This document provides instructions for tracking project progress in Microsoft Project. It describes entering actual start and finish dates, percentages complete, durations, work, and costs to update the project schedule based on work completed. It also explains how to view variances between the baseline schedule and actual progress to determine if the project is on budget and on schedule. Key metrics like earned value are also covered to help analyze project performance.

1. Project Name
Communication Plan
Overview
Effective and timely communication is a key element in project
plan, as it is in the business world. Without knowing when and
how to communicate important information, momentum lags and
projects slowly unravel. A strategy covering routine and
extraordinary circumstances helps key project personnel stay on
track and coordinated.
For our course project’s communication plan, we will cover the
scheduling of routine and ad-hoc meetings, and the flow of
documents. Be creative and open minded because this subject is
not covered in the textbook. Research, if needed, for further
understanding. This document is in Doc Sharing for use as a
template.
Example Of A Communication Plan
This plan is presented as two sub plans; one for meetings and
one for documents.
MEETING PLAN
Project – “Project Name here”
WHAT
WHEN
WHERE

2. OWNER
ATTENDEES
Project Status Meetings
Ad-Hoc Meetings
Other – be specificDOCUMENT PLAN
Project – “Project Name here”
WHAT
DUE WHEN
METHOD OF DELIVERY
SENDER
RECEIVERS
Action Item Log
Meeting Agenda
Meeting Minutes
Other – be specific
Status Reports to Project Manager
Updates to Project Schedule

3. MS Project - Lesson #7 - Tracking Project Progress
Objectives - MS Project 2010
· Track the actual progress of tasks
· Updating a Project
· Compare baseline data to actual and scheduled data
· Viewing a Network Diagram
· Earned Value Overview
Once the project starts, it's time to begin tracking the actual
progress of tasks and resources. Tracking is the process of
gathering and entering task information into the schedule. You
can track progress by entering all or some of the actual
information.
In the previous lesson, we complete our scheduling and resource
assignments. For this lesson, we will assume our project is
underway and that several tasks have either finished or are
partially finished. We will then determine if our project is
behind or ahead of schedule.
Tracking Progress
Before we can begin tracking progress, the project schedule
should be fully developed and a baseline plan should be set.
Once work begins, progress should be tracked throughout the
project. The more often we update the information, the easier it
is to identify problems and take corrective action.
When actual information is entered, the project is automatically
recalculated. For this reason, task progress should be entered
starting at the top of the task list and continuing down the list.
There are three types of dates stored for each task:
Scheduled: Tasks that haven't started yet or are in progress.

4. Actual: Tasks that are in progress or are completed.
Baseline: Originally planned dates. These dates are used to
compare the original plan with the actual dates and scheduled
dates. Baseline dates do not change.
There are five types of actual data that can be entered in MS
Project:
Actual start and finish dates
Percentage completion
Actual duration and remaining duration
Actual and remaining work
Actual and remaining costs
Our project was scheduled to begin on October 9 2013 and end
on November 26, 2013. For the purposes of this lesson, we will
assume that it is now Monday, November 11, 2013 and the
project is underway
1. To ensure that all students are starting from the same
scheduling parameters, download the following file:
Lesson7Base.mpp. DO NOT use your project file from week 6.
2. Open the above file in MS Project. If you receive a
scheduling error select “Continue: Allow the scheduling
conflict” and then immediately…
3. Save as MyLab7_XXX.mpp, where XXX are your initials.
4. Under File > Project Information >Advanced Properties,
change the author's name and the manager's name to yourname.
5. Change the name of the main summary task (task #1) to
reflect your name.

5. 6. Once you have made those changes, make sure the file is
saved with abaseline! File > Project Information >Project
Statistics). If your file does not have a baseline then save one
(Project tab > Schedule > Set Baseline).
7. Finally, before continuing, under Project tab in the Status
group, select Status Date.
8. Change the Status Date to November 11, 2013. (Important:
You must do this every time you open this file!)
9. If you receive a Planning Wizard, allow the Scheduling
Conflict.
Entering Actual Dates
1. Select task 3, Inventory Current Equipment.
2. From the Task tab and the Schedule group click on the arrow
next to Mark on Track and select Update Tasks. The Update
Tasks dialog box appears:
Figure 1
Do Not Click on the “Mark on Track” as this will automatically
update the status as 100% complete. If you did this then use the
Undo button to roll back the change.
3. In the Actual area, click the Finish down arrow.
4. Select/Enter October 10, 2013 and click OK.
5. If the Planning Wizard appears, click the radial, "Continue.
Allow the scheduling conflict."
6. The actual finished date is entered and a checkmark is
displayed in the indicator field, and a progress bar is displayed
on the Gantt chart.

