. For example, let’s say you assign a resource to a task, and you know you can
only use that resource for that task half time. You assign the resource at 50% (units).
After your initial planning, you find out that you need to make the task longer, or
you discover that the task may take more work than you thought. You don’t want
Project to change the units, so you choose the fixed units task type. This leaves the
resource assigned at 50%, and Project recalculates the work or duration, based on
what factor you changed.
Looking at this from a formula perspective, say the original duration of the task is
5 days, the work is initially set to 20 hours, and the units is set to 50%. The formula
would look like this: 5d = 20h / 50%. If the task is fixed units, you can’t change
the 50%.
• Changed duration—If the duration is increased to 10 days, Project will
adjust the 20 hours of work to maintain a balanced equation: 10d = 40h /
50%. Because the task is set to fixed units, the resource will always work at
50%. So if you increase the duration, the resource will work more hours. Pro-
ject will increase the work to 40 hours.
• Changed work—If the work is increased to 40 hours, Project will adjust the
5 days of duration, because the resource is only able to work at 50%, or
20 hours per week. It will take the resource 10 days to get 40 hours of work
done, working 20 hours per week. This adjustment maintains a balanced
equation: 10d = 40h / 50%.
Fixed Work
If a task is set to fixed work, Project will maintain the amount of work scheduled
for the task. Look again at the previous example: 5d = 20h / 50%.
• Changed units—If you need to keep the task set to 20 hours of work, and
you find out that your resource is only available at 25% instead of 50%, Pro-
ject will adjust the duration to 10 days because it will take the resource
longer to get the work done if he or she is working fewer hours each week.
This maintains a balanced equation: 10d = 20h / 25%.
• Changed duration—If you find out that you have 10 days to get the task
done, instead of 5, Project will adjust the units to 25%, because it will take
less of the resource’s time each week to get the work done. This maintains a
balanced equation: 10d = 20h / 25%.
Ad d i n g Ta s k s to Yo u r Pro j e c t 67
Fixed Duration
If a task is set to fixed duration, Project will maintain the length of time you’ve set
aside to complete the task. Again, return to the example: 5d = 20h / 50%.
• Changed work—If the amount of work increases to 40 hours, with the dura-
tion fixed at 5 days, Project will adjust the resource units. Instead of 50%, the
task now requires 100% to get 40 hours of work done in 5 days. The balanced
equation is: 5d = 40h / 100%. You can get to 100% by increasing the amount
of time the existing resource works in a week, or by assigning additional
resources to the task.
• Changed units—If you find out that the resource assigned to the task is now
available at 100% of his or her time, Project will adjust the amount of work for
the task, to maintain the 5 days of duration: 5d = 40h / 100%. Because the
resource is assigned at 100%, he or she can fit in 40 hours of work in 5 days,
instead of 20 hours.
SHOW ME Media 4.1—Learn More About Task Types

Adding Tasks to Your Project

When adding tasks to your project in Project 2010, you can choose to fill out a lot
of detail about your tasks upfront, or you can enter some basic scheduling informa-
tion at first and then fill in more details later.
SHOW ME Media 4.2—Working with Tasks

LET ME TRY IT
Adding a New Task

To add a new task to your project, follow these steps:
1. In the Gantt Chart view, type a name for the new task in the first empty
row of the Task Name column.
To insert a new task between two existing tasks, right-click a task row and click
Insert Task to add a new row above.
2. Click the Task Mode column and then choose whether you want the task
to be Manually Scheduled or Auto Scheduled. Project uses one of these
methods as a default. You only need to choose a method if you don’t want
to use what is set as the default.
Not sure whether you want Manually Scheduled or Auto Scheduled? Review
“How Does Project 2010 Schedule Tasks?” in Chapter 3, “Starting a Project,” for more
information on scheduling in Project 2010 or view Show Me Media 4.3. If you choose
Manually Scheduled, be sure to listen to Tell Me More Media 4.4 for some best
practices.
3. Type the number of days over which you want the task work completed in
the Duration column. You also can use minutes (m), hours (h), weeks (w),
or months (mo) if one of these would be more appropriate for your
project.
4. Set the task’s Start and Finish dates:
• If you selected Auto Scheduled in step 2, the Start and Finish columns
will be populated automatically with the appropriate dates, based on the
project scheduling options you chose when you created the project (see
Chapter 3). Do not manually set a start or finish date if you are using
automatic scheduling.
• If you selected Manually Scheduled in step 2, choose a Start date, and
Project will fill in a Finish date. Alternatively, choose a Finish date, and
Project will fill in a Start date. Project calculates the Start or Finish date
using the information you entered in the Duration column.
5. To set additional task details, go to the Task tab of the ribbon. In the
Properties group, click Details to display the Task Details Form view split
with the Gantt Chart view, as shown in Figure 4.1.
6. Use the Task Details Form view to set the following:
• Task type—Choose whether the task is Fixed Duration, Fixed Units, or
Fixed Work.
• Constraint—By default, this field is set to As Soon As Possible, meaning
that the task could happen at any appropriate time in the project. You
also can choose As Late As Possible, if that makes more sense for your
project. However, you may have some tasks that need to happen in
coordination with a specific date. You can choose from the following
constraints: Finish No Earlier Than, Finish No Later Than, Must Finish
On, Must Start On, Start No Earlier Than, and Start No Later Than. If
you choose one of these constraints, be sure to choose an associated
date using the Date box within the Constraint box.
Figure 4.1 Click Details on the Task tab to display the Task Details Form view, split with
the Gantt Chart view.
When choosing a constraint for a task, keep in mind that what you choose can
impact Project’s ability to do things like enforce links to other tasks and properly
distribute resource work on the task.
7. Click OK to save your task settings.
SHOW ME Media 4.3—Automatic Versus Manual Scheduling

TELL ME MORE Media 4.4—Best Practices for Working with Manually

Scheduled Tasks
Access this audio file through your registered Web Edition at
Setting a Task Calendar

Sometimes, a task in your project may need to use a different schedule from the
rest of your project. For example, let’s say a specific task needs to happen over a
weekend. The overall project calendar has the weekends set as nonworking days.
You can set a separate calendar for that task, so that the weekend days are set as
working days. Other tasks in your project will still see the weekend as nonworking
days, but the task with the modified task calendar will see the weekend as
working days.
Follow these steps to set a separate calendar for a task:
1. On the Project tab of the ribbon, in the Properties group, click Change
Working Time.
3. Choose how you want to create the task’s calendar:
• Create new base calendar—Click this to create a new calendar for your
task, from scratch. Working times will be set to the calendar options from
the Project Options dialog box, by default.
• Make a copy of [existing base] calendar—Click this to use an existing
base calendar as a starting point for your task’s calendar. Use the drop-
down list to choose which base calendar you want to copy.
4. Type a name for your task’s calendar in the Name box. You may want to
use a name that helps to identify this as a calendar that is intended for use
on a specific task. This will help to differentiate it from the base calendars
for your project.
5. Click OK to create your task’s calendar.
6. Similar to creating a base calendar, set the working days, nonworking
days, default working times, and working times for specific time periods in
your task’s calendar.
For more information on these procedures, see “Setting Up Your Project’s
Calendars” in Chapter 3.
7. With your task’s calendar set up and saved, double-click the task row in
the Gantt Chart view.
8. Click the Advanced tab and then choose the calendar you just created
from the Calendar list.
9. Click OK to save the calendar setting.
Indenting and Outdenting Tasks

After you have a list of tasks added to your project, you may find that you want to
add some organizational structure to your tasks. You can indent and outdent tasks
to add hierarchy to your project. Tasks that have other tasks indented below them
are called summary tasks. Tasks that are indented below another task are called
subtasks. Summary tasks roll up data from their subtasks. For example, if a sum-
mary task has two subtasks, the summary task will take the earliest start date and
the latest finish date from those subtasks, as shown in Figure 4.2.
Figure 4.2 Subtasks roll up data to the summary task level.
To indent or outdent a task, click the task in the Gantt Chart view to select it. Then,
on the Task tab of the ribbon, in the Schedule group, click Indent or Outdent, as
Figure 4.3 Use the Indent and Outdent buttons to create hierarchy in your tasks.
You can also choose to display the project summary task, which will roll all tasks
and summary tasks up to the very top level of the project. To display the project
summary task, click the File tab on the ribbon, click Options, and then click
Advanced. Under Display options for this project, select the Show project
summary task check box and then click OK.
Setting Up Task Dependencies

Some tasks in your project may have certain relationships with other tasks in your
project. For example, you may have a task that can’t begin until another task has
ended. These relationships are called dependencies. Project offers four different
types of dependencies for your project’s tasks:
• Finish-to-Start (FS)—A finish-to-start dependency is one in which a second
task cannot begin until the first task has ended.
• Start-to-Start (SS)—A start-to-start dependency is one in which a second
task cannot begin until the first task has begun.
• Finish-to-Finish (FF)—A finish-to-finish dependency is one in which a sec-
ond task cannot finish until the first task has finished.
• Start-to-Finish (SF)—A start-to-finish dependency is one in which a second
task cannot finish until the first task has begun.
Figure 4.4 shows these four types of dependencies.
Finish-to-Start
Start-to-Start
Finish-to-Finish
Start-to-Finish
Figure 4.4 Project provides four types of dependencies.

S e t t i n g U p Ta s k D e p e n d e n c i e s 73
Let’s walk through an example that uses all four of these types of dependencies. In
this example, you are planning to remodel the kitchen and dining area in a home.
You use Project to track each of the tasks involved in this process.
Here are the tasks you want to track for the remodel:
• Rewire kitchen—This involves moving outlets, wiring through cabinets for a
built-in microwave, and adding an outlet on a kitchen island.
• Install new cabinets—This involves installing new wall cabinets, and cabi-
nets to support a new countertop.
• Paint—This involves painting both the kitchen and dining areas.
• Install counters—This involves placing a new countertop on top of the new
cabinetry.
• Install new floors—This involves placing new flooring in both the kitchen
and dining areas.
• Install new appliances—This involves installing several new kitchen
appliances.
Each task has some sort of dependency on another task. The “Rewire kitchen” task
can’t be finished until the “Install new cabinets” task has started, because some of
the wiring needs to be done through the new cabinetry (wiring for a built-in
microwave, and an outlet on the island). This is a start-to-finish dependency in
Project.
The “Paint” task has a start-to-start dependency on the “Rewire kitchen” task. That
is, the painting can’t start until the electrician has started the process of rewiring.
The electrician needs to have moved openings for outlets and light fixtures, as nec-
essary, before the painters can come in and begin painting the kitchen and dining
areas. The electrician doesn’t need to be done with all of his work for the remodel
before the painters can start, just the portion of work that impacts the painters.
The “Install counters” task can’t start until the “Paint” task has finished. By setting up
this finish-to-start dependency, you avoid getting drips of paint all over the shiny
new countertops. This type of dependency is most commonly used in project
plans.
The “Install new floors” task can’t finish until the “Paint” task has finished. The
painters begin by painting the ceiling in both the kitchen and dining areas, then
move on to painting the kitchen. After the kitchen is painted, the flooring installers
begin their work in the kitchen, while the painters finish painting the dining room.
The flooring team can’t finish its work until the painters have finished painting the
dining room. At that time, the flooring team can finish its work by flooring the din-
ing room. In Project, this is represented as a finish-to-finish task.
Finally, the “Install new appliances” task can’t start until the “Install new floors” task
has finished. This is another finish-to-start dependency.
Project represents these task dependencies on the Gantt chart using arrows
between the tasks. Figure 4.5 shows how our example might look if we entered it
into Project and set up the dependencies.
Figure 4.5 Example of dependencies within a project
LET ME TRY IT
Adding Dependencies Between Tasks

In Project, dependencies between tasks are recorded in the row for the second task
in the dependency. For example, if you are creating a dependency in which Task B
can’t start until Task A has finished (a finish-to-start dependency), you would record
the dependency in the row for Task B. When you record the dependency, you indi-
cate the task’s predecessor.
To quickly set start-to-finish dependencies between tasks in your project, select the
rows for the tasks you want to link, and then, on the Task tab, in the Schedule
group, click Link Tasks.
If you want to set up other types of dependencies, create gaps between tasks, or
overlap tasks, you can set up dependencies using the Predecessors column.
To set up a dependency between two tasks using the Predecessors column, follow
these steps:
1. In the Gantt Chart view, be sure the Predecessors column is displayed.
S e t t i n g U p Ta s k D e p e n d e n c i e s 75
If the Predecessors column is not displayed, scroll all the way to the right of the
table portion of the Gantt Chart view and then click Add New Column. Click
Predecessors in the list that appears, to add the column to the view. You can
click and drag the column header to move the column to another location in
the table portion of the view.
2. In the row for the second task in the dependency you’re creating, type the
ID number (located in the row header) for the first task in the dependency
in the Predecessors column. Also, indicate the dependency type.
For example, if you are creating a dependency between Task A (ID number
1) and Task B (ID number 2), you would type the following for each
dependency type:
• Finish-to-start—To indicate that Task B can’t start until Task A finishes,
type 1 in the Predecessors column for Task B, as shown in Figure 4.6. Pro-
ject assumes a finish-to-start dependency, by default, so you don’t need
to include a dependency type abbreviation.
Figure 4.6 In this example, Task B has a finish-to-start dependency on Task A.
• Start-to-start—To indicate that Task B can start only after Task A has
started, type 1SS in the Predecessors column for Task B.
• Finish-to-finish—To indicate that Task B can finish only after Task A has
finished, type 1FF in the Predecessors column for Task B.
• Start-to-finish—To indicate that Task B can finish only after Task A has
started, type 1SF in the Predecessors column for Task B.
3. If one of your tasks needs to overlap another (known as “lead time”), or needs
to fall behind another (known as “lag time”) by a certain amount, type this in
the Predecessors column, as well:
• Overlap two tasks—To overlap two tasks, type a negative duration, or
percentage, after the task ID number and dependency type in the
Predecessors column, as shown in Figure 4.7. For example, if you want
Task B to start one day before Task A is scheduled to start, type 1SS-1d in
the Predecessors column for Task B.
Figure 4.7 Insert lead time in the Predecessors column.
• Insert a delay between two tasks—If the second task needs a delay
after the start or finish of the first task, type a positive duration, or per-
centage, after the task ID number and dependency type in the
Predecessors column, as shown in Figure 4.8. For example, if you want
Task B to start when Task A is 50% through its scheduled duration, type
1SS+50% in the Predecessors column for Task B.
Figure 4.8 Insert lag time in the Predecessors column.
Creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Some organizations require the use of a work breakdown structure to align project
tasks with accounting systems, business strategies, and so on. It is a method of
making sure that all work is accounted for, and decomposed into small enough
packages for tracking and management. In Project, a work breakdown structure
(WBS) is represented as an elaborate outline, providing each task with a WBS code
that identifies where it falls within your project plan.
For example, let’s say you have a project with the task structure shown in Table 4.2.
C re a t i n g a Wo r k B re a k d ow n S t r u c t u re ( W B S ) 77
Table 4.2 Example Task Structure
Task Name
Design Phase
Identify requirements
Conduct survey
Prioritize results
Write specification document
Develop Phase
Code product
Write code
Test code
In a WBS code, each indent level in your task structure is given a set of letters, num-
bers, or characters that you define. For example, the phases in the example may be
given a set of characters; the tasks may be given a number; and the subtasks may
be given a lowercase letter. In Project, you can also assign a prefix for the code, to
indicate the task’s project. If you use the combination of characters, numbers, and
letters just described, with a prefix of “EX_” to indicate that this is an example proj-
ect, the WBS codes might be assigned as shown in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3 WBS Codes
Task Name WBS Code

Design Phase EX_Design
Identify requirements EX_Design_1
Conduct survey EX_Design_1.a
Prioritize results EX_Design_1.b
Write specification document EX_Design_2
Develop Phase EX_Develop
Code product EX_Develop_1
Write code EX_Develop_1.a
Test code EX_Develop_1.b
Note how the tasks and the WBS codes are starting to look like an outline. Project
also includes an automatic outline scheme that simply uses increasing numbers,
separated by periods, to indicate where a task falls within a project. Table 4.4 shows
the example tasks, WBS codes, and their corresponding Project outline numbers.
Table 4.4 Outline Numbers
Task Name WBS Code Outline Number

Design Phase EX_Design 1
Identify requirements EX_Design_1 1.1
Conduct survey EX_Design_1.a 1.1.1
Prioritize results EX_Design_1.b 1.1.2
Write specification document EX_Design_2 1.2
Develop Phase EX_Develop 2
Code product EX_Develop_1 2.1
Write code EX_Develop_1.a 2.1.1
Test code EX_Develop_1.b 2.1.2
To display outline numbers for your project, with the Gantt Chart view displayed,
click the Format tab on the ribbon and then select the Outline Number check box
in the Show/Hide group. The outline numbers appear to the left of each task’s
name.
Confused about when to use which? This depends on your organization. If

you’re just trying to identify where a task falls in your project, outline numbers
may be enough. However, if you’re using the numbers to sync with another sys-
tem, or to communicate with others about your project, WBS codes provide a
richer, more descriptive way of outlining your project’s tasks.
LET ME TRY IT
Setting Your Project’s WBS Code Structure

