Learning Microsoft Project 2019: Streamline project, resource, and schedule management with Microsoft's project management software

Cover
Title page
Copyright and Credits
Dedicated
About Packt
Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Section 1: The Iron Triangle – a Quick Primer for Project Management
Chapter 1: Project Management – the Essential Primer
	Projects – what is special about them?
		Project – the definition
		Project management
		The project manager
	Project management knowledge
		Choose your fount of knowledge
		The project life cycle
		Project management processes
	The challenges and benefits of project management
		The Iron Triangle (Triple Constraint of Project Management)
		The elephant in the room (failure rates)
		Winning – but at what cost (burnout rates)?
	What is Microsoft Project really?
		Gantt charts
		When not to use MS Project
	How this book is structured
		Mapping to process groups and the project life cycle
		Truly domain agnostic
		How to read the book (end to end reading versus pinpoint references)
	Summary
Section 2: Project Initiation with Microsoft Project
Chapter 2: Fundamentals of Microsoft Project
	Technical requirements
	Understanding the UI basics of MS Project
		Backstage
	Building your first simple project
	Understanding Tasks
		Task modes: Automatic or Manual
		Backstage: contextual changes
		Linking and dependencies between tasks
	Scheduling a project
		Resourcing your tasks
		Allocating tasks to resources
	Taking a closer look at views
		Tables
		Charts, diagrams, timelines, and graphs
		Which view should we use?
		Reports
	Practice assignment
	Summary
Chapter 3: Initiating projects with Microsoft Project
	Initiating projects
		What the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) says
		Key outcomes of the initiating stage
		Risk over the project life cycle
	Project for this chapter – digital marketing campaign
	Scheduling with MS Project – a deeper understanding
		Project Information and Project Options
		Tasks
		Linking and dependency
		Resources
	Revisiting the UI
		Timeline view
		Gantt chart UI
		Quick Access Toolbar
		The Indicators column
		Options and configurations
	Assignment
		Case study
	Summary
Chapter 4: Underlying Concepts of Microsoft Project
	Demystifying the Basic Work Formula
	An example Project for this chapter – creating online departmental manuals
		Case 1 – Change of duration
		Case 2 – Adding additional resources
		Case 3 – Increasing Units
		Deeper scheduling
	Exploring task types
		Understanding the concept of Fixed Units
		Fixed duration
		Fixed work
		Are your tasks effort-driven or not?
		The impact of using task types
	Underlying algorithms – How project scheduling works
	Understanding Project Calendars
		Setting the Project Start Date
		Creating your new calendar
		Customizing your new calendar
		Setting the Project Calendar
		How calendars really work in Project
	Summary
	Assignment
Chapter 5: Resource Management with Microsoft Project
	Basic resource management techniques with Project
		Creating resources
		Allocating resources
		Assigning resources
		Updating resources
		The Resource Pool feature
	Enterprise-level resourcing concepts
	Revisiting overallocations
	Basic concepts of fine-tuning resource assignments
	Best practices of resource management
	Summary
Section 3: Project Planning Like a Pro!
Chapter 6: Work Breakdown Structure – the Single Critical Factor
	The planning phase in project management
	Delving into WBS
		The importance of the WBS
		What is not included in the WBS
		What does a WBS look like?
	Standard techniques for creating a WBS
		Some confusing aspects of WBS
		The drawbacks of a WBS
	Creating a robust WBS using 10 simple rules
	Exploring the WBS feature in Microsoft Project
	Going from a WBS to tasks
	Summary
Chapter 7: Tasks – under the Microscope
	The project for this chapter
		Importing tasks from Excel into Project
	Organizing tasks to create a schedule
		Technique 1 – Organizing a schedule using Summary Tasks
		Technique 2 – Organizing a schedule by chronological sorting
		Technique 3 – Organizing a schedule by grouping resources
		Creating Summary Tasks from indentation
	Special tasks and task features
		Milestones
		Inactivating tasks
		Blank rows
		Recurring tasks
		A deeper understanding of Summary Tasks
	Summary
Chapter 8: Mastering Link Dependency and Constraints
	Scheduling – a quick refresher
	Task dependencies and constraints
		Task relationships
		Four types of task dependencies
		Understanding constraints
		Selecting the correct task dependency
	Releasing the latest application version
	Working with task dependencies
		Creating special dependencies
	Working with date constraints
		Types of date constraints
	A few important best practices
	Summary
Chapter 9: Extended Customization – Task and Gantt Formatting
	Fundamentals of formatting a view
		Formatting Text Styles
		Gridlines
		Layout
		Adding a new customized column
		Achieving an aesthetic design
	Formatting bar styles
		Formatting a single, specific taskbar (local-level formatting)
		Formatting an entire category of taskbars
		Formatting an entire Gantt chart
	Diagnostic formatting
		Task Path
		Critical Tasks (critical path)
	Summary
Section 4: Project Execution – the Real Deal
Chapter 10: Executing Agile Projects with MS Project
	Technical requirements
	A brief introduction to Agile methodologies
		The Agile Manifesto
		Deciding between Agile and Waterfall
		Deciding whether Agile is suited to your project
		When you should not use Agile
	A project on a simple e-commerce website
		Task list for the project
	Agile frameworks
		Kanban and MS Project
		Scrum and MS Project
	Summary
Chapter 11: Overallocation – the Bane of Project Managers
	Introducing overallocation
		Simulating an overallocation
		Why does overallocation exist?
