Microsoft Project Essentials

This fundamental 2-day course continues to provide you with the hands-on skills to plan and manage project activities using Microsoft Project.

You will learn and practice Microsoft Project at your own dedicated computer. The scheduling techniques are learned through a series of progressive exercises which simulate a real project. At the beginning of each exercise, participants load a new project file which contains all the information correctly input from the previous exercise. As a result, those with slower typing skills are not left behind. By completion, participants will have fully defined a project from beginning to end, and will have performed project updates and reporting.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

You will gain practical skills to:

• Effectively define a project, assign resources and costs to activities, set a project baseline, input actual project status, identify resource conflicts, and produce meaningful reports.
• Use advanced features such as individual resource calendars, custom layout definitions, filters, and the use of custom data fields.
• Understand both the positive and negative aspects of the software in order to fully understand the applicability of the software for their needs.
• Discuss real-world issues such as managing multiple projects, sharing of resources, and the efficient use of the software within large and small organizations.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

The Microsoft Project Essentials course is suitable for individuals who are:

• Projest Managers, Project administrators and team members
• Using Microsoft Project to plan and manage new projects, and those who require enough knowledge to understand its capabilities and to access previously defined project data..
• Using (or perhaps exploring) the software without the benefit of having been formally trained.

PREREQUISITE

3-day Project Management Essentials (or an equivalent fundamental PM course)

MATERIALS

You will receive a complete book on the use of Microsoft Project, a course binder, and CDs with all the Microsoft Project data files used in the course.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Getting Started with Project

• Views, Reports, Project Properties, Nonworking Days
• Creating a New Project Plan

Time Management Personality Types

• Time management types
• Time management types strengths and weaknesses
• Working with the opposite type
• Personal SWOT analysis

Creating a Task List

• Entering Tasks, Durations, Milestones, Phases
• Linking Tasks
• Documenting Tasks
• Checking the Plan’s Duration

Setting Up Resources

• People, Equipment, Material, and Cost Resources
• Entering Resource Pay Rates
• Adjusting Working Time for Individual Resources
• Documenting Resources

Assigning Resources to Tasks

• Assigning Work Resources
• The Scheduling Formula
• Assigning Additional Resources
• Assigning Material Resources
• Assigning Cost Resources

Formatting and Printing Your Plan

• Creating a Custom Gantt Chart
• Formatting Text in a View
• Formatting and Printing Reports

Tracking Progress on Tasks

• Saving a Project Baseline
• Tracking a Project as Scheduled
• Entering a Task’s Completion Percentage
• Entering Actual Values for Tasks
• Is the Project on Track?

Fine-Tuning Task Details

• Adjusting Task Relationships
• Setting Task Constraints
• Viewing the Project’s Critical Path and Float
• Adjusting Working Time for Individual Tasks
• Entering Deadline Dates, Fixed Costs

Fine-Tuning Resource and Assignment Details

• Entering Multiple Pay Rates
• Setting up Resource Availability
• Applying Different Cost Rates to Assignments
• Entering Material Resource Consumption Rates

Fine-Tuning the Project Plan

• Examining Resource Allocations over Time
• Manually Resolving Resource Over-Allocations
• Examining Project Costs

Tracking Progress on Tasks and Assignments

• Updating a Baseline
• Tracking Actual and Remaining Values
• Tracking Time-phased Actual Work
• Rescheduling Incomplete Work

Viewing and Reporting Project Status

• Identifying Tasks That Have Slipped
• Examining Task Costs
• Examining Resource Costs
• Reporting Project Cost Variance with a Stoplight View

Getting Your Project Back on Track

• Troubleshooting Time and Schedule Problems
• Troubleshooting Cost and Resource Problems
• Troubleshooting Scope-of-Work Problems

Applying Advanced Formatting

• Formatting a Gantt Chart View