Microsoft Project — Plan, Schedule & Track

Course Overview

Microsoft Project is the industry-standard tool for project scheduling and resource management. This course teaches you to use MS Project to build realistic project schedules, assign and level resources, track actual progress against baseline, identify critical path issues, and generate professional reports for stakeholders. You will work through a complete project from setup to closure — entering tasks, linking dependencies, allocating people and budget, tracking actuals, and producing variance reports. The course covers both MS Project Standard (desktop) and MS Project Online (cloud-based).

What You Will Learn

• Build a complete Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and task hierarchy in MS Project
• Link tasks with finish-to-start, start-to-start, and lag/lead relationships
• Identify and manage the critical path to protect project deadlines
• Assign resources, set calendars, and resolve resource over-allocations
• Set and track against a baseline — measure schedule variance (SV) and cost variance (CV)
• Generate Gantt charts, resource histograms, and S-curve progress reports
• Use MS Project Online for cloud-based team collaboration and portfolio management

Course Modules

• MS Project interface: ribbon, views (Gantt, Network Diagram, Calendar, Resource Sheet)
• Creating a project: file setup, project start date, calendar, auto vs manual scheduling
• Task entry: summary tasks, sub-tasks, milestones, recurring tasks
• Task dependencies: finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, lag and lead times
• Critical path analysis: understanding float/slack, identifying critical tasks
• Resource management: work resources, material resources, cost resources, assignment units
• Resource levelling: resolving over-allocations, delay vs split tasks
• Baseline: saving project baseline, tracking actuals (% complete, actual work, actual cost)
• Earned Value Management (EVM): SPI, CPI, SV, CV in MS Project
• Views and tables: customising Gantt chart, tracking Gantt, task usage
• Reporting: built-in dashboards, custom reports, export to Excel and PDF
• MS Project Online: connecting to Project for the web, team assignments, roadmaps
• Integration: import/export with Excel, SharePoint task list synchronisation

Who Is This Course For?

This course is designed for project managers, project coordinators, PMO analysts, programme managers, and anyone responsible for planning and tracking projects. It complements the BITA Project Management Fundamentals course and is particularly useful for those working in construction, IT, engineering, or professional services.

Prerequisites

Completion of BITA Project Management Fundamentals (or equivalent experience) is strongly recommended. Basic MS Excel skills are helpful. A copy of MS Project Standard (desktop) or access to Microsoft Project Online is required to complete hands-on exercises.

Delivery & Access

• Blended, online, onsite or on-demand delivery — your choice of format
• Hands-on labs with real environments
• Instructor Q&A support for 30 days
• Verified certificate of completion by BITA
• Study guides, practice questions and reference materials included

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