SmartWorks Project Planner helps the project managers to plan, schedule, estimate, manage cost, manage risks, manage resources, analyze critical path, analyze Gantt and network diagrams and track the project health throughout the project lifetime. This software allows project participants to know the health of the project at a glance at any point of time.

This document eases out the use of Project Planner with step-by-step instruction on how to use the software.

1.1 Project Planner Editions

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SmartWorks Project Planner comes in following editions

v Project Planner Enterprise edition
Number of licenses: Unlimited users

v Project Planner Professional edition
Number of licenses: 50

v Project Planner Mini
Number of licenses: 20

v Project Planner Small-Office edition

Number of licenses: 10

v Project Planner Home-Office edition
Number of licenses: 5

v Project Planner Personal Edition
Number of licenses: 1

v Project Planner Lite Edition (It is a limited version of the Personal Edition )
Number of licenses: 1

1.2 Installation

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1.2.1 SmartWorks Architecture

The multi-user edition of SmartWorks has the server, the respective client and the dll files to be

installed.

The SmartWorks architecture would look like as shown in the figure below.

v The client and dll is present on every machine where the client is installed

v The server is installed on a remote machine which can be accessed across the network if the PCs are connected through a LAN

v The database is housed on the same machine as that on which the server runs

1.2.2 Installing the SmartWorks Multi-User Edition

As per the above architecture, the server needs to be installed on one machine,

preferably the server machine and the clients on other machines.

Begin the installation by double-clicking on the downloaded installation exe.

The installation wizard takes you through a series of wizards as follows,

Click on the 'Next' button to continue with the installation.

The next wizard shows the license agreement. Read and click on 'Yes' to accept the

agreement.

In the next wizard select the component that you want to install. Select the server

component, if you are installing the Smart Works server. Select the client option if

you are installing the client. You can select both and install both the server and the

client component on the same machine also.

Click on any of these options to get the description of them in the RHS window.

When installing the server, there is a choice to select the Service Server depending on

the OS on which the server would be installed ( differences between the normal

server and the service server are listed in section 1.2.5 )

If you are installing the service server, then it would be preferable to install and run

the service server by logging in as an user with administrator rights.

Note that the database will be housed on the machine where the server is installed and

is running. Uninstalling the server or reinstalling it will not affect the database.

The next wizard prompts the user to select a path for the installation. A default path is

initially displayed. Click on 'Browse' to select a destination folder of your choice.

Select a folder of your choice from the ‘Choose Folder’ dialog and click on 'OK'.

Click on 'Next' to continue the installation.

Once all the supporting files, registry keys and the exe are copied, click on 'Finish' to

complete the installation.

Note: All the machines on which the server and the clients are installed must be connected through a LAN.

1.2.3 Configuring the Server

To configure the server settings, the 'Server Manager' dialog needs to be invoked.

If you have installed the service server - Click on 'Start - Programs - SmartWorks ... - Server Manager' to get the 'Server Manager' dialog.

If you have installed the icon server - The server when running can be seen as a blue and white icon on the system tray at the bottom right corner of your PC. Click on the icon and select 'Options' to get the 'Server Manager' dialog.

The 'Server Manager' dialog looks like as shown below.

The different fields can be set as per your requirements. For explanation of each of the options available, refer the next section.

1.2.4 Server Manager options

i) Home Directory: This shows the location of the database. By default the database will be housed in the C:\ drive. This field is not editable

ii) Port number: This indicates the port number on which the SmartWorks server is running, 6900 by default. It can be configured to any number 6000 and 10000 provided these ports are not used by any other application.

iii) Mail Type: This option indicates the mail type. IF MAPI is selected, then the SmartWorks server uses the default mail client settings to send the mails. If SMTP is selected, then you further need to specify the Authentication details.

iv) Authentication for SMTP:
Enable SMTP authentication: Check this option if the outgoing mails need authentication.
Display Mail ID: Specify a physical mail id that has an @ in it. This ID will be used as the Sender's mail ID when the SmartWorks' automated mails are sent. This ID should be a valid mail ID.
Password: Enter the authentication password for the above entered mail id.
Clear: Use this option to clear off the contents of the mail id and password text box.

v) Send mail using: To,CC, BCC: SmartWorks server can send the copy of the same mail to more than one person, To, CC , BCC are the ways by which the addresses are taken. It is preferred to have the 'To' option selected

vi) Minimum free space to run the server: Specify here the minimum free disk space below which the SmartWorks server should send a warning to the SmartWorks administrator about running low on disk space.

vii) Minimum disk space to accept connections: Specify here the minimum free disk space below which the SmartWorks server should not accept connections from the clients.

viii) Send warning to admin when the disk space goes below minimum free disk space: Check this option if you need a warning to be sent to the admin when the free disk space goes below that mentioned in the "Minimum free space to run the server".

ix) Delete log files when the disk space goes below minimum free disk space: Check this option if you need to delete the SmartWorks created log files in order to make more space for the database.

x) Enable Security: This enables security.

xi) Enable Server Debug: On checking this option, you can view the service calls to the SmartWorks server along with return codes. This can be used for debugging.

xii) Enable mails: This option needs to be checked in order that the mail communication be enabled and the SmartWorks mails be sent. If you do not want any mails to be sent, then uncheck this option.

xiii) Log information: Check this option if you need the log files to be created for each project. The log file will be created in the database folder and will contain log of all operations performed by different users in a project.

xiv) View License: This option can be used to view the total number of licenses supported by the server and number of clients currently connected to the server along with their IP addresses.
This option does not hold good for Enterprise server that can accept unlimited number of connections.

xv) Clear License: Use this option to clear off all the connections made to the server. A new set of clients can now connect to the SmartWorks server.

NOTE: This is generally not preferred because the server machines will generally not have any mail client configured and the SmartWorks automated mails go from the configured user's mail account.

1.2.5 Differences between the Icon server and the Service server

ICON SERVER

SERVICE SERVER

The application has the name swserver.exe

The application has the name SWNTS.exe

To run the server, you need to double-click on the swserver.exe which shall be in the folder where the server is installed. You need to login to the machine as an administrator or as an user with administrator rights to start the server and make it accept connection from the clients. The server exits once the user logs off

To start/restart the server, you need to go to the list of services on your machine. To

see this list, type 'services.msc' at the Run. The user need not log in to start the service.

Logging in or logging out of any user does not affect the running service

The server can be run on any Windows OS

Needs Windows 2000, 2003, XP, NT as OS

The server when running can be seen as a blue and white icon on the system tray at the bottom right corner of the server PC

The server when running will show as 'Started' in the Status column in the list of services

To exit the server, right-click on the server icon and select 'Exit'

To exit the server, go to the services list. Select the service, right-click and select 'Stop'

1.2.6 Personal Edition

Personal Edition is for a stand-alone machine and for use by a single person. Here information is not shared among project participants. It differs in that it does not have the server component, but just the client installation. Hence the third page of the installation wizard will be skipped in this installation and there is no concept of configuring the server.

