# &app; User Guide V&manrevision;

for &app; v&appversion;
2002
2003
Kurt Maute, PMP
2000
2001
Alvaro Del Castillo
2000
2001
Pedro Soria-Rodriguez
GNOME Documentation Project

&legal;

Kurt
Maute, PMP
GNOME Documentation Project

     Kurt@Maute.us

Alvaro
Del Castillo
GNOME Documentation Project

     acs@barrapunto.com

Pedro
Soria-Rodriguez
GNOME Documentation Project

     sorrodp@alum.wpi.edu

&app; Manual V&manrevision;
&date;

Kurt Maute Kurt@Maute.us

GNOME Documentation Project

MrProject User Guide
Release date of previous manual.

Alvaro Del Castillo docwriter1@gnome.org

GNOME Documentation Project

This manual describes version &appversion; of &app;

## Feedback

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the &app; application or this manual, follow the directions in the GNOME Feedback Page.

## Introduction

&app; is a general purpose project management tool that provides a variety of features, which are available via 3 separate screen layouts called views. As you will see, the views are accessed by clicking the icons in the left hand toolbar in the &app; window.

### Task View:

Tasks are also shown on the Gantt view, but the Task view shows more detail for each task.

#### MrProject Task View

Task View is used for the following:

- Task Definition - break down project deliverables into smaller, more manageable tasks

- Task Sequencing - identify dependencies between tasks and other constraints

- Task Duration Estimating - estimate the time it will take to complete the tasks

- Task Cost Calculation - estimate what it will cost to complete the tasks

### Gantt View:

The Gantt View combines the Gantt chart with a shortened version of the task view.

A Gantt chart is a graphical display of all the tasks that a project is composed of. Each bar on the chart is a graphical representation of the length of time the task is planned to take. The Gantt Chart doesn't offer any features that are not available in the other views, but it is a valuable Project Management tool for the way it allows the user to see the project data.

#### MrProject Gantt View

The Gantt View allows you to:

- View a graphical representation of the project schedule

- Manage task relationships using drag and drop

- Use Zoom in and Zoom out features to view different levels of detail

- View resources assigned to each task

### Resource View:

#### MrProject Resource View

The Resource View gives you access to the following features:

- Resource list management, including both human resources and materials

- Resource group management

- Resource cost management

## Getting Started

### To Start &app;

You can start &app; in the following ways:

Applications menu

  Choose Office MrProject .

Command line

  To start &app; from a command line, type the following command, then press Return:

  `mrproject`

  there are no command line parameters at this time.

### When You Start &app;

When you start &app;, the following window is displayed. As you can see, the Gantt Chart view is the default.

#### &app; Start Up Window

Shows &app; main window. Contains titlebar, menubar, toolbar, display area, and scrollbars. Menubar contains File, Edit, View, and Help menus.

The &app; window contains the following elements:

Menubar.

  The menus on the menubar contain all of the commands you need to work with files in &app;.

Toolbar.

  The toolbar contains a subset of the commands that you can access from the menubar.

Statusbar.

  The statusbar displays information about current &app; activity and contextual information about the menu items.

### Editing Multiple Projects

More than one project may be open at the same time. Each project will have its own MrProject window. Try it by pressing "CTRL-N" several times. You should get something similar to .

#### Several projects at the same time

Shows Gnome 2 Desktop, with three &app; windows open.

## Usage

### Open an Save Projects

To open an project, choose File Open . The Open File dialog is displayed. Select the MrProject file that you want to open, then click OK. MrProject files are stored with the extension `.mrproject`.

To save a project, choose File Save As to save a new project, or an existing project under a new file name. Choose File Save to save an existing project, keeping the same file name.

If you try to open a project file in a format that &app; does not recognize, the application displays an error message.

It is prudent to save your work periodically. &app; does not currently have a recovery feature, so if your editing session is interrupted by a power outage or other reason, you would lose any work done since your last save.

### Edit Project Properties

To edit the project properties, choose File Project Properties . In this dialog box you can edit the name of the project, its start date, the name of the project manager, the organization the project belongs to, the project phase, and the default calendar.

- The General Tab

  Its important to note that the default start date for all tasks is the project start date. Therefore, you should set the project start date before entering many tasks. In the event that you do change the project start date after tasks have been entered, they will default to the new start date, unless they're associated with a constraint, such as a predecessor task or "start no earlier than" constraint.