		Avoiding overallocation with the Assign Resource feature
		Diagnosing overallocation
		Resolving overallocation
	Summary
Chapter 12: Baselines – Techniques and Best Practices
	A deeper understanding of baselines
		The need for baselines
	Project for this chapter
	Understanding the Variance table
	Creating a new baseline
		A flowchart for controlling changes with baselines
		Variance table revisited
		Analyzing baselines
		Comparing multiple baselines
		Understanding interim plans
	Best practices when using baselines
	Maintaining baselines
		Updating a baseline
		Deleting (clearing) a baseline
	Summary
Chapter 13: Project Tracking Techniques
	A deeper understanding of project tracking
		Considerations for project tracking
	Project tracking flowchart
	Project for this chapter
		Relevance of the status date
	Simple techniques for project tracking
		Context menu update technique
		Preset percentage complete technique
		The Mark on Track technique
	Update Project technique
	Advanced techniques for project tracking
		Advanced scheduling options
		Variable percentage complete technique
		Percentage complete and remaining duration technique
		Actuals tracking technique
		Using the Tracking Gantt Chart view
		Assignment tracking
	Best practices for project tracking
	Summary
Section 5: Monitoring and Control with Microsoft Project
Chapter 14: Views, Tables, and Customization
	Gaining an advanced understanding of views
		Types of view
		Display formats used in views
	Understanding which view to use and when
		Views to manage task data
		Views to manage resource data
		Views to manage assignment data
	Advanced features of views
		Understanding tables
		Details view (also known as the split-window view)
		Sorting of schedule data
		Filtering and highlighting information
		Grouping project information
	Creating custom views
		Creating a new view from a current view
		Creating a new view from scratch
	Summary
Chapter 15: Resource and Cost Management
	A deeper understanding of resources and costs
		The Work resource type
		The Material resource type
		The Cost resource type
	Basics of costing in Project
		Costing versus pricing
		Costing is based on resourcing
		Project for this chapter
		Creating a Project budget
	Costing of work resources
		Standard rate of pay
		Variable rate of pay
	Costing of material resources
		Variable costs
		Fixed costs
	Costing of cost resources
		Fixed costs for resource usage
		Fixed costs for task usage
	Analyzing costing using different views
		Project-level cost analysis views
		Assignment-level cost analysis view
		Task-level cost analysis view
		Resource-level cost analysis view
		Baseline cost comparison analysis
	Summary
Chapter 16: Critical Path Monitoring and Advanced Techniques
	A deeper understanding of the critical path
		What is slack?
		What is a critical task?
		What is the critical path?
		What is CPM?
	Techniques to shorten the project
		Shortening the critical path (crashing the project)
		Increasing parallel paths (fast-tracking the project)
		Resource reallocation
	Applying lag and lead time
	Advanced overallocation resolution techniques
		The resource leveling technique
		The work contour technique
	Resolving scheduling problems
	Summary
Chapter 17: Project Reports 101
	Introduction to Project\'s reporting framework
		Salient features of Project reports
	Reporting architecture in Project
		View-Table reports
		Graphical prebuilt reports
		Limitations of graphical reports
		Visual (OLAP) reports
	Best practices for status reporting
	Summary
Section 6: Project Closure with Microsoft Project
Chapter 18: Reviewing Projects and Creating Templates for Success
	Introduction to the project closing phase
	Common error patterns in Project
		Sequencing error patterns
		Scheduling error patterns
	Understanding the project closure review
		Project comparison report tool
		Baseline comparison tool
	Templates for success
		Templates in Project
		Benefits of templates
	Creating a new template for your organization
	Summary
Chapter 19: Advanced Custom Reports and Templates
	Introduction to customized reports
	Understanding Project\'s reporting architecture
		Understanding dynamic reports
	Modifying an existing report
	Creating your own custom report
		A new report – resource cost balancing table report
		A new report – resource work variance bar graph report (plus costs too!)
		Earned Value Management (EVM) report
	Understanding the global template
		What is stored in the global template?
		Copying into and from the global template
	Summary
Chapter 20: Book Conclusion and Next Steps
	The complete Project roadmap
		Initiating with Project
		Planning with Project
		Executing with Project
		Monitoring and controlling with Project
		Closing with Project
	Next steps
	A final summary
Appendix A: Using This Book as a Textbook
Appendix B: Available Fields Reference
	Task fields – a small curated subset
		Resource fields – a small curated subset
		Assignment fields – a small curated subset
Appendix C: Keyboard Shortcuts
Appendix D: Glossary
Other Books You May Enjoy
Index