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Microsoft project 2010 change task to recurring free download
I recently received an email regarding the use of recurring tasks in Microsoft Project. My preference is to avoid recurring tasks for a weekly status meeting in a project schedule. Depending on the complexity of the launch, you likely have status meetings every day if not multiple times during a given day. I prefer to setup my project management governance routines to include a weekly status meeting using Microsoft Outlook or corporate calendar system.
If your organization has such a requirement then a recurring task will be helpful in your resource pool utilization. In this case, a reoccuring task which occurs weekly on a given date is fine.
Some organizations try to tie every hour of every day to their project schedule. From an administrative perspective, I prefer to estimate the available resource utlizations for each resource i. Remember the project schedule is just a model of predicted tasks so I try to estimate time as best as possible. I do add the key meetings that are required to pass a milestone or tollgate to to the schedule as these do represent sign-off and approval. Obtaining customer sign-off prior to launch is a worthwhile meeting that should be on your critical path!
If you feel compelled to still use recurring tasks in MS Project, you can do so using the following procedure:. Select Insert — Recurring Task 2.
The Recurring Task Information dialogue box appears. Press Ok. For more tutorials on how to use Microsoft Project, check out our list of Microsoft Project tutorials. We want to identify any summary tasks that have a predecessor and any summary tasks that have resources assigned. One of the key lessons learned with Microsoft Project is to build a dynamic project schedule. A dynamic schedule is properly sequenced and is free of any task constraints. Microsoft Project Tutorials.
MS Project Tutorial: Should you use recurring tasks? Bonus 2 How to build a 4 week task window tutorial. Learn More. Recommended Articles.
Microsoft project 2010 change task to recurring free download. Create recurring tasks
Learn how to add or hide them. Learn more. When organizing the tasks for a project, you should plan the outline for the project in one of two ways; the top-down method or the bottom-up method.
With the top-down method, you identify the major phases first and then break the phases down into individual tasks. The top-down method gives you a version of the plan as soon as you decide on the major phases. With the bottom-up method, you list all the possible tasks first, and then you group them into phases.
You can include the project as a summary task. When you move or delete a summary task, Project moves or deletes all of its subtasks. Before you delete a summary task, outdent the subtasks you want to keep. You can change the duration of a summary task without changing each subtask. But be careful — changing the duration of the summary task does not necessarily change the durations of the subtasks. Avoid assigning resources to summary tasks.
Assign them to the subtasks instead, or you might not be able to resolve overallocations. Create and work with subtasks and summary tasks in Project desktop.
Need more help? Was this information helpful? Yes No. Thank you! Any more feedback? The more you tell us the more we can help. Now, it gets a little tricky sometimes with the information you provide for manually scheduled tasks. All that is needed for Project to draw bars on a manually scheduled task are three time values: duration, start date, and finish date. If you set two of these values for a manually scheduled task, the third value will be calculated by Project automatically, and the task will remain manually-scheduled.
Note: Tasks are manually scheduled by default. Project managers who are accustomed to automatic scheduling with past versions of Project can turn the manual scheduling feature off for specific tasks or for the entire project. Some projects, especially complicated ones, may require Project’s powerful scheduling engine to take care of scheduling for you.
To change all tasks to be automatically scheduled, click New Tasks: Automatically Schedule at the bottom of the Project application window. You can place a manually scheduled task anywhere in your schedule, and Project won’t move it.
This new feature gives you greater flexibility and control over planning and managing the schedule. Why would you care? Well, at times project schedules are often very informal. They begin as simple lists of dates from e-mails, meeting with stakeholders, or a hallway conversation. Project managers very often do not have complete information on work items. For example, they may only be aware of when a task needs to be started, but not its duration until they have an estimate from their team members.
Also, they may know how long a task will take, but they do not know it can be started until they have approval from the resource manager. You’ll never be left in the dark. Manually scheduled tasks have their own indicators and task bars to help you distinguish them from the “classic” automatically scheduled tasks.
Anything goes. When a task is in manually scheduled mode, the Start, Finish, and Duration columns can be blank or include text values in addition to recognizable dates. Switching scheduling modes You can change a task back and forth from manually scheduled to automatically scheduled. Be careful, though. When you change a task from manually scheduled to automatically scheduled, Project is going to have to make some decisions.
