I recently purchased the MS Project 2016 Live Lessons course, which has both traditional (waterfall) and Agile content. It has been an invaluable learning experience for me.
The course provides a well-structured approach to understanding how MS Project, which can be effectively used for traditional project management and also for Agile project management. I've been using the CHAMP certification course in parallel with MS Project Live Lessons.
The current review is more with respect to the MSP Live Lessons as I've started getting into CHAMP.
What I Liked?
Following are the ones I liked most about the courses.
Comprehensive Content: The courses cover everything from Traditional and Agile fundamentals to advanced MS Project features.
Practical Approach: The courses have hands-on exercises and real-world examples helped me grasp key concepts.
Clear Instructions: The instructor explains complex topics in a simple and easy-to-follow manner.
Great for Project Managers: The courses are perfect for anyone managing Traditional or Agile projects and looking to streamline planning and execution. There is one lesson for Agile.
My Key Takeaways
I now feel confident using MS Project to manage Traditional and needed Agile workflows, track progress, and improve team collaboration.
I highly recommended for professionals looking to enhance their project management skills with Agile methodologies.
Features in the Courses
Following are the unique and distinct aspects of these courses.
1. Hands-on Practical Approach
The course includes real-world scenarios, case studies, and interactive exercises to ensure learners can apply their knowledge in actual projects.
2. Seamless Integration of Traditional and Agile with MS Project
Along with the traditional MS Project courses, this course specifically focuses on how Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, etc.) can be implemented within MS Project. As I'm using both CHAMP and MSP courses, I use both to learn traditional with agile.
3. Step-by-Step Guidance
The instructor breaks down complex Agile and MS Project functionalities into simple, actionable steps, making it easy to follow along—even for beginners.
4. Balanced Focus on Traditional and Agile Methods
These courses are well-suited for hybrid project managers as it provides insights into how with MS Project you can manage both Waterfall and Agile approaches.
It covers Agile-specific tools such as Sprint planning, task boards, burndown charts, and backlog management, making it suitable for Agile project managers as well.
Brief Profile: Sanjeev Kaushal, PMP
Current Role:Project Manager with over 10 years of experience in Software Development.
In theearlier article, we learned theFormat () function. This function is used to format the Planned % Numbers given when you plan, baseline and track your project. In this article, we will learn how to build a histogram report using the available functionality in MS Project.
As noted in the previous article, your stakeholders will not see the data, but the report. Hence, it’s important that you learn it well.
Work Packages A1, B1 and C1 are 100% complete – both planned and actual.
Work Package D1 has been delayed and it’s actually 33% complete, though per plan, it should have been completed.
Phase – 1 end milestone is 50% complete.
Under Phase – 2,
Work Packages A2 and B2 are 75% and 50% complete, respectively. Ideally, per plan, they should have been completed.
Work Package C1 started late when compared with the baseline (baseline date is shown in the left column) and it’s actually 14% complete, though per plan, it should be 20% completed.
It’s important to note that the status date is set as September 15, 2025 (9/15/25). It’s highlighted above.
We will start to create a histogram by going to the Report tab > New Report > Chart, as shown below.
It’ll pop-up a message to give a name to the report. Provide the name as “Planned Vs Actual - Histogram Report”. A dummy report will be auto-created. You can change the name to “Planned Vs. Actual Percent Complete - Histogram Report” to have more clarity.
As shown, we have three fields in the above dummy report – Actual Work, Remaining Work and Work. We will remove these fields and have out fields (Number 3 and % Complete) added to it.
Remove the Default Fields in the Histogram
To remove the fields, select the Chart Area, right click and choose “Show Field List” command. Next from the Field List pane, select the fields and remove them by using “Remove Field” command. You can also deselect the fields from fields available under the “Work” section.
Add Our Fields into the Histogram
Now that we have removed the fields, we have to add our own custom fields. We will add two fields:
Number3 custom field: It’ll be available under Number > Custom.
% Complete field: It’s available under Number.
Both of the above fields are Task related fields. With it, the histogram will be created by taking Number3 and % Complete field.
And don’t forget to change the Outline Level to Level 3 from Level 1. Because our work packages are at Level 3!
Next, change the labels of these fields to be displayed on the report. Do the following changes:
Number3 will be changed to Planned % Complete.
% Complete will be changed to Actual % Complete.
