MinuteManPlus Project Management Software

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MinuteManPlus

Project Management Software

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The program is periodically updated – about 3 or 4 times a year. Please check back periodically to our website. You can download the latest version at no cost. If you install it in the same location as your original registered copy, it should come up in a registered state. If not, just send an email to

[email protected] and a new password will be supplied, again at no charge. You can also order an update on CD for $9.95on the order page listed above

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1.2 Support

If you have any questions about using the program or regarding an order, please contact us via email to [email protected]

1.3 Installation Note

When you install MinuteMan-Plus, you may wish to configure your system so that double-clicking MinuteMan-Plus data files in a folder or on the Windows desktop will cause MinuteMan-Plus to be launched and that data file to be opened. To do this it will be necessary to “associate” the MinuteMan-Plus data file extension “.PRM” with the MinuteMan-Plus Application MINMANP.EXE

Following are instructions for doing this on Windows ME; instructions for other platforms are similar; - Launch “My Computer” and select “View” and select “Tools” and select “Folder Options”

- Click the Tab for “File Types” and select “New” (See Note below if .PRM is already in use) - Enter “PRM” and click “OK”

- Under “Details” click “Change”

- A list of programs on your computer will appear. If MinuteMan-Plus is not already in the list, Click “Other” and browse to the directory where MinuteMan-Plus is installed and select MINMANP.EXE. Typically this is installed in C:\ProgramFile\MinuteManPlus

- Click “OK” as needed to exit

NOTE: It is possible that there may already be a program on your machine associated with the “.PRM” file extension. “Print Shop” is one program that uses that extension. If another program is associated with the PRM extension, the only way to associate MinuteMan-Plus with MinuteMan-Plus data files is to identify the other program in the above procedure and use EDIT to associate “PRM” with MinuteMan-Plus

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2.0 Overview of Basic Operation

MinuteManPlus can manage multiple projects at both a high-level for overview purposes, and at a low-level for day-to-day management.

Please see the diagram below. When MinuteManPlus is started you are presented with a ‘MainScreen’ which lists all the projects, as well as notes and comments on each. By double-clicking any project on the projects list, you then ‘open up’ that project and can manage it in detail. The default is to work with a ’timeline’, but there are also other views for seeing a ‘flow chart’ of the project. In the detail view you can also assign people and fixed costs to tasks, and run a variety of reports. At any point you can always ‘pop back up’ to the top level and manage the overall list of projects.

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3.0 Looking At The List of Projects

MinuteManPlus works on lists of projects. You open or create one list at a time. A list can have up to 100 projects in it. There is no limit on the number of project list files you can store on your computer.

For the following sections it is recommended that you first launch MinuteManPlus and then use the menu for File and Open to load the sample project projlst1 that is supplied with the program.

When you first load the sample project, you should see the following Project Summary view;

The Project summary contains a list of projects, with fields for text comments, and schedule information. Active Help

At the bottom of the screen, a Hint or Help bar is provided which describes the function of whatever field is below the mouse/cursor;

As you become familiar with the program, you will have less need for the Active Help. It can be removed or restored at any time using the Menus for Options and Overall and Show Hint Bar.

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The Toolbar

A Toolbar is available across the top of the Project Summary View;

The individual button features are as follows;

File/Open – Call up a windows-standard dialogue to load a project list.

Save – File present project list to disk (CTRL-S on the keyboard also activates this.)

Print Reports – Activates the Report Generator to print or file text reports about the projects.

Costs – Assign people and expenditures to a project

Resources – Define a list of workers available for all projects

Calendar – Define working days, shifts, holidays, special days, and more

Detail Project View – Click this to start a detailed schedule on any one project

- Timeline –View a Timeline or “Gantt Chart” of all projects.

- Help – View this Help File.

The File/Open and Save are windows standard features for opening and saving your work.

The Print feature has some advanced capabilities and will be discussed in detail in Section 5 about the Timeline

MinuteManPlus also has many features for defining the times during which work can be done. “Normal Workdays”, Holidays, and repeating non-work days (i.e weekends) can be defined. Also, working days can have multiple “shifts” defined. The Calendar feature for using the features is also described in Section 6. MinuteManPlus has very capable features for defining resources and assigning them to projects. The Costs

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3.1 Working on the List of Projects

There are 3 major areas of display in the main Screen; - The List of Projects

- The Schedule for each project - The Information for each project

In the List of Projects you enter (obviously) your list of projects or tasks. Whenever you highlight an indivisual project by clicking it, the schedule for that project is listed in the Schedule area, and text comments are entered in the Information Section

The List of Projects

This field acts like a small, two column, spreadsheet.

You can edit any entry. The ADD Button inserts a new blank entry, and the DELETE button deletes the currently selected entry.

The UP and DN (Down) buttons are used to change the position of the highlighted task in the list.

If you click EXPORT it will export the currently selected project to a single file. The IMPORT button can be used to insert one or more projects from an existing list of projects.

Please see later section 17 “Working With Spreadsheet Files and Microsoft Project” for further information using the IMPORT function to accept schedules created with spreadsheet files.

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The Schedule Information

The Schedule Information box allows you to specify and or calculate the start, end, and duration of a project. There is also a way to record progress on a given task via a “percent complete” field.

If you click the START or END data field, (The Date itself, not the label “Start:” or “End:”) a date-picker box will appear ;

Click the desired Start (or End) date and then the SELECT button. The date will be entered for the project. If you enter an End Date, the duration field will automatically be calculated and updated to agree with the selected end time.

Note that days that have been specified as Non-Working will not be accepted as Start or End dates. See Section 6, for information about setting Working and Non-Working days..

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In a similar fashion, clicking the Start or End Hours fields will activate a Time-Picker box;

You can use the fields to select a Start or End time as appropriate. If you enter an End Time, the duration field will automatically be calculated and updated to agree with the selected end time.

Again, please refer to Section 6, for instructions on specifying valid working and non-working hours. NOTE – No task can be specified as ending at the start time of a valid work day or work shift. For example, with the default workday consisting of an 8-hour day with the hours of 8:00AM to 12:00 PM and 1:00PM to 5:00PM, you cannot specify a task as ending at 8:00AM nor 1:00 PM. The task should end at 5PM of the previous day or 12:00 AM. Similarly, a project cannot start at the end of a working period. While this may seem obvious, it is a common and easy mistake to make.

