ProjectLibre Desktop · Working with ProjectLibre
Tasks
Working with tasks: the Gantt, Network, WBS and Task Usage views, linking, calendars, baselines, finding and updating tasks.
Now we turn attention to a detailed discussion of tasks and how they are handled in ProjectLibre. We set the foundations for this elaboration with the paragraphs surrounding figures 10 and 11 and also figures 24, 26, and 27. Tasks are still the primary element for laying out a project plan. We need to dig a bit deeper and learn a bit more about the Gantt chart and its listing of tasks interacts with the rest of the program to produce the complete Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and other useful decompositions that describe the project and allow management to readily evaluate progress, reallocate resources, and identify problem areas. The task descriptions are fundamental to all these operations. So, let’s re-examine the Gantt chart first, this time looking at each of the functions available with the “Tasks” tab selected in the top row of the command ribbon. The second row has three sections (Views, Clipboard, and Task – third line) and 24 different possible selections in the second row (highlighted with a large yellow rectangle in figure 30).
Views
Gantt selection
Starting at the left side of this row of functions, in the “Views” section, the “Gantt Chart” button is already somewhat familiar, having introduced it earlier. Left clicking on this button brings up the default spreadsheet that is pre-labeled with convenient labels for project management purposes - “Name”, “Duration”, “Start”, “Finish”, and the like. There are some unique features associated with this tailored spreadsheet on the lower left side of the Gantt page of ProjectLibre.
The first column is simply a sequential numbering scheme for each task and sub-task, starting at 1 and increasing one number at a time with each additional row. So, this column is the row number for the “Task” spreadsheet.
The second column has a circle with an “i” in it (magenta rectangle in figure 30), is a display column showing information. If you apply a constraint on a task there will appear an icon in the cell. You can hover your mouse over the icon to see a description of the constraint.
If you left click in the first or title row it also highlights that row for multiple row insertions. If you right click on the title row, a dialogue box appears that offers three choices: (1) Insert column, (2) Hide column, and (3) Find. Selecting any one of these choices pops up a dialogue box for insertion of more information. The dialogue box for the first of these selections is below (figure 31). There are a number of choices for the field variable (see definitions at the beginning of the manual) and making a selection results in insertion of an additional column (figure 32) labeled with the “Field” selection. In our example, the new column is labeled “Baseline1 Start”. This feature allows the analyst to very flexibly tailor the Gantt chart contents for tracking the project.
The “Hide Column” selection for this dialogue box allows the user to remove this new column (or any other of the other visible columns) by selecting that choice. Finally, the “Find” selection brings up a dialog box (shown in figure 33) that permits a search for a field name.
“Network Diagram” view
Figure 34 shows each of the tasks in our example project plan for “New Shower” in summary form. In one sense, this network view is very similar to the right side of the Gantt chart (figure 30); the information is the same. The “Network” view simply puts that information in a flow diagram form and relocates the information in each task row within the appropriate node/block. The analyst can also move the task nodes in the diagram to change the graphical presentation by clicking the cursor over the outline of the block to be moved and dragging the node. Left click and hold the left mouse button down and reposition the selected block to any desired position within the white space. Similarly, if you hover the cursor over a location in the interior of a block and then left click, you can modify task data with keypad inputs.
The linkages between tasks are retained and the critical path is also marked with a red outline for those blocks. Linkages can also be added, removed, or modified in this view. If you hover the cursor over a task dependency connection line, a plus sign appears. Then a left mouse click pops up a dialog box (figure 35) that allows you to alter the connection as desired. This dialog box lays out the From-To dependency sequence, providing both labels for clear identification. Then it offers four possible dependency connection types: FS (the default option), FF, SF, and SS. FS stands for Finish-to-Start (of the From task to the To task), FF implies Finish-to-Finish, SF indicates Start-to-Finish, and SS means Start-to-Start. The choice of connection types obviously alters the flow of the work between tasks. The default choice is by far the most common usage. Notice that this dialog box also allows addition of lag (if a positive number a delay before the next task starts or if negative the second task starts before the finish of the predecessor) The lag time between tasks is a numerical value in either hours or days or other appropriate time unit. The lower row of four selections allows you to completely remove the linkage, accept changes made, cancel your operation, or go to the on-line help documentation which is located at the ProjectLibre website when you are logged into the community site.
