WBS Modeler

WBS Modeler A Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Add-In Implementation

2008

Documentation for Visio WBS Modeler

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Contents

1 Introduction 3

1.1 Purpose ......................................................................................... 3

2 Installation 4

2.1 Pre-requisites .................................................................................. 4

2.2 Installation procedure ........................................................................ 4

3 Getting Started 9

3.1 Selecting/Opening the WBS Modeler Template .......................................... 9

4 Import from Microsoft Office Project 11

4.1 The Import Process .......................................................................... 11

5 Modeling Process 15

5.1 Icons ............................................................................................ 15

5.2 Functions / Menus ............................................................................ 16

5.3 Custom Properties ........................................................................... 22

5.4 Process ......................................................................................... 23

5.4.1 Creating elements ........................................................................ 23

5.4.2 Linking elements .......................................................................... 26

5.4.3 Arranging elements ....................................................................... 28

5.4.4 Hiding elements ........................................................................... 31

5.4.5 Renaming elements ....................................................................... 32

5.4.6 Moving elements .......................................................................... 33

5.4.7 Deleting elements ........................................................................ 34

6 Reporting 35

7 Export to Microsoft Office Project 38

7.1 Compare with Microsoft Office Project .................................................. 38

7.2 Review Differences .......................................................................... 40

7.3 Export to Microsoft Office Project ........................................................ 42

8 Removal of WBS Modeler 44


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1 Introduction

1.1 Purpose

The Visio WBS Modeler (WBS Modeler in the following) is intended to improve the project

planning process by giving the opportunity to generate Project Plans from a Work Break-

down Structure (WBS) using a graphical representation of elements.

A WBS structure is a hierarchical representation of the elements and sub-elements in a

project (see Figure 1).

Level 1

Level 2

Figure 1: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) example

The WBS Modeler can either be used to visualize and edit an existing project plan or to cre-

ate a new project plan in Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Professional and then export it to Mi-

crosoft Office Project (2003+) to carry out the next planning steps.

The Application enables effective integration of Visio with Microsoft Office Project. It pro-

vides an approach to visually and graphically create, edit and modify project plans using

Visio.

The WBS Modeler offers the ability to manage project elements in a graphical view, as well

as offering functionality to layout a WBS in Visio. The WBS can be exported back to Micro-

soft Office Project into a new project plan. It is also possible to update an existing plan.

To organize the structure within a WBS Modeler the outline code from Microsoft Office Pro-

ject is utilised.

2 Installation

2.1 Pre-requisites

Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Professional

Microsoft Office Project 2003 SP1 or later

.NET Framework 2.0

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-

AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en

Microsoft Visio 2007 Primary Interop Assemblies

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=59daebaa-bed4-4282-a28c-

b864d8bfa513&displaylang=en

2.2 Installation procedure

Please ensure that Microsoft Office Visio is not running. To start the installation process,

double-click the file WBSModelerSetup.msi and click Next in the following screen.

Figure 2: Welcome Screen

The License Agreement screen appears. If you accept the terms, click I Agree, and then

click Next.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=0856EACB-4362-4B0D-8EDD-AAB15C5E04F5&displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=59daebaa-bed4-4282-a28c-b864d8bfa513&displaylang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=59daebaa-bed4-4282-a28c-b864d8bfa513&displaylang=en


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Figure 3: License Agreement

The Setup Installation Path and Disk Space Information screen appears.

Figure 4: Set Up Installation Path and Disk Space Information


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Click Next, for the default path or click Browse to select the destina-

tion folder path.

To check the Disk Space Required, click Disk Cost.

Figure 5: WBS Modeler Add-in Disk Space

Click Next on figure 4 to continue. The Confirm Installation screen appears. Click Next to

begin installation or Cancel to exit the setup wizard.

Note: If you want make any changes to the installation settings or go back to the previous

pages, click Back.


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Figure 6: Confirm Installation

The following window will provide progress information of the setup process.

