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Dear Andy,
Welcome to the fourth Project Learning newsletter of 2007.
Down here in New Zealand, we're eagerly anticipating the
forthcoming summer - our first in the Southern Hemisphere.
Having had two winters almost back-to-back we're looking forward
to the long warm days.
All
this sunshine must be stimulating our creativity, as we've got
some exciting ideas for 2008 that we want to share with you all.
Firstly, we want you to help us to help you. By providing
us with requests and
suggestions as explained below, we're looking to make the
Project Learning newsletter a key information source for all its
subscribers. With your help, I'm confident that you'll
find a wealth of project-related information provided to you in
the forthcoming months.
Also in this newsletter you'll find
tips and tricks to help you get more from your Microsoft
Project schedule with a better understanding of Gantt Chart
formatting and Task Drivers. To
test your
Microsoft Project knowledge, why not have a go at our simple
ten question quiz. Finally, have a read of the
British
Library case study and find out how a key British
institution looked to create project management and Microsoft
Project centres of excellence.
Sincerely,
Andy Jessop
CEO and Founder
andyj@projectlearning.net
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We want your suggestions |
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With
close to forty thousand active subscribers, the Project
Learning newsletter must have one of the largest circulations in
the world to the project management community. As such, we
want to move this newsletter forwards and improve the
information that we provide to all subscribers.
To
do this we need your help.
In
our next newsletter, we're going to be conducting a survey aimed
at the Microsoft Project user community. This, however,
will be a survey with a difference. Firstly, we'd like
YOU to suggest questions that you'd like answers to. For
example: things you like or dislike about MS Project; how much
of a benefit or overhead you perceive MS Project to be.
We'll collate the most popular questions and these will form the
survey. To get your questions to us, just email us at:
survey@projectlearning.net The second difference to
this survey is that we'll provide you with the complete
survey dataset so you can analyse the data as you want.
We will of course remove all personal information from the
dataset prior to publication.
Also, commencing in 2008, we're going to start publishing webcasts
illustrating tips, tricks and best practices in using Microsoft
Project. Lasting between 5 to 10 minutes, each webcast
will illustrate practical real-world Microsoft Project examples,
together with advice on how to avoid costly mistakes and
pitfalls. Again, we want your suggestions. Just
email us at
webcasts@projectlearning.net and let us know what you'd like
to know more about. As with the survey
above, we'll collate the most popular requests and these will be
made into webcasts that we'll make available to you all.
Please
don't forget that we can't do all this without you; so start
thinking about survey questions and webcast content and share
your thoughts with us. |
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Tips and Tricks |
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Within
Microsoft Project, the Gantt Chart Wizard provides a quick and
easy way to change a Gantt chart's appearance. Using the
wizard is a useful way to quickly reformat a Gantt chart, for
example to display the project's critical path. Whilst the
Gantt Chart Wizard is ideal for making quick formatting changes,
you have much more flexibility if you edit the bar styles
directly. In addition to increased flexibility, this
method will also let you apply formatting that the wizard simply
can't provide. Another ideal way to interpret a project’s
schedule is to use Task Drivers. Displayed in a Task Pane,
these task drivers will tell you why a task starts when it does.
If you
click on the link below, these tips and tricks illustrate a
number of ways in which the Gantt Chart view can be formatted and
how the schedule of the project and its tasks can be
interpreted.
http://www.projectlearning.net/newsletters_tipstricks.htm
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Test your
Microsoft Project knowledge |
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If you have read this month's tips and tricks, you'll probably
be aware that there is more to Microsoft Project than meets the
eye. So, why not find out how much you know about
Microsoft Project by having a go at our Microsoft
Project Quiz?
We've
complied a sample of ten questions so you can test your
Microsoft Project knowledge. Each question carries a
weighted percentage score and covers a particular skill set that
would be used in the planning and management of a Microsoft
Project plan. Against each multiple-choice question there
are four possible answers plus a 'don't know' option. For
each question only one answer is correct. Once you've
answered all of the questions you'll be provided with the
answers - including an explanation of why your answers are
correct or incorrect plus the opportunity to print the answers
out. You'll also get a bargraph of your overall score.
With only ten questions we cannot guarantee
this assessment is an exhaustive one, although it should
provide you with a reasonable test of what you currently
know. Just click on the link below to go to the quiz.
http://www.projectlearning.net/project_mentor_plp.htm
P.S.
Please
note that we do not store or analyse the results of any quizzes
undertaken - they are solely for your benefit.
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Case
Study - Training at the British Library |
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The
British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom
and one of the world’s greatest and most treasured libraries.
In any given year, the Library has to undertake numerous
development projects to support both internal and external
services. These projects can range from small-scale ventures
such as the digitisation of a particular set of material, to
large-scale business changes such as the introduction of a new
system for one of its core business processes.
The
Library's Corporate Project Office identified a need for
education and training for the project community across the
organisation. The case study below illustrates how these
needs were established and quantified, and how a package of
customised training encompassing project management and
Microsoft Project skills fulfilled the needs of over one hundred
project-oriented people.
http://www.projectlearning.net/customer_feedback_british_library.htm |
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Prize draw winners |
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The five winners of the draw of new newsletter subscribers are:
August
September
October
Each of them will receive a $10 Amazon voucher with the
compliments of Project Learning International Limited. |
| If
there is anything you would like us to cover or include in
future newsletters, please
complete this simple form. While we can't promise anything,
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