Course

1. Participants’ Backgrounds, Needs, and Expectations
2. What is a Project?
3. Recurring Theme 1 – Simplicity, Transparency, and No Loss of Control
4. Recurring Theme 2 – Effort versus Accuracy — the Asymptotic Curve

LESSON 2 CUSTOMIZING THE MICROSOFT WINDOWS ENVIRONMENT

1. Using Windows Explorer
2. File Name View Options

LESSON 3 OPENING MICROSOFT PROJECT AND CUSTOMIZING THE USER INTERFACE

1. Verifying the Version Number and the Application of Service Releases/Service Packs
2. Help Facilities — Too Much? — How To Turn Off
3. A Tour of the Screen – Names & Definitions
4. Notice lateral scroll bars at the bottom of both sides of the screen
5. Menu Bar, Tool Bars, Icons, and the View Bar. (P2010: Ribbons)
6. Turning Off Personalized Menus
7. Customizing Tool Bars (P2003-2007) and Ribbons (P2010)

LESSON 4 STARTING A NEW PROJECT

1. Selecting a Project Start Date
2. Start Date versus End Date Scheduling
3. Entering Tasks – Observe What Project Does
4. Adding and Hiding Columns, and a Quick Discussion of Project’s Data Base

LESSON 5 DURATIONS AND THE TIME SCALE

1. Duration Defined
2. Elapsed Duration
3. The Time Scale — Various Ways to Manage It
4. The Third Timescale Level

LESSON 6 OUTLINING A PROJECT

1. Summary Tasks and Detail Tasks (“Parent” and “Child” Tasks)
2. Properties of Summary Tasks
3. Outline Levels
4. The “Line Zero” Project Summary Task
5. Viewing Outline Numbers
6. WBS Numbers and Outline Numbers – Differences
7. Viewing Outline Levels – Preview of Filters

LESSON 7 LINKING TASKS

1. Standard Links (FS) using the Link and Unlink Icons
2. Selecting Adjoining Tasks with the Shift Key
3. Selecting Non-Adjoining Tasks with the Control Key – The Order Matters!
4. Linking Graphically – Slightly Dangerous
5. Three Other Types of Links (SS, FF, and the bizarre SF)
6. Entering Links in the Task Information Box and Other Forms
7. Power Linking by Typing Directly into the Predecessors or Successors Columns
8. Linking Summary Tasks — Controversy and Confusion (“Hidden Hands”)

LESSON 8 ADDING LAGS TO LINKS

1. Lags: Positive, Negative, and Percentage
2. Combining Lags with SS and FF Link Types
3. Documenting the Reasons for Lags with Notes
4. Small Negative Lags versus Large Negative Lags
5. An Alternative to Lags

LESSON 9 DATE CONSTRAINTS

1. Constraints Frequently Set in Error – By Typing or Pasting Dates
2. Eight Types of Constraints – Most of These Should be Avoided
3. When Constraints Conflict with Links – a Switch Determines Who Wins
4. When are Date Constraints OK to Use?
5. Documenting the Reasons for Constraints with Notes

LESSON 10 MILESTONES

1. The Purpose of Milestones – When Are They Useful?
2. Conflicting Definitions with Other Applications like MPM
3. The Milestones Filter

LESSON 11 WORKING WITH PROJECT TASKS

1. The Deadline Feature
2. More About Notes – Capacity and the Ability to Insert Objects
3. Adding Hyperlinks to Tasks, and How they Compare with Notes
4. Recurring Tasks
5. Splitting Tasks
6. Moving Tasks Around in a Schedule – Methods and the Level Problem
7. Moving Columns to New Positions
8. To Auto link or Not To Auto link Inserted or Moved Tasks
9. Saving Work with Auto save, and Version Control Issues
10. The Language of Tasks: When Verbs, When Nouns
11. How Logic Flows Through an Unconstrained Schedule
12. How Detailed Should Schedules Be?

LESSON 12 THE CRITICAL PATH

1. Understanding The Critical Path
2. Different Views that Show the Critical Path
3. Adding the Critical Path to the Gantt View with a Wizard
4. Microsoft’s Critical Path Options in the Tool Box (Tools-Options-Calculation)
5. The Impact of Date Constraints on the Critical Path
6. The Impact of Task Progress on the Critical Path — The Different Effects of FS and SS Links
7. The Impact of Deadlines on the Critical Path — A Departure from the Classic Definition of “Critical”
8. Elapsed Durations, ALAP Tasks, and their Effect on Critical Path

LESSON 13 FILTERS

1. What Kind of Schedules Really “Need” Filters? — Large Ones!
2. Filters (1) – The “Show” Button is a Kind of Filter – Very Useful for Top-Down Analysis
3. Filters (2) – Auto filters are a Second Kind of Filter – Quick and Easy, and They Can Be Combined
4. Filters (3) – The Filter Box Lists All Standard and Custom Filters Available
5. Creating and Saving Custom Filters – Very Powerful, Very Useful for Special Views
6. What is a Highlight Filter?
7. Linking a Filter with a View