You can set your project’s WBS code structure at the beginning, before you have
tasks added, if you know enough about how many levels of tasks you might use
and what information the code needs to capture. You may, however, have an easier
time building out your WBS code structure after you know what your project’s
tasks really look like.
Follow these steps to set up a WBS code structure for your project:
1. On the Project tab of the ribbon, in the Properties group, click WBS and
then click Define Code.
2. If you want to use a prefix to identify which project the tasks belong to,
type a prefix in the Project Code Prefix box, as shown in Figure 4.9.
Figure 4.9 Use the Project Code Prefix box to include text before the ordered portion of
the code.
As you build out your WBS code structure, the Code preview box shows an
example of what your code will look like for a task at the lowest level in your
project.
3. Use the columns and rows in the Code mask table to build out your WBS
code structure. Each row represents an indent level for tasks in your
project. Figure 4.10 shows a defined code mask.
• Sequence—Choose whether you want to use Numbers, Uppercase
Letters, Lowercase Letters, or Characters.
If you choose to use Characters, the Code preview box shows an asterisk (*) as
a placeholder for the characters, and you can type the characters in the WBS
field for your project after you have your code structure set up.
• Length—Choose the number of characters you want to use for this part
of your WBS code. If you choose one character and the number of tasks
at this level goes beyond nine, a WBS code will not be assigned, and
you’ll receive an error message. Also, if you choose two or more charac-
ters, single-digit numbers will begin with a zero (01, 02, 03, and so on). If
you want to avoid both of these circumstances, leave it set to Any.
• Separator—Choose a character to separate this part of your WBS code
from the next part. You can choose one of the built-in separators (period,
hyphen, plus sign, or slash), or type one of your own.
Figure 4.10 Use the Code mask table to define your WBS code.
4. Select the Generate WBS code for new task check box if you want to
automatically create a WBS code for each task you add to your project.
5. Select the Verify uniqueness of new WBS codes check box if you want
each WBS code to be unique. This can be helpful if you have used the
Characters option in the Sequence column.
6. Click OK to save your WBS code structure.
After you have your WBS code structure set up, the next step is to display the WBS
code in the Gantt Chart view, so you can see the fruits of your labor.
To display the WBS column, follow these steps:
1. With the Gantt Chart view displayed, right-click the column that you want
to appear to the right of the WBS column.
2. Click Insert Column and then scroll down and click WBS from the menu that
appears. Figure 4.11 shows the Gantt Chart view with the WBS code
displayed.
Figure 4.11 The WBS column displays the WBS code for each task.
5
This chapter covers assigning different kinds of
resources to tasks in your project.
Working with Resources
In Project, the people, things, and money you need to get the tasks in your project
done are called resources. By adding resources to your project, you make them
available to assign to tasks within your project. Resources can have calendars that
are unique to them and can be assigned specific cost information.
For a brief overview of resources, see “Resource” in Chapter 1, “Introduction to

Managing Projects with Microsoft Project 2010.”
Understanding Resource Types and Other Factors

Project supports three different types of resources:
• Work resources are the people and equipment that will do the work to com-
plete tasks in your project. For example, a developer for your product is a
work resource, and the server he uses to check code is also a work resource.
• Material resources are the things that the work resources need to complete
tasks in your project. For example, if one of the work resources for your proj-
ect is a plotter, you may also want to include material resources for paper and
toner. Or, if you’re planning a construction project, you may want to include
cement, rebar, lumber, and other supplies for your project as material
resources.
• Cost resources are the fees associated with getting tasks in your project done,
which aren’t associated with the amount of work put into a project or how
long the project lasts. For example, if a task in your project requires a busi-
ness trip, you would include the airfare and hotel charges as cost resources.
U n d e r s t a n d i n g R e s o u rce Ty p e s a n d O t h e r Fa c to r s 83
Cost resources are different from the costs incurred by work resources doing
work on your project, or the costs incurred as you use material resources (sup-
plies) to get work done. For more information on costs in your project, see
Chapter 6, “Accounting for Project Costs.”
TELL ME MORE Media 5.1—Making Sense of Cost Resources

In addition to these three types of resources, keep a couple other considerations in

mind when planning your project:
• Will other projects use the same resources as my project? If the resources
you’ll be using in your project can also be used in other projects in your
organization, and if you are running Project Professional 2010 with Project
Server, you can choose to make resources in your project enterprise resources
or assign enterprise resources to your project. An enterprise resource is a
resource that is included in a list of all resources in your organization (the
enterprise resource pool). By assigning resources from the enterprise
resource pool, you are able to account for work that your resources are doing
on other projects, not just your own. This helps track resource availability and
enables you to more accurately plan your project within the broader scope of
your organization.
• Do I know exactly who/what will be working on my project? If you know
you’ll need a specific kind of resource on your project, such as a developer or
a roofer, but you’re not sure exactly who or what will be doing the work (that
is, you don’t know which person or which server), you can use generic
resources to plan your project. By assigning generic resources, you can iden-
tify just how many people or things your project will need, and then you can
substitute them later for the specific people, equipment, or other resources
that will be doing the work you have laid out in your project plan.
SHOW ME Media 5.2—Adding a Resource

84 Chapter 5 | Wo r k i n g w i t h R e s o u rce s
Adding Resources to Your Project

The process for adding a resource to your project is different, depending on
whether you’re adding a resource used only in your project (a local resource) or an
enterprise resource available for assignment throughout your organization (Project
Professional only).
LET ME TRY IT
To add a local resource to your project, follow these steps:

1. On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, click Resource Sheet.
2. Type the name of your work, material, or cost resource in the Resource
Name column. If you are adding a generic resource, type a generic label
for the resource, such as Roofer, Web Server, or Designer.
3. Choose whether the resource is a work, material, or cost resource using
the list in the Type column.
4. If you chose Material in the Type column, type the unit label for the mate-
rial resource in the Material Label column. For example, if you are adding
fabric as a material resource, you might choose to type yards in the
Material Label column.
5. If you want the resource to be part of a larger group of resources, such as
employees in the same role or in the same department, type the name of
the group in the Group column.
6. Type the maximum amount of the resource’s time that can be spent on
the project, as a decimal or percentage of the resource’s time, in the Max
Units column. For example, if a resource is working half-time on your proj-
ect and half-time on other projects, type 50% or .5 in the Max Units col-
umn for that resource.
If you are adding a generic resource, you can use the Max Units column to iden-
tify how many of that generic resource you have available for your project. For
example, if you have enough work for three full-time developers working on
tasks in your project, you can enter 300% in the Max Units column for the
Developer generic resource.
Ad d i n g R e s o u rce s to Yo u r Pro j e c t 85
7. If appropriate, type the cost information for the resource in the following
fields:
• Std Rate—Type the standard cost rate for the resource. That is, how
much the resource is paid for specific time units, such as an hourly, daily,
or yearly rate.
• Ovt Rate—Type the overtime cost rate for the resource. That is, how
much the resource is paid for overtime work in specific time units, such
as per minute, per hour, or per day.
• Cost/Use—Type a per-use cost for the resource, if applicable. For exam-
ple, several tasks in your project will use an industrial printer. Each time
you use the printer, there is an initial cost-per-use fee of $250 on top of
the standard daily rate.
• Accrue at—Choose when the costs will be accrued for the resource. By
default, this is set to Prorated, meaning that the costs for this resource
will be accrued as work is scheduled and actual work is reported on a
task. If you choose Start, costs for the entire task will be accrued at the
beginning of a resource’s assignment, based on the scheduled work for
the task. If you choose End, costs for the resource’s task assignment will
not be accrued until the remaining work for the task is set to 0.
8. If you are adding a generic resource, on the Resource tab, in the
Properties group, click Information.
9. Select the Generic check box and click OK.
LET ME TRY IT
Here’s how to add an enterprise resource to your project, using Project Professional
2010:
1. On the Resource tab, in the Insert group, click Add Resources, and then
click Build Team from Enterprise.
2. Use the Existing filters box to filter the list of enterprise resources.
3. Select the Available to work check box to narrow the list of resources to
only those that are available to work a certain number of hours during a
specific time range.
4. To find generic resources, click + to expand Customize filters and then

define a filter:
• Field Name—Generic
• Test—Equals
• Values—Yes
5. Click Apply Filter to display only generic resources.
6. After you decide which enterprise resources you want to add to your proj-
ect, press Ctrl and click each resource in the Enterprise Resource column
and then click Add.
7. Click OK to add the selected resources to your project.
Adjusting Resource Calendars

An individual resource within your project may use a different calendar from the
rest of the organization. For example, one of your project’s resources might be out
on vacation for two weeks in the middle of July, or a specific piece of equipment
might be available for reservation only on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays
each week. You can set a resource-specific calendar to accurately represent when
that resource is able to work on your project.
SHOW ME Media 5.3—Understanding Resource Calendars

LET ME TRY IT
To set a separate calendar for a resource, follow these steps:

1. On the Project tab of the ribbon, in the Properties group, click Change
Working Time.
3. Choose how you want to create the resource’s calendar:
• Create new base calendar—Click this option to create a new calendar
for the resource, from scratch. Working times will be set to the calendar
options from the Project Options dialog box, by default.
As s i gn i n g R e s o u rce s to Ta s k s 87
• Make a copy of [existing base] calendar—Click this to use an existing

base calendar as a starting point for the resource’s calendar. Use the
drop-down list to choose which base calendar you want to copy.
4. Type a name for the resource’s calendar in the Name box. You may want to
use a name that helps to identify this as a calendar that is intended for use
by a specific resource. This helps differentiate it from the base and task cal-
endars for your project.
5. Click OK to create the resource’s calendar.
6. Similar to creating a base or task calendar, set the working days, nonwork-
ing days, default working times, and working times for specific time peri-
ods in the resource’s calendar. For more information on these procedures,
see the corresponding sections in Chapter 3, “Starting a Project.”
7. With the resource’s calendar set up and saved, on the View tab, in the
Resource Views group, click Resource Sheet.
8. Choose the calendar you just created in the Base Calendar column for the
corresponding resource.
Assigning Resources to Tasks

After you add resources to your project, the next step is to assign them to tasks
within your project.
LET ME TRY IT
Assigning a Resource Using the Task Information

Dialog Box
You have a few different ways to assign work, material, and cost resources to tasks
in your project. The Task Information dialog box provides a convenient location to
identify details about the resource assignment, including the assignment owner
and what percentage of the resource will be used for the task.
To assign a resource to a task in your project, follow these steps:
1. In the Gantt Chart view, double-click the row for a task.
2. Click the Resources tab on the Task Information dialog box.
3. Click once in the first available row in the Resource Name column and use
the drop-down list to select the resource you’re assigning to the task, as
shown in Figure 5.1. This list is populated by the resources you have added
to your project.
Figure 5.1 Click the name of the resource you are assigning in the Resource Name
column.
If your organization has assignment owners who are separate from the project
managers (for example, if your organization has a central resource manager for
projects), type the resource’s assignment owner in the Assignment Owner col-
umn. This is a rare, advanced situation.
4. Type a percentage in the Units column that represents how much of the
resource’s time (or, if you’re assigning a material resource, units as identi-
fied in the Material Label column of the Resource Sheet view) will be
spent on this task. For example, if a single resource is working half-time on
this task and half-time on other tasks, type 50% in the Units column.
The Cost column is automatically populated using the information you entered
for the resource in the Resource Sheet view. To view the populated Cost col-
umn, click OK on the Task Information dialog box and then double-click the
task again to reopen it and see the calculated cost.
5. Click OK to assign the resource to the task.

E d i t i n g a n E x i s t i n g R e s o u rce As s i gn m e n t 89
LET ME TRY IT
Assigning a Work Resource Using the Team

Planner View
For work resources in your project, you can use the Team Planner view to assign
tasks to specific people.
Here are the steps to follow to assign a task to a work resource using the Team
Planner view:
1. On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, click Team Planner.
2. Click and drag a task listed under Unassigned Tasks up to a row in the
time-scaled portion of the view for one of the work resources listed in the
Resource Name column. When dragging the task, note that you can also
adjust where the task falls horizontally in the time-scaled portion of the
view. This will adjust the start and finish dates for the task and may result
in a change in the constraint for the task.
3. If you want to add another resource to a task that is already assigned to a
work resource in the Team Planner view, double-click the task bar to open
the Task Information dialog box. Use the steps in the previous section,
“Assigning a Resource Using the Task Information Dialog Box,” to assign an
additional resource.
Editing an Existing Resource Assignment

If resources in your project already have been assigned to tasks, it’s possible that, at
some point, you may need to make changes to those resource assignments. This
isn’t terribly complicated when work hasn’t started on a task. Simply go back to the
Task Information dialog box and make the necessary changes. This gets more
complicated when a resource has started work on a task and the actual work val-
ues have been recorded in the project. You can take a few different approaches in
this situation, depending on what changed:
• If all work assigned to all resources on the task needs to pause and
resume at a later time, you can split the work on the task. This creates a gap
between the first part of the task, in which the actual work has been
recorded, and the next part of the task, in which the remaining work is
scheduled.
• If work assigned to one resource on the task needs to pause and resume
at a later time, you can use the Resource Usage view to fine-tune the work
schedule for that resource.
• If the remaining work assigned to one resource needs to be reassigned
to another resource, you can use the Task Usage view to move the remain-
ing work to that resource.
SHOW ME Media 5.4—Splitting a Task

LET ME TRY IT
Splitting a Task to Create a Gap in Work

By splitting a task, you create a gap between one part of the task and another. This
keeps the actual work where it was recorded but enables you to move the remain-
ing work to a later time within the project schedule. When you split a task, all
resource assignments for the task are split. If you just want to create a gap in one
resource’s schedule for the task, see the next section, “Fine-Tuning a Resource’s
Work Schedule for a Task.”
To split work on a task, follow these steps:
1. In the Gantt Chart view, click the Task tab; in the Schedule group, click
Split Task, as shown in Figure 5.2. The mouse cursor changes to a vertical
line with an arrow pointing to the right.
Figure 5.2 Click Split Task on the Task tab of the ribbon.
2. On the Gantt bar for the task that you want to split, click the date when you
want to end the work on the first part of the task and then drag the second
part of the task to the date when you want work to resume. Figure 5.3 shows
a task that has been split.
Figure 5.3 This task has been split into two portions, with a gap in the middle represented
by a dotted line.
SHOW ME Media 5.5—Using Usage Views to Edit Assignments

LET ME TRY IT
Fine-Tuning a Resource’s Work Schedule for a Task

If a resource assigned to your task needs to put work on the task on hold for some
reason (maybe to work on a last-minute, higher-priority task, for example), you can
use the Resource Usage view to split that resource’s work, without splitting the
entire task.
Follow these steps to adjust the task’s work schedule for a single resource:
1. On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, click Resource Usage.
2. On the Format tab, in the Details group, select the Work and Actual
Work check boxes.
3. On the left portion of the Resource Usage view, scroll down to locate the
resource that has an assignment you want to adjust, and then look below
that resource for the task assignment. Scroll through the time-phased por-
tion of the view, on the right side, to find the dates where work on the task
is scheduled. Figure 5.4 shows an assignment with work in the time-
phased portion of the view.
4. If the resource has recorded Actual Work on the task, the best practice is not
to modify those hours. The Work row for the assignment contains the sched-
uled work. Any work that is scheduled for after the recorded Actual Work is
fair game for moving. To move the scheduled work, delete the hours from
each day when the resource will not be available and then retype the hours
in the Work row for the assignment on the days when the resource can
resume working on the task.
Figure 5.4 This assignment has actual work reported on Monday and Tuesday, and
scheduled work for Wednesday and Thursday.
LET ME TRY IT
Assigning Remaining Work on a Task to Another

Resource
If a resource has been working on a task and recording actual work, but then is
taken off of the task for some reason (poor performance or a job change, for exam-
ple), you can move the remaining work to another resource.
To reassign the remaining work on a task to another resource, follow these steps:
1. In the Gantt Chart view, click the task that contains the resource you are
replacing.
2. On the Resource tab, in the Assignments group, click Assign Resources.
3. On the Assign Resources dialog box, click the name of the resource you
are replacing, and then click Replace (see Figure 5.5). Resources currently
assigned to the selected task have a check mark displayed to the left of
the Resource Name column.
4. On the Replace Resource dialog box, click the name of the resource you
want to reassign work to, and then click OK.
5. Click Close on the Assign Resources dialog box.
Figure 5.5 Select a resource and click Replace.