This can be done by selecting the respective field, right clicking and choosing “Field Settings”. In the popped-up message, provide the labeling. This is shown below.
Add and Format the Data Labels
Next, we add the data labels to the columns of the histogram. There are two columns for the two fields of “Planned % Complete” and “Actual % Complete”. These are represented in blue and orange color, respectively. For these we have the data labels, i.e., the % value.
To add the data labels for the columns in the histogram, select any column, right click and choose “Add Data Labels” command. This should be done for both types of columns. Once you are done, the report will come as shown below.
As you can see above, there are data labels added for both Planned % Complete and Actual % Complete. But for the former, the % notation next to the number is missing. For this purpose, we will provide the formatting. To do so, select the Planned % Complete Data Labels, right click and choose “Format Data Labels” command.
In the shown Format Data Labels pane (below), select the Label options and then select the Custom category for the Number. This is shown below.
It’s important to note that the category of label here is custom and type given is “#,##0%”. This way the proper formatting will happen for the labels with respect to the Planned % Complete field, which is shown below.
As shown above, the formatting for Planned % Complete field is clearly shown with % in the notations for the blue colored columns in the histogram.
In addition, we have to change the data series overlap and gap width so that there is a clearer visualization. The data series are with respect to the columns. To do so, select the Planned % Complete Data Labels, right click and choose the “Format Data Series” command. Then provide the needed value, which is shown below.
Isn’t much clearer now than before?
Change the Color Coding
Our next and final step is to change the colors for the columns in the histogram. For the Planned % Complete column of the histogram, I’ve taken green color, whereas for the Actual % Complete I’ve taken the purple color. This can be done by going to the Task tab > Font group > Theme colors command.
In addition, we will also make the labels bold and respective color coded. I’ll also change the rotation of the X-axis to 45%, which can be done by selecting the X-axis (the work package notations), right click and choosing the Format Axis option.
As shown above, the custom angle given is -45 degree.
Final Touches
Our final histogram comes as shown below.
This can be then transported to a PDF file, an image file or a power point presentation. For example, one can use the export to PDF function of MS Project using the backstage view.
When exported to the PDF, we will have the following view.
Last Words
That’s it! It might look like a number of steps, but if you go through sincerely and practice a few times, you can easily create this report in a matter of minutes.
MS Project is a complex tool, but comes with a lot of powerful functionalities. The reporting functionalities given are quite good and you can use them to generate the report for Planned Vs. Actual % Complete.
I receive a number of questions on the creation of this histogram. I hope this article helps you to prepare the needed histogram anytime in your project planning and tracking.
One of the most read articles in this website is Planned and Actual Percent Complete with MS Project. I periodically receive questions on it as MS Project practitioners need this functionality. By default, the ‘% complete’ (Actual % Complete) field is available in MS Project software, but not the Planned % Complete.
The Problem
Now, while data is needed, your stakeholders would like to see the reports – most likely in ahistogram. I realized it’s easier said than done for many as they struggle to format the field in certain special situations and hence their report doesn’t come properly. For example, when you add a special task into the already baselined plan, and try to determine the Planned and Actual % complete, you will get the following numbers.
As shown:
I’ve added a new task: Special Task of 2 days duration.
When tracked, not so readable numbers of 68.8888888888889% is coming for the Top Summary Task and 36.3636363636364% is coming for the Phase – 2 Summary Task.
The above numbers are not properly readable and hence, won’t be visualizable with our histogram report. You can see the above numbers in this video at 4m:37s.
expression Any valid string or numeric expression.
In our case, I’ve concatenated the “%” into the ‘Number 3’ custom field and have this expression. It’s noted as:
Text1: cStr ([Number3] & “%”)
The Format () Function
The Format () function available for MS Project custom fields is quite useful in this scenario. In this article, we will understand more of it. In an upcoming article, I’ll show how to build the Planned Vs. Actual % Complete in a histogram.
Again, the format function is noted in this link of project functions for custom fields for MS Project. While it’s noted for MS Project 2019, these fields and functions are applicable for later versions of MS Project.
For the Format () function, the documentation notes the following.
format Optional; a valid named or user-defined format expression.
firstdayofweek Optional; a Constant that specifies the first day of the week.
firstweekofyear Optional; a Constant that specifies the first week of the year.
