Project 2010 Project Management

Real World Skills for Certification and Beyond (Exam 70-178)

Robert Happy

• Publisher: Sybex
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780470561102
• eBook ISBN: 9780470917183
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Science General
• Index: Computer Science

The ideal on-the-job reference guide for project managers who use Microsoft Project 2010

This must-have guide to using Microsoft Project 2010 is written from a real project manager's perspective and is packed with information you can use on the job. The book explores using Project 2010 during phases of project management, reveals best practices, and walks you through project flow from planning through tracking to closure. This valuable book follows the processes defined in the PMBOK® Guide, Fourth Edition, and also provides exam prep for Microsoft's MCTS: Project 2010 certification.

• Explains Microsoft Project 2010, the leading software tool for project managers
• Shows working project managers practical ways to use Project 2010 on the job
• Delves into project planning, tracking, reporting, and project closure, and explores best practices for all phases of planning
• Reveals new software features, including tools that show what factors are affecting the schedule, a "what-if" scenario builder, and how slippages affect other aspects of the project
• Follows processes and procedures from The Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®), Fourth Edition
• Covers the skill set required for the MCTS: Microsoft Project 2010, Managing Projects certification, so you can use this book for exam prep

This valuable book follows the processes defined in the PMBOK Guide, Fourth Edition, and also provides exam prep for Microsoft's MCTS: Project 2010, Managing Projects certification.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

(PMBOK is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.)

Part I: Getting Started the Right Way

Using the right tool for the right job in the right way seems simple enough, right? Well, it isn’t always the case. Microsoft Project users often jump into the tool, using it the wrong way or for the wrong reasons, paying little or no attention to important project-management concepts and key settings, and creating poor or ineffective project plans. This book will help ensure your success as a project manager by focusing on the most essential concepts and functionality in Project.

This book isn’t a catchall that describes each and every obscure function in Project. Nor is it a catchall for project-management theory. It’s the most important parts of each, chosen based on experience, for you to apply as you navigate through your real-world projects.

The first part of this book discusses when to use Project and why it’s an essential enabling tool for creating project schedules. It also covers some of the key settings that have a significant effect on your schedule before you enter any task information.

Chapter 1: Project 2010 as an Enabling Tool for Project Managers

In this chapter, you’ll learn about the following:

• The knowledge gap between using Microsoft Project and understanding project management
• How key credentials can help your career
• When to use Project
• The strategic relevance of project management and Microsoft Project
• A proven, effective approach to learning Microsoft Project

In this chapter, you’ll explore how Project is often misunderstood as being difficult or to complex too use. I’ll walk you through why this belief is misplaced and how Project is an enabler, designed to help you succeed in project management. We’ll also look at some key project-management concepts and walk through a proven approach to learning Project.

Why Do People Think Project Is Hard to Use?

Project isn’t difficult to use. Closing the knowledge gap between project-management concepts and using Project will be important to your success.

Accidental or Not, Knowledge Is Important

Approximately 20 years ago, I began my project-management career—like most other project managers during that time frame, by accident. Even in today’s project-focused world, with so much more emphasis on education, certification, and project management as a career, far too many organizations and project managers take an ad hoc approach when it comes to managing projects. I’m not sure who coined the phrase “project management—the accidental profession,” but given my experience as a consultant and trainer, and having worked with hundreds of organizations and thousands of people, I can attest to its reality.

How many project managers today thought, “When I grow up I want to be a project manager”? Far too often, we’re plunged into managing or leading projects without the right set of skills, training, knowledge, processes, and tools, not to mention organizational support with regard to roles, responsibility, and authority. I’m sure you can relate in one way or another.

But all isn’t lost. Over the past few decades, great strides have been taken by organizations such as the Project Management Institute (PMI) and accredited educational institutions to enhance skills, knowledge, standards, and credentials. They’ve provided a clearer path that legitimizes project management as a career and provides a significantly greater level of professionalism. For example, PMI offers certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP); and you can become a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) for Microsoft Project. Over that same period, project-management tools—in this case, software—have moved from mainframe to desktop, from DOS to Windows, and from very difficult to easy-to-use.

