Project

Microsoft Project Training Courses

We're experts in delivering Eureka moments with Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project
Training Courses

We're experts in delivering Eureka moments with Microsoft Office

Microsoft Project Training Courses

We're experts in delivering Eureka moments with Microsoft Project

Our experienced training consultants can tailor Project workshops to meet the needs of your business. Our team bring the training to you, delivering the workshops at your site, helping you focus on what’s important to you.

Get in touch to find out more and see how we can help. Courses on Project 2010 and 2013 are also available.

Microsoft Project: Introduction

Duration: Two days (9:30 - 16:30)

This two-day workshop will teach you the necessary skills to be able to create, manage and track projects.

Prerequisites: A good basic understanding of Windows applications and project management techniques is required. Experience of working on, or being involved in, the management of larger projects is also beneficial.

Course Content

Getting Started

How Microsoft Project works
Using the ribbon
Understanding backstage view
The project work area
Understanding sheet views
Working with split screens
Working with tables
Gantt chart view
Working with the quick access toolbar
Working with project files

Project management

In this section, we review the concept of project management; why planning is so important and how project management tools, and specifically computers, can simplify and accelerate the process of project management. Topics covered in this section are:

Tasks and resources
The importance of planning
Project management tools
Using the computer for project management

Creating tasks

Tasks are one of the key building blocks of project management. Ensuring that your project tasks are correctly set up is vital for the smooth running of any project. Here we show you how to create a new task, how that task is measured and how to move or duplicate tasks you have already created. We also cover the setting of task constraints and deadlines. Topics covered in this section are:

Understanding tasks
Understanding scheduling icons
The Rostadium Case Study tasks
Reviewing the project
Entering tasks
Creating and assigning summary tasks
Working in a sheet view and with tasks views
Understanding and entering task durations
Checking progress
Entering milestones

Tables

Tables house information for your tasks and resources. A Microsoft Project table is similar in layout to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Topics covered in this section are:

Creating a new table
Adding fields
Formatting table fields
Using a custom table
Using a hyperlink field

Scheduling

Most tasks within your project will be linked, so that one task will be dependent on another. So for example, if you are renovating a house you can’t paint a wall before you have plastered it, allowed it to dry and prepped it ready for painting. Here we show you how you can set up dependencies (the relationships between tasks in a project) which will help you to understand how your project is progressing and how best to run it. Topics covered in this section are:

Understanding task dependencies
Automatically creating dependencies
Creating dependencies in task entry, task information or in sheet view
Fine tuning a schedule using dependencies
Auto scheduling tasks
Critical path and project slack
Viewing the critical path
Examining task slack
Understanding and entering lag time
Understanding and entering lead time

Constraints and deadlines

By default, all tasks are set with a constraint of “as soon as possible”. If something needs to be completed for a specific date then setting that date will allow Project to flag up any changes to the plan that could impact that deadline. Topics covered in this section are shown below.

Understanding constraints and deadlines
Reviewing your project
Adding a constraint
Using elapsed time
Rescheduling tasks
Creating a deadline

Project tracking

Here we show you how to use Project to manage and track a live project. We look at how to create a baseline for your project which allows you to compare any future project plans with your initial plan. We also show you how to update a project with actual results and how to delay existing tasks. Topics covered in this section are:

Creating a baseline
Updating the project actuals
Manually updating tasks
Entering delayed tasks
Tracking actuals on a Gantt Chart
Using the tracking box
Viewing task slippage

Resourcing concepts

Here we show you how to set up and input your project resources and costs. The topics covered in this session are:

Resource assignment calculations
Task types and work effort
Creating a simple assignment
Working with fixed unit tasks and fixed duration tasks
Making multiple assignments
Adding additional resources
Adding more of the same resource
Understanding “Effort Driven” scheduling
Working with non-effort driven and effort driven tasks
Resource assignment summary

Assigning resources

Simple resource assignments
Assigning part time resources
Understanding work contouring
Specifying resource usage
Contouring work hours
Assigning specific work times
Work times for multiple assignments
Problem assignments
Assigning resources in task information or sheet view
Assigning resources you do not have
Case study resources

Assigning materials

Assigning fixed material consumption
Contouring materials usage
Adding additional material assignments
Assigning variable usage material
Adding to a material assignment
Checking work for materials

Costs

Understanding project costs
Reviewing current costs
Entering variable costs
Case study variable costs
Assigning:

Daily costs
Per usage costs
Fixed costs
Material costs

Using another cost table
Applying a different cost table
Changing rates during a project
Assigning cost resources
Viewing project costs

Resource levelling

Resource levelling provides a solution for the over allocation of resources. We show you how to create over allocation reports and various methods to fix the situation. Topics covered in this section are:

Understanding resource levelling
Creating resource chaos
Tracking down over allocations
Checking resource usage
Creating an over allocation report
Fix 1: Changing work effort
Understanding overtime
Fix 2: Assigning overtime
Fix 3: Hiring contract labour
Fix 4: Switching work assignments
Fix 5: Rescheduling tasks

Formatting projects

Here we show you how to quickly create a variety of custom reports as documents or for uploading to a website. This provides an easy way of keeping internal and external stakeholders up to date. Topics covered in this session are:

Understanding the timescale
Changing time periods
Showing tiers and modifying specific tiers
Formatting non-working time
Changing text styles
Working with gridlines
Displaying and working with Progress Lines
Changing the layout
Understanding Gantt chart bars
Changing Gantt chart styles and bar text
Formatting selected bars and changing bar styles

Project Views

Understanding Project views
Working with standard views
Creating split views
Creating and using custom views
Creating a combination view
Customising the view menus
Saving an existing view
Deleting unwanted views

Printing

Printing a Gantt chart, sheet, tasks for resources and resources for tasks

Gantt chart printing

Displaying printing commands
Using print preview
Setting page breaks
Printing specific dates and pages
Inserting headers and footers
Working with the legend
Getting the right report fit
Printing to PDF

Predefined reports

Here we introduce the predefined reports provided by Microsoft Project. These can save time in report production. For example, Crosstab reports, similar to PivotTables in Microsoft Excel, provide an easy way to summarise large amounts of data. Topics covered in this section are:

Understanding predefined reports
Using a predefined report
Using report lists
Modifying an existing report
Crosstab reports
Dissecting a Crosstab report
Creating a custom Crosstab report
Adjusting the details of a custom report
Sharing custom reports

Integrating with other applications

Microsoft Project interfaces well with the other Microsoft Office Suite applications. Here we show you how to copy data between Microsoft Project and Microsoft Excel and how to link data between the two applications. Topics covered in this session are:

Copying a Gantt chart image
Copying table data
Copying to Microsoft Excel
Linking to Microsoft Excel
Exporting to Excel

To find out more about this course, or to make a booking, please call us on 0118 9789 279 or click here to email us.

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