It’s clearly saying that the Format () function must have a valid expression. It's followed by a ‘format”, which is optional and it can be user-defined format. The final two – firstdayofweek and firstweekofyear – are optional.
Examples of Format () Function
Let’s take some examples to understand as there is no better way to learn! As shown below, I’ve two custom fields:
Number1 – A number custom field. There is no formula given for this field.
Formatted Number1 – A text custom field to have the formatted expression for Number1. The formula given for this custom field is Format([Number1],"#0.000"). It tells to format the Number1 with user defined format of ‘#0.000’.
Do note that I’m directly using the Gantt Chart view of MS Project software.
In the Number1 custom field, I’ll enter a variety of numbers (positive, negative, with decimals etc.) and the formatted expression will be auto-populated in the Formatted Number1 custom field.
Next, as I enter the numbers, the formatted expression of these numbers is shown in the next column. This is depicted below.
Let’s understand the above formatting:
For 23, it returns 23.000. In other words, Format (23, “#0.000”) returns 23.000.
Format (45.55, “#0.000”) will return 45.550.
Format (3.35, “#0.000”) will return 3.350.
Format (-4, “#0.000”) will return -4.000.
Format (-5.76, “#0.000”) will return -5.760.
Format (0, “#0.000”) will return 0.000.
You’d have understood why that is the case. The Format () function is taking the number and formatting with “#0.000” expression.
The ‘#’ in the expression, before the decimal point, denotes any number.
The ‘0’ in the expression, before the decimal point, is specifically to include the zero. If this is not given, then Format (0, “#.000”) with only a “#” will return ‘.000’. Note that a zero is missing before the decimal. We don’t want that! Do we?
The three zeroes, after the decimal, results in the expressions including 3 points after the decimal. If you have four zeros, then it will have 4 points after the decimal.
Other Styles of Formatting
In our previous example, we used Format([Number1], “#0.000”) with the user-defined format expression of ‘#0.000’. Others can be:
String = Format(177.8, "###0.00") will return “177.80 ".
String = Format(4499.7, "##,##0.00") will return "4,499.70".
String = Format(9, "0.00%") will return "900.00%".
Interpreting the above formatted expressions:
In the first case, we have three hashes (#) followed with a zero (0), before the decimal and two zeros after the decimal. We received the corresponding formatted number.
In the second case, we have a comma before the decimal and hence, a comma is included in the formatted output string.
The last case is interesting to note! We don’t have any hash before the decimal, and we have a “%” included and hence, the resulting formatted expression has been multiplied by 100!
Solution to Our Problem
Remember the first problem we started with the for Planned Vs. Actual Percent Complete?
Now, I believe, you can address the problem. We have to simply change the formatting of the Number3 custom field. The formula used will be the following:
I’ve additionally used the cStr (“%”) to display the % notation next to the number. In the custom field it will be used as shown below.
Next, when you apply the above formula, the value will come properly as shown below.
As shown above:
Now, for the top summary task, instead of68.8888888888889%, we have 68.89% being shown.
For the Phase – 2 summary task, instead of36.3636363636364%, we are having 36.36%.
Aren’t these numbers more readable?
Conclusion
There are a number of custom fields and functions available in MS Project software. I'd definitely suggest you keep this link handy, if you want to know more on custom fields and working on them. You can also read the following two foundational articles:
The Format () function is quite helpful if you are using MS Project custom fields. As we learned in this article, this function can format any type of number in the way you want.
In addition, with this Format () function we will have a better report, which we are going to see in the next article.
My whole 25 years’ experience is in heavy equipment manufacturing and construction. For the last 10 years, I’ve been responsible for managing project teams delivering orders with respect to various mega projects in the Oil & Gas and Energy sectors.
Though I’m skilled enough to monitor schedules and resource allocation across multiple projects, I didn’t have hands-on experience in preparing schedules using software tools.
I believed having a certain level of fluency and expertise in MS project software tool would be helpful to analyse complex schedules and manage shared resources without too much dependency on schedulers.
Seamless integration of the theoretical concepts from the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) guide to software application usage in MS Project.
Simple and short videos, which makes it much easier to understand for any level.
Clarity on each topic has been reinforced by practical and quiz questions at the end of every lesson.
Following topics helped me mostly in managing my work effectively:
Analyzing Project: Critical path analysis/measurement (CPA/CPM) and schedule compression techniques.