LESSON 14 SORTING AND GROUPING

1. When Would Sorting be Useful
2. Sorting (1) – The Quick Sort — Several Choices in the Menu
3. Problems and Limitations with the Quick Sort
4. Sorting (2) – The Full Sort — Managing the Two Check Boxes
5. Restoring Original Line Order with the Sort by ID Option
6. The “Grouping” Function

LESSON 15 CUSTOMIZING FIELDS

1. Changing Field Names – 2 Ways
2. The View-Specific Change Technique — Double Click Column Header
3. The Durable Change Technique — Customizing the Field
4. Limiting Entries into Optional Fields with Data Validation
5. Adding a Formula to an Optional Field
6. Adding “Stoplight” Graphics to an Optional Field
7. Separate Customization Choices for Summary Tasks

LESSON 16 OTHER VIEWS AND DISPLAY OPTIONS

1. The Calendar View
2. The Network Diagram View (Formerly Called “PERT” View)
3. The Relationship Diagram View
4. Splitting the Screen, and Managing the Two Split Halves
5. The “Arrange All” Function — For Managing Multiple Open Projects

LESSON 17 REPORTS

1. The Standard Reports
2. Editing and Customizing Reports
3. Using the Gantt View instead of Microsoft Project’s Reports

LESSON 18 ADDING GRAPHICS AND MULTIMEDIA OBJECTS TO THE GANTT AREA

1. Adding a Text Box
2. Adding Clip Art
3. Adding Sound and Video Objects

LESSON 19 FORMATTING FOR PRINTING

1. Wrapping Text to Handle Long Task Names
2. What Columns Will Appear in Print — a Big Problem Resolved
3. Gantt Bar Appearances – the Bar Styles Dialogue Box
4. Adding and Removing Text and Dates from Gantt Bars and Milestones
5. Link Appearances — Suppressing Links in Large Schedules
6. The Scaling Option – Get More Space with the Per cent Scaling Tool
7. Building Headers with Variable Inserts
8. Building Footers with Variable Inserts – a Suggested Standard
9. Turning the Legend On and Off
10. The Final Setup Tab: Showing Notes, Blank Pages, Etc.
11. Last Look at Zooming – Where is the Print Date Range Dialogue Hidden?
12. Extra Polish: Adding Logos to Headers for Special Presentations
13. Formatting Options are Stored in Views

LESSON 20 EXPORTING PROJECT IMAGES AND DATA TO OTHER APPLICATIONS

1. Exporting Gantt Views to Word and PowerPoint with the Camera Icon
2. Exporting with the Print Screen Key and ALT-Print Screen
3. Exporting Data to Excel — the Outline Level Problem
4. Exporting Data to Access — the Choice of Power Users

LESSON 21 THE ORGANIZER

1. Overview of the Organizer: the 2-Library Concep
2. What Project does when it looks For a New View or Filter, etc.
3. Where Modifications are Saved – the Local Library
4. What the Global Library is (GLOBAL.MPT), and Why it is Useful
5. Making Custom Filters, Views, etc. Available to Other Schedules on Your Computer
6. Sharing Custom Filters, Views, etc. with Friends and Colleagues
7. More about Views – What They Contain and What They Don’t

1. Entering and Naming Resources – Two Ways
2. Maximum Availability — What it Means
3. Showing Availability as a Percentage or Decimal
4. Human Resources, Fixed Cost Items, and Material Resources
5. Resource Rates and Costs
6. Adding Resource Notes

LESSON 23 ASSIGNING SINGLE RESOURCES TO TASKS

1. Many Ways to Assign Resources
2. Virtues of the Resource Assignment Icon and Box
3. Adding a Resource at Less than its Maximum Availability
4. Filtering on Resources
5. Look at Project Total Cost as Resources are Added: The Statistics Box

LESSON 24 ASSIGNING MULTIPLE RESOURCES TO TASKS

1. Whiteboard Lecture: The Project Triangle — Relationships Among Scope, Resources, and Time
2. Creating a Schedule for Each Task Type, With and Without “Effort Driven”
3. Watch What Happens When the Second Resource is Added – Another Big Problem Clarified

LESSON 25 SPECIAL TOOLS FOR RESOURCE ASSIGNMENT AND COST ESTIMATING

1. The “Usage” Views: Resource Usage and Task Usage
2. Resource Editing and Contours
3. The Concept of “Assignment”
4. Assignment Information Options
5. Five Cost Schedules

LESSON 26 MANAGING RESOURCE WORKLOADS

1. Viewing Resource Workloads and Task Assignments
2. The Resource Graph — Note Peak Units Problem Versus Total Work
3. Analysing Resource Conflicts With Split Screen Views
4. Whiteboard Notes: The Manager’s Knowledge and Options
5. Replacing a Resource

