Project 2007 Fundamentals Training

This Project training class will get you up and running quickly, and give you the control you need to manage your projects to success, using the latest version of this powerful program. In just two days, we'll take you from beginning skills, like setting up the task list, to advanced concepts, like resolving resource conflicts, creating custom reports, and using MS Project Server to communicate with your team.

Building & Managing Project Task Lists

Tasks are one of the fundamental building blocks of any project plan, and MS Project 2007 lets you manage them easily and efficiently. We'll go over how to set up tasks in MS Project with a description and duration for each task. Then we'll show you how to start automating your schedule by linking tasks and defining predecessors and dependencies. We'll also go over more advanced task concepts like doing a PERT analysis to estimate task duration. In this first part of the Project 2007 training class, you will learn how to:

• Use Gantt Chart view and Network Diagram view to set up, view, and link tasks and milestones
• Easily set up dependency relationships and task constraints, define recurring tasks, or add lead and lag time
• Organize a long list of tasks using a Work Breakdown Structure with summary tasks and subtasks, which you can show or hide
• Run a PERT analysis to estimate task durations based on optimistic and pessimistic estimates

Assigning & Managing Resources

The next step in building your project plan is setting up the resources who will work on the tasks you've defined. MS Project makes it easy to define a centralized resource pool from which you can then dynamically resource one or more projects. We'll show you how to:

• Create a Resource Sheet with work resources (people), as well as cost and material resources
• Automatically integrate non-working and vacation times by linking resources to the project base calendar or defining resource calendars
• Assign one or more resources to one or more tasks

Managing Resource Conflicts in Project

MS Project offers many features that make it easier to navigate complex lists of tasks and resource assignments. For example, there are many different ways to view and filter your data, and special tools for identifying and dealing with resource conflicts. You will leave the training knowing how to:

• Identify over-allocated resources, and use tools like resource leveling to resolve conflicts
• Filter project data for specific resources or dates
• Use Views, Tables, and Groups to gain insight into resource status and task relationships
• Add color and simple drawings to make important elements stand out

Tracking & Analyzing Projects

With the building blocks in place, we will go over the multiple MS Project features that support your ongoing tasks of tracking and managing your projects - much more effectively than the "yellow sticky notes on the monitor" system! In this section of the Project training class, you will get practice with how to:

• Save your original plan as a base plan
• Track progress and costs against the base plan by modifying the percentage of a task completed and entering data such as actual finish dates and actual costs
• Analyze project status to identify slippage or slack in the schedule in time to do something about it
• Deal with slippage or other changes proactively by splitting tasks, assigning overtime, and other techniques
• Save time by creating macros to automate your work

Communicating with Your Project Team

Communicating project status and changes to stakeholders is one of your key activities as a project manager. To support you in this task, MS Project offers multiple built-in reporting and communication features, and also the ability to create your own custom reports. Our instructors will guide you through these features so you'll know how to:

• Choose from built-in reports that highlight information like Current Activities, Costs, and Assignments
• Create Custom and Crosstab reports to show specific time periods or resources
• Use the Visual Reports feature to create PivotTable reports in Excel or Visio directly from MS Project
• Use MS Project Server to email task assignments, status requests, and project notes

Managing Multiple Projects

MS Project can help you with consolidating and sharing multiple projects across project teams, by making it easier both to keep track of a large number of tasks, and to share resources across different projects. You'll learn how to:

• Simplify management tasks by consolidating projects
• Setting up a master project with subprojects
• Link tasks, filters, and resources across projects

Exchanging Project Data

MS Project can save you time and effort with features that allow you to import and export data. For example, you might want to import resource names or tasks from another application, such as Outlook or Excel. Likewise, you may need to export data from your project into other applications for reporting or processing purposes. Finish your MS Project training by learning how to:

• Exchange data between MS Project and Excel, Access, and Outlook
• Use the Copy Picture feature to create data snapshots for Word or Excel

Prerequisites:

• Familiarity with MS Windows

Project training is offered at four locations::

• Project training San Francisco
  
• Project training Los Angeles
  
• Project training San Jose
• Project training Sacramento