Course 50413-B: Mastering Microsoft Project 2010

Microsoft

Course 50413-B: Mastering Microsoft Project 2010

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This three-day instructor-led course provides students with the knowledge and skills plan and manage projects using Microsoft Project 2010. The course focuses on preparing the user to pass Microsoft Exam 70-178 Managing Projects Using Microsoft Project 2010. This course is eligible for SATVs.

To get the most from any project management software, the user must understand the project management techniques upon which the software is based. This course presents the most popular project management software in the context of how a project manager will use it. Participants in this course learn the functions of the software and the project management concepts which make the software effective.

This presentation begins with the basic concepts and leads participants through all the functions theyll need to plan and manage a small to medium-sized project, including how to level resources and capture both cost and schedule progress.

The course uses a combination of learning methods in teaching this course. It takes the approach of we will discuss what we are going to show the student, demonstrate to the student and have the student perform an exercise or follow the steps of the instructor in learning a new concept or feature. This course is lectured based coupled with click-alongs and labs to complete. Our goal is to maximize the time students have their fingers on the keyboard. To do this, we have traditional exercises within nearly every lesson, and Click Along demonstrations. Each Click-Along is indicated with a special icon in the margin of the student manual. Students should be able to follow the instructor through these demonstrations.

The labs will be noted in the syllabus as exercises to follow the nomenclature that is being used in the student manual.

Audience Profile

This course is intended for both novice and experienced Project Managers and projects support personnel who need to apply the discipline of project management using Microsoft® Project Professional/Standard 2010.

Prerequisites

Course outline

Module 1: Introduction to Mastering Microsoft Project

Module Overview

This module provides an overview of how the features of Project relate to the job of the project manager.

Lessons

Describe how Project relates to the discipline of Project management
Know the significant new features of Project 2010
Navigate to the primary views available using the Ribbon
Choose Views that display task, resource, or assignment information
Select table within views to change the information that is available to see and edit
Relate the features of Project to the 5 steps for building a plan in Project

Lab Sessions

Not available for this module

Lab Lessons

Lab lessons not available

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Have a fundamental understanding of how Microsoft Project will help them track their projects.
Understand what is new in Project 2010 and how it will increase their productivity.
Learn how the ribbon will help them get the most of out of this productivity tool.
Learn how to quickly changes views and see what is going on with their projects.
Understand the 5 essential steps in building a successful project plan.

Module 2: A Quick and Easy Overview of Managing with Project

Module Overview

This module demonstrates the steps required to create and use Project through the life cycle of a project.

Lessons

Create a new project and prepare it for data entry
Enter project tasks
Sequence the tasks
Define resources
Estimate Task duration and assign resources
Baseline the project
Track project progress

Lab Sessions

Not available for this module

Lab Lessons

Lab lessons not available

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Prepare a new project plan and set the date and other basic information.
Enter detailed project information.
Understand how to sequence tasks.
Understand and Define resource types.
Assign resources to tasks.
Understand the benefits of baselining a project or specific tasks.
Understand the basics of how to track project progress.

Module 3: Setting Up a Project

Module Overview

This module explains how to create a new project and establish the basic constraints that Project will use for its calculations.

Lessons

Use multiple methods to create a new project, including opening an Excel file and a SharePoint Tasks list
Establish one or more calendars to constrain resource availability
Configure Project to calculate the schedule from the Start Date forward, or from the Finish Date backward

Lab Sessions

Setting Up a Project

Lab Lessons

Adding Holidays to the company calendar
Making a custom calendar
Setting the Project Start date
Setting of the constraints

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Set up a Project Calendar.
Make custom calendars.
Establish the Project Date for the Project.
Establishing and setting constraints on Project tasks.

Module 4: Manually Schedule vs. Auto Schedule

Module Overview

This module explains how to manually schedule project tasks and how to leverage the auto schedule feature.