6. 7. Go back to the Task tab and the Schedule group click on the
arrow next to Mark on Track and select Update Tasks.
8. Notice the actual start date has been entered, the actual
duration was 2 days, the % complete is 100% and the remaining
duration is 0d. Click Cancel.
9. Position your mouse on the checkmark in the indicator field
and a tip box will open showing you when the task was
completed.
10. With completed tasks, you can either enter the actual
finished date or enter 100% complete or both!
Entering Actual and Remaining Durations
1. Select task #7, Research Products and Services.
2. From the Task tab and the Schedule group click on the arrow
next to Mark on Track and select Update Tasks
3. Click the Actual Duration up arrow until 2 days (2d) is
displayed.
4. Click the Remaining Duration down arrow until 2 days (2d) is
displayed. Click OK.
Figure 2
Figure 2 shows the completed Update Tasks window for task 7.
The duration is 3.5 days, the actual duration is 2 days and the
Remaining duration is also 2 days.
5. Still on task #7 Select UpdateTasks again.
6. Notice the actual start date is entered as October 24 and

7. percentage completion is 50%. (Note, since this task was
originally at 3.5 days, you have just added one-half day to the
duration. That is an additional 4 hours of work for each System
Analyst. Therefore you just added 8 hours of additional work to
your overall Project. The baseline, however, will still be at the
original 3.5 days. Obviously this task took longer than you
expected.
7. You will notice there is no icon in the task information
column, but if you look at your Gantt chart for this task, you
will see that the task is partially filled in with a black bar
(indicating progress).
8. With partially completed tasks, you can either enter the
actual duration with remaining duration or enter the percentage
completed. You can also enter any different start date than that
reflected. However to affect the change you must press OK.
Entering Percentage Completion
1. There is also a Tracking table and a Tracking toolbar that you
can also use to update task information.
2. On the View tab, in the Resource Views group, click on
Other Views then More Views…and then select Task Sheet.
Press Apply. (See figure 3).
Figure 3
3. Notice the Gantt chart has been removed from your view.
4. Still in the View tab, go to Tables in the Data group point to
Table and select Tracking.
5. Your table should look similar to Figure 4.

8. Figure 4
Figure 4 shows the Tracking Table. The columns are: Task
Name, Actual Start, Actual Finish, % Complete, Physical %
Complete, Actual Duration, Remaining Duration, Actual Cost
and Actual Work. Based on the status entered, the Actual Start
of the project is 10/9/2013, the % complete is 8%, actual
duration 2.95 days, remaining duration 34.55 days, the actual
cost $2,720 and the actual work 80 hours.
6. Go back to the Task tab. On the Schedule group you should
see:
Figure 5
Figure 5 is a screen capture of the schedule area of the ribbon.
It includes icons to update task completion by 0%, 25%, 75% or
100% complete.
7. Selecttask 4, Assess Current Department Needs, on the Task
table.
8. On the Tracking toolbar, click the 75% button. This will
complete 75% of the work.
9. The actual start date is entered as scheduled (October 10)
since the predecessor was completed on time. The actual and
remaining durations are updated as scheduled; 2.25 days has
been completed (75% of 3 days) and there is .75 days remaining
on the task. Your overall project completion percentage is 12%
and this phase of the project (Proposal Creation) is 33%
complete.
Note: using percentage completion data for tracking can be
somewhat subjective and should only be used when everyone
involved understands what the percentage means.