You can also specify the Duration of Tasks in the indicated field. When you can enter any valid duration the End Date/Time will automatically be calculated and updated to agree with it.

Enter 1.0 to indicate 1 working day (typically 8 hours). You can also enter fractional days ; “1.5” and 0.25 are acceptable ways of entering 12 and 4 hours respectively, assuming an 8-hour day is in use.

The default units are working days. You can also make entries in hours instead of days; just type in 4h and it will switch to a default of hours. Enter 1d to return to a default of days.

Note that MinuteManPlus has a resolution of 15 minutes and any duration entries will be rounded off to the nearest 15 minutes.

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Adding Notes on Each Project

The Project Information box allows you to record important information about each project.

In the example project list there are 4 data fields labeled “Account Name”, “Account Number”, “Budget”, and “Contact”. You can edit these labels as appropriate for your projects. Just click any one of the existing labels (i.e. “Account Name”) and the fields will be put into an editing mode;

Edit the label, and when done use the Enter key or Tab key on your keyboard, or click something else on the screen, to leave the editing mode.

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3.2 The Top-Level Timeline of All Projects

You can view a high-level timeline of all projects. Click the Timeline button , or use the menu for View and Timeline to switch to it. By using the Zoom Out button you should be able to view the Timeline for the list of projects as follows;

You can edit project data in either the Project Summary or Timeline view, although you can only add or remove projects in the Project Summary View.

To switch back to the Project Summary View, either press the TOP button or use the menu for View and Project Summary.

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3.3 Top-Level Reports

Activate the Report Generator by using the Menu for Reports and Report Generator. The following screen will be displayed;

Click DONE to return to the original View.

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4.0 Looking at Individual Projects in Detail

MinuteManPlus allows you to work on a schedule from 3 different views ;

The Timeline or Gantt Chart is a method to show when tasks happen. The left hand side of the Gantt Chart is a column listing tasks individually. To the right of each task in the Gantt Chart, a box is overlaid on a calendar showing when the task occurs.

Access from the toolbar with

The Timeline is the view most often used for entering and editing tasks.

The Planning View provides an additional ability to graphically layout the ‘flow’ of your project.

A Pert Chart is an expanded way of showing the flow of work. Each box represents a task, and a line (or Link) from one to another means the second will take place after the first is completed. The Critical Path is the line of tasks through the PERT Chart, which directly affect the completion in a project.

All functions related to creating or editing tasks can be done from any of the 3 views. Each has its strength's;

MinuteManPlus also provides 3 ways of numbering tasks, if that is needed. For the majority of projects where numbering is not needed, the default is a simple sequential numbering of tasks as they are entered.. Two ‘outlining’ methods are also available for those projects that require budgetary tracking by task number.

For simplicity, the majority of examples in this manual are given using the default Timeline view, and the simplest numbering system, All 3 views are described in a bit more detail further on in this section.

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4.1 The TimeLine View

The TimeLine presents the schedule against a calendar. It is very similar to the industry-standard Gantt Chart, but with a few improvements.

In the above example, the tasks for one quarter (3 months) are shown. By using the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons, you can select the range of time diplayed, from 1 day up to two years.

The diagram above shows task durations. In the VIEWS menu entry, you can select two other important ways to display the TimeLine; Resource Usage and Resource Usage by task. These are described in more detail in a later section.

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4.2 The Planning View

The Planning View allows you to quickly enter tasks and establish relationships between them. The view below shows the Planning View used with the file project SAMPLE1 supplied with MinuteMan.

The red and blue boxes in the grid on the right are individual tasks. (Red is ‘Critical’, blue is ‘Normal’, explained later.) Lines between tasks are “links” indicating that the task to the right can’t start until tasks to its left have completed.

A milestone (task with duration of zero) is indicated by a diamond within a box. Tasks with non-zero duration are indicated by a plain box.

It is common to place similar, sequential, related tasks in the same row. The fields under “Task Group Summary” to the left of the grid may be edited to enter a general comment or description about the tasks in that row.

Any task can be deleted by highlighting (clicking ) the task and clicking the “-T” button at the top of the screen. A task can be inserted at any vacant location in the grid by highlighting or clicking the location, and then clicking the +T button at the top of the screen. A task can be deleted

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4.3 The PERT Chart

This is a fairly standard way of representing a project. The focus is on identifying starting and ending relationships between tasks. Each box represents a task. The box contains information on the description of the task, its outline number, and start/end information.

Lines from one task to another indicate a dependency - each rightmost task starts when all the predecessors to its left have completed.

A task with zero duration is considered to be a “milestone” and is drawn with rounded corners. The “critical path” traces the sequence of events that are directly responsible for the completion of the project. By definition; a task is on the critical path if extending that tasks duration adds to the end date of the latest task in the project. Tasks or milestones on the critical path are drawn in red.

Note: Pert Charts with a large number of tasks can take up a lot of space when printing! See section 13 for hints on compactly printing Pert Charts.

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5.0 Using the Timeline View

From the Timeline view you can create and manage tasks with almost all the same capabilities as in the Planning View. If you run the program and use FILE and OPEN to load the supplied SAMPLE1 you will see;

When you initially launch the Timeline view, only the data columns for Task Number, Description, and Duration are displayed. Right-click the gray bar with “Duration”, “Description” etc at the top to show more columns or to select columns to hide.

By dragging the Separator bar between this area and the actual timeline, you can also show the start/end dates and times.

5.1 Navigation

By using the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons, you can select the timeframe shown as being a Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year, or 2 Years.

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5.2 Creating and Managing Tasks

When you launch the program, or use FILE and NEW, you see a default project with a single task named “First Task” with duration 1Day;

To add more tasks,

- click any empty box below “First Task” and type a task name, and use the Enter button on your keyboard

- or, Use the mouse and left mouse button to ‘drag’ a box anywhere in the ‘calendar’ (right) area from the approximate desired Start to End date

- or right-click anywhere in the column under “Item Number” and select “Insert Task” To edit the description, duration or start or end date or time

- Click the appropriate box in the row of the task - or, Right-Click the task Description and select

the desired item.