6
In this chapter, you learn about costs, budgets, and
overtime in Project 2010.
Accounting for Project Costs
Project costs are calculated using the planned and actual work values for resource
assignments in your project. You can also set up budgets within your project using
Project 2010 and then compare your budgeted costs with the planned and actual
costs. This helps you to track how closely you’re sticking to your budget, so that
you can determine the next steps, if necessary. You can also plan for and track over-
time costs in your project using Project 2010.
Understanding Types of Costs

Project 2010 supports three different types of costs:
• Rate-based costs—These costs are incurred by a resource’s pay rate (for
example, an employee’s hourly wages, or a daily rate for a machine rental).
• Per-use costs—These are one-time costs that may be incurred each time the
resource is used within your project, or within a task in your project. For
example, each time you rent a piece of equipment, there is an upfront per-
use cost for the rental. It may be possible for a resource to have an associated
per-use cost and rate-based cost.
• Fixed costs—These costs are associated with tasks, not resources, and they
are incurred only once per task. For example, if a task in your project requires
you to set up a temporary office in another location, the rent on that office
space would be a fixed cost for that task.
These types of costs can be captured using work, material, and cost resources, as
discussed in Chapter 5, “Working with Resources.” Each resource can have an asso-
ciated cost, and that cost is incurred when the resource is used within your project.
Note that these cost types are different from cost resources. Cost resources capture
fees associated with getting tasks done, such as airfare or lodging. Rate-based, per-
use, and fixed costs are associated with work and material resources, and are
incurred based on when a resource is assigned to work, and how much work that
resource completes.
C re a t i n g a B u d g e t fo r Yo u r Pro j e c t 95
SHOW ME Media 6.1—Understand Types of Costs

In addition to these cost types, Project also enables you to do some basic budget-
ing. You can provide some high-level budget figures and compare the actual costs
incurred by tasks in your project with the budgeted costs you outlined during the
planning process. The following section walks you through the budgeting process.
Creating a Budget for Your Project

Creating a project budget is a three-step process. First, you create budget
resources and assign them to the project summary task, then you identify the
budget values for the project (costs or number of hours), and finally, you match up
each of your project’s resources with a budget type, so you can compare budgeted
values with actual values as your project progresses.
SHOW ME Media 6.2—Set Up a Budget

LET ME TRY IT
Creating and Assigning Budget Resources

The first step to creating a budget for your project is to create resources that repre-
sent each budget category in your organization. For example, your organization
may have one budget for training costs and another budget for travel costs. To
track these budgets in Project 2010, create two separate resources that represent
each of these budgets in your project.
To create a budget resource, follow these steps:
1. On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, click Resource Sheet.
2. Type the name of the budget resource in the Resource Name column.
96 Chapter 6 | Acco u n t i n g fo r Pro j e c t Co s t s
A best practice is to use a naming scheme that identifies the resource as a

budget resource. For example, if I am adding a resource for my organization’s
training budget, I might choose to type Budget-Training in the Resource
Name column.
3. Double-click the name of the budget resource to display the Resource

Information dialog box.
4. Choose the resource type for the budget resource from the Type list.
5. Select the Budget check box, as shown in Figure 6.1.
6. Click OK to add the budget resource to your project.
Figure 6.1 The Budget check box appears below the Material Label field.
After you create the resources, the next step is to assign them to the project sum-
mary task.
To assign a budget resource to the project summary task, follow these steps:
1. Click the File tab and then click Options.
2. Click Advanced on the left portion of the window.
3. Under Display options for this project, select the Show project sum-
mary task check box (shown in Figure 6.2), and then click OK.
4. On the View tab, in the Task Views group, click Gantt Chart.
Figure 6.2 The Show project summary task check box is highlighted.
5. Double-click the first row in the Gantt Chart view to display the
Summary Task Information dialog box for the project summary task.
6. Click the Resources tab and then select the budget resource from the
drop-down list in the Resource Name column, as shown in Figure 6.3.
7. Click OK to assign the budget resource to the project summary task.
Figure 6.3 Assigning the budget resources to the project summary task.
LET ME TRY IT
Adding Values to Budget Resources

Right now, you have placeholders in your project for each budget in your organiza-
tion, but we haven’t identified values for those budgets. For example, if you added
a resource called “Budget-Training,” you’ve basically said that yes, there is a training
budget, but you haven’t said how much money there is in that budget. This is the
next step in budgeting your project using Project 2010.
Follow these steps to provide values for your budget resources:
1. On the View tab, in Resource Views group, click Resource Usage.
2. Click the arrow on the right side of the Add New Column header and then
click Budget Cost.
click Budget Work.
4. Scroll down in the left portion of the Resource Usage view to display the
budget resources for your project. If your budget is measured as a cost, type
the cost value for the budget in the Budget Cost column, as shown in
Figure 6.4. If your budget is measured as an amount of work, type the work
amount in the Budget Work column.
Figure 6.4 These two budgets have assigned budget costs.
LET ME TRY IT
Pairing Resources with Budgets

Now that you have your budgets defined for your organization, you can choose to
go through each work, material, and cost resource in your project and give each a
budget assignment. This step is not necessary for using budget resources, but it
enables you to easily compare budgeted values against actual values as your proj-
ect progresses. This comparison lets you see whether you’re overspending, on
track, or under-spending.
To match resources with budgets, follow these steps:
1. On the View tab, in Resource Views group, click Resource Sheet.
2. On the Format tab, in the Columns group, click Custom Fields.
3. Make sure that the Resource option is selected at the top of the Custom
Fields dialog box, choose Text from the Type list, and then click Text1 to
select it.
4. Click Rename, type Budget Assignment in the New name for ‘Text1’
box, and then click OK.
5. Under Calculation for assignment rows, select Roll down unless manu-
ally entered, as shown in Figure 6.5.
Figure 6.5 Select the Roll down unless manually entered option.
6. Click OK to finish defining the Budget Assignment custom field.

7. In the Resource Sheet view, click the arrow on the right side of the Add
New Column header, and then click Budget Assignment (Text1).
It may help to move the Budget Assignment column closer to the Resource
Name column, so you can see easily which resources you’re assigning to which
budgets. To move the column after you add it, click the Budget Assignment
column header once to select it. Now, when you hover over the column header,
you see a four-way arrow. Click and drag the column header across the view to a
spot closer to the Resource Name column.
8. In the Budget Assignment column for each resource in the Resource Sheet
view, type the name of the budget to which you want the resource’s actual
values to be attributed. For example, if one of the resources in your project is
a travel coordinator, you may want to attribute all costs that the travel coordi-
nator incurs on your project to the Travel budget. Be sure to type values in
the Budget Assignment column for each budget resource, as well.
Be sure to consistently type budget names in the Budget Assignment column.

That is, be sure you use the same capitalization, spelling, spacing, and punctua-
tion. This helps easily group resources later, when you want to compare actual
values with budgeted values.
Comparing Actual Cost and Work Values with the

Project Budget
After work on your project has started, and resources have begun recording the
actual work, costs, and other values for tasks in your project, you’ll likely want to
check in on how those actual values are comparing with the budgeted values you
identified when you were planning the project. If you’ve done the work to set up
the budget correctly in Project 2010, comparing actual values with budgeted
values is relatively easy.
SHOW ME Media 6.3—Project Spending Versus Budget

Co m p a r i n g Ac t u a l Co s t a n d Wo r k Va l u e s w i t h t h e Pro j e c t B u d g e t 101
LET ME TRY IT
To compare actual values with budgeted values, follow these steps:

2. On the View tab, in the Data group, click Group by and then click New
Group By.
3. Type Budget Assignment in the Name box.
4. Click Budget Assignment (Text1) in the Field Name column for the
Group By row, as shown in Figure 6.6.
Figure 6.6 Creating the Budget Assignment grouping for the Resource Usage view.
5. Click Apply.
6. In the Resource Usage view, click the arrow on the right side of the Add
New Column header and then click Actual Cost.
click Actual Work.
8. Compare the rolled-up values in the Actual Cost and Actual Work columns
for each grouping with the rolled-up values in Budget Cost and Budget
Work.
Accounting for Overtime Spent on Project Tasks

Overtime work isn’t defined the same way in every organization. In some organiza-
tions, overtime is considered any work totaling more than 40 hours in one week. In
other organizations, overtime is considered any work beyond eight hours in one
day. Overtime sometimes is calculated on a monthly basis, and other times, extra
hours don’t count as overtime costs because the resources are salaried. Even within
one organization, there may not be a single hard-and-fast rule about overtime.
Some resources may be salaried; other resources may record overtime on a daily
basis; and others may account for overtime weekly.
Because of this, Project makes no assumptions about overtime. If a resource
reports that he or she has worked 10 hours in one day, Project records those 10
hours as regular work. It’s up to the project manager to determine whether two of
those 10 hours are actually overtime work. After the project manager has manually
changed the reported work to eight hours of regular work and two hours of over-
time work, the overtime rate for the resource will apply for those two hours, and
costs will be accounted for correctly.
LET ME TRY IT
Planning for Overtime Work and Costs

If you know that some of the work on your project will be done as overtime work,
you can plan for that overtime work before it actually happens. This enables you to
more accurately estimate project costs by including overtime rates for resources
during the planning process.
Follow these steps to plan for overtime work in Project 2010:
1. On the View tab, in the Task Views group, click Task Usage.
2. On the View tab, in the Data group, click Tables and then click Work.
3. On the left portion of the Task Usage view, click the Add New Column
header and then click Overtime Work.
4. Type the amount of overtime you want to plan for in the Overtime Work col-
umn for an italicized resource assignment, as shown in Figure 6.7.
Overtime work is considered part of the total work for a resource assignment. If
the resource assignment is set to 40 hours of work, and you add 10 hours in the
Overtime Work column, the Work column will stay set to 40 hours. If you
Acco u n t i n g fo r O ve r t i m e S p e n t o n Pro j e c t Ta s k s 103
meant to indicate that those 10 hours would be in addition to the existing 40

hours, you need to adjust the Work column to add the overtime (50 hours of
work). Project calculates costs as follows:
(Overtime Work × Overtime Rate) = Overtime Cost
[(Work – Overtime Work) × Standard Rate] + Overtime Cost + Fixed Costs + Costs
Per Use = Cost
Figure 6.7 Adding planned overtime to a resource assignment.
LET ME TRY IT
Recording Actual Overtime Work and Costs

As resources on your project begin work on tasks, their actual work hours will
begin rolling in. As the project manager, you’ll need to be recording how much of
each resource’s time is actually overtime.
To add actual overtime work to your project, follow these steps:
1. On the View menu, in the Task Views group, click Task Usage.
2. On the View tab, in the Data group, click Tables and then click Work.
3. On the Format tab, in the Details group, click Add Details.
4. In the Available fields box, click Actual Overtime Work and then press
Ctrl and click Actual Work.
5. Click Show to move the selected fields to the Show these fields box.
6. Click Actual Work in the Show these fields box to select it and then click
the up arrow button on the right side of the box to move the Actual Work
field above the Actual Overtime Work field.
7. Click OK to add these fields to the time-phased (right) portion of the Task
Usage view.
8. Scroll through the list of tasks and resource assignments to display the
resource assignment that has overtime and then click the row header to
select the row.
9. On the View tab, in the Zoom group, click Zoom Selected Tasks, as
Figure 6.8 Click Zoom Selected Tasks in the Zoom group on the View tab.
10. For each resource assignment, look at the Actual Work row in the time-
phased portion of the view and watch for reported work that exceeds the
resource’s standard amount of work. For example, look at Figure 6.9. The
highlighted resource normally works eight hour days, and I see 10 hours of
actual work reported in one day, so I know that resource has worked some
overtime on that day, according to company policy.
Figure 6.9 This resource normally works eight hour days, so this 10-hour day includes
overtime work.
11. Determine how much of the reported Actual Work is overtime work and
subtract that from the work total. For example, if my resource reported 10
hours of work, I know that two of those hours are overtime, so I subtract 2
from 10 to get eight hours.
12. Type the new work total, minus the overtime work, in the corresponding
cell in the Actual Work row.
Acco u n t i n g fo r O ve r t i m e S p e n t o n Pro j e c t Ta s k s 105
13. In the corresponding Actual Overtime Work row, type the amount of over-
time work that the resource reported and then press Enter. The Actual Work
row will be updated to add back the overtime work.
After the actual overtime work has been correctly recorded in your project, the
resource’s overtime rate will be used to calculate the overtime costs.
7
This chapter discusses how you can use Project 2010
to capture what’s going on in your project and how to
compare it to what you had planned.
Capturing Project Progress
As resources on your project begin work on tasks, they will have actual work hours
and status to report. If your organization uses Project Professional 2010 with Pro-
ject Server, some of this reporting is streamlined. However, you can choose to col-
lect progress through more traditional means, such as weekly status reports and
team meetings. If you go this route, you’ll need to manually enter progress into
Project 2010.
Baselining Your Project

After your project is initially set up, it can be helpful to set a project baseline. A
baseline is a snapshot of your project data, including dates, durations, work esti-
mates, and cost estimates. By baselining your project, you capture your project
plan so that later, as your project progresses, you can compare what’s actually
going on in your project with what you had initially planned.
You can also set separate baselines at certain points in your project, such as mile-
stones and stage gates, for example. Project 2010 enables you to set up to 11 dif-
ferent baselines in each project.
LET ME TRY IT
To set a baseline in your project, follow these steps:

1. In the Gantt Chart view, press Ctrl and click each row header for the tasks
you want to baseline. If you want to baseline the whole project, skip this
step.
2. On the Project tab, in the Schedule group, click Set Baseline and then
click Set Baseline on the menu that appears.
3. Click Set Baseline and then choose the baseline number that you want to
set from the drop-down list, as shown in Figure 7.1.
B a s e l i n i n g Yo u r Pro j e c t 107
Figure 7.1 Use the Set Baseline dialog box to choose baseline options.
If you need to capture only the start and finish dates for the project or the
selected tasks, you can use an interim plan instead of a baseline. Click Set inter-
im plan, choose which date fields you want to Copy, and then, from the Into
list, choose the interim plan number where you want to capture the selected
dates.
4. Under For, click Entire project if you want to set the baseline for the proj-
ect or click Selected tasks if you want to copy only the tasks you selected
in the Gantt Chart view.
5. If you chose Selected tasks, under Roll up baselines, select the appropri-
ate options:
• To all summary tasks—Select this check box if you want the baselined
data to be rolled up to the summary task level for all tasks, regardless of
whether you selected the summary tasks for baselining.
• From subtasks into selected summary task(s)—Select this check box if
you want only baseline data to be rolled up to summary tasks that you
selected in the Gantt Chart view.
6. Click OK to set the baseline in your project.
With a baseline set, you can start work in your project and then use the baseline
fields to compare data later in your project’s timeline. Baseline fields include the
following:
108 Chapter 7 | Ca p t u r i n g Pro j e c t Pro gre s s
• Baseline Budget Cost

• Baseline Budget Work
• Baseline Cost
• Baseline Deliverable Finish
• Baseline Deliverable Start
• Baseline Duration
• Baseline Estimated Duration
• Baseline Estimated Finish
• Baseline Estimated Start
• Baseline Finish
• Baseline Fixed Cost
• Baseline Fixed Cost Accrual
• Baseline Start
• Baseline Work
Gathering Status Updates from Resources

Resources should be periodically reporting their task work and status, either using
Project Server or through other means, such as weekly status reports or meetings.
If your organization uses Project Professional 2010 with Project Server, resource
time and task status will be captured by the resource in Project Server and then
submitted to an approver who can accept or reject it. Accepted time and status are
added to the project, and the actual data within your project will be updated.
If your organization does not use Project Server, you need to ask for time and task
status regularly and manually add that actual data to your project. Let’s say you
have a task in your project that has a two-week duration, with two resources
assigned at 80 hours each. Those resources provide you with status updates in
email, which you manually enter into Project. The resources need to provide you
with one of three different “packages” of status information:
• Actual start, percent work complete, and remaining work
• Actual start, actual work, remaining work, and an expected finish date
• Day-by-day timesheet of actual work per day, remaining work, and an expect-
ed finish date
G at h e r i n g S t a t u s U p d a te s f ro m R e s o u rce s 109
The following sections walk you through what each of these options include, and
where to enter the status information in Project, to get an accurate look at how
your project is progressing.
Actual Start, Percent Work Complete, Remaining

Work
This method of manually recording status is the fastest, but it is also likely the least
accurate. With this method, resources provide you with the following:
• Actual Start—This is the date when the resource actually began working on
the task.
• Percent (%) Work Complete—The % Work Complete field is used to cap-
ture approximately how much work has been done on a task, as a percent-
age.
• Remaining Work—This is the estimated amount of work that is left to be
done on the task.
Using the earlier example, Figure 7.2 shows a task with a two-week duration (10
days), with two resources assigned at 80 hours each. Notice that the task is sched-
uled to start on 2/21/11 and finish on 3/4/11.
Figure 7.2 An example of a two-week task with two assigned resources

On 2/25/11, half way through the scheduled duration, the two assigned resources
provide the following information:
• Resource 1—Began work on the task on 2/21/11, currently about 50% com-
plete, with about 40 more hours of work left to do.
• Resource 2—Began work on the task on 2/22/11, currently about 60% com-
plete, with about 20 hours of work left to do.
SHOW ME Media 7.1—Entering Actual Start, % Work Complete, and

Remaining Work
LET ME TRY IT
To enter resource status data in Project, you first need to display the corresponding
fields, using the following steps:
2. Click the Add New Column header, and add the Actual Start column.
Repeat this to add the % Work Complete and Remaining Work columns.
With these fields displayed, now you can add the status information you received
from the resources assigned to the task. This status information is entered in the
assignment row for the task, in the Resource Usage view. Assignment rows are
indented below each resource’s name.
You can also use the Task Usage view to enter assignment data. Add the same
fields to the Task Usage view, and enter assignment data for each resource
indented below the task name.
First, add the information from Resource 1, as shown in Figure 7.3.
Figure 7.3 The Resource Usage view, with status data from Resource 1 added
To add status data from a resource, follow these steps:

2. Enter the date that the resource actually began working on the task in the
Actual Start column for the task assignment.
3. Type the percentage of work that the resource thinks has been completed
in the % Work Complete column. Project will calculate the remaining
work, based on the scheduled work and the percentage you entered here.
4. If the amount of remaining work that Project calculated is different from the
remaining work reported by the resource, type the data reported by the
resource in the Remaining Work column. Notice that the % Work Complete
column is adjusted to show the accurate percentage, based on the scheduled
work and the remaining work you entered here.
If you go back to the Gantt Chart view and take a look, you’ll see a progress bar
added over the Gantt bar for the task, representing how far along the task is, with
just Resource 1’s status data added (shown in Figure 7.4).
Figure 7.4 The Gantt Chart view, after adding status data from Resource 1
Next, you need to go back to the Resource Usage view and add in the status data
provided by Resource 2, as shown in Figure 7.5.
Let’s take a closer look at the calculations going on here. In the example, Resource
2 has 80 hours of scheduled work. He reports that he is about 60% complete, with
about 20 hours of work remaining on the task. When you enter this resource’s per-
cent work complete, Project begins by calculating how much Actual Work has
been completed, using this formula:
% Work Complete = (Actual Work / Work) * 100
So, in this example, Project uses the following equation to calculate Actual Work:
60% = (Actual Work / 80h) * 100
Begin by dividing both sides of the equation by 100:
60% / 100 = [(Actual Work / 80h) * 100] / 100
This trims down the equation to the following:
.6 = Actual Work / 80h
Then multiply both sides by 80 to solve for Actual Work:
.6 * 80 = (Actual Work / 80h) * 80
This leaves you with the Actual Work value:
48h = Actual Work
Once Project has calculated the Actual Work, the next step is to calculate
Remaining Work, using the following formula:
Remaining Work = Work - Actual Work
In this example, the following equation is used:
Remaining Work = 80h - 48h
The resulting value for the Remaining Work column is 32 hours of work remaining
on the task.
However, recall that one of the values that the resource provided in his status
report was an estimate of the remaining work on the task, and that estimate was
20 hours. At this point, you need to decide which you think is more accurate: the
resource’s estimate on what percentage of the work is complete, or the resource’s
estimate on how many hours it will take to complete the task. If you think the
resource’s remaining work estimate is more accurate, enter that in the Remaining
Work column, and Project will recalculate the % Work Complete value, using the
formulas we just walked through.
Now, let’s go back and look at the task in the Gantt Chart view, with status data
from both resources added (shown in Figure 7.6). The vertical line shows the cur-
rent date, and the progress bar extends beyond that date, indicating that this task
is ahead of schedule.
Figure 7.6 The Gantt Chart view, after adding status data from Resource 2
You can quickly set tasks to 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, or 100% complete by selecting
a task and then clicking the corresponding buttons on the Task tab, in the
Schedule group. Clicking these buttons sets the Percent Complete and
Percent Work Complete fields to the corresponding value.
After you add the actual start, percent work complete, and remaining work provid-
ed by the resources assigned to a task, a best practice is to reevaluate the finish
date for the task. The status data you just entered may have pushed the finish date
for the task out, or made it possible to shorten the duration and get the task done
sooner. These changes may have an impact on other tasks in your project, or even
on other projects that are dependent on your project: Actual Start, Actual Work,
Remaining Work, Expected Finish Date.
This method of recording status requires that resources provide you with the
following:
• Actual Start—This is the date when the resource actually began working on
the task.
• Actual Work—This is the number of hours a resource has currently put in on
the task.
done on the task.
• Expected Finish Date—This is the resource’s best guess for a date when the
task will be completed.
You can capture this status information in the Resource Usage or Task Usage
view. The previous section used the Resource Usage view, so this section walks
through using the Task Usage view to enter assignment information.
Returning to the previous example, you are managing a project with a task that has
a 10-day duration, with two resources assigned at 80 hours each.
• Resource 1—Began work on the task on 2/21/11, completed 40 hours of
work, about 40 more hours of work left to do, estimated finish of 3/4/11.
• Resource 2—Began work on the task on 2/22/11, completed 48 hours of
work, about 20 hours of work left to do, estimated finish of 3/2/11.
SHOW ME Media 7.2—Entering Actual Start, Actual Work, Remaining