Figure 7: Progress window


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Note: Please wait while the setup wizard installs the WBS Modeler Add-in. This may take a

few minutes.

To cancel the installation click Cancel.

Once the installation is successful the Installation Complete screen appears.

Figure 8: Installation Complete


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3 Getting Started

1. This section describes the basic flow of the reference implementation.

2. The Microsoft Office Visio 2007 Add-in for WBS Modeler is a COM Add-In that starts

up automatically with Visio.

3.1 Selecting/Opening the WBS Modeler Template

The Add-In when installed adds a new template WBS Modeler under WBS Templates Cate-

gory.

1. Open Visio and from File menu, select New and Getting Started.

Figure 9: Getting Started

2. Select WBS from the Template Categories list in the left pane.

3. Select WBS Modeler from the All Templates group.

4. Click on the Create button.


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Figure 10: Selecting the template

5. A new menu WBS Modeler is added as the template opens a new document.


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4 Import from Microsoft Office Project

4.1 The Import Process

The import process is designed to extract data from a plan in Microsoft Office Project to be

used in WBS Modeler. To acquire the data the plan has to be opened in Microsoft Office Pro-

ject (see Figure 11).

Figure 11: Project - Default View

Once the project plan is open in Microsoft Office Project, switch to Visio and open the WBS

Modeler drawing type template as described above. Select the option Import from Micro-

soft Office Project Database from the WBS Modeler menu in Visio (see Figure 12).


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Figure 12: WBS Modeler Menu

The import process might take some time depending on system performance. A window will

indicate the progress (see Figure 13).

Figure 13: Import progress window

After the process has finished the Project Element Selector window will automatically be

displayed (see Figure 14).


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Figure 14: Project Element Selector

In this window you will be able to choose the elements or sub-elements to be drawn in Vi-

sio. If you select a sub-element and then click on Draw, this sub-element and all of its

children will be drawn as a WBS (see Figure 15).

Figure 15: Work Breakdown Structure for a sub-element


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The same applies if you choose to import the project summary element; the resulting WBS

will in most cases be considerably bigger and due to limitations in the layout process not

aligned as in the previous example. However, the layout can easily be improved using the

functionality provided by WBS Modeler as described in the Modeling section later in this

document.


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5 Modeling Process

The Modeling process in WBS Modeler offers a wide variety of options to manipulate the

WBS data and layout.

In the following section the basic elements of the WBS Modeler are presented and ex-

plained. Based on this introduction, the process to create and modify a WBS from scratch is

explained.

The modification of an imported WBS will not be explained separately as it is basically the

same as creating and modifying a newly created WBS. The only difference is that the im-

port process has to be completed beforehand.

5.1 Icons

Icon Description

The WBS Modeler Shape repository contains

one shape to represent elements and sub-

elements.

To add a shape to the plan you can simply

drag and drop the shape to the drawing pane.

If you drag and drop an element to the draw-

ing pane you will see a blue element symbol as

shown on the left side. The blue shading indi-

cates that the element is not connected to

another element.

The four boxes in each corner are called

Smart Tags and will be visible if you select a

element. These are explained in more detail

in following section.

In each of the four corner of a element shape

there will appear icons if certain conditions

apply.

A diamond shape will be displayed in

the right top corner if the element is a

milestone.

The triangle shape will be shown in

the right bottom corner if the element

is associated to a off-page reference.

The circle shape in the left top corner

will be shown if the element has been

linked to a element in a project plan

from Microsoft Office Project.

A square shape will appear in the left

bottom corner when an element has

child elements.


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5.2 Functions / Menus

The following chapter provides a brief description of the menus and functions of the WBS

Modeler.

Menu Description

The WBS Modeler menu contains five menu

items:

Import from Microsoft Office Project

… can be used to import a project

plan, i.e. the WBS structure of a pro-

ject plan from Microsoft Office Pro-

ject.

The Compare with Microsoft Office

Project function is designed to facili-

tate the comparison between the

work-breakdown structure in Visio and

the structure of the same plan or a

different version of the same plan in

Microsoft Office Project.