The Personal Edition database will be housed on the machine where the Project Planner client is installed. Uninstalling or reinstalling the client will not affect the database.

1.3 Different views of Project Planner

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Summary view

Summary view gives the summary and the current status of the project at a glance. This view gives the overall details of the project into which the user (different user types are described in Chapter 2 ) has logged in. It lists the effort distribution done for all the project participants, number of lagging hours for resources, occurred risks in the project, etc when a Project Manager is logged in. For a Team Member, it lists his/her tasks pending tasks. The view lists the new project requests for an ‘admin’ login.

Plan view

This is an important view of Project Planner. An easy to edit spreadsheet like interface is provided to type-in the project plan. This view allows a manager to type in the whole project plan or to import the plan from XLS, PPR, MPP or XML formats into Project Planner. Easy editing features, task filters, setting properties to tasks, drag and drop attachments, associating links and notes with a task etc. is possible in this view.

Resource view

List of project resources along with resource id, name, e-mail id, system name, cost, availability etc are present in this view. Useful features like sending e-mails to all or selected resources, replacing a user id with another for all or selected tasks etc. is possible from this view.

Gantt view

An improved Gantt view to view project graphically. Pictorial indication of critical path, milestone task, summary task, progress of tasks in terms of percentage completion, predecessor task, successor task is supported.

Project Planner also allows Manager to modify a plan in Gantt view

Plan Gantt view

A very useful view that shows both the Plan view and the Gantt view side by side. The user can use any of the views that is intuitive to him/her for planning and simultaneously see the changes reflected in the other view

Resource Usage Graph view

Graphical representation of allocation of each resource can be viewed here in the form of the graph bars. The allocation of a resource for tasks can be seen in hourly, daily, weekly, monthly resolutions. In the case that any resource is over allocated, it is graphically shown by red colored graph bar

Cost graph view

Graphical representation of the project cost can be viewed here. It is possible to view the cost incurred in the project on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly basis.

Calendar view

In this view, the project calendar marked with holidays and the tasks spread across the calendar can be viewed. The different type of tasks can be represented by different colors thus allowing easy interpretation.

Estimates view

In this view, it is possible to view a graphical representation of the planned schedule, estimated end date of the project depending on the current progress of the project, graphs for schedules on PERT calculations.

A report on the current state of the project is also given in this view.

Network Diagram view

Network diagramming is supported to graphically represent the tasks in the project and showing task dependencies. The critical tasks can be viewed here. Project becomes easy for the Managers to analyze with this view.

Project Graphs view

This view gives statistics of a project. Statistics like Total tasks in a project Vs Task Status, Total tasks Vs owner assigned, Total Tasks Vs Task completion time etc. can be collected easily by Managers and leaders using this graph

Project Reports view

Printable project reports of projects are present in Project Reports view. Task reports of critical tasks, summary tasks, milestone tasks etc. can be viewed

Risk Report view

This view contains the information about occurred risks in the project. This view also has graphical data that show various statistics on occurred risk. It is possible to mail the risk report to any members you wish by specifying their mail IDs.

PERT Analysis view

PERT ( Project Evaluation and Review Techniques ) calculation for a project gives an optimistic, pessimistic and realistic schedules for a project. Weights can be assigned to these durations and hence the average duration can be calculated.

EVM Report view

Earned Value Management is a technique for estimating how a project in doing in terms of budget and schedule. In this view, the variances and performances indices for each task can be seen.

EVM Graph view

This view is a graphic representation of the EVM report view.

Resource Calendars view

This view shows the Global and Project Calendars for the resources. Having calendars for each resource helps in avoiding over allocation of each resource as the exact work timings and leaves can be known from the calendars.

Resource Availability view

This view shows the availability of the logged in resource, for the project duration.

Resource Allocation view

This view shows for the logged in resource, the allocation across selected projects in a Calendar view.

Resource Distribution view

This view shows all the tasks for all the resources, work assigned, allocation and the cost details associated with them.

All these views are common to both the Personal Edition and the multi-user edition.

Chapter 2 - Users of Project Planner

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Project Planner supports different user types to have hierarchical structure and to share different responsibilities. Different user types supported are:

v SmartWorks 'admin': There will be a single SmartWorks administrator who alone has the ability to create and delete projects and add managers to the projects.

v Project Manager: A project can have any number of managers. A manager enjoys all privileges to create and update the project plan, create and delete resources, view all graphs and estimates.

v Project Leader: A leader is a user below the manager hierarchy. A leader can be given the same privileges as the manager, if the manager wishes to.

v Team member: A team member has limited privileges to view the plan, change the status of the relevant tasks assigned to him/her and attach files their tasks

v Reviewer: A reviewer enjoys similar privileges as the team members.

This user hierarchy is not present in the Personal Edition as this edition is meant for the single user. However, resources with any of the above statuses can be present in the plan. The user who uses the Personal Edition enjoys all privileges that are given to any user of the Planner.

Chapter 3 - Getting Started

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Project Planner can now be invoked from 'Start - Programs - SmartWorks ... '

You need to first configure to the SmartWorks server.

You will be prompted with the 'Configure Server' dialog or you can invoke this dialog from menu 'Options - Configure Server'.

SmartWorks Server: Here you need to enter the name or IP address of the machine where the SmartWorks server is running.

Port: Enter the port number to which the SmartWorks server is configured to run. By default, the port number is 6900

Alternately, you can just type in the port number only and click on the ‘Search’ button. The SmartWorks server combo box will list the machine names on which the server is running. Select the server and then click on OK.

You will then be prompted with the Login dialog or this dialog can be invoked from menu 'Options - Login'.

Initially when there are no projects created yet, you need to login as 'admin'. Admin is that user of SmartWorks who does the administrative jobs of creating/deleting projects adding managers to projects, setting company information, setting company calendar.

One person who can take care of these administrative responsibilities, can login as ‘admin’ and set his/her details to user ‘admin’.

Once logged in as admin, then administrator can set his/her mail id by using the menu 'Options - Change My Details'. The default ‘admin’ password too can be changed to avoid intruder access.

When logged in without entering a project name, the admin will be prompted to add a new project. Read more in section 3.1

In case of the Personal Edition, when invoked for the first time and there are no projects yet, the user is prompted to select a database path. This is the path where projects database gets created and the project files will be saved.
If no path is selected, then the default path ‘C:\’ is the location for the database.

3.1 Add Project

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Use the menu option ‘Projects- New Project’ to invoke the 'Add New Project' dialog.

Project ID

Enter project name here. The name should start with an alphabet only. Numerals can follow later. No special characters or spaces are allowed. This is a mandatory field and once added cannot be modified later.

