The WBS codes built into Project are simple outline codes with a number for each level in the outline hierarchy. For instance, a WBS code of 2.1.3 might represent the second phase of the project, the first summary task in that phase, and the third work package for that summary task. If your organization uses customized codes, you can build a tailored numbering system—called a code mask—to specify each level of your WBS code. If you use abbreviations for phases, numbers for summary tasks, and letters for work packages, a customized WBS for the design phase of a project might look like this: Dsn-1.a.
To define a customized WBS code, follow these steps:
Choose Project -> WBS -> Define Code.
The WBS Code Definition dialog box appears. Although any existing WBS codes show numbers for each level with a period as a separator, the boxes in the WBS Code Definition dialog box are empty until you specify a custom scheme for your WBS codes.
Note: If you assemble several projects into a single master project (page 437), you can make WBS codes unique for each project, even if they use the same code mask. If you work with multiple projects, set up the code mask for a new project before you get too deep into defining the project tasks. That way you don’t have to renumber all your tasks later. In the Project Code Prefix box, type a prefix for the current project. Project inserts the project prefix at the beginning of the WBS codes for the tasks in the project; for instance, PRJ01.1.4.1.
In the “Code mask” section, in the first Sequence cell, choose the type of characters you want to use for the top level of the hierarchy, as shown in the top figure of Figure4-7.
You can choose from Numbers (ordered), Uppercase Letters (ordered), Lowercase Letters (ordered), and, for most flexible coding, Characters (unordered). Ordered numbers and letters mean that Project automatically increments the numbers or letters as you add tasks to the WBS, for example, proceeding from 1.1 to 1.2. to 1.3.
In the first Length cell, choose a number (from 1 to 10) for the length of the mask for the top level.
Project initially selects Any, which means the entry for the level can be of any length. If the level uses a number, Project increments the number beginning at 1 and continuing to 10, 100, or 1000, if necessary. If the level uses letters, then you can type a code of any number of characters at that level.
Choosing a number limits the entry to between one character and the length you specify. If you limit a numeric entry to one character, Project cycles through the numbers 1 through 9, moves to 0, and then repeats.
In the Separator cell, choose the character that separates the top level from the next level.
The only choices for separators are a period (.), minus sign (–), plus sign (+), or slash (/).
Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 for each additional level of the code mask.
You can specify dozens of levels in a code mask (in fact, a WBS code can be as long as 255 characters), but being miserly with levels makes the schedule easier to comprehend.
Figure 4-7. Top: The choices for characters, length, and separators are limited. If you use unordered characters, you have to type the characters you want for each code, such as Dsn.1, Const.3, or Rvw.7.
Bottom: As you specify the code mask for each level, the “Code preview” box at the top of the dialog box displays a sample WBS code.
After you’ve defined all the levels in the code mask, be sure that the “Generate WBS code for new task” checkbox is turned on if you want Project to automatically assign a WBS code to new tasks you create.
The only time you might decide to turn this checkbox off is when you plan to renumber all the WBS codes after you’ve organized your tasks, and don’t want to be distracted by the interim codes that Project assigns.
To ensure that your WBS codes are unique, keep the “Verify uniqueness of new WBS codes” checkbox turned on. Click OK, and then review the refreshed WBS codes in the task list, as shown in Figure4-8.
Although Project adds WBS codes to tasks when the “Generate WBS code for new task” checkbox is turned on, sometimes you want to type WBS codes manually, and that can lead to duplicate WBS codes. The only time you might turn off the “Verify uniqueness of new WBS codes” checkbox is if you’re planning to renumber tasks later, and you get tired of the warnings that Project displays. As the box on page 82 explains, you can renumber the WBS codes for tasks to correct or reorder your project.
Congratulations! You’ve customized your WBS codes.
Figure 4-8.When you click OK, Project automatically applies the code mask to all the tasks in the schedule.
WORKAROUND WORKSHOP
Renumbering Task WBS CODES
When you customize WBS codes, the “Generate WBS code for new task” checkbox tells Project to automatically assign WBS codes to new tasks you create, whether you insert tasks within the outline or add new tasks at the end. With this setting, as soon as you press Enter to save a new task, the WBS code pops into the WBS cell, maintaining the sequence you’ve defined. Moving tasks around also adjusts WBS codes and, before you know it, your WBS sequence can be a mess.
The alternative is to turn this checkbox, and then, after a heated session of adding or modifying the task order, renumber the WBS codes all at once. When the WBS is the way you want it, do the following:
If you want to renumber only some of the tasks in the Project file, select them first.
Choose Project -> WBS -> Renumber.
In the WBS Renumber dialog box, select the “Entire project” option to renumber all tasks. If you want to renumber only the selected tasks, choose the "Selected tasks" option.