Work, and Finish Date
LET ME TRY IT
To enter resource status data in Project, first you need to display the corresponding
fields, using the following steps:
2. Click the Add New Column header, and add the Actual Start column.
Repeat this to add the Actual Work, Remaining Work, and Finish columns.
With these fields displayed, now you can add the status information you received
from the resources assigned to the task. This status information is entered in the
assignment row for the task, in the Task Usage view. Assignment rows are indent-
ed below each task’s name. If you are using the Resource Usage view, assignment
rows are indented below each resource’s name.
Figure 7.7 The Task Usage view, with status data from Resource 1 added

2. Enter the date that the resource actually began working on the task in the
Actual Start column for the assignment.
3. Type the amount of work that the resource has completed on the task in
the Actual Work column for the assignment. Project will calculate the
remaining work, based on the scheduled work and the actual work value
you entered here.
4. If the amount of remaining work that Project calculated is different from
the remaining work reported by the resource, type the data reported by
the resource in the Remaining Work column.
5. Enter the estimated finish date for the task in the Finish column for the
assignment, if necessary.
Repeat this to add in the status data provided by Resource 2. Notice that after
adding the 20 hours of remaining work, when you add the estimated Finish date
of 3/2/11, the Remaining Work column is adjusted. This is because Project is
assuming that the resource worked 8-hour days. To correct this, you can use the
right, timephased portion of the Task Usage view, as shown in Figure 7.8.
Figure 7.8 The right portion of the Task Usage view spreads the work values across a
timeline.
To adjust actual work values in the timephased portion of the Task Usage view, fol-
low these steps:
2. On the Format tab, in the Details group, select the Actual Work check
box. This adds rows to capture actual work in the timephased portion of
the Task Usage view.
3. Adjust the values in the Actual Work row for the assignment, to reflect the
accurate hours spent on the task.
In the example, because Project assumed the resource was working 8-hour days,
the timephased data shows six 8-hour days (totaling 48 hours), when the resource
actually worked four 12-hour days. Figure 7.9 shows what the timephased data
looks like initially.
Figure 7.10 shows the corrected timephased data.
After the timephased data is corrected, the Finish column reflects the resource’s
reported estimated finish date for the task, as shown in Figure 7.11.
Figure 7.9 Timephased data in the Task Usage view, before correction.
Figure 7.10 Timephased data in the Task Usage view, after correction.
Figure 7.11 Reported resource status data, after correcting timephased data.
Actual Work Per Day, Remaining Work, Expected

Finish Date
This method of recording status requires that resources provide you with the fol-
lowing:
• Actual Work Per Day—This is a day-by-day breakdown, in the form of a
timesheet, for the work that the resource has actually completed on the task.
For example, 8 hours on Monday, 7 hours on Tuesday, 9 hours on Wednesday,
and so on.
done on the task.
• Expected Finish Date—This is the resource’s best guess for a date when the
task will be completed.
Because the resources are providing a day-by-day account of actual work, they do
not need to provide the actual start date separately. The first day of actual work
provided in the day-by-day account of work is the actual start date.
You can capture this status information in the Resource Usage or Task Usage
view.
Returning to the previous example, recall that you are managing a project with a
task that has a 10-day duration, with two resources assigned at 80 hours each.
• Resource 1
• Day-by-day breakdown of work, as detailed in the following table:
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

8h 8h 8h 8h 8h
• About 40 more hours of work left to do

• Estimated finish of 3/4/11
• Resource 2
• Day-by-day breakdown of work, as detailed in the following table:
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

0h 12h 12h 12h 12h
• About 20 hours of work left to do

• Estimated finish of 3/2/11
SHOW ME Media 7.3—Entering Actual Work Per Day, Remaining Work,

and Finish Date
LET ME TRY IT
To enter resource status data in Project, first you need to set up the Resource Usage
or Task Usage view, using the following steps:
1. On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, click Resource Usage. Or,
if you want to use the Task Usage view, on the View tab, in the Task
Views group, click Task Usage.
2. Click the Add New Column header, and add the Remaining Work col-
umn. Repeat this to add the Finish column.
3. On the Format tab, in the Details group, select the Actual Work check box.
With the Resource Usage or Task Usage view set up, now you can add the status
information you received from the resources assigned to the task. This status infor-
mation is entered in the corresponding assignment row. In the Resource Usage
view, assignment rows are indented below each resource’s name. In the Task
Usage view, assignment rows are indented below each task’s name.

1. On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, click Resource Usage. Or,
if you want to use the Task Usage view, on the View tab, in the Task
Views group, click Task Usage.
2. Enter the day-by-day hours that the resource spent on the task in the
Actual Work assignment row of the right, timephased portion of the view,
as shown in Figure 7.13.
3. If the amount of remaining work that Project calculated is different from
the remaining work reported by the resource, type the data reported by
the resource in the Remaining Work column.
As s e s s i n g t h e I m p a c t s o f U p d a te s 119
Figure 7.13 Day-by-day hours entered in the Actual Work row for the assignment
4. Enter the estimated finish date for the task in the Finish column for the
assignment, if necessary.
Repeat this to add in the status data provided by Resource 2, as shown in

Figure 7.14.
Assessing the Impacts of Updates

As your project is updated with actual data, the dates of other, linked tasks in your
project will be affected. For example, if Task B can’t start until Task A finishes, and
Task A finishes late, the start of Task B will be delayed. The series of linked tasks in
your project that determine the start and finish dates for your entire project are
referred to as the critical path. You can view the critical path in Project by using the
Tracking Gantt view.
SHOW ME Media 7.4—Understanding the Critical Path

LET ME TRY IT
To display the critical path in the Tracking Gantt view, follow these steps:
1. On the View tab, in the Task Views group, click Other Views and then
click More Views.
2. In the Views box, click Tracking Gantt and then click Apply.
3. On the View tab, in the Zoom group, click Entire Project. Gantt bars for tasks
on the critical path for your project appear in red.
Displaying the critical path lets you see whether updates made to your project have
changed your project’s finish date, or other important milestones. If you find that
updates have adversely affected the project schedule, you can get more detail about
what’s driving the dates using the Task Inspector pane, which shows the factors that
are driving the schedule for a selected task, such as whether the task is manually or
automatically scheduled, what the start/finish dates and actual start/finish dates are,
relevant resource information, what constraints are applied, and other factors.
Follow these steps to display the Task Inspector pane:
1. On the Task tab, in the Tasks group, click Inspect.
2. Click a task in the currently displayed view to see details about that task in
the Task Inspector pane. Figure 7.15 shows an example.
Figure 7.15 The Task Inspector pane.

8
This chapter includes information on reporting,
sharing project details, and collaborating on a
project using Project 2010.
Sharing Your Project with Others
Projects rarely are created and managed by one person in a small room with no
outside influence. Project managers have supervisors that they need to report to
about project status, other interested parties who want access to project data, and
other project managers who may have some insight into ways to improve project
plans. Project 2010 enables reporting, other sharing methods, and a collaboration
system to support coordinating project management work with outside demands
for project information.
SHOW ME Media 8.1—Sharing Your Project

Reporting on Your Project

Project 2010 includes two types of reports:
• Visual reports—When you generate a visual report, your project data is
exported to Excel or Visio, for a highly illustrated report that takes advantage
of PivotTable and PivotChart features.
• Basic reports—When you generate a basic report, your project data is for-
matted into a simple, printable report within Project 2010.
Figure 8.1 shows an example of a report generated using visual reports and
Figure 8.2 shows a similar one generated using basic reports.
With both visual and basic reports, not only can you generate them using your
project data, but you can also customize your own reports to show the data you
need, in the way that makes the most sense for your organization. The process for
generating and customizing reports is different based on which kind of report you
are using.
122 Chapter 8 | S h a r i n g Yo u r Pro j e c t w i t h O t h e r s
Figure 8.1 The Critical Tasks Status Report, a visual report that uses Visio
Figure 8.2 The Critical Tasks basic report

R e p o r t i n g o n Yo u r Pro j e c t 123
LET ME TRY IT
Generating and Customizing a Visual Report

Project 2010 comes with the visual report templates shown in Table 8.1.
Table 8.1 Available Visual Reports
Excel Visio
Baseline Cost Report Baseline Report
Baseline Work Report Cash Flow Report
Budget Cost Report Critical Tasks Status Report
Budget Work Report Critical Tasks Status Report
Cash Flow Report Resource Availability Report
Earned Value Over Time Report Resource Status Report
Resource Cost Summary Report Task Status Report
Resource Remaining Work Report
Resource Work Availability Report
Resource Work Summary Report
Follow these steps to generate one of these visual reports:

1. On the Project tab, in the Reports group, click Visual Reports.
2. Click the name of the report you want to generate.
To narrow down the list of reports, you can click each tab on the Visual
Reports—Create Report dialog box to view only reports that fit each category
(such as Task Usage or Resource Summary, for example). You can also choose
to display only reports that open in Excel or only those that open in Visio, by
selecting or clearing the Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Visio check boxes. This
filters the list of reports by whichever application you select.
3. To choose the amount of usage detail you want to include in the report,
select an option from the Select level of usage data to include in the
report list.
A best practice is to leave the usage detail set to whatever Project uses as the
default. In most cases, this will be Weeks. Including more detail (Days, for exam-
ple) may impact the performance of the report. If the report you are generating
doesn’t need to include usage data, choose Years to get the best level of per-
formance for the report.
4. Click View to begin generating the report. Based on your selection, the
report will open in Excel or Visio, and you can modify what data is displayed
by using the PivotTable or PivotChart features within those applications.
If the default visual report templates included with Project 2010 don’t include the
right data to meet your needs, you can add or remove which fields are included in
the report.
To add or remove fields from an existing visual report template, follow these steps:
2. Click the name of the report you want to modify and then click Edit
Template. The Visual Reports—Field Picker dialog box appears, as
Figure 8.3 Use the Visual Reports—Field Picker dialog box to choose fields to include in
the selected report.
3. To add a built-in Project field to the report, under Select Fields, click the
name of the field in the Available Fields box and then click Add to move
it to the Selected Fields box.
4. To remove a built-in Project field from the report, under Select Fields,
click the name of the field in the Selected Fields box and then click
Remove to move it to the Available Fields box.
5. To add a custom field to the report, under Select Custom Fields, click the
name of the field in the Available Custom Fields box and then click Add
to move it to the Selected Custom Fields box.
6. To remove a custom field from the report, under Select Custom Fields,
click the name of the field in the Selected Custom Fields box, and then
click Remove to move it to the Available Custom Fields box.
7. Click Edit Template, and the template opens in Excel or Visio. Use the fea-
tures in the application to surface the data you added or to rearrange the
report to account for the data you removed.
If the existing reports don’t come anywhere near meeting your needs, you can cre-
ate your own report by choosing what format you want to use and what data you
want to export.
To create a new visual report template, follow these steps:
2. Click New Template.
3. Under Select Application, choose whether you want to create the report
in Excel or Visio.
4. Under Select Data Type, choose a category of usage or summary data
that includes the information you want in your report.
5. Under Select Fields, click Field Picker.
6. To add a built-in Project field to the report, under Select Fields, click the
name of the field in the Available Fields box, and then click Add to move
it to the Selected Fields box.
7. To remove a built-in Project field from the report, under Select Fields,
click the name of the field in the Selected Fields box, and then click
Remove to move it to the Available Fields box.
8. To add a custom field to the report, under Select Custom Fields, click the
name of the field in the Available Custom Fields box, and then click Add
to move it to the Selected Custom Fields box.
9. To remove a custom field from the report, under Select Custom Fields,
click the name of the field in the Selected Custom Fields box, and then
click Remove to move it to the Available Custom Fields box.
10. Click OK on the Visual Reports—Field Picker dialog box to add the
selected fields to the report.
11. Click OK on the Visual Reports—New Template dialog box to export the
data to Excel or Visio and begin designing the visual layout of your report.
Use the PivotTable and PivotChart features in those applications to choose
how you want to present your project data.
Generating and Customizing a Basic Report

Table 8.2 shows the basic reports included in Project 2010.
Table 8.2 Available Basic Reports
Category Report Name

Overview Project Summary
Top-Level Tasks
Critical Tasks
Milestones
Working Days
Current Unstarted Tasks
Task Starting Soon
Tasks In Progress
Completed Tasks
Should Have Started Tasks
Slipping Tasks
Costs Cash Flow
Budget
Overbudget Tasks
Overbudget Resources
Earned Value
Assignments Who Does What
Who Does What When

To-do List
Overallocated Resources
Workload Task Usage
Resource Usage
LET ME TRY IT
Follow these steps to generate and print one of these basic reports:
1. On the Project tab, in the Reports group, click Reports.
2. Click the category that contains the report you want to generate and then
click Select.
Basic reports that you have created are listed under the Custom category.
3. Click the name of the report you want to generate and then click Select.
4. Click Print to print the selected report.
If the basic reports included with Project 2010 don’t contain the information you
need and you don’t have the option (or don’t want) to use visual reports, you can
create your own basic report. The steps for creating a custom basic report are dif-
ferent, depending on what kind of report you are creating.
LET ME TRY IT
To create a custom basic task or resource report, follow these steps:

2. Click Custom and then click Select.
3. On the Custom Reports dialog box, click New.
4. Click Task or Resource in the Report type box and then click OK.
5. On the Definition tab, complete the following:
• Name—Type the name of the report you are creating.
• Period—Choose the time period you want to display in the report.
• Count—Type the number of time periods you want to include in the
report. For example, if you chose Weeks from the Period list, and you
type 2 in the Count box, the report will display two weeks’ worth of data.
• Table—Choose which table type you want to display in the report.
• Filter—Choose how you want to filter the task or resource data.
• Highlight—Select this check box if you want to highlight the filtered
tasks in the report.
• Show summary tasks—Select this check box to include summary tasks

in your report.
• Gray bands—Select this check box to include gray lines to divide data
visually in your report.
6. On the Details tab (shown in Figure 8.4), choose the check boxes for the
data you want to include in your report and select or clear the Border
around details, Gridlines between details, and Show totals check boxes
to adjust the formatting for your report.
Figure 8.4 The Details tab of the Task Report dialog box has data and formatting options.
7. On the Sort tab (shown in Figure 8.5), use the Sort by and Then by lists
with the Ascending or Descending option to choose the order in which
data in your report should be listed.
8. Click OK to finish creating your custom report.
Follow these steps to create a custom basic monthly calendar report:

4. Click Monthly Calendar in the Report type box and then click OK.
5. Type a name for the new report in the Name box.
6. Click Filter and choose what data you want to appear in the report.
7. Select the Highlight check box if you want to highlight the filtered tasks
in the report.
8. Click Calendar and choose which calendar you want to use in the report.
9. Select or clear the Gray nonworking days, Solid bar breaks, and Print
gray bands check boxes to control how the report displays the calendar.
10. Under Show tasks as, choose whether you want the tasks in the report to
display as Bars, Lines, or Start/Finish dates.
11. Under Label tasks with, select or clear the ID, Name, and Duration check
boxes to control what information is displayed for the task in the report.
Figure 8.5 The Sort tab of the Task Report dialog box has options for ordering data.
Crosstab reports include task and resource information spread across a certain
number of time periods.
LET ME TRY IT
To create a custom basic crosstab report, follow these steps:

4. Click Crosstab in the Report type box and then click OK.
5. On the Definition tab, type a name for the new report in the Name box.
6. Under Crosstab, complete the following:
• Column—Type the number of time periods you want to include, and
then choose which time period you are using. For example, type 4 and
then choose Weeks. Figure 8.6 shows the column options.
Figure 8.6 Column options on the Definition tab are highlighted.
• Row—Choose whether you want to display Tasks or Resources in each

row and then choose which field you want to display across the time
period columns. Figure 8.7 shows the row options.
Figure 8.7 Row options on the Definition tab are highlighted.