Dates and Times – are edited with a mini-calendar or menu. Note that if you edit the End Date or time for a Task, the duration field (further below) will be automatically re-calculated.

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To create a link between tasks;

- Use the left mouse button to drag a line between task task boxes in the ‘calendar’(right) area - Or Click the Links button on the toolbar

Link Editor - A menu will be provided where you

can select existing links and delete them, or select any tasks to add as predecessor or successor links.

To delete a task, right-click in the Task ID column for the row of the Task, and then select “Delete Task” You can “hide” many of the columns in the display by right-clicking the title at the head of the column (i.e. “End Date”) and then selecting “Hide Column” from the drop-down menu. There is also a “Show All Columns” choice.

Other features on the toolbar, described later, are;

- Add a text note to a task - Resources – Define a list of globally available resources

- Calendar: Define Working and Non-Working days

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5.3 Recording Progress with the %Complete Feature

The %Complete feature may be used if you wish to record progress on your schedule. In each of the Planning, Timeline, and PERT Charts the data for the currently selected task contains a %Complete field that you fill out. The Timeline view provides a graphical indication of the %Complete as well as an indication of tasks running ‘late’.

In the default Timeline diagram tasks on the Critical Path are displayed in Red, while those not on the Critical Path are Blue. The timeline can also show the %Complete for each task, and whether it is on time or running late.

The %Complete for a task can be set using the menu in the data area; . You can select a value from the drop-down menu, or type a value in.

To display %Complete on the Timeline, use the menu entries for ‘Options’ and ‘Timeline’ and ‘Mark Completion’.

The above partial timeline for a single task illustrates how %Complete and Lateness are displayed. The task has duration of 4 days and starts on 12-May. The %Complete has been entered as being 25%.

The green bar shows that 25% of the work has been done.

This report was run on 14-May. If the task were following its schedule, it should have been 50% complete by the end of 13-May. The yellow bar shows the difference between the amount of work completed, and how much work should have been completed by now; i.e. how late the task is running.

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6.0 The Project Planning View

With the Timeline view it is easy to define a series of tasks and establish basic links between tasks. The Planning View provides a way to both create tasks then graphically manage their relationships; this is useful for more complicated things like individual or groups of tasks going on in parallel, at the same time. Section 4.1 will describe the layout of the planning view, and then the following sections will describe how to use it.

6.1 The Task-Data Area and Tool Bar

For the Planning view , a Task Data Area is provided across the top of the screen. This is where data about the currently selected task can be entered, changed, or just displayed. There is also a toolbar across the very top of the screen.

The Task-Data Area

The data area presents information about the task that has been selected in the current View. The items in the data area are;

Task #: This box lists the identifying number of the currently selected task. Numbers can be automatically assigned or you can create a structured outline.

Duration: The duration of the task. Calculations may be done using days or hours, Start: The Start date and time of the selected task.

End: The End date and time of the selected task

Description: A brief description or "name" you can assign to identify the task. Longer text information can be supplied using the Note function on the toolbar.

Cost: A rollup of the total costs associated with the task. Clicking the Cost button calls up a menu where you can assign People or Expenditures to the task.

Links: A list of predecessors of the task. Clicking the Links button calls up a menu where you can add or remove predecessors to the Task.

: “Important” selector/indicator ; Used to select individual Tasks as being Important. The button will be Red for those tasks that have been designated as Important.

You can edit the Description, Duration, and Start Date/Time for a task. (If the Task is assigned predecessors The Start Date/Time will be recalculated and updated by the program.) The End date and Outline Number are calculated.

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The Toolbar

The toolbar provides quick access to frequently used functions, which are also present in the overall menu-bar. The toolbar buttons are described below;

- Open An Existing Project - Save Project away

- Print

- Links: Create/delete predecessor or successor links for a Task

- Notes: Append a text note to a task. - Resources – Define a list of globally available resources

- Costs: Assign (Defined) resources to tasks.

- Calendar: Define Working and Non-Working days

- TimeLine View - Planning View

- PERT View

or - Add or Remove a Task in the current Project View

- Insert One Task between two others - Set Percent Complete for task

- Insert or Remove a Row in the current Project View

- Insert or Remove a Column in the current Project View

- Help ; Activate the help file.

Each of these functions will be described in more detail further on.

Active Help

At the bottom of the screen, a Hint bar is provided which describes the function of whatever field is below the mouse/cursor;

As you become familiar with the program, you will have less need for the Active Help. It can be removed or re-activated by using the menu entries for Options and Overall and Show Hint Bar.

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6.2 Basic Navigation

When you first launch MinuteMan, and go to the Planning View, a default project with just one task is displayed as follows

Because of the mechanics of the program, you must always have that one task in that position. It cannot be deleted or moved. You can however edit its properties to make it useful; you can edit the description, or duration, and add resources or notes just like any other task.

You can select any box in the Tasks grid or the Task Group Summary column by clicking it, and then move around with the keyboard Right/Left arrows or Page Up/Down keys.

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6.3 Task Entry and Editing

Task Entry - A task can be inserted at any vacant location in the grid by highlighting or clicking the location, and then clicking the +T button at the top of the screen. A task can be deleted by highlighting (clicking ) the task and clicking the “-T” button at the top of the screen.

Dates - Clicking the Start Date or Start Time Field will pull up a mini-calendar or menu from which you can set the Start Date and Time for a Task. Similarly the End Date and Time set those values for the task. Note that if you edit the End Date or time for a Task, the duration field (further below) will be automatically re-calculated.

Duration: Enter duration for a task in the indicated field. The “d” or “h” next to the field indicates the units in use; days or hours. To change units just include an H or D at the end of the field. I.E. if the Units are (d)ays, enter 3h to enter a 3-hour duration. For days or hours fractions may be entered; the program operates with a resolution of 15-minute intervals. I.E. 2.5 H is an acceptable entry.

