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This course introduces you to
the classic Windows tool for project management -
Microsoft Project.
If you want to manage timelines, resources and share
information about projects, this is the tool for you.
 In order
to help us present this course, we supply in addition to our workbook, a copy of the book 'Step by Step
Microsoft Office Project (2000 or 2003) by Carl Chatfield and Timothy
Johnson'. We provide the book with the course and draw most heavily on
it. Much of the text and exercises below are taken from this book.
Project is a computer application - software - made by (published
by) Microsoft, one of the largest software publishing houses in the world.
Microsoft are based in Seattle, Washington State, USA.
Project is a software tool used to
answer question such as:
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What tasks must be done to
produce the deliverable - what needs to be produced as a
result of all the hard work by you and your team?
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Who will complete these tasks?
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What is the best way to
communicate project details to people who have an interest in the
project?
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When should each task be
performed?
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How much will it cost?
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What happens if some tasks are
not completed as schedules?
Note that good project management does not
guarantee the success of every project, but poor project management
usually guarantees failure.
Project
is a very sophisticated application indeed. Since it is so complex, we
will not be able to cover all aspects of it in this 'introductory'
course, but after you complete the course, you will be certainly be able
to manage some modest size projects.
As a first step, we
thought that you might like to see Project in action. We have made some
short sample movies (with commentary) which will play on your computer screen and show Project at
work. You do not have to do anything while the movie plays; just watch
the screen. There is no need to move or operate your mouse while the
movie plays.
To hear
the sound which accompanies the movie, make sure that you have your
speakers connected and turned on.
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Click
here
to play a movie (4Mb) from the course which
shows how one of our students used the software
to set up a project. |
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Click
here to
play a movie (1.8Mb) from the course which shows how we
set Project Properties using MS Project.
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Click
here to play another
movie from the course. It shows how we can include a link to
a web site within a Project file. This tight
link between a web site and a Project file helps
manage a project more efficiently. |
Here's a link to part
on one of the early modules in the course. It deals with
the creation of a project charter.
In this course we want take you on a
journey through the process of managing a project with this software. We
will concentrate on the 'big picture' - the overall project management
process from beginning to end - rather than examine in detail of each
and every step along the way.
We offer two different pricing models covering
the same material:
1.
Online learning via broadband - fast Internet connection required.
The most popular option is to take a course by online
learning at
http://www.softwaretutor.net. The cost of this course is $AUD320.00 for
many
hours of high quality training. These broadband learning courses feature rapid enrolment,
multi media materials, online forums, multi choice reviews, questionnaires,
submission of assignments etc. This is an enhanced learning
experience at an affordable price. You will be supported via a
messaging system within the course and often get real time
answers to questions.
Please note that this course costs a little more than our
standard charge for an online course, because it includes a book
- 'Step by Step Microsoft Office Project (2000 or 2003)'
by Carl Chatfield and Timothy Johnson'.
Click
here to visit our
broadband online
learning site (www.softwaretutor.net),
scroll down the page to the Microsoft Office group and click on the blue information button
alongside the course 'An Introduction to Project' to sample a
course.
2. Group or one-on-one courses (Adelaide or Canberra - in our offices or
yours).
Each course takes one day and
costs $AUD750.00 [for one or to a maximum of three students].
As part of our continuing drive to
reduce our
carbon emissions by using digital delivery, each participant in our group or one-on-one courses is
automatically enrolled at no extra cost in the broadband
learning version of this course. This would normally cost an
additional $250.00 per student. In this way, students get a double benefit - personal tuition
and the ability to access any of the written instructional
materials online, replay any of the demonstration movies,
download sample files, log questions, take quizzes and submit
assignments for review.
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Again, as part of our continuing drive to reduce our
carbon emissions, because you have access to the broadband
learning site at no extra cost, you can view the online workbook
at any time. This enables us to avoid printing a hard copy of
the manual and lets you always view an up-to-date copy. |
We usually work group or one-on-one, but can take up to 3 students in our
training room. Please note that we only run groups if all students come
from the same organization.
