Book Image

Learning Microsoft Project 2019

By : Srikanth Shirodkar
Book Image

Learning Microsoft Project 2019

By: Srikanth Shirodkar

Overview of this book

Microsoft Project is one of the most popular project management tools for enterprises of all sizes thanks to its wide variety of features such as project scheduling, project budgeting, built-in templates, and reporting tools. Learning Microsoft Project 2019 will get you started with the basics and gradually guide you through the complete project life cycle. Starting with an overview of Microsoft Project 2019 and a brief introduction to project management concepts, this book will take you through the different phases of project management – initiation, planning, execution, control, and closure. You will then learn how to identify and handle problems related to scheduling, costing, resourcing, and work allocation. Understand how to use dynamic reports to create powerful, automated reports and dashboards at the click of a button. This Microsoft Project book highlights the pitfalls of overallocation and demonstrates how to avoid and resolve these issues using a wide spectrum of tools, techniques, and best practices. Finally, you will focus on executing Agile projects efficiently and get to grips with using Kanban and Scrum features. By the end of this book, you will be well-versed with Microsoft Project and have the skills you need to use it effectively in every stage of project management.
Table of Contents (32 chapters)
1
Section 1: The Iron Triangle – a Quick Primer for Project Management
3
Section 2: Project Initiation with Microsoft Project
8
Section 3: Project Planning Like a Pro!
13
Section 4: Project Execution – the Real Deal
15
Chapter 11: Overallocation – the Bane of Project Managers
18
Section 5: Monitoring and Control with Microsoft Project
23
Section 6: Project Closure with Microsoft Project
Appendix A: Using This Book as a Textbook
Appendix C: Keyboard Shortcuts
Appendix D: Glossary

Building your first simple project

Legend has it that the original vision for MS Project came to Ron Bredehoeft from an idea of expressing the preparation of a popular breakfast dish called Eggs Benedict in project-management terms. And so, just for fun, let's also start with a very simple cooking project: baking a cake.

If you break down the work required to bake a cake, you will get a structured list like this:

  1. Decide what kind of cake you want.
  2. Find the recipe.
  3. Procure and assemble ingredients.
  4. Cook from the recipe.
  5. Present the cake.
  6. Clean up.
  7. Finished!

Note that our work breakdown is also arranged chronologically in the sequence of execution. How do we get this list into Project and how do we create a schedule from it? To answer these questions, let's now return to MS Project and continue to understand the new screen.

The following is the screen that should be on your computer now. Much of your work will happen here, so...