When the duration of a task is edited, the End Date and Time are automatically recalculated .

Moving Tasks - You can move a task from one location to another by placing the cursor above the task, pushing down the right mouse button, dragging to another location, and releasing the right mouse button

Creating a Task and a Link at the Same Time - You can create new task an link after any task by by

placing the cursor above the task, pushing down the left mouse button, dragging to another location, and releasing the left mouse button

Links; To manage the links for a Task, click the task and then click either the [ LINK ] directly above the grid, or LINK button on the Toolbar. A menu will be provided where you can select existing links and delete them, or select any tasks to add as predecessor or successor links.

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6.4 Parallel Tasks

The ability to graphically layout tasks makes it easy to define activities that are going on at the same time. Following is a simple illustration ;

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6.5 Task Numbering

The default operation is to number tasks sequentially, running from the upper left hand corner to the lower right-hand corner of the Planning View

The program provides two additional methods for numbering tasks, for projects where it is desired to organize groups of tasks using an outline.

To switch between the numbering modes, use the menu entries for Options and Overall and Task Numbering Style. The three methods are

- Numbers (the default) - Outline

- Outline with indenting

In the Outline method, each row is assigned a number. The text in the “Project Outline” column serves as a name for the activities in the row. The first row in the Example below is “1.”, it’s name is “Row 1” and individual tasks in the row are then numbered 1.1, 1.2, etc See the example below. Row 2 is “2.” tasks in Row 2 are 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 etc.

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The Outline with Indenting method provides a means to indent whole rows below each other.

When first enabled, note that the rows are now numbered 1.0, 2.0 etc . tasks within the row are numbered 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3 etc

Also note the appearance of the indent/outdent arrows at the head of the column. Click “Row 2” and then click the indent arrow and the second row becomes indented below the first.

In the Planning View As it appears in the Timeline View

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In the Planning View you can always insert additional Rows as needed.

In the Timeline View, note that the same Indent/Outdent buttons appear at the head of the numbering column. In the timeline view you can insert outline row items by right clicking the Items column , but it must be at the point of an existing outline number (i.e. not on row representing a task;

Here are a couple important points

- The numbering system is purely for numbering purposes only; there is no ‘rolling up’ of task durations or costs across indented rows

- Switching backwards from Outline-with-indenting to one of the other views can introduce unexpected or surprising numbering results.

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7.0 Using The PERT Chart

The PERT Chart is an industry-standard way of displaying the sequence of tasks and their

inter-dependencies. This view provides the majority of the same task management capabilities as are available in the Planning and Timeline views.

7.1 Navigation

Navigation in this view is very similar to that of the Planning view. Click any task to highlight it. The data for the highlighted task will be displayed at the top of the screen. Right/Left arrow and Page Up/Down keyboard keys behave as in the Planning view.

Lines from one task to another indicate a dependency - each rightmost task starts when all the predecessors to its left have completed.

A task with zero duration is considered to be a “milestone” and is drawn with rounded corners. Tasks or milestones on the critical path are drawn in red.

7.2 Creating and Managing Tasks As in the planning view,

- A task can be created or deleted at any location using the +T button (at a vacant location) or the –T button (for a highlighted task).

- A task can be moved from one location to another by dragging with the right mouse button.

- A new linked task can be created by dragging from an existing task to a vacant location using the left mouse button.

7.3 Printing the PERT Chart

PERT Charts can take up a lot of space. There are several things that can be done to minimize taping together multiple sheets of paper. The PERT Chart can be printed on larger size paper (if available on your printer) or a number of pages can be compressed into one graphics file and printed on a single page. Se Section 14 for details.

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8.0 Tracking People, Resources, and Expenditures

MinuteManPlus provides several features that allow you to track people, costs, purchases, and equipment. This can be used to prepare a budget, to track costs, or to help you keep track of how much equipment needs to be ordered and when.

MinuteManPlus breaks all resources into two general areas; Head-Count Resources, and Expenditures, but each can be used in different ways;

Headcount;

1) Track individuals by name (J. Williams, E. Martin, etc)

2) Track people by job category (Hardware Engineer, Accountant) 3) Calculate labor costs on an hourly basis

Expenditures;

1) Individual Purchases (Rental Fee $55, Tooling Charges $3000, etc)

2) Piece Parts (5 Integrated Circuits @ $2.00 Each= 10$, 10 Boxes Paper @ $7.00 Each =$70, etc) In general, Headcount Resources have costs that increase with the duration of a task, while expenditures reflect fixed costs.

8.1 Background: How Resources are Stored

MinuteManPlus creates two files to store all the information for any one project;

• FILENAME.PRM stores the information on individual tasks, durations, links, etc and other general project information for project FILENAME. This information is unique to that one project.

• FILENAME.RSC stores a list of resources that have been defined by project FILENAME. That same list can be imported and used by any other project, to save having to redefine a commonly used resource list.

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8.2 Tracking Project Headcount Resources

You define resources and assign them to tasks using the Costs button on the toolbar. When you click it, on the left you will see a list of tasks in the project (as from the Timeline View) and on the right you will see 4 tabbed windows for managing costs and resources.

You first define resources and expenditures, using the Available Resources and Common Expenditures tabs, and then assign them to tasks using the “Resources” and “Common Expenditures” tabs. The tabs are each used as follows;

Available Resources; To create a Resource, type it’s name in a blank line under the Description column, then use the Enter or Tab key on your keyboard. Then enter the Hourly rate under Cost/Hr. The “Max” field is used to specify how many of that particular resource may be in use at any time; if you have 3 carpenters available, enter a Max of 3. When the program is calculating schedules and costs, it will flag any resource that is over0-used at any point in time

To delete a resource, right-click anywhere in the line or just delete it’s Description field.

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Common Expenditures - Create, delete, or edit a commonly available Expenditure the same as a resource.

Resources; This tab applies to the Task currently selected on the left hand side of the screen. To add a resource to a task, make a selection from the drop-down menu in the Description column. To delete a task just right-click somewhere in the row.

The Qty field defines how many of the resource are applied to the task.