Name - (Optional)

Full name of the project can be entered here. This field can have space and some special characters

Description - (Optional)

A brief description of the project can be entered here.

Reason - (Optional)

Reason for adding the project shall be entered here

Adding a project is similar in both the Personal Editions and the multi-user editions.

3.2 Set Company Information

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Company Preferences can be set by the administrator by using the menu option 'Options - Preferences - Company Information'.

Name - Enter the name of the company

Address - Enter the address of the company here

Company work timing- Here you can set the work timings in different time interval slabs. This is taken into account when scheduling resources to a task and assigning the resource working timings.

3.3 Set Company Calendar

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Administrator can set the Company Calendar by using the menu option 'Calendar – Company Calendar'. Double-click on any day to set the day as holiday and then choose the type of holiday. More details are available in the Calendar View.

3.4 Adding Global Users

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Administrator alone can add to the Global Users list. A global resource is the resource that is available for adding in all other projects that would be created. The information about an user can be entered once and the same shall be reflected when this resource is included in any other project.

Adding global users and accessing them in other projects is the same in both the Personal Edition and the multi user editions.

3.5 Adding a Manager

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Once the project is added, you will be prompted to add a Manager or you can go to the Resource view and add a Manager.

Manager – Enter the ID of the manager. This is the ID that will be used for login authentication. This ID is unique within a project. This is a compulsory field and of length limited to 14 characters. No spaces or special characters are allowed in the ID.

Name - The full name of the manager can be entered here; the name can be separated by spaces. The name is limited to a length of 50 characters.

Email – The e-mail Id specified here will be used for e-mail communication i.e. to send all projected related update mails

System – The name of the PC/system of the user can be specified here as additional information.

The admin can add required number of Managers to the project and later the Managers can take control of the project and add other users and project tasks.

3.6 Login to a project

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Once the project and Manager is added, select menu 'Options - Login' to get the Login dialog. Select the project from the Project drop down list and login as a user with Manager status to continue with planning and further adding project resources.

Forgot Password?: This option can be used when the user forgets his/her password. (S)he can select the Project and type in the User ID and then click on ‘Forgot your password?’. A new password will be sent to the requestor’s mail account, provided a valid e-mail ID has been specified for this resource in the Resource view of Project Planner.

Remember Me: This option can be checked if you want the Project Planner application to remember your User ID and password.

Prompt me if I am using default password: This option can be set if you want to be warned when using the default password.

When an user is added to a project, (s)he will have the default password. Default password is the same as the user ID.

On checking this option in the ‘Login’ dialog and logging in, you will be prompted to change your password as shown in the following dialog.

In Personal Edition, there is no concept of login as there is a single user. Use the menu 'Options – Open Project' to open a project.

NOTE that the concept of login in multi user edition should be referred to as just opening a project in the Personal Edition, in this document hereafter.

You need to enter the password, in case the project is password protected.

SmartWorks allows additional security to the project, by giving an option of password protection. A password can be set to a project in project initialization wizard for the projects of Personal Edition. Project initialization wizard will be explained in section 3.7.

3.7 Project Information

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When a created project is opened for the first time and the Plan view is invoked, Project Planner gives an option to fill in the project details. If selected the following dialog is shown, where details of project can be entered Or select menu option 'File – Project Details' to get the following dialog.

Name (Optional)

Full name of the project can be typed in here. As ID cannot have any special characters in it, Name field can be used to write full name of the project.

Type (Optional)

Select the project type from the drop down. Project Planner supports Hardware, Software and Other type of projects by default. On selecting Hardware or Software type, a default task template gets inserted as plan framework.

Protect with password (Optional and available only in PE)

If selected, a project can be password protected. Project Planner allows user to enter a password. Once password protected, Project planner asks for password, every time a user needs to open the project.

Scope (Optional)

The scope of the project as to what has to be included in the project, what has to be excluded has to be made clear. It tells exactly where the project starts and where the project ends.

Contract Number (Optional)

Any contract detail number can be entered here.

Customer Details (Optional)

Details of your customer can be maintained here.

Premise (Optional)

Any assumptions made about the project can be entered here.

Other Details (Optional)

Any additional details can be entered here.

The second wizard has the calendar and date settings.

Start Date - Enter the planned project Start date here. Initially the current day’s date will be shown in this dialog. By changing the Start Date, the End Date remains as is and the Duration gets recalculated.

End Date - Enter the planned End date here and the Duration gets recalculated keeping the Start date as is.

Duration – The Duration gets calculated as and when the Start and End dates are changed.

Project Calendar – Select a calendar of your choice from the available calendar templates. Some of the default templates available are,

v Company calendar – selecting this will mark all those days as project holidays as those marked in the company calendar

v Five Days Week calendar – selecting this will mark all Saturdays and Sundays as project holidays

v Indian calendar – selecting this will mark all the days marked in the Indian calendar as holidays and also all the Sundays

Apart from these templates, you can also get those templates that you have saved, if any. Once a calendar is selected, the list of holidays in that template can be viewed in the Holidays List of this dialog.

The third wizard can be used to specify the team size and project budget and also new manager requests.

Minimum/Maximum Team Size – Specify the minimum and maximum number of users needed to work on the project

Initial Budget Estimation – Enter the estimated budget of the project here

Request Manager – One manager would be filling in the project initialization wizard. There may be a requirement to have more than one manager in the project. Such requests can be made here and these requests will be sent to the administrator for approval, since administrator is the only person who can add managers to projects. A mail will be sent to the administrator notifying him/her of the new request, if and only if a valid e-mail id is set for the administrator.

Note that the requesting for Manager feature is not present in the Personal Edition.

The fourth wizard allows for adding tasks to the project from templates. Some standard templates for the software and the hardware projects are available. Use the ‘Open’ button to search for the templates. By default, it takes you to the ‘templates’ folder in the installation directory.

The fifth wizard can be used for adding foreseen project risks to the risk database.

Click on 'Finish' to complete the project initialization details. Once the details are filled, they can be viewed and seen in the 'Project Details' dialog from the menu 'File - Project Details'.

The project initialization wizard in the Personal Edition is similar to that in the multi-user edition, except that there is an additional feature of password protecting the project, the option being available in the first dialog of the initialization wizard.

3.8 Project Privileges

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Once the project details are filled in you will be prompted with the 'Project Privileges' dialog. Here you can set some privileges for the Project Leaders and Team Members allowing them the desired level of access to view and modify project data.

Desired date format can be selected from the 'Date Format' drop down.

Project Calendar can be set by using the 'Set Calendar' option.

Options to set the previous task as default predecessor for all tasks when planning, to set the task with same owner as the predecessor for a task and to allow editing the actual dates can be set here.

