Microsoft Project Professional Essentials eLearning

Comprehensive introduction to Microsoft Project Professional, focusing on essential skills for planning, scheduling, and managing projects. Learn to create and modify project plans, set baselines, track progress, and generate reports to monitor performance. Covers task identification, resource allocation, and cost estimation, equipping learners with practical techniques for efficient project management. Includes instructor-led demonstrations, guided activities, and independent exercises for hands-on experience.

Prerequisites

• Comfortable opening, closing, and saving files in a Windows environment.
• Ability to navigate files and folders in Windows.
• Understanding of project management concepts is beneficial.

Target audience

• Individuals new to Microsoft Project Professional who want to build a project schedule from scratch.
• Users seeking to refresh or enhance their project planning and management skills.
• No prior experience with Microsoft Project Professional required.

Module 1: Getting Started with Microsoft Project Professional

• Introduction to Microsoft Project Professional
• Exploring the Microsoft Project Professional environment
• Identify different views and tables in Microsoft Project Professional
• Introduction to calendars
• Guided activity: Navigating Microsoft Project Professional

Module 2: Creating a Project Plan

• Creating a new Microsoft Project plan
• Set project information
• Configure holidays and working time in the project calendar
• Create summary tasks using Auto Scheduled Mode
• Build a task list with subtasks
• Apply outline numbering to project tasks
• Guided activity: Creating a basic project plan

Module 3: Adding Task Detail

• Define task durations
• Create milestones
• Add task notes and supporting information
• Create recurring tasks
• Guided activity: Adding task detail

Module 4: Linking and Controlling the Schedule

• Understand task relationships and dependencies
• Manual links versus Auto Scheduled links
• Identify the critical path
• Apply constraints and deadlines
• Use lag and lead time
• Configure task calendars
• Guided activity: Linking and controlling the schedule

Module 5: Creating Resources and Managing Resource Information

• Understand resource types: work, material, and cost resources
• Configure resource calendars and availability
• Add and manage resource costs
• Guided activity: Creating resources and managing resource detail

Module 6: Managing Resource Assignments

• Assign resources to tasks
• Understand effort-driven scheduling
• Identify and resolve resource overallocation
• Guided activity: Managing resource assignments

Module 7: Introduction to Project Tracking

• Set a project baseline
• Enter actual progress and actuals
• Monitor project progress
• Guided activity: Introduction to project tracking

Module 8: Viewing and Reporting Project Information

• Filter, group, and highlight project data
• Use standard Microsoft Project reports
• Add tasks to a timeline view
• Print project information
• Export project details to PDF
• Guided activity: Viewing and reporting project detail

Module 9: Microsoft Project Professional Essentials: Final Activity

• Course conclusion
• Final activity

Exams and assessments

Assessment through guided activities and independent exercises. Practical tasks related to project planning, scheduling, and reporting. Final activity to consolidate skills and apply knowledge.

Hands-on learning

Instructor-led examples showcase Microsoft Project Professional. Guided exercises demonstrate key concepts in project scheduling and management. Independent exercises reinforce learning and build practical project planning skills.

By the end of this course, delegates will be able to:

• Create and structure project plans in Microsoft Project Professional.
• Build and manage task schedules using dependencies and constraints.
• Configure project, task, and resource calendars for working time and holidays.
• Create and manage resources, costs, and assignments.
• Resolve resource conflicts and address overallocations.
• Track project progress against a baseline and enter actuals.
• Generate reports, timelines, and project outputs for stakeholders.