Click OK. Project reapplies the WBS code scheme to the tasks, alphabetizing ordered letters and incrementing ordered numbers.
When you start to build other documents, like work package Word files, which reference your WBS codes, you don’t want Project to change existing codes. That’s another time to turn off the “Generate WBS code for new task” checkbox. As you type in new WBS codes manually, the “Verify uniqueness of new WBS codes” checkbox tells Project to warn you if you've duplicated an existing WBS code.
Everyone has a favorite word processor, but Microsoft Word is a strong favorite for WBS creation because of its outlining feature. Word makes it easy to indent, outdent, insert, move, and delete tasks. Then, with a few additional steps, you can import the Word WBS into Project, as described in the next section. Moreover, more of your team members are likely to be familiar with Word than with Project, so you’re likely to get project information from them in Word documents.
Folks who are fans of Word outlining already know that adding and rearranging topics goes as fast as your fingers on the keyboard. If you haven’t experienced the joy of Word outlining, here are some techniques you can use:
Switch to Outline view. In Word 2007, click the View tab, and then, in the Document Views section, click Outline. In Word 2003, choose View -> Outline.
Add tasks. Insert a new line by clicking at the end of the preceding task, and then pressing Enter. Type the task name. Press Enter to add another task.
Demote tasks. Select the task or tasks you want to push to a lower level, and then press Tab (or Alt+Shift+right arrow key). In Word 2007, click Outlining -> Outline Tools -> Demote, as shown in Figure 4-9. In Word 2003, you can also press Tab or, on the Outlining toolbar, click the Demote arrow.
Note: In Outline mode, you can select an outline item by clicking to the left of the item. To select several adjacent items, drag to the left of the items. Ctrl+click items to select several nonadjacent items.
Figure 4-9:Microsoft Word’s Outline view is a friendly environment for project outlining. To promote an item to the top level, click the “Promote to Heading1” button. Word offers a button for demoting items to Body Text, but it’s best to stick to heading levels, since these levels translate into Project outline levels when you import the tasks from Word into Project. (This picture shows Word 2007.)
Promote tasks. Select the task or tasks you want to promote to a higher level and then press Shift+Tab or Alt+Shift+left arrow key. In Word 2007, click Outlining -> Outline Tools -> Promote. In Word 2003, press Shift+Tab or, on the Outlining toolbar, click the Promote arrow.
Move tasks. Select the task or tasks you want to move, and then drag them to a new position. Or, use Ctrl+X and Ctrl+V to cut and paste the tasks from one position to another. If need be, demote or promote the tasks to the correct level.
Delete tasks. Select the task or tasks you want to delete, and then press Delete or Ctrl+X.
UP TO SPEED
Assembling a WBS Without a Computer
Sticky notes and an empty wall or whiteboard might be the best solution for capturing tasks when a team is tossing around task ideas. In fact, sticky notes offer enough advantages that you might use them even when WBS sessions proceed at a more leisurely pace.
Sticky notes are a democratic way to collect tasks when several people collaborate on a WBS. Team members can have their own pens and pads of sticky notes, so no one is stuck as the sole scribe. Moreover, anyone can walk up to the WBS and move summary tasks and work packages around. The hardest part of the sticky note approach could be too much enthusiasm. If disagreements begin to break out over added or relocated tasks, then it’s time to jump in and take over sticky note maintenance until things calm down.
Sticky notes are slick when you’re searching for the ideal project organization. You can peel a sticky note off the wall and move it to wherever you want without mouse clicks or remembering the appropriate keyboard shortcut. If you buy sticky flip chart pages, you can use them for summary tasks and press sticky notes for work packages to the sticky summary page.
Adhesive is another drawback to sticky notes—to be more precise, the loss of stickiness over time. The safest approach is to record the contents of a sticky note WBS into Project or another program before you leave the meeting room. If your room reservation has expired, fold the pages carefully and transport them to your office. For sticky notes stuck directly to the wall or whiteboard, post a polite note asking others to leave your masterpiece alone until you can come back and transcribe it.
If you build a list of tasks in Word or, for that matter, Excel, WordPad, or another program that can produce text files, you can easily import tasks into Project. Suppose different teams use Word outlines to document the tasks they plan to perform. They can save their outlines as text files and send them to you. All you have to do is open the text file in Project; the Import Wizard launches to guide you through importing the tasks into a Project file.
Word doesn’t save Tab-delimited files out of the box. In addition, ideally you’d like imported tasks to come in at the correct WBS level. If you use Word outlining, the heading styles in the Word document correspond to the WBS level in the Project file.