If a task’s duration was “A fortnight”, Project usually sets an estimated duration of “1 day? Control slippage If a manually scheduled task has to be delayed due to a slippage, its successor tasks will not be automatically pushed out.
Project managers can decide to keep the original dates if their resources are able to proceed as planned, or delay the successor tasks if there are hard dependencies. Effort-driven impacts Manually scheduled tasks cannot be set to effort-driven. The duration of a manually scheduled task will not change as more resources are assigned to it, or removed from it. Learn more about later in this article.
The following table shows how Project attributes are defined and used for scheduling manually and automatically scheduled tasks. Can be number, date, or text information, such as “14d” or “fortnight”.
Not used by Project to help schedule the project if value is not in a recognizable format for duration. Can be assigned to tasks. Used by Project to Help determine best schedule. Will change the duration of tasks if tasks are set to effort-driven, unlike manually scheduled tasks. Can be a number, date or text information, such as “Jan 30” or “Sometime soon.
Only date information can be used. Can be a date or text information, such as “Jan 30” or “Sometime soon. Can be used, but won’t change the scheduling of the task. However, task links will reschedule a task when first applied. Project and resource calendars. Automatically scheduled tasks are the classic way Project schedules your tasks. Automatic scheduling provides a highly structured, systematic means of managing project schedules.
If anything about your project changes after you create your schedule, you can update the tasks or resources and Project adjusts the schedule for you. You can enter resources in your project and then assign them to tasks to indicate which resource is responsible for completing each assignment. Not only does this help you plan project staffing, it can also help you to calculate the number of machines needed or the quantity of material to be consumed.
If you enter resources, task schedules are further refined according to the following resource information:. Other elements, such as lead time and lag time for links, task types, resource availability, and the driving resource, can affect scheduling, so understanding the effects of these elements can help you to maintain and adjust your schedule as needed.
Note: Project calculates the duration of automatically scheduled tasks based on the definitions of the duration units Click File , click Options , then click Schedule.
Just like a normal monthly calendar, the year begins in January and each week begins on Sunday or Monday. By default, when Project calculates duration units, one day equals 8 hours, one week equals 40 hours, and one month equals 20 working days. If you enter start and finish dates for tasks and don’t enter start and finish times, Project uses A. You can change a task’s scheduling back and forth from automatic to manual click File , click Options , then click Schedule.
When you change task modes, keep the following in mind. A task that is changed to automatic scheduling will have duration and dates set to Project’s default settings. For example, Project will change a manually scheduled task with a duration of “A couple weeks” to the default of “1 day?
A task that is changed to manually scheduled will retain its duration and dates. However, after the task is set to manually scheduled, the duration and dates can be any number, text, or date value.
Float also known as slack helps you find those tasks that can budge without changing the end date of your project. You may want to view tasks that currently can slip without affecting the critical path total slack or those tasks that can slip before affecting the task that they are connected to free slack. While in the Gantt chart, click Format , then select the Slack check box. Float appears as a thin line attached to the end or beginning of Gantt bars. Use the Detail Gantt view. Now, back in the Gantt chart, click Tables , then click Schedule.
If a task that is constrained to a date has a predecessor that finishes too late for the successor to begin on the date specified in the constraint, negative slack can occur.
Negative slack will even further constrain the end date of your project. Deadline dates can affect the total slack on tasks. If you enter a deadline date before the end of the task’s total slack, total slack will be recalculated by using the deadline date rather than the task’s late finish date. The task becomes critical if the total slack reaches zero. Deadline dates don’t usually affect task scheduling.
They are used to indicate a target date you don’t want to miss, without requiring you to set a task constraint that could affect scheduling if predecessor tasks change. A task with a deadline is scheduled just like any other task, but when a task finishes after its deadline, Project displays a task indicator notifying you that the task missed its deadline.
To review or change a task deadline, right-click on the task, click Task Information , then click the Advanced tab. Use the Deadline box. You can set deadlines for summary tasks as well as individual tasks. If the summary task’s deadline conflicts with any of the subtasks, the deadline indicator signifies a missed deadline among the subtasks.