LESSON 27 RESOURCE LEVELLING

1. Definition and Overview of Levelling
2. Demonstration of levelling with a Sample Schedule
3. Look at “Levelling Delay” in the Detail Gantt View
4. Levelling Options: Level Within Slack, and Other Options
5. Task Priority and How it Changes levelling
6. Clearing levelling – Doesn’t Always Remove Splits
7. Discussion: When levelling Makes No Sense, and When it Might

LESSON 28 WORKING WITH CALENDARS

1. Using Calendars
2. Creating a New Base Calendar
3. Setting the Overall Project Calendar in Project-Project Information
4. Assigning Resources to Different Base Calendars
5. Customizing Resource Calendars
6. Problem: A Day for You Isn’t a Day for Me: The Options Tab Controls what a Day of Duration Means
7. Problem: Assign Work to a Resource when the Resource Isn’t Working (First with Fixed Duration, Then with Fixed Units)
8. Assigning a Calendar to a Task
9. Resource Availability Dates

1. Definition and Use of a Baseline
2. Saving a Baseline
3. Saving Interim Plans
4. Multiple Baselines — Why? When These Are Useful
5. Clearing a Baseline — When and Why
6. Comparing the Baseline to Actual Data – Available Views and Reports

LESSON 30 TRACKING PROGRESS WITH THE PERCENT OF COMPLETION METHOD

1. Overview of the Percentage Method
2. Using the Percentage Icons
3. Inserting the % Completion Column
4. What is % Work Complete, and How Does it Differ from % Complete
5. Physical % Complete, and How it Differs from % Complete and % Work Complete
6. Summary Tasks Build Averages as Individual Tasks are Tracked
7. Percentages Translate to Costs in the Statistics Box and in Reports
8. Moving Up the Accuracy Curve — Add the Actual Start, Actual Finish, and Actual Work Columns
9. Still Greater Accuracy — Track the Hours by Resource, and Remaining Hours, with the Split Screen

LESSON 31 TRACKING ACTUAL HOURS WITH THE USAGE VIEWS

1. Overview of the Actual Hours Method
2. Working in the Resource Usage and Task Usage View
3. Why the Plan Changes to Equal the Actuals
4. How the Plan Reschedules Undone Work — Depends on Task Types
5. Dangers of the Percentage Icons when Using the Actual Hours Method
6. Conclusions about the Actual Hours Method

LESSON 32 EARNED VALUE CONCEPTS

1. The Background for Earned Value
2. Cost Variance and Schedule Variance
3. Performance Indexes
4. The Earned Value Data Fields in MS Project
5. Companion Tools for Earned Value such as MPM — What Value Do They Add?
6. Does Anyone Use Microsoft Project Alone for Earned Value?

LESSON 33 PROGRESS LINES AND UPDATING TOOLS

1. Adding Progress Lines to a Schedule
2. Using the “Update Tasks” Dialogue Box
3. Updating an Entire Project to a Status Date

LESSON 34 ISSUES AND PROBLEMS ARISING WITH TRACKING

1. Partially Complete Tasks Preceding Other Partially Complete Tasks
2. Tasks Won’t Move Once Started
3. Task Splitting to Reschedule Unfinished Portions

1. Overview of Resource Pooling
2. Setting Up a Resource Pool as a Separate Project File
3. Linking into the Pool with Tools-Resources-Share Resources Dialogue Box
4. The Same Dialogue Box as Seen from the Resource Pool File
5. Split Screen Views in the Resource Pool — Add the “Project” Column for Clarity

LESSON 36 CONSOLIDATING PROJECTS

1. Consolidating the Quick Way with “New Window”
2. Observe the Simultaneity of the Consolidation and the Individual Project
3. Consolidating by Inserting Projects
4. The Outline Level Issue — Can’t Promote to the Top
5. What Happens When a File is Moved or Renamed

LESSON 37 LINKS AMONG PROJECTS IN A CONSOLIDATION

1. Building Links Across Project Boundaries
2. Note the Information in the Predecessor and Successor Fields
3. Revisiting the Individual Projects — the Ghost Tasks and Line Numbers
4. Regenerating Broken Links with the Multiple Project Dialogue Box

LESSON 38 QUICK OVERVIEW OF MICROSOFT PROJECT SERVER

1. Overview of the Basic Concepts of Microsoft Project Server – Benefits and Problems
2. Overview of Project Web Access
3. Review of the Enterprise Functions Available in Microsoft Project without Project Server

1. The Trial Versions
2. Upgrading to the Next Version — Free Under Certain Circumstances

LESSON 40 SUPPORT

1. Consulting Support for Class Participants
2. Microsoft’s Knowledge Base — Bug Reports, Workarounds, and Helpful Hints

LESSON 41 CERTIFICATION AND USER GROUPS

1. Available Certification Programs for MS Project
2. The Microsoft Project User Group Community – “MPUG”
3. The PMI and the PMP Certification