Color indicators for Finish date in Microsoft Project for the Web

Posted on May 25, 2020 by

Hi,

Today I will show you color indicators for Finish date in Microsoft Project for the Web!

First I will create simple Project with five Tasks:

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Current date is 05/10/2020, as you can see in Timeline View:

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In a Grid View I will add two columns: Start and Finish, and I will get:

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All Tasks have the same Start date, and it is Project Start date which is 05/04/2020.

  • Task 1 has 1 day Duration, and Finish date is 05/04/2020. Since today is 05/10/2020, this task is late, and Finish date is marked red
  • Task 2 has 5 days Duration, and Finish date is 05/08/2020. Since today is 05/10/2020, this task is late, and Finish date is marked red
  • Task 3 has 6 days Duration, and Finish date is 05/11/2020. Since today is 05/10/2020, and finish date is soon, this task is not late, but it should be completed soon, so it is marked yellow
  • Task 4 has 7 days Duration, and Finish date is 05/12/2020. Since today is 05/10/2020, and finish date is soon, this task is not late, but it should be completed soon, so it is marked yellow
  • Task 5 has 8 days Duration, and Finish date is 05/13/2020. Since today is 05/10/2020, and finish date is not so soon, this task is not late, and it is not marked in any color, so it means it’s status is good.

If current date is, for example 05/04/2020, then Task 1 will be marked yellow, but it’s finish date will not be shown as 05/04/2020, but it will be Today.

To conclude:

  • If finish date is not marked (e.g. it’s background is white) – the Task is in good shape
  • If finish date is marked yellow (e.g. it’s background is yellow) – the Task is still in good shape, but you should take care of it, because it can soon be in trouble, e.g. late Tasks
  • If finish date is marked red (e.g. it’s background is red) – the Task is not in good shape, and it means only two things: either you did not put % completed, or Effort completed (e.g. progress), or the Task is late.

Regards

Posted in Microsoft Project for the Web, Project for the Web | Tagged | Leave a comment

Driving Tasks in Microsoft Project for the Web

Posted on May 19, 2020 by

Hi,

Today, I will show you how can you see driving Tasks in Microsoft Project for the Web.

First I will crate new Project:

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As you can see, Task 3 has two Predecessors: Task 1, and Task 2. If I look at the Task3 Details, I will see:

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On the Task’s detail page I can see all Predecessor Tasks, and also I can find information of which Task, or Tasks are “drivers”. In my example, Task 2 is Driving Task, because it determines the “schedule”, or in other words, it determines Start Date of it Successor (Task 3).

If I change Duration of the Task 1 to 5 days, for example, I will get:

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As you can see now, Task 1 has become the Driving Task, because it determines Start Date of Task 3!

Finally, if I change both, Task 1 and Task 2 duration to, for example 4 days, I will get:

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As you can see, now both Tasks (1 and 2) are Drivers for The Task 3, as you can see on the picture above.

Simple, and useful!

Regards!

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Task constraints in Microsoft Project for the Web

Posted on May 11, 2020 by

Hi,

as you already know, in Microsoft Project online or desktop version there are lot Task constraints (for example: Start No Earlier Than, Finish No Earlier Than, Must Start On, Must Finish On, etc.) In Microsoft Project for the Web you can find only two Task Constraints: Start No Earlier Than (SNET), and Finish No Earlier Than (FNET), and both of them are Semi Flexible Constraint type.

Let me show you those constraints. First (as always) I will create simple Project with three Tasks:

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Let’s see how does it look at the Timeline View:

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Now, I will put 5/14/2020 as Task 2 Start Date:

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If I hoover my mouse over Strat Date I will see:

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the little “star” in the right corner shows that it is constraint for the Start date. Now if I click on that date I will see:

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here I can see “warning message” about constraint, and I can click on the button “Remove Constraint”, and it will be removed, so the Start Date will be set As Soon As Possible (know as flexible constraint). I will not do it for now.

Now I will set Finish date for Task 3 as 5/26/2020, and I will get:

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As you can see Start date has been changed so duration remains 4 days!

Now I will change Duration for Task 1 to 1 day, and I will get:

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As you can see Task 2 has the same Start Date, because it cannot be started before 5/14/2020.

I will change Duration for Task 2 to 1 day as well, and I will get:

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As you can see Task 3 has the same finish Date, because it cannot be finished before 5/26/2020.