The task is scheduled to finish on the deadline date, though the task could still finish after its deadline if its predecessors slipped. Calendars determine the standard working time and non-working time, such as weekends and holidays, for the project. Note: The dates of manually scheduled tasks if entered will not change based upon changes to the project or resource calendars.
Project calendars are used to determine the resource availability, how resources that are assigned to tasks are scheduled, and how the tasks themselves are scheduled. Project and task calendars are used in scheduling the tasks, and if resources are assigned to tasks, resource calendars are used as well.
When you add a task calendar to a task and set the calendar setting to Scheduling ignores resource calendars in the Task Information box, the task calendar controls the scheduling and will ignore the schedule of any resources assigned to the task. To work with calendars, click Project , then click Change Working Time. These are the foundations for the other types of calendars. You can also choose a base calendar to be the project calendar, and you can apply a base calendar to tasks as a task calendar or as the default hours for a resource calendar.
You can customize your own base calendar by using any of the base calendars provided. The Standard calendar The Standard calendar is the default calendar for the project, and is the basis for resource calendars.
This calendar reflects a traditional work schedule: Monday through Friday, A. The Hours calendar can be used when resources and tasks are scheduled for different shifts around the clock, or when equipment resources work on tasks continuously.
These set the standard working and non-working times for the project as a whole. If resource calendars or task calendars are not used, tasks are scheduled during the working time on the project calendar by default. These are usually based on the Project calendar at the time of resource creation. You can change working time or nonworking time for specific resources or a set of resources, ensuring that resources are scheduled only when they are available for work.
If you have changed working or nonworking time on a resource calendar and the resource is assigned to a task, the task is scheduled during the working time on the resource calendar. This may also affect the finish date of the task. Resources can either inherit the nonworking time from the base calendar, or override this time with nonworking time settings on the resource calendar.
These can be used to define working times for tasks outside the working times in the project calendar. Task calendars are created like other calendars.
When a task calendar is assigned to a task and the resource assigned to the task has different working times in its resource calendar, the task is scheduled for the overlapping working time of the two calendars. But you can set a task option to ignore resource calendars and schedule the task through the resource’s non-working time. If no task calendar is specified for a task, the Project calendar will be used to schedule the task.
If you don’t assign resources to tasks in your project, Project calculates the schedule using durations, task dependencies, constraints, and project and task calendar information.
If you do assign resources, the tasks are also scheduled according to resources’ calendars and assignment units, providing for more accurate scheduling. Note: Manually scheduled tasks are not affected by resource calendars.
When a resource is assigned to a manually scheduled task, the scheduling of the task will not change. An assignment is the association of a specific task with a specific resource that is responsible for completing the task.
More than one resource can be assigned to a task. Work resources, material resources, and cost resources can be assigned to tasks.
Unlike work resources, assigning material resources or cost resources to a task does not affect task scheduling. For example, in your project you have a task named Develop specifications. You also have an engineering resource, Sean.
If you assign Sean to the Develop specifications task, the scheduling of this task depends on Sean’s resource calendar and assignment units, in addition to task information such as duration, task dependencies, constraints, and calendars. In addition to scheduling according to task information, after you assign resources to the tasks in your project, Project has additional resource and assignment information to use in calculating schedule information, including:.
The amount of work or overtime work the resource is assigned to do, and how that work is distributed over time. Work distribution over time can also be affected by work contours. The number of assignment units for the resource, that is, part-time, full-time, or multiple, on the task.
The task type, which affects how a schedule changes if you revise the existing assignment. The three task types are fixed unit, fixed duration, and fixed work. Whether the task is effort-driven.
If a task is effort-driven, as resources are added or removed on the assignment, the work remains constant for the task and is redistributed among the resources. For fixed-unit tasks, for example, one result is that if more resources are assigned, a shorter duration is required to complete the task.
See above in this article to learn more about the effort-driven setting. Resource calendars. Project schedules the assigned resources based on the working and nonworking times indicated on their resource calendars.
