WORK PROGRAM BY MICROSOFT PROJECT : STEP BY STEP GUIDE

Work program is an important element in any Construction project. It is a document where it will become a guide for those involve in the project  on when to start and complete a particular project component or task. In actual fact work program is contractor plan on when to start the project and how we plan to complete the hole project. A project without work program, in other words, is a project without target and is about to fail. As the successful person always say “ FAILURE TO PLAN IS A PLAN TO FAIL”.

There is numbers of software that can be utilized to create a work program. Among them are Microsoft Projects, Primavera and  Agile project planning. However in this article, we will show how to create a work program by using MICROSOFT PROJECT. We are using MICROSOFT PROJECT 2010 VERSION (Trial Version Copy)

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Microsoft project can be purchase on-line through Microsoft website.

How to create the work program using Microsoft Project?  Below is basic step to step.

Step 1:

Open your Microsoft project software. Below is how the Microsoft project look like.

Under Default display you will find there is eight (8) columns available. The column named as indicator, task, duration, start, finish, predecessor, resources and add new column.

 Step 2:

Set up the working time for your calendar. This can be done by clicking on the FILE tab.

A display like this will appear on your screen. Next, click the “OPTION” button on the display page.  A “Project option” will appear as below.

At this “Project Option” page, click the “schedule” button. It will bring you to the display as below.

On this page, you can start customized your working days, working hours and many more to suite your requirement. One you done with the option you can save your file under a name.

  

 Step 3:

Start inserting all of the scope of works that necessary to complete the whole project. To do this. Click on the “TASK” tab. The window is as below.

Inside the “Task Name” column, you can start type in ever task that is needed to complete the whole Project. Below is how the completed task looks like.

After finish key-in all the task. Now you can arrange the task into level.

Step 4:

Select the task that you want it to be a sub-task to the earlier task , then click the indent task icon to make it a sub-task.

Below is how the partially complete Work Program look like after the task being arrange into different level.

  

Step 5:

Insert the Duration for each of the task in the Duration column. Below how it look like after you insert the duration.

Step 6:

Insert your start date for the first task that you plan to become the first activity for the whole project. This first task should be a task that must start in order for the project to start.  The start date must be inserted in the Start column. Your finish date for the task will be automatically calculated by Microsoft project software. Your next subsequence task start and finish date will be calculated automatically after you insert the Predecessor for each of the Task.

Below is how your partially completed work program looks like.

Step 7:

For each task in your work program, insert the predecessor task number in the predecessor column.. Predecessor is a task that starts before this task. By doing this it will link the task to another task. Below is how the work program appears on your screen after you completed this step.

Now after this step 7, your already complete the whole scheduling works. This is already a complete work program. In actual on screen display you will see it like the picture below.

From the display, you can see on your right, there is bar chart for each of the task and it is link to another task. This chart show how each of the task link to another or in another word sequence of each task. The arrow from one bar to another bar is showing the sequence of the task which automatically generated when you key-in each of the predecessor for each of the task. This chart is called Gantt chart.

In real construction project there is lot of task involve in order for contractor to complete the whole project. In this situation we need to identify which is the longest sequence of task that will be critical in the project. In other words, if one of the task is delayed it will delayed the whole project. How to Identify it by using Microsoft Project Software. Read the step 8 below.

  

Step 8:

To identify the longest critical sequence of task in a project click the “FORMAT TAB”.

Under the “Format” word (as picture above), you can see the word “Critical task”, “Slack” and “Late Task”. Click the box next to the” Critical Task”.  It will automatically generate which sequence of work is Critical. This method is called “Critical Path Method”.

Once you are done with this action, it should display a series of red bar which these are the critical task that MUST NOT BE DELAYED IT START AND FINISHED DATE. Contractor needs to Start this these critical task as planned in the work program or you will not be able to complete the whole project as planned.

 The picture below is showing the Critical task of the project and also it is the Critical path for the whole project. Delaying either one of the task within this path resulted in delay in completion of the project.