Lessons

Describe which project functions are turned off for tasks using Manually Schedule mode
Change the task mode from Manually Schedule to Auto Schedule and back
Identify tasks that are in Manually Schedule mode by the task mode column and shape on the Gantt chart
Describe situations that are particularly appropriate for using Manually Schedule
Describe the limitations that a user must be aware of when using Manually Schedule mode

Lab Sessions

Exploring Manually Schedule mode

Lab Lessons

Practice switching tasks between Manually Schedule and Auto Schedule modes
Identify the impact that makes on the project schedule and the individual tasks

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Understand how to switch between Manually Schedule and Auto Scheduling.
Understand when to use Manually Schedule.
Understand the limitations of Manually Scheduling.

Module 5: Creating a Work Breakdown Structure

Module Overview

This module explains how to create a useful work breakdown structure and enter it into Project.

Lessons

Build and use summary and subordinate tasks
Understand and use milestones
Develop WBS Outlines
Assign completion criteria
Evaluate the WBS
Understand and use WBS templates

Lab Sessions

Manipulate a WBS

Lab Lessons

Creating notes within tasks
Utilize Outline
WBS Templates
Using a Template
Editing a Template
Creating a Template

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Build and use summary and subordinate tasks.
Understand and use milestones.
Develop WBS outlines.
Assign completion criteria.
Evaluate the WBS.
Understand and use WBS templates.

Module 6: Identifying Task Relationships

Module Overview

This module explains the rules for establishing dependency links between tasks and presents the features to use Project to establish and display these dependencies.

Lessons

Understand and use the types of task relationships
Understand and use various methods to create relationships
Determine and display task sequence
Understand and use lag, lead, and delay

Lab Sessions

Display the sequence

Lab Lessons

Formatting Network diagram
Modifying dependency lines
Modifying items to be shown on the critical path

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Understand the rules for establishing dependency links between tasks and be able to use Project to establish and display these dependencies.
Understand and use the types of task relationships.
Understand and use various methods to create relationships.
Determine and display task sequence.
Understand how to use Lag, Lead and Delay.

Module 7: Defining resources within Project

Module Overview

This module explains how to enter resources and specific resource information in Microsoft Project and assign resources to specific tasks.

Lessons

Define individual resources that will be used on the project
Record the cost(s) of using each type of resource
Record the limit of availability for each type of resource by establishing a resource calendar and defining the maximum units of that resource

Lab Sessions

Resource Calendar and Availability

Lab Lessons

Add holidays to a standard calendar
Applying calendars and analyzing the impact to the project schedule
Applying vacation schedules to the calendar
Replacing resources based upon the resources calendar

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Enter resources and resource related information into Project.
Define individual resources that will be used on the project.
Record the cost(s) of using each type of resource.
Record the limit of availability for each type of resource by establishing a resource calendar and defining the maximum units of that resource.

Module 8: Making Work Package Estimates

Module Overview

This module explains how Microsoft Project calculates task duration, task work (effort) and task resources. Students will be able to choose among three task types as they enter task estimates and they will know which task type is appropriate for the type of estimate they are making.

Lessons

Enter estimates for duration and costs for each task
Distinguish between task types and describe when each is appropriate
Describe the relationship between work, units, and duration
Describe the way Effort Driven scheduling is affected by work, units, and duration
Assign tasks to resources using the Team Planner view

Lab Sessions

Work, Duration and Labor

Lab Lessons

Analyze the impact of duration, work, and labor
Create material resources and assigning cost to the resource
Apply material resource to project and examine the impact to project costs

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Enter estimates for duration and costs for each task.
Assign values for resources, duration and labor.
Understand types.
Understand Effort Driven scheduling.
Understand material resources and their costs to a project plan.

Module 9: Creating an Initial Schedule

Module Overview

This module explains how Project calculates a schedule based on task relationships and task duration. Students will understand the purpose of identifying critical path tasks and will be able to identify schedule float within the project.

Lessons

Calculate the Schedule: The Theory Behind the Software
Critical Path
Schedule Float
Constraints
Deadlines
Task Relationships and Crashing a Schedule
Milestones
Task Inspector

Lab Sessions

Calculating an Initial schedule

Lab Lessons

Display float for all non-critical tasks
Reviewing the impact to the Project plan
Reviewing changes that can have a positive impact on the project plan

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Calculate float and identify a projects critical path.