Work contours allow you to fine-tune when resources are working on tasks, such as during a ramp-up phase. In the Task Usage view, right-click the name of the resource assigned to a task, then select a pre-defined work pattern in the Work contour list. After selecting the pattern, you can manually tweak the hours in the time-phased portion of the usage view.
To assign resources to tasks, click the Resource tab, and then click Assign Resources. Add holidays and vacation days. Display the critical path to help bring in the end date of your project. Set the start date or finish date for your project. Top-down planning. The big picture: How is a project scheduled? What are the default settings for calculating the schedule? How do constraints affect the schedule? What information can help me analyze my project’s progress?
Other elements, such as lead time and lag time, task types, resource availability, and the driving resource, can affect scheduling, so understanding the effects of these elements can help you to maintain and adjust your schedule as needed.
If you enter a start date for the project, by default, Project schedules tasks to begin on the project’s start date and calculates the project’s finish date based on the last task to finish. As you enter more information about tasks, such as task dependencies, durations, and constraints, Project adjusts the schedule to reflect more accurate dates for tasks.
When you schedule a project from the start date, all tasks start at the project start date unless you specify otherwise. With no task dependencies or constraints applied, the project’s duration is the same as the duration of the longest task.
Nearly all projects should be scheduled from a known start date. Even if you know the date that a project must be completed, scheduling from a start date gives you the maximum flexibility. You should set other constraints only when necessary. If you change your project to schedule from a finish date and it was previously scheduled from a start date, you will remove all leveling delays and leveling splits from tasks and assignments.
If you use automatic leveling to reduce resource overallocations in your project, Project will add a leveling delay after a task rather than before a task. Project calculates the duration of tasks based on the definitions of the duration units on the Calendar tab of the Options dialog box Tools menu. When you need to control the start or finish date of a task, you can change the constraint on the task. Flexible constraints work with task dependencies to make a task occur as soon or as late as the task dependency will allow.
For example, a task with an As Soon As Possible ASAP constraint and a finish-to-start dependency will be scheduled as soon as the predecessor task finishes. Inflexible constraints override any task dependencies by default and restrict a task to a date you choose.
To review or change the constraint on a task, select the task, click Task Information , and then click the Advanced tab. To review or change a task deadline, select the task, click Task Information , and then click the Advanced tab. Calendars determine the standard working time and nonworking time, such as weekends and holidays, for the project. They are used to determine the resource availability, how resources that are assigned to tasks are scheduled, and how the tasks themselves are scheduled.
Base calendars These are the foundations for the other types of calendars. Project provides three base calendars: the Standard, Hours, and Night Shift calendars. Project calendars These set the standard working and nonworking times for the project as a whole.
Resource calendars These are based on the Standard calendar by default. Task calendars These can be used to define working times for tasks outside the working times in the project calendar.
But you can set a task option to ignore resource calendars and schedule the task through the resource’s nonworking time. To work with calendars, on the Tools menu, click Change Working Time. In addition to scheduling according to task information, after you assign resources to the tasks in your project, Project has resource and assignment information to use in calculating schedule information, including:.
To assign resources to tasks, click Assign Resources. Five pieces of task information help you analyze progress as you track tasks in your project: duration, work, start date, finish date, and cost.
Variations of each of these types of fields help you compare and evaluate your progress: planned, scheduled, actual, and remaining. For example, for one task, there can be fields of information containing planned work, scheduled work, actual work, and remaining work. The contents of these fields might match one another, or they might all be different. Variances between certain fields can also be examined for useful tracking information. For this reason, these fields are referred to as tracking fields.
Planned information is also known as baseline information. When you build and refine your project to the point where you are confident that you can start the project, you have a good beginning point, or baseline. If you save baseline task information at that point, at later points throughout the project you can compare your current progress against your initial plan.
Saving the baseline is essential for meaningful project tracking and analysis. To save baseline information, click Tools , point to Tracking , and then click Save Baseline. When you save a baseline, the five key pieces of information work, cost, duration, start date, and finish date are saved for each task in the project. Later when you are tracking a particular task, you can quickly see whether you are using more or less work or cost than you had originally planned, or if the task is starting or finishing earlier or later than planned.