Tracking Project: Establishing the baselines for the project and determining the variances.
Project Reporting: Generating easy to understand infographics.
In this course, other areas such as Resource Levelling, Resource Pooling, Earned Value Management etc. are extremely beneficial and worth highlighting.
I received a number of key-board shortcuts, tips and tricks provided towards the end of the course, and they are very useful.
Conclusion
I would recommend this courseto any project professional, either beginner or experienced to gain an in-depth understanding of the key project concepts along with basic skills to work on the wonderful MS Project software application.
Mr Satya Narayan Dash is an inspiring teacher, and the entire course module has been compiled brilliantly to suit all kinds of learners at their own pace.
Brief Profile: Mukundan Vikkath, PMP: Currently working as Project Management Department Manager in a leading Heavy Equipment Manufacturing Company in the Middle-East.
A project, unlike an operation, is a temporary endeavor. Because of this fact, every project will have a beginning and an end. There can be multiple projects launched within a program life cycle or a product life cycle. It’s also possible that a project can be specifically chartered within a portfolio, or a greenfield project can be launched independently by an organization. Regardless, a project always will have a definitive end.
The role of a project manager (PM) is not only to plan, execute, and track a project, but that of closing a project properly. I see many PMs use the MS Project software tool to work on a project over its life cycle, but most don’t use MS Project to close the project.
MS Project actually provides a number of functionalities with which a PM can close a project. There are inherent and intrinsic good reasons for closing a project, such as:
Informs the stakeholders that the project is closed,
Releases the project resources to be used for other organizational initiatives,
Helps the current project team on the final performance of the project,
Archives documentation that can help as Lessons Learned for other PMs in the organization and for future projects,
Allows the template from the closed project to be (re)used in other projects.
Let’s explore the various activities involved in closing a project using MS Project.
Conduct a Variance Analysis
This is usually the first thing a PM should do. The results of the variance analysis are included in the Final Report of the project. Variance and Variance Analysis are two separate, but intertwined terms.
Variance is the quantifiable difference from the baseline or a known boundary.
Variance analysis, on the other hand, is a technique with which one can know the cause and degree of difference between latest baseline and actual performance.
With variance analysis, you can know which activities or work packages in the project performed according to the plan and which occurred off the plan. The MS Project software comes with a number of baselines, which can be seen by going to Project tab > Schedule group, and executing the Set Baseline… command.
Let’s check a few fields in the above table to see how they are in-built into the MS Project software. The default Entry table of MS Project doesn’t show various variance fields, although you can add those fields/columns into the table and get the displayed view.
To see the start and finish variances, switch to Variance table by going to View tab > Data group > Tables drop-down menu.
By switching to this table, you will see the populated fields for Start and Finish Variances for the activities, work packages, and the entire project.
As shown in the above figure:
For the work package Requirements and Analysis, Start Variance = 0 days and Finish Variance = 7 days.
For the activity PRD Preparation, under the above work package, Start Variance = 2 days and Finish Variance = 5 days.
For the activity PRD Approval, again under the above work package, Start Variance = 6 days and Finish Variance = 7 days.
Similarly, you can see the work variance by switching to the Work table and the cost variance by switching to Cost table.
Inactivate the Unnecessary Tasks
It’s possible that during a project life cycle, some planned activities are never executed. For example, it may be that some planned meetings didn’t materialize, planned tasks were never started, or your team didn’t execute a set of risk mitigation tasks because the risk(s) didn’t occur.
If you kept some of these tasks instead of deleting them because of an alternate plan of action, changing scope, or stakeholders modifying their needs and expectations, you are left with a number of unnecessary tasks. These should be inactivated as you close the project. For this purpose, you can apply the Unstarted Tasks built-in filter by going to View tab > Data group > Filter drop-down menu. Choose the More Filters… option and click the Apply button.
With the Unstarted Tasks filter applied, the tasks, which are not at all started, will be visible in your project view.
You can select these filtered tasks to be inactivated by executing the Inactivate command under Task view > Schedule tab. You can also inactivate by right-clicking on the task or on multiple tasks, and selecting the Inactivate Task command from the popped-up menu.
As shown above, two tasks, “Build script files for automation” and “Migration and backup,” have been inactivated.
Set the Remaining Duration to Zero
When you close a project, it’s also best practice to set the remaining duration of the incomplete tasks to zero.