Module 10: Create a Resource Leveled Schedule

Module Overview

This module explains how over-allocated resources create unrealistic schedules and shows methods for rescheduling in order to create a realistic schedule based on resource availability.

Lessons

Project Statistics
Resource Graph and Resource Sheet
Resource Usage View
Resource Allocation
Task Usage View
Realistic Resource Planning
Resource Leveling
Leveling Settings
Leveling Settings Defined – Leveling Calculations
Leveling Settings Defined – Resolving Over-allocations
The Leveling Gantt Demonstrates Results of Leveling
Manual Leveling

Lab Sessions

Resource Leveling

Lab Lessons

Evaluate the projects resource plan using the resource views
Adjusting the schedule manually
Adjust the schedule using the leveling feature

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Adjust a project schedule to account for limited people and other resources.
View the overall cost and schedule of a project.
Identify resources that are over- allocated for a project schedule.
Use multiple ways to adjust tasks and assignments to remove over- allocation for any resource.

Module 11: Managing the Project

Module Overview

This module explains how to use Project to control a project. Students will save their plan to a baseline and see how entering actual task performance data enables them to view differences between planned and actual performance. This module has 3 lab exercises to complete.

Lessons

Tracking Field Definitions
Creating the Project Baseline
Displaying the Baseline on a Gantt Chart
The Tracking Gantt
Recording Progress Using % Complete
Updating Task and Resource Status
Recording Progress Using Actual Work
Variance
Percent Complete
Cost
Evaluating and Displaying Variance
Scheduling interruptions
Splitting tasks
Rescheduling Work

Lab Sessions

The Baseline
Baselining and Tracking Performance
Variance

Lab Lessons

Using Project Statics to see the changes in your project plan
Using the variance tables to understand the changes in your project plan
Baseline the project
Entering Actuals
Interpreting a variety of variance reports

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Set a baseline.
Enter and manage project performance data.
Pick a tracking method.
Perform variance analysis.

Module 12: Formatting Output and Printing Reports

Module Overview

This module explains how to format the many views and reports available in Project.

Lessons

Formatting the Timeline
Using the Gantt Wizard
Visual Reports
Standard Reports
Custom Reports
Editing a Custom Report
Reports
Grouping, sorting, and filtering
Copy Picture to Office Wizard
More Formatting for the Gantt Chart
Reporting Against Budget
Creating a Budget

Lab Sessions

Reporting
Using Standard Reports and Creatng a Custom Report

Lab Lessons

Create a custom field
Grojuping on a custom fieldrt

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Create standardized reports.
Customize a variety of standard reports.
Use Visual Reports.
Export reports to a variety of formats.

Module 13: Managing Multiple Projects

Module Overview

This module explains how to view many projects as parts of one very large project in order to gain new views on resource availability and task relationships among projects.

Lessons

Integrating Multiple Projects
Consolidating Project Files
Resource Pools
Summary

Lab Sessions

Consolidation of Shared Resources

Lab Lessons

Leveraging shared resources across multiple projects

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Use common resources among multiple projects.
Link tasks between projects.
Create a consolidated view of multiple projects.

Module 14: Advanced Topics

Module Overview

This module explains how to leverage some of the advanced features of Project.

Lessons

Customizing WBS Prefix
Applying Grouping and Grouping customized Fields
Applying Filtering functions
Leveraging Global Templates
Identify resource delay within a Task
Applying Deadlines to a project

Lab Sessions

Grouping

Lab Lessons

Lab lessons not available

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Ability to take advantage of Projects advance features.
Leverage the the power to filter and grouping.
Apply global templates.
Identify resource delays.

Module 15: Summary

Module Overview

This module provides an overview of the topics presented in the course.

Lessons

Review all the major sections of Project

Lab Sessions

No labs just a review

Lab Lessons

Review all prior labs

After completing this module, students will be able to:

Manage projects more profieciently.

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