There is a drop-down menu under “Usage” where you specify some options for using the resource; Full Time, or Hours/Day, Days/Week, etc. Two special entries are Days and Hours. These mean a fixed number of Days or Hours regardless of the duration of the task. All the other settings apply the resource based on how long the task takes.

The Cost/Hr cannot be edited; it just displays the amount that was defined in the Available Resources tab.

Expenditures ; This applies Expenditures from the “Common Expenditures” list to the selected task. Add, or delete an Expenditure the same was as adding resources.

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8.3 Viewing Resource Usage on the TimeLine

The VIEW menu enables you to call up two views of the TimeLine, which display resource utilization; Resources-Summary and Resources - By Task.

Resources Summary (above) lists the utilization of each resource over time. Tasks that are at or under their specified maximum usage are indicated in Green, while those being consumed above their specified usage are shown in Yellow.

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Resources-By-Task provides additional detail on which task is calling for each resource. Critical-Path tasks are indicated in Red, and Non-Critical Tasks are shown in Blue.

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8.4 Resource Leveling

Resource Leveling is the ability to adjust a schedule to reflect the availability of resources; if two tasks both require the same worker, one task must be delayed until the other is complete.

MinuteManPlus provides an option to automatically perform resource leveling on the entire schedule. This feature is normally turned OFF. To turn it ON use the menu entries for Options and Overall and then toggle Resource Leveling

Here are a couple things to note about planning a project with Resource Leveling

About ALAP Timing – “As Late As Possible” timing has been described elsewhere in this manual. ALAP timing should not be employed on any tasks when Resource Leveling is enabled; the two features can lead to contradictory results. The program will provide a warning of attempts to have both features on.

Task With No Predecessors; If you have a task with a given Start Date, and then turn Resource Leveling ON, and the Task’s Start is delayed due to a resource conflict, the Task’s Start date will not be returned to its original value if you turn Resource Leveling back OFF. The program has no way of knowing what the original Start Date was. However, there is a way to make a Task’s Start return to an original value if needed; create a Milestone (zero duration task) with no predecessors at the desired Start Date, and make that Milestone a predecessor to the Task in question. Resource Leveling will not move the Milestone’s dates. If Resource Leveling is later turned OFF the linked task’s Start Date will return to that of the Milestone.

Critical Path and Critical Chain; the concept of the Critical Path has been described elsewhere. When Resource Leveling is turned ON, the Critical Path takes on a new meaning. Rather than reflect a time-driven completion of the project, it is reflecting a resource-time-driven completion of the project. A Critical Path calculated for a Resource-driven schedule is commonly called a Critical Chain.

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9.0 Using the Report Generator

The Report Generator may be used to develop a number of reports.

The reports displayed on the screen may be sent to a text file or printed using the buttons in the upper left hand corner.

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Cost Summary by Task - This report lists the people and expenditures used on a task-by-task basis. Expenditures - This lists discrete purchases, by task and totalized, across the project. It may be used to track one-time purchases, general cash usage, and also key components that must be bought.

Staffing Assignments – This list for each person the teasks they are assigned to and the date/time for those tasks.

Staffing - Costs: This lists for each person the tasks they are assigned to, the resulting labor cost for the task, and the total cost per person and per-project.

Earned Value - This provides a way to view overall project progress by tracking the financial "worth" against budget of tasks as their completion is recorded.

Reminders – Identifies tasks that fall within a specified range of days or on a specific day. Useful for identifying “What’s due this day, week, month, etc”

On the Filters tab you can further customize the reports using the following options;

Summary Line - Include the Summary Description of a group of related tasks (I.E. the label from the left-hand column of the Planning View.)

Predecessors - List all predecessors of each task.

Headcount - Include Headcount name/qty/cost information for each task.

Expenditures - Include individual expenditures by name/qty/cost for each task. Notes - Include the next note for each task.

Show Hours - When reporting dates, include hours

A Special Feature of ‘Reminders’ – When you select the Reminders report, in the Filters tab you select tasks that start or end within a certain date range or on a specific date. Also, one checkbox specifies that the Reminders report be run and displayed every time you start the program.

There is also an ability to run reports on only those tasks meeting certain selection criteria. Under the “Tasks To Report On” the default is to “Select All Tasks”. If you click “Select from list at right:” you can narrow down the tasks reported on. The report will cover only those tasks selected under “Only if all of” meeting all the choices which have been checked (Has Headcount, Has Expenditures, Is On Critical Path, is Important, is a Milestone with Duration = 0.) The list of task reported on is further narrowed to only include those listed under “And Is” which covers tasks that are Not Started (%Complete=0), In Progress (%Complete >0 and <100, and Complete (%Complete =100). Tasks can also be filtered by “Late”. For example, to report on only those task which are on the critical path and completed, check only the box that says Critical and the box that says complete.

NOTE – You must select at least one of Not Started, In Progress, or Complete, or you will effectively rule all tasks out of the report.

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10.0 The Project Calendar

It is important to be able to define regular working and non-working days, and events such as holidays, vacation days, or days with a different working schedule.

Click the toolbar button for the Calendar . A calendar view will be presented. Standard working days are drawn in white. Days with non-standard schedules are drawn in yellow. Non-Working Days are indicated in shaded/gray. You can advance or back up by a month- or year at a time by clicking the buttons to either side of the current month.

Units of Time

The program uses standard 12-Hour AM/PM nomenclature. The smallest resolution of time is the 15-minute interval. Entries can be made in terms of Days or Hours. You can change the default using the button at the lower left of the Calendar Screen. Alternatively, when typing in duration, if you follow it with an "h" or "d" (for "Hours" or "days"), the system default will be changed to reflect that.

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Setting Work Days

When you click any one day, its status as Standard Working Day, Custom Working Day, or Non-Working Day is displayed in the box to the right. The day's status can be changed, by clicking the adjacent button for "Standard Work Day", "Custom Work Day” or "Non-Working".

When you select an individual day as "Custom Work Day", you can the set the shift schedule for that day using the scheduling boxes at the bottom of the screen.

You can also select a day and click "Non-Working Day" to indicate that there are no working hours on that day - such as for a Holiday.

