Business
Project Management
Basics of Project Planning
3.8 (22 ratings)
Course Ratings are calculated from individual students’ ratings and a variety of other signals, like age of rating and reliability, to ensure that they reflect course quality fairly and accurately.
908 students enrolled

Basics of Project Planning

Terms, techniques and approaches explained, acting as a foundation of good project planning
3.8 (22 ratings)
Course Ratings are calculated from individual students’ ratings and a variety of other signals, like age of rating and reliability, to ensure that they reflect course quality fairly and accurately.
908 students enrolled
Created by Mike Harkin
Last updated 5/2019
English
English
Preview this course
Basics of Project Planning
Current price: $41.99 Original price: $59.99 Discount: 30% off
5 hours left at this price!
Buy now
30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
This course includes
  • 2 hours on-demand video
  • 6 downloadable resources
  • Full lifetime access
  • Access on mobile and TV
  • Certificate of Completion
Training 5 or more people?

Get your team access to 4,000+ top Udemy courses anytime, anywhere.

Try Udemy for Business
What you'll learn
  • Understand the basics of Project Planning
  • Have a good foundation for future project management training associated with planning
  • Able to apply basic techniques of planning
Requirements
  • A planning software tool of some form is helpful but not necessary. Ideally MS Project 2010 or above to follow the exact examples used.
Description

This is a basic project management course has been revised for 2019 and updated to include current software and a wider range of examples.  The course will provide attendees with a good understanding of the basic concepts related to planning projects, although aimed at students who are new to projects and planning it has some elements that will reinforce planning processes for more seasoned project professionals. 

We will discuss concepts like 

  • Gantt Charts 

  • Dependencies 

  • Baselines 

  • Progress Tracking 

  • Work Breakdown Structure 

  • Top Down Planning 

  • Critical Path Analysis 

Explaining and then using these concepts and approaches to build a simple example project plan in Microsoft Project.  The steps discussed can be applied to any version of MS Project and are also valid in other project planning software tools.  It is not necessary to have MS Project  installed but using the examples covered in some form of planning tool will aid the students. 

Students are guided through each of the concept areas building layers of understanding and introducing context to each subject discussed; starting from the Gantt Chart and a review of Henry Gantt’s idea to communicate plans, confirming how modern planning approaches seek to represent and control the dependencies between tasks.  Moving on to discuss how the project plan is a valuable and useful communications tool both within the project team and outwardly to stakeholders and senior management. 

Students will take a look at how the plan when effectively tracked can improve estimating and delivery for future stages and what steps might be taken to re-plan the project as a result of items tracked. 

Once the basic concepts have been covered students can see how these might be applied to an example but simple project, using a top down planning approach and giving a simple and easy assemble of the project plan.  The resulting plan shows how resources are assigned and provides an outline cost profile for the project. 

The material covered will provide a solid foundation for future project planning, and further training in project management, leaving students with enough knowledge to build and track plans in their own projects. 

Who this course is for:
  • Students can be anyone interested in project planning and they do not need any previous knowledge or experience of project management
Course content
Expand all 22 lectures 01:49:52
+ – Introduction
1 lecture 02:28

Introduction and outline for the course

Introduction
Preview 02:28
+ – Planning Concepts and Terms explained
7 lectures 43:12

Overview of what is included in the Planning Concepts and Terms section

Introduction to section on planning terms
Preview 00:52

An introduction to Gantt charts, including their history and how they are displayed. Discussing the building blocks of gantt charts, defining the links between tasks in a plan and the type of dependencies that are available. Clarifying terms like lag, float and milestones and how these are used in a planning context.

Gantt Charts
Preview 06:28

Explaining Baseline as a concept and looking at how and when it might be used.

Baseline
08:55

Explain Work Breakdown Structure and how it helps to summarise and simplify reporting, but also can be used to drill into detail allowing more in depth control at critical point of the project.

Work Breakdown Structure
07:53

Looking at the ways of presenting progress and tracking the project. Examining the options for recording progress and the advantages and disadvantages of different tracking approaches. Briefly looking at the need for replanning following your tracking sessions.

Measuring Progress
08:54

Reviewing the effect of the plan of measure progress and looking at how this adjusts the plan

Impact of measuring progress
02:22

Explains Critical Path Analysis and how this puts focus on key tasks in a project.

Critical Path Analysis
07:48

Looking at the point learned in the concepts and tools sections

Reviewing your knowledge of Concepts and Terms
5 questions
+ – Building a Plan
7 lectures 25:39

Overview of what is included in the Building a plan section

Introduction to building a Plan
Preview 00:54

Looking at the basic approaches to planning and the targetting of plans

Planning Approach
05:07

Looking an a simple example project that we will use as a basis for our example plan.

Preparing for the plan
03:37

Taking the top down planning approach and build our sample project plan from the structure we have gathered Updated 15-Jun 2014

Creating plan in MS Project
04:46

Taking the base form of the project plan and saving a baseline and checking critical path

Assigning Baseline and Critical Path to the Plan
02:50

Taking the project plan we have built using MS Project for our Product Launch and adding first generic resourses and then named people and the appropriate material resources.

Adding Resources
05:19

Adding Costs to your project plan

Adding Costs
03:06
+ – Driving the plan
6 lectures 36:05

An introduction to the driving to plan section explaining the items to be covered

What we cover in Driving the plan
Preview 00:43

Looking at the first tracking point and what adjustments to the project plan that might raise

Tracking the Plan for the first Period
06:01

Look at risks, and applying the risk log to the project plan

Review Risks and their Impact on the plan
05:47

Looking at project issues and the effect on the plan and how to adjust your plan to the changes that might be required

Tracking the impact of an Issue
07:21

Looking at change request and the impact of change of scope for your plan

A change to Requirements
06:50

Closing down the plan in a ordered way and looking at use the wealth of data in to project plan for lessons learnt to improve future projects

Closing the plan and using data for Lessons Learnt
09:23
+ – Summarise what we have learned
1 lecture 02:28

A Short review and summing up the items discussed in the course, confirming the goals you should have achieved.

Review of Learning
02:28