In this case, we will do this by utilizing the Incomplete Tasks built-in filter, which can be selected by going to View tab > Data group > Filter drop-down menu. You can also select this filter from the More Filters… option, as we have seen earlier.
To set the remaining duration to zero for the tasks, you can use the Tracking table view. Access by going to View tab > Data group > Table drop-down menu. This is depicted in the below figure. Do note that in Tracking table, the Incomplete Tasks filter has been applied and highlighted.
Now for the two tasks, UAT Testing Cycle – 1 and UAT Testing Cycle – 2, highlighted in the above figure, we have a certain amount of remaining duration (noted in the Rem. Dur. field). You can manually edit the remaining duration to 0 days. After you make the changes, the updated view will be as shown below.
Let’s interpret the changes we’ve made:
As you edit the remaining duration to 0 days, the % Complete field (noted as % Comp.) becomes 100%. Earlier it was 50% for the concerned tasks.
The cumulative percentage complete for the summary task, Product Testing Cycle, goes from 86% to 95%.
There is no impact on actual cost and actual field. However, the % Work Complete field will be changed to 100%.
At this stage, it should be pointed out that the Incomplete Task filter used for this case is different from the Unstarted Task filter used earlier while inactivating the tasks.
Incomplete Task filter: For this filter, the % Complete OR the % Work Complete field values do not equal 100%.
Unstarted Task filter: For this filter, there is no Actual Start value for the task concerned. In other word, it equals NA (Not Applicable).
Set the Milestones to 100% Complete
When closing a project, you should also set the milestones to 100% complete. If a number of milestones in a project are incomplete, it’s difficult to say that the project is done and also difficult to get approval of project completion from the stakeholders and/or sponsor(s).
To view the milestones in a project, apply the Milestones filter by going to View tab > Data group > Filter drop-down menu. Next, set the % Complete field to 100% complete in the Tracking table, or by switching to the Entry table. In the below figure, I’ve switched to the Entry table and have applied the filter.
Now, the selected milestone can be set to 100% complete by executing the 100% Complete command under Task view > Schedule group.
In the above figure, the milestone has been set to 100% complete with the indicator column displaying a blue tick mark.
Create and Save a Project Template *** UPDATED ***
Some project management practitioners save their current project as a template, so that they can use the work breakdown structure future projects and/or can put such into the organization’s learning repository.
To do so, go the File tab, which takes you to the backstage view of MS Project. From there, select Export > Save Project as File > Project Template and finally Save As.
When you click on Save As command shown above, a dialog box will pop-up with the file name. Save as a Project Template in .mpt format.
In the above figure, the file name shown is “Closing Project.mpt” and the type is Microsoft Project Template (or .MPT format). When you hit the Save button above, another dialog box pops up.
In the above Save As Template dialog box, you can choose to discard the data that you don’t want to be part of the template and click on the Save button to save the template.
Communicate the Performance *** NEW ***
MS Project comes with a number of built-in reports which help to inform on the performance of a project and allow for easy communication with stakeholders during project closure. For example, considering schedule performance, it may be a good idea to utilize the following:
The Tracking Gantt view of the project, exported to a pdf format, to show the variances visually for the tasks
Earned Value related schedule performance measures such as Schedule Variance (SV) and Schedule Performance Index (SPI) (generate through Earned Value Report functionality)
For cost performance, you can use:
Cost Overruns report, which shows Task Cost Variance and Resource Cost Variance with cost overrun and/or underrun graphically
Earned Value related cost performance measures such as Cost Variance (CV) and Cost Performance Index (CPI), among others.
Cash Flow report, which shows the project’s cumulative cost and the cost per quarter
Conclusion
When closing a project, a project manager must perform and/or participate in a number of activities such as closing contracts with the vendors, finalizing any open claims, confirming that the deliverables are the latest and have been formally accepted by the customers, releasing resources, etc.
This article primarily focusses on what a PM should do to close within the MS Project tool. It’s possible that a project can be terminated even before completion if it’s not in alignment with the business needs. In such a case, a PM must close the project formally and can use the above procedures to do so with MS Project.
The Microsoft Project software tool comes with a number of view options, which, at a high level, can be thought of as Task Views and Resource Views. While views such as Gantt Chart, Team Planner, Resource or Task Sheet, Resource or Task Form, Resource or Task Usage are well used by project managers, many management practitioners often overlook the Resource Graph view or use it less frequently.
