Microsoft Project 2013 – Create Project – Set Project Information

I would like to explain complete Project creation, from Starting of the Project to Project Closure. I have explained, Project Plan creation, in my previous Article “Microsoft Project: Creating a Project Plan“; and it was very high level.

Through this series of articles, I would like to explain more (in detail) about Project Creation. Mostly, I try to cover all the features which are in Microsoft Project 2013; to support, Project WBS, Schedule Preparation, Tracking the Project Budget, Managing Resources, Status Updates, etc, through these Articles.

Which Project do we Create as an Example?

Yes, which Project do we Create as an Example in order to cover all the aspects of Project Management.? We must consider, a Bigger Project; so that we get an opportunity to go through each and every Project Management Process; and we get an opportunity to touch all the features available in Microsoft Project 2013.

Keeping this in mind, I considered “NASA’s Parker Solar Probe” as our example Project. I took this as an example Project in my previous Article also “Project Management : Process Groups“. Similarly, we will take another Project as an example; assuming we need to develop the “Space Debris Robo” to clean up the garbage in the Space.

What I will do here is; through the series of Articles, I will explain Project Management Processes; and how we implement those through Microsoft Project 2013; taking “Space Debris Robo” as an example Project.

What triggers to Create a Project?

We cannot simply create a Project without any business need or demand. For example, “Space Debris Robo” what we have assumed to create is  “To clean-up the garbage in the Space” to avoid Satellite collisions. So, we have the NEED to create a Project.

There are so many Processes we need to follow, to Create & manage the Project until the Closure. Before we start the Project; we will have some documents, with the initial Scope, Budget & Schedule, etc., details. I will discuss more of these in my upcoming Articles.

Lets’ assume we have this high-level requirement or statement to start the Project:

“We need to design & develop a Satellite Robo to clean-up the garbage found in the Solar System. This garbage is harmful to the Satellites; causing damage. We need to start this Project now (the Start of October 2018) and target to complete the project by end of 2020. The allotted budget for the project is the US $ 1.0 billion.”

Lets’ start with Creating a Project using Microsoft Project 2013: based on the above statement.

Step 1. Open Microsoft Project 2013 Application. And select “Blank Project” to start the Project. I have selected “Blank Project” to start the Project from the beginning. So that I will get a chance to cover most of the things we do in Microsoft Project 2013.

Microsoft Project 2013, will create a blank project for us. It means, it doesn’t have any Tasks added, NO Project timelines set, etc.

Step 2. The first thing we need to do is, set the Project details. Based on the above statement; we know, when the Project starts & ends dates. These may change later, but lets’ set the information that we have at the moment.

Click on the PROJECT tab -> and then click on “Project Information“. Microsoft Project 2013 will open the “Project Information” dialog; to allow us to set the Project start & end dates.

From the “Project Information” dialog:

• Set the “Start date:” as of October 1st, 2018.
• Set the “Current date:” by default shows the current date. We can keep it as it is, for the time being.
• And “Finish date:” is set automatically, based on the Tasks we added to the Project. Now, no Tasks are available; so, the Finish dates will be the same as the current date.
• Keep the default value “NA” for the “Status date:“. We will use this field later; when we calculate Earned Values. Will explain this in the next Articles.
• Set “Schedule from:” as “Project Start Date“. We can also start the Project Schedule from Finish Date for the backward scheduling. Notice that, default constraint for the Tasks is set to “As Soon As Possible (ASAP)”.
• We need to select the Calendar for the Project from the “Calendar:” field. Select Standard calendar. Standard calendars have the working times; 8 AM to 5 PM, and 12 PM to 1 PM is the non-working time. Workdays are from Monday to Friday.
• Keep default value 500 in the “Priority:” field. It indicates the Priority of the Project (high number – highest priority. We can give the number from 0 – 1000). Will discuss more of this in the coming Articles.
• Click on the OK button to apply the changes.

You can see the Timeline set with both Start & Finish dates.

Step 3. Save the Project by clicking on the Save icon on the top of the Microsoft Project 2013 Application window.

I saved the Project, as “Space-Debris-Robo.mpp”.

Now we have the Blank Project, saved with Start & Finish dates.

Another important step we need to do is; set up the Project Options; for working with Project. I will explain this in my next article.

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