Planning and Controlling Projects with MS Project

AUDIENCE: Staff involved in estimating, planning and controlling systems development projects or setting up new procedures for project management. This includes Project Managers, Team Leaders and Project/Programme Support staff.
PREREQUISITES: Delegates are assumed to have a working knowledge of current versions Windows. No previous knowledge of project management or MS Project is assumed.
DURATION: 4 days. Hands on.
OBJECTIVES: Organisations are increasingly recognising the benefits of using a structured method for managing business projects. However, many of these methods stop short of recommending detailed techniques and tools for the planning and control of projects. This intensive, practical course will enable delegates to apply a range of planning and control techniques to all kinds of IS and business project using one of the most popular software planning tools Microsoft Project. The aims of the course are to:
· Develop the basic principles and techniques for estimating, planning and control of projects.
· Develop the skills required to create, resource and manage projects using Microsoft Project 2000.
By the end of the course delegates will be able to:
· Develop a detailed project plan in MS Project showing activities, dependencies, deadlines and resources.
· Set up procedures to control resources, quality, change and progress.
· Revise the project plan to show actual progress and schedule changes.
· Filter data to provide useful management information and reports.
· Configure Microsoft Project default settings and formatting options.
· Create and structure a Microsoft Project plan.
· Prepare estimates of effort and elapsed time for a systems development
COURSE CONTENT:
Planning and control principles
The need for project planning and control
Why projects fail
Fundamentals of planning and control
Understanding MS Project default settings

Estimating
Estimating effort and duration
Hard and soft estimates
Function Point Analysis
Adjustments, allowances and contingency
Developing estimating skills

Planning techniques
Dependencies
Activity networks
Critical path analysis
Schedules and Gantt charts
Building and editing a project in MS Project
Structuring projects in MS Project

Resourcing and task allocation
Identifying resource requirements
Allocating tasks to people
Creating and assigning resources in MS Project
Resource smoothing
Resolving overallocations in MS Project

Quality assurance and change control
Quality control techniques
Change control procedures

Controlling progress
Information needed
Collection, analysis and reporting
Managing project costs in MS Project
Managing and updating actuals in MS Project
Taking corrective action
Overview of MS Project filters, views and report
NB This class can be run at any release of MS Project (ie 2000, 2003 or 2007), please advise us of the version required when booking your class.