As I have ongoing opportunities to interact with MS Project practitioners, I’ve realized that this view is not all that well understood. As a result, its usage is limited; however, in practice, this can be a very useful view if one can learn a little about it. In this article, we will discuss various ways to launch it, formatting options, a plethora of data representations, and other usages of this view.
Let’s begin with the launching options of Resource Graph view.
Launching the Resource Graph *** UPDATED ***
The Resource Graph view can be launched in many ways.
You can go to the Views tab à Resource Views group à Other Views, and, from there, choose Resource Graph view.
You can also launch this view by going to the Views tab > Split group, and enabling the Details checkbox. Then, from the available dropdown menu, select Resource Graph for the Details Pane.
A third way to launch the Resource Graph view is by going to the Assign Resources dialog box, and clicking on the Graph button.
The Assign Resources dialog box can be opened by going to Resource Tab > Assignments group and using the Assign Resources command. Do note that for the Graph button to be activated, some work resources should be available in the project!
One can also launch the Resource Graph view from the View Bar of MS Project software. It's shown below.
Formatting the Resource Graph
The Resource Graph view primarily pulls data and values from task assignments. In other words, you need to have both tasks and resources assigned for such to populate the Resource Graph view.
By default, when you launch the Resource Graph, the below comes up as shown.
As you can see in the screenshot, we have just one resource (Resource 1) assigned to one task (Task 1).
With the launch of this view, the Resource Graph Tools menu has been activated, as well as the Format tab enabled. In fact, this tab, has three groupings of tools: Format, Navigate, and Data. Do note that the graph, by default, uses Peak Units for graphical data representation. There can be others, as well, which we will see shortly.
An important functionality available under the Format grouping is the Bar Styles command, which you can use to unleash the power of this view. Bar styles can be opened by going to the Format tab > Format group, and clicking on Bar Styles.
Bar styles shown clearly indicate blue colored bars for the allocation and deep red colored bars for overallocation. Bar styles are important, so that you can visualize and interpret various possible usages of the Resource Graph.
Let’s interpret the dialog box shown above:
It’s divided into three parts or sections – top, middle, and bottom. The top part has styles for overallocation, the middle styles for allocation, and the bottom styles for proposed booking.
The left side of this dialog box refers to the group data or the selected/filtered group of resources, whereas the right side defines one selected resource.
In the bottom section, we also have three options to show value, show availability line, and define the desired bar overlap.
Do note that the bar style is contextually sensitive, and depending on the data selected under Data Group > Graph: …, some parts may be disabled. For example:
If you select Graph: Cost under the Data group, the top section will show the resource cost, but the middle section will be disabled. This is because when considering the cost aspect, there is only allocation, no overallocation.
The style of the bar shown in the above figure is vertical. There can be others as well, such as Area, Step, Line, and Step Line. You may also choose not to display a bar style in any one of the aforementioned three sections for a single resource or a group of resources.
Key Points about Resource Graph
To operate within this view effectively and efficiently, you need to understand certain key points. They are explained in the video [duration: 5m 12s], which I’ve prepared in support of this article. For the best experience, you may want to go full-screen in HD mode and plug-in your earphones.
With these fundamentals in mind, let me explain a bit more about the graphical data representation of the Resource graph.
Resource Graph Data Representation
The Resource Graph view’s data representation is driven by measurement chosen under Graph: command within the Data group under the Format tab as shown below:
As we have seen earlier, by default, the Peak Units will be chosen, but you can switch among the data/measurements, as per your need. For example:
Work is the amount of work assigned. The unit will be taken from the Global settings of MS Project.
Cost is the cost of assignments. This unit also will be taken from the Global settings of MS Project.
Peak Units are the largest percentage of effort (peak) assigned to a resource within a time period. Do note that Peak Units refer to the effort assigned, not the work assigned.
Overallocation refers to the work overallocation of the resource.
Cumulative Work is the total amount of work assigned till date.
Remaining Availability is the effort remaining, i.e., still available for assignment. This unit will also be taken from the Global settings of MS Project.
Usages of Resource Graph *** UPDATED ***
The Resource Graph can be used as a visual display and can really help you to solve a number of problems with regard to scheduling, costing, resource assignment, resource leveling, etc. I will cover five ways to use the Resource Graph view now.
