Microsoft Project in Business Situations: Tips from the Field

Course details

If you’re new to project management and scheduling, or just looking to upskill for your current role, learning how to use Microsoft Project can help you manage some of the most common tactical problems facing your business. In this course, Microsoft MVP Cindy M. Lewis shows you how to get the most out of Microsoft Project to solve critical business situations, especially those where time and date restrictions apply.

Explore use cases of typical business hiccups that cause timing and scheduling constraints. Find out how to allocate a budget to a project phase, identify an over- or underbudget scenario, deploy single or multiple business target dates, modify a schedule to incorporate a major schedule delay, and generate an early warning for a major delivery task. Along the way, Cindy draws insights from her own experiences and shares techniques to help you improve time delivery.

Concepts

0. Introduction

01 - Add fixed business targets to Microsoft Project

1. Creating a Time Budget for a Phase

02 - Set a task as auto or manually scheduled
03 - Build a multilevel list
04 - Set a time budget for a new phase
05 - Set a time budget for an existing phase
06 - Identify over and under budget situations

2. Building a Schedule with Finish Targets Up Front

07 - Enable the project summary task
08 - Work with forward and backward scheduling
09 - Create milestone tasks
10 - Build a schedule with a required start and finish date
11 - Build a schedule with multiple intermediate dates
12 - Identify missed targets and critical paths

3. Add an Early Warning to a Major Delivery Task

13 - Difference between deadlines and constraints
14 - Audit a schedule for unnecessary constraints
15 - Build a major delivery task
16 - Evaluate schedule risk during changes

4. Incorporate a Major Schedule Delay

17 - Move an unbegun project
18 - Move an unbegun task
19 - Move a task in progress
20 - Add tasks to represent a delay
21 - Baseline revision best practices

5. Apply Techniques to Improve Time Delivery

22 - Display critical tasks
23 - Identify business critical tasks
24 - Create and update effort-driven tasks
25 - Split task delivery time
26 - Use Start to Start and Finish to Finish links
27 - Partial overlap links with lag and lead time
28 - Ignore low-priority tasks

Conclusion

29 - Next steps