MIS7540 Microsoft Project Exercise

Source: New Horizons Courseware at http://www.nhboston.com/xwin95.htm.)

 

PART A "Building A Schedule"

Start Date: 8/27/96

Calendar: Mon.-Sat. 6am-10am, 11am-3pm, 4pm-6pm

Sept. 2 (Labor Day) is a Holiday

There are 10hrs per day and 60hrs per week

 

  1. Tasks 2-7 are subtasks of Post Production.
  2. Tasks 9-15 are subtasks of PreProduction.
  3. Tasks 17-25 are subtasks of Production Schedule.
  4. Rearrange the main phases into a logical sequence.
  5. The three main phases will be linked together finish to start.
  6. The three sets of Scenes are subtasks of Interiors.
  7. Assign Director and Complete Screen Play must finish before the studio can Approve Director.
  8. After the Screen Play is Completed, they will need 1 week to review before continuing with the film.
  9. Build Sets, Casting and Scout locations can begin together after Studio Approves Dir/Scr. Build Sets, Casting and Scout Locations are not linked to each other.
  10. Exterior SF and Interior shooting can begin after the Begin Shooting milestone but are not dependent on each other.
  11. Because the head camera man is needed to initiate both San Francisco and New York City filming, the New York City filming must wait until San Francisco is 50% complete.
  12. The camera equipment is assigned to another project and will not be available until 9/25. This will affect the Exterior SF task.
  13. Bart Simpson, one of the principle actors, will be playing Bobby in "The Very Brady Sequel - Part II" on Monday, 10/14. So Interior Shooting must be completed by that time.
  14. The Interior Shooting scenes are linked Finish to Start in their current order.
  15. The wrap party will follow the finish of Exterior NYC and Interior.
  16. Editing and Special Effects are in a Start to Start relationship.
  17. Scoring cannot be started until Editing and Special Effects finish.
  18. Premiere Film can not start until Scoring is finished.
  19. Promotion must begin 3 full weeks before the film premieres (elapsed time).
  20. If the above is done correctly, the film will premiere on November 5th.

 

The Task List

Task Name Duration

  1. Post Production .8d
  2. Editing 9d
  3. Promotion 1d
  4. Special Effects 8d
  5. Scoring 10d
  6. Premiere Film 1d
  7. Premiere Milestone 0d
  8. Preproduction .8d
  9. Studio Approves Concept Milestone 0d
  10. Assign Director 1d
  11. Complete Screenplay 1w
  12. Studio Approves Dir/Scrnplay Milestone 0d
  13. Build Sets 8d
  14. Casting 6d
  15. Scount Locations 6d
  16. Production Schedule .8d
  17. Begin Shooting Schedule Milestone 0d
  18. Exterior SF 1w
  19. Exterior NYC 2w
  20. Interior .8d
  21. General Scenes 1,3,5,12 5d
  22. Love Scenes 4,6,7,11 4d
  23. Action Scenes 2,8,9,10 8d
  24. Wrap Party 6h
  25. Wrap Milestone 0d

 

PART B "Assigning Resources"

  1. Assign One Carpenter to Build Sets
  2. Assign Screenwriter to Complete Screenplay
  3. Assign Director to Casting
  4. Assign Director and Director of Photo to Scout Locations
  5. DO NOT OVER-ALLOCATE ANYONE ABOVE. Try splitting their time instead.
  6. Assign Two Camera Crew members and Director of Photo to Exterior SF
  7. Assign Three Camera Crew members and Director of Photo to Exterior NYC
  8. Ignore Over-Allocation and place notes on these two tasks explaining Director of Photo can handle work load of both tasks - Not worth the trouble to fix
  9. Assign everyone to Wrap Party
  10. Change the units of Carpenters on the Build Sets to three units. It will take them 6 days to complete the task..
  11. Assign Arnie, Demi, Bart and Three Camera Crew to General Scenes
  12. Assign Demi, Bart and Three Camera Crew to Love Scenes
  13. Assign Bart, Arnie and Three Camera Crew to Action Scenes
  14. Assign Editor to Editing and Special Effects, One unit each
  15. Assign Leo Burnett to Promotion
  16. Assign Composer(Default Assignment) to Scoring
  17. Assign Composer, Director, Arnie,Demi, Bart, Dir of Photo, and Screenwriter to Premiere Film

LEVELING

Part I

  1. You have over-allocated resources, have Project solve the problem
  2. Search for what changes Project made and list them
  3. You do not like that Project affected Director of Photo, so clear the delays for his tasks. You will solve the over-allocation yourself.
  4. Filter tasks list to find out the Editors over-allocation.
  5. Find the Delay field and delay one of the tasks just enough to remove the over allocation

Part II

  1. Your concerned about your later end date and think it would be better to hire another Editor instead
  2. Remove delays and replace the editor on one of the tasks with a separate resource named Editor 2 who makes $500/week

 

PART C "Tracking"

  1. Save Baseline for Entire Project
  2. Update Project through Aug 30 (0-100%)
  3. To which tasks did the updating affect?
  4. What percent complete is it?
  5. Enter Actual Finish date for Complete Screenplay as Sept 6th
  6. Enter Actual Start date/Finish date for Studio Approves Dir/Scn as Sept 7th
  7. Enter Actual Start of Build Sets as Sept 7th
  8. Build Sets Finishes following original duration
  9. Observe Actual vs baseline - Are all tasks on schedule?
  10. Is our project on schedule? If so, WHY?
  11. You notice that the other tasks following build sets are scheduled to Finish later than their baseline. Set a new baseline for them
  12. What percent of the projects total work has been completed?
  13. What percent of the projects total duration has been completed?
  14. How much have we spent?

REPORTS

Produce a report to show all uncompleted tasks with their notes, schedule, and cost information.

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This page was posted 3/19/98 and last modified on 3/19/98. It is maintained by Prof. Steven Gordon at Babson College. Comments should be sent to gordon@babson.edu