Sharing Data with Others 131
• And resource assignments/And task assignments—Select this check

box to include assignment information in the report. If you selected
Resources in the Row list, this check box is labeled And task assign-
ments. If you selected Tasks in the Row list, this check box is labeled
And resource assignments.
7. Click Filter and then choose what data you want to appear in the report.
8. Select the Highlight check box if you want to highlight the filtered tasks
in the report.
9. On the Details tab, choose the check boxes for data you want to include
in your report and then choose from the following options:
• Show zero values—Select this check box if you want to display a zero
when no data has been entered.
• Repeat first column on every page—Select this check box to display
the row headers on each page of the report.
• Date format—Choose the format you want to use for dates in your
report.
10. On the Sort tab, use the Sort by and Then by lists with the Ascending or
Descending option to choose the order in which data in your report
should be listed.
Sharing Data with Others

So let’s say someone else has requested detailed data about your project. Arguably
the easiest route in this case is to simply send a copy of the file to the other person
and have that person open it with Project 2010 on his or her machine. Unfortunate-
ly, it’s rarely that easy. If the person requesting information doesn’t have Project
2010 installed, your options become a little less direct, but not necessarily less
detailed.
Depending on what the other person wants to do with the project data, a few dif-
ferent options are available, as covered in the following sections.
LET ME TRY IT
Copying the Timeline

The timeline is new to Project 2010 and provides a highly visual way to share proj-
ect information. After setting the timeline up with the information you want to
share, you can easily copy it for pasting in another application.
For more information on using the timeline, see “Using the Timeline” in Chapter
2, “Navigating Project 2010.”
Follow these steps to copy the timeline:

1. If the timeline is not currently displayed, on the View tab, in the Split View
group, select the Timeline check box, as shown in Figure 8.8.
Figure 8.8 The Timeline check box is on the View tab, in the Split View group.
2. Click once in the Timeline portion of the Project window to select it.
3. On the Format tab, in the Copy group, click Copy Timeline and then choose
whether you’re copying it For E-mail, For Presentation, or Full Size. Project
will use different formatting options based on your selection.
With the timeline copied to the Clipboard, open the e-mail message, presentation
deck, or other file where you want to include the project information, and then
paste the copied timeline. It will be pasted as an image within the e-mail message
or file.
LET ME TRY IT
Exporting Data to Excel

If the person requesting project data wants to be able to actually work with the
data itself, the right solution might be to export the data as an Excel workbook.
Sharing Data with Others 133
To export project data to Excel, follow these steps:

1. On the File tab, click Save As.
2. Browse to the location where you want to save the Excel file.
3. Type a name for the file in the File name box.
4. Click Save as type and then choose Excel Workbook.
If the person requesting project data is using an older version of Excel, choose
Excel 97-2003. You can also choose to save the data as tab-delimited text,
comma-delimited text (CSV), or XML.
5. Click Save.
6. Follow the steps in the Export Wizard to save the project data.
LET ME TRY IT
Taking a Picture of Your Project Data

If the person requesting project data just wants to look at the data, not actually do
anything with it, you can copy a picture of your project data and share it by pasting
it into another file or e-mail message.
Follow these steps to copy a picture of your project data:
1. Format the data in a view the way you want to share it and then select the
data you want to share. If you want to share all of the data in the view, you
don’t need to select any data, just click once anywhere in the view to
select it.
2. On the Task tab, in the Clipboard group, click the arrow on Copy and
then click Copy Picture, as shown in Figure 8.9.
Figure 8.9 Click the arrow on the Copy button and then click Copy Picture.
3. Under Render image, choose whether you want to copy the image For
screen, For printer, or To GIF image file. If you choose To GIF image file,
click Browse to locate where you want to save the GIF file.
4. Under Copy, click Rows on screen to copy all of the rows displayed on the
screen, or click Selected rows to copy only the rows you selected before
you clicked Copy Picture.
5. Under Timescale, click As shown on screen to use the full timescale cur-
rently displayed in the view, or choose From and To dates to specify a
time period to include.
6. Click OK to copy a picture of the project data in the view using the options
you selected.
Saving the Project As a PDF or XPS File

Another option for simply viewing project data is to save the project as a PDF or
XPS file.
To save the project as a PDF or XPS file, follow these steps:
1. Format the data in a view the way you want to share it and then, on the
File tab, click Save As.
2. Browse to the location where you want to save the PDF or XPS file.
3. Type a name for the file in the File name box.
4. Click Save as type and then choose PDF Files or XPS Files.
5. Click Save.
6. On the Document Export Options dialog box, under Publish Range,
click All to include the entire project or click From and specify a date
range to only include a certain time period.
7. Under Include Non-Printing Information, select or clear the Document
Properties and Document Showing Markup check boxes to choose
which options to include.
8. Under PDF Options, select or clear the ISO 19005-1 compliant (PDF/A)
check box to determine whether the PDF should conform to long-term
archiving standards.
9. Click OK to save the PDF or XPS file.
Co l l a b o r a t i n g w i t h O t h e r s o n Yo u r Pro j e c t 135
Collaborating with Others on Your Project

If you are using Project Professional 2010 with Project Server, you can work on a
project plan with others who may not have access to your Project Server. By saving
the project plan for sharing, you associate the file with its checked-out location in
Project Server. The file then can be sent around to others, who can use Project Pro-
fessional 2010 on their own machines to make changes. Then, when the file is
returned to you with changes, you can open it up and check it back in to Project
Server.
SHOW ME Media 8.2—Collaborating on a Project

LET ME TRY IT
To save a project for sharing with others, follow these steps:

1. With Project Professional 2010 opened and connected to Project Server,
click the File tab and then click Open.
2. Click Retrieve the list of all projects from Project Server and then
double-click the name of the file you want to share with others.
3. On the File tab, click Save Project as File.
4. Click Save for Sharing and then click Save As.
5. Type a name for the project file in the File name box. A best practice here
is to use the same name as the Project Server filename.
6. Locate where you want to save the file locally and then click Save.
With the file saved locally, you can attach it to e-mail or place it on a network share
to enable others to open it. Other people opening this file must also have Project
Professional 2010. Although the file is saved locally, it remains checked out from
Project Server. When changes are made to the file, you can check it back in to
Project Server.
LET ME TRY IT
Follow these steps to check the file back in to Project Server, with changes:
1. With Project Professional 2010 opened and connected to the same Project
Server on which the project is checked out, click the File tab and then
click Open.
2. Locate the changed, shared file, and then click Open.
3. On the File tab, click Save As.
4. Click the name of the file in the Save to Project Server box.
5. Click Save to replace the file on the server with the file you were sharing.
9
This chapter covers how to customize fields, views,
and tables in Project 2010.
Customizing Project 2010
There are many ways to customize Project 2010 to meet your organization’s needs.
Among the more common ways are custom fields, custom tables, and custom
views. By customizing these three elements, you’ll be able to capture exactly the
information you need and display it in just the way you want using the framework
provided by Project 2010.
TELL ME MORE Media 9.1—Benefits of Customizing Project 2010

Access this audio recording through your registered web edition at
Creating Custom Fields

Custom fields can be used to add information to your project that isn’t captured
using the default fields that come with Project 2010. That information might be
specific to your project, your team, or your organization, for example.
SHOW ME Media 9.2—Create a Custom Field

LET ME TRY IT
To create a custom field in your project, follow these steps:

1. On the Project tab, in the Properties group, click Custom Fields.
2. Choose whether you are customizing a Task or Resource field, as shown
in Figure 9.1.
138 Chapter 9 | Cu s to m i z i n g Pro j e c t 2 0 1 0
Figure 9.1 Choose from Task, Resource, or Project in the highlighted portion of the
Custom Fields dialog box.
If you are connected to Project Server, you can also customize project fields
using Project Web App.
3. In the Type list, click the type of data you plan to enter in the field you are
customizing.
4. In the Field box, click the name of the field you are customizing. If the
field has a friendly name followed by the original, generic name in paren-
theses, it is most likely already being used.
5. Click Rename, type a new friendly name for the field in the New name for
box, and then click OK.
6. Under Custom Attributes, if you just want to be able to enter data in the
field, leave it set to None. However, if you want to control the data, choose
one of the following options:
• Lookup—If you want to choose a value from a list, click Lookup, type
each of the list values in the Value column, choose any other options
that may make sense for your list, and then click Close.
C re a t i n g Cu s to m Fi e l d s 139
• Formula—If you want to calculate the value in the field using dates or
other project data, click Formula. Formulas can only be used to calculate
data for a single task or resource. Formulas cannot reference the values of
fields in other tasks or resources. For example, if you create a formula that
displays or acts upon the Start Date field, that formula will only be using
the start date for the corresponding task.
Office.com has a great resource to help you build your own formulas. “Project
functions for custom fields” is available at http://office.microsoft.com/project-
help/HP010080956.aspx. It provides a list of functions, including descriptions and
examples, that you can use within formulas for custom fields in Project 2010.
7. Under Calculation for task and group summary rows, choose one of the
following options:
• None—Click None if you don’t want the field rolled up to the task and
group summary levels.
• Rollup—Click Rollup and choose how you want the rollup calculated if
you want the field values summarized at the task and group summary
levels.
• Use formula—Click Use formula if you selected Formula under Custom
attributes and you want to use that formula for the rollup values for the
field you’re customizing.
8. Under Calculation for assignment rows, click None if you don’t want the
values in this custom field to be spread across assignments or click Roll
down unless manually entered if you want the values spread evenly
across each assignment. If you choose Roll down unless manually
entered, the values will be evenly distributed, but you’ll still be able to
manually enter data to refine the distribution.
9. Under Values to display, click Data to display the data “as is” or click
Graphical Indicators to display an icon based on the data entered in the
field. For example, you can assign red, yellow, and green icons to different
status descriptors to provide a visual health indicator.
10. Click OK to save your custom field.
SHOW ME Media 9.3—Graphical Indicators

After you’ve customized a field, you can add it as a column in a view.

Adding and Removing Columns in a View

The process of adding and removing columns in views in Project 2010 is incredibly
easy. However, the concept behind what happens sometimes can be confusing, so
before we get into how to add and remove columns, let’s talk a bit about what’s
going on behind the scenes.
It’s important to remember that behind the shiny interface of Project 2010, there’s
a database. A nice, stable, giant database. When you use Project to add information
about your project, that information makes its way into that database. In the Pro-
ject interface, you use views to look at the data in that database, as illustrated in
Figure 9.2. Views are set up to slice and dice the information in the database, in a
way that helps make sense of it. Columns are just parts of views. They’re a way of
surfacing specific parts of the database.
View
Project
View Database
Figure 9.2 The Project window uses views to access data in the Project database.
The confusion around this often comes when you go to remove a column from a
view. Let’s say you’ve had a column in a view for a long time and data has been
added to the column. You decide you no longer need that data, so you hide the
column in the view. Then later, you decide you want to use that column for another
purpose, so you add it again, and lo and behold your data is still in there. This
sometimes comes as a rude surprise to some Project users, who thought that by
hiding the column, the data would go away.
When you hide a column, that’s really all you’re doing. You’re taking that way of
viewing information in the database out of a view. Imagine if you were simply try-
ing to change which view surfaced the information. Let’s say you had a column of
information in one view, and after you had been using it for a while, you realized it
would be better suited for another view. If you had to re-create the column with its
Ad d i n g a n d R e m ov i n g Co l u m n s i n a Vi e w 141
data in another view, it could really become quite an effort if you had a large proj-
ect with several hundred rows of data.
So if columns are just a way to surface information in the database, how do you
remove the data from the database altogether? Select the cells in a column that
contain the data you want to delete and then press Delete. Got a lot of rows? Click
the first cell in the column, scroll to the last row in the table, press and hold Shift,
click the last cell in the column, and then press Delete. Poof, your data is gone.
This might be a good time to point out that Project supports multiple undo
levels. That is, you can undo things you did several actions ago by clicking Undo
or pressing Ctrl+Z multiple times. You can set how many undo levels you want
to support on a project. On the File tab, click Options. Click Advanced. Under
General, type the number of undo levels you want to support in the Undo
levels box and then click OK.
Adding a Column to a View

In any view with data displayed in a table, such as the Gantt Chart view, simply
scroll to the right side of the table portion of the view and you’ll see the Add New
Column header, as shown in Figure 9.3.
Figure 9.3 Click Add New Column to add a column to the current view.
To add a new column, click that header and then click the name of the column you
want to add. After the column is added, you can click and drag it to relocate it with-
in the view. Click the new column header to select the column and then use the
four-direction arrow cursor to drag and drop the column within the view.
Alternatively, you can add a column exactly where you want it to appear. Right-
click the column header for the column that you want to appear to the right of the
column you’re adding and then click Insert Column. Click the name of the column
to add it to the view.
Not sure what field you want to add? A field reference guide is available on
Office.com and provides descriptions of each default field included in Project
2010. To use this guide, visit http://office.microsoft.com/project-help/
HA010370279.aspx.
Hiding a Column in a View

If you want to remove a column from a view without removing the data, click the
column header to select the column and then press Delete. Alternatively, you can
right-click the column header and then click Hide Column, as shown in
Figure 9.4.
Figure 9.4 Right-click a column header and then click Hide Column.
With either of these options, the data that was entered in that column is not
removed from your project. I really can’t emphasize this enough. If you want to
remove the data, select the cells containing the data and then press Delete. You’ll
see the data in the cells is no longer there after you press Delete. If you don’t actu-
ally see the data gone from the cells in the column, there’s a good chance it’s still
sitting back there in the database. Consider this fair warning!
S av i n g a S e t o f Co l u m n s a s a Ta b l e 143
Saving a Set of Columns as a Table

The set of columns within a view is called a table. For views that contain tables, you
can choose from a list of tables to determine what data is displayed. On the View
tab, in the Data group, click Table to see the list of available tables for that view. If
the existing tables don’t meet your needs, you can create a new table that will be
available for use in all task views or all resource views.
There are two ways to create a new table. If you have customized a table in a view
by adding or removing columns and you want to save that table as is, on the View
tab, in the Data group, click Tables and then click Save Fields as a New Table.
Type a name for the new table and then click OK.
SHOW ME Media 9.4—Create a New Table

LET ME TRY IT
To create a new table from scratch, follow these steps:

1. On the View tab, in the Data group, click Tables and then click More
Tables.
2. Click Task or Resource, depending on what data you’re including in the
new table, as shown in Figure 9.5.
Figure 9.5 Choose whether to include Task or Resource data.

3. Click New and then type a name for your new table in the Name box.
4. Select the Show in menu check box, to the right of the Name box (as
shown in Figure 9.6), if you plan on using the new table frequently. If you
select this check box, the new table is included in the list that appears
when you click Tables on the ribbon.
Figure 9.6 The Show in menu check box appears to the right of the Name box.
5. Under Table, choose which fields you want to include in the table as
columns by filling out the Field Name, Align Data, Width, Title, Align
Title, Header Wrapping, and Text Wrapping columns.
You can use the Cut Row, Copy Row, Paste Row, Insert Row, and Delete Row
buttons to edit the list of fields.
6. If you’ve included any date fields in the new table, click the Date format
list and choose how you want dates to appear in the table.
7. Type a number in the Row height box to adjust row spacing.
8. Select or clear the Lock first column check box to determine whether you
want the first column in the table to be frozen during scrolling.
9. Select or clear the Auto-adjust header row heights check box to let
Project automatically increase or decrease the height of the header row,
based on header text length.
C re a t i n g a n d E d i t i n g Vi e ws 145
10. Select or clear the Show ’Add New Column’ interface check box to deter-
mine whether you want to include the ability to add new columns to the
table using the far-right column, labeled Add New Column.
11. Click OK to create the new table.
If you selected the Show in menu check box to display the table, on the View tab,
in the Data group, click Tables and then click the name of the new table.
If you did not select the Show in menu check box to display the table, on the View
tab, in the Data group, click Tables and then click More Tables. Click Task or
Resource, depending on which type of table you created. Click the name of the
new table and then click Apply.
Creating and Editing Views

If the default views in Project 2010 don’t meet your needs, you can make changes
to an existing view or create your own by choosing different display elements, such
as a table, a group, or a screen. You can create or edit a single view (in which one
view is displayed in the Project window) or a combination view (in which two views
are displayed in the Project window at one time).
SHOW ME Media 9.5—Create a New View

LET ME TRY IT
Follow these steps to create or edit a single view:

1. On the View tab, in the Task Views or Resource Views group, click Other
Views and then click More Views.
2. If you are editing an existing view, click the name of the view in the list
(as shown in Figure 9.7) and then click Edit. If you are creating a new view,
click New.
3. If you are creating a new view, on the Define New View dialog box, click
Single view and then click OK. If you are editing an existing view, skip
this step.
Figure 9.7 Click New, or select a view and click Edit.
4. On the View Definition dialog box, edit the following fields:

• Name—Type a name for the view.
• Screen—Choose what type of view you are creating. If you are editing an
existing view, this option cannot be changed.
• Table—Choose what table you want to display in the view, if the view
type you selected includes a table.
• Group—Choose how you want to group data in the view, if the view
type you selected includes grouping. If you don’t want to group data,
click No Group in the list.
• Filter—Choose how you want to filter data in the view, if the view type
you selected includes filtering. If you don’t want to filter data, click All
Tasks or All Resources in the list.
• Highlight filter—Select this check box to highlight the filtered data,
instead of hiding data that doesn’t meet the filter criteria.
• Show in menu—Select this check box to include the view in the corre-
sponding menu on the View tab. For example, if the view type (Screen)
is Gantt Chart, the view will appear in the list when you click Gantt
Chart on the View tab.
Customizations made to individual views are specific to those views. This

includes bar and box styles, as well as usage view data fields. For example, if you
customize the way Gantt bars appear in one view, when you create a new view
or go to another view that contains Gantt bars, the customizations will not per-
sist. You’ll need to customize the Gantt bars in that view, as well, if you want
them to appear the same.
C re a t i n g a n d E d i t i n g Vi e ws 147
5. Click OK to save the view.
LET ME TRY IT
A combination view is a view in which two views are displayed in the Project win-
dow at one time. For example, the Task Entry view, shown in Figure 9.8, is a combi-
nation view. It displays the Gantt Chart view on the top portion of the screen, and
the Task Form view on the bottom portion.
Figure 9.8 The Task Entry view is a combination view.
To create or edit a combination view, follow these steps:

