Overview

Technology plays a huge part in the role of Project Management. This course combines the major aspects of project planning and control with the use of the most popular software planning tool Microsoft Project.

It will introduce proven generic principles for estimating, planning and control supplemented with specific techniques and guidance related to a systems development environment.

The course will develop competence in the use of these techniques utilising Microsoft Project thus providing delegates with a consistent set of procedures increasing their success as Project Leaders.

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.
Fundamentals of 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

 

Course Objectives

To present to delegates the basic principles and techniques for estimating, planning and control of information systems projects.

To provide delegates with the skills required to create, resource and manage projects using the powerful features of Microsoft Project.

 

What skills will the delegate gain?

This course will enable delegates 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 project in particular.

Who will the course benefit?

Staff, at all levels, involved in estimating, planning and controlling systems development projects or setting up new procedures for project management. This includes, in particular, Project Managers, Team Leaders and Project/Programme Support staff.

 

Prerequisites

Delegates are assumed to have a working knowledge of Windows 95/98. No previous knowledge of project management or Microsoft Project is assumed

 

Additional Notes

This course can also be delivered on an in-house basis upon request.