Usage – 1: Checking Resource Availability
The availability of a resource can be checked before you assign a resource to a task. This is very useful as you launch the Resource Graph view from Assign Resources option (as we saw earlier) and see displayed the remaining availability of a particular resource.
As shown above, the availability of the resource is shown with vertical blue bars. If the resource is fully occupied, blue bars won’t be available for those respective days.
With this application, you will also easily see the current resource(s) working on a selected task above in the Gantt Chart view and can determine what others can be allocated.
Usage – 2: Viewing Proposed Booking
You might be wondering about the purple bars in the previous figure. As indicated in the graph, these show proposed booking.
Resources, when added to MS Project, can be either committed (this is the default) or proposed. Committed resources are ones which are definitely available, whereas proposed resources refer to those for which you unsure of availability.
Now, for the same resource (Satya Dash) in the previous figure, I can double-click on the resource and change it to proposed by going to the General tab of the opened Resource Information Dialog box.
The graph in the timescale portion of the view will change, as shown below.
As you can see, the vertical purple bars are now changed to blue, and the availability is also shown. This can be reconfirmed by changing the Remaining Availability in the bottom right part of the legend section to Work. You have to use the Graph: option under the Format tab to switch to work data in the Graph. It’s shown in the below figure.
Usage – 3: Checking Overallocated Resources
As you may have noticed in the previous figure, a red colored coding has appeared in the legend section of the Resource Graph. This, as informed by the indicator column, is for overallocation.
However, the current resource assigned to the task of “PRD Approval” is not overallocated. Rather, there is an overallocation indicator (red person icon) in the indicator column for the task, “PRD Preparation,” – the task just above with Task ID 4.
You may be wondering how will you know why, when, and which resource(s) is/are overallocated for the concerned task?
In this case, the concerned task is “PRD Preparation.” To know more, we will change the top panel of the split view to Resource Usage view, while keeping the bottom half as it is. The split Resource Usage view with the Resource Graph view is shown below.
The resource assigned to the PRD Preparation task (John Robinson) is clearly highlighted as red, which means this resource is overallocated. This is also reflected in the Resource Graph view in the bottom pane.
I’ve changed the data part of the Resource Graph to display Peak Units, which informs the highest assigned resource units (in terms of effort) within a time period. You can switch to other options, and corresponding values with indications for overallocations will display.
For example, in the below figure, instead of Peak Units, now we’re looking at Overallocation data for the Resource Graph in the bottom pane, and it’s showing the only overallocation in hours.
Usage – 4: Adjusting Critical Resources
There is another very useful scenario for which the Resource Graph can be used. To compress the schedule of the project, it’s natural for a project manager to look at the critical path and the critical tasks. There are many ways to look this data, such as using Tracking Gantt view or formatting options in Gantt chart. The problem lies in that with these views, you really won’t know which resources are free and if they can be employed in critical activities.
In such cases, it’s useful to bring up the Resource Graph view in the bottom half of the Gantt Chartview and see first if a resource is available for the concerned tasks. One such scenario is shown below.
While the resource (Mohan M R) is occupied with the “Design and Develop Backend – 1” task, he is actually also available for “PRD Preparation” and “PRD Approval” tasks. This is shown with the Remaining Availability data view of the Resource Graph and highlighted with the blue color in the bottom pane of the split view.
Note that both of these tasks are also critical tasks. This is shown with a light red color in the Gantt Chart view at the top of the split.
You may be wondering if the concerned resource can now be utilized in these critical tasks to compress the project schedule. The answer is yes! The PM can analyze this scenario and reduce the schedule from here.
Usage – 5: Knowing the Cost Distribution Over Project Life Cycle
With the Resource Graph view, you can see the total cost distribution of a project over its life cycle. This can be shown by enabling a group of resources and using the Cost data from the Graph: command under the Format tab.
As shown, we have the cost distribution of the project over its life cycle, which is low during the initial stages, goes-up in the middle. and tapers off towards the end of the project.
You can also show the cost of a specific resource along with the total project life cycle cost as shown below.
Finally, you can copy the Resource Graph view using the Copy functionality given in MS Project. This is shown below.
The Resource Graph view is a powerful feature in MS Project, and I hope with this article has given you a fair understanding about the usage of this view.
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