Project 365 - Beginner

Microsoft Project acts as a project management information system to input, monitor, and manage schedules, resources, costs, and scheduling constraints. It pulls data from Excel and SharePoint and enforces deadlines.

Explore the Microsoft Project ribbon, learning to create and link tasks, outline and indent, manage resources, set baselines, and generate reports across the task, resource, project, and view tabs.

Explore the various task views in Microsoft Project, including Gantt chart, Tracking Gantt, Task Usage, Task Board, Calendar, Network Diagram, and Full Screen Timeline.

Explore resource views in project, including team planner, resource usage view, resource sheet, and resource graph, to manage per-resource assignments, custom calendars, and allocations, and spot over-allocations with color-coded bars.

Explore the more views area in Microsoft Project to access task and resource views, agile boards, Gantt timeline, network diagrams, and shared views dialog box for creating and organizing views.

Explore built-in tables in project views to view and edit raw data such as duration, start, finish, resources, cost, schedule, tracking, and variance.

Create a new project plan in Microsoft Project by choosing a blank project or a template, and learn to reconfigure default settings before entering tasks.

Configure the project information window to set scheduling from the project start date, choose start or finish date, and view statistics, status date, and calendar settings.

Explore auto scheduling and manual scheduling in Microsoft Project. See how task dependencies affect start and finish dates and how to configure default settings for new tasks.

Configure and save project plan properties to tailor reports and Windows Explorer metadata, including title, subject, author, manager, company, category, keywords, and custom fields.

Create and customize a new project calendar to reflect non-working time, adjusting task durations, using standard, night shift, or 24-hour calendars, and optionally copying to the Aramar default calendar.

Customize your calendar by adding non-working exceptions and adjustable workweeks, using the exceptions and workweeks tabs to reflect Founder's Day, holidays, and summer hours for accurate project scheduling.

Apply the custom calendar to the project, set it as the project calendar, and draw the non-working time bars in front of task bars in the Gantt chart.

Create and insert tasks in the entry table or via the ribbon, including recurring tasks and milestones. View the Gantt chart with auto scheduling, start and finish dates.

Import tasks from Excel into your project plan using the import wizard, map fields, and append to the existing tasks after cleaning the data and selecting the worksheet.

Learn to build a work breakdown structure by decomposing deliverables into summary tasks and work packages. Indent tasks into phases, use Gantt chart, and enable outline numbering for project tracking.

Explore how task precedence shapes project schedules by linking tasks and managing mandatory and discretionary dependencies, including finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, and start-to-finish relations.

Learn to link tasks in microsoft project using finish-to-start, avoid summary tasks, and switch to start-to-start to run groups in parallel, with optional manual predecessor adjustments to shorten the schedule.

Discover lag time and lead time in project planning, mastering finish-to-start relationships and discretionary versus mandatory dependencies with concrete examples like cement drying and early graphics work.

Explore task constraints in auto scheduling to control timing, using types like start no earlier than and finish no later than to set hard deadlines and influence the project plan.

Treat deadlines as indicators in the project plan to alert when tasks must complete by, not to control scheduling; for example, a June 19 brand development deadline signals alerts.

Create notes to flag deadlines in the indicator section, with post-its appearing in the indicator column and on the gantt chart.

Turn a dense Gantt chart into a concise timeline by adding milestones, phases, and tasks, then use the view tab and full-screen timeline to present to stakeholders.

Learn to manage resources in Microsoft Project by creating work, material, and cost resources and assigning them to tasks to derive total costs.

Import resources by following the same wizard steps as tasks, map the Excel worksheet to resources, and append them to the active project.

Connect to a resource pool to share a project plan file that houses all resources across multiple projects, monitor availability, and assign them to tasks in a collaborative storage solution.

Learn how resource calendars control availability by using max units and base or custom calendars, set ranges (April, June through July) for team members, and identify over allocated.

Explore assigning resources to tasks in a Gantt chart using the resource names column, task form, task details, and the resource tab’s assign resources window with units and cost visibility.

Explore resource over allocations where a project manager is assigned to multiple tasks, and learn options to resolve it, including increasing max units or using the leveler.

Set a project baseline to lock in a static reference of start, finish, duration, and cost, enabling comparison with current and actual values to track schedule and budget.

Explore how to display and format the Gantt chart elements, including critical tasks, slack, baselines, and task slippage, using checkboxes to visualize current versus baseline schedules.

Format gantt chart bars with bar styles to customize shapes, colors, and text, showing start dates, finish dates, task names, and completion percentages, then apply and share the result.

Learn how to share your project plan beyond project by exporting to Excel with custom fields and maps, and by copying a picture of the data for easy outside sharing.

Explore the help tab in Microsoft Project to access classic help, search timelines, view training videos, and use tell me what you want to do to locate commands.

Set up Microsoft Project with manual scheduling before entering tasks, build task dependencies while skipping summary tasks, and format the Gantt chart and timeline for clear stakeholder visibility.