Finally I will change Duration for Task 1 to 10 days, and I will get:

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Now, Start date for the Task 2, and finish Date for the Task 3 are changed, because those date are later than previous ones. And since they have No earlier constraint, it means that both of them can start and finish later.

Regards!

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How to get Project for the Web information in Microsoft Dynamics 365

Posted on May 4, 2020 by

Hi,

today I will show you how can you get information about your Projects for the Web in Microsoft Dynamics 365.

I will create two Projects:

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As you can see, Project is going to Start at 5/4/2020 and to Finish at 5/8/2020. Total effort is 32 hours. I will say that Task A is 100% completed:

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Now I will create Second Project:

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As you can see, Project is going to Start at 5/4/2020 and to Finish at 5/9/2020. Total effort is 56 hours. I will say that Tasks D and E are 100% completed:

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OK! Now I will switch to Dynamics 365:

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and:

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I can find a lot of information for my projects like: Start and finish date, Effort Total, and Effort completed, and % completed of the whole Project. If I click on particular Project like, for example, First Project I will get:

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If I choose Summary Tab, I will have all information about the whole Project (start date, End Date, Effort and Completed effort), and I also can choose Tasks Tab, and I will get:

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and here is the same View like when I’m using Project for the Web!

This is very powerful, and I encourage you to use it whenever possible, because here you will find a lot of useful overall information about you Projects!

Regards!

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How to setup nonworking days for Resource in Project for the Web?

Posted on April 27, 2020 by

Hit,

Today I will show you how to setup nonworking days in Project For the Web.

Firs of all, I will assume that my Particular Resource has setup working time. I will open Dynamics 365:

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and then:

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I will choose Jim, and I will check his Work Hours:

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and I will get:

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Now, suppose that Jim will not work at May 1st since it will celebrate the Labor Day. To make this exception I will mark this date as Time off:

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and:

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and, finally I will get:

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Now, I will create new Project:

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Task has 5 days Duration, and it will start at the first day of My Project (e.g. Apr 27), and it will be finished at Friday, May 1st.

Now I will assign Jim to this Task, and I will get:

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As you can see Finish date is now Monday, May 4th, because Jim will not work at May 1st, nor is he working at weekend.

And that’s it!

Regards!

Posted in Microsoft Project for the Web, Project for the Web | Tagged | Leave a comment

“Guest” resources in Project for the Web

Posted on April 20, 2020 by

Hi,

today I will show you how to use “guest” resources in Project for the web.

First of all, who are guests?. In my Project I can assign resources which are part of my AAD (Azure Active Directory), e.g. users which may have access for Project for the web, and also edit Tasks, schedule or anything else in My Project. And, as you know, when I assign first user to the Task, I can choose between Groups which I want to use.

So, let’s create new Project with two Tasks:

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Now I will assign Ellen to Task 1:

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and when I hit Enter, I will get:

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so, after I confirm that I want to create a new Group, I will have:

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Now, let’s assume that on John Wayne will be working on Task 2, but he is not in my AAD, he is not supposed to work with Project for he web, and the only thing he would do will be – working on Task 2. To get that I should go to Dynamics 365:

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and then:

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and now I will add John Wayne:

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then I will select Contact as User Type:

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and now I’m ready to add it like this:

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and:

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as you can see, there is a lot of information which I can put, but for this post, all I need is First and last name. After I finish I have to save it once again:

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Now. I will go back to my Project, and I will add John Wayne to my Task 2:

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and, finally, I will have:

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as Simple as that.

To conclude, I will use Contacts as resources for all human resources which are needed to work on some Tasks, but are not regular users, e.g. in AAD!

Regards.

Posted in Microsoft Project for the Web, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged | Leave a comment

How to customize Working Time for particular Resource in Microsoft Project for the Web?

Posted on April 13, 2020 by

Hi,

today I sill show you hot to customize Calendar and working time for Particular Resource in Microsoft Project for the Web.