9. Entering Actual Work
Sometimes, you need to update or report actual work hours
performed on a task. There are times the work that you
projected for a resource or resources may be different than what
they actually performed.
1. From the Task tab and View group, click on Task Usage.
2. Your screen should now appear as in Figure 6. (You may
have to widen the task name column to see the entire task
name).
Figure 6
3. From the Format tab, in the Details group, check Actual
Work box.
4. Notice the Detailscolumn splits into two rows: Work and
Actual Work.
5. Go to task 7, Research Products and Services, and scroll, if
necessary, until you see the hours work for the System Analyst.
(See Figure 7).
Figure 7
6. In the row for Systems Analyst, select the cell with 16 hours
for Thursday (Oct 24) that is in the Actual Work row
(Act.Work). (DO NOT change the Work row!).
7. Change the 16 hours to 24 hours. If you receive a Planning
Wizard, Allow the Scheduling Conflict.
8. Note the icon that appears in the IndicatorColumn. This
indicates that the work assignment has been changed.

10. On your own, do the following:
1. Edit/track task 5, Design and Diagram New System, as 2 days
actual duration with remaining 3 days duration. (Hint: Do NOT
press OK…continue with next step…)
2. Edit task 5 for an actualstartdate of Tuesday, October 15,
2013. (Hint: Now, press OK.)
3. Edit/track task 6, Proposal to Accounting, as 50% completed.
4. For task6, Proposal to Accounting, indicate that the Project
Manager's actual work for Tuesday, October 22 from 11 to 7
hours.
5. At this point in time, the project team has also met for the
first 5 meetings. Show these meetings as being 100% complete.
Entering Changes in Fixed Costs
To enter changes to fixed costs, after you have begun a project,
do the following:
1. Change to Gantt chart view. From the View tab, in the Data
group point to Tables and select Cost.
2. Move the Gantt chart so you can see all the columns of this
table.
3. Go to task #14, Install Wiring.
4. In the Fixed Cost column, change $4,000 to $6,000
5. Notice the column Baseline still says $4,000, but the total
cost column says $6,000 for a variance of $2,000. (Note the
variance column).

11. Tracking actual costs, other than fixed costs, can only be done
after the task is completed or the remaining work is zero. In
our lesson, the only task that is completed is task #3. To
change that task's actual cost would require changing the details
of our task sheet to add cost information and then change that
information. For this lab, we will not be doing this.
(Note: MS Project automatically calculates actual costs, so you
must turn off this option to manually change actual costs.)
Comparing the Baseline to Actual Data
When we save our project with a baseline, we did so because we
need to have something to serve as a basis for comparing costs,
work and dates for task and resources. It is the only way we
can know if we are on-schedule, within budget, etc.
Project baselines and actual data can be viewed graphically in
charts or numerically in tables. The following describes the
tools in MS Project to analyze and compare baseline, actual and
scheduled data:
Tool
Type
Description
Tracking Gantt
Chart
Displays the actual and baseline information for tasks in a
graphical format
Variance
Table
Displays the difference between actual information and baseline
information
Work
Table

12. Displays the difference between actual and baseline work hours
Cost
Table
Displays the difference between actual and baseline costs
Cost Over budget
Task Filter
Displays all tasks with a cost greater than baseline cost
Slipping Tasks
Task Filter
Displays all tasks that are behind in schedule
Work Over budget
Resource Filter
Displays all resources with scheduled work greater than
baseline work.
You can quickly see overall progress by displaying project
statistics:
1. From the Project menu, click Project Information.
2. Click Statistics. Note: You may also use the icon on the
Tracking toolbar to display these statistics.
3. You should see the information as in figure 8. The Percent
Complete is for the entire project.
Figure 8
Or you can view the Tracking Gantt Chart:
1. From the View tab, select Tracking Gantt.
2. The Gantt chart now is displayed showing actual versus
baseline scheduling information.

13. 3. Another graphical representation of your project is the
Network Diagram. The Network Diagram view displays tasks
and task dependencies in a network or flowchart format. A box
(sometimes called a node) represents each task, and a line
connecting two boxes represents the dependency between the
two tasks. By default, the Network Diagram view displays one
diagonal line through a task that is in progress and crossed
diagonal lines through a completed task.
4. To see the Network Diagram, select Network Diagram from
the View tab. Your screen will look something like this:
5. You can change to zoom levels to see the more of the
diagram, but for now leave it at 100%.
6. MS Project’s Network Diagram is similar to a PERT chart.
You may want to view the legend on this diagram to see what
each shape and color means.
Understanding Earned Value
Another way to view information about the baseline are in
Earned Values. Earned value is a measure of cost of the work
performed up to a given date in a project. Earned value
information is based on three pieces of information. This
information is:
· Planned Value (PV) - This is the amount of budget planned to
be spent during a given period of time.
· Earned Value (EV) - This is a value indicating how much of
the budgeted cost should have been spent given the amount of
work actually completed.