  This dialog also allows the user to assign a phase to the project. Phases can be added by choosing Project Edit Project Phases , which provides a dialog with a simple list of project phases and buttons to Add and Remove them. Assigning a phase to the project is for information purposes only. It has no other function at this time.

  Each project has a default calendar. The default calendar applies to every resource on the project unless otherwise specified in the resource editor. Use the select button on this dialog to change the project default calendar. See the section for more information on calendars.

  #### Project Properties

- The Custom properties Tab

  You can add custom properties to the project by clicking the add button.

  #### Custom Project Properties

  In the Custom properties add dialog, you can give your new property a label, a name, description, and set the property type to either text, integer number, or floating point number. Once you have added your new property, you can set its value by clicking in the value field of the Custom project properties dialog.

  #### Custom Project Properties Add Dialog

### Edit Project Calendars

To edit the project calendars, choose Project Manage Calendars . Project Calendars assist us in scheduling by defining when resources can be used in terms of working and nonworking days, and the hours they are available on working days. On the left is the name of the calendar being displayed, in the center is the calendar, and on the right hand side are the ranges of working hours for the selected day. The default calendar shown below depicts a typical working month, with weekends grayed out, signifying that they are nonworking days.

#### Note

In the Gantt chart, nonworking days are also grayed out. Any changes made to the project default calendar will be reflected in the Gantt Chart.

To make changes to a calendar, select the day to be changed, and then one of the 3 available radio buttons:

- Use working time from derived calendar - uses the parent calendar to determine the working time for that day. See for more information.

- Set day type to: - uses the selected day type to determine the working hours for that day. See the section on for more information.

- Custom working time - defines a unique set of working hours for a specific day.

#### Project Calendar Editor

#### Creating a New Calendar

New Calendars can be added by clicking the New button, which will launch the New Calendar dialog. The New Calendar Dialog contains a list of current calendars on the left, and on the right is a text box that allows you to name the new calendar. Below the text box are three options for creating the calendar:

- Derive from a calendar - creates a child calendar. The new calendar will inherit the settings from the parent calendar selected on the left. Any changes made to the parent calendar will be reflected in the child calendar. In the example below, "Americas" and "USA" are examples of child calendars.

- Copy an existing calendar - creates a copy of the calendar selected on the left. After the copy is made, changes made to the original calendar or its parents are not reflected in the copy. In the example below, "USA - Copy" is an example of a calendar created using this option.

- Create an empty calendar - creates a new calendar. No settings are inherited or copied. In the example below, "Empty" is a calendar that was created using this option.

##### New Calendar Dialog

#### Changing the Default Week

The default week can be changed by clicking the Default Week button, which will launch the week editor dialog. The week editor dialog contains a drop down list box that allows you to select the day of the week, and another to select the day type. This dialog also displays the working time scheduled for the selected day type. Be sure to click Apply before Close to save your changes.

##### Default Week Dialog

#### Working Time and Day Types

The working times for each day type can be changed by clicking the Working Time button, which will launch the working time dialog. The working time dialog shows a list of the available day types on the left, and the working hours for the currently selected type on the right. Time is entered in 24 hour format as am/pm indicators are not supported (i.e. 5:00 PM would be entered as 17:00).

##### Working Time Dialog

Day types can be added by choosing Project Edit Day Types This dialog displays a simple list of day types. Use the Add and Remove buttons to manage the list. Note that you cannot remove the default day types "Working" and "Nonworking".

##### Day Types Dialog

### Working with Tasks

#### Adding Tasks

To add a task, you can either click on the Insert button on the toolbar, or you can right click in the task area and choose Insert Task from the pop-up option box. These options work the same in either the Gantt View or the Task View.

To add several tasks quickly, choose Edit -> Insert Tasks , which will open the insert task dialog. This dialog allows quick entry of multiple tasks. Simply enter the name of the task and amount of work effort and press Enter. The new task will be added, and the dialog will remain open and ready for your next task entry. Details can be added later.

##### Insert Task

#### Task properties

Some task properties can be edited directly from the Gantt tasks view: the name of the task and the work effort. You can also launch the task properties dialog from here by right clicking on a task and choosing Edit task.

##### Gantt View

In the Task View you can edit more fields for a task than in the Gantt View, and is the preferred view when you start to add tasks to a project.

##### Task View

To edit all the task properties, press the right mouse button over a task and select Edit Task from the dialog that appears. Alternatively, you can select the task and use the main menu: Edit Edit Task Properties . There are several tabs to modify the properties.