Export to Microsoft Office Project of-

fers the ability to export a WBS struc-

ture to Microsoft Office Project. This

process is described in section 6 of this

document.

The View Element Explorer selector

can be used to show or hide the WBS

Element Explorer window. The default

setting is to show the window.

Help to open the help document of

the WBS Modeler.

About WBS Modeler is intended to

provide information about the authors

and the version of WBS Modeler.


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Menu Description

The context menu for the This Document tab

in the WBS Explorer offers several options to

manipulate a WBS.

Rename can be used to rename ele-

ments in the WBS.

Redraw is only available on a page

level and is used to re-import and re-

build an automatic layout for a plan

originally imported from Microsoft Of-

fice Project.

The Re-size Page function will resize

the drawing page so that the WBS

structure displays will fit on the page.

This function will also ensure that the

aspect ratio for the page is maintained

to simplify the printing process.

Reset all shapes will reset colour

changes for all shapes on the page.

Colour changes may occur for instance

if a plan has been imported, has been

changed and has been compared to

the original plan in Microsoft Office

Project.

The Show function can be used to

jump directly to an element. This

function is useful for very large WBS to

quickly locate elements. This function

is identical to double-clicking an ele-

ment in the WBS Element Explorer’s

This Document tab.

The Properties option can be used to

open the Custom Properties window

for the selected element. This func-

tion is identical to double-clicking an

element in the drawing area.

New can be used to create a new child

element for the selected element. If

the page name is selected a new ele-

ment without connection to any other

element will be created.

The Delete function can be used to

delete elements or a subset of ele-

ments from the plan. If a parent ele-

ment with one or more child elements

is selected a confirmation dialogue

will be displayed whether to delete


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Menu Description

the child elements as well or not. If

the child elements are kept they will

be connected to the parent element of

the deleted element if present.

Move Down / Move Up can be used to

move an element up or down within

the currently selected WBS level.

The Selected Project tab in the WBS Element

Explorer is designed to show differences be-

tween an imported WBS structure and the

original project plan. The differences are not

maintained automatically.

Compare with Project is to be used to

update the outline structure displayed

in the Selected Project tab.

The Review Differences function can

be used to review the differences be-

tween the plan in Microsoft Office Pro-

ject and the current WBS structure.

The option Add child elements provides the

function to add sub-elements to the currently

selected element.

Add sibling elements option is designed to

create a new sibling element. The newly cre-

ated element will automatically be connected

to the common parent element.

Add a space is used to add a space to the left

of the selected element between two sibling

elements.

The same applies to Remove a space which

removes one space from the left of the cur-

rently selected element.

The option Remove all spaces will remove all

spaces for the current element.

The Properties menu can be used to modify

and monitor information for each individual

element.

Using the selected element as the starting

point several selections can be made.

The parent element can be selected, sibling

elements can be selected or the sub-elements

for the currently selected element can be se-

lected.


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Menu Description

The Move Up/Left function moves a element

in the current outline level to the left or up a

level, e.g. move element 1.5.8 to 1.5.7. Move

Down/Right moves a element down a level,

e.g. move element 1.5.7 to 1.5.8.

Arrange elements vertically/horizontally can

be used to arrange sub-elements of the cur-

rent selected element vertically or horizon-

tally. Sometimes this is needed to do a proper

layout or to fit the WBS on one screen.

The option Hide Children can be used to hide

children of the currently selected element.

This option might be useful to enhance read-

ability.

If you right-click on an element a menu will be

shown that aggregates most of the above men-

tioned options and menu items.

The option Create off-page reference is de-

signed to create a reference to a subset of

sub-elements. If you select this option on a

sub-element this element and its sub-elements

will be drawn on a new page. They will be

linked against the original element. If you

double-click the element the system will jump

back to the original WBS. In the original WBS

the off-page-reference is indicated by a trian-

gle.

Cut, Copy, Paste, View, Format and Shape

are default items of Microsoft Office Visio.