Finally, the “Network” view does not show the chronology of the tasks quite as completely (there is no calendar – merely start and finish dates – showing the progression of tasks).
Work Breakdown Structure
Figure 37 is the default chart that appears when the WBS (blue ellipse in figure 36) selection is made with a left mouse click. This diagram is similar to the “Network” flow view of the tasks in that each block is separate. However, the textual entries inside the block are related to blocks in the original Gantt spreadsheet, in the example shown “Cost” (implying that as costs are entered during the course of a project’s life, they can be monitored by the analyst and/or manager from this block) and “Budget”. Notice that this second entry is blank; if we add a budget column. We do this by left clicking the mouse on the title row of the spreadsheet. You will have the option to Add Column and a series of columns to add. Select the Budget option.
This chart can be modified in much the same way as the “Network” view chart. Left clicking on textual material in a block allows modification of the text. Also, hovering the mouse over a block outline allows the block to be moved. For example, figure 36 shows the task blocks for our example project laid out in a horizontal configuration.
It might suit your purposes better and be more descriptive to arrange the WBS in a vertical fashion (figure 37). Moving the blocks is carried out just as described in the “Network” view paragraph: hover the cursor over the outline of the block to be moved, then left click-and-drag the block to the desired position. The connection lines can be altered similar to how modifications described for the Network view linkages. Of course, the dialogue box is slightly different (figure 38) and the analyst can only remove the hierarchical relationship (equivalent to selecting “Outdent” in the command line for the subtask) or accept it.
One final note: when the narrative in the boxes (the task descriptions, for example) exceeds the width shown in the box, a left mouse click with the cursor simply inside the text area will show the rest of the line of text. This “peek-to-the-right” trick also works in the “Network” view of the previous paragraph. In that case, it is helpful to be sure the cursor is on the line of text to be extended for viewing.
“Task Usage” view
The next selection in the “Views” section of the command ribbon is the “Task Usage” view (figure 39), which shows hourly work based on information entered. The left half (the spreadsheet half) of the view summarizes the total allocation of hours to each task while the right half (the schedule plan) shows the hourly profile of available workers’ hours against chronological time. The spreadsheet is identical to the Gantt chart spreadsheet previously described; the only difference appears to be the light tan background color for this information in the “Task Usage” view.
The right side of the view shows scheduled work. Observe that scheduled work for a task is the sum of the time allotted to the sub-tasks within each hierarchical layer. For example, the sum of the hours in lines 3 and 4 adds up the total hours for the parent task in line 2 (green rectangle) for each month of time. It is possible to directly edit the hours on the right side of this view, but it is also quite possible (perhaps even likely) that doing so will alter the totals on the left side and may cause fractional hours or days to be incorporated into the schedule.
Zoom In or Zoom Out:
This last set of selections in the “Views” section control the time scale in the schedule (right) side of the Gantt chart. Left clicking on the “Zoom In” command can drive the schedule to show hours (still in the “Task Usage” view) for each day of the planned work (figure 40). Increments can go down to hours to be devoted each day to a given task by repeatedly selecting this command (figure 41); this level is the smallest time increment that the “Zoom In” command can select in any of the “Task Views”.
“Zoom Out” obviously resets the time scale on the right side of the Gantt chart in the opposite direction as Zoom In. This pair is quite useful in setting the scales to evaluate the critical path in the basic Gantt chart (figure 42). This graphic shows the schedule for the entire example “New Shower” project reduced to a total length of five months in three different quarters of two different years. Of course, you can use these two commands to help size a Gantt chart for printing in a report or to examine the details of how work is scheduled.
Clipboard
The “Clipboard” section of the “Task” command ribbon has only three possible selections: (1) Paste, (2) Copy, and (3) Cut. The names are descriptive of what each selection does. To use these functions for the Gantt chart spreadsheet the analyst must simply highlight the desired row by left clicking in the first column of the spreadsheet; the selection turns black to show what is selected. Once the desired row is highlighted, left click on Copy, move the cursor to the row on the spreadsheet where you want to insert the duplicate row and left click to highlight the desired location, and then left click on Paste. The results are shown in figure 43.