In the Personal Edition, the option to assign privileges to various users is disabled, as there is no concept of user hierarchy and login. The date format, calendar and predecessor privileges can be set.

Chapter 4 - Adding Resources to Project Planner

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Resources can be added to a project using Project Planner's Resource view. To add resources, you need to login as a user with Manager status or as a user with Project Leader status, who has the privilege to add resources. Refer section 4.2 for resource types.

Note: The symbol for the resource indicates that the resource 'robert' has some lagged tasks in the project, the exact number of which can be seen by moving the mouse cursor on the symbol.

4.1 How to add resources?

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Resources can be added by any of the following methods,
4.1.1 typing in the first empty grid row

4.1.2 clicking on the '<Select One>' to get the list of the Global resources. Select the resource and press 'Enter'

4.1.3 using the Export/Import resource option when in the Resource view. Use the menu option ‘File – Export Data – Export as text (*.txt)‘ and save the resources as a text file. Use the ‘File – Import Data – Import from text’ to import the resources to another project.

4.1.4 from the Global Resource Pool accessible in the menu ‘Options – Global Resource Pool’

The resources indicated by the icon are those that are already present in this project. To select to add resources, click those resources in the first column

4.1.5 using the 'New resource wizard' option available in the toolbar to get the following dialog where all the resource details (attributes are explained in the section 4.2) can be typed in

The next wizard helps you to fill in the calendar for the resource. The calendar can reflect the working time for the resource. Project Planner considers this calendar when assigning the resources to the task.

4.2 What are the attributes a resource can have?

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v ID - The resource ID is unique to a resource in a project. Once entered, it cannot be modified later. The length of the ID is limited to 14 characters, with the rule that it can start with only an alphabet. Numerals can follow later. No spaces or special characters are allowed. This is the only mandatory field.

v Name - The entire name can be typed in here, spaces are allowed.

v Group - The resource can be assigned to a group. Say for example resources Rick, John and Martin are assigned to group ‘Analysts’. So when you need to assign all the 3 resources to one task, you can just type in the name of the group instead of entering/selecting all the 3 resources separately.

v Type - The resources can be of 2 types - Humanor Material.

v Status - The Human resources can have the status of Project Manager, Project Leader, Team Member or Reviewer. Material resources can have the status of Hardware, Software Tools or Others.

v Unit - This value in percentage denotes the availability of the resource for the particular project.

v Email - A valid mail ID of the resource needs to be specified here. This field is valid for the human resource alone. This ID will be used for e-mail communication.

v System - This field can be used to specify the PC name of the resource. This field too is valid for the human resource alone.

v Visible in all projects – Checking this option makes the resource available in all projects, i.e. it is equivalent to adding a Global Resource.

v Cost - The cost associated with the resource can be filled in here. The cost can be per hour/day/usage basis.

v Variable Cost - There may be a cost variation for some days for the resource. This can be entered here, say for example, the resource who will be working for only 4 hours a day this week can have a different cost for this week’s time period. Select the Start date and End date for which the variable cost needs to be set by double-clicking on Start date.

v Cost Accrual – The Cost Accrual can be set to Start, End or Prorated. This decides when the cost should be calculated. Prorated means that the cost is calculated uniformly throughout the duration of the resource in the project.

v Calendar - A resource can have a Global as well as a Project calendar. For more details, refer the section Resource Dependent Calendar

4.3 Miscellaneous features of Resource view

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v View Resource Details - To view the resource details and to modify them, use the 'View resource details' option on the toolbar or menu ‘View – View Resource Details’.

v Delete Resource - Resources can be deleted using the option 'Delete Resource' on the toolbar or menu ‘Edit – Delete resource’.

v Sort Resources - Resource list can be sorted in ascending/descending order by just clicking on the header of the columns or use the ‘Sort by…’ option on the toolbar. Note that the resources can be sorted based on Serial number, User ID, User name, group, status, e-mail ID or cost. One click sorts the resources in ascending or descending order, click again to sort them in the reverse order.

The sort option is also available in menu ‘View – Sort resources by … ‘

v Replace Resource – A resource can be replaced with another resource throughout the project. Use the option ‘Replace a resource with another resource throughout the project’ option on toolbar or menu ‘Edit – Replace a resource’.

Select the resource that needs to be replaced from the ‘Find Resource’ selection combo and the resource that will replace it from the ’Replace with’ selection combo. Here, resource ‘john’ will be replaced with resource with ‘bill’.

Other advanced options are available for replacement criteria for selection of tasks in which this replacement needs to be done. Selection can be made to replace in all tasks (default) or in tasks that are either Incomplete, Complete or some tasks within a date range.

v Send Mail – Mail can be sent to human resources using the option ‘Send mail to human resources’ on the toolbar to get the following dialog. The option is also available in menu ‘Edit – Send Mail’.

‘To’ addresses can be typed in separated by commas, or they can be selected by

clicking on the ‘Addresses’ option that gives the list of human resources in the

project. Subject and mail body can be edited with the required information. Then

click on Send.

v Column Preferences – Use the ‘Column Preferences’ option on toolbar or menu ‘View – Column Preferences’ to select only those columns that you need to need to be displayed with.

Uncheck any columns that need not be displayed. ’Remember Widths’ options

can be checked and then if you resize the column widths, the width will be retained every time you go to the Resource view.

Adding resources is similar in the Personal Edition, except that mail ID has no function to perform. The status field too is just for the user's information.

Chapter 5 - Planning in Plan view

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5.1 Introduction

Once the project initiation phase is completed, the Project Manager and/or the Project Leader must determine the scope of the effort necessary to accomplish the project to completion. The development of a project plan is based on having a clear and detailed understanding of the tasks involved, the estimated length of time each task will take, the dependencies between those tasks, and the sequence in which those tasks have to be performed. Additionally, resource availability must be determined in order to assign each task or group of tasks to the appropriate resource.

One method to determine the tasks is the WBS ( Work Breakdown Structure ). Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a hierarchic decomposition or breakdown of a project or major activity into successive levels, where each level is a finer breakdown of the preceding one. Decomposition of scope can be done till the tasks are well defined at a granular level and can be easily monitored. The Manager can enter the planned tasks in the Plan view.

5.2 The Plan View

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It is an easy to edit spreadsheet like interface provided to the Manager for entering the tasks. Tasks can be entered by typing in the grid directly or can make use of the Task Wizard dialogs. Once the plan is entered, the status updates too are done in this view itself, by the respective team members.

Note that the Plan view and the task attributes have no differences in the multi user edition and the Personal Edition.

5.3 How to add a task in the Plan view?

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Tasks can be added in the Plan View in any of the following 3 ways,

(i) by typing in the grid

Tasks can be typed in the first empty grid. The Task name can be entered and the remaining fields are filled in with the default values.