You may be thinking, “Microsoft Project, easy to use? I don’t think so!” But Project 2010 is easy to use, and my primary purpose for writing this book is to prove it to you. I’ve worked with most of the mainstream project-management applications over the years—some have come and gone, and some are still around. I can assure you that Project 2010 is not only easy to use, especially considering all it can do, but also, in my opinion, one of the best versions of project-management software ever put on the market.

Credentials Will Help Close the Gap

At first glance, it may seem self-serving for Microsoft to offer MCTS credentials in using a tool like Project. However, this and other credentialing programs serve the project-management community. Let’s look at the numbers.

I’ve been told that there are approximately 250,000 credentialed PMPs in the world at this time—give or take a few (thousands, maybe). Compare that to the estimated over 20 million, and growing, Microsoft Project users. You can see the order of magnitude between the number of people using Project (and managing projects) and those who are certified PMPs.

Why is this important to you?

There are two key reasons. First, it illustrates that a large knowledge gap exists. Far more people use Project than understand the core concepts of project management. To use this tool effectively, you should be well versed in project-management techniques and knowledge regardless of how you obtain it. However, I think that if we tested PMPs and non-PMPs, the PMP population would beat out the non-PMPs in comprehension and effectiveness with using Project. (I don’t mean that the only people who understand the core concepts of project management are credentialed PMPs.)

Second, it’s hard for organizations to assess the skill level of project managers. In the past, you could perhaps get away with writing Project Manager on a résumé and list a knowledge of Project with your skills. But over time, the truth came out as employees struggled not only to manage projects effectively but also to demonstrate their ability to use a tool like Project. I’ve spent most of my career working with professionals, and times are changing. Organizations are requesting more credentials because they have been burned too many times. Certifications such as PMP and MCTS are becoming common requirements and can be key differentiators for you and your career. Just because you’re certified doesn’t mean you’ll be a good project manager, just as passing the bar doesn’t guarantee you’ll be a good lawyer—there are many other factors to consider. However, it does allow a benchmark to be set for core knowledge of theory, concepts, and the use of Project.

Credentials and Consistency in Career Development

I was working with a good-sized pharmaceutical company. Their project-management department had grown quickly because of success on some recently launched products and a growing pipeline. Included in the department were positions ranging from junior and senior project managers to director level.

The group was experiencing dissension around a lack of clearly defined roles, responsibilities, experience, and required skills for each level. Many on staff felt that they had been misplaced or incorrectly categorized in their position. There was no effective way to demonstrate why each person had been placed in their job classification.

Our job was to map out the roles, responsibilities, experience, and required skills for each position. We broke skills into both soft (leadership-type) and hard (such as creating plans in Project effectively). With input from each group member, we developed a comprehensive list of skills and requirements. After these were defined, we were able to map those positions to the existing staff and look for gaps and inequalities.

Subsequently, each person was given a tailored roadmap to success that outlined their respective career-development path and included information about the specific knowledge and skills they needed to obtain. Part of the roadmap included certification requirements. In order to advance, both internal organizational certifications and external credentials were required, including knowing how to use Project. Credentials such as PMP and MCTS helped us level the playing field and ensure consistency and standards around project-management knowledge and skills.

Is It Me, or Is It the Software?

I train and consult with Project today and plan to do so for the foreseeable future. And I still run into the same old grumbling: this software is too hard to use.

Consider another situation: accounting. Buying accounting software doesn’t make you an accountant. Accountants need to bring knowledge to the table. Having the key concepts—understanding balance sheets, income statements, debits, credits, and so on—is essential to be effective with accounting software.

The same principle applies to Project 2010. Project requires you to have some grasp of core concepts and to understand project management before you use the application. The problem isn’t the tool but the knowledge gap between understanding fundamental project-management concepts and knowing how to apply them in Project 2010—or any project-management software.

The more you know about the essential concepts of project management, the more success yo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Praise
• Copyright
• Publisher's Note
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Table of Exercises
• Introduction
• Part I: Getting Started the Right Way
• Part II: Planning Essentials
• Part III: Communicating and Reporting Essentials
• Part IV: Tracking and Analyzing Essentials
• Appendix A: Microsoft’s Certification Program
• Appendix B: About the Companion CD
• Index
• End-User License Agreement
• The Perfect Companion for all Project 2010 Professionals
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