How this book is structured

The Pareto principle states that for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In the case of learning Project, it is true that you will use about 20% of the features 80% of the time. These common features will be taught very early in the book.

Mapping to process groups and the project life cycle

Earlier in this chapter, you saw how process groups and the project life cycle are effective ways to organize your project management knowledge.

This book will use the same foundation, making it easy for you to use Microsoft Project as follows:

• Exactly how you need it in your job
• Mapped to the same PM process that you will execute

It is important that you practice all the hands-on assignments and exercises in this book. You can post solutions on my website, www.learngood.in (and look at other reader's solutions also).

Truly domain agnostic

Microsoft Project is domain agnostic; that is, literally any business domain can use it. In the same way, this book is also domain agnostic. The examples used in this book are from as varied business scenarios as possible to relate to a large and varied audience of project practitioners.

How to read the book (end to end reading versus pinpoint references)

Here are a few methods to help you to read and understand this book better:

• First time reading the book: Read the book end to end and your journey will be from simple to complex topics. After the very next chapter, you will be able to create simple but complete project schedules that can be utilized at work immediately.
• Pinpoint references: As a reference guide, you can jump to sections of this book that correspond to the stage your project is at or to the process group that you are executing in your own real-life project.
• As a textbook: Several colleges offer project management as a higher education course and strategically match it with Microsoft Project. This book will be a good match as a textbook as it maps to project management concepts.