(ii) by invoking the ‘Add Task wizard’ from the ‘New Task Wizard’ icon on the toolbar

The ‘Add Task Wizard’ takes you through a series of wizards as shown in the figures below. The Task name needs to be filled in compulsorily; the other fields can be modified later.

The Task notes can be entered in the last page of the wizard.

(iii) by invoking the ‘Task Details’ from the ‘New Task’ icon on the toolbar

This is similar to the above method.

If you would like to insert a task in between the already existing tasks, right click on the task and select the option ‘Insert Task – After/Before’.

This will invoke the ‘Task Details’ dialog where the new task’s details can be filled in.

The task once added can be later viewed and modified by double-clicking on the task to get

the ‘Task Details’ dialog.

All the attributes that a task can have are as explained in the next section.

5.4 What are the attributes a task can have?

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Task ID: This field is automatically filled in serial order as and when the tasks are added. Note that the first task that has the project name will start with Task ID 1. This is called the Project Summary task.

A color indicator next to the Task ID 1 shows the overall project health. It can, at a time be in any one of the following 3 states, the exact value of which can be seen by moving the cursor on the icon.

when the schedule slippage is more than 10%

when the schedule slippage is below10%

when the project is on schedule

Note: This field cannot be edited by the user.

Task Name: This field gives a brief statement of what the task is about. The task name can have a length of not more than 90 characters, including spaces.

Links: A link can be a hyperlink, or referring to a location on another PC on the network. Note that a task can have a single link associated with it. A link can be entered by typing in the grid.

e.g. www.smartworks.us

Attachments: A task can have a maximum of 15 attachments to it. The attachments can be any text files, any picture files, htm pages etc. Attachments can be added by double-clicking on the ‘Attachment’ column and browsing and selecting the file that needs to be attached. The attachments can be deleted too once attached.

Attachments can be dragged and dropped too, to the list of Attachments.

Project Manager, Project Leader with plan modification privilege and the task owner of a task alone can add and delete attachments to a task.

Start Date: This indicates the planned Start date of the particular task. The date can be set by double-clicking and selecting from the date picker. On changing the Start date, the Finish date too gets recalculated considering the duration.

Finish Date: This indicates the date on which the task is planned to be finished. On changing this Finish date, the Start date remains as is and the Duration is recalculated.

Duration: This indicates the duration of the particular task and is just the difference of the Start date and the Finish date. Note that the holidays too are considered.

The duration by default is in days. It can be specified in hours also. Modifying the duration recalculates the new Finish date of the task.

Status: This field gives an indication of the task's status. By default, a task added is in 'New Task' status. The status can be any one of the following,

New Status(O), Started(O),10% Complete(O), 20% Complete(O), 25% Complete(O), 30% Complete(O), 40% Complete(O), 50% Complete(O), 60% Complete(O), 70% Complete(O), 75% Complete(O), 80% Complete(O), 90% Complete(O), Complete(C), Under Review(O), Stalled (O), Awaiting Data(O), Postponed(O), Obsolete(C), Others(C)

The O or C indicates Open or Closed state respectively.

The task status can be changed by the Manager, the Project Leader who has the plan modification privileges and the task owner. Every status change is notified to the Project Manager and Project Leader through e-mail, provided they have a valid mail id specified.

Predecessors: A task may have dependencies i.e. the Start date of a task can depend on the Start date and/or the Finish date of another task or a set of tasks. Project Planner supports 2 types of dependencies – FS ( Finish to Start ) and SS ( Start to Start ).

A task with FS dependency cannot start until the task(s) on which it is dependent do not finish. Likewise, a task with SS dependency cannot start until the task(s) on which it is dependent do not start.

For e.g. task 9 is FS dependent on task 6, i.e. task 9 can start only when the task 6 reaches to completion. The Finish date of task 6 is 24 March 2006 and hence the Start date of task 9 will be 25 March 2006 ( assuming 25^th is not set as a holiday )

In some cases, it may be required that the task 9 start on 23 March 2006, in spite of the FS dependency being set. This is where the Lead/Lag option comes to use.

For the above e.g. setting the dependency of task 9 as 6FS(-2) will set the Start date of task 9 as 23 March 2006, since there is a lag of 2 days specified. Likewise, the lead can be set to postpone the Start date.

Owner: A human resource can be assigned to be an owner of a task. The owner will be in charge of this task and needs to update the task’s status. A task can have a single owner. The owner can be selected from the dropdown list available when clicked on the Owner column. Note that only human resources can be assigned as Owner of a task.

Resources: Apart from the owner, there will be other resources, human or material or both, that are needed to work on a task. These are specified in the Resources column. A task can have multiple resources that have to be supported by commas if typed or can be checked from the dropdown list available by clicking on the Resources column.

Cost: This column shows the cost incurred by the task, which is the sum total of the cost incurred by each of the resource assigned for that task. As the owner and resources are assigned to the task, the cost gets automatically updated.

Actual Start Date: This column shows the Actual Start date when the task is started, which may or may not vary from the planned Start date. A task is said to be started when its status is changed from the default ‘New Status’ to any other status. On change of the status, the Actual date gets filled in.

Actual End Date: This column shows the Actual End date when the task is completed, which may or may not vary from the planned Finish date of the task. A task is said to be completed when its status is changed to Complete or any equivalent status ( obsolete, others)

These dates are filled in automatically as and when the status of the task is changed.

Actual Duration: When changing the task status, the owner may specify the Actual Duration that was taken for the completion of the task, which may again vary from the planned task duration.

When the Actual Duration is entered, the Actual Start date gets recalculated considering the Actual End date as the current date on which the status is changed.

Task Notes: Task notes can be used to store a detailed description about the task, as the Task name is limited to 90 characters. More about the task can be entered as Notes.

It can be edited by any person who has the plan modification privilege, but can be viewed by anyone who logs into the plan.

To add/edit the task notes, right-click on the task and select ‘Task Note - New’. Type the note in the yellow colored edit space and click on ‘Save Task Note’.

To edit the notes, right-click and select ‘Task note – Edit’.

To view notes of a single task, right-click and select ‘Task Note – View’.

To view notes of all tasks, right-click and select ‘Task Note – View Notes’ or menu ‘View – Task Notes’.

To print the task notes, go to the ‘Task Notes’ tab of the ‘Task Details’ dialog and use the print option.

Priority: Every sub-task can be given a priority. By default the priority is Medium. The priority can be modified from the ‘Task Details’ dialog. If a task is assigned a high priority, it is visually indicated by an icon in the Task ID column of that task.

Criticality: Any milestone task can be marked as critical task. This is visually indicated by a green icon in the Duration column for the task.

Task Types: The tasks of Project Planner can be any one of the following,

(i) Summary Tasks: The project task or the first task is the Summary task. Likewise, another task can be made as Summary task by indenting the tasks beneath them.
As the name suggests, this task gives an overall summary of the all the tasks beneath it.