Note: The program allows the specification of a maximum of 100 Custom Days and a maximum of 100 Non-Working Days.

You can set periodic days off, typically weekend-days, by clicking that day name at the head of a column ("Sun") and then clicking the "Working" or "Non-Working" button.

Similarly, you can set periodic Custom-Day schedules by clicking that day name at the head of a column ("Wed") and then clicking the "Custom" button. Example - On Wednesdays we only work for a half-day. All calendar settings are saved when you exit the program.

A simple "Working Day Calculator" is provided to the lower right of the calendar screen. Enter, or click, a starting date followed by duration, and an end-date will be displayed. This is the end date based on working days as opposed to just elapsed days

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11.0 The Critical Path Tasks and Important Tasks

MinuteMan supports Critical Path project tracking. The Critical Path is commonly defined as the sequence of tasks which directly affect the completion date of a project. Tasks on the Critical Path are the ones to focus on shortening in order to make a project finish sooner. As a simple example, paying for Overnight Delivery vs. Standard Delivery, for a shipment that is on the critical path, can directly shorten a project. MinuteMan recalculates the Critical Path every time an edit is made to the schedule. By default, the Tasks that are on the Critical Task are indicated in red in the Planning, Timeline, and PERT views. This can be changed using the menu entries for Options and Overall and Critical Path; you can elect to mark all tasks as Critical (all red) or no tasks as critical (all are blue or black)

A related feature is the ability to designate certain tasks as “Important” whether they are on the Critical Path or not. There is an Exclamation Point button immediately to the right of the task “Description:” Field at the top of the screen. Clicking this button toggles whether a task is marked as Important or not. If the task has been marked as Important, the Button will turn red.

Additionally, the menus for Options and Overall and Critical Path include a choice “indicate important tasks” - this means that red will be used to indicate Important tasks instead of Critical Path tasks in each of the Planning, Timeline, and PERT views.

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12.0 Earliest/Latest Date Calculations

Normally MinuteManPlus calculates all dates on a "do it as soon as possible" basis. Each tasks' start date is set to the finish date of its last-completed predecessor. This is called the "As Soon As Possible" or "ASAP" method.

However, in some cases you may want to have one or more tasks actually occur As late As Possible or "ALAP", to defer expenses or labor.

MinutemanPlus supports ASAP and ALAP methodologies, selectable on a per-task basis . By selecting the menu entries for Options and Overall and Select ASAP/ALAP the Data area of the screen will be changed to look as follows;

Note that the area formerly used to display Links and Costs has been replaced with a drop-down-list and the EXECUTE, Help ("?") , and Close ("X") buttons. The Links and Costs can still be accessed via the related Toolbar buttons. Operation of these new features is as follows;

• "X" reverts to the mode of displaying the Links and Costs. • "?" Displays a very brief summary of this operation

• "Execute" is used to activate choices selected in the drop-down-list The drop-down-list choices are;

• "New Tasks are ASAP" means whenever you enter a new task it will be treated as an ASAP task • "New Tasks are ALAP" means whenever you enter a new task it will be treated as an ALAP task • "Set All Tasks to ASAP" will convert all existing ALAP tasks to ASAP when Execute is clicked. • "Make Selected Task ASAP" - Highlight an ALAP task, click "Execute", and the task will be

converted to ALAP.

• "Make Selected Task ALAP" - Highlight an ASAP task, click "Execute", and the task will be converted to ASAP.

Note that the label "Start" for any ALAP task is modified to "Late Start", to allow it to be distinguished from ASAP tasks.

Here are a couple notes on how ASAP/ALAP timings are calculated;

All calculations are done in a two-pass mode; The entire project is first calculated with each task as ASAP (including the Critical Path identification). Then any tasks identified as "ALAP" are delayed as much as possible without delaying any ASAP tasks, and without changing the Critical Path. This dual calculation is transparent to you - all you see is the end result.

Note this means that if there is a conflict between tasks such as an ALAP task being the only predecessor to an ASAP task, the ASAP task "wins" and stays where it is, whether on the critical path originally or not.

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13.0 Working With Spreadsheet Files and Microsoft Project

MinuteManPlus can exchange data with Microsoft project using the MPX file format.

MinuteManPlus has the ability to accept project schedules that were generated in spreadsheet format.

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13.1 Input of Schedules Using Spreadsheet Format

MinuteManPlus can accept schedule data from a spreadsheet-format file. This is useful if you have created basic task information using a spreadsheet. Also, this allows you to port schedules to MinuteManPlus from other programs that support spreadsheet-format outputs (See Microsoft Project further in this section.) MinuteManPlus accepts schedules in comma-delimited text file format, which as an industry standard has “.CSV” as a file extension.

In order to input a spreadsheet file, use the usual IMPORT button in the main Project Summary view. When the dialog box appears, in the field for “File of Type” select “Comma Delimited Spreadsheet files” and then browse and select the desired file.

MinuteManPlus requires that some minimal information be present in the file in order to create a meaningful schedule. Following is a description of the format expected.

Summary;

The file must be comma-delimited text. The first line must have Titles (“Fields”) corresponding to the data in each column. The expected fields are described below. MinuteManPlus will ignore fields and columns beyond the ones described below. (i.e extra columns won’t prevent the file from being read.) Each line after the first line will correspond to the data for a single task. There may be up to 200 tasks entered.

Following is a detail description of the file requirements; The following verification rules are applied to any imported spreadsheet file. If any of these conditions are not met the whole file will be rejected.

Overall

- Only comma-delimited files are accepted - The first line must include Field Names.

- The program will use Field Names from the following list; Description, Start Date, Start Time, End Date, End Time, Duration, Predecessors

- Spelling of Field names must be exactly as above. Field names are not case-sensitive. - The listed Field names may appear in any order or position in the first line.

