The foundations of Microsoft Project
Duration: 3 days
Prerequisites: We recommend that you have a basic understanding project management.
Who this course is for: Program Managers, Project Managers, Project Support Officers, Schedulers.
If you work with projects, you have probably already come across Microsoft Project. People tell us that they start off by experimenting with what it can do, or asking a colleague for help. But they never realise the full potential of the tool until they have the chance to properly learn how to get the best from it.
This course covers everything you need to know to take you from novice to expert user. Our professional instructors all have extensive practical experience of scheduling. They will show you how to create faultless schedules with robust critical paths. However, the course isn’t just about functionality. You’ll also learn the real-world application for Project’s functionality. For example, we’ll show you why WBS is an important part of scheduling, share best practices for building one and explain how to use the WBS features in Project. This gives you a deeper understanding of the scheduling context which will be useful regardless of which software product you ultimately use.
Soon your colleagues will be asking you for help!
Course summary
Scheduling projects
- Overview of Microsoft Project and scheduling context
- Starting up; customising the user interface
- Beginning a new project
- Durations and timescales
- Project outlines
- Linking tasks and adding lags
- Managing constraints on dates
- Creating and managing milestones
- Working with tasks in Project
- Creating and managing the critical path
- Looking at data: filters, sorting and groups
- Customising fields
- More view and display options
- Creating reports
- Adding multi-media clips and graphics to the Gantt chart area
- Getting data out: formatting for print, exporting to other applications
- The organiser
Managing resources
- The resource sheet
- Assigning single and multiple resources to tasks
- Managing resources: handling workload, resource levelling
- Using calendars
- Special tools for assigning resources and estimating costs
Tracking progress
- Project baselines
- Using percent of completion to track progress
- Tracking actual hours with usage views
- An overview of earned value management concepts
- Viewing progress visually: progress lines and updating tools
- Dealing with common issues
Managing multiple projects
- Pooling resources
- Consolidating projects
- Managing links between consolidated projects
Call Kinley Consulting today to find out more or to book a place on this course.