Task Initiating Finalize project team Develop project charter Planning Develop scope statement Develop and refine other plans Executing Concept

As a project management professional, it is important for you to be able to review numbers and report on what they are saying. It is also important for you to be able to use software that helps you keep timelines and keep the project running on time and smoothly. This assignment will continue to help prepare you for your responsibilities.

For this assignment, you are to build upon your completed Microsoft Project schedule for the "Technology Refresh Project" from Topic 2 by adding resources and resolving any resource over-allocations. You will then determine the display project cost information and will also show the updated (if any) critical path.

Open "Topic 3 Project Resources Information" (a Microsoft Excel file). You will notice in column H that resource names have been added. These resources were already included in the Resource Sheet in the Microsoft Project template file that you worked on during Week 2.

Open the Microsoft Project file that you completed during Week 2 and perform the following.

1. Ensure that the "Type" field contains "Fixed Duration" for all tasks.
2. For each lowest-level task, enter the resource names from "Topic 3, Project Resources Information" (a Microsoft Excel file) into the Resources Names field in the your Microsoft Project file. Note that you can simply select the resource(s) using the pull-down menu.

You will notice in the "i" column (i.e., the column with white "i" and blue circle) that certain tasks have a red person displayed. That means that the task has resources that are over-allocated (a resource is assigned more than 8 hours per day on one or more days for that task). These resource over-allocations need to be resolved. To resolve these over-allocations, perform the following:

1. Again, ensure that the "Type" field contains "Fixed Duration" for all tasks. This ensures when you change the assigned hours for the tasks, the task durations and associated dates will not change.
2. In the VIEW ribbon, check the "Details" box in the "Split View" group.
3. In the right bottom of the screen (in the gray area), right click and select "Work."
4. Go to the first task that has the resource over-allocation. Reduce the hours in the "Work" field and/or assign a different applicable resource in order to resolve the resource over-allocation. Be sure to not alter task durations, start, or finish dates. Also, ensure that your project end date does not change.
5. You may optionally go to the VIEW ribbon, and select "Resource Graph" in the "Other Views" pull-down menu. This will provide a graph that will specifically show what days a resource is over-allocated.
6. Repeat item (4) for each task that has a resource over-allocation. Your final Microsoft Project schedule should have no tasks with over-allocated resources. Be sure to take notes that summarize the changes you made.

Display the project cost information and critical path:

1. Remove the split task screen by double-clicking on the split-task border.
2. Display cost information by left-clicking on the "Add New Column" field. Select the "Cost" field. Note that since a WBS hierarchy exists, you can see cost information for each summary task, along with the total project cost at the top of the schedule.
3. Display the critical path: Go to the FORMAT ribbon and check the "Critical Tasks" box in the BAR STYLES group. Note that the critical path task bars will turn red. Also, take note that the Total Slack column contains 0 days for the critical path tasks.

Submit your updated Microsoft Project file by the end of Week 3. Ensure that your last name is in the file name.

Submit your updated Word document by the end of Week 3 (ensure that your last name is in the file name) that includes responses to the following:

1. In summary, what steps did you take to resolve the resource over-allocations?
2. Did your critical path change? If so, how?
3. What series of tasks represent the highest cost (as indicated by their summary task)?
4. What is the total project cost?