Hands-On Microsoft Project: Managing Multiple and Complex Projects

Frequently Asked Questions

What is this course about? In this course, project managers learn how to leverage Microsoft Project Professional or Standard in standalone mode to effectively collaborate and communicate with team members; track schedule, completeness and budget; and optimize resource assignments for multiple or complex projects. Project managers gain the skills to create cross-project links, develop shared resources, and track and report status across multiple projects. Who will benefit from this course? This course is useful for project managers who need to manage multiple or complex projects. Specifically, this course is valuable for project managers and organizations which meet the following: Organizations using the standalone version of Microsoft Project Professional or Standard Organizations which plan to continue using Microsoft Project Professional or Standard and do not anticipate upgrading to Project Server Project managers who generally work in groups of 10 managers or fewer on complex or multiple projects Project managers working with a minimal number of geographically distributed teams What background do I need? Experience with Microsoft Project Professional at the level of Course 299, Microsoft® Project Comprehensive Introduction, is assumed. For example, you should know how to enter tasks and durations into an outline, create task dependencies and track progress on a single project. You should also be comfortable with project management concepts such as work breakdown structures (WBS), network diagrams, Gantt charts and tracking. Course 296, Project Management: Skills for Success, or Course 340, Project Management for Software Development, provide you with the necessary project management knowledge for this course. How is this course different from Course 299? Course 299 provides a fundamental understanding of Microsoft Project Professional or Standard to plan and manage a single project. Course 249 is also for those using Project Professional or Standard. However, it is geared toward project managers who need to manage multiple projects and need to share resources with other project managers. Course 249 is well-suited to project managers collaborating with groups of 10 or fewer project managers on mutiple projects. I already took Course 299 and/or I feel proficient using Microsoft Project Professional. Why should I take this course? Course 249 is specifically geared toward project managers working on large projects who want to learn how to split the projects into more manageable subprojects or several smaller projects. Course 249 is also well-suited for managers administering complicated and difficult projects. Course 299, conversely, is ideal for managers handling individual or non-related projects. How much time is spent on each topic? Content Hours Introduction and overview 1.0 Establishing the multi-project framework 1.5 Implementing and building master projects and subprojects 2.5 Scheduling project resources using a shared pool 2.0 Tracking progress across multiple projects 2.0 Communicating with project teams 2.0 Transitioning to the enterprise level 1.0 Times, including the workshops, are estimates; exact times may vary according to the needs of each class. How much of this course is hands-on? Approximately 50 percent of course time is spent in hands-on exercises. Course exercises include: Creating a master project, inserting SubProject markers and establishing cross-project task dependencies Customizing a Global Template to promote consistency Populating a shared resource pool Baselining and tracking multiple projects Assigning resources across multiple SubProjects Is this course applicable to a Project Management Professional (PMI) certification? Yes. Although the course is not designed as preparation for the exam, it is beneficial to anyone working toward PMI's PMP certification. For those who are currently certified, completion of this course counts as 11 professional development units (60 units must be completed every three years to maintain certification). For more details, please see the Learning Tree PMI Registered Education Provider Q&A. If you are an experienced project manager intending to take the PMP exam, you should take Course 276, Preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP®) Exam. In this course you learn essential PMBOK® Guide terminology, tools and techniques. You gain practical test-taking experience through PMI-style practice exams and create your own personal study plan for continued use after the course. How does this course relate to other Learning Tree courses? In addition to the aforementioned Course 296, Course 340 and Course 299, the following Learning Tree courses may be of interest: Course 287, Strategic Project Management: Achieving Organizational Goals, provides practical experience using advanced methods to initiate, plan and control large or diverse projects. Course 286, Project Risk Management: Hands-On, provides experience managing risk effectively to consistently complete projects on time and within budget. Course 349, Project Quality Management, provides the tools and techniques needed to deliver consistent project success. In Course 346, Project Leadership: Building High-Performance Teams, you gain the knowledge to build cohesive, high-performance teams. Course 538, SharePoint® Technologies: A Comprehensive Introduction, provides experience implementing team collaboration, information sharing and online communication with SharePoint. Course 195, Power Excel®: Analyzing Data to Make Business Decisions, provides the skills to leverage advanced features of Microsoft Excel to facilitate business decisions.

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