Description:

“This a two day workshop.  Attendees must take both sessions in order to receive credit.”

Please try to complete the Self-evaluation form and bring it to the class: Self-evaluation form

Why Take A Class On MS Project?

Let’s face it – most of us have been frustrated by MS Project.

Yet, we seldom realize that the tool is very powerful, and perhaps the best general purpose scheduling tool there is.

The user interface leaves a lot to be desired, the “Help” is cryptic at best.

And we exacerbate the problem by being self-taught and by learning by “hacking” through the system.

So, what are the alternatives?

-       We could study a “Step-By-Step” book.  The problem with those is that they are walk-throughs of the navigation, and do not provide context or the application of the commands.

-       We could ask our colleagues, but unless they are certified, each could end up suggesting a partial solution.

To solve this problem in a comprehensive way, PMI-SV is offering a package of two sessions that will not only give you a good understanding of the power and gotchas of the tool in the context of your day-to-day work, but lead you to certification.

The session material has been gleaned from the experience and mistakes observed by the instructors over the last 10 years, and the questions they have been asked at work.

Objectives of the Foundations Session

The Foundations session is geared to give you a thorough understanding of the tool in the context of making/tracking a schedule for a single project (no resource pools or integrated schedules).

At the end of the class you will have a solid grasp of Tasks, Resources, and Calendars.

You will be able to quickly identify why dates are “misbehaving”.

You will also learn how to track a schedule properly and run reports or garner the essential information for reporting back to Management.

To assess your own dexterity with MS Project, please take the self-evaluation test.

Course Outline:

•       Scheduling with respect to a “Single Project”

        - Program (multiple projects) Schedules are covered in the Advanced Course 

•       Finding Your Way

        - Menus, overview of features

•       Team Planner

        – Options

•       Project Info

        – ASAP/ALAP scheduling

        – Project Start/Finish dates

•       Fundamental Concepts

        - WBS

        - Tasks

        - Resource, Assignment

        - Calendar

•       Tasks in Detail

        - Task Types – Fixed Units, Duration, Work

        - Milestones, Rolled-up Milestones

        - Relationships, Leads/Lags

        - Recurring Tasks

•       Resources in Detail

        - Work and Material Resources

        - Cost and Budget Resources

•       Deadlines/Constraints

        - Schedule Conflicts

•       Critical Path and Slack

        - MS Project-specific implementation

•       Hands-on Scheduling

•       Basic Tracking

        - Start/Finish

        - Actual Start/Actual Finish

        - Status Date and Tracking Walk-Through

•       Exporting/Importing Data to/from Excel

•       Basic Reporting

    - Ready-Made Reports and Views

Objectives of the Advanced Session

The Advanced session extends from the Foundations session to leveling a single schedule, to scheduling a program of projects with cross dependencies, and to resourcing with a pool for gathering the aggregated workload.  Additionally, it shows how to gather and continually improve estimating data and how to scale that data for a future project.

At the end of the session, you will be able to significantly cut planning effort while increasing estimating accuracy and improving delivery reliability.  You will be able to plan for uncertainty and risks, estimate Work, track with Remaining Work, and report a project status rapidly.  You will be able to build into your schedules shock absorbers and will see how to manage through project disruptions.  You will be able to combine project schedules into a Master/Sub structure with cross schedule dependencies.  You will be able to aggregate the workload from multiple projects and compare with resource capacity.

The Fundamentals and Advanced sessions provide the background, with some additional practice, to pass the Microsoft Project certification exam, which is a powerful resume differentiator.

Session Outline

1.    Schedule templates

2.    Resource management

2.1     Estimating Work

2.2     Sizing a team

2.3     Leveling

3.    Tracking

3.1     Baselining

3.2     Actual start, Remaining work

4.    Scheduling a program of project

4.1      Master/ sub schedules

4.2      Cross schedule dependencies

4.3      Resource Pool

5.    Estimating tasks parametrically

5.1      Scaling factors

5.2      Formulas

5.3      Continuous improvement

6.    Shock absorbers

6.1      Project, feeder, and capacity buffers

6.2      Aggregate risk contingencies

7     Reporting

7.1      Tables, filters, groups

7.2      Formula driven filters

7.3      Traffic lights

7.4      Rapid status reporting:  Accomplishments, Next 2 weeks, Slipping tasks 

About the Instructor(s):

Sutanu Ghosh, PMP, Certified ScrumMaster is a regular speaker at the Tools and Techniques Forum. He has served as a PMO as well as a hands-on PM on both SW and HW projects at many distinguished institutions in the Valley, including Bay Networks, Symbol Tech, Savi (Lockheed Martin) and NetApp.  After graduating from Jadavpur University, Calcutta, 1986, he worked for Tata Motors, which ignited his passion for “Lean.”  He has a MS from Arizona State in Mechanical Engineering (CAD), and has published in ASME on CAX tools.