1. On the View tab, in the Task Views or Resource Views group, click Other
Views and then click More Views.
2. If you are editing an existing view, click the name of the view in the list
and then click Edit. If you are creating a new view, click New.
3. If you are creating a new view, on the Define New View dialog box, click
Combination view and then click OK. If you are editing an existing view,
skip this step.
4. On the View Definition dialog box, shown in Figure 9.9, edit the following
fields:
• Name—Type a name for the view.
• Primary View—Choose the view you want to display in the top portion
of the Project window.
• Details Pane—Choose the view you want to display in the bottom por-
tion of the Project window.
• Show in menu—Select this check box to include the view in the corre-
sponding menu on the View tab. For example, if the view type for the
primary (top) view is Gantt Chart, the view will appear in the list when
you click Gantt Chart on the View tab.
Figure 9.9 Define the views to include in the combination view.
5. Click OK to save the view.
Another way to save a custom view is to first set up the Project window using the
views and tables you want. With your views set up, on the View tab, in the Task
Views or Resource Views group, click Other Group and then click Save View.
Type a name for the new view and then click OK.
10
This chapter explains the various options
available to control aspects of your project.
Understanding Project Options
The Project Options dialog box provides several choices for controlling how Project
2010 behaves, as well as how your individual project behaves.
To begin setting the options for your project, click the File tab and then click
Options, as shown in Figure 10.1.
Figure 10.1 Click File and then click Options.
The sections in this chapter go through each of the option groupings listed on the
left side of the Project Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 10.2.
150 Chapter 10 | U n d e r s t a n d i n g Pro j e c t O p t i o n s
Figure 10.2 Options are grouped into tabs on the Project Options dialog box.
General Project Options

The General tab of the Project Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 10.3,
includes three sections: User Interface options, Project view, and Personalize your
copy of Microsoft Office.
User Interface Options

Options listed under User Interface options on the General tab (shown in
Figure 10.4) include Color scheme and ScreenTip style, as described in the
following sections.
Color Scheme
Choose from Blue, Silver, or Black. This changes the overall color used to display
the Project 2010 window.
ScreenTip Style
ScreenTips are the text that appears when you hover your mouse cursor over vari-
ous buttons and options within the Project 2010 interface. The ScreenTip style
option enables you to choose how you want ScreenTips to behave in Project 2010.
G e n e r a l Pro j e c t O p t i o n s 151
Figure 10.3 The General tab of the Project Options dialog box
Figure 10.4 User Interface options section on the General tab
Choose Show feature descriptions in ScreenTips to include text that explains the
button or option that you are hovering over, as shown in Figure 10.5.
Choose Don’t show feature descriptions in ScreenTips to only show the button
or option name when hovering over a feature, as shown in Figure 10.6.
Choose Don’t show ScreenTips to turn ScreenTips off entirely. With this option
selected, hovering over a button or option will not pop up any text.
Project View
Options listed under Project view on the General tab (shown in Figure 10.7) include
Default view and Date format, as described in the following sections.
Figure 10.5 ScreenTip with feature description
Figure 10.6 ScreenTip without feature description
Figure 10.7 Project view section on the General tab
Default View
The default view is the view that is displayed when you first open a project in Pro-
ject 2010. If you want the default view to be something other than the Gantt Chart
view with the Timeline displayed, select that view from the Default view list. The
entire list of Project 2010 views, including any custom views you have created, is
included in this list.
D i s p l ay O p t i o n s 153
Date Format
Choose the format you want to use for dates in your project from the Date format
list.
Personalize Your Copy of Microsoft Office

Options listed under Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office on the General tab
(shown in Figure 10.8) include User name and Initials, as described in the following
sections.
Figure 10.8 Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office section on the General tab.
User Name
If your name, or the name you want to associate with Project files, is different from
the name displayed in this box by default, you can change it here. This name will
be populated in the properties for the project. You can, however, change or delete
it from the Project Properties dialog box if you would rather not include it with this
project file.
Initials
If your initials, or the initials that you want to use to indicate changes you have
made to the project, are different from the initials displayed in this box by default,
you can change them here.
Display Options
The Display tab of the Project Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 10.9, includes
four sections: Calendar, Currency options for this project, Show indicators and
options buttons for, and Show these elements.
Figure 10.9 The Display tab of the Project Options dialog box
Calendar
Under Calendar, choose the Calendar Type you want to use for your project. You
can choose from Gregorian Calendar, Hijri Calendar, or Thai Buddhist Calendar.
Figure 10.10 shows the Calendar section.
Figure 10.10 Calendar section on the Display tab
Currency Options for This Project

You can choose to apply the options listed under Currency options for this project,
on the Display tab (shown in Figure 10.11), to a specific project, as opposed to
broadly, for all projects you work with in Project 2010.
D i s p l ay O p t i o n s 155
Figure 10.11 Currency options for this project section on the Display tab
To choose which project to apply these options to, click the name of the project in
the list included in the section header, as shown in Figure 10.12.
Figure 10.12 Choose which project these options apply to.
Options listed under Currency options for this project include Symbol, Decimal dig-
its, Placement, and Currency, as described in the following sections.
Symbol
Type the symbol to use for currency values. For example, if your project primarily
deals in dollars, type the $ symbol in this box.
Decimal Digits
Type the number of digits to include after the decimal point in currency values. For
example, if you set this value to 2, a currency value might look like this: $12,345.67.
Placement
Choose where you want the symbol to appear, in relation to the currency number.
You can choose to include it to the immediate left or right of the number ($1 or
1$), or include a space between the symbol and the number ($ 1 or 1 $).
Currency
Choose the currency that the project primarily uses. If you have individual values to
add to your project that use a currency other than the default you set here, you will
need to convert that value before adding it to your project.
Show Indicators and Options Buttons For

Select or clear the check boxes under Show indicators and options buttons for
(shown in Figure 10.13) to control when you want a contextual menu to appear
when you’ve made changes to fields in your project. These check boxes include
Resource assignments; Edits to work, units, or duration; Edits to start and
finish dates; and Deletions in the Name columns.
Figure 10.13 Show indicators and options buttons for section on the Display tab
The best practice here is to select these check boxes because these messages can
be very helpful for any level of Project user.
Show These Elements

Under Show these elements (shown in Figure 10.14), select the Entry bar check
box to add a text entry field above the view where you’re entering data, similar to
entering data in an Excel spreadsheet.
Figure 10.14 Show these elements section on the Display tab
Figure 10.15 shows the entry bar in the Gantt Chart view.
Schedule Options
The Schedule tab of the Project Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 10.16,
includes six sections: Calendar options for this project, Schedule, Scheduling
options for this project, Schedule Alerts Options, Calculation, and Calculation
options for this project.
Schedule Options 157
Figure 10.15 The entry bar is displayed above the grid in a view.
Figure 10.16 The Schedule tab of the Project Options dialog box.
Calendar Options for This Project

You can choose to apply the options listed under Calendar options for this project,
on the Schedule tab (shown in Figure 10.17), to a specific project. To choose which
project to apply these options to, click the name of the project in the list included
in the section header.
Figure 10.17 Calendar options for this project section on the Schedule tab.
Options listed under Calendar options for this project are described in the follow-
ing sections.
Week Starts On
Choose the day that begins each week in the selected project. For example, some
organizations may consider Monday the first day of the week, whereas other
organizations may consider Sunday to be the first day of the week. Setting this
option controls how calendars are displayed in the selected project.
Fiscal Year Starts In

Choose the first month of the fiscal year for the selected project. The fiscal year is
the 12-month period used for accounting purposes, and may be the same as, or
different from, the calendar year.
Use Starting Year for FY Numbering

If you choose any month other than January from the Fiscal year starts in list, the
Use starting year for FY numbering check box becomes available. This is because
a fiscal year that begins midway through a calendar year will include some months
during the first calendar year and other months during the second calendar year.
For example, if my fiscal year starts in November 2011, November and December
will be in calendar year 2011, and the rest of my fiscal year (January through
October) will be in calendar year 2012.
If you want to use the first calendar year as the year included in fiscal year number-
ing, select the Use starting year for FY numbering check box. For example, if I
select this check box, the numbering for a fiscal year that starts in November 2011
will continue to be FY11, even through the months actually fall in the 2012
calendar year.
Default Start Time

Choose the start time for a typical work day in the selected project. If necessary,
you can adjust this start time for specific tasks or resources within the project.
Default End Time

Choose the finish time for a typical work day in the selected project. If necessary,
you can adjust this finish time for specific tasks or resources within the project.
Hours Per Day

Type the number of hours that resources in the selected project typically put in
during a work day. If necessary, you can adjust the number of work hours for spe-
cific tasks or resources within the project.
Hours Per Week

Type the number of hours that resources in the selected project typically put in
during a work week.
Days Per Month

Type the number of working days in a month for the selected project.
Schedule
Options listed under Schedule on the Schedule tab (shown in Figure 10.18) include
Show scheduling messages and Show assignment units as a, as described in the
following sections.
Figure 10.18 Schedule section on the Schedule tab
Show Scheduling Messages

Select this check box to display messages, while you work with your project, indi-
cating inconsistencies in your plan. For example, if you change your project so that
a successor task starts before a predecessor task has finished, a message will be dis-
played to alert you of that inconsistency.
Show Assignment Units as A

Choose whether you want to show assignment units as a percentage or a decimal.
Assignment units represent how much of a resource’s time is currently assigned to
a specific task or project.
Scheduling Options for This Project

You can choose to apply the options listed under Scheduling options for this p-
roject, on the Schedule tab (shown in Figure 10.19), to a specific project. To choose
which project to apply these options to, click the name of the project in the list
included in the section header.
Figure 10.19 Scheduling options for this project section on the Schedule tab
Options listed under Scheduling options for this project are described in the fol-
lowing sections.
New Tasks Created

Choose whether you want new tasks in your project to be Auto Scheduled, using
the Project scheduling engine, or Manually Scheduled, using only the dates you
enter. You can change this setting for each task individually. What you choose here
simply sets what the default is for each new task in your project.
Auto Scheduled Tasks Scheduled On

Choose whether you want to use the Project Start Date or the Current Date as
the default start date for new tasks in your project.
Duration Is Entered In
Choose the time units you want to use, by default, when identifying the length of
time you think tasks in your project will take (also known as “duration”). You can
choose Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, or Months. You can choose any of these
time units at any time when entering task durations. Here, you’re simply setting
what the default is for each new task in your project. Generally, duration is
expressed in days.
Work Is Entered In
Choose the time units you want to use, by default, when entering the work com-
pleted on tasks in your project. As with duration, you can choose Minutes, Hours,
Days, Weeks, or Months, and you are choosing the default unit for new tasks. Gen-
erally, work is expressed in hours, though sometimes days are more appropriate.
Default Task Type

Choose what task type you want to use, by default, for new tasks in your project.
You can manually change this on a per-task basis.
New Tasks Are Effort Driven

Select this check box to maintain work values for tasks in your project, by default,
as you add or remove assignments. You can manually change this on a per-task
basis.
Autolink Inserted or Moved Tasks

Select this check box to automatically link tasks when you insert, delete, or move
tasks between existing finish-to-start links. For example, say you have two tasks
that are linked, and you right-click the second task to insert another task between
them. The inserted task will maintain the link structure, so that it is linked to the
task above it as well as the task below it.
Split In-Progress Tasks

Select this check box to allow Project to reschedule remaining duration and work
on tasks, as necessary.
Update Manually Scheduled Tasks when Editing Links

Select this check box to include updates to manually scheduled tasks when making
changes to links between tasks.
Tasks Will Always Honor Their Constraint Dates

Select this check box to require that Project always maintain constraint dates for
tasks in your project.
For example, if a task has a constraint set so that it must start on a specific date,
and if the Tasks will always honor their constraint dates check box is selected, you
can choose to ignore the links, lag, and lead time between that task and other tasks
and maintain the constraint. The task will start on that date, no matter what.
If the Tasks will always honor their constraint dates check box is cleared, the rela-
tionship that a task has with other tasks will determine the schedule, even if a con-
straint is set. So, if a task has a constraint set so that it must start on a specific date,
but it’s also linked so that it starts after another task, and that other task doesn’t
finish until after the constraint date, the constraint date will be ignored.
Show That Scheduled Tasks Have Estimated Durations

Select this check box to display a question mark (?) after duration values that are
estimated, as opposed to manually entered in the project.
New Scheduled Tasks Have Estimated Durations

Select this check box to initially use estimated durations for tasks in your project.
Estimated durations are those that Project has determined, based on other sched-
uling factors in your plan.
Keep Task on Nearest Working Day when Changing to

Automatically Scheduled Mode
Select this check box to align tasks with working days in your calendar when
switching those tasks from being manually scheduled to being automatically
scheduled. Manually scheduled tasks may be scheduled over nonworking days.
When you switch those tasks to automatic scheduling, if this check box is selected,
the tasks will be moved to the nearest possible working day.
Schedule Alerts Options

You can choose to apply the options listed under Schedule Alerts Options, on the
Schedule tab (shown in Figure 10.20), to a specific project. To choose which project
to apply these options to, click the name of the project in the list included in the
section header.
Figure 10.20 Schedule Alerts Options section on the Schedule tab
Under Schedule Alerts Options, select the Show task schedule warnings and/or
Show task schedule suggestions check boxes to display a warning message
and/or suggested options when Project identifies a possible scheduling conflict
with a manually scheduled task.
Calculation
Under Calculation, on the Schedule tab (shown in Figure 10.21), choose whether
you want Project to recalculate your schedule after every edit.
Figure 10.21 Calculation section on the Schedule tab
If you choose Off, you will need to manually recalculate your schedule. On the
Project tab, in the Schedule group, click Calculate Project. Choosing to turn cal-
culation off is rare, and should only be performed by advanced Project users.
Calculation Options for This Project

You can choose to apply the options listed under Calculation options for this proj-
ect, on the Schedule tab (shown in Figure 10.22), to a specific project. To choose
Options listed under Calculation options for this project are described in the fol-
lowing sections.
Figure 10.22 Calculation options for this project section on the Schedule tab
Updating Task Status Updates Resource Status

Select this check box to automatically update resource assignment status data,
such as remaining work, whenever you update task status data, such as percent
complete. With this check box selected, updates to assignment status data will also
automatically update task status data.
Inserted Projects Are Calculated Like Summary Tasks

Select this check box to use the same rollup rules for inserted projects as are used
for summary tasks.
Actual Costs Are Always Calculated by Project

Select this check box to require that actual cost calculation be done only by Pro-
ject, not manually. If you select this check box, additional actual costs can only be
added manually after the task is 100% complete. The best practice here is to leave
this check box selected. Clearing it is for advanced users only.
Edits to Total Actual Cost Will Be Spread to the Status Date

Select this check box to evenly distribute actual costs across the project’s schedule,
to the status date. This check box is only available if the Actual costs are always cal-
culated by Project check box is cleared.
Default Fixed Cost Accrual

Choose whether you want fixed costs to be incurred at the start of a task, at the
end of a task, or prorated across the entire duration of a task.
Pro o f i n g O p t i o n s 165
Proofing Options
The Proofing tab of the Project Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 10.23,
includes three sections: AutoCorrect options, When correcting spelling in Microsoft
Office programs, and When correcting spelling in Project.
Figure 10.23 The Proofing tab of the Project Options dialog box
AutoCorrect Options
Click AutoCorrect Options, in the AutoCorrect Options section of the Proofing
tab (shown in Figure 10.24), to change how Project 2010 corrects and formats the
text you enter as you plan your project.
Figure 10.24 AutoCorrect Options section on the Proofing tab

When Correcting Spelling in Microsoft Office

Programs
Set the options in the When correcting spelling in Microsoft Office programs
section, on the Proofing tab (shown in Figure 10.25), to determine how all
Microsoft Office applications (including Project) handle unique spelling issues.
Figure 10.25 When correcting spelling in Microsoft Office Programs section on the
Proofing tab
When Correcting Spelling in Project

Choose which Project fields to include in spell check by selecting or clearing the
check boxes listed under When correcting spelling in Project, on the Proofing
tab (shown in Figure 10.26).
Figure 10.26 When correcting spelling in Project section on the Proofing tab
S ave O p t i o n s 167
Save Options
The Save tab of the Project Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 10.27, includes
three sections: Save projects, Save templates, and Cache.
Figure 10.27 The Save tab of the Project Options dialog box
Save Projects
Options listed under Save projects on the Save tab (shown in Figure 10.28) include
Save files in this format, Default File location, and Auto save every, as described in
the following sections.
Figure 10.28 Save projects section on the Save tab

Save Files in This Format

Choose the default file format for saving project files. You can choose from Project
(*.mpp), Microsoft Project 2007 (*.mpp), Microsoft Project 2000 – 2003
(*.mpp), and Project Template (*.mpt). You can choose to save in any of these for-
mats at any point. Here, you are simply choosing which format to use, by default.
Default File Location

Enter the path to the default location where you typically save your project files.
You can type the path directly in the box, or you can click Browse to navigate to
the location. You can choose to save to any appropriate location at any point. Here,
you are simply choosing where to save files, by default.
Auto Save Every

Select this check box if you want Project 2010 to automatically save your project
periodically. You can set the save interval in minutes and then choose whether you
want to save just the project you’re currently working in or all open projects, and
you can choose whether you want to be prompted before Project saves the corre-
sponding file(s).
Save Templates
Under Save templates, on the Save tab (shown in Figure 10.29), enter the path
where you want to save Project templates (.mpt files), by default. You can type the
path to the location, or click Browse to navigate to the location. You can choose to
save a Project template to another location at any point. Here, you are simply
choosing the default location for template files.
Figure 10.29 Save templates section on the Save tab
Cache
Under Cache, on the Save tab (shown in Figure 10.30), set the size and location for
the cache used by Project Professional 2010 when connected to Project Server. This
is the portion of your hard drive that is used to save server files locally, making for
faster project editing and saving when connected to Project Server.
Ad v a n ce d O p t i o n s 169
Figure 10.30 Cache section on the Save tab
Language Options
The Language tab of the Project Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 10.31, is
used to set the editing languages, and display and Help languages, for all Microsoft
Office applications, including Project.
Figure 10.31 The Language tab of the Project Options dialog box
Advanced Options
The Advanced tab of the Project Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 10.32,
includes 10 sections: General, Project Web App, Planning Wizard, General options
for this project, Edit, Display, Display options for this project, Cross project linking
options for this project, Earned Value options for this project, and Calculation
options for this project.
Figure 10.32 The Advanced tab of the Project Options dialog box
General
Options listed under General on the Advanced tab (shown in Figure 10.33) are
described in the following sections.
Figure 10.33 General section on the Advanced tab
Set AutoFilterOn for New Projects

Select this check box to turn on the ability to filter using column headers, by
default. Figure 10.34 shows a column header with AutoFilter turned on.
Figure 10.34 AutoFilter enables you to look for specific data in a column.
Prompt for Project Info for New Projects