The Start date of the Summary task is the minimum of the Start dates of all it sub

tasks.

The Finish date of the Summary task is the maximum of the Finish dates of all its sub

Tasks.

The Status of the Summary task shows the average of all the statuses.

The cost of the Summary task is the sum total of the cost of its sub tasks.

The Summary task can be easily distinguished as it is marked gray in color. In the

following figure, ‘Project documents’ is a Summary task.

Note: Links, attachments, predecessors, owners, resources cannot be edited for the

Summary task.

(ii) Sub tasks: The tasks that come under the Summary task are called the sub-tasks. All tasks other than the first task are the sub-tasks of this first project task. To make a task as sub task, use the ‘Increase indent’ option on the toolbar. To undo this operation, use the ‘Reduce indent’ option.

(iii) Document task: A task can be made a document task from the ‘Task Details’ dialog, by selecting ‘Document Task’ from the ‘Type’ combo box. A document task is easily distinguished from the rest of the tasks by an icon in its Task name column.

It has a document associated with it. This task can have its own set of statuses.

Comments can be given on the documents and approvers can place their reviews.

Double-click on the task to get the ‘Task Document’ dialog. The document will have 2 parts - a text document and a table. Any text pertaining to the document can be typed here. Data can also be filled in the table format.

Documents can be inserted from templates using the ‘Insert Default Template’. These document templates need to be included first by the administrator.

‘Insert Item’ option provides macros to aid easier documentation. Click on ‘Insert Item’ to get a list of project related items. Select any of them to add it to the document.

Approvers can be added to the document. Any of the human resources can be assigned as approvers to the document. Once a document is created, only the Manager, Project Leader with plan modification privilege, the Approvers of the document and the task owner can view the document. Once the document is reviewed and completed, it can be viewed by all project users whoever logs in to that project.

Only the document Approvers can add Comments and these comments need to be

addressed. Once all the comments are addressed, the Approver can then

approve/disapprove the document. Once all the Approvers approve the document,

the document can be viewed by any user.

(iv) Project Planner type of task: A task can depend on another project’s overall status. Such a task can be made a Project Planner type of task.

A task can be made a Project Planner type of task from the ‘Task Details’ dialog. After selecting the ‘Type’ as Project (Project Planner), the project to be linked can be selected. There after, the linked project’s status will be reflected in this task as and when the status changes.

This feature can be used when there is a dependency between a project’s task and the status of another project.

Such a task is easily distinguished from the rest of the tasks by the icon in the Task Name column.

(v) Smart Tracker type of task: A task can be associated with a report in SmartTracker. The status of the report in SmartTracker will be reflected in the task.

A task can be made a ‘SmartTracker’ type of task from the ‘Task Details’ dialog. After selecting the type as ‘Defect (SmartTracker)’, select the SmartTracker project. If the use has a different authentication in the logged in Project Planner project and this selected project, then (s)he has to provide the authentication for the selected project. If the authentication is correct, then the reports will be listed. Select the required report and click on ‘OK’. Thereafter, any changes made to the SmartTracker report is reflected in the Project Planner.

Such a task is easily distinguished from the rest of the tasks by the icon in the

Task Name column.

(vi) Meeting Manager type of task: A task can be associated with a meeting in Meeting Manager.

A task can be made a ‘Meeting’ type of task from the ‘Task Details’ dialog. After selecting the type as ‘Meeting (Meeting Manager’), select the particular project. If the authentication for the selected project is different from the authentication of the logged in project, then enter the valid authentication to get the list of meetings. Select a meeting and click on ‘OK’. The meeting status gets updated in the Project Planner as and when the changes are made

Such a task is easily distinguished from the rest of the tasks by the icon in the

Task Name column.

These task types are available both in the Personal Edition as well as the multi-user edition. But the SmartTracker and the Meeting Manager type of tasks are available only for the SmartWorks users who have both the SmartTracker and the Meeting Manager installed.

5.5 Other features in the Plan View

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(i) Indent/Outdent tasks: Tasks can be moved to be at different levels by using these options. To make the tasks as sub-tasks to a Summary task, use the ‘Increase Indent’ option. To reduce the task level, use the ‘Reduce Indent’ option on toolbar or ‘Edit’ menu.

(ii) Move Tasks Up/Down: The order of tasks can be altered using these options. Select a task and use this option. The sub task can be moved only within its level of tasks i.e. a sub task under a Summary task cannot be made as a sub task of another Summary task. Use the option available on the toolbar or that available in the ‘Edit’ menu.

(iii) Collapse/Expand all tasks: These options can be used to collapse/expand all the tasks in the project, using the option available on the toolbar or in the ‘View’ menu.

(iv) Collapse/Expand Summary tasks: This option can be used to collapse/expand the selected Summary task only. The ‘Expand selected Summary task’ option expands only the tasks that are one level below the selected Summary task. The options are available on the toolbar or in the ‘View’ menu.

(v) Insert Tasks: Once the tasks are planned, there may be a need to insert tasks in between the existing tasks. Select the task before or after which you want to insert the task and right-click to get the pop up menu. Select ‘Insert Task – After/Before’ option to get the ‘Task Details’ dialog. The same options are available in the ‘Edit’ menu.

(vi) Task editing – Cut / Copy / Paste operations: A task can be copied either column-wise or plan-wise.

To copy only the selected column, use any of the following options,

v Ctrl + X, Ctrl + C, Ctrl + P shortcut keys

v Right-click and select from the pop up menu ‘Edit – Copy / Cut / Paste’

v Menu ‘Edit – Copy/Cut/Paste’

To copy the entire task as is, use any of the following options,

v Shortcut options on toolbar

v Right-click and select from the pop-up menu ‘Edit – Copy Special / Cut Special / Paste Special’

v Menu ‘Edit – Cut Special / Copy Special / Paste Special’

(vii) Project Lock/Unlock: Data synchronization is very important in the case of multi-user editions as there is more than one person modifying the plan.

A project can have more than one Project Manager. So Project Planner needs to take care of concurrent updating of the plan. So when a Manager starts editing the plan, the plan gets locked and is made readable only to other Managers who log in. Once this Manager finishes editing, (s)he can unlock the plan for use by another Manager or can keep the project locked as long as needed.

When a second Manager logs in, (s)he is prompted with a message that the plan is

locked by user ‘XXX’ on machine ‘YYY’ from time <DATE/TIME>

(viii) Task filters: This feature helps the user logged in to filter out the tasks based on some selection criteria. Use the ‘Show tasks based on a filter’ option available on the toolbar to get the ‘Task Filter’ option. Tasks can be filtered out based on its different attributes like attachments, status, priority, name, date and the kind.

Once the selection criteria is chosen, the user can choose to view the tasks either in the ‘Task Filter’ dialog or in the Plan View only.

