Microsoft Project 2019–2024/365: Part 1

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Overview

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Welcome to Microsoft® Project® 2019-2024/365: Part 1. This course is designed to familiarize you with the basic features and functions of Microsoft Project so you can effectively and efficiently manage projects in a real-world environment. This course covers the critical knowledge and skills a project manager needs to create a project plan with Microsoft Project during the planning phase of a project. In other words, if your supervisor assigns you to lead a project, this course will enable you to draft a project plan with Microsoft Project and share it with your supervisor (and others) for review and approval. This material will benefit users of any current Project desktop version. The course environment setup is based on Project 2021. This course is designed for professionals who manage projects and need to be able to use Microsoft Project to create basic project plans. Some knowledge and understanding of project management concepts will be helpful, along with general desktop computer skills. In this course, you will: identify project management concepts and navigate Microsoft Project Professional, create a new project plan, add tasks to a project, manage task relationships within a project, manage project resources, and optimize and share a project plan. The subject of this course is the Microsoft Project desktop app. A brief description of the Project for the web and the Project Online apps is presented in the Appendix. Note: You can procure a license for the Project desktop app in one of two ways: purchasing a cloud-based subscription or an on-premises license. Project Online is included in both of the following purchase options: Cloud-based subscription: Project Plan 3 or 5. (Microsoft Project is not included in the Microsoft 365 plans. A separate subscription plan is required.) On-premises solution: Project Professional 2021.

Syllabus

Getting Started with Microsoft Project

As a project manager, you need to create and manage many documents (artifacts) to communicate the project's purpose and status. A key component of this responsibility is the project plan, which incorporates the tasks, resources, and scheduling of a project. Not only should the project plan be used in the initial phases of a project, but also updating a plan as the project progresses enables you to effectively manage the project and communicate status to all involved parties.

Defining a Project

Defining a new project encompasses all the steps that a project manager needs to take in Microsoft® Project® to ensure that the new project plan has the necessary information before the task planning process begins. By taking the time to enter the appropriate information correctly, you will lay the foundation for a sustainable project plan that is easier to build, maintain, and share over the course of your project. In this lesson, you will create the project plan that you will continue to work with throughout the remainder of the course.

Adding Project Tasks

Now that you've created and defined your project plan, you need to modify the project plan so that it reflects the work that needs to be done for a particular project. You understand that Microsoft® Project® is a very powerful tool for defining and scheduling the details of a project plan, but you may not know just how to do this.

Managing Tasks

You now have a project plan that contains a complete list of project tasks and their durations. Managing all the tasks in a project plan can be overwhelming, especially for large projects that involve many tasks. Microsoft® Project® helps you manage these tasks by organizing them into a structure that shows how some tasks fit within broader groupings and how the tasks relate to one another. Properly managing the tasks in your plan allows you to make a well-organized project structure that can be edited and updated quickly.

Managing Project Resources

Now that you have created a work breakdown structure, you must define who and what is needed to complete the project tasks. As a project manager, one of the main areas you need to focus on during the planning phase of a project is resources. You have to determine the people, tools, equipment, and materials that will be required for the project. Defining resource requirements early will solidify your project plan and help you adjust as resource availability changes over the life of the project.

Finalizing a Project Plan

You have created a project plan by creating a work breakdown structure and adding the resources needed to complete the project. Now that you have a plan, you need to review it to see if it meets your needs. Often, a first attempt at the project plan stretches beyond a key deadline or has areas that can be optimized to decrease work and cost. Finally, you will need to prepare for executing the project and share your final plan with stakeholders and team members.