We will enrol you and provide an
invoice on receipt of a purchase order. We encourage
direct deposit to our bank account as the preferred
method of payment.
We
use
PayPal, an organization which takes all credit cards
using a secure Internet facility. PayPal is a partner
within the eBay system. We have chosen PayPal because it
is independent of us, allows us to hold money in trust
until we have delivered the course and is now
operational in Australia. We will provide a tax invoice on
receipt of payment.
Experience over many years has taught us that adults learn best by
progressing through a course of study at their own pace and at times
that suit them. Wherever possible, they like to learn by working on
their own materials, rather than work through long practice exercises. Our courses are specifically designed so that this can
occur- we introduce a topic, provide a movie which shows you how to do
it and then give detailed step-by-step instructions for you to follow.
Courses may be taken in your offices
(all we need is access to a small meeting room), at Thebarton in Adelaide, South Australia, in
Canberra in your offices.
If a course is taken 'in-house' at Thebarton, it normally runs for a
whole day
with a break for lunch. Starting time is 9.15 am and finish time around
4.15 - 4.30 pm.
When taken in-house, An Introduction
to Project normally runs over a full day session.
When taken
externally, experience has shown us that students take
significantly longer to complete the course, primarily
because they are able to break up their learning into
small 'chunks' as time permits. Project is a large
program - please allow plenty of time to work through
our materials. We would estimate that you have 40-50
hours of work in front of you!
The course consists of a series of
linked modules which should initially be taken in sequence. There
is of course, the opportunity to revisit modules in any sequence at a
later stage. Start by clicking on the title of the first module (called
'Getting Started with Project'). Clicking with the left button of the
mouse while the pointer shows a hand, takes you to a new page (which can
be a long section [module] or a simple page). Modules can at times be
quite long, especially when complex concepts need to be explained, or as
simple as a one-page note.
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Getting Started with Project
(Based on Chapter 1 Chatfield & Johnson) |
Understanding the family of Office
Project 2003 products, starting Project Standard, identify major
parts of the Project Window. Create a new project using a template.
A template for building a residential house. Examining various
templates, both local and online. Switching from one project to
another via Window. Using views to work with project plan details in
different ways, use reports to print project plan details. Create a
project plan and enter a project's start date, set the working and
non working time for a project, enter a project plan's properties. |
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Preliminaries |
Some steps to take before beginning
serious work with Project. |
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Simple Tasks
(Chapter 2) |
Creating a task list. Entering task
information. Estimating and entering how long each task should last.
Creating a milestone to track an important event. Organizing tasks
into phases. Create task relationships by linking tasks. Recording
task details in notes and inserting hyperlinks to World Wide Web
content in a project. Checking a project plan's overall duration. |
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Simple Resources
(Chapter 3) |
Setting up resources. Here we
set up basic resource information for the people who will work on
the project. Set up basic information for the equipment that will be
used. Enter basic resource information on the materials that will be
consumed as the project progresses. Set up cost information for
resources. |
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Simple Assignments
(Chapter 4) |
Assigning resources to tasks.
