Exam 74-343 Managing Projects with Microsoft Project 2013

Published: 05 April 2013
Languages: English, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish
Audiences: Partners
Technology: Project 2013
Credit towards certification: MCP, Microsoft Specialist

Skills measured
This exam measures your ability to accomplish the technical tasks listed below. The percentages indicate the relative weight of each major topic area in the exam. The higher the percentage, the more questions you are likely to see on that content area in the exam.

Please note that the questions may test on, but will not be limited to, the topics described in the bulleted text.

Initialise a project (15–20%)
Create a new project
Create a template from a completed project, create a project from an existing template, existing project, SharePoint task list or Excel workbook
Create and maintain calendars
Set working or non-working hours and days for calendars, set a base calendar, resource calendar and hours per day, apply calendars to project, task and resource levels
Create custom fields
Create basic formulas, graphical indicator criteria, lookup tables, and task and resource custom fields
Customise option settings
Set default task types, manual versus auto-scheduling, project options, calendar options, customised ribbon, and quick access toolbar

Preparation resources
Create a new project from another project or template
Change working days for the project calendar
Available fields reference

Create a task-based schedule (20–25%)
Set up project information

Define project start date, apply calendars and current date, enter project properties, display the project summary task on a new project

Create and modify a project task structure

Create and modify summary tasks and sub-tasks, rearrange tasks, create milestones, create manually-scheduled tasks, outline, set tasks as active or inactive

Build a logical schedule model

Set date constraints, deadlines, dependencies, links, duration equations, effort-driven tasks and formulas, choose a task type

Create a user-controlled schedule

Enter duration, set or change the task mode (manual or auto), display warnings and suggestions, use estimated durations and user-controlled summary tasks

Manage multiple projects

Create a shared resource pool, connect to a resource pool, create links between projects, resolve conflicts between linked projects, work with master projects and sub-projects, summarise data in master projects

Preparation resources

Set the start date or finish date for your project
Create sub-tasks and summary tasks
Link projects to create a master project

Manage resources and assignments (20–25%)
Enter and edit resource information

Enter and edit max units, resource types, resource rate table, cost per use, availability, resource group, generic resources and cost resources

Create and edit resource assignments

Use task forms, assign multiple resources, assign resources to tasks using units that represent part-time work, edit assignments

Manage resource allocation

View task and resource usage, view availability across multiple projects, change assignment information, level, replace resources

Manage resource allocations by using Team Planner

Display current resource allocations and assignments, manage unassigned tasks, resolve resource conflicts, level resource over-allocations, substitute resources

Model project costs

Enter and assign resource-based costs (work, material, cost), cost per use, fixed costs, accrual method, apply a resource rate table

Preparation resources

Enter costs for resources
Assign people to work on tasks
Enter rate-based costs for people and materials

Track and analyse a project (20–25%)
Set and maintain baselines

Use multiple baselines, baseline an entire project, baseline selected tasks, update a baseline

Update actual progress

Update percentage completion, actual or remaining duration, actual work, remaining work, status date, current date, actual start and actual finish, use actual work and usage views, reschedule uncompleted work, cancel an un-needed task

Compare progress against a baseline

Use date variance, work variance, cost variance and task slippage, show variance of the current plan against baseline (tracking Gantt), select a view to display variance

Resolve potential schedule problems

Display warnings, suggestions and task drivers by using Task Inspector and Task Path, identify resource over-allocations

Display critical path information

View the critical path in single or master projects, view total slack, display progress against baseline or deadlines

Preparation resources

Set and save a baseline
Overview: Track your time and task progress
Show the critical path of your project

Communicate project information (15–20%)

Apply and customise views

Use auto-filter, apply views, group, filter, highlight, create and manage tables, sort, customise views, share a view with Organiser

Share data with other applications

Import data from Excel, export data to Excel, attach documents or link hyperlinks to supporting information, copy and paste timeline and reports to other Office Web Apps, create and generate visual reports in Excel and Visio, export a timeline view to email

Configure and display reports and dashboards

Report progress status, save to PDF or XPS, display Gantt information, schedule or timeline, display data based on date range, create built-in dashboards and reports, change and customise built-in dashboards and reports, copy pictures, work with cumulative fields

Connect and share data with SharePoint

Sync to SharePoint, share plans and get updates through SharePoint, share project plans through SharePoint (bi-directional sync of tasks, progress and timeline elements), collect actual progress from a team through SharePoint

Extend Project 2013

Acquire Apps from the Office Store, save files in OneDrive, acquire templates from Office.com, automate frequent tasks with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)

Preparation resources

Export your project to Microsoft Excel
Add SharePoint task list data to Project Server 2013

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QUESTION 1
You use Project Professional 2013 to manage a project that has customer-required milestone
completion dates. You need to see graphically that your milestones have slipped beyond your
customer-required dates. What should you add to the project milestones?

A. a Must finish on constraint
B. a finish date
C. a deadline
D. a Finish no later than constraint

Answer: C

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QUESTION 2
You manage a project by using Project Professional 2013. Your project is updated with changes to
the baseline for selected tasks. You back up your project fife before you start your next tracking
cycle. After completing the tracking cycle, you notice that the baseline duration values on some
of the summary tasks are not correct. You need to correct these values before re-entering the
tracking data. You open the backed up version of the project schedule. What should you do next?

A. Manually update the summary tasks with the new duration values.
B. Reset the summary tasks to manual scheduling.
C. Ensure the tasks durations are of the same denomination values. Then reenter the tracking data.
D. Reset the baseline checking the Roll up baselines to all summary tasks option. Then reenter
the tracking data.

Answer: D

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QUESTION 3
You are a program manager. Your project managers use Project Professional 2013 to manage
projects. The project managers want to utilize the same resources across their projects. You need
to combine the projects, as well as the project resources, to see allocations across the projects.
What should you do?

A. Copy and paste all resource assignments into a Master file.
B. Share resources from an external resource pool.
C. Create a Master project and insert subprojects by using Link to project.
D. Open all projects in a new window.

Answer: B

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QUESTION 4
Your company uses Project Standard 2013 to track project progress. You need to accurately
calculate cost performance index (CPI) as a health indicator. Which three actions should you
perform? (Each correct answer presents part of the solution. Choose three.)

A. Ensure there is a value in the Status Date field.
B. Ensure there is a value in the Standard Rate field.
C. Ensure Task Dependencies exist in the schedule.
D. Enter actual progress information.
E. Level resources within available slack.

Answer: ABD

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QUESTION 5
You are a project manager who uses Microsoft Excel 2013. Your company decides to migrate all of
the current projects in Microsoft Excel 2013 to Project Professional 2013. They allow all
employees to spend 8 hours migrating each project plan. Your current and unique project plan
has 462 tasks with duration in days, and resources have been assigned and named. You have a
status meeting in two days. You need to provide your project’s information by using Project
Professional 2013. What should you do?

A. Create a new project plan in Project Professional 2013 and use the Gantt Chart Wizard to
import from an Excel Workbook.
B. Rename the Excel file from .xlsx to .mpx, and open it by using Project Professional 2013,
activating the Mapping Excel Workbook feature. Map tasks, durations, and resources
assigned into Microsoft Project fields.
C. Open the Excel File .xlsx directly from Project Professional 2013, which will convert and map
tasks, durations, and resources assigned into Project fields.
D. Create a VBA macro by using the Excel Record Macro feature to import all tasks, durations,
and resources assigned from Excel into your new Project Professional 2013 project plan.

Answer: C