14. · Actual Cost (AC) - This is the amount of money actually spent
on the completed work.
Knowing these numbers can help you understand if the task (or
project) is on, over or under cost and on, behind or ahead of
schedule, by calculating variances.
To calculate the cost variance (CV) the formula used is EV-AC.
A zero, "0", indicates the task (or project) is right on budget. A
negative number indicates the task (or project) is over budget
and a positive number indicates the task (or project) is under
budget.
Likewise to calculate a Schedule Variance (SV), the formula is
EV-PV. A zero, "0", indicates the task (or project) is right on
schedule. A negative number indicates the task (or project) is
behind schedule and a positive number indicates the task (or
project) is ahead of schedule.
The shortcut rule for variances is a negative number bad (over
budget or behind schedule) and a positive number is good
(under budget or ahead of schedule).
1. To see the Earned Value numbers in MS Project, first switch
back to the Gantt chart view and then from the View tab and the
Data group, select Tables then More Tables, from the list select
Earned Value. The PV, EV, AC and SV and CV are now
displayed.
2. Notice three other columns, EAC, BAC and VAC
a. EAC is "Estimated Cost at Completion". This is the new
forecast value of the final budget, based on current actual
values.
b. BAC, "Budgeted Cost at Completion" is the baseline value.
c. VAC, "Variance at Completion" is the difference between the
BAC and EAC (BAC-EAC). As with SV and CV, negative

15. numbers represent an over budget condition and positive
numbers represent below budget.
The project's current PV = $22,919.23. What do you think this
means? (NOTE: If your value is $0, then make sure you have
set the Status Date to 11/11/2013, per step 4, page 2.) If your
EV amounts do not match, then the status information has been
entered incorrectly.
It means that if we had worked according to the plan, we would
have completed $22,919.23 worth of budgeted work. What do
the EV and AC mean?
Note the positive VAC. As of this date, we expect our project
to be $1,710.01 under budget at completion.
There are 2 other values which can be calculated from the PV,
EV and AC. These are SPI (Schedule Performance Index) and
CPI (Cost Performance Index). These values are ratios and can
be used for trend data.
To calculate SPI, divide the EV by the PV (EV/PV=SPI). When
the SPI is at 1, the project (or task) is right on schedule, when
the SPI is less than 1, the project (task) is behind schedule and
when the SPI is greater than 1, the project (task) is ahead of
schedule.
To see the SPI values, again go to More Tables and this time,
select Earned Value Schedule Indicators.
Note the project has an SPI value of 0.31. This means the
project has completed 31% of scheduled work… or that for
every $1 worth of work scheduled, only $0.31 worth of
scheduled work has been completed. Do you know why this is?
Hint: Look for those tasks with negative SV's. Note the task
that has a particularly large SV.

16. The last value we are going to look at is the CPI or Cost
Performance Index.
To calculate CPI, divide the EV by the AC (EV/AC=SPI).
When the CPI is at 1, the project (or task) is right on budget,
when the CPI is less than 1, the project (task) is over budget
and when the CPI is greater than 1, the project (task) is below
budget.
To see the CPI values, again go to More Tables and this time,
select Earned Value Cost Indicators.
The Project's CPI is 1.05. This indicates the project is ahead of
schedule. For every $1, the project team completed $1.05 worth
of work. Not bad so far! See if you can identify the tasks that
helped the project to be under budget.
At this point:
1. Save your file
2. Printout the following reports: (use proper header/footer
information)
1. Project Summary
2. Overbudget Tasks
3. Earned Value
This concludes our survey of MS Project 2010. MS Project is a
great tool to help manage projects. It does take effort, but with
proper usage the effort will pay off with better project results.
There is much more to explore and learn. We hope this will
encourage you to explore more about the tool.
When submitting required printouts, if you are not bringing
them to class, from the Print Preview Page, take a screen shot
(in Windows <ALT><Prt Scr>) of the report and paste the