OR, AND options can be used on the filter.

The filtered out tasks can be printed, exported to HTML or exported to XML.

Some of the commonly used filters are made available in the Plan view toolbar option itself. Click on the small arrow next to the to get the drop-down options. On selecting any of the filters, the tasks that match the filter are highlighted and the rest of the tasks are grayed out.

To get back all the normal view, use the option ‘Remove Filter’ option from the drop-down menu.

(ix) Search tasks: Tasks can be searched and marked based on some input text. Use the option ‘Search Task’ on the toolbar. In the ‘Find’ dialog, type the required text and use the given options for easy search.

Use the shortcut ‘Ctrl + F’ to get this dialog.

(x) Column Preferences: Project Planner’s tasks have so many attributes, all displayed in the Plan View. All these columns may not be preferred by or used by the logged in user. In such a case, use the ‘Column Preferences’ option available on the toolbar or in the menu ‘Options – Preferences’.

Check only those columns that you require to be visible in the Plan view.

(xi) Delete tasks: To delete any of the tasks in the plan, select the task and use the option on the toolbar, or right-click and select ‘Edit – Cut‘ or menu option ‘Edit – Cut’.

(xii) Change Status: Once the plan is done and the project starts, the Team members can update the status tasks as and when they proceed and complete the tasks assigned to them.

The status of a task can be changed by the Manager, by the Project Leader if given

the privileges to modify the plan, the task owner.

To change the status of a task, double-click on the ‘Status’ column of that task to get the ‘Change Task Status’ dialog. Select the suitable status from the ‘Status’ drop-down combo and click on ‘Modify Status’.

Files can be attached to the task when modifying the status using the ‘Attach Files’ option. Actual duration taken for the completion of the task can also be entered. Actual duration is explanation follows.

On status change, a mail is sent to the Project Manager and the Project Leader informing them about the same. These mails can be customized as explained further in the document.

The status updates are done by the single user of the Project Planner Personal Edition. There will not be any mail notifications sent to anybody.

(xiii) Actual Duration: It sometimes may so happen that the tasks are completed on time but the task updates are not done in the Project Planner. The updates done at a later point of time may indicate a delay in the task, which is not correct.

So as an alternative, the Actual Duration option is given. This is the duration actually taken for the completion of the task and can be filled in when modifying the status of the task.

In the ‘Change Task Status’ dialog, when the status is changed to ‘Complete’ or any other equivalent status, the ‘Enter Actual Duration(hrs)’ get enabled. The user can enter in the given edit box the time taken for the completion of the task. This duration must be in hours. Using this Actual duration, the Actual Start date gets recalculated.

In case the ‘Enter Actual Duration(hrs)’ option is not available, then this option needs to be enabled for the particular project by the Project Manager from the ‘Project Privileges’ dialog. The option ‘Allow to Edit Actual Duration’ needs to be checked.

Chapter 6 - Risk Management

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6.1 Project risks and handling project risks

Any project needs to handle the unforeseen risks that may happen during the course of the project. Risk can be considered as anything that may affect the project’s scope, budget or schedule so as to cause a negative impact on the project.

Whenever such risks occur, there should be an appropriate contingency plans so as to nullify the risk’s effect. Mitigation plans also need to be there. Therefore the Project Manager needs to have planned well for handling the risks when they occur.

Project Planner has risk management feature to identify, manage and track risk information.

6.2 Adding risks to the risk database

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Risk database is accessible to the SmartWorks administrator and to the Project Manager.

The administrator can access the Global risk database and the Manager can handle the project specific risks. Team Member can view project specific occurred risk(s) if given permission.

Global Risk database

Global risks are those set of risks that are common to all the projects. These risks are available for importing in all projects created. Login as ‘admin’ to any project. Access the menu option ‘Risk – Global Risk Database’ to get the ‘Global Risk Database’ dialog.

Risks can be added by either using the ‘Add Risk’ option or using the ‘Import Risk’ option.

Project Risk database

Project risk database has those risks specific to a project. A Project Manager can login to a project and use the menu ‘Risk – Risk Database’. (S)he can either add the risks using the ‘Add Risk’ option or by using the ‘Import Risk’ option.

When importing risks, the Manager has the option to either import the risks from a predefined template or form the Global Risk Database managed by the administrator. Predefined templates are by default in the ‘templates’ directory of the installation directory.

The risks can be exported using the ‘Export Risk’ option and saved as a template so that they can be imported and reused in similar projects.

Editing the Risk database is available to the Project Manager or to a Project Leader with plan modification privileges.

Both the Global Risk Database and the Project Risk Database are accessible by the user logged into the Personal Edition

6.3 Attributes of risk

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Id: A serial number that uniquely identifies the risk. It is automatically incremented as the risks are added

Name: A name given to the risk that helps identify what the risk is all about

Description: A detailed description that adds more information to the risk name

Probability: This value indicates the likelihood of the risk happening

Time Frame: This value shows whether the risk is a short-term or a long-term risk. Short-term risk means that the risk will persist over a smaller time period. A risk that persists for a very long time period can be categorized as a long-term risk. Otherwise the risk is said to be medium-term risk.

Impact Factors: The risk’s occurrence can have an impact on the schedule, cost, scope, quality or any other attributes of the project. The impact on these various attributes can be marked on a scale of 5, 0 being ‘No Impact and 5 being ‘Very High Impact’

Exposure: The Exposure depends on the Impact factors and is calculated automatically

Contingency plan: This plan shows how you can avoid the happening of the foreseen risk

Mitigation plan: This plan indicates what actions you should take if and when the risk occurs so as to keep the risk’s impact minimum

6.4 Editing the risks

Risks once added can be selected and removed or the entire risks can be deleted in one click.

An added risk can be modified by double-clicking on it.

6.5 Export / Import risks

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Risks can be added to the database by importing as already mentioned in section 6.2. The risks in the risk database can be exported to a file and used in future projects of similar kind. Note that the risks are stored in .prk files

6.6 Risk logging and Occurred Risks

Once the risks are added to the risk database and the project plan is finalized, the plan can be saved as a baseline version. Once the plan is base-lined, any changes done to the plan so as to affect its cost, scope or schedule is considered as a risk and will be captured by the Project Planner when the modified plan is saved.

The ‘Risks Occurred’ dialog will appear and you can select the risk that occurred or if its a risk that was not foreseen till now and is not present in the Risk database, then the risk database can now be updated with this new risk. To do so, use the ‘Update Risk Database’ option in the following dialog.

Change Details in this dialog shows the changes that have been done to the plan in terms of Schedule and Cost.

Any affect on the Scope, Quality can also be entered here.