The “Cut” command can be used to remove a highlighted row in the spreadsheet. The same effect can be achieved by selecting the “Undo” command at the top of the ProjectLibre command ribbon (magenta rectangle in figure 43); this selection simply reverses the last issued command. The gold arrow just to the right of this “Undo” arrow is the “Redo” arrow and it reverses the action of the “Undo” arrow. Quite clearly, ProjectLibre provides more than one command to accomplish similar functions. Incidentally, the “Cut”, “Copy”, and “Paste” commands are also available by simply right-clicking with the cursor hovering over any row or column in the main part of the !Gantt Chart spreadsheet. In fact this pop-up dialogue box has several other functions including: (1) Indent, (2) Outdent, (3) New (for inserting a new row above the cursor in the Gantt spreadsheet), (4) Delete (which deletes a selected or highlighted item), (5) Expand (for revealing hidden rows with sub-tasks) and (6) Collapse (for hiding rows with sub-tasks and displays the Summary task).
Tasks
The third and last group of commands on the command bars under the “Task” tab is marked in figure 44 with a red outline. It is by far the largest set of commands to be discussed under the “Task” view tab, having a total of 15 possible selections available in this section of the command ribbons.
Insert and delete
These two commands allow insertion of a new row immediately above a selected row in the main Gantt spreadsheet. If you left click on a row (say row 8 in figure 44), the row or column is highlighted and choosing “Insert” enters a new blank row immediately above row 8. If you then enter information for a new task or sub-task, the spreadsheet rows are all renumbered to show the new sequence as you inserted them.
Selecting an active task row in the spreadsheet and left clicking on “Delete” in a similar fashion deletes the selected row and again renumbers the row in sequence. Note that selecting a row for use of either “Insert” or “Delete” can be done in any column on the left hand Gantt spreadsheet and the command action is still carried out for the entire row.
Indent and Outdent
The “Indent” and “Outdent” commands have already been briefly introduced and used in the introductory sections where we spelled out how to show levels in the hierarchy for sub-tasks. The yellow rectangle shows the result of making “Indent” selections for the indicated sub-tasks. It is also possible to repeat the process and move the hierarchy down in another level of sub-tasks. Naturally, the “Outdent” is the inverse of the “Indent” command and simply removes a level from the hierarchy.
Link and Unlink
The “Link” and “Unlink ‘’ commands have also already been briefly introduced and used in the introductory sections where we spelled out how to connect tasks and sub-tasks when the elements were dependent on one another (p. 15 and following). To use the commands on this “Task” ribbon, first select the link to be operated upon in the left side of the Gantt chart by left clicking on one of the two task rows connected by the link to be modified. The task row will be highlighted in black as row 2 is shown in figure 45. Then go to the task row at the other end of the linking arrow (row 8 in this case), hold down the ctrl key and left click again to highlight both rows 2 and 8 (figure 45). Then select the “Link” (or “Unlink’’) command from the ProjectLibre command ribbon to modify the connection.
You can also hover the cursor over the link (figure 45) or any of the white spaces on the right side of the Gantt chart, right-click, and a dialog box similar to the one shown in figure 46 pops up.
If you left click on “Split”, a small cursor with vertical parallel bars displays. Moving that cursor to one of the blocks on the schedule (right hand) side of the Gantt chart and left clicking splits the designated block into two parts. Splitting a block can be applied to any of the main blocks (not the black schedule bar). This feature allows repetitively accomplished task events to be shown on the Gantt schedule.
If you left click on the white circle (radio button) in front of “Show Assignments”, resource assignments for the task will be shown (figure 47), assuming that resources have been previously assigned to the task. This action toggles between the Task view and the “Resources” view. The rows showing the assignments are not numbered by ProjectLibre. These unnumbered rows with assignments cannot be removed by the delete command. The assignments can be edited (including being removed) by editing the task.
The “Show Links” radio button serves as a similar toggle and is operational in either these Gantt schedule or the Resource Assignment views. It simply allows showing all the linkages between tasks or removing them from the schedule (right hand side) chart.
The “Show Calendar” radio button (in figure 46) is also a similar toggle switch in both the Gantt Schedule and the Resource Assignment views. It displays vertical grid lines. However, note that this switch only controls the calendar grid; it does not switch on or off the calendar headings in the top two lines of these two views. The “Show Rows” toggle button (again a radio button in figure 46) simply adds or removes a horizontal grid to the right side of these two views.