First of all, create your own Calendar Template, according to your Time Zone! Let’s say that my Calendar template should be from 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM, and Time Zone will be GMT+1 (Zagreb time, my hometown). To do that I should follow next steps:

Step 1: Go to Dynamics 365

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Step 2: Choose – Project

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Step 3: Choose – Resources

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Step 4: Add New Generic Resource and choose appropriate Time Zone

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Step 5: 6  Choose Show Work Hours:

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Step 6: Go to (for example) 01/01/2020 and click on this date:

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Step 7: Choose Entire recurring weekly schedule from Start to end:

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Step 8: Choose Actions-Delete Calendar

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Step 9: Confirm Deletion

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Step 10: Go to Set UP and Choose New Weekly Schedule

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Step 11: Uncheck Saturday and Sunday, and click on the Set Work Hours:

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Step 12: Choose from 09 AM to 05 PM:

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Step 13: I will Save and Close Work Schedule Screen:

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Step 14: Choose – Setting

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Step 15: Choose Calendar Templates

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Step 16: Add new Calendar Template, and for the Template Resource choose the Resource created in Step 4:

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Now, suppose that I want for one of my resources to have working time from 09:00 AM to 13:00 PM. To set this up I should follow next steps:

Step 1: I will choose one of my Resources, and I will check if he/she has appropriate Time Zone and I will choose Show Work Hours:

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Step 2: Go to (for example) 01/01/2020 and click on this date:

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Step 3: Choose Entire recurring weekly schedule from Start to end:

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Step 4: Choose Actions-Delete Calendar

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Step 5: Confirm Deletion

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Step 6: Go to Set UP and Choose New Weekly Schedule

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Step 7: Uncheck Saturday and Sunday (Jim is not going to work during Weekends), and click on the Set Work Hours:

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Step 8: Since I want Tim to work from 09 AM to 01 PM I will put those to Start and End:

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Step 9: I will Save and Close Work Schedule Screen:

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Now, since everything is Set UP I will create new Project with new Calendar Template:

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Now I will add Task 1, Task 2, Task 3, and Task 4:

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You can see that all Task are going to start at 4/13/2020. All of them are going to finish at the same date, except Task 2, since it has 2 days duration. Now I will assign Tim to all Tasks:

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Since 1 day is 8 hours (from 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM, according to Calendar template), and Tim will work from 9:00 AM to 01:00 PM, eg. 4 hours per day, then:

  • Task 1 has 1 day Duration e.g. 8 hours. Tim will work two days, 4 hours per day, so Finish date is 4/14/2020
  • Task 2 has 2 day Duration e.g. 16 hours. Tim will work four days, 4 hours per day, so Finish date is 4/15/2020
  • Task 3 has 4 hours Duration. Tim will work one day, 4 hours per day, so Finish date is 4/13/2020
  • Task 4 has 5 hours Duration. Tim will work two days, 4 hours first day, and remaining one hour second day, so Finish date is 4/14/2020

Hope this helps.

Regards

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Microsoft Project for the Web, Project for the Web, Project for Web | Tagged | Leave a comment

How to set working hours per day (Calendar Template) in Microsoft Project for the Web?

Posted on April 6, 2020 by

Hi,

I will show you default setup for Working hours per day in Microsoft Project for the Web. Here is my Project:

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OK, let me Create one Task with 8 days Duration:

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As you can see, Task will start at Monday, 4/5/2020, and Finish at Monday 4/12/2020, e.g. it will be performed during the weekend, as well:

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OK. Now I will create three Tasks: Task 7 hours, Task 8 Hours, and Task 9 hours with durations as show in the Picture below:

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As you can see, 1 day is 8 hours. In Task 9 hours Finish date is 4/6/2020, and Start date is 4/5/2020, and in Task 8 hours Finish date is 4/5/2020, and Start date is 4/5/2020.

How is it so, and what if I want that my 1 day is 9 hours, but only from Monday to Friday?

Default Value is that Task is starting from 09:00 AM and finishing at 05:00 PM. To see that I should use Dynamics 365:

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and:

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and finally:

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Now I will show you default working time. To do that I should go to settings:

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and then to Calendar Templates:

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Finally, I will get:

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Project for the Web is using this Template if I do not have any other. It is default. Now I will going to create new Template with working hours from 09:00 AM to 06:00 PM, during working days. To accomplish that, first I have to create a resource with those working hours. I will call this Resource: Generic Resource (weekdays, from 09:00 AM to 06:00 PM).

First I will go to the Resource page in Dynamics 365:

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and:

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Now I will create new Resource:

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Now I have my Resource and I should setup working time like this.

Step 1:

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Step 2:

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Step 3:

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Step 4:

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Step 5:

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Since those working hours are valid only till 3/28/2020, I will repeat those steps and I will follow those steps:

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and:

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and finally:

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OK, now we should go back to the Settings:

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and:

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and then:

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I will call my Template: Weekdays Calendar from 09:00 AM to 06:00 PM:

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OK. I am done here!