- The General tab contains the following fields:

  - Name - the name of the task

  - Milestone - the milestone check box flags the task as a milestone, which disables the ability to modify the Work, Duration, Complete, and Priority fields, since a milestone signifies a significant event in the timeline of a project that has no duration or work activity of its own.

  - Fixed duration - the fixed duration option is used when the duration of a task will take a fixed amount of time regardless of the resources devoted to achieving it. For instance, the gestation period for a human baby is nine months. It cannot be sped up by addition additional resources.

    Choosing Fixed duration for a task will unlock the Duration field and allow you to enter a value for the fixed duration.

  - Work - this is the amount of effort required to complete the task

  - Duration - the amount of calendar time required to complete the task. Duration is normally calculated based on the amount of work and the resources assigned to the task. The calculation also takes calendars into account. See the section for more information.

  - Complete - allows tracking of the amount of work done for the task, entered as a percent of total work

  - Priority - sets a priority for the task. There is no specific functionality tied to this field at the moment. It is informational only

  ##### Task properties dialog

- The Resources tab allows you to assign resources to a task. Remember that resources can include materials as well as people. Click the check box in the Assigned column to allocate the resource to the current task. Use the Units field to enter the percent of the resource that is allocated to the task.

  ##### Task resources dialog

  The Gantt view will list the resources assigned to a task to the right of the bar.

  ##### A resource has been assigned to a task

- You can see in the Predecessors tab the tasks that need to be finished before the task being edited can start. In this example, we have three tasks. In , the third task, t3, requires that t2 be complete before it can start.

  ##### Task predecessors dialog

  From this dialog, you can change the task predecessor, the predecessor type, and edit the lag between the task and the predecessor. To add or remove predecessors from this dialog by clicking the Add or Remove button.

  When you add a new predecessor you need to choose the task predecessor, which you can select from the drop down list box. The next field is the Relationship type. You can choose Finish to Start (FS), Finish to Finish (FF), Start to Start (SS), or Start to Finish (SF). Finally, you can enter a lag time for the relationship, which represents the number of days after the relationship has been satisfied. For example, if you enter a lag time of 1 in a Finish to Start relationship, it means that the current task may begin 1 day after the predecessor task has completed.

  ##### Add predecessors dialog

- You can add notes to the task using the editor in the Notes tab. You can also insert the current time to the note using the button that appears in the dialog.

  ##### Task notes dialog

#### Creating subtasks

Complex tasks can be broken down into subtasks to make them easier to Manage. A task that is divided in subtasks is called a summary task. The summary task's start date and the duration can't be edited because it is calculated from the subtasks.

##### A Task with subtasks

#### Task dependencies

Another way of looking at predecessors.

To start a task, you often have to finish other tasks first. This can either be set up by using the Predecessors tab in the task edit dialog as shown above, or it can be done graphically by using the Gantt chart. If you click on the bar that represents the predecessor (and hold down the mouse button), an arrow appears. dragging that arrow onto the bar that represents the dependent task will create the dependency. The Gantt chart will immediately reflect the new relationship by shifting the dependent task to start when the predecessor is scheduled to complete. By creating a dependent relationship this way, MrProject always assumes a Finish Start relationship with zero lag time. You can modify this relationship by opening the task edit dialog of the dependent task, and selecting the Predecessors tab.

##### Creating a task dependency

If you want to remove the dependency, you can select either of the two tasks and delete the link by clicking the Unlink icon on the toolbar, or by right clicking either task and selecting Unlink from the pop up.

##### A dependency has been created

#### Moving tasks

If you need to rearrange the order that tasks are displayed in the task view, you can do so by selecting the task you want to move, and utilizing the Move Up and Move Down icons on the toolbar.

##### Moving task up and down

#### Zooming in the Gantt View

The tasks in a project can have very different durations and sometimes you need to have a close view of the time line to see the details of some task dependencies, but other times you need a higher level view of the whole project. To support both needs, MrProject has a powerful zoom system that lets you zoom to fit the complete project, zoom in the view or zoom out incrementally to whatever size you like (hours being the lower limit, and years is the upper limit).

Normally the best way to view a project is with zoom to fit.

##### Zoom to fit the project

You can use the Zoom in and Zoom out icons to select the length of time line in which you want to work. Notice that when the view is zoomed to a detailed level, nonworking hours are shown for each day in addition to weekends.