The baseline information is used to calculate variances against scheduled information. It is also used in many earned value calculations. You can save up to 11 different baselines. You can also save 11 interim plans, giving you the opportunity to save 11 start and finish dates for tasks. Scheduled information is the current, most up-to-date task information. The scheduled Duration, Work, and Cost fields represent the total amount for that task.
When you first begin your project, the scheduled information is similar, if not identical, to your baseline planned information. However, as tasks are completed, you make adjustments and enter actual information. You find that one task needs three more days than first expected. Another task was able to start a day early. Another task incurred an unexpected cost. You find you need to change a constraint on one task and add a task dependency on another. With these adjustments, the scheduled information is recalculated to provide you with the most up-to-date picture of your project.
When you start entering actual information on in-progress tasks, scheduled information takes that into account and recalculates accordingly. For completed tasks, scheduled information is the same as actual information.
Actual information reflects how the task was finally accomplished. You started with the planned projection of duration, work, cost, and start and finish dates. You enter progress information, or actuals, for tasks, and end up with the real picture of the completion of the task. Actuals tell you how much the task really cost, how many days of work it really took, the actual duration, and the real start and finish dates.
If you enter actual information in one or two fields, the other actual information can be calculated for you. For example, if you enter the Actual Finish date, the Actual Duration, Actual Start, and other fields can be calculated. The same is true if you enter other tracking information, such as percentage complete. For tasks not yet started or tasks in progress, there exists remaining work, remaining cost, and remaining duration.
These fields estimate the amount of time and cost left before the task is complete. Remaining fields are a projection of the future. For tasks not yet started, the contents of the Remaining Work field are the same as that of the Scheduled Work field.
For tasks in progress, remaining work is calculated as Scheduled Work — Actual Work. The same is true for the Remaining Cost and Remaining Duration fields.
If you saved a baseline, then you can take advantage of the calculations in the Variance fields. Your current scheduled information is compared with your original planned information. The Variance field shows the calculated difference between planned and scheduled information. You can add any field to any sheet view. For example, you might want to insert the Baseline Duration column next to the Scheduled Duration field in the Gantt Chart.
On the Insert menu, click Column , and then choose the field you want to show in the view. You can also apply a table that is already designed with several tracking fields. Examples include the Tracking, Work, Cost, and Variance tables. You can also create your own table that contains the tracking fields you need.
Get Started. Project Desktop. How Project schedules tasks: Behind the scenes. What do you want to learn? Yet more technical information about how Project schedules How does the project start date affect the schedule? However, you might want to schedule from a finish date when: You need to determine when a project must start so that it finishes on a specific required date.
Your project management methodology requires you to schedule from a finish date. As you work with your project that is scheduled from a finish date, be aware of differences in the way that Project handles some actions: When you enter an automatically scheduled task, Project automatically assigns the As Late As Possible ALAP constraint to the finish date of the task.
Top of Page How do task links affect the schedule? Finish-to-finish FF The dependent task B cannot be completed until the task that it depends on A is completed. Start-to-finish SF The dependent task B cannot be completed until the task that it depends on A begins. Top of Page How do constraints on tasks affect the schedule? There are three types of constraints: Flexible constraints do not have specific dates associated with them. Here are two ways to instantly view the constraints on your tasks.
The following table lists the constraints provided in Project. Top of Page How do task types affect the schedule? Each of the task types affects scheduling when you edit one of the three elements as follows.
MS Project – Recurring Tasks & Dependencies – Microsoft Community.Recurring (task field)
The Microsoft Press Store by Pearson. Inactivate tasks so they remain in the project plan but have no effect on the schedule Project Professional only. In this chapter, you examine and use a variety of advanced features in Microsoft Project These features focus on fine-tuning task details prior to saving a baseline, as well as commencing work on the project with the goal of developing the most accurate schedule representation of the tasks you anticipate for the plan.
If you are running Project Professional, you may need to make a one-time setting change. This helps ensure that the practice files you work with in this chapter do not affect your Project Server data. Finish-to-start FS : The finish date of the predecessor task determines the start date of the successor task. Start-to-start SS : The start date of the predecessor task determines the start date of the successor task. Finish-to-finish FF : The finish date of the predecessor task determines the finish date of the successor task.