17. screen shot to a MS Word Document. Make sure to crop the
screen to show only the report. After cropping, resize the image
appropriately. If the printout is on more than 1 page, paste each
page individually. Save the Word document containing printouts
as Week_7_Printouts_XXX.docx (where XXX are your initials)
and submit this file to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.
When you have completed this lesson please save it as
MyLab7_xxx.mpp and submit the file to the Weekly iLab
Dropbox.
Also complete the following page and submit the Review
Question sheet to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.
Review Questions
Name ____________________________
Answer the following questions:
1) Why is it best not to enter a percentage (%) completion?
2) According to your Project Summary, is this project on
schedule? Will you be over or under budget and by how much?
3) After printing out the Earned Value report, define (you may
use MS Project help) the following terms and write in the Total
Values of each from your Earned Value Report (Make sure your
current date is properly set to 11/11/2013).
PV:

18. EV:
AC:
SV:
CV:
EAC:
BAC:
VAC:
Turn in this sheet with your MS Project file to the Week 7 iLab
Dropbox.
MS Project Lesson #7 Page 1
MS Project - Lesson #6 - Task Constraints and Baselines
Objectives - MS Project 2010

19. · Use constraints to set date limitations
· Set a project schedule baseline
A task constraint is a restriction or limitation that you or MS
Project set on the start or finish date of a task. During the
course of a project, limitations may have to be placed upon a
start or finish date of a task. For example, while you can start
doing your income taxes at any time, you must complete them
by April 15 (assuming you do not file for an extension). Do not
confuse task constraints with task dependencies. While you
may schedule two tasks to start at the same time (dependency),
you may not specify a certain starting date (constraint).
All tasks are assigned constraints. A constraint is either
flexible or inflexible. A flexible constraint is not tied to a
specific date; whereas an inflexible constraint is tied to a
specific date.
Task constraints can help create a more accurate schedule by
using detailed information to control start and finish dates of
important tasks. But they can restrict your flexibility in
scheduling. You should make sure that any constraint for a task
is necessary before assigning that constraint, particularly if the
task is part of the critical path.
For this lab, we will be using the MS Project Lab,
MyLab5_XXX (where XXX are your initials) from where we
left off in Lab 5. You may use your previous file or download
MyLab5_XXX.mpp from Doc Sharing.
Applying Flexible Constraints
The following table lists the flexible constraints and when they
are flexible:

20. Constraint
Description
Flexible for…
As Soon As Possible (ASAP)
Starts the task as soon as possible based on other constraints
and dependencies
All projects
As Late As Possible (ALAP)
Starts the task as late as possible based on other constraints and
dependencies
All projects
Finish No Earlier Than (FNET)
Finishes the task on or after an entered date
Projects scheduled based on a start date
Start No Earlier Than (SNET)
Starts the task on or after an entered date
Projects scheduled based on a start date
Finish No Later Than (FNLT)
Finishes the task on or before an entered date
Projects scheduled based on a finish date
Start No Later Than (SNLT)
Starts the task on or before an entered date
Projects scheduled based on a finish date
The As Soon As Possible constraint is the default constraint for
projects that are scheduled from a start date. Therefore, our
project's tasks all currently are assigned the ASAP constraint.
(If project is scheduled from a finish date, As Late As Possible
is the default constraint.)
1. Log onto Windows.
2. Open your completed file MyLab5_XXX.mpp. Check the
addendum at the end of this lesson to make sure your beginning
file is correct.

21. 3. Save as MyLab6_XXX.mpp, where XXX are your initials.
4. Make sure you are in Gantt chart view, with the Entry table
appearing.
5. Click on task #6, Proposal To Accounting.
6. Double click to open the Task Information dialog box.
7. Be sure that the General tab is selected and view the
currently scheduled start and finish dates for this task. (The
task is scheduled to begin on Monday, October 21 and finish on
Wednesday, October 23).
8. Click the Advanced tab.
9. Click the Constraint type down arrow and select Finish No
Earlier Than.
10. Click the Constraint date down arrow and select Wednesday,
October 23, 2013. (See Figure 1).
Figure 1
11. If the Effort Driven box is not checked, do so now and then
Click OK.
12. If you get a Planning Wizard, select “Continue. Allow the
scheduling conflict.”
13. The constraint is set for this task. We have said that this
task cannot finish prior to October 23, 2013 but can finish any
time beginning with October 23 (or later!).
14. You will notice beside the task, Proposal To Accounting, a
flexible constraint indicator icon. Notice that a similar icon is
next to the task, Install Software. What is its constraint? When
was this constraint applied? (Hint: these are the tasks we

