Basic Knowledge
If a person is new to MS Project, he/she has to know some basic terminologies and should have to learn it. The good thing about this article is that I am going to elaborate Project terminologies from the basic level. Some of these terms I will explain are the following:
- Project
- Task
- Resource
- Assignment
Project
For the production of a unique product, a project is a template that defines the entire product with its goals, starting and finishing time, resources and cost. Each project has a specific starting date and ending date. Details are created in the form of a plan for the organization for generating the desired outcome after the implementation of the plan.
Task
After the introduction of project, it is important to get know about task. A project plan is based on tasks. A single thing to be completed is represented by a task. List of tasks to be completed leads towards the achieving of the outcomes that are required for the project. “Things to do” can be said as a list of tasks.
Resources
Resources are the most important part for the accomplishment of the task. A resource can be used to complete the task. Resource can be defined in the form of many terminologies as some are mentioned below,
- People
- Machinery
- Material
- Money
Assignment
Task always define that what to do and the resource list always define the resources and the next thing exist that is called assignment of the task to the resource in the best way. That can be said in the field of project management as “Resource Assignment”.
Navigation MS Project
So, starting with MS project and a new project will be created. If you have some previous projects, you will see the list in the Recent list. When you create a new project, you will see a list of preloaded templates.
- Click on Blank Project
![MS Project]()
After clicking on the blank project, a new screen will appear, which will be splitted into different areas. The most important thing is to recognize all the areas of the screen in order for a successful implementation of the project. The default view is always show in the form of Gantt with the view of timeline. I am going to elaborate some areas:
- Quick Access Toolbar
- Ribbon
- Timeline
- Table Area
- Chart Area
- Status Bar
Quick Access Tool Bar and Ribbon
For the access of the main functionalities and the required feature that is always provided by a Quick Access Tool Bar and a Ribbon. That is always elaborated on the top of the screen. The toolbar can be customized according to our requirement.
Ribbon
There are seven tabs in the ribbon that are mentioned below and will be described later in the next parts,
- File
- Task
- Resource
- Report
- Project
- View
- Format
Each tab consists of a button with its commands. Task will be created by the Task Tab and new task will be created. The ribbon can also be hidden by selecting the collapse. Ribbon will be described in next parts with details.
Timeline
Timeline shows the tasks and the key stages as a “Bird eye view” of project plan which is sharable with MS other services. If a task needs to be appeared on the timeline that will be decided by the user which task to be viewed there. Project schedules play an important role if it changes the dates for the task will automatically change according to schedule.
Table Area
The rows and columns are defined in the table area like in the worksheet. With the view of Gantt Chart view tasks displays in rows and the piece of information related to task is shown in the columns. Column of the task can be hidden. Coloumns for additional task can be generated. The scroll bar can be used for navigating of horizontally and vertically.
Chart Area
In the right of the table the chart area is shown and each taskbar is representing there the starting and ending dates of task in the form of duration. The chart is set to “Days” by default and 8 hours as a working hour in a day for a resource.
Status Bar
In the bottom of the window, there is a status bar that shows the status of current activity. The window also has shortcuts to dissimilar views, and sliders for zooming.