These are all explained in detail in the Visio

help system.

Properties will open the properties of the

element which will be covered in the follow-

ing.


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Menu Description

On the Shape Data page you can view and edit

the properties for each element.

If you choose Label Wizard you will be able to

select the Shape Type for which the settings

should be applied. Possible selections are: <all

selected shapes>, <all shapes>, Element.

For each element there are 4 Lines/Labels

which can be changed. The available options

are identical with the options listed in the

Custom Properties dialogue.

If you choose View – Shape Data Window the

following properties can be viewed and

modified.

The setting Prompt for Input is set to FALSE

by default. If set to TRUE the user will be

prompted to enter the element name and the

outline number when adding a new element.

If Hide extra Project properties is set to

FALSE (default value) the following additional

fields will be displayed in the Shape Data win-


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Menu Description

dow:

Cos t

Est im at ed

% C om pl et e

Dur at io n

Res ou rc e

ID

Uni qu e ID

Mil es to ne

Sta rt

Fin is h

Pre de ce ss or

If Hide Element layout properties is set to

FALSE (default setting) the following addi-

tional information will be displayed in the

Shape Data window for elements:

Ver ti ca l Su b Ele me nt

Ver ti ca l Sp ac ing

Hor iz on ta l Sp aci ng

Hid e Ch il dr en

Spa ce s

If Hide read only properties is set to FALSE

(default is TRUE) the following additional

properties will be displayed in the Shape Data

window for elements:

Pag e Na me

Pag e Nu mb er

Fil e Na me

Lab el N am e

Lab el W BS


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Menu Description

The Keep focus on parent is set to TRUE by

default. If this option is set to FALSE the se-

lection will be moved to the child elements

instead of the parent element when connect-

ing elements.

5.3 Custom Properties

Property Description

Element Name Name of the element

Outline Number Position of the element in the WBS/Outline;

The Outline Number represents the level of the element within

the work breakdown structure of the plan. If only a part of the

whole plan is imported from Microsoft Office Project this will

refer to the original structure of the plan.

This information will be used to update the relevant parts of

the project plan when the plan is exported back to Microsoft

Office Project.

WBS Code The WBS Code is used to store information about the original

WBS value of a plan as imported from Microsoft Office Project.

Element Project This field is designed to store information about the project an

element belongs to.

Vertical Sub Elements Child elements associated with this element will be arranged

vertically if set to TRUE (default). If set to FALSE child ele-

ments will be arranged horizontally.

Vertical Spacing This option will affect all direct child elements of the currently

selected element. The options available are:

Tightest, tight, normal, loose,

loosest.

Horizontal Spacing This option will affect all direct child elements of the currently

selected element. The options available are:

tightest, tight, normal, loose,

loosest.

Hide Children If set to TRUE all children of the currently selected element

will be hidden. If set to FALSE hidden elements will be visible

again.

Spaces Determines the spaces left to or above the currently selected

element depending on the parent element’s Vertical Sub Ele-

ment setting.


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Page Name Read-Only field for the name of the page the element is cur-

rently being displayed in.

Page Number Read-Only field for the number of the page the element is cur-

rently being displayed in.

File Name Read-only field to display the Visio file name.

Label Name Read-only field for the element name as the display area length

is limited to 24 characters.

Label WBS Read-only field to display the element label for the WBS Code.

If the WBS code is different from the Outline number it will be

displayed as: “1.2.5 [1.2.6]” where the first number represents

the Outline Number and the number in brackets represents the

WBS Code as originally read from Microsoft Office Project.

5.4 Process

This chapter covers the functionality of the WBS Modeler and how the functions and menu

items briefly described in the previous two sections can be used.

5.4.1 Creating elements

5.4.1.1 Drag and drop

To create a new element simply drag and drop an element shape from the Shapes con-

tainer to the drawing area (see Figure 16).

Figure 16: Create new element


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The prompt for the Element Name and Outline Number will open automatically after the

element has been dropped to drawing area. The Outline Number will be recalculated once

the element has been connected to another element to achieve consistency.