The last two selections in the dialogue box illustrated in figure 46 allow tailoring of the “Bar Styles” (figure 49) and the “Annotation Styles” (figure 50) for the Gantt schedule (right side of the Gantt chart). Each of these “Styles” menus is a set of radio buttons that merely toggles on or off the selected style; as is by now familiar, a filled-in radio button indicates that the style is shown on the Gantt schedule and an empty radio button indicates that the style is not shown there. These second layer dialogue boxes do not allow any change in color or shape of the bars on the Gantt schedule.
Figure 49 shows the “Bar Styles” second-level dialogue box with its default settings. To illustrate a change (shown in figure 48), toggle the “Total Slack” bar on by left clicking in the cleared radio button at the bottom of the chart and this selection puts the blue diagonal bars at the end of several task bars on the Gantt schedule chart. Notice that these “Slack” bars cover up portions of the resource listings; this effect may not be desirable for all purposes.
Figure 50 shows the “Annotation Styles” second-level dialogue box with its two default settings – “Normal Tasks” and “Milestones”. Typically, the analyst would want to show both of these annotation styles. However, in the examples shown in figures 45, 47, and 48 none of the tasks have been marked as milestones. To do so, you must go to the Information command (yellow rectangle in figure 48) and left click; the dialogue box shown in figure 51 appears. Go to the “Advanced” tab and click on the “Display task as milestone” checkbox and the “Kick-off Meeting” task will appear as a black diamond on the Gantt schedule (magenta rectangle in figure 52).
Information
The “Information” command (yellow rectangle in figure 48) was introduced earlier to discuss annotation styles in the previous paragraphs. Now we need to look at each of the tabs shown in figure 51 and explain the functionality they provide.
You have to mark a task before the Information function is started, alternatively after a click on the “Information” button, select a task before a new window will open. When the information window has opened, we start with the “General” tab, the default tab that appears when the “Information” tab is selected with the mouse. This tab is an alternative way to fill in the most important information about project tasks in one convenient menu. You can enter/edit task information: Duration, Start Date and Time, Finish Date and Time, Percent Complete (blank until entered), whether the duration is estimated or not (? indicates estimated), the amount of work to be done (usually in hours or days), priority assigned to the task (a numerical value between 0 and 1000), and Baseline information (Start and End) - once a baseline schedule has been agreed upon and entered. Our starting entries (so far entered directly on the spreadsheet for our New Shower example) are displayed on this “General” tab.
To use the “Information” command properly, first select a task as suggested in figure 53, where the kick-off task is highlighted in black by left-clicking on the 1 in column 1 of the “Gantt” spreadsheet (left side). If you select more than one task row and then click on the “Information” command, a warning box will remind you that only one task can be edited at a time with this approach (Figure 54). Once a single task is properly selected (figure 53), clicking on the “Information” command brings up the dialogue box in figure 55 with the “General” tab selected by default.
Calendar
The “Calendar” is a very important feature in ProjectLibre, as it is the basis for all related calculations. Allocating a calendar early in the project is therefore considered important and effective.
The Calendar window opens normally with the standard working calendar for the present date, indicated in blue in figure 56 below: July 2020. A left mouse click on the date will show the working times from… till… on the left side of the window.
The calendar can be moved forward and backward with the arrows in the top right corner (figure 57); a click on the “house” will bring you back to the present date again.
Clicking on the “Options” button will open a new window (figure 58) in which you can specify the working hours per day and per week and the working days in a month for your project. ProjectLibre will use this for calculating the project duration.
Other calendars are shown after a mouse click on the scroll arrow on top left of the window (figure 56). The “Standard” ProjectLibre calendar and your own previously saved calendar are available. If none of these “Standard” calendars offer the required working times for your project, ProjectLibre allows you to define and save your own calendar.
Note that when you try to modify the default time in any type of calendar, the “Non-Default Working Time” box is checked automatically. Thus, it is impossible to change the default time offered by the “Use Default” option.
A click on the “New” button (left bottom) pops-up a new window (figure 59) to define your own calendar with your choice of Working and Rest days and even working times. First, you are asked to provide a name for your new calendar, a relevant name that indicates the purpose of this calendar. Two choices are offered, either to create a new base calendar or to modify an existing base calendar; the window will be activated to allow you to choose the base calendar of your choice. Clicking the “OK” button will create your new calendar (figure 60) with the given name and save it.