Select this check box to immediately open the Project Information dialog box
when creating a new project. Figure 10.35 shows the Project Information
dialog box.
Show Add-In User Interface Errors

Select this check box to display error messages when an add-in fails to work prop-
erly, in a way that relates to the Project 2010 user interface.
Open Last File on Startup

With this check box selected, when you open Project 2010, the same file that was
open when you closed Project will reopen. This can be helpful if you work primarily
in one project file at a time.
Undo Levels
Type the number of times you want to be able to click Undo. Consider perform-
ance when choosing this number.
Figure 10.35 The Project Information dialog box
Project Web App

If your organization uses Project Professional 2010 with Project Server, select the
Allow team members to reassign tasks check box, under Project Web App on
the Advanced tab (shown in Figure 10.36), to determine whether resources on a
project can reassign their tasks to other resources, using Project Web App.
Figure 10.36 Project Web App section on the Advanced tab
Planning Wizard
Select the check boxes under Planning Wizard on the Advanced tab (shown in
Figure 10.37) to choose what tips you want to display to help you plan your proj-
ect. You can choose to display tips about using Project, scheduling, and errors. If
you don’t want to display any tips, clear the Advice from Planning Wizard
check box.
General Options for This Project

You can choose to apply the options listed under General options for this
project, on the Advanced tab (shown in Figure 10.38), to a specific project.
To choose which project to apply these options to, click the name of the project in
the list included in the section header.
Figure 10.37 Planning Wizard section on the Advanced tab
Figure 10.38 General options for this project section on the Advanced tab
Options listed under General options for this project are described in the following
sections.
Automatically Add New Resources and Tasks

Select this check box to automatically add resources and tasks to the project and
resource sheet as you assign work. If this check box is cleared, you will be alerted
each time a new resource or task is added to your project through an assignment.
Default Standard Rate

Type a value to use as a standard pay rate for all new resources, by default. This is
helpful if many resources use a common pay rate. You can adjust pay rates for indi-
vidual resources.
Default Overtime Rate

Type a value to use as a default overtime pay rate for new resources. You can adjust
overtime rates for individual resources.
Edit
Options listed under Edit on the Advanced tab (shown in Figure 10.39) are
Figure 10.39 Edit section on the Advanced tab
Allow Cell Drag and Drop

Select this check box to be able to drag data from one cell or row and drop it in
another.
Move Selection After Enter

With this check box selected, pressing Enter after typing in a cell moves the cursor
to the next row.
Ask to Update Automatic Links

With this check box selected, when you open a project that contains a link to
another project, and that other project has been modified, a prompt will ask if you
want to update your project with those changes.
Edit Directly in Cell

Select this check box to be able to type directly in cells. If this check box is cleared,
be sure to select the Entry bar check box on the Display tab.
Display
Options listed under Display on the Advanced tab (shown in Figure 10.40) are
Show This Number of Recent Documents

Under Display, type the number of documents you want listed when you click the
File tab, and then click Recent. Figure 10.41 shows the list of recent documents.
Figure 10.40 Display section on the Advanced tab
Figure 10.41 Recent documents on the File tab
Show Status Bar

Select this check box to display messages about what Project 2010 is doing, or
what actions you might need to take, at the bottom of the Project window. Figure
10.42 shows the status bar.
Figure 10.42 Status bar

Show Windows in Taskbar

Select this check box to show each Project window as a separate button on the
Windows taskbar.
Use Internal IDs to Match Different-Language or Renamed

Organizer Items Between Projects
Select this check box to match Organizer elements using internal IDs, instead of
words. This is helpful if you are working in multiple languages. The Organizer dia-
log box, shown in Figure 10.43, is used to synchronize different Project elements
between multiple files, or between Project Server and local Project files.
Figure 10.43 The Organizer dialog box
To access the Organizer dialog box, click the File tab, click Info, and then click
Organizer.
Automatically Add New Views, Tables, Filters, and Groups

to the Global
Select this check box to automatically add these items to the global project tem-
plate, making them available in all projects, instead of just the current project.
Show Scroll Bars

Select this check box to display scroll bars at the far right and bottom of the Project
window.
Show OLE Links Indicators

Select this check box to display an indicator for items that are OLE linked within
your project. This means that the data in your project is copied from, and linked to,
data in another project. Figure 10.44 shows an OLE link indicator.
Figure 10.44 The gray triangle in the bottom right is an OLE indicator.
Show Bars and Shapes in Gantt Views in 3-D

Select this check box to use 3-D effects on Gantt chart items. If this check box is
cleared, flat shapes will be used. Figure 10.45 shows how 3-D Gantt bars compare
to flat Gantt bars.
Figure 10.45 The top set of bars uses 3-D shapes. The bottom set uses flat shapes.
Display Options for This Project

You can choose to apply the options listed under Display options for this project,
on the Advanced tab (shown in Figure 10.46), to a specific project. To choose which
project to apply these options to, click the name of the project in the list included
in the section header.
Figure 10.46 Display options for this project section on the Advanced tab
Options listed under Display options for this project are described in the following
sections.
Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months, and Years

Set the abbreviations you want to use for Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months,
and Years.
Add Space Before Label

Select this check box to insert a space between the number value and the time
abbreviation—for example, 1 wk, as opposed to 1wk.
Show Project Summary Task

Select this check box to display a row at the top of your project that summarizes all
project data in each column currently displayed. Figure 10.47 shows a project with
the project summary task displayed.
Figure 10.47 The top row displays the project summary task.
Underline Hyperlinks
Select this check box to use underlining to visually indicate hyperlinks. Select
Hyperlink color and Followed hyperlink color if you want to use something
other than the default blue and purple.
Cross Project Linking Options for This Project

You can choose to apply the options listed under Cross project linking options for
this project, on the Advanced tab (shown in Figure 10.48), to a specific project. To
choose which project to apply these options to, click the name of the project in the
list included in the section header.
Figure 10.48 Cross project linking options for this project section on the Advanced tab
Options listed under Cross project linking options for this project are described in
the following sections.
Show External Successors

Select this check box to show tasks from other, linked projects that are successors
to tasks in your project.
Show External Predecessors

Select this check box to show tasks from other, linked projects that are predeces-
sors to tasks in your project.
Show ‘Links Between Projects’ Dialog Box on Open

Select this check box to immediately display the Links Between Projects dialog box
when you open a project that contains links to other projects.
Automatically Accept New External Data

Select this check box to automatically add changes to dependencies between tasks
in separate projects. This check box is only available when the Show ‘Links Between
Projects’ dialog box on open check box is cleared.
Earned Value Options for This Project

You can choose to apply the options listed under Earned Value options for this
project, on the Advanced tab (shown in Figure 10.49), to a specific project. To
choose which project to apply these options to, click the name of the project in the
list included in the section header.
Figure 10.49 Earned Value options for this project section on the Advanced tab
Options listed under Earned Value options for this project are described in the fol-
lowing sections.
Default Task Earned Value Method

Choose whether you want to use % Complete or Physical % Complete for earned
value calculations.
Baseline for Earned Value Calculation

Choose which baseline you want to use for analyzing earned value in your project.
Calculation Options for This Project

You can choose to apply the options listed under Calculation options for this proj-
ect, on the Advanced tab (shown in Figure 10.50), to a specific project. To choose
Options listed under Calculation options for this project are described in the fol-
lowing sections.
Move End of Completed Parts After Status Date Back to

Status Date
Select this check box to move actual completed work that was finished prior to the
status date, so that the completed portion finishes on the status date. The remain-
der will continue to be scheduled as planned.
Figure 10.50 Calculation options for this project section on the Advanced tab
And Move Start of Remaining Parts Back to Status Date

Select this check box to move the remainder of a task that started early up to start
at the status date. This check box is only available if the Move end of completed
parts after status date back to status check box is selected.
Move Start of Remaining Parts Before Status Date Forward

to Status Date
Select this check box to move remaining work on a task that started late, so that it
starts on the status date.
And Move End of Completed Parts Forward to Status Date

Select this check box to move completed work on a task that started late, so that
the completed portion finishes on the status date. This check box is only available if
the Move start of remaining parts before status date forward to status date check
box is selected.
Edits to Total Task % Complete Will Be Spread to the

Status Date
Select this check box to evenly distribute changes to total % complete across the
schedule to the status date.
Calculate Multiple Critical Paths

Select this check box to calculate the critical path for each set of linked tasks in
your project.
Tasks Are Critical if Slack Is Less Than or Equal To

Type a number of days of slack. Tasks with this many, or fewer, days of slack will be
identified as critical.
Customize Ribbon Options

The Customize Ribbon tab of the Project Options dialog box, as shown in Figure
10.51, enables you to change the buttons and other options that appear on each of
the tabs of the ribbon in Project 2010. You can also create new tabs, new groups,
and other options.
Figure 10.51 The Customize Ribbon tab of the Project Options dialog box
SHOW ME Media 10.1—Customizing the Ribbon

LET ME TRY IT
Customize the Ribbon

There are several different ways you can customize the ribbon. The following pro-
cedures walk you through adding a command to an existing ribbon tab, creating a
new tab, and creating a new group on a tab.
Cu s to m i ze R i b b o n O p t i o n s 183
To add a command to an existing tab, follow these steps:

2. On the Project Options dialog box, click the Customize Ribbon tab.
3. On the Customize Ribbon tab, choose All Tabs from the Customize the
Ribbon list and then expand the name of the tab in the box on the right.
Groups on the tab are listed below the tab name.
4. Click the group where you want to add the new command to select it.
5. Under Choose commands from, click All Commands.
If you know what type of command you want to add to the selected group,
choose a command type from the Choose commands from list. This will narrow
the list of commands, making it easier for you to find what you’re looking for.
6. Click the name of the command you want to add to the selected group,
and then click Add to move it to that group.
7. To reorder the commands within a group, select the command you want to
move and then use the up and down arrow buttons to the right of the
Customize the Ribbon box to move the selected command up or down in
the list.
To create and rename a new tab, follow these steps:

Ribbon list.
4. Click the name of the existing tab that you want to appear just before the
new tab. For example, if you want to create a new tab between the Task
and Resource tabs, click the Task tab. The new tab will be created after
the Task tab.
5. Click New Tab. A new tab and new group are created.
6. Click New Tab (Custom) and then click Rename.
7. Type a name for the new tab in the Display name box and then click OK.
8. Repeat Steps 6 and 7 to rename the new group on the new tab.
To create and rename a new group, follow these steps:

Ribbon list and then expand the name of the tab where you want to cre-
ate the new group in the box on the right. Groups on the tab are listed
below the tab name.
4. Click the name of the existing group that you want to appear just before
the new group. For example, if you want to create a new group between
the Insert and Properties groups, click the Insert group. The new group
will be created after the Insert tab.
5. Click New Group.
6. Click New Group (Custom) and then click Rename.
7. Type a name for the new group in the Display name box and then click OK.
Quick Access Toolbar Options

The Quick Access Toolbar tab of the Project Options dialog box, as shown in
Figure 10.52, enables you to choose which options you want to include on the
Quick Access toolbar.
The Quick Access toolbar appears at the very top of the Project window, next to
the Save, Undo, and Redo buttons. Figure 10.53 shows the Quick Access toolbar.
If you select the Show Quick Access Toolbar below the Ribbon check box on
the Quick Access Toolbar tab, the Quick Access toolbar appears, as shown in
Figure 10.54.
SHOW ME Media 10.2—Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar

Q u i c k Acce s s To o l b a r O p t i o n s 185
Figure 10.52 The Quick Access Toolbar tab of the Project Options dialog box
Figure 10.53 The Quick Access toolbar appears at the top of the Project window.
Figure 10.54 The Quick Access toolbar can also be displayed below the ribbon.
LET ME TRY IT
Customize the Quick Access Toolbar

To add a command to the Quick Access toolbar, follow these steps:
2. On the Project Options dialog box, click the Quick Access Toolbar tab.
3. On the Quick Access Toolbar tab, choose All Commands from the
Choose commands from list.
If you know what type of command you want to add to the Quick Access tool-
bar, choose a command type from the Choose commands from list. This will
narrow the list of commands, making it easier for you to find what you’re
looking for.
4. Click the name of the command you want to add to the Quick Access tool-
bar and then click Add to move it to the box on the right.
5. To reorder the commands on the Quick Access toolbar, select the command
you want to move from the box on the right, and then use the up and down
arrow buttons to the right of the box to move the selected command up or
down in the list. This will move the command left or right on the Quick
Access toolbar.
Add-Ins Options
The Add-Ins tab of the Project Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 10.55,
enables you to manage and view the add-ins used throughout all Microsoft Office
applications.
To make changes to your add-ins, at the bottom of the Add-Ins tab, choose the
add-in type from the Manage list and then click Go. You can also see a list of dis-
abled add-ins. Click Disabled Items from the Manage list and then click Go.
Tr u s t Ce n te r O p t i o n s 187
Figure 10.55 The Add-Ins tab of the Project Options dialog box
Trust Center Options

The Trust Center tab of the Project Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 10.56,
provides information about privacy, security, and the Microsoft Project Trust Center.
Although you are able to modify Trust Center settings on this tab, the best practice
is to leave them alone and use the default settings.
Figure 10.56 The Trust Center tab of the Project Options dialog box
11
This chapter covers how you can use
Project 2010 to resolve common problems
with your project.
Dealing with Problems
While managing projects, you will, no doubt, run into any number of problems.
This book has provided you with many of the processes for dealing with basic
problems, such as splitting tasks and reassigning work to other resources. This
chapter covers a few of the more common problem scenarios that we haven’t yet
dealt with in this book, and how you can use Project 2010 to resolve the issues.
TELL ME MORE Media 11.1—Avoiding Future Problems by Using

Project 2010 Now
Access this audio file through your registered Web Edition at
Problem: One of My Resources Is Overallocated

Overallocation occurs when a resource in your project is assigned to work that
exceeds their available time (the value entered in the resource’s Max Units field).
For example, a resource has a Max Units value of 100% for a project. That resource
is assigned 75% to one task and 50% to another task at the same time. Because the
assignment total is 125%, and the resource’s availability is 100%, the resource is
overallocated by 25%.
Project 2010 provides a visual indicator when a resource assigned to a task is over-
allocated. In the Gantt Chart view, look for a red icon in the Indicators column, as
So what do you do if you find that you have overallocated resources in your proj-
ect? Resource leveling is the process of looking at how resources are allocated in
your project and moving the assignments around so that tasks are done according
to constraints (as soon as possible, for example), but without forcing resources to
work beyond 100% of their availability.
190 Chapter 11 | D e a l i n g w i t h Pro b l e m s
Figure 11.1 Look for the highlighted red icons in the Indicators column to identify
overallocated resources.
Project 2010 enables you to control how leveling occurs in your project. First, make
sure that manual leveling is selected for the project. On the Resource tab, in the
Level group, click Leveling Options. On the Resource Leveling dialog box, under
Leveling Calculations, ensure that Manual is selected, as shown in Figure 11.2.
Figure 11.2 Under Leveling Calculations, click Manual.
SHOW ME Media 11.2—Manually Leveling Resources

Pro b l e m : O n e o f M y R e s o u rce s I s O ve r a l l o c a te d 191
LET ME TRY IT
You have a few different ways to manually level resources in your project.
To level all resources across all tasks in your project, on the Resource tab, in the
Level group, click Level All, as shown in Figure 11.3.
Figure 11.3 Click Level All to level all resources in your project.
To level all resources assigned to specific tasks in your project, follow these steps:
1. Press Ctrl and click the row header for each task you want to level. This
selects the tasks.
2. On the Resource tab, in the Level group, click Level Selection, as shown in
Figure 11.4.
Figure 11.4 Select the appropriate tasks and then click Level Selection.
To level specific resource across all tasks in your project, follow these steps:
1. On the Resource tab, in the Level group, click Level Resource, as shown
in Figure 11.5.
Figure 11.5 Select the appropriate tasks and then click Level Selection.
2. On the Level Resource dialog box, shown in Figure 11.6, click the name of
the resource you want to level, and then click Level Now.
Figure 11.6 Click the name of a resource, and then click Level Now.
If, at any point, you no longer want resources leveled on your project, on the
Resource tab, in the Level group, click Clear Leveling, as shown in Figure 11.7.
Figure 11.7 Click Clear Leveling to remove leveling from your project.
If you have several overallocations that you want to deal with one at a time in a
project with many tasks, you can go through the overallocations one at a time by
clicking Next Overallocation (on the Resource tab, in the Level group), as shown
in Figure 11.8.
Pro b l e m : M y S c h e d u l e G o e s Lo n g e r Th a n M y D e a d l i n e 193
Figure 11.8 Click Next Overallocation to move to the next issue.
Problem: My Schedule Goes Longer Than My