The Import WBS Word template (created in Word 2003) at www.missingmanuals.com/cds has some handy tools for importing tasks into Project. The heading styles number each task with a WBS code, so you can confirm that the tasks are at the correct level before you import them. In addition, the template includes a macro that creates a text file that separates the task name (the first value) from the outline level (the second value).
Note: To use the macro in the Import WBS template, you must set up your copy of Word to let macros run. Because the steps to enable macros depend on the level of security you use, refer to Word Help or a book about Microsoft Word—like Word 2007: The Missing Manual by Chris Grover—for instructions.
Here are the steps to use the Word template (CH04 WBS Outline.dot) to import a WBS text file into Project:
Replace the text in the template with the tasks for your project.
Use the techniques described on page 83 to indent or outdent tasks to the correct WBS level.
In the custom WBS toolbar, click “Create WBS for Import”.
You can specify the number of levels that you want to export, for example, if you plan to import the first several levels into a master project. When you click OK, then Word creates a new Word document with the outline levels separated from the task names with commas.
Choose File -> Save As. Navigate to the folder you want to use, and then make sure to set the “Save as type” box to Plain Text.
Name the file, and then click Save to create the text file.
To import this file into Project, switch to Project, and then choose File -> Open.
The Open dialog box automatically sets the “Files of type” box to Microsoft Project Files, so you need to tell Project you’re importing a text file.
In the “Files of type” drop-down list, choose Text (Tab delimited).
As you navigate folders, text files appear in the file list. The text file you created is comma-delimited, but the idiosyncrasies of Microsoft programs require you to choose Text (Tab Delimited). You’ll change the delimiter in a few steps.
If you import a comma-delimited file instead, for instance, one created with Excel, choose CSV (Comma delimited). Then, continue with the following steps.
When you locate your WBS text file in the file list, double-click its name. Alternatively, click the file name, and then click Open.
Project opens the text document, and then launches the Import Wizard.
Click Next to start the wizard.
On the Import Wizard–Map page, the wizard automatically selects the New Map option, which is usually what you want.
Tip:If you make a habit of importing text files, you can save the map (page 463) you define. Then, the next time you import a file, select the Use Existing Map option, and then choose the map. The fields and other settings are ready for the import.
On the Import Wizard-Import Mode page, if you want to import the WBS into a blank project, keep the “As a new project” option selected. Click Next.
If you’re importing several text files into the same project, the “Append the data to the active project” option imports the tasks at the end of the existing task list. Selecting the “Merge the data into the active project” option imports the tasks at the currently selected row.
On the Import Wizard-Map Options page, keep the Task option selected. Click Next.
If the first row of the text file includes column names (as it might if you’re importing from an Excel file), then make sure the “Import includes headers” checkbox is turned on. However, if you used Word outlining to build a text file, turn off that checkbox.
The “Text delimiter” box specifies the character that separates fields, including a comma, tab, or space. For the WBS template, verify that the value is “,”.
On the Import Wizard-Task Mapping page, match the values in the text file to Project fields, as shown in Figure 4-10 .
If your text file doesn’t include headings, the cells in the From: Text File Field column display sequential numbers for each field in the text file. For the WBS import template, you see “1” and “2” in the first two rows. In the first To: Microsoft Office Project Field cell, choose Name, because the first field in the text file is the task name. In the second cell in the column, choose Outline Level.
Note: If you import tasks from another source, match up the fields in the To: column with Project fields in the From: column. You can match as many fields as you want as long as the field in the text file for names maps to the Name field in Project and the outline level field in the text file maps to Outline Level.
If you’ve ever asked a teenager to do a chore, you already know the importance of clearly specifying the work to perform and the results you expect. Otherwise, the dishes in the dishwasher might be placed in the cupboards—unfortunately, before they’re washed. Providing project team members with clear guidance is equally important, but the task names in Project are too short to get into detail. For that reason, separate documents that describe work packages are a great way to tell team members how to do their assignments completely and correctly. And you don’t even have to worry about keeping track of lots of loose documents: You can link them to the Project schedule, as described at the end of this section.
Figure 4-10: As you map the fields, the Preview area shows how the values in your text file map to Project fields. In this example, the Name field will hold the values Planning, Identifying Requirements, Documenting Assumptions, and so on. If the mapping isn’t correct, then modify the fields in the To: Microsoft Office Project Field cells until you’re satisfied.
Ideally, a work package document describes the work to perform, how to tell when the work is done, and how to tell whether it’s done right. A work package for baking a loaf of bread might include the steps for mixing, kneading, forming, and baking the bread. The document could specify that the bread is done when tapping the loaf delivers a hollow thump. Similarly, the work package might state that a successful loaf of bread is an attractive brown color, twice as tall as the unbaked dough, and full of evenly sized holes.
