Microsoft Project 2010 77-178

This introductory training Nugget reviews the overall functionality of Microsoft Project (MSP) and specifically calls out the new features Microsoft has introduced in MSP 10. Key updates in this release include better consistency with other Microsoft Office products including the introduction of the Office Ribbon and better integration with the Office Suite. Functional changes include improved useability and formatting and more scheduling functionality. This Nugget also reviews the format of the new Microsoft Project Certification exam, 77-178 – Managing Project using Microsoft Project 2010. The most significant change in the exam is the introduction of Live Application testing within the exam.

This project training Nugget, the second of four from the Initializing Project segment of the 77-178 exam discusses setting up the time management features of MSP, specifically Calendar management. The first step in Calendar management is to define the “work environment” for your organization, number of hours in a day, work hours, hours in a week and days in a month. Defining these fields ensures that MSP accurately converts the time units related to your project. The second step is to refine the project calendar to reflect statutory holidays, organizational work weeks and/or project unique calendars. Defining the project calendar is critical to ensuring an effective project schedule, as missing statutory holidays would results in an additional 10 work days per year, which can make a significant difference in meeting or missing a key project milestone. You can maintain as many calendars in MSP as required for your work environment; a standard calendar, a nightshift calendar, a 7 day week calendar, etc. With the appropriate calendars setup to cover the project norms, this Nugget closes with a discussion on creating unique resource calendars, to address any unique work management requirements of individual resources, often personal vacations and/or resource specific work schedules.

The final training of four from the Initializing Project segment of the 77-178 exam discusses setting the various options within MSP to ensure that it manages the project schedule as required by the Project Manager. Depending on how a number of MSP settings are configured, the tool will manage the project schedule in a very different manner. MSP options can be loosely categorized into personal preferences (look and feel of MSP) and operational (how MSP works). This Nugget is focused on only the operational options and looks at all the options settings which will change the results that MSP will produce based on the input given. Most specifically, the task type setting will be reviewed in great detail to ensure a full understanding of what the setting options are, and more importantly how MSP will act on the project plan as the project is created and updated.

This training Nugget, the second of four from the Creating a Task Based Schedule segment of the 77-178 exam reviews the steps associated with telling MSP how the tasks in the project are to be scheduled. This is accomplished in 2 main ways. The first method discussed is creating task constraints by specifying specific dates that the task must start on, must start by, must finish on, etc. While creating task constraints does create the project schedule according to the constraints defined, this is the least flexible method of scheduling the project as these constraints do just that, they constrain the project and forces the tasks be scheduled accordingly, whether the schedule is feasible or not. The second method is to create task dependencies which define the logical predecessor/successor relationship between the tasks. This method facilities a more realistic schedule as each task is scheduled based on the successful completion of the required pre-requisite task(s). The Nugget reviews the functionality and usage of the four types of dependencies, Finish – Start, Start-Start, Finish-Finish and Start-Finish.

Project training, the final Nugget from the Creating a Task Based Schedule segment of the 77-178 exam focuses on Managing Multiple Project (as a single program). MSP provides two very different methods for managing multiple projects, one as Master Project-SubProjects and the other as a Resource Pool and Resource Sharing Projects. This Nugget covers advanced MSP functionality and may be best reviewed later in the series for new users for MSP. This first segment of this Nugget reviews the processes to be followed to create a Master MPP file and then insert MPP files as Sub-Projects into the Master Project plan. Further techniques for creating dependencies between the sub-projects are reviewed as well as techniques for editing, maintaining and updating the Master and Sub-projects. The second segment of this Nugget reviews the processes for creating a common resource pool MPP file, which contains nothing but resource information and resource calendars and the linking other project plans to the resource pool from when all resources are selected and assigned to the project tasks. Further techniques for maintaining both the Resource Pool and Sharing project MPP files.

Training Nugget, the second of six from the Managing Resources and Assignments segment of the 77-178 exam is focused on Assigning Resources to Tasks. This Nugget reviews the three task types, Fixed Work, Fixed Units and Fixed Duration and the impact each task type has when resources are assigned to a task. This Nugget then provides a detailed review of the four methods available in MSP to assigning resources to a task and provides a detailed discussion on the way MSP handles the three types of resources, Work, Material and Cost when assigned to a task.

