Home / Non-Accredited / Microsoft Office & Computer Skills / Microsoft Project Essentials to Advanced (2 days)
Quick Look Course Summary:Microsoft Project Essentials to Advanced (2 days)
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Length: 2 day(s)
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Price (at your venue): 1 Person R 10,326 EX VAT 3 Person R 7,594 EX VAT 10 Person R 5,537 EX VAT
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Certification Type:Non-Accredited
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Locations & Venues: Off-site or in-house. We train in all major city centres throughout South Africa.
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Microsoft Project Essentials to Advanced (2 days)
Project staff leave able to build a realistic schedule in Microsoft Project, keep it up to date and report progress clearly.
Projects slip when the plan lives in a spreadsheet or in one person's head: dependencies are missed, the same people are booked twice and nobody can say how far behind the work really is. This two-day ms project course teaches delegates to build a schedule that recalculates when things change, allocate people and costs realistically, and track the project against a baseline so that problems show up early.
Day one covers planning: project management concepts, the Microsoft Project environment, setting up a new plan with the right calendars and start date, entering tasks and duration estimates, building a work breakdown structure, linking tasks, adding resources and costs, resolving over-allocations and setting a baseline. Day two covers managing the work: recording progress and overtime, updating the plan and the baseline, custom fields, views, filters, groups and the timeline, built-in, custom and visual reports, templates, and sharing resources and linking plans across several projects.
Delegates practise on a realistic case project and are welcome to plan one of their own. No previous Microsoft Project experience is needed, and training a whole project team together gives everyone the same way of building and reading a plan.
Why this course
For your organisation
- Schedules that show the real finish date and the critical path
- Visibility of who is over-committed across projects
- Comparable, consistent status reports for management
- Plans that colleagues can pick up when the planner is away
For your delegates
- A step-by-step method for building any project plan
- Confidence with dependencies, resources and baselines
- Views and reports that answer management's questions quickly
- A practice plan to reuse as a template
What delegates will be able to do
- Explain the project management concepts behind a Microsoft Project schedule
- Set up a new plan with the right options, start date and working calendars
- Enter tasks, durations, milestones and a work breakdown structure
- Link tasks with the right dependency types, lead and lag
- Add resources and costs, assign them to tasks and resolve over-allocations
- Set and update a baseline and record actual progress
- Read the critical path and adjust the plan to protect the finish date
- Build custom fields, views, filters, groups and a timeline
- Produce built-in, custom and visual reports
- Reuse plans as templates and share resources across several projects
Who should attend
Project managers, project administrators and coordinators, team leaders, supervisors, engineers and department heads who plan, schedule or report on projects. No previous Microsoft Project experience is needed, but delegates should be comfortable with Windows and basic Excel. The course teaches the software; people new to project management itself will benefit from a project management course as well.
Course outline
Day 1 – Building the project plan
Getting started
- Project management concepts: scope, tasks, durations, dependencies and the critical path
- The Microsoft Project window, views and the Gantt chart
- Desktop editions of Project and working with plans in the cloud
Setting up a new plan
- Starting a plan from blank, from a template or from an Excel list
- Setting the start date and project options
- Project, task and resource calendars, including South African public holidays
- Manual compared with automatic scheduling
Tasks and the work breakdown structure
- Entering tasks and estimating durations
- Summary tasks, subtasks and milestones
- Outline numbering and WBS codes
- Recurring tasks
Linking and scheduling tasks
- Finish-to-start and the other dependency types
- Lead and lag time
- Constraints and deadlines
- Reading the critical path and slack
Resources and costs
- Work, material and cost resources
- Resource calendars and availability
- Standard rates, overtime rates, cost per use and fixed costs
- Assigning resources to tasks
- Finding and fixing over-allocations with the Team Planner and levelling
Finalising the plan
- Checking and tightening the schedule
- Setting a baseline
- Printing and sharing the plan
Day 2 – Tracking, reporting and multiple projects
Updating the plan
- Recording progress: percent complete, actual dates and remaining work
- Recording overtime
- Editing and rescheduling tasks
- Changing cost rate tables
- Updating the baseline or saving an interim plan
Viewing progress
- The Tracking Gantt and variance tables
- Filters, groups and sorting
- Custom fields and graphical indicators
- Building custom views
- Formatting and sharing the Timeline
Reporting
- Built-in dashboards and reports
- Building a custom report
- Visual reports in Excel
- Copying views and reports into Word, PowerPoint and email
Reusing plan information
- Saving a plan as a template
- The Organizer: sharing views, tables and calendars between plans
- Importing from and exporting to Excel
Working with multiple projects
- Shared resource pools
- Linking tasks across plans
- Master projects and subprojects
- Final exercise: updating and reporting on the case project
How it is delivered
Two days, 08:30-16:00. In person at your offices anywhere in South Africa, at a BOTI venue, or live online. One delegate or a group of up to 20, each on their own computer with Microsoft Project desktop (Project Professional 2019-2024 or the Project desktop app that comes with a Microsoft 365 Project licence); laptops with the software can be supplied on request. A delegate workbook is included. We deliver it at your offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and anywhere else in South Africa, at a BOTI venue in Johannesburg, or live online for teams in different places.
What our clients say
“The training courses were efficiently scheduled and planned around our timetable. We were impressed by the quality of training. I look forward to working with Business Optimization Training Institute in the future.”
“We were particularly impressed by the quality of facilitation and the practical relevance of the content presented. The programme was delivered with professionalism, clarity, and a strong emphasis on real-world application.”
“The facilitator effectively encouraged participation and used practical examples, discussions and interactive activities to ensure that the concepts were understood and could be applied in the workplace.”
Frequently asked questions
Can you run this course at our offices?
Yes. Most groups are trained on site anywhere in South Africa. We can also run it at a BOTI venue or live online.
Do delegates need Microsoft Project experience?
No. The course starts from the basics on day one, so it suits newcomers as well as people who have used Project informally and want to work in a standard way.
Which version of Microsoft Project do you train on?
The Project desktop application: Project Professional 2019, 2021 or 2024, or the desktop app included with a Microsoft 365 Project licence. Web-based planning tools work differently and are not the focus.
Is it accredited?
No – it is a non-accredited short course and delegates receive a BOTI certificate of attendance. For an accredited route, ask us about our QCTO project management skills programme.
Can delegates plan one of their own projects?
Yes. Delegates who bring a real project can build it during the exercises and leave with a working plan.
Can you run this course in Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban?
Yes. We train on site at your offices in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and across South Africa, at a BOTI venue in Johannesburg, or live online so a team spread over several offices can attend together.
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