Building Work Package Documents in Word
Even small projects require dozens of work package documents. You can speed up your work by creating a Word template for work packages, as basic or as fancy as your knowledge of Word. That way, you can open the template and have a document all labeled and ready for you to fill in. For example, you might set up a basic work package template with the following information:
WBS number. The WBS number that Project assigned to the task in your Project schedule.
Work package name. The task name from the Project schedule.
Description of work. You can use paragraphs or bullet points and provide as much detail as you need to ensure success. If you know an experienced resource is going to do the work, the document can be brief. For trainees, you can provide detailed checklists of steps, or, perhaps, the name of the person who can mentor the assigned resource.
Result. Describe the final state when the work is done as well as how to verify that the work is done correctly. For a work package for setting up a computer, you might include the list of programs that should launch when the installation is complete.
Reference materials. Projects use many types of documents to specify deliverables: requirements, specifications, blueprints, and so on. If additional detailed documentation exists, include the location of those documents, like the folder on the network drive or the project notebook.
Making a Word template
Creating a Word template is no harder than creating a Word document. However, finding and using a template takes some setup. Here’s how to create a Word template and save it for reuse:
Create a Word document with the labels you want to include.
If you want to get fancy, then insert a logo, add instructions to help others fill in work packages, and so on.
In Word 2007, choose Office button -> Save. In Word 2003, choose File -> Save.
The Save As dialog box appears.
Navigate to the folder you use for your custom templates.
For example, create a folder called Templates in the My Documents folder.
In Word 2007, in the “File name” box, type the name of the template, and in the “Save as type” box, choose Word Template. In addition, in the navigation bar on the left side of the dialog box, click Trusted Templates. Click Save.
In Word 2003, in the “Save as type” box, choose Document Template.
To set up faster access to your template, Click the Office button and then, at the bottom of the Office menu, click Word Options.
Telling Word where to find your custom templates makes it easier to find and open this template later. That way, you can see these templates right in the New Document dialog box every time you start a new project, as described in the next section.
Tip: If you don’t specify a folder for templates, then you can always use Windows Explorer to navigate to the folder that contains your template files. When you double-click a Word template file, Word launches and creates a new document based on the template.
In the Word Options dialog box, click Advanced. Then scroll to the bottom of the window to the General section, and select File Locations.
You want to tell Word where to find your templates.
Select “User templates” or “Workgroup templates”, and then click Modify. In the Modify Location dialog box, navigate to your template folder, and then click OK.
Choose the folder you created in step 3.
Click OK again to close the Options dialog box.
Tip: The box below explains how to find the File Locations feature in Word 2003.
DON'T PANIC
Setting File Locations in Word 2003
If you’re still using Word 2003—and plenty of folks are—you’ll find File Locations in a radically different location than in Word 2007. To specify where you store your custom templates, do the following:
Choose Tools -> Options, and then click the File Locations tab.
Select “User templates” or “Workgroup templates”, and then click Modify.
Navigate to and select the folder you created in step 3 on page 88, exactly as for Word 2007.
Opening a Word template
In Word 2007, click the Office button, and then choose New. In the New Document window, click “My templates.” The New dialog box appears showing the templates in your Trusted Templates folder. Select the template, and then click OK.
To use a template in Word 2003, choose File -> New. In the New Document task pane, under the Templates heading, click “On my computer”. The Templates dialog box appears open to the General tab, which displays the templates in your User templates or Workgroup template folders (whichever you chose in the previous steps). Select the template, and then click OK.
With work package documents illuminating the details of tasks, you’re likely to refer to those documents as you work on your Project schedule. There’s no need to open them by hand or try to remember where they are. Instead, you can insert a hyperlink from a task in the Project schedule to the corresponding work package document. With a hyperlink in place, opening the work package document is a quick click in Project.
To create a hyperlink in a Project task, do the following:
In Project, select the task you want to link to a work package document, and then choose Insert -> Hyperlink.
The Insert Hyperlink dialog box appears.
In the “Link to” bar, click Existing File Or Web Page.
Navigate to the folder that contains the work package document, and then double-click the name of the work package file. The “Look in” box shows the folder while the Address box displays the file name.
Click OK.
In the Indicators column, a hyperlink icon appears, as shown in Figure 4-11.
Figure 4-11: The Hyperlink icon looks like a globe with a link of chain, a not-so-subtle commentary that hyperlinks connect the world. If the Indicators column isn’t visible, then right-click the Entry table and choose Insert Column on the shortcut menu. In the Field Name drop-down list, choose Indicators, and then click OK.
To access a hyperlinked file, simply click the hyperlink icon in the Indicator cell.
The program associated with the file launches, and the file opens.
BrainDump 
Breaking Up Your Work in Microsoft Project
003