Saturday and Sunday are made normal working days already. Thursday has been made a Non-working day and the mouse cursor is marking all Fridays (a square around each Friday in the calendar). By using the radio buttons on the left, Fridays will become non-working days as well. Clicking on one particular day allows you to specify the type of day and the individual working hours e.g. Bank holidays. When all days, national and religious holidays are indicated and the working hours defined as required, the calendar will be created and saved by clicking “OK”. In future, it will be available in the list of base calendars.
Resources
ProjectLibre has a good feature in the assignment of resources to tasks, after which ProjectLibre will use these assigned resources to optimize the schedule. Click on “Resources” in the “Task” command and a window appears to assign resources to tasks. Best is to first select a task before the “Resources” window opens, thus the details of the task are already filled, (indicated with green highlight in figure 61), else you may select the tasks after the window is opened.
Additional persons or resources can be added, just mark the resource and click on “Assign”. A new resource is added with a standard of 100% input; this however can be changed to click on the percentage and type the number or click the up or down small arrows.
A person or resource can be removed from this task by marking the resource and clicking on “Remove”.
A person or resource can be changed from this task by marking the resource and clicking on “Replace”. A new window with all available resources will open and allows you to select the new name (figure 62). After selecting the proper resource (name), clicking “OK” is sufficient to make the change. George will replace Jean. George comes with a 100% effort, which can be changed as explained before.
Save Baseline
With the project progressing, you will notice that the actual schedule starts deviating from the start schedule. In order to be able, later, to review the changes, it is possible to freeze and save 10 baseline schedules at different times with its name. If your project has some milestones that would be a good time to create a baseline. The baseline saves all schedule, resource and cost information at that time. It is recommended you create an initial baseline prior to launching your project. This will allow you to compare the planned project schedule and costs with the current state. If you want a revised baseline during the project perhaps due to a change in project scope, you can save another baseline as Baselines (1 -10)
Click on “Save Baseline” in the “Task” command bar. A new “Baseline” window opens (figure 63) and allows you to select a name for a baseline from this moment for the whole project or for just those actions that are selected. Click on “OK” to confirm and the baseline schedule is saved.
Later you can evaluate the different baselines stored, figure 64. The “New ” project had a basic schedule of 23 days till the launch of the product and a baseline was made, see greyish bar of smaller heights under the main task bars. Notice that the contract discussions with the production company starts only after the “Brainstorm” session and prototype construction has started. Marketing starts when the prototype B is well on its way and the contract discussions come in its finalization phase, Link SS with lag.
An optimisation session with all involved was made during the “Brainstorm” session and it was concluded that the main part of the Prototype B work would be able to start during the Prototype A construction, as well as the contract and marketing guys and dolls got in some hurry. So an improvement on the scheduler of 3 days was gained and this was saved as Baseline 1, in yellowish color, in the right part of this Gantt diagram.
Clear Baseline
A click on “Clear Baseline” brings a similar window on your screen. Now you can mark any made baseline and remove it. Confirming with an “OK” will get rid of it.
Find
In a large project it might be difficult to find that special task. A “Find” feature (figure 65) is making this easier; click on “Find” in the “Task” command. Type your find keyword or part off, then select the field it will be in (in this example “Name”) and click the green or blue button; the green button will search in the rows below your mouse cursor, while the blue button will search in the rows above your mouse cursor. The found task will be highlighted in grey, if it exists that is.
Scroll to Task
For larger projects, the scheduling bars in the right side of the Gantt chart might have moved out of sight. You have to mark that task you want to see the scheduling bar for and click on the “Scroll to Task” button in the “Task” command which will bring the bar within the screen.
Update Tasks
Making a project schedule is one, but the actual reporting of actual progress is a necessary second. ProjectLibre is only able to forecast an accurate project finish date if all progress on the task is updated regularly.
The “Update” button, in the “Task” command, pops-up a “Update Tasks” window. The most effective use is to first mark the task as then the window is already filled with the details of the selected task. You may change the percentage to the actual one or fill the “Actual Start and Finish” date for the task. After all updated information is in and the window closed, ProjectLibre will work on the update of the project schedule and will make changes visible in the Gantt chart, other charts and the tables.