Start-to-finish SF : The start date of the predecessor task determines the finish date of the successor task. When you enter tasks in Project and link them by clicking the Link Tasks button on the Task tab, the tasks are given a finish-to-start relationship. This is fine for many tasks, but you will most likely change some task relationships as you fine-tune a project plan. The following are some examples of tasks that require relationships other than finish-to-start:.
You can start setting pages as soon as you start illustration work on a book project a start-to-start relationship. This reduces the overall time required to complete the two tasks, as they are completed in parallel. Planning the editorial work for a book can begin before the manuscript is complete, but it cannot be finished until the manuscript is complete. You want the two tasks to finish at the same time a finish-to-finish relationship.
Task relationships should reflect the sequence in which work should be performed. After you have established the correct task relationships, you can fine-tune your schedule by entering overlap called lead time or delay called lag time between the finish or start dates of predecessor and successor tasks. Lag time causes the successor task to begin some time after its predecessor task concludes.
The following is an illustration of how lead and lag time affect task relationships. Assume that you initially planned the following three tasks using finish-to-start relationships. Before task 2 can begin, you need to allow an extra day for the copyedited manuscript to be shipped to the author. You do not want to add a day to the duration of task 5 because no real work will occur on that day. Instead, you enter a one-day lag between tasks 1 and 2.
However, task 3 can start as soon as task 2 is halfway completed. To make this happen, enter a 50 percent lead time between tasks 2 and 3. You can enter lead and lag time as units of time, such as two days, or as a percentage of the duration of the predecessor task, such as 50 percent. You can apply lead or lag time to any type of task relationship: finish-to-start, start-to-start, and so on.
Places in which you can enter lead or lag time include the Task Information dialog box Task tab , the Predecessors column in the Entry table, and the Task Dependency dialog box viewable by double-clicking a link line between Gantt bars. At this stage, you have an initial project plan with task names, durations, and relationships, and resource assignments.
In this exercise, you enter lead and lag time and change task relationships between predecessor and successor tasks. On the Task tab, in the Tasks group, click Inspect. The Task Inspector pane appears. You can click any item in the Task Inspector that appears in blue to get more details. In the Task Inspector pane, you can view the scheduling factors affecting this task. For task 31, you can see that its predecessor is task 30, Generate proofs. You can see in the pane that the two tasks have a finish-to-start relationship with zero lag time.
On the Task tab, in the Editing group, click Scroll to Task. On the Task tab, in the Properties group, click Information. The Task Information dialog box appears. It contains details about the currently selected task, In the Lag field for predecessor task 30, type 3d , and then click OK to close the Task Information dialog box. On the Task tab, in the Properties group, click Information , and then click the Predecessors tab.
Task 10 is now scheduled to start at the 25 percent remaining point of the duration of task 9. Should the duration of task 9 change, Project will reschedule the start of task 10 so that it maintains a 25 percent lead time. The Predecessors tab should be visible.
Note also that the Task Inspector pane in the background updates to display the scheduling details for task 14, the currently selected task. On the Predecessors tab, click in the Type column for predecessor task Assigning tasks start-to-start relationships and entering lead times where appropriate are both excellent techniques to fine-tune task relationships so that you get the results you want.
However, Project cannot automatically make such schedule adjustments for you. As project manager, you must analyze the sequences and relationships of your tasks and make those adjustments where necessary.
Microsoft Project Step by Step. Sign in. Your cart. Page 1 of 12 Next. In this chapter from Microsoft Project Step by Step , you examine and use a variety of advanced features in Microsoft Project In this chapter, you will learn how to: Adjust task links to have more control over how tasks are related. Apply a constraint to a task. Split a task to record an interruption in work. Create a task calendar and apply it to a task.
Change a task type to control how Project schedules tasks. Record deadlines for tasks. Enter a fixed cost for a task. Set up a recurring task in the project schedule. Enter a specific duration value for a summary task. Important If you are running Project Professional, you may need to make a one-time setting change. Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Save to your account.