Controlling how Project schedules additional resource assignments,
assigning material resources to tasks. |
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Formatting & Printing
(Chapter 5) |
Customizing a view of a project by
running a Gantt Chart wizard , adding extra information to a Gantt
chart. Adding notes to and drawing on a Gantt Chart. |
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Develop your own project |
Developing a project definition
of your own. Some case studies: A project for Greening Australia -
re-vegetation. |
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Tracking Progress on Tasks
(Chapter 6) |
Saving current values in a schedule
as a baseline. Recording progress on tasks through a specific date,
recording a task's percentage of completion, entering actual start,
finish, work and duration values for tasks. |
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Fine Tuning Task Details
(Chapter 7) |
Adjusting task links to have more
control over how tasks are related, applying a constraint to a task,
identifying the tasks on the critical path, viewing the critical
path, split a task to record an interruption to work, create a task
calendar and apply it to tasks, change a task type to control how
Project schedules tasks, record deadlines for tasks, enter a fixed
cost and specify how it should accrue, set up recurring tasks in the
project schedule. |
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Fine Tuning Resource & Assignment Details |
Set up different pay rates for
resources, set up pay rates that change over time for a resource,
set resource availability to change over time, delay the start of a
resource assignment, control how a resource's work on a task is is
scheduled over time by using work contours, apply different cost
rates for a resource assigned to different kinds of tasks, enter
variable consumption rates for material resources. |
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Fine tuning the Project Plan |
Examining how resources are scheduled
to work over the duration of a project. Edit a resource assignment
to resolve a resource allocation, resolve resource allocations
automatically, see detailed and overall project costs, see tasks on
the critical path that determine a project's finish date. |
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Organizing & Formatting Project
Details |
Sort task and resource data, display
task and resource data in groups, filter or highlight task and
resource data, create a custom table, create a custom view. |
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Printing Project Information |
Change page setup options for views
and reports, print a view, print a report. |
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Publishing Project Information On
Line |
Take a snapshot of a Gantt Chart as a
GIF image, publish Project information in HTML format, control how
Project information is saved in HTML format. |
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Sharing Project Information with
Other Users |
Copy and paste data to and from
Project, generate a new Office document that contains essential
project details and an illustration, use Project to open a file
produced in another program, save Project data to other file formats
using import/export maps. |
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Tracking Progress on Tasks and
assignments |
Update a previously saved baseline
plan, record actual work for tasks and assignments, record daily
actual work values, interrupt work on a task and specify the date on
which the task should start again. |
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Viewing and Reporting Project
Status |
Determine which tasks were started or
completed late, view task costs at summary and details levels,
examine resource costs and variance, use custom fields to create a
stoplight view that illustrates each task's cost variance. |
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Getting a Project Back on Track |
Assign additional resources to tasks
to reduce task durations, edit work values for resource assignments
and replace resources assigned to tasks, assign overtime work to
assignments and change task relationships to compress the overall
project duration. |
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Advanced Formatting |
Format the Gantt Chart view, format
the network diagram view, format the Calendar view. |
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Customizing Project |
Copy a customized element such
as a table from one project plan to another one suing the Organizer,
record and playback a simple macro, edit a macro in the Visual Basic
Editor, create a custom toolbar. |
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Measuring Performance with Earned
Value |
Set a status date and see earned
value indicators for schedule performance, see earned value cost
performance indicators. |
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Consolidating Projects and
Resources |
Create a resource pool to share
resources across multiple projects, look at resource allocation
across multiple projects, change resource assignments in a sharer
plan and see the effects in the resource pool, change a resource's
working time in the resource pool and see the effects in the sharer
plan, make a specific data nonworking time in the resource pool and
see the effects in the sharer plan, create a project plan and make
it a sharer plan for the resource pool, manually update the resource
pool from a sharer plan, insert project plans to create a
consolidated project, link tasks between two project plans. |
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Planning Work with Project Server |
Understanding the components of a
Project Server-based enterprise project management solution, create
a new project plan based on an enterprise template, assign work
resources from an enterprise resource pool based on criteria such as
location and availability, publish a plan to Project server after
developing it in Project professional. |
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Tracking Work with Project Server |
See how resources report their
progress on assignments and non working time through the timesheet
in Project Web Access, see how resources report their progress from
the Outlook calendar to Project Server via the Outlook in
integration add-on, see how project managers approve task changes
(such as casual work) from resources in Project Web Access and
update project plans in Project Professional, see how executives and
other stakeholders can see project status at a glance and drill into
the details that most interest them in Project Web Status. |
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Managing Risks, Issues and
Documents with Project Server |
Create a risk in Project Web Access
and associate it with a project, create an issue, associate it with
a project and assign it to someone for resolution, create a document
library for a project and upload a document. |
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Revision |
Project is certainly
sophisticated software. We have covered a lot of ground. Some
revision of the material is perhaps warranted. |
Please remember to build on your knowledge of Project after you complete
this course. We strongly recommend that Project be used quite
intensively after these early stages of learning. You will lose a lot if
you let new-found skills ‘wither on the vine’. Practice is the key to
learning sophisticated software. The key to success is to complete your
first real project as soon as possible.
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