22. manually leveled to avoid resource conflicts, MS Project helped
us in changing the constraint on one of these tasks to meet our
needs).
15. Save the file.
Applying Inflexible Constraints
Inflexible constraints are tied to a specific date and should be
used less often because they take flexibility away from the
schedule. Inflexible constraints are generally applied if the
project's start or finish date is absolute and beyond your
control. But be careful! The following table lists the inflexible
constraints and when they are inflexible:
Constraint
Description
Inflexible for…
Must Finish On (MFO)
Finishes task on an entered date
All projects
Must Start On (MSO)
Starts the task on an entered date
All projects
Finish No Earlier Than (FNET)
Finishes the task on or after an entered date
Projects scheduled based on a finish date
Start No Earlier Than (SNET)
Starts the task on or after an entered date
Projects scheduled based on a finish date
Finish No Later Than (FNLT)
Finishes the task on or before an entered date
Projects scheduled based on a start date
Start No Later Than (SNLT)
Starts the task on or before an entered date
Projects scheduled based on a start date
1. From the Gantt View, select the task, Issue RFPs. Open the

23. Task Information dialog box for this task.
2. Click the General tab and view the currently scheduled start
and finish dates for this task. The task is scheduled to begin
Monday, October 28 and finish on Tuesday, November 12,
2013.
3. Eleven days should be sufficient to issue and receive replies
to our Requests for Proposals. Although we should receive all
the responses by Tuesday, November 12, we do not want to wait
beyond Monday, November 11, 2013. Therefore, we are going
to mark this task with a Finish No Later Than constraint for
November 11.
4. Click the Advanced tab.
5. Click the Constraint Type down arrow and select Finish No
Later Than.
6. Click the Constraint Date down arrow and select Monday,
November 11, 2013. (See Figure 2.)
Figure 2
7. Click OK.
8. The Planning Wizard dialog box appears. (Figure 3)
Figure 3
9. The Planning Wizard indicates a possible conflict and offers
us three options. One, to just cancel the request. Another to
continue, but change to a better constraint. Or finally, to
continue with our original selection. Generally, you should
either cancel or accept the advice on how to avoid the conflict.

24. Only when absolutely necessary, continue with your selection;
however, it could possibly affect your project's finish date.
10. Select the “Continue. A Finish No Later Than constraint
will be set.” option, and click OK.
11. A Scheduling Conflict message may appear. Select
"Continue. Allow the scheduling conflict." and click OK.
12. The constraint is set. An inflexibleconstraint indicator icon
is displayed in the Indicated field. Note the "red" square versus
the “blue" square for a flexible constraint.
13. Please Note: MS Project will, by default, honor constraint
dates over scheduled dates unless you remove this default from
the Tools-Options menu, then select the Schedule tab and
uncheck Tasks Will Always Honor Their Constraint Dates.
Bottom line, it is best to wisely use constraints and preferably
flexible constraints.
14. Save your file.
When task constraints are set, conflicts can occur that can affect
the project finish date or a task dependency. When a conflict
occurs, the Planning Wizard appears, indicating a conflict (or a
potential conflict) will exist if the constraint is applied. The
Planning Wizard monitors scheduling activities and offers
suggestions when appropriate.
1. Click on the task, Evaluate Bids.
2. Open the Task Information dialog box for this task. Click the
General tab and note the start date for this task is Monday,
November 11, 2013, finish date is November 14, 2013.
3. Click the Advanced tab.

