



Introduction to Project Scheduling with Microsoft® Project® Overview
The Project Management Institute (PMI)® presents industry-standard techniques for project scheduling in the Project Time Management chapter of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). Taught by experienced Project Managers - all PMP® certified - this course will introduce you to these techniques, enabling you to plan and manage any standalone project. These techniques will be illustrated using hands-on exercises with the Microsoft Project package. Our goal is to equip project managers with scheduling skills that they will be able to apply with the help of Microsoft Project. In other words, this will not be merely a guided tour of the software package.
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Skill Level
Basic Concepts of Project Management -
Duration
- 1 Day
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Support
- Tutor on call
- Exam simulator
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Assessment
- 7.5
Course Description
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Navigate the Microsoft Project software package comfortably
- Set up initial, project-wide functions, such as project calendars and the project start date.
- Use the Work Breakdown Structure to format the overall schedule
- Define tasks by breaking down Work Packages in the Work
- Breakdown Structure Create basic tasks, summary tasks and milestones in a schedule
- Establish relationships and dependencies between tasks
- Estimate the resources and durations associated with basic tasks
- Manage constraints on the schedule, using techniques like resource levelling.
- Represent the schedule using both Network Diagrams and Gantt Charts
- Baseline the initial schedule Track and report progress against the schedule
This course is designed for a person who has an understanding of project management concepts, who is responsible for creating and maintaining project schedules and who needs software support to manage their project schedules. Please note that the course assumes no prior knowledge of Microsoft Project, so anyone experienced with the package may find this course too basic.
Introduction to Microsoft Project Basic navigation – making sense of the screen layout and introducing the key views, i.e.: Gantt Chart Resource Sheet Initial set-up Setting system values – e.g. auto scheduling and effort driven Creating project calendars Setting project start date Scheduling steps The five steps to building a project schedule Manual and automatic scheduling Defining activities The Work Breakdown Structure Work Packages Decomposing the Work Packages to identify tasks Basic tasks Summary tasks Milestones Sequencing activities Finish-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, Start-to-Start, Start-to-Start Lags and Leads Estimate activity resources What are resources? Assigning resources to tasks Using the Resource Sheet Balancing resources and time Resource availability Dealing with resource over-allocation (task inspector) Estimate activity durations Estimation types: Analogous, Parametric, Three-Point Assigning task durations Develop schedule Critical Path Method Identifying float (slack) Network Diagram and Gantt Chart views Resource levelling Schedule compression Highlighting the critical path Compression techniques: crashing, fast-tracking Setting a project baseline Is the schedule ready? (checklist) Baselining Recording and tracking progress Calendar and task sheet views Entering actual durations Comparing planned vs actual – variance table Dealing with late tasks
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Keep up to Date & Certified (PDUs)
Your career is a journey, and you’ll need to stay relevant as the profession evolves and as the needs of employers grow and change. Maintaining your PMI certification is a significant competitive advantage. It keeps you relevant and helps you better position yourself as the answer to what company's demand.
To keep your certification and keep you relevant and competitive for employer demanded skills,you’ll need to participate in professional development activities, and earn and report professional development units (PDUs.) The goal is to ensure that your certified competencies stay relevant and up to date.
There are tons of opportunities to earn PDUs.PMP credential holders love Velopi's PDU Centre because it's the easiest way to earn and document the 60 hours of professional development units (PDUs) that are required over a 3 year period.
As a learner with us, Velopi's PDU Centre helps you earn and report your Education PDUs to keep up to date and maintain your certification through our classes, seminars and webinars as well as self directed learning. Visit the Velopi PDU Centre to see our upcoming classes and webinars and Discover ways to earn PDUs or report earned PDUs with our Velopi PDU Centre.

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Hear what our students say...

As a small and rapidly growing company, the Velopi team helped our Senior Management team introduce a common terminology, develop the company’s project management model and processes and apply it to our resource management and planning of Client projects every day so that, as a Company, we succeed in delivering quality projects, on time and on budget to our Clients.”
Scientific Officer, Atlantia