The risks so occurred in the project can be viewed in the ‘Risk Report’ view. It is viewable by the Manager alone, unless given permission to the other project users. Project Leader can view the ‘Risk Report’ view if given the plan modification privilege. The Team Members can be given permission by setting the privilege ‘Allow Team Member to View Occurred Risks report’ from the ‘Project Privileges’ dialog.

Note that in the above figure the risk shown with a red background is the risk that was not foreseen before and hence not present in the risk database. It was added when the risk actually occurred in the course of the project.

6.7 Risk Report Graphs

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Risk related graphs show graphically various statistics about the planned and occurred risks. These graphs give a picture about how and what kind of risks has occurred in the project.

Use the ‘View Risk Graph’option available on the toolbar to see the risk reports graphs.

The graphs can be viewed as Pie, Bar, Line and Step graph by using

The graphs can be viewed in 2D or 3D by using

The different types of graph that can be seen are,

v Risks Vs Status – gives a plot of the total number of risks that have occurred in the project and the number of risks that are in each status (occurred, still possible, occurred but still possible, no more a risk)

v Risks Vs Time – gives a plot of total number of risks occurred and number of risks occurred on particular dates

v Risks Vs Time Frame – gives a plot of total number of risks occurred and the number of risks in the time frame category

v Risks Vs Probability - gives a plot of total number of risks occurred and the number of risks in each probability category

v Risk Identified Vs Occurred - gives a plot of total number of risks that were planned for and the total number of risks that have actually occurred

v Risk Occurred Vs Risk Type - gives a plot of total number of risks that have occurred and the number of times each type of risk has occurred

v Risk Identified Vs Risk Type - gives a plot of total number of risks that have been identified and the number of times each of these identified risks have occurred

Use the ‘View Occurred Risk Report’ option on toolbar to return back to the Risk Report view.

6.8 Column Preferences in the Risk Report view

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Use the ’Column Preferences’ option to get the ‘Display Preferences’ dialog. Uncheck those fields that you do not wish to view in the Risk Report view.

6.9 Mail the occurred risks

Use the ‘Send as Mail’option and type in the recipients mail id and the mail subject in the ‘Send Mail’ dialog.

This option is not available in the Personal Edition as there is no mailing feature.

6.10 Save the occurred risks as HTML

The Occurred risks shown by the ‘Risk Report’ view can be saved in HTML format using the option ‘Save as HTML file’option. This HTML file can be mailed or shared.

Chapter 7 - Gantt Chart

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7.1 Introduction

Gantt view (sometimes called a bar chart) represents tasks in the plan in bars. The bars in the chart represent the planned tasks; the length represents the task duration; the bar shape shows the task type i.e., summary task or non-summary task; the shaded portion shows the task completion status.

Gantt chart can be viewed with respect to progress of each task for each team member.

Critical path – Among the planned tasks, there are some tasks that should be not delayed even by a single day such that the project’s planned end date is not affected. Such tasks are said to have zero slack. Some other tasks in the project can be delayed or take longer duration than planned without affecting the duration of the project (providing they remain within the float). If a task exceeds the float then it becomes a critical task.

A sequence of critical tasks in a project gives the critical path in a project.

Note: Note that the tasks shown in red (color can be customized) are those tasks that are critical.

Project Planner calculates critical path dynamically and is indicated graphically in Gantt chart. With this, an analysis of the tasks, which fall in to critical path, can be found out easily.

Managers who are comfortable planning their plan in Gantt view can use this view to change their plan as Project Planner allows planning in Gantt view also.

7.2 Modifying Project Plan from Gantt view

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SmartWorks project Planner provides a facility using which plan can be modified in Gantt view. Following operations are possible in Gantt view,

v Modifying the task duration – Dragging the task bar on either end of the bar can modify the task duration. Look for the cursor and to change the task duration

v Moving the tasks – A task can be moved from one date to another. Look for the cursor

v Modifying the task status – Look for the cursor

7.3 User Preferences

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Some customizable preferences are available at the menu ‘Options – Preferences – User Preferences’.

Task Colors

Different tasks with different statuses are marked in different colors. The colors can be customized from the dialog shown above. Suppose that you want to change the color of Summary tasks, then double-click on the color next to the Summary Tasks, to get the color selection dialog. Select the required color and say OK.

Task names

The names of the task can be made to appear beside the Gantt bar by checking the option ‘Show task name in Gantt chart’. The names are available in the print also.

View Project day number on Gantt chart

When in the Gantt view, select the menu ‘Options – Preferences – User Preferences’. Check the option ‘Show the number of units from the project start date’. This will replace the date on the X-axis with the project day number.

Say if the project starts on May 06, 2006, then May 06 will be replaced by 1 and May 07 by 2 and so on. Likewise, the weeks and months will be replaced too.

Notice the day number shown in the above figure. The project starts in Jun 2006. The first day of the project is shown as 1,W (1 shows that this is the first day of the project and W indicates the day of the week Wednesday)

7.4 Other options

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Save Gantt chart as image

The Gantt can be saved as an image using this option on the toolbar to get the following dialog.

Select the path to store the image. The image will be stored as a bmp image by the name of the project.

Options are available to select the task range or tasks in a selected date range.

Go to a date in the Gantt chart

Use this option for easy navigation to required dates in the Gantt chart. Select the date from the below shown date picker.

View Grid Lines

Using this option on toolbar, you can choose to see the Gantt chart using the grid lines in the background for reference.

Zoom in / Zoom out

Use this option to vary the view to the different resolutions in Gantt chart.

Task filter

Task filters are available on the toolbar to see the tasks of your choice for the selected resources.

7.5 Page Setup options

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Printing the Gantt chart can be preceded by some settings to customize the print looks from the menu ‘File – Page Setup’ when in the Gantt view.

The various options available for print are,

Print Date Range: Tasks that come within a certain date range can be printed. If you want all the tasks in the plan, then check the option ‘Print from Start to End of project/selected tasks’.

Print Items: Along with the Gantt bars, the columns of Task ID, Task Name, Task Status and Task Owner can be printed. They appear in columns left of the Gantt chart bars.

Resolution: The print resolution can be varied from 12.5 to 150

Fit into minimum pages: The Gantt task bar’s size can be minimized so as to fit into minimum number of pages.

Sort Options: The tasks can be sorted based on certain attributes like the Start date, End date, Status, Duration, Cost, and Owner.

Summary Tasks: You can choose to print the Summary tasks if needed by checking the Summary Task check box.

Chapter 8 - Plan Gantt view

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Plan Gantt view is a combination of the Plan and the Gantt view.

As the user plans the project, (s)he can simultaneously view the Gantt view and can edit the plan in whichever view (s)he find is user-friendly. Some users find it easy to plan in the grid text area while others prefer the graphical view for planning.

Chapter 9 - Network Diagram

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Network diagramming is one way of graphically representing project plan. It shows the dependencies between the tasks and also shows the critical tasks of the plan.