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2.0 Task Types & Task Relationships - Solutions to Exercises

The exercises in this unit are intended to familiarise you with task attributes, task parameters and network diagrams, and introduce you to setting up a simple project in MSP.

You will also be introduced to different ways of viewing information in MSP.

You should read the task information in the MSP project files for information on how the solutions have been arrived at.

 

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Exercise 1 Solution

The data in Table 2.1 is all that you need to set up the project in MSP.

Create and open a file tasks_02. Set the project calendar to development calendar and the project start date to 1st December in the current year.

 

To set all the task calendars to the development calendar:

• select all tasks. One way to do this is to select the first task and then, holding down the shift key, select the last task.
• click the task information icon
• select "advanced"
• select the development calendar

Enter the task IDs in the table entry mode exactly as shown in Table 2.1, using S for the first task and F for the last (finish) task. Make tasks S and F milestones by setting their durations to zero.

Enter the task durations in days and set the MSP task predecessors to the task numerical identifiers (ID). For example, the predecessor for task T2 in Table 2.1 is S. So set it to 1 in the MSP Gantt entry table.

Set all the task predecessors in the same way.

Set the task critical path colour to red using the Gantt Chart Wizard.

a) Right click the date bar in the Gantt chart and select: timescale, then turn off both "use fiscal year" buttons

b) Select the non-working time tab and select development calendar from the calendar drop down list. This sets up the Gantt chart view to line up with the development calendar and the displayed dates in the Gantt chart to line up with the project start date.

c) Check the project completion chart using: view/reports/overview then select top level tasks and compare the report with the predictions in Fig 2.7.

 

Check the task slack.

To view the task slack as grey lines on the Gantt chart, select views, more views, detailed Gantt.

Alternatively, click: view, table entry, schedule to see slack details listed in the table view.

 

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Exercise 2 Solution

Create a copy of tasks_02.mpp and rename it relationships_02.mpp.

 

Then set a lag time for task T4 of 2 days:

• select task 4 in the task entry table
• click the task information icon
• select predecessors from the menu
• click in the lag column entry for the task and set the lag to 2 days
• Note the lag is set with respect to the predecessor for task 4
• Keep the task relationship set at FS.

Next set task 12 to have a lead time of 1 day

• select task 12 in the task entry table
• click the task information icon
• select predecessors from the menu
• click the lag column and set the lag to -1 days

Finally, set task 2 and 7 to start at the same time

• select task 7 in the entry table
• click the task information icon
• select predecessors form the menu
• set the task relationship to SS

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Download MSP Files

Files illustrating all the above can be dowloaded from here. If you choose to download these files, be careful not to overwrite your own versions. Using right-click and then saving to a different directory is recommended.

relationships_02.mpp

tasks_02.mpp

 

 

Updated: 10/07/08 RA

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