Microsoft Office Project for Mere Mortals Solving the Mysteries of Microsoft Office Project

by Jansen, Patti, PMP

• ISBN13: 9780321423429
• ISBN10: 0321423429
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-07-05
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional

Summary

Microsoft Office Project for Mere Mortalsreg;strips away the mysteries of Microsoft Office Project, giving you practical skills, methodologies, and best practices for building schedules and budgets that work. Using the clear, concise, and friendly style thatrs"s a hallmark of the For Mere Mortalsreg;series, Jansen provides step-by-step instructions for every feature you really need to master, whether yours"re using Project 2007, 2003, or 2002. Yours"ll learn why Project works as it does, so you can make the best possible decisions about how to use it. Realistic exercises offer extensive hands-on practice, and a start-to-finish case study covers the entire project lifecycle. Jansen shows you how to: bull; Scope projects using work breakdown structures and task outlines bull; Define projects rapidly with Microsoft Project templates bull; Work with milestones, deadline dates, and task information bull; Manage resource sharing across multiple projects bull; Calculate accurate budgets bull; Avoid common scheduling errors and oversights bull; Tighten critical paths to reduce work overload and resource overallocation bull; Use baselining to track variances, adjust projects "on-the-fly," and become a more effective scheduler bull; Uncover potential problems, identify alternatives, and avoid crises bull; Discover little-known tips and tricks for better formatting and printing bull; Use Project to close projects successfully, and learn from your experience Whatever your title, organization, or project, this book will help you get powerful results with Microsoft Office Project-quickly, efficiently, and painlessly. The CD-ROM contains a searchable electronic version of the book and Microsoft Project (.MPP) files (available for Project 2002 and above) of the bookrs"s step-by-step scheduling practices and case studies. Praise forMicrosoft Office Projectfor Mere Mortalsreg; "This book stands out of the ordinary, as it is the first one on Microsoft Office Project I know to be completely driven by project management methods." Jan De Messemaeker, M.S., Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional "Patti Jansenrs"s practice sessions are a great way to become familiar with Microsoft Project and the step-by-step instructions make it easy." Kimberly Amaris, PMP Patti Jansen, PMP,is a Senior Project Manager at QuantumPM, a leading project management consultancy that works closely with Microsoft. She has more than 10 years of senior project management experience, and is a well-known Microsoft Project and PMI instructor. She was a technical contributor toPMP: ProjectManagement Professional Study Guide,Deluxe Edition, PMP: Project ManagementProfessional Workbook,andPMP: ProjectManagement Professional Certification Kit. Foreword xvii Preface xix Acknowledgments xxvii About

Author Biography

Patti Jansen, PMP, OPM3® Certified Assessor/Consultant is a senior project manager consultant and trainer with QuantumPM with over 20 years experience in the Information Technologies industry and 12 years in project and program management. She has managed multi-million dollar, multi-system integration projects for telecommunications and Internet companies. Through QuantumPM, Patti has been consulting, assessing, and training on project management processes and practices and Project Server implementations for 5 years. Most recently she has been giving Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 webcasts to students throughout the world. She has a BA from Colorado State University, a Master’s degree in Applied Communication, and a certificate in Program Management from the University of Denver.

 

Patti continues to write and edit as part of her professional endeavors. On staff at QuantumPM, she has written and edited numerous chapters of Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 Unleashed and Special Edition Using Microsoft Office 2003. Patti is writing and editing several chapters of the soon-to-be updated versions of those books. She has served as the technical editor for The PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide, Project Management JumpStart, and Herding Chickens: Innovative Techniques for Project Management published by Sybex International. She co-authored PMP: Project Management Professional Study Guide, Deluxe Edition by John Wiley Publishing. Her first work for Addison-Wesley is Microsoft Office Project for Mere Mortals ®.

 

Other professional experiences include teaching project management classes at Colorado State University, Denver Center and making project management and Microsoft Project presentations throughout the country. Patti is currently leading an international team responsible for updating the Knowledge Foundation book as part of the overall update of the Project Management Institute’s OPM3 standard (the organizational project management maturity model).

 

Table of Contents

Front Matter

Preface

Introducing Microsoft Office Project

Revealing the Secrets of Microsoft Project

Building Your Schedule: Scoping Your Project

Understanding Task Information

Sequencing the Work: Creating the Critical Path

Understanding Resources and Their Effects on Tasks

Using Project to Enter Cost Estimates

Polishing Your Schedule

Reviewing Work Overload and Critical Path

Baselining: The Key to Tracking Your Schedule

Tracking Your Schedule

Closing Down Your Schedule: The End Is Only the Beginning

Project Mysteries Resolved!

A Answers to Review Questions

GL Glossary

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

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