25. 4. Click the Constraint Type down arrow and select Must Start
On.
5. Click the Constraint Date down arrow and select Monday,
November 11, 2013.
6. Click OK.
7. The Planning Wizard dialog box appears again.
8. This time select the Cancel option. No constraint will be set
on "Evaluate Bids".
9. Save your file.
10. From the View tab select Tables from the Data group. Then
select More Tables. The More Tables dialog box opens.
11. Select Constraint Dates from the list and click Apply.
12. Move the Gantt chart to the far side of your screen. Widen
the table columns so all information can be seen.
13. Printthistable. Include all the columns of the Table:
Constraint Dates but NOT the Gantt chart. Be sure to include
proper project header information. Make sure you widen the
columns showing task information. This will be Printout 1.
14. Save the file.
Establishing a Baseline
Once the project schedule is completed and all resource and
task conflicts have been resolved, your current schedule

26. represents the best estimate of how the project should proceed
and what resources it will take. The emphasis is estimate.
When entering any type of project, regardless of experience, no
one knows exactly what will really happen; we can only give it
our "best guess".
Before the first task in the project begins, a baseline should be
set. (Notice we have always saved our project files without one
in the past.) A baseline is a record or "snapshot" taken of our
forecast or expectations. Without a baseline, we cannot
measure progress of a project. A baseline is useful for
comparing the planned schedule with later versions of the
schedule. A project baseline should be viewed also as a
learning tool. Comparing the baseline to actual progress on a
project can help you identify upcoming problems on the project
as well as helping future projects with better duration estimates
and more accurate resource assignments.
Think of a baseline as a forecast. If I predict that on my
vacation I will spend $400, I will make that my baseline or
prediction. At the end of my vacation, if I discovered that I
spent $450, I know that I was over budget (by $50) because I
had a baseline ($400) to compare to my actual progress ($450).
Note: Once you save a project with a baseline, any changes to
the baseline should not be made. However, if a baseline is
saved before the schedule planning is finished, a new baseline
can be saved over the existing baseline. If this is necessary,
you would access the Tools menu, point to tracking and then
click Save Baseline. This should only be done to reset a
baseline that was saved by accident.
We are now ready to save this project with a baseline. Read the
following instructions carefully, because once saving a project
with a baseline, it is difficult to undo any mistakes previously
made.

27. 1. First, save your current file asMyBaseline_XXX.mpp (where
XXX are your initials), without a baseline. This way, if you
made any mistakes, you can go back to MyLab5_XXX.mpp.
2. On the Project tab and the Schedule group select SetBaseline.
3. From the drop down select Set Baseline.
4. The Set Baseline window appears.
5. In the For area, be sure that the Entire Project option is
selected. Press OK.
6. Once you set a baseline, you can quickly monitor baseline
statistics for your project.
7. On the Project menu, click Project Information. In the
Project Information dialog box, click Statistics. The Project
Statistics window should appear.
Figure 4
8. The Project Statistics window will compare basic progress of
your project with your baseline. This information comprises
your Project Summary Report. (Notice that the fields for
baseline now contain information).
9. Close this window and save your file.
10. Print your ProjectSummaryReport, (from this file,

28. MyBaselineXXX.mpp). Make sure it has all appropriate
information. This will be Printout 2.
At this point, you have been introduced to the basics of project
scheduling and resource management. There is much more to
the software, but you should be encouraged to experiment and
discover on your own using on-line help or books on MS
Project.
Now that we have set a baseline for our project all that is left to
do is to implement our project and track our progress.
However, a little review before we do…
When submitting required printouts, if you are not bringing
them to class, from the Print Preview Page, take a screen shot
(in Windows <ALT><Prt Scr>) of the report and paste the
screen shot to a MS Word Document. Make sure to crop the
screen to show only the report. After cropping, resize the image
appropriately. If the printout is on more than 1 page, paste each
page individually. Save the Word document containing printouts
as Week_6_Printouts_XXX.docx (where XXX are your initials)
and submit this file to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.
Addendum
Task Information for the Beginning of Lesson 6
Project Information Statistics at the Beginning of Lesson 6
When you have completed this lesson please save it as
MyBaseline_XXX.mpp and submit the file to the Weekly iLab
Dropbox.

29. Also complete the following page and submit the Review
Question sheet to the Weekly iLab Dropbox.
Review Questions
Name ____________________________
Answer the following questions:
1) What is the difference between a task dependency and a task
constraint?
2) Give a real-world situation when you might used the
following task constraints:
a) Start No Earlier Than
b) Start No Later Than
c) Finish No Later Than
d) Finish No Earlier Than
e) Must Finish On

30. f) Must Start On
g) As Late As Possible
3) What is the importance of a baseline?
4) What is an interim plan?
Turn in this sheet with your MS Project file to the Week 6 iLab
Dropbox.
MS Project Lesson #6 Page 7