Microsoft Project 2013: The Missing Manual

Scheduling Manually or Automatically

In Project 2010, Microsoft introduced task modes, which let you choose whether you want to control when tasks start and finish (Manually Scheduled) or whether you want Project to calculate start and finish dates automatically (Auto Scheduled). Before that feature was introduced, all tasks were automatically scheduled. Although automatic scheduling is a huge help for projects with lots of tasks and resources, manual scheduling can help in several ways. This section describes what both task modes can do and how to decide which one you want.

Manually Scheduling Tasks

Out of the box, Project comes with Manually Scheduled mode turned on for all new tasks. If you’re new to project management, you can leave that option alone and merrily set the dates for the tasks in your project.

But to seasoned project managers, manual scheduling sounds like heresy. After all, the point of using project-management software is to let a computer calculate the project schedule and adjust the schedule automatically as you change tasks, resource assignments, and so on. But manually scheduled tasks come in handy for several common project-management situations, like at the beginning of a project when you have a paucity of info, or when you’re planning from the top down with timeframes handed down from management. This section describes the different ways you can put manually scheduled tasks to work.

Setting the Start and Finish Date for a Task

Every so often, you run into a ...