- Some of the Field Names are Mandatory. Others are Optional; the program will attempt to compute missing optional Field Names. See the description "For Each record"

- Other field names may be present but they will be ignored. For Each Task Record

- Each Task shall be on one line with comma-delimited data Fields corresponding to the Field Names in the file's First Line

- There must be at least one Record in a file. - There can be no more than 200 Records in a file. - Each Record must have a Description and Start Date

- If a Start Time is not specified, the Start Time is set to the first working hour of the specified Start Date - If an End Date is Specified but not an End Time, the End Time is set to last working hour of the specified End Date

- If an End Date is specified, the Duration (in days) will be calculated from the Start Date/Time and End Date/Time

- If a Duration is specified but no End Date is specified, the End Date/Time will be calculated from the Duration and the Start Date/Time

- The Description shall be any text. Descriptions longer than 50 characters will be truncated.

- Start Date and (if present) End Date shall be a date only (not including time) and shall be compliant with Windows usage.

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13.2 Importing Schedules from Microsoft Project

Background; Versions of Microsoft Project prior to 2003 support input and output using the publicly defined "MPX" file format.

- To Read an MPX format file into MS-Project, just use File and Open and select 'files of type' and 'MPX' - To Save an MS-Project file as MPX format, just use 'Save' and select 'files of type' and 'MPX'

For versions of Microsoft Project 2003 or later, the program, will read in MPX files but will no longer write out MPX files. MS-Project 2003 and later can write 'CSV' format spreadsheet files.

To Save a Microsoft Project file in CSV format, use File and Save As and select "CSV" You will be walked through an export wizard. If/When prompted, select;

- Use existing Map - Default Task Data

- Select the comma separator (caution - that is not the default) MinuteManPlus can read and write MPX Files and CSV Files

- To Write a MinuteManPlus file to MPX format, use File and Export and select "To Microsoft Project MPX"

- To Read an MPX File into MinuteManPlus, just use File and Open and for "Files of Type" select MPX - To Read a spreadsheet file from MS-Project 2003 into MinuteManPlus, just use File and Open and for "Files of Type" select "CSV"

Comments

There is not an exact translation of files between MinuteManPlus and Microsoft Project. Here is a partial list of differences known at this time;

First, MinuteManPlus will only read-in a subset of all the features that may exist in a Microsoft project file. Task names, dates and durations, resources and links are read in. Other data is not.

Here are some other differences that have been identified so far

- The two programs may have different workday schedules and calendars. There is not a means to automatically synchronize them. Consequently dates and times may be moved around a bit in going from one program to the other. Example; If one program uses Sunday as a workday and the other doesn't, a task on a Sunday will get moved to a working day on the other program. If important, you can manually set the calendars of the two programs to be similar.

MinuteManPlus has limits on the number of tasks-per-project (200) and links-per-task (5) and will delete any incoming entries, which exceed this or reject the file outright.

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14.0 Sending Information to Others

You may have a need to share your schedule with other people who may or may not have a copy of MinuteManPlus. The next section discusses sharing data files with people who have their own copy of the program.

To help share your schedule with people who don’t have a copy of the program using, the program

provides text and graphics file outputs which can be shared with others using conventional office tools such as email, word processor files, or posting on a website.

As discussed in the section on the Report Generator, all reports can be output as text files that can then be emailed, included in a word processor document, or posted on a website.

All Screen Views such as the Timeline and PERT Chart can be sent to graphics files. These graphics files can be inserted directly into word processor documents, sent via email, or posted on a website. A word processor can also be used to re-size, combine, or otherwise modify the graphics files

For any View, when you select "Print" a conventional Print dialog box will come up. Under the list of Printer choices, the last says "Graphics File .BMP". Selecting this device will choose sending the output to a graphics file.

The graphics file(s) will be sent to a subdirectory /GRAPHICS off the directory in which MinuteMan is installed. There will be one file for each page of output. For the Pert chart they will be named PERT1.BMP, PERT2.BMP etc for each page. Files for the Timeline view will start with TIME and for the Planning view will start with OUTL

Please note that any time you do a graphics output of one view, all previously existing files of (only) that same type in the directory will be erased.

Pert Charts in particular can become quite large, and if printed on “standard” pages such as US 8.5”x11” can require taping a large number of pages together.

The Pert Chart Print Dialog Box supports paper sizes up to 17”x22” ( US Size ‘C’). This will fit more of the output on each physical page. They can be resized even further as graphics files within a word processor document. Legible results have been obtained with a 'C' formatted output reduced to 'A' on a single page within a Word processor.

It is recommended that you experiment with various page/orientation settings and your Word Processor to determine the optimal printed output.

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15.0 Using Templates for Similar or Repeated Projects

Very often you may find that different projects have the same basic format; similar tasks and durations, but perhaps starting at a different point in time.

One project can be used as a ‘template’ and repeated, thus saving the work of having to re-enter the same information multiple times.

Let’s say that you have 5 projects defined as below, and that Project #3 is of a format that you wish to use over and over. You can save project #3 as a Template by clicking the Template button at the top of the list

In the Templates menu that appears, Select Export and Click the EXPORT CURRENT PROJECT button

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16.0 Use On A Network

MinuteManPlus is a desktop application. It is not a ‘networked’ or ‘client server’ application. Still, it is possible to share information with others who have the program.

Sharing Files On A Network

If your computer is on a network, and you have a common file storage area, you can save your files (the actual working files or a copy for distribution) on the common storage area where others can access them. A common question is; What if two people are working on the same file at the same time?

The problem; When the program ‘opens’ a schedule, it creates a ‘local’ copy where the changes are made, and when you do a ‘save’ it writes the local copy over the original. So, if two people were working on a file at the same time, they would actually be working on separate copies and whomever did ‘Save’ last would overwrite the others changes.

The Solution; While the program cannot prevent mulytiple people from opening the same file, it can provide a warning that a file is already being worked on by someone else. To enable this feature, on the main screen select the menu entries for Options and Overall and then click/select “Indicate File In Use”. Use In A Citrix or Terminal Server Environment

Some office networks provide an ability to host a single copy of a program on a central location which can then be run by multiple people at the same time. “Citrix” and “Windows t\Terminal Server” or “Remote File Share” are a couple methods use to do this.

Note1: MinuteMan Systems does not provide technical support for doing this – it is up to your own IT people to implement it. Also, MinuteMan Sysytems’ products have not been technically verified as working in such environments – you may or may not be able to use it as such.