Training Nugget, the fourth of six from the Managing Resources and Assignment segment of the 77-178 exam is focused on Managing the Resource Allocation, expanding on the features available in MSP to keep the project’s resources fully allocated using MSP’s scheduling engine. Resource Levelling options are reviewed to understand the impact each setting has on the operation of the levelling engine. With the options for the scheduling engine set, this Nugget then explores the functionality provided for resource levelling and how the project plan can be set to create the optimal scheduled using the automated levelling functionality. With the plan constructed in a way that the levelling functionality creates a realistic schedule, the plan is in a state to support repeated levelling on a weekly basis during project delivery. New views for Resource Graph, Resource Usage and Task Usage are reviewed to help in reviewing and understanding the functionality of the Levelling engine.

This training Nugget, the last of six from the Managing Resources and Assignment segment of the 77-178 exam is focused on Modeling Project Costs. This Nugget explores how MSP calculates the costs associated with delivering a project. Several new MSP fields, cost, overtime costs, and fixed costs are shown as this Nugget explores how MSP calculates these fields using combining resource information and task information. Specifically, this Nugget explores the calculation of the cost column based on resource rates, task effort and cost per use. Additionally, this Nugget explores how MSP determines and calculates the overtime cost and includes this as part of the project costs. Similar exploration is completed on the calculation of Material and Cost Resource costs assigned/consumed by project tasks. The Fixed Cost column is these explored to demonstrate how additional 1 time costs can be added to the tasks thru the direct entry of charges into this field. Finally, this Nugget introduces a new budget management feature in MSP10, Budget Cost and Budget Work. These new fields are defined as specific budgetary resources and then assigned to the Project Summary task for recording overall project budget values.

Project certification training Nugget, the second of five from the Tracking and Analyzing a Project segment of the 77-178 exam continues where the previous Nugget stopped on tracking project progress and focuses on tracking actual hours completed by the project resources. This Nugget introduces several new MSP data elements; Work, Actual Work and Remaining Work and two new views, Resource Usage and Task Usage, demonstrates how these are used for recording the actual number of hours “billed” to the project and tracking any revised estimates to complete each task based on facts from the team. This Nugget concludes with a review of differentiating regular hours work versus overtime hours worked.

This certification training Nugget, the fourth of five from the Tracking and Analyzing a Project segment of the 77-178 exam focuses on the remedial actions that can be taken to adjust a project plan that is inflight. Actions reviewed include: adding additional resources to a task, adjusting project dependencies, adding new tasks, inactivating tasks and re-levelling the project plan. Impacts of each action are reviewed to determine the impact on the project schedule and relationship to the baseline.

This Nugget, the first of 4 from the Communicating Project Information segment of the 77-178 exam focuses on developing a deep understanding of using Views and Tables to ensure MSP displays the information in an appropriate format to support specific Project Management Requirements. Each of the views provided my MSP are reviewed with consideration of where they would be used for managing the project. Next, the concept of Tables within Views is reviewed to show how different tables can be defined to show specific information within a view for different PM tasks such as entering tasks versus tracking progress versus managing the project’s budget. Finally, this Nugget introduces the Organizer and show how the Organizer can be used to migrate customized views, tables, etc created from a specific project and making it available globally.

This training Nugget, the third of 4 from the Communicating Project Information segment of the 77-178 exam focuses on how you can move data from MSP to other tools. This Nuggets starts with an exploration of the cut and paste functionality allowing you to move selected information, using the Windows clipboard to other tools, primarily other Office applications, specifically reviewing the advanced cut/paste features added in MSP10. Next, this Nugget explores the processes for sharing the project plan with an Outlook/Sharepoint Site Task List and creating PDF files based on the current view. Finally, the Import/Export facilities within MSP, where specific Maps can be defined to explicitly define which MSP data elements are to be included in the import/export.