MS Project WBS

Note:  Doing this exercise will require making some assumptions.  Make sure to show your assumptions and explain why you made them!

Note:  At each step just continue on from where you finished the previous step.  Don't revert back to the beginning.

Perform all of the steps and answer all of the parts of the question/exercise, below;  document your assumptions that you made at every step;  note the project completion date at each step;  and describe your findings at every step:

Step A -- Take the following WBS and put it into your Microsoft Project.  Don't forget to add the indents!  Save the file as "<yourname> G. Wedding Project File One".  ADD durations to all tasks based on YOUR estimates of how long the tasks should take.  

In your response to this question, tell us, based on your durations, how long it will take to plan the wedding and tell us the date that Microsoft Project tells you that you will be finished with the Plan the Wedding project. 

Assume a project start date of January 1st of this year (or the following Monday if that was on a weekend):

1.  Plan a wedding

1.1  Schedule the church

1.2  Prepare for the reception                                   

1.2.1 Select the hall

1.2.2 Select the caterer

1.2.3 Order the cake

1.3 Invite the guests

1.3.1 Order the invitations

1.3.1.1 Buy stamps

1.3.1.2 Prepare the mailing list

Make sure to use "Automatic scheduling", not "Manual scheduling", and to enter task durations not hard-coded task dates.  ("Manual scheduling" can really mess things up.  For the reasons why, see "'Dangerous' MS Project Features to Avoid".)

Please flesh it out by adding a few additional tasks of your own at appropriate places in the WBS to make it more realistic.  Don't get carried away, though.  Don't make it overly complex.  That's not the intent.

In MS Project, add a top level root task whose name is the project name (Wedding Plan), with no work in itself, and all remaining tasks (the tasks listed above and those you added) subordinate to (indented from) it.

Step B -- Save the file again, as "<JoeWilsonG. Wedding Project File Two".  

Then, in the last lowest task (that is, the lowest level leaf node task), change the date to six months from the day you are working on the file.  

Task changes like this may have to be "Manual scheduling", but still should involve only task duration changes, not hard-coded task dates. 

In your narrative, please indicate which task you changed (which task was the last, lowest leaf node task), and what date you changed it to.

What happens to the other tasks?  When is the Plan the Wedding project scheduled to complete?

Step C -- Save the file again, as "<yourname> G. Wedding Project File THREE".  

Then, change the date in the Prepare for the Reception task to June 15 (that is, the next June 15 after the project starts; don't change it to a date in the past).  If the Prepare for Reception task is a summary roll-up group, then you may need to change its date by changing the date of a subordinate task instead.

What happens?  When is the Plan the Wedding project scheduled to complete?

Which task did you change the date of?  Why?

Step D -- As you have gone through these changes, what has happened to the tasks in the Schedule/calendar area of the Gantt view?  

Step E -- NOW, save your final .mpp as "<yourname> G. Wedding Project File FOUR" and post both your .mpp and your narrative (these answers) in this week's discussion Conference under the Homework topic, for others to review, and in your Assignments Folder.  This public posting of this exercise is optional but may earn extra points. 

Note:  Submitting Exercise G in the Conference allows you and your classmates to compare your approaches in doing the wedding WBS, which is part of the assignment (see Step F, below).  Submitting only in your Assignments Folder does not allow this.

Step F -- FINALLY, look at each other's postings.  You should have some differences and you should be able to tell us what those differences are.....  What do you think causes the differences among classmates using the same WBS?  How do you think this might affect your team efforts as you work with your team's WBS and Microsoft Project as we go through the semester?

If nobody has posted anything yet, then, realizing that there will be differences between submissions, please can answer the question anyway:  What do you think causes the differences among classmates using the same WBS?  How do you think this might affect your team efforts as you work with your team's WBS and Microsoft Project as we go through the semester?