Deadline
It’s not uncommon. Resources provided updates to tasks in your project, you just
finished adding those updates to your project, and you find that those updates
have pushed out the schedule because the work is being completed slower than
scheduled. The last task is now scheduled to finish in November, and you have a
deadline of the end of October. Or maybe you included a milestone in your project
to represent the deadline, and you see that tasks are going beyond that milestone
(as shown in Figure 11.9). Any number of expletives may be running through your
head, and you’re not sure what you should do to pull things back on track.
Figure 11.9 An example of a deadline (indicated by a diamond on the Gantt chart)

with tasks in the critical path extending beyond it in the Detail Gantt view
First things first: You need to figure out what factors are tying your schedule down.
You can use the Task Inspector (on the Task tab, in the Tasks group, click Inspect)
to help identify which of these factors may be contributing to the lengthy
schedule:
• Constraints—If tasks in your project have constraints applied, review those
constraints and make sure you really need them in place. Does that task really
need to start no earlier than that date? Can you make that date a little earlier?
Look closely at what you can do to the constraints to save some time in your
overall project schedule. For more information on constraints, see Chapter 4,
“Working with Tasks.”
The constraints that could cause problems in this case would be Must Start On,
Must Finish On, Start No Earlier Than, and Finish No Earlier Than. These con-
straints can often cause tasks to be stuck in time and not be able to pull back if
one of their predecessors moves back in time.
• Dependencies—Look closely at the dependencies you have set up between

tasks in your project. Does one task really need to wait for the next task to
finish completely, or can it start when the previous task is 50% done? Do
those two tasks really need to finish at the same time, or can one finish a bit
earlier so that its successor can get started earlier? Make sure that dependen-
cies accurately reflect what needs to happen in your project. See Chapter 4
for more information on overlapping tasks in your project.
• Durations—Are the durations of your tasks accurate, or have you added
some padding to the durations to give your resources wiggle room? If you
padded your durations, now’s the time to take that padding out and be real-
istic about what you need to get done to finish this project on time. This is a
very common issue, especially when adding updates from resources to a
project. The updates you enter may increase durations, or the actions you
take during leveling may push out a finish date. For more information on
adjusting task durations, see Chapter 4.
• Calendars—This is a tricky one. Remember that you have project, task, and
resource calendars to account for. Look at each of these calendars and see
how it’s affecting the remaining tasks in your project. Is a resource that’s
assigned to one of the remaining tasks taking a week of vacation in the mid-
dle of the task? Can you assign someone else to do the work so that the task
can be done sooner? Or can you move the task earlier in the project, before
the resource goes on vacation? Evaluate nonworking time in each calendar
used by the remaining tasks and see what you can move around to bring in
the schedule. For more information on calendars, see the section titled, “Set-
ting Up Your Project’s Calendars,” in Chapter 3, “Starting a Project.”
If adjusting constraints, overlapping tasks, shortening durations, and moving tasks

around based on calendar availability doesn’t bring your schedule in enough to
meet your deadline, you might consider assigning additional resources to your
Pro b l e m : M y Co s t s A re E xce e d i n g M y B u d g e t 195
tasks. With more people working on tasks, or more machinery available to do the
work, your team may be able to get tasks done more quickly, enabling you to meet
your deadline. In thinking about this option, however, it’s critical to balance the
importance of meeting the deadline with the costs incurred by adding resources to
your project. It may make more sense to push the deadline out to a later date. You
still incur resource costs because of the additional hours that the existing resources
put in past the original deadline, but those costs may be less than the costs
incurred by adding more staff or equipment to get the work done on time.
Problem: My Costs Are Exceeding My Budget

You’ve set a budget for your project, and you’ve been checking spending against
budget regularly, using the processes you learned in Chapter 6, “Accounting for
Project Costs.” While reviewing costs, you realize that you have now crossed from
spending on target to overspending. First, you’ll want to figure out where these
overages are coming from.
LET ME TRY IT
To identify the source of cost overages in the Resource Usage view, follow these
steps:
2. On the View tab, in the Data group, click Budget Assignment in the
Group by list.
3. On the View tab, in the Data group, click Outline and then click Outline
Level 1. Each of the groupings collapses so that you can easily look at the
numbers for each of the budget assignments.
4. Compare the Budget Cost column with the Actual Cost column, and the
Budget Work column with the Actual Work column. If the actual values
are higher than the budget values, that budget assignment contains
overages.
If these columns aren’t displayed in the Resource Usage view, add them by
clicking Add New Column on the right side of the table portion of the view. For
more information, see the section titled, “Adding Values to Budget Resources,” in
Chapter 6.
5. Click the plus sign next to the name of the budget assignment that con-
tains the overage. This expands the budget assignment, enabling you to
review each resource that has that budget assignment.
6. Look through the actual data for each resource, expanding resource names to
see task-specific data. Look across the right pane in the view to see time-
phased actual cost and work data.
If the time-phased portion of the view doesn’t currently display budget and
actual cost and work data, on the Format tab, in the Details group, click Add
Details. Use the Usage Details tab of the Detail Styles dialog box to add these
fields to the view.
Also, several visual and basic reports can help you narrow down cost issues, listed
in Table 11.1.
Table 11.1 Cost Reports in Project 2010
Excel Reports l Visio Reports Basic Reports

Cash Flow Cash Flow Cash Flow
Earned Value Over Time Budget
Resource Cost Summary Overbudget Tasks
Baseline Cost
Budget Cost
For more information on generating reports, see the “Reporting on Your Project”
section of Chapter 8, “Sharing Your Project with Others.”
After you’ve identified where the cost issues are occurring, the next step is decid-
ing what you want to do to get your costs back to budget. Baselining may be a
good idea here, so that you capture what your data looks like before making modi-
fications. For more information on baselining, see “Baselining Your Project” in
Chapter 7, “Capturing Project Progress.”
You can take a few approaches to cut back on costs.
Pro b l e m : M y Co s t s A re E xce e d i n g M y B u d g e t 197
Assigning Work to Fewer People

If you’ve got any extra resources working on your project, perhaps they can be bet-
ter used on another project. By removing excess resource assignments from your
project, you reduce the costs that those resource assignments incur.
Be careful to only remove extra resources, as overloading the remaining

resources can lead to exorbitant and unnecessary overtime pay.
For more information on working with resource assignments, see “Assigning

Resources to Tasks” in Chapter 5, “Working with Resources.”
Cutting Back on What Needs to Get Done

Are there remaining tasks that aren’t 100% necessary for completion of your proj-
ect? By removing tasks, you also remove resource assignments, thereby reducing
the associated costs.
For more information on working with tasks, see Chapter 4.
Trimming Budget Amounts

Are you sure that your budget amounts are accurate? If you’ve padded your budg-
et a bit for flexibility, now’s the time to cinch up the belt and be realistic. Some-
times, all that’s needed is a more realistic set of budget data, and your project will
be back on track.
For more information on adjusting budget data, see “Adding Values to Budget
Resources” in Chapter 6.
index
working day, changing to code structure for WBS,
A nonworking day, 54-55 setting, 78-81
adding working time, changing columns
columns to views, for specific time adding to views, 12,
12, 141-142 period, 57 141-142
dependencies between baselining hiding, 142
tasks, 74-76 fields, 107-108 saving as a table, 143-145
overtime work to projects, projects, 106-108 combination views, creating,
103-105 basic reports, 121 147-148
resources to projects, crosstab reports, comparing actual budget
84-86 generating, 129-131 costs with work values,
enterprise resources, generating, 126-131 100-101
85-86 monthly calendar reports,
local resources, 84-85 generating, 128-129 constraints, setting for tasks,
tasks to projects, 66-70 templates, 126 68-69
values to budget copying
budgets, 95
resources, 98 picture of project data,
actual costs, comparing
Add-Ins options, Project with work values, 133-134
Options dialog box, 186 100-101 timeline, 132
adjusting resource calendars, creating, 95-100 cost resources, 83
86-87 overages, troubleshooting, costs, 94-95
Advanced options, Project 195-197 actual budget costs,
Options dialog box, 169-181 resources comparing with work
assigning, 95-98 values, 100-101
assessing impact of updates, values, adding, 98 overages, troubleshooting,
119-120
195-197
assigning
resources C creating
base calendar, 57-59
to budgets, 95-98
Calendar view, 17-19 budgets, 95-100
to tasks, 87-89
calendars projects, 45-46
work to another
base calendar tables, 143-145
resource, 92
creating, 57-59 views, 145-147
assignments, 7 visual reports, templates,
default working time,
automatic scheduling, 61 changing, 56-57 125-126
modifying, 53-54 WBS, 76-78
B working day, changing

to nonworking day,
critical path, displaying,
119-120
Bar Rollup view, 16-17 54-55 crosstab reports, generating,
resource calendars, 129-131
base calendar
adjusting, 86-87
creating, 57-59 Customize Ribbon options,
setting for tasks, 70
default working time, Project Options dialog box,
changing, 56-57 Change Working Time dialog 182-184
modifying, 53-54 box, 54
m u l t i p l e v i e ws, d i s p l ay i n g 199
customizing displaying actual work per day,

basic reports, 126-131 critical path, 119-120 remaining work, and
fields, 137-139 multiple views, 43-44 expected finish date,
Quick Access Toolbar resource fields, 114 116-119
options, 184-186 generating
tables, 11-12
visual reports, 123-126 E basic reports, 126-131
visual reports, 123-126
editing grouping data in a view,
D combination views, 36-38
147-148
default working time, resource assignments,
changing, 56-57 89-92 H-I
dependencies, 72-74 views, 145-147
highlighting
adding between tasks, enterprise resources, adding columns in views, 142
74-76 to projects, 85-86 data in a view, 41-43
Descriptive Network Diagram Excel, exporting project data indenting tasks, 71-72
view, 19-20 to, 132-133
inserting tasks between
Detail Gantt view, 20-21 exporting project data to existing tasks, 66-70
dialog boxes Excel, 132-133
interactive guide, 14
Change Working Time
dialog box, 54
Project Options dialog
F J-K-L
box FF (Finish-to-Finish)
Add-Ins options, 186 Language options, Project
dependencies, 72
Advanced options, Options dialog box, 169
fields, customizing, 137-139
169-181 Leveling Gantt view, 20-22
Customize Ribbon files, checking into Project
local resources, adding to
options, 182-184 Server, 136
projects, 84-85
Display options, filtering data in a view, 40-41
153-157 fine-tuning resource work
Language options, 169 schedule, 91-92 M
Project View options,
151-153 fixed costs, 94 manually scheduled tasks,
Proofing options, fixed duration tasks, 66 9, 60-61
165-166 fixed unit tasks, 66 material resources, 82
Quick Access Toolbar
fixed work tasks, 66 Milestone Date Rollup
options, 184-186
Format tab, 14 view, 23
Save options, 167-169
Schedule options, FS (Finish-to-Start) Milestone Rollup view, 23
156-164 dependencies, 72 minimizing the ribbon, 8
Trust Center options, modifying base calendar,
187
User Interface options, G 53-54
150-151 monthly calendar reports,
Task Information dialog Gantt with Timeline view, generating, 128-129
box, assigning resources 20-22 Multiple Baselines Gantt
to tasks, 87-89 gathering status updates view, 24-25
Display options, Project from resources multiple views, displaying,
Options dialog box, actual start, percent work 43-44
153-157 complete and remaining
work, 109-116
200 I n d ex | N e t wo r k D i a gra m v i e w
Project Server
N-O checking files into, 136
Q-R
Network Diagram view, 24-25 saving projects to, 48 Quick Access Toolbar
new features in Project 2010, Project Standard 2010, 5 options, 184-186
7-13 Project View options, Project rate-based costs, 94
options for projects, Options dialog box, recording
setting, 50 151-153 overtime work, 103-105
outdenting tasks, 71-72 Project Web App, 5 resource status, 113-114
overallocated resources, projects, 7 Relationship Diagram
troubleshooting, 189-193 baselining, 106-108 view, 26
budgets, creating, 95-100 reports
overtime work calendars, setting up,
planning for, 102-103 basic reports
59-60 generating, 126-131
recording, 103-105 copying picture of, templates, 126
133-134 visual reports
P critical path, displaying,
119-120
generating, 123-126
dependencies, 72-74 Resource Allocation view,
pairing resources with
exporting data to Excel, 26-27
budgets, 98-100
132-133 Resource Form view, 26
PDF files, saving projects
options, setting, 50 Resource Graph view, 26-28
as, 134
overtime work, adding,
per-use costs, 94 Resource Name Form view,
103-105
28
planning for overtime work, properties, setting, 49-50
102-103 resources Resource Sheet view, 29
project management adding, 84-86 Resource Usage view, 29-30
triangle, 5 status updates, resources, 7, 82-83
gathering, 109-116 adding to projects, 84-86
Project Options dialog box saving, 47-48
Add-Ins options, 186 adding values to, 98
saving as PDF or XPS assigning to budgets,
Advanced options, file, 134
169-181 95-98
SharePoint collaboration, assigning to tasks, 87-89
Customize Ribbon 12-13
options, 182-184 assignments, editing,
sharing, 131-136 89-92
Display options, 153-157 start/finish date,
Language options, 169 calendars, adjusting,
selecting, 51 86-87
Project View options, starting, 45-46
151-153 enterprise resources,
tasks, adding, 66-70 adding to projects,
Proofing options, 165-166 troubleshooting
Quick Access Toolbar 85-86
costs exceeding budget, fields, displaying, 114
options, 184-186 195-197
Save options, 167-169 local resources, adding to
schedule extending past projects, 84-85
Schedule options, deadline, 193-195
156-164 overallocation,
WBS code structure, troubleshooting,
Trust Center options, 187 setting, 78-81
User Interface options, 189-193
150-151 Proofing options, Project pairing with budgets,
Options dialog box, 98-100
Project Professional 2010, 5 165-166 status information,
properties of projects, recording, 113-114
setting, 49-50
v i e ws 201
status updates, gathering SS (Start-to-Start) Team Planner view, 9-10, 34

actual start, percent dependencies, 72 work resources,
work complete and start/finish date, selecting for assigning, 89
remaining work, projects, 51 templates
109-116 for basic reports, 126
actual work per day, starting projects, 45-46
for visual reports, 123
remaining work, and status updates, gathering
expected finish date, from resources timeline, 10-11, 15-16
116-119 actual start, percent work copying, 132
work schedule, complete and remaining Format tab, 15
fine-tuning, 91-92 work, 109-116 sharing with others, 16
ribbon, 7-8, 14-15 actual work per day, Timeline view, 34-35
remaining work, and Tracking Gantt view, 34-35
expected finish date,
S 116-119
troubleshooting projects
cost overages, 195-197
Save options, Project Options overallocated resources,
dialog box, 167-169 T 189-193
schedule extending past
saving tables deadline, 193-195
columns as a table, customizing, 11-12
143-145 Trust Center options, Project
saving columns as, Options dialog box, 187
projects, 47-48 143-145
as PDF or XPS file, 134
Task Details Form view, 29
Schedule options, Project
Task Entry view, 29-31
U-V
Options dialog box,
156-164 Task Form view, 31-32 updates, assessing impact
Task Information dialog box, of, 119-120
scheduling
automatic method, 61 assigning resources to User Interface options
manual method, 60-61 tasks, 87-89 Project Options dialog
method, selecting, 62-64 Task Name Form view, 31-32 box, 150-151
scheduling engine, 61-62 Task Sheet view, 31-33 user interface, ribbon, 14-15
selecting Task Usage view, 31-33 versions of Project 2010, 5
project start/finish tasks, 7 views
date, 51 adding to projects, 66-70 Bar Rollup view, 16-17
scheduling method, 62-64 calendars, setting, 70 Calendar view, 17-19
setting project properties, constraints, setting, 68-69 columns
49-50 dependencies, adding adding, 12, 141-142
between, 74-76 hiding, 142
SF (Start-to-Finish)
fixed duration, 66 combination views,
dependencies, 72
fixed units, 66 creating, 147-148
SharePoint collaboration, creating, 145-147
fixed work, 66
12-13 data
indenting/outdenting,
sharing 71-72 filtering, 40-41
project information, manually scheduled, 9 grouping, 36-38
131-134 resources highlighting, 41-43
projects, 135-136 assigning, 87-89 sorting, 38-40
timeline, 16 work schedule, fine Descriptive Network
sorting data in a view, 38-40 tuning, 91-92 Diagram view, 19-20
splitting, 90-91 Detail Gantt view, 20-21
splitting tasks, 90-91 Format tab, 14
202 I n d ex | v i e ws
Gantt Chart view, 20-21

Gantt with Timeline view,
W
20-22 WBS (work breakdown
Leveling Gantt view, structure)
20-22 code structure, setting,
Milestone Date Rollup 78-81
view, 23 creating, 76-78
Milestone Rollup view, 23
multiple, displaying, 43-44 work resources, 82
Multiple Baselines Gantt working day, changing to
view, 24-25 nonworking day, 54-55
Network Diagram view, working time, changing for
24-25 specific time period, 57
Relationship Diagram
view, 26
Resource Allocation X-Y-Z
view, 26-27
Resource Form view, 26 XPS files, saving projects
Resource Graph view, as, 134
26-28
Resource Name Form
view, 28
Resource Sheet view, 29
Resource Usage view,
29-30
Task Details Form view, 29
Task Entry view, 29-31
Task Form view, 31-32
Task Name Form view,
31-32
Task Sheet view, 31-33
Task Usage view, 31-33
Team Planner view, 9-10
work resources,
assigning, 89
timeline, 10-11
Timeline view, 34-35
Tracking Gantt view,
34-35
visual reports, 121
generating, 123-126
templates, 123
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About Your USING Book

About the USING Web Edition

How Do You Get Access to the Free Web Edition?

800 East 96th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46240 USA

For sales outside of the United States, please contact

4 Working with Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

6 Accounting for Project Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

8 Sharing Your Project with Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Media Table of Contents

Chapter 6: Accounting for Project Costs

Using This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

What Version of Project 2010 Do You Need? ................................6

Adjusting Resource Calendars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Assigning Resources to Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Understanding Types of Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Baselining Your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Gathering Status Updates from Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

8 Sharing Your Project with Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

9 Customizing Project 2010 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Creating Custom Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Saving a Set of Columns as a Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Creating and Editing Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

10 Understanding Project Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Customize Ribbon Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Trust Center Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Problem: My Schedule Goes Longer Than My Deadline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

About the Authors

We Want to Hear from You!

How This Book Is Organized

• Some high-level project management theory, as it applies to Project 2010

Using This Book

• Cross-references—Many topics are connected to other topics in various

LET ME TRY IT tasks are presented in a step-by-step sequence so you can

SHOW ME video walks through tasks you’ve just got to see—including

About the Using Web Edition

Introduction to Managing Projects

What Microsoft Project 2010 Can Do for You

Figure 1.1 Project management triangle

SHOW ME Media 1.1—What Is Project 2010?

What Version of Project 2010 Do You Need?

An end-to-end enterprise project management solution can be beneficial for

TELL ME MORE Media 1.2—What Version of Project Is Right for Me?

SHOW ME Media 1.3—Project Terminology

What’s New in Project 2010?

Updated User Interface

SHOW ME Media 1.4—Introducing the Ribbon

Using the Ribbon

Manually Scheduled Tasks

SHOW ME Media 1.5—A Look at Manually Scheduled Tasks

Team Planner View

This task is not assigned to anyone at the moment.

SHOW ME Media 1.6—An Overview of the Team Planner View

Figure 1.4 The timeline can be displayed above another view.

SHOW ME Media 1.7—Advantages of the Timeline

New Table Customization

SHOW ME 1.8—Adding a New Column

Adding a New Column to a View

Navigating Project 2010

Using the Ribbon

Using the Timeline