Note 2: In the event a single copy is hosted for multiple users, your company should still acquire a multi-user license.

Direct File Transfer

Lastly, you always have the option of copying the project files to a storage device such as a ‘flash drive” and moving it between computers. When doing so please note that each project consists of two files projectname.prm and projectname.rsc. Both must be copied to deliver all the project information. Also, any modifications you make to the working calendar, and any view preferences, are only stored locally and you may wish to also copy those from one computer to another.

The calendar is stored in file CALENDAR.DAT in the same directory where the program is installed. Viewing preferences are stored in file MINMAN.PRF in the same directory where the program is installed.

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17.0 About Filenames

This is a description of several files used by MinuteMan. It is intended to be of assistance when making any backups of your data

Per-Project Files

MinuteManPlus stores 2 files for each project list you that create as follows; filename.prm – stores schedule and miscellaneous information for the project filename.rsc – stores resource information for the project

filename.txt – when you save a report from the report generator to disk, this filename format is used.

Common Files

The following files are used by MinuteManPlus in common across all project lists; Minman.prf – stores preferences you may have elected

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18.0 Data Backup and Recovery

MinuteManPlus provides a data-archive feature to aid in recovery of data should a mis-operation occur, such as a power failure.

Whenever you save a file, a duplicate copy is made to a directory \BACKUP located off the directory in which the program is installed. Typically that becomes c:\ProgramFiles\MinuteMan\backup

The 10 most recent files are saved here. They are named mm_archive_1 through mm_archive_10. As each save is performed, the previously stored copies are renumbered and ‘pushed down’. Therefore

mm_archive_1 is always the most recently saved file, and mm_archive_10 is the oldest.

If you do lose data somehow, run the program and use the Open function to open these files; typically starting with mm_archive_1 and proceeding to mm_archive_10 as needed.

Apart from the backup provided by the program, its always advisable when using any software to periodically backup your data to diskette, CD, or a file-server. When backing up MinuteManPlus files, make sure to backup both of the files associated with each project; filename.prm and filename.rsc.

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19.0 Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions and The Summary View

These questions cover the primary viewing screen, the “Summary” view, and some features that apply across projects overall.

1.) How Can I Print to a PDF Document?

The best way to do this is to use a PDF Print Driver on your computer. Many computers come with one already installed. Otherwise there are many available on the internet. There is a good one, with a free version, available at www.pdf995.com.

To print anything to a PDF file, start to print as you normally would, and when offered a Printer to select, scroll down to and select thye PDF Driver. Then just proceed with the printing. You will be prompted for a filename and location to print to.

2.) What are the “Labels” for?

Question – What are those fields that just say “Labels” used for?

Answer – Those are the titles of 4 customizable, general-purpose fields you can use for recording key data about your projects. Take a look at the example projects supplied with the program. For example, they could be setup to have an Account Name/Number, Contact, Telephone Number, etc. You set the labels once for all projects, and then for each project you can enter its relevant information in the field to the right of the Label. You can edit any of the labels by clicking it, typing in a new label, and then hitting the Enter or Tab keys on your keyboard, or clicking something else. The Fields themselves can be just clicked and edited.

3.) How Do I Specify Working And Non-Working Days/Weekends?

Question - Our Company works on Saturdays, but the Calendar always shows Saturday as a non-working day. Can I change that?

Answer – Yes. Any day-of-the-week can be designated as working or non-working. To do this, use the menu for Options and Overall and Set Calendar (or click the Calendar symbol on the Toolbar.) Now click the name of the workday, at the top of the column, for the day you want to change. In this case click “Sat” at the head of that column. In the box at the right-hand side click “Set Standard Working Day”.

Note; if all occurrences of a workday (i.e. all Saturdays) are set as non-working, you cannot then change individual days (i.e. just Saturday November 18th) back to working.

4.) How Do I Schedule Part-Time Workers?

Question - When assigning people to a task, I have some people who only work part-time on a given task. How do I handle that?

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Question - Speaking of US Dollar Signs, we’re not in the US. How can we use a different Currency Symbol?

Answer – Use the menu entries for Options and Overall and Currency Symbol. You can select from the US Dollar Sign, the UK Pound symbol, or a single alphabetic character. You can also select “No Currency Symbol”.

6.) How To Send Reports To People Who Don’t Have MinuteMan-Plus?

Question - I need to send status reports with the Timeline (or Charts) to people in my department. Do they each have to have a copy of MinuteMan-Plus?

Answer – Not at all! This is a very important feature of MinuteMan-Plus. You can send the Timeline, Outline and PERT Charts to a graphics file “.bmp” output instead of a hardcopy printer. (Also, the output of the Report Generator can be sent to a “.txt” text file on your system) You can then just insert the

graphics files or text files into a word processor document or email, format them as you wish, and distribute them to anyone. To obtain a graphics output of the click Print as you normally would. In the Print Dialog, under the list of available Printers, select Graphics File. The just print it. One file will be created for each page and sent to a sub-directory /GRAPHICS off the directory where MinuteMan-Plus is installed. They will have names like TIME01.BMP, TIME02.BMP, etc.

Questions on The Detail Scheduling Views

These Questions apply to the detailed project views of Outline, PERT, and Timeline. 7.) How do I maneuver between different views?

Question – I’m confused about maneuvering between the Summary View and the detail project views. And why does the timeline sometimes show different things?

Answer – In the Summary View you can either enter data at the Summary level, or view the Timeline of all your projects at once. To create a detail schedule for any project, click the project in the list of projects, and then click the “Detail Project Schedule” button on the toolbar. This will initially go to the Outline View. When generating a detail schedule you can use buttons on the toolbar to alternate between the Outline View , the PERT Chart , and the project’s own Timeline .

To return to the Summary view use the BACK button .

Depending on if you are using the Summary view or the Detail view, you will get two different Timelines displayed. In the Summary view you are seeing each project, whether detailed or not, represented as a single line with a Start and End. If you are in the Detail view, the Timeline will show all the tasks for only that current project.

8.) Why Can’t I Edit a Task’s Start Date?

MinuteManPlus Project Management Software

MinuteManPlus

Project Management Software

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