5.4.1.2 Add child element / add sibling element

Another possible option to add child / sibling elements to another element is to select the

parent/sibling element the new elements should be connected to and choose to add child

elements or select sibling elements from the context menu (right-click on a element; see

Figure 17).

Figure 17: Creating new sibling/child element(s) #1

If you choose Add child elements or Add sibling elements you will be prompted for the

element names to be added (see Figure 18). Each line in this window resembles one ele-

ment to be added.


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Figure 18: Creating new sibling/child element(s) #2 – add child element(s)

The result if two child elements have been created will look like shown in Figure 19.

Figure 19: Creating new child element(s)

The result if two sibling elements have been created will look like shown in Figure 20.

Figure 20: Creating new sibling element(s)


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5.4.2 Linking elements

To link two or more elements the following steps have to be carried out:

1. Select the parent element.

Figure 21: Connect sub-elements #1

2. Hold the ctrl key to select the child element(s) that you want to connect to the

parent element.


3. Right-click on the parent element and select the option Connect child elements.


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The result will look similar to Figure 24.


The outline level of the child elements will automatically be updated during this process

(see Figure 24 & Figure 22).

NOTE: The element, that you want the other elements to connect to, has to be selected

last; otherwise, the following error message is displayed.


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Figure 25: Error message - Task can only have one parent

5.4.3 Arranging elements

The child elements for an element can either be arranged horizontally or vertically. The

default is Arrange child elements horizontally for the first level and vertically for the lev-

els below that (see Figure 26).

Figure 26: Custom element menu – Element arrangement (horizontally)


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If Arrange child elements vertically option is selected, the child elements for the selected

element will be arranged vertically instead of horizontally (see Figure 27).

Figure 27: Element arrangement (vertically)

Any combination of arrangements is possible.

NOTE: To avoid the overlapping of elements it might be necessary to add one or more

spaces between elements.

Figure 28: elements with default number of spaces

To add a space between two children elements on the same level simply click on the

sign and select Add a space (see Figure 29). If the arrangement is set to horizontally the

space will be added on the same WBS level and it will be added to the left of the currently

selected element or sub-element. If the arrangement is set to vertically the space will be

added directly above the currently selected element.

Figure 29: elements with one extra space

The removal of spaces can be done accordingly. If the arrangement is horizontal the right

element where the space(s) should be removed has to be selected, for vertical spacing the


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elements directly below the spaces have to be selected. If Remove a space is selected one

space will be removed at a time. The Remove all spaces option can be used to remove

more than one space between two elements.

By combining vertical and horizontal arrangement and by adding or removing spaces it is

possible to achieve a noticeably good layout even for rather large work breakdown struc-

tures. Sometimes it might be necessary to hide a set of child elements to achieve a good

and printable layout. When importing a plan, the WBS Modeler will try to automatically

layout the plan and hide child elements above a certain level (see Figure 30).

Figure 30: Automatic Layout of large WBS (example)


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5.4.4 Hiding elements

To hide a set of elements right-click the parent element and select Hide Children option

(see Figure 31).

Figure 31: Hide Children

The hidden child elements will be visualized with a shadow line as shown in the following

example (Figure 32).

Figure 32: Visualization of a element containing hidden sub-elements


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5.4.5 Renaming elements

Renaming elements in WBS Modeler is straightforward. Double-click a element to open the

Shape Data dialogue (see Figure 33).

Figure 33: Shape Data

On this dialogue box you can view and modify the element information. This information

may change depending on the selections made for the page properties. Figure 33 shows the

information displayed by default.


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5.4.6 Moving elements

To move an element up/left or down/right the user has to select a element and choose the

appropriate direction from the Move Elements Smart Tag or from the context menu (see

Figure 34).

Figure 34: Menu items to move an element

The screenshot below displays an element that has been moved (see Figure 35). Please not,

if you move an element with child elements, these will be moved accordingly.

