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Module B Planning the work

This second module is all about creating and defining the tasks within a project.  Its lessons will teach you how to create and list tasks. You will learn how to create, organize and manage a project's outline.  You will then define a duration for each task as your best estimate of how long that task will take to complete.  Further task definition will be achieved by using task notes and creating hyperlinks.  You will learn how to create links between tasks that will determine the schedule of a project.  Finally, you will learn various ways that the project's schedule can be viewed and interpreted.

Module C Reviewing the schedule

This third module concentrates on reviewing the schedule of a project.  Its lessons will teach you how to use tables and text styles to display specific information about a project and its tasks.  As a project usually has a critical path, you will learn how to emphasize this and also how to indicate slack both graphically and as a value.  You will also learn how Microsoft Project can produce information in printed form, together with the wide variety of options in how a printed view can be configured.

Module D Assigning people and costs

This fourth module looks at how resources and tasks are combined together to form assignments.  It is these assignments that create the work, which in turn incurs cost.  Its lessons will teach you how to create and manipulate resource assignments to create a realistic project schedule.  As assignments are controlled by task types and whether the task is effort driven or not, you will learn how to establish these important parameters and understand the implications that they can have.  You will also learn about the impact that assignments can have upon the project's schedule as it now becomes a much more accurate representation of what should happen when.

Module E Managing external influences

This fifth module illustrates the effects that the outside world can have upon the tasks and resources within a project.  You will learn about the default options that govern how Microsoft Project works; for example how the project's schedule is calculated, and how projects are viewed and saved to disk.  You will also learn how tasks can be constrained, together with the far-reaching effect that this can have upon the project's schedule.  As resources can also be constrained, you will learn about the various options that are available, together with the results that can be obtained.

Module F Viewing, analyzing and reporting

This sixth module looks at how data within Microsoft Project can be viewed and effectively managed.  You will learn how to create and manage customized information in the form of custom fields, custom views, custom tables, custom filters and custom groups.  You will also learn how all these customized components can be shared between projects, thus promoting standardization.  As Microsoft Project can provide a wealth of online information, you will also learn how this information can be published and viewed within other Office applications.

Module G Optimizing people and plans

Module seven explores the various options available within Microsoft Project to optimize the relationship between a project's tasks and the resources that will perform the work upon the tasks.  You will learn how to determine which resources have conflicts, when the conflicts happen and (most importantly) the reason for the conflicts.  Once you understand the nature of the conflict, you will then learn how to compare the project's schedule before and after the conflict is resolved.  You will also learn about the various options available to control how Microsoft Project performs the leveling process, together with ways to evaluate the benefits and the impact that the leveling has provided.  To help you interactively optimize resource allocations you will also learn various ways to edit individual assignments.

Module H Progressing the plan

Module eight takes the project from the planning stage into actually performing the work upon the tasks and the achievement of the overall project objectives.  You will learn how to create baselines to provide comparisons of what should have been achieved with what has been achieved and what will be achieved.  You will learn how to establish past / future boundaries and how these boundaries can best be applied.  You will learn how to update tasks with simple time-based progress in terms of completions and actual / remaining time.  You will also learn ways to create a more detailed update by using assignment-based progress and entering in actual and remaining work.  As work doesn't always proceed according to plan, you will also learn how to reschedule uncompleted work into the future, together with the implications that this can bring.

Module I Replanning the future

This ninth module looks at the effect of updates to a project and the variances that they can create.  As variances can have a dramatic effect upon the schedule of a project's tasks and its resources, you will learn how to find and evaluate where these variances are and what has caused them.  You will also learn how to find where scheduling conflicts exist and determine their cause and also their magnitude.  You will learn how to perform an earned value assessment against a project to get an early warning of cost or schedule overruns.  Once you have analyzed the effects of the progress, you will then apply methods, skills and abilities learnt throughout this training course to amend the schedule and outcome of the project.  You will perform various what-if analyses against tasks, resources and assignments to return the project to meeting its objectives.

Module J Multiple project environments

Module ten illustrates the options available within Microsoft Project to create and manage a multiple project (or programme) environment.  As managing several linked projects presents additional challenges compared to managing a single project, you will learn about the implications and prerequisites of a multi-project environment.  You will also learn how to consolidate projects together and then how these projects can be analyzed and reported upon.  As sharing resources between projects is a main reason for consolidating them together, you will also learn how to create a common resource pool and the implications that must be considered.  To ensure that people within the programme of work are used as effectively as possible, you will also learn ways to effectively manage a shared resource pool.

Did you know...

That Project Mentor is the ONLY partner-provided training resource that has been selected by Microsoft for inclusion within its Project Management Toolkit?  To find out more, just follow the link below:

► The Microsoft page on this web site

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