##### Zoom in a zone of the project

#### Task constraints

All tasks begin on the project start date by default (as shown by the constraint type As soon as possible in ). One exception is the case where a dependency is set up. There are times, however, that a dependency doesn't exist, but the task must start on, or no earlier than a specific date. You can specify these constraints in the start date dialog editor.

##### Task constraints

You can delete the constraint for the current task using Edit Reset constraint , or for all the tasks by choosing Edit Reset all constraints .

#### Custom Task Properties

Custom properties can be added in the task view by choosing Edit->Edit Custom Properties. Clicking the Add button will open the New Property dialog.

##### Task constraints

In the New Property dialog, you can give your new property a label, a name, description, and set the property type to either text, integer number, or floating point number. Once you have added your new property, it will show as a new column in the Task view.

##### Task constraints

### Working with Resources

#### Resource Properties

The Resource View in MrProject shows the following properties:

- Name: the resource name

- Type: Currently available types are Work and Material. Work is for human resources working in the project, and Material is for non-human resources required to complete the project.

- Group: the group that the resource is assigned. This column offers a dropdown list of defined groups. You must use the Group Editor to define groups before assigning them in the Resource View.

- Email: the electronic mail to contact this resource.

- Cost: the cost per hour to use this resource. The cost is not currency specific, so in multinational projects, it is important to decide on a single currency to be used for tracking cost.

##### Resource View

As with the columns from other MrProject views, you can sort the columns by clicking on the column name. The following figure is an example of the resource view sorted by the name column.

##### Sorting in the resources editor

#### Adding Resources

Resources can be added by choosing the Insert button, or by choosing Edit->Insert Resource. To add multiple resources quickly, choose Edit->Insert Resources, which will open the Insert Resource dialog. In a fashion similar to , you can quickly enter multiple resources and add detail at a later time.

##### Insert Resource

#### Resource Properties Dialog

To edit resource properties that are not displayed in the resource view, right click on the resource and choose Edit resource. The General tab shows the same items that are in the resource view.

##### Resource Properties Dialog - General Tab

The Calendar tab allows us to assign a calendar to a specific resource if the project default calendar is not appropriate. See for more information on setting the project default calendar. To change the calendar assigned to a resource, simply select it from the list. If you would like to create a new calendar for this resource, you can do so from this dialog by clicking the Edit calendars button. See the section for more information.

Any tasks assigned to a resource with a specific calendar will use the calendar assigned to the resource to schedule the work to be done. Therefore, if a task appears to be scheduled for a longer than expected time period, it is likely that the resource is using a calendar that is different from the project default.

##### Resource Properties Dialog - Calendar Tab

#### Resource Custom Properties

Custom Properties are available in the Resource View just as they are in the task view, and the functionaliy is identical. To add custom properties to the resources, choose Edit->Edit Custom Properties. See the section for more information.

#### Group editor

With the group editor you can define groups to be used to classify your resources. A group has a name, a manager, telephone, email, and finally, an option to specify the default group. If you specify a default group, every new resource that you add will placed in this group. Of course, you can still change the group to another as needed.

##### Group editor

#### Printing

You can print your project information by choosing File->Print or clicking the Print button on the task bar.

##### Note

The Print Preview button is available in the Print dialog regardless of what tab is currently visible.

- The Print Project dialog allows you to choose between printing on available printers, or to a PDF file. If you choose to print to a PDF file, your location options will change so that you can specify the path and filename of the output file.

  ##### Printer Tab

- In the Select Views tab, you can choose to print the Gannt, Task, or Resource views, or all of them. The default is all.

  ##### Select Views Tab

- The Paper tab allows you to specify the size, orientation, and layout of your paper prior to printing.

  ##### Paper Tab

## About &app;

&app; was written by CodeFactory AB and GNOME community volunteers. (mrproject-team@codefactory.se). To find more information about &app;, please visit the &app; Web page.

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding this application or this manual, you can submit them using bugzilla.

Another excellent source of information are the MrProject mailing lists. There are separate lists for users and developers. Subscribe to whatever interests you.

This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public license as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. A copy of this license can be found at this link, or in the file COPYING included with the source code of this program.

## Project Management Web Resources

The PMI Web Site

## Bibliography

PMBOK Project Management Institute 2000 Project Management Institute, Inc. 1-880410-23-0 Project Management Institute, Inc.

### A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)