Now I will create brand new Project for the Web:

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OK, let me Create one Task with 8 days Duration and Task 7 hours, Task 8 hours,  Task 9 hours, and Task 10 hours:

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You can see, that Task with 8 days duration is going to be finished at 4/15/2020 e.g. at Wednesday (so Saturday and Sunday are non working hours). Also, you can see that duration of one day is 9 hours, not 8 anymore!

Complicated? Maybe. Powerful? Oh, yes!

Regards!

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Physical % Complete in MS PROJECT and “rollup”

Posted on March 30, 2020 by

Hi,

recently I had a conversation with one of my Blog readers about Physical % complete and rollup. I will give you example with new Project, using MS PROJECT ONLINE

First I will create brand new Project:

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As you can see, I added two more Columns: % Complete and Physical % Complete. I will create a simple schedule:

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OK, Now I will mark Task 1 and Task 5 as 100% Completed:

image As you can see Physical % Complete is zero.

Where is the difference between  % Complete and Physical % Complete. Let me explain this. Let’s say that I have a Task which is Building the wall which will be 4 meters long. And it has duration 4 days. And after 2 days of working, obviously %complete is 50%. But, maybe it is only 25% completed, e.g. 1 meter is built, for an reason. I will put 50% to %Completed, and 25% to Physical % Completed.

In my example I can put something like this:

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Task 1 is 100% completed and Physical % Complete is 100%. So, everything is perfect. Task 2 is 50% completed and Physical % Complete is 10%. It means that 50% of time is spent, but it is only 10% finished. This task is going to be late, you may think. But, this could be a wrong conclusion. Why? When I write my Blog post I take 1 day to think about a subject. And this is only 10% of all work. On the Second day I use MS PROJECT, I make a Case, and I try how something works, and I write a post. So, in the second day I finish the rest of 90% of my work. And I am not late. Got it?

If you look at the Task 5 and Task 6 you will see that I have a problem. Why? On Task 5 I spent all the time but I finished only 90% of work, so task is not finished and I have to extend the Duration. On the Task 6 I spent 50% of time and I did not finish anything.

Last but not least, you can see that for Summary Task, and for the whole Project you cannot see Physical % Completed. There is not rollup:

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My Blog reader asked me why is that so, and he concluded that he cannot tell the real Project status. But! Physical % Complete cannot be rolled up! It simply doesn’t make a sense. Because there in no algorithm for that. Look at this picture:

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I can’t tell what is Physical % complete for the whole Project. If I have only two Tasks and both has 50% Physical % Completed it does not mean that the whole project is 50% completed, or if on Task is 100% completed, and other only 50% that a whole project is 75% Completed. Physical work is not related directly to duration, so it cannot be calculated at Summary Task or Project Level. It is only Task related and it is right thing which tells you about spent time vs work done (not effort but physical work), and with this information you can see the real performance for your Task, not a Project

Regards.

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, MICROSOFT PROJECT 2019, Microsoft Project Online | Tagged | Leave a comment

Duration and effort with Project for the web

Posted on March 23, 2020 by

Hi,

today I will show you relationship between Duration and Effort  in Project for the Web.

I will first create simple Project:

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Now I will assign me, and Ellen to Task with Resources:

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and I will get:

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As you can see, effort is 80 hours! And this is because me and Ellen are going to work 5 days, 8 hours per day, e.g. 5 days * 8 hours per day each = 40 per person, in Total = 80 hours! Now I will change effort to 32 hours:

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and when I hit Enter, I will get:

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The Duration is 2 days, because 32 hours (effort) is divided between me and Ellen, so each will work 32 hours / 2 persons = 16 hours, and because we are going to work 8 hours per day, duration is 16 hours / 8 hours per day = 2 days!

So, to conclude this part, if you have a Task with Resources assigned if you change duration , effort will be calculated and vice versa.

Now, I’m going to put 32 hours in effort field for Task without Resources, an when I hit Enter key, I will get:

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As you can see, Duration is the same = 5 Days! I will now change the Duration to 100 Days, and I will get:

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As you can see, Effort remain the same (e.g. 32 hours).

To conclude, if the Task has assigned resources, Effort and Duration are connected according to formula: Effort = SUM(8 hours per day * Duration for all Resources). On the other hand, if Task has no resources assigned, Effort and Duration are not connected, and when you put some value into Duration, Effort will be unchanged  and vice versa.

Regards.

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Project for the Web | Tagged , | Leave a comment