Modern Methods in Project Management Using Microsoft Project(16 hours)

 

Overview:

For all users of Microsoft Project 2010 who need to plan, track and communicate effectively for any type of project. Whether you are a manager, planner or coordinator – if you want to use Microsoft Project effectively this course will ensure your success with the application and provide you with powerful tools and techniques to better manage your projects. We have been training with Microsoft Project since its original release and as such have developed proven effective techniques on using Project in conjunction with best practices around project management.  Project is not like using other Microsoft Office products such as Word, Excel or PowerPoint in that it requires you to have some “core” knowledge and understanding of both project management in conjunction with the application. This course ties both the key project management concepts with the appropriate functions in Microsoft Project resulting in your increased productivity and effectiveness.  This neither is a beginner, intermediate or advanced course, but rather a comprehensive program with the core building blocks to support your projects from beginning to end focusing on proven effective training methods to support you through the planning, implementation and closing out of projects.    So no matter what level of expertise you have with project this course will support your efforts in optimizing your use of Microsoft Project and prepare you for Microsoft Certification Exam 70-178, Microsoft Project 2010, Managing Projects.

 

Main Topics

1. Getting Started The Right Way

2. Planning Essentials

3. Communicating/Reporting Essentials

4. Tracking/Updating Essentials

Part 1 – Getting Started The Right Way

Project 2010 as an Enabling Tool for Project Managers: In this section, you will learn about the role of Project 2010 has in the life of a Project Manager. Where it will and will not enable you to be more effective and its overall strategic and tactical relevance in project management.

Mapping the Project Management Process Groups to Microsoft Project 2010: Understand how Project fits into the Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge  (PMBOK) 4th Edition and its associated project management stages - initiating, planning, monitoring & controlling, executing and closing. You will learn where and when project will provide support in each stage of the project management process and a projects’ lifecycle.

Overview of Enterprise Project Management (EPM): Understand the key components of the EPM solution that Microsoft offers in conjunction with Project and when it is most appropriate to make the investment into a Project Server 2010 solutions. You will also learn the differences between Project Standard 2010 and Project Professional 2010.

Getting Started and Setting Up the Microsoft Project Environment: Before building your schedule you need to learn about how to initiate a new plan and define some key settings. This includes starting from a template, defining the project start date, using calendars, and other key option settings important for your successful use of the tool.

 

Part II – Planning Essentials

Creating and Entering the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Task Structure: The cornerstone to any good project plan is having a good WBS and task structure. In this section you will learn how to develop a WBS and enter the task structure into Microsoft Project 2010. The first step of a four step process to creating schedules effectively in Project.

Estimating Duration (or Work): Step 2 of our 4 step planning process includes estimating duration. In this section you will learn about various estimating techniques and how to enter them into Project. You also start to learn how to use either manually scheduled tasks or auto scheduled tasks and how the differ in this step.

Setting Dependencies and the Critical Path: Step 3 of our 4 Step planning process focuses on setting dependencies and setting up the network for the schedule. Once set-up you can now learn about the critical path and how to use this in Project. You also learn about using constraints and deadlines. You also continue to learn the differences between manually schedule tasks and auto scheduled tasks.

Assigning Resources and Costs: The last step in the 4 step planning resources is all about assigning resources and costs. This includes learning how to set-up a resource pool and assign them to the various tasks in the schedule. Including using the Team Planner view which is only available for Professional users. You also learn in detail how the scheduling engine works based on the scheduling formula and various task types from fixed duration, fixed work or fixed units.  You also continue to learn the differences between manually schedule tasks and auto scheduled tasks.

Understanding the Calculation Engine for Auto Schedule Tasks: At any time you can switch to auto scheduling to take advantage of all the efficiencies from the powerful calculation engine in Project. This section is a synopsis of the key drivers that impact the calculation of time (start and finish dates) and costs which are touched on throughout the planning process.

 

Part III – Communicating and Reporting Essentials

Understanding Views: Project comes equipped with many different ways to look at schedule information. The default view is the Gantt Chart view with the new Timeline view on top. In this section you will learn how to vaviage from one view to another including the new views for the Timeline and the Team Planner view.

Using Tables and Custom Fields: You can control what you see in each view by changing or modifying tables. This includes creating new custom fields complete with drop down lists, formulas and/or graphical indicators. You will learn how to change tables and customize fields for more effective communicating and reporting.

Using Filters, Groups and Sorts: In this section you will learn about powerful tools to help focus in on specific data and manage your project more effectively. This includes learning about filtering, highlighting, grouping and sorting to slice and dice information better decision making and more meaningful communication.

Creating Custom Views, Formatting and Reporting: Once you learn about all the various tools for more effective communication and decision making you can customize views to apply specific tables with custom fields, filters, groups and even formatting. You will also learn how to format the text and bar areas for more eye-catching communication and the various reporting tools available in Project 2010.

Creating Master Schedules with Inserted Projects: In this section you learn how to create an integrated master schedule with inserted subprojects. You will also learn how to create cross project dependencies as well as sharing resources across multiple projects. This will include looking at the critical path across multiple projects as well.

 

Part IV – Tracking and Analyzing Essentials

Setting and Maintaining Baselines: You will learn about the importance of baselines and understand how this works in Project including which fields are baselined. You also learn about how to maintain baselines and set multiple baselines if needed. You will also be introduced to various views and tables that are set-up specifically for you to view the baseline. 

Updating and Tracking Status: In this section you will learn about updating and tracking techniques and strategies. This includes learning about the different types of % completes in Project and how to capture status and actuals. This includes capturing actuals for start, finish, duration, work and costs.

Analyzing Results and Taking Corrective Action: After you learn how to capture and enter actuals into Project, it is important to analyze the impact this may have on your schedule. In this section you will learn about using the variance fields in project to analyze your plan and then take advantage of various tools to take corrective action. This also includes an overview of Earned Value Management and the various earned value fields that come equipped with Project.