Figure 35: Moving element to the left


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5.4.7 Deleting elements

To delete an element select the element that you want to delete and press the Delete but-

ton on your keyboard. If the selected element contains sub-elements the user will be

prompted to confirm the deletion (Figure 36).

Figure 36: Deleting child elements #1

If Yes is chosen the selected element and its child elements will be deleted (see Figure 37).

Figure 37: Deleting child elements #2

If No is chosen the selected element will be deleted and its child elements will be con-

nected to its parent-element (see Figure 38). If no parent element is present the child ele-

ments will remain but will not be connected.

Figure 38: Deleting elements #3 - keeping children


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6 Reporting

The WBS Modeler also contains some templates to generate Reports for a WBS structure. To

trigger a report in Visio choose Data/Reports (see Figure 39).

Figure 39: Reporting #1

On the following dialogue one of the default templates delivered with WBS Modeler can be

selected or a new one can be created (see Figure 40). The process of creating a new tem-

plate is not specific to WBS Modeler and is thus not covered in this document.


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Figure 40: Choose Report

Select the report and press Run to generate the report.

Figure 41: Run Report window


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Select the format for the report and click OK.

Figure 42: Sample Flowchart Report


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7 Export to Microsoft Office Project

7.1 Compare with Microsoft Office Project

WBS Modeler offers an option to compare the current WBS in Visio with a project plan in

Microsoft Office Project 2003 or later.

To import a project plan to WBS Modeler, work with the plan in Visio and compare the data

in Visio with the plan in Microsoft Office Project using Compare with Microsoft Office Pro-

ject option in the WBS Modeler menu (see Figure 43).

Figure 43: Compare with Microsoft Office Project (WBS Modeler menu)

Afterwards just click Compare (see Figure 44). If you have more than one project open, i.e.

different versions of the same plan you can choose another version to compare with the

current WBS structure in Visio. The project plan which has been selected here will be

linked to the WBS structure afterwards.


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Figure 44: Project Element Selector (Comparison)

Figure 45: Selected Project Outline differences

The same analysis can be done using Compare with Project option from the WBS Element

Explorer context menu. However this will only compare the project to the project plan to


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which the WBS is currently being linked to and therefore no Project Element Selector win-

dow will be shown.

Figure 46: Compare with Microsoft Office Project (WBS Element Explorer context menu)

7.2 Review Differences

Once the Compare with Project from the WBS Element Explorer context menu or Com-

pare with Microsoft Office Project option from the WBS Modeler menu has been executed,

the Review Differences function can be executed (see Figure 47).

Figure 47: Review Differences window

The Review Differences windows can be used to check which changes have been made to

the WBS in comparison to the plan still in Microsoft Office Project. The Copy button can be

used to copy the results to the clipboard (see Figure 48).


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Figure 48: Differences - Clipboard contents

This information can be used to update a project plan manually or to track changes to a

WBS diagram in Visio.


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7.3 Export to Microsoft Office Project

1. To export a plan to Microsoft Office Project selects the Export to Microsoft Office

Project option from the WBS Modeler menu.

2. User is prompted for file and location of the new project file that will be created. The

default location is My Documents and the default file name is the same name as the Vi-

sio drawing file name but with the Project file type (See Figure 49).

Figure 49: Export to Project

3. User chooses a location and file name and clicks the Save button.

4. The user is prompted “Would you like to link this diagram to the exported Project

file?”

Figure 50: Link to Project

5. Select Yes if you need to set the linked project to this new Project file.


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6. The new project file is generated based on the shapes in the Visio WBS diagram.

Figure 51: Result of the export process


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8 Removal of WBS Modeler

Please ensure that Microsoft Office Visio is not running. To start the uninstall process click

Uninstall a program in the Control Panel.

Figure 52: Add/Remove Programs

In the Programs and Features screen select the entry WBS Modeler and click on Uninstall.


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Figure 53: Remove WBS Modeler

In the following screen click on Yes to confirm that you really want to